Taiping Inn

Liangzhou, also known as Xiliang, is located in the northwest border of the Wei Dynasty. Its capital is Dunhuang Prefecture.

Outside the city of Dunhuang Prefecture, there is a world-famous Buddhist cave, in which there are tens of thousands of statues of Bodhisattvas, Buddhas, flying celestial beings, galyayana, arhats, venerables, mingwang, tianwang, and vajra. More than 180 miles west of Dunhuang Prefecture, there is a small Fangpan City. Speaking of Xiaofangpan City, unless you are from Xiliang, people from other places rarely hear of this name, but if you mention its other name, I am afraid that few people don’t know it.

There is a saying: "The Qinghe River is far away among the white clouds, and there is an isolated city and a mountain of ten thousand feet. Why should the Qiang flute complain about the willows? The spring breeze does not pass through Yumen Pass." It is talking about this place.

Yumen Pass, also known as Xiaofangpan City, is the throat of Liangzhou. It is located in the Gobi Desert 200 miles northwest of Dunhuang City. The city is square, made of loess, three feet high, one foot wide at the top and two feet wide at the bottom. The city wall is eight feet long from east to west and nine feet wide from north to south.

After the fall of Liangzhou, this place changed its owner and became a stronghold of the Wudao Sect. It was not to resist the army of Batu Khan from the northwest, but more to set up checkpoints and collect taxes from the caravans. After all, Yumen Pass is a must-go place from the Central Plains to the Western Regions.

Speaking of the Western Regions, it is more appropriate to describe them as fence-sitters. When the Central Plains Dynasty was at its peak, the Western Regions surrendered to the Central Plains Dynasty. The Central Plains Dynasty also established the Western Regions Protectorate, Anxi Protectorate, and Beiting Protectorate in the Western Regions. When the Central Plains Dynasty was weak, the Western Regions surrendered to the Golden Horde King and respected the Golden Horde Khan.

The Wei Dynasty is certainly not at its peak. It is still too busy to take care of itself. It has even lost Liangzhou, which leads to the Western Regions, not to mention the Western Regions. Therefore, the Western Regions are now subject to the Golden Horde. However, due to the internal strife in the royal court, the Golden Horde's control over the Western Regions has been greatly weakened. The Western Regions have gone their own way. In addition, many Golden Horde nobles have fled to the Western Regions to avoid war, and people from the Central Plains have come to the Western Regions because of the appearance of Yuxu Fighting Sword and Xuandu Zifu. The Western Regions are now more and more mixed and chaotic.

For the Central Plains, the Western Regions are really lackluster. There are only two sects, the Zhenchuan Sect and the Vajra Sect. In addition, the Great Snow Mountain where the grassland shamanism is located and the Kunlun Mountain where the Taoist ancestral temple is located are still famous in the Central Plains. Below the sect, there is the Great Snow Mountain Sect, which originated from the Great Snow Mountain. It is similar to the Shushan Sword Sect in Shuzhou. They are both top sects among the sects. They are powerful and not inferior to many weak sects. However, they have a short period of prosperity and cannot be promoted from a sect to a sect. Corresponding to the Great Snow Mountain Sect, there is a Small Snow Mountain Sect in Liaodong, which is completely dependent on the Butian Sect in Liaodong. Its mountain gate is located on Taibai Mountain, not far from the North Palace of the Great Wilderness.

In addition to the two sects and one sect, most of the rest are wanderers in the world. The most famous one among them is the "Blood Knife" Ning Yi, who traveled across the Western Regions, slaughtered countless horse thieves, and later became the leader of the horse thieves in the Western Regions. In addition to the name "Blood Knife", Ning Yi was also listed with the Purple Mansion Sword Immortal, and was known as the "East and West Twin Evils", which means that one of them was in Qizhou, Heshuo and other places in the east, and the other was in the northwest and the Western Regions. They were all first-class evil stars who killed people without blinking an eye.

Later, the two sides seized the sword in the northwest, and became famous in the martial arts world, and were listed on the Taixuan list one after another. At that time, many people in the martial arts world predicted that many years later, the two would definitely fight again.

But no one had ever thought that many years later, these two evil stars not only did not fight, but both joined the Taiping Sect. One left the Qingwei Sect and became the leader of the Taiping Sect, and the other left the Female Sect and became a great guest of the Taiping Sect. It really became a big strange thing in the martial arts world.

Even the Western Regions have heard about it. Many people in the martial arts world in the Western Regions have speculated what kind of sect this Taiping Sect is, what kind of magic it has, and how it can be so attractive? Although there is a legend every year that the Jiangyang bandit put down the butcher knife and became a Buddha on the spot in the Zhenchuan Sect, those Jiangyang bandits are still small witches compared to the "Blood Knife" and are not worth mentioning. It was not until many people from the Central Plains came to the Western Regions that they suddenly realized that it turned out that the Taiping Sect was the first-class wealthy sect in the Central Plains. To put it bluntly, there are two words, rich! It just so happens that the people in the Western Regions trust money the most, and they value money the most, so everything is clear. It is not the Buddha who can make the "blood knife" put down the butcher knife, but the God of Wealth.

Because the northwest is mostly Gobi grassland, it is common for wild sand to visit. Today, another huge sandstorm descended on Yumen Pass. The sky is dim and it is difficult to distinguish the boundary between heaven and earth. The yellow sand is vast, the wind is howling, and you can't tell the east, south, west, north, up, down, left, and right.

The merchants traveling in Yumen Pass hid in the wine shops. The wine shops had already closed the doors and windows, and only heard the sound of dense sand hitting the windows, walls, and roofs.

Until this time, the merchants were no longer in such a hurry. They spent some silver money to buy some good wine shipped from Qinzhou, and drank slowly. In their spare time, they would also chat with their companions or familiar friends. Anyway, it is God who keeps people, and it is useless to be anxious.

The largest tavern in Yumen Pass is named "Chunfeng Restaurant", which you can tell at first glance is a quote from "Spring breeze does not reach Yumen Pass". The owner here is a woman, who looks to be between 26 and 30 years old, dressed like a woman, with phoenix eyes, willow-shaped eyebrows, cherry lips, beautiful appearance, and graceful figure. However, people are shaped by the land and water they live in. Unlike the gentle and graceful women in the south of the Yangtze River, women in the northwest always carry a bold, rough and fierce style like the Gobi grassland.

Such a beautiful woman dares to open a wine shop in Yumenguan, a mixed bag, and is still the biggest wine shop. She naturally has good skills. So although the guests who come and go looking at the shopkeeper openly or secretly, they will enjoy it at most, they will make fun of it. A few words, saying some dirty jokes, but no one dared to touch them.

At this time, the female shopkeeper was lowering her head to keep the bill behind the counter, making the abacus crackle.

The inn door was opened by the guest, and two guests squeezed in through the gap. The guest quickly closed the door and put a cross-bone on the door to prevent it from being blown open by the sandstorm. Even so, in the lobby Still, a lot of wind and sand came into contact, which caused a burst of insult.

The two of them who came in were wrapped tightly, with only a pair of eyes exposed, not to cover their faces, but to prevent wind and sand. Judging from the figure, it should be a man and a woman.

The man came to the counter and asked in pure Dawei Mandarin, "How is the business recently?"

The shopkeeper stared at the account book, and said with a pity that said, "It's okay."

The man asked again, "How much is the price of a day stay?"

The shopkeeper said, "If the guest stays in a hotel, plus three meals a day, it will only cost two taels of silver."

"Two taels of silver?" The man emphasized his tone slightly: "Is it too expensive?"

The shopkeeper still had no intention of holding back his head, and his tone was not fluctuating at all, "The price has always been like this. If the customer thinks it is expensive, he can stay there. Our store will never force it."

The man felt that these words were familiar, as if he had heard them somewhere before, so he looked at the female shopkeeper and asked, "Where is the shopkeeper? He can't be from Luzhou?"

The female shopkeeper finally raised her head and felt a little impatient, "Do you want to get close to me? Even if we are the eight-day friends who kill the chicken head, the money for accommodation cannot be reduced. In addition, I would like to remind you that this sandstorm will not stop for a while. Come down, if you don’t stay, you can go out to eat sand.”

At this moment, the woman standing beside the man softly spoke, "It's not expensive, two taels are just two taels."

The wine shop, also called the inn lobby, is not much or too much, there are twenty tables, all of which are full of people, some are drinking silently, and some are talking loudly, which is very lively.

Most of these customers are dressed up by merchants, but there are many horse thieves in it. In fact, whether it is a merchant or a horse thief, they are either good people. Even if they are merchants, it is common for them to eat bad things after entering the uninhabited Gobi Desert.

After hearing the woman's voice, many eyes looked over and fell on the tightly wrapped woman without hiding her desires. After all, a woman with such a good voice should not be too bad in appearance.

The shopkeeper lowered his head again, took a thick booklet and looked through it, "You are lucky, there is only one room left."

The man said, "Is it lucky to have only one room left?"

The shopkeeper said lightly, "You came later, not even this room."

The woman had already taken out a Taiping money, but she did not mean to give it to the shopkeeper. Instead, she used her nails to divide the Taiping money into two halves, half on the counter, and the other half was thrown away.

The next moment, a sweat with the most unscrupulous look on her screamed, and the half of Taiping Money was embedded on her forehead.

The woman's voice was still soft and weak, "Next time I'll hit you in the eye."

Many guests immediately knew that the couple was not ordinary people, so they immediately withdrew their gaze, but the great man's companion stood up suddenly and wanted to draw his sword.

The shopkeeper looked at the woman with interest, and his tone was still calm, "I want to go outside to fight. If I want to fight in the inn, it's OK, but I have to pay more. If I break my gold-wire and sandalwood table and chair , compensation must be made ten times the market price."

Nan, Zhang, Zizi and Tong are known as the four famous trees, among which nanmu is the first, and golden nanmu is the first among nanmu. It can be imagined how precious it is, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a numeral of wood.

The woman glanced at the worn tables and chairs that were not related to the golden nanmu and smiled and said, "If the tables and chairs are broken, I will compensate a hundred times more."

After the words came, she threw a string of Taiping money on the counter, and at the same time, she didn't see how she was doing. Several of the great man's companions groaned and fell softly, but they didn't have the power to fight back. Only a big man covering his forehead was left, and he was at a loss.

The woman stretched out a slender jade finger and was about to click him when the man who was walking with her said, "Okay, don't make trouble."

The woman immediately put away her fingers and chuckled, "Okay."