Chapter 3 - Green Mountain Pass

The other two boys on the cart were named Li Yu and Li Shan, both of them were only eleven or two years old. Naturally, they were able to become apprentices because their families were more well-off than Li Yan's. There were only twelve or three families in their village, and the three young boys were quite familiar with each other. As the roadside scenery continued to change, the youngsters' innate nature of heart became revealed. Their depressed mood was slowly replaced by the freshness of the different scenery passing by on the roadside, and Li Yu and Li Shan began to talk to each other. The two of them became gradually excited as the scenery along the roadside kept changing. Their mood slowly flamed up just like the sunlight that was getting warmer and warmer in the sky, and they began to continuously envision the future and began to speak out loud. Li Yan, on the other hand, remained mostly silent, only occasionally answering or echoing some of the topics they talked about. His mind was in turmoil, and all kinds of thoughts came to his mind. He considered the future, considered his family members at home, and finally made up his mind. "This time, I must do a good job and earn more silver. In the future, when I return to the village, I will build two large courtyards, one for my third brother, so that he can marry a wife; the other one for myself and my parents to live, so that the two elders can live a good life; during the festival period, I will also bring my three sisters back, and the family will be reunited, and will not be separated again." This is a display of youthfulness. He was only thinking about his third brother getting married, but he was alone with the two elders, not realizing that he would have to form a family on his own as well. He was flooded with all kinds of thoughts for a while. On the way, Li Guoxin seized an opportunity to whisper to Li Yan, telling him to behave well after joining the army and strive to gain the favor of the head of the army, so that he might be assigned to a better affiliated barracks. Moreover, there is a possibility that close guards may have to participate in city guarding duties, so he should not take it lightly. Of course he only said it was possible, adding that it basically wouldn't be. He was considering a reminder while fearing that he would scare Li Yan if he said it harshly. Li Yan was also much sobered up from the muddle by Li Guoxin's interruption and nodded his head in a low voice, which made Li Guoxin's heart settle down a little. After explaining these precautions to Li Yan, Li Guoxin's voice got a little louder and continued. "Li Yan, if you are into the close guard army, in previous years maybe you should not have the opportunity to have family visits, unless you have made a war achievement. But it's very difficult to get a chance to make a contribution when you're new in the army. If there are things or letters that you want to bring back home, you can put them in the place where Li Yu or Li Shan are. People from the village often come to town. Whenever they come, ask them to go there and take the letters and other things back to your parents. In addition, although there are other people in the village in the town working as laborers or apprentices, but today should not have the time to take you to recognize the road, but you can go over to the place where Li Yu and Li Shan are going to take a look together first. The two of them will be done when they pay their fees to the Master family and sign the contract, which will be very quick, but yours will take longer to be finalized." Li Yan said at his words, "Uncle Guoxin, if people come from the village, just have them pass by my place as well, the barracks should be easy to find as well." "You child! How can you think so simply! However... this is not your fault, after all, you have seen less. Those garrison barracks are no place for ordinary people to go. If you go there recklessly, it's not a big deal to be questioned, but it's possible that you'll be taken to jail as an enemy spy." "Oh, that's something I really don't know." Li Yan scratched his head back in embarrassment after hearing his words and said. "But when you've been in the army for a few years, or when you've become a big officer, we can go to you in a dignified way, Only by that time, you have to recognize your Uncle Guoxin!" Li Guoxin joked. Not waiting for Li Yan to answer, Li Yu grabbed the words. "Uncle Guoxin, when I have learned to cook well, then every time you come here, I will cook you the best food for free, that is surely the most delicious and the most appetizing." Li Shan also grabbed the words. "Uncle Guoxin, I'll give your family...well, and every family in the whole village the best sickles and hoes, as well as knives and guns to use for hunting by then." "Haha, good, good! In the future, our Li Family Village will rely on your generation. With you guys, we'll be able to heat pots of wine every day in our old age, eat barbecue, watch the sunrise and sunset over the Great Green Mountain, and enjoy ourselves freely." Li Guoxin laughed loudly. After starting the conversation, the cart livened up, and Li Yan also talked a few words from time to time, engaged in it with longing. The county town was to the south of the Li Family Village, turning out from the foot of the Great Green Mountain, the cart traveled all the way to the south. The Li Family Village is located near one of the main peaks of the Great Green Mountain, while its sub-range of mountains stretches away to the south and north without knowing where it ends. By midday, after finding a shady spot by the roadside and stopping the cart, Li Guoxin took out food and greeted them to rest and eat some food. They also took out food from their own parcels and ate it together on the ground. Even though it was rough bread and salted vegetables brought out from home and a little bit of cured animal meat, they ate and chatted, but they were also happy. Finally in the afternoon around 3 o'clock, they came to the county town. From a distance, a town was situated in a large open area, but the east and west sides of the city wall were built along the mountains. The cart got closer and closer. Looking closer, the city gate and the city wall were more than thirty meters high. Looking towards the city wall, there were dark shadows walking on it, which were thought to be the soldiers patrolling the city. A big golden yellow flag was erected at the top of the city, with the word " Emperor " written on it, and it swirled in the wind. On the city gate, three big words " Green Mountain Pass" are very eye-catching. The three people on the cart also stopped talking at this moment, their mouths wide open as they stared blankly at the towering city gates. They haven't been here like the adults in the village. Since they grew up in the village, the furthest place is just around the village, how have they ever seen such a majestic city wall? Seeing such a sight for the first time, their hearts were in awe. At this time, there are not many people coming in and out of the city gates, probably because it is already afternoon. Li Guoxin gently tightened the reins of the horse, slowed down the carriage, and turned back to the three of them and warned. "This city was built to connect the mountains from east to west, and there are only two city gates on the north and south. The check at the north gate is much more lenient, but the check at the south gate, which is connected to Meng, is incredibly strict. Moreover, the south gate is usually only open for about three hours during the day. Although out of the south gate is not the enemy country, still need to travel further south about dozens of miles of buffer zone to the Meng border, but for cavalry, it is almost a matter of moments. The advantage is that the east and west sides of this Green Mountain Pass are connected to the mountains, making the direction of the enemy's attack only the south side of a road feasible, which makes the county town more defensible and difficult to attack. The east and west sides of the city have steep mountains and narrow ridges, which do not allow several people and horses to go up at the same time. Even if someone could get up there, attacking down from the mountains would be a problem, and it is estimated that without waiting to come down, they would have already been discovered and would have been shot by the defending crossbows." They followed his words and looked toward the towering city wall. But the city wall is too high, and they are under the north wall of the city, from this point of view they can only vaguely see to the east and west sides of a row of dark black things head up to the sky, respectively, pointing to the two sides of the mountain peaks, like a ferocious beast opening its fangs. Li Yan secretly thought to himself. "Uncle Guoxin said this north city gate checked leniently, which should be the people coming this way are basically the people of their own country. It should be crossbows and arrows on top of the wall. Look at the mountain ridge this vertical, steep, really can't allow several people to walk on it at the same time. I can't go up this kind of ridge, I guess there are only two or three people in the village like Uncle Guoxin who can go up, but it's probably also very difficult. It was also extremely difficult to walk on that mountain. If one foot step in the air, it is estimated that there is only the part of the fall to death. Even if somebody gets on this mountain, if from the top of the mountain down to attack the two sides of the city wall, as long as there is a slight movement, there will be a foot on the sliding sound of the gravel. The soldiers on the wall must be known in advance. At that time, only a row of crossbow arrows shot up, the people above will be shot into hedgehogs, it is really a heavenly security place." Li Yu and Li Shan also came back to their senses from the shock at this time, hearing these words from Li Guoxin, Li Yu asked. "Uncle Guoxin, the city wall is so secure and guarded by soldiers, I think that the people of Meng must not be able to break in, right?" Li Guoxin looked gloomy but said. "This is difficult to say, I heard that in these years, the Meng country's soldiers have attacked a few times, and one time, the enemy soldiers have attacked on the south wall of the city. Luckily, General Hong led a bloody battle in the city himself, so the enemy soldiers were killed off. Later, I heard people in the town said that the blood flowed down the city wall to inside the city, flowing all over the place. And the streets were covered with blood and flesh. On top of the city wall and outside the south wall is a mountain of corpses. Although most of them were of the enemy attackers, there were also a small half of our imperial soldiers." When Li Yu and Li Shan heard this, they were scared pale. They thought to themselves that in the future, if they were to be apprentices here, wouldn't they have to be wary? Even more worriedly, they looked at Li Yan, thinking in their hearts that Brother Yan wasn't going to go up to fight as well? Wouldn't that be even more dangerous? Li Guoxin also felt that it was wrong when he spoke here, and immediately stopped the conversation and casually said. These are only some rumors, it should not be true, or now this county will not be so prosperous." In fact, as the village chief, he knows best, due to the many wars in the borderlands, the emperor has long issued a decree: the borderlands do not allow the local people to easily migrate. In order to show the people's patriotic heart, even if there is a strong enemy outside, they can also live in peace and work happily. Li Guoxin did not know the situation in other borderlands. He has received the government documents, requiring that no villagers are allowed to migrate, or else they will be punished with a serious crime. Fortunately, here in Green Mountain Pass really blocked a lot of times the enemy invasion, to protect these villages and towns behind the Green Mountain Pass is currently peaceful, seemingly people peace and security.