"I just hope that Su Yannian and Chen Pengzu can help you, and I will pass today's words into Fu Jiezi's ears. Otherwise, I would have to wait until Fu Jiezi arrives at Xuanquanzhi and deliberately let Zhifu or Xia Weng take a mouthful."

Ren Hong thought so in his mind. It was because he heard that Su and Chen were going to Yumen Pass to greet Fu Jiezi, so he deliberately said something.

However, although Chen Pengzu intends to scare him, what he said is not a false statement. The Western Regions are indeed a dangerous place where people in the Central Plains are afraid of talking.

But the greater the risk, the greater the opportunity!

No, for someone like him, if you want to make a big splash, this is simply the only chance!

This means we have to talk about the life experience of "Ren Hong".

The ancestors of the Ren family were also rich. During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, Ren Hong's grandfather was a senior official in the court and had become a high-ranking official with a size of 2,000 stones.

It’s a pity that the Ren family was implicated by the famous movement "Witchcraft Disaster", and Ren Hong’s grandfather was executed. Fortunately, the three clans were not killed, and the Ren family was moved to Dunhuang to build the border of the motherland.

Ren Hong was only three or four years old at that time. He was led by his parents and walked northwest in the cold winter. He suffered a great disaster and all the clan servants were dispersed. Only a kitchen chef named "Xia Dingmao" did not leave, taking care of the owner in trouble.

When the people of the Central Plains first arrived in Hexi, they were not suitable for the land and land. Ren Hong's parents died halfway through the journey. Only Xia Dingmao fulfilled his loyal duties and brought Ren Hong to Dunhuang, and the master and servant depended on each other for their own lives...

More than ten years have passed, and immigrants have arrived. The court set up Xiaogu County by the Shule River. Xia Dingmao was recruited to work in the kitchen where Xuanquan was built. Ren Hong also grew up, and Xia Dingmao spent all his money to support him in the county to worship Confucians.

However, in my memory, Mr. Zheng from Xiaogu County did not have much ink in his stomach, neither proficient in poetry nor spring and autumn. After studying for two years, Ren Hong learned the literacy textbook "Fan Jiang Pian" written by Sima Xiangru. He shook his head and memorized "White white angelica calamus, and the turtle and smeared the dogwood of Dongguan pepper". He could only recognize the word "Full".

Fortunately, Ren Hong is strong and has some skills in playing swordsmanship. In an era when illiterate people are generally illiterate, he can also say "can be literary and martial."

But the disaster never came alone. In the spring of the third year of Yuanfeng, Ren Hong returned home from the county town and encountered a rare strong wind and sand. He fainted in a sandstorm. He was rescued by someone for a long time and was rescued by Xuan Quanzhen. He sought medical treatment and finally woke up.

However, Ren Hong was completely refreshed after waking up...

Ren Hong was naturally unwilling to stay in Xuanquanji for the rest of his life, and he also tried to show his feelings.

Last month, when I passed the Xuanquanjie Road in Dunhuang, I admired Ren Hong's conversation and once showed the intention of promoting it.

But there is no further information about this matter. It is probably because the Supervisor returned to the county and investigated Ren Hong's life experience...

"The sons of criminal officials are imprisoned for three generations!"

While reciting this spell, Ren Hong walked out of the Chuanshe and came to the yard of Xuanquan.

The Xuanquan is a standard square dockyard, 50 meters x 50 meters, with a wall of two meters high. It is built with loess and sedges, making the sky above it look blue.

As an official post station, although the sparrows are small in the spring, they are all complete, integrating post offices, post offices, houses, and kitchens, providing food, housing and transportation services for past businessmen and envoys.

Ren Hong saw that the little official of the Chuanshe was spreading out some smell of bedding, slapped the dust, and let the sun be exposed to the sun on the dock wall.

As for the opposite side of the house, there is a kitchen with smoke rising from the cooking stove.

The kitchens in the Han Dynasty, whether private or public, were usually set up in the east, so there was a song:

"Dong kitchenware and food, cypress cows and pigs and sheep."

The Xuanquan is no exception. The kitchen is leaning against the east wall of the dockyard, and is surrounded by a single small courtyard. It is surrounded by a short wall of one meter. There are granaries, stoves, woodsheds and other areas. The women started to wash rice and cook. The kitchen was already sharpening the knife, and they could vaguely smell the aroma of meat floating out of the pottery cauldron.

As for the official in charge of the East Kitchen, Xia Dingmao, the old servant of the Ren family who raised Ren Hong, was standing at the door of the East Kitchen and scolding a soldier...

"I have said that many times, the fire pit in Dongchu must be watched well and must not be destroyed. Why did you squat there and fall asleep just now?"

It was also difficult for the soldiers to be put on the throne, because Xia Dingmao's accent was in the authentic Shujun dialect, and he spoke it quickly, and he couldn't understand a single word...

Xia Dingmao's beards were gray and white, and her head was wrapped around her head, which made her skin darker due to sun and rain. She only had a short stroke and strong arms. This dress looked like an old farmer in northern Shaanxi in later generations.

"Mr. Xia!"

Ren Hong just shouted, and Mr. Xia immediately changed from being a vicious person who scolded his subordinates to being kind-hearted.

He walked over a few steps and was about to salute Ren Hong, completely forgetting that he was a "small chef than a hundred stones". He was even higher than Ren Hong when it comes to rank and fortune.

"Are gentleman hungry? Dong Chuan has hot soup..."

For many years, although time has changed, Xia Dingmao has always remembered the kindness of Ren's family to him and treated Ren Hongru as Young Master.

Ren Hong refused to let him salute, and the two were named Master and servant, but to Ren Hong, Mr. Xia was like his uncle!

"Mr. Xia, it's good news."

Ren Hong whispered to him:

"The person I'm waiting for, Fu Jiezi, is finally coming!"

...

After a while, one old and one young walked towards the gate of Xuanquan.

Ren Hong was ahead, and he carried a basket of red willows and looked back at Xia Dingmao and said:

"It's almost time to eat. Mr. Xia left the kitchen. Isn't it really a big deal?"

The common people in the Han Dynasty only ate two meals a day, and breakfast time was the time to eat, which was about 9:00 to 10:30 in later generations. Usually, Xia Dingmao had to cook in the kitchen at this order.

"It's just that when it's almost time to eat, the sand and onions in the East Kitchen are not enough, and the stingers are unreliable, so I came out to find them myself."

Xia Dingmao said, wiping the sweat from his head: "It was so hot in the morning, and today is hard to bear."

Ren Hong knew the reason why Xia Dingmao had to go out: Xuanquan was located in such a small place, but there were 37 officials, soldiers, disciples, and imperial officials, and the emperor. In addition, the officials and travelers were crowded, and it was really not suitable to whisper.

After leaving the hanging spring, the world suddenly became clear. When there was no sand and dust, you could see clearly the surroundings, which were completely different from the Central Plains.

The sky is a shocking deep blue, without a cloud, which contrasts with the yellow earth.

To the north of the Xuanquan is a Gobi Desert, with poplar forests and strange willows growing from time to time, and more are small black pebbles and sporadic haystacks.

It was Xishawo and saline-alkali beach. Through them, beacon towers 30 miles away from the north could be seen vaguely, one by one, like a determined sentry, standing still, stretching from east to west for hundreds of miles, forming the Great Wall defense line in the northern part of Dunhuang.

With these beacon towers guarding Dunhuang, the Huns did not dare to come over to herd their horses and rob.

The south side of the Xuanquan is from far to near, from high to low:

The farthest white line is the snow-capped mountain, or more than a hundred miles away, which is the Qilian Snow Mountain spanning the entire Hexi Corridor.

In the middle is a black line, which is Sanwei Mountain, with a black and brown color. It is said that in ancient times, Emperor Shun exiled the unruly Sanmiao here.

The closest one is the Red Line, the Sanwei Branch Fire Mountain. There is no grass growing on the mountain, showing a strange brown-red red color, like a fiery fire, which is named after it.

There is a green at the foot of the Fire Mountain. It is an oasis moistened by a stream called "Hanging Spring". It is like a piece of jade in the Gobi Desert. No matter how big the sandstorm is, it cannot be covered up.

Flowing along the springs, the oasis spreads, continuing to the avenue connecting the Central Plains and the Western Regions.

Ren Hong has already made a name for this road.

"Silk Road!"

Walking on the road, no one around, Xia Dingmao expressed his doubts:

"The old servant is dull, but he still doesn't quite understand why a gentleman cares about Fu Jiezi so much."

Ren Hong was kept silent: "How much did Mr. Xia know about Fu Jiezi?"

Xia Dingmao laughed: "The old servant is just a kitchen chef, and his understanding of this person is naturally based on his food."

"A year ago, Fu Jiezi went to the Western Regions with the festival and passed by Xuanquan. At that time, the old servant was a chef. I only remember that this person had a lot of appetite and especially loved eating chicken! Fu Jiezi alone ate two of them!"

Although chickens are relatively thin these days, killing two of them by one person is also a big eater.

Ren Hong couldn't help laughing: "I know all of these, and they are recorded in that volume of "The Fees Book of the Horses Surveyed by Xuanquan". Unfortunately, I came to Xuanquan to stay late and couldn't see this scene with my own eyes."

So Ren Hong had no choice but to inquire about Fu Jiezi's officials and merchants.

Fortunately, there is no entertainment these days, and Xuanquanzhi does not provide special services, so chatting and chatting has become the only way for tourists to pass the time during the long night.

Everyone lay on the couch of the Chuanshe, chatting about the scenery of their hometowns, talking about the news about the Western Regions and Chang'an, and the accents of different counties and countries meet here. Although most of them are useless nonsense, over time, Ren Hong has also collected a lot of information.

Ren Hong said: "I heard from past officials that Fu Jiezi was a good son of a northern family. During the reign of Emperor Xiaowu, he served as an officer in the army and followed General Li Guangli of Ershi to expedition to Dayuan. However, his fame and reputation were not obvious. Now twenty years have passed, he is only a 600-stone horse prison..."

The Junma Supervisor is under the Taifu, one of the nine ministers, and his rank and fortune are the same as the county magistrate.

"Although the rank and wealth are not high, Fu Jiezi is in charge of the emperor riding a horse and often walking in the palace, which is highly appreciated by the general Huo Guang. This time he went to the Western Regions and passed through Loulan and Kucha, he did a lot of things."

"When he went there, he angrily scolded King Loulan. When he came back, he killed the Xiongnu envoys in Kucha, but none of them were the key points. His main purpose was to go to Dayuan!"

Dayuan is already west of the Palacio, in the Kyrgyzstan and Uzbek areas in later generations.

Speaking of this, Ren Hong asked Xia Dingmao: "Can you know what is the most famous Dayuan Kingdom?"

Xia Dingmao knew clearly: "Of course it's a sweaty horse!"

Ren Hong clapped his hands: "That's right, it's Tianma!"

At this time, they had already gone around the southwest of Xuanquan.

The hanging springs with 15 vehicles and more than 40 cattle and horses are located in the stable. A large amount of livestock manure is produced every day, which is touching and smells touching. It is inappropriate to smoke the envoys and officials.

Therefore, the stables are located outside the south wall of the dockyard, firstly, they are close to the grazing oasis, and secondly, they are allowed to take away the whistling wind.

At this time, a dusty postman had just arrived at Xuanquan from the west. The stable officials welcomed him into the site, while the others were responsible for feeding water and beans to the horse. If the postman was in a hurry, he would have to replace him with a new horse.

Ren Hong could see on tiptoe that the horses in the stable, with shoulder heights of seven feet, were placed in the Central Plains, which was already an outstanding "Hexi Horse".

But the height of the Dayuan Tianma can be above eight feet!

The "Xiangma Sutra" says: A horse is more than six feet tall, and a horse is more than seven feet tall, and as for more than eight feet tall?

"For the Dragon!"

Half a century ago, for the sake of this rare horse breed in the Central Plains, the Han Dynasty even conquered Dayuan twice!
To be continued...