Chapter 216 Ancient Version of High Speed
Liu Dafu was also an impatient person. Although he knew that Qin Yao would not go back on her promise, he still waited at the village entrance early the next day.
When he saw Qin Yao driving a carriage with Dalang, Jinbao and five other children, he immediately shouted and drove his own carriage behind them.
He also brought some fresh fruits and vegetables to several restaurants in the county. The more things he could get done, the better. What's more, Qin Yao was traveling with him, so it was safe on the road.
Qin Yao had only sent the children to Xiahe Village and had not encountered villagers from other villages begging along the way.
Today I personally sent the children to Jinshi Town, and saw two or three groups of people along the way.
They were dressed similarly to the nearby villagers, but each of them had a patched cloth bag hanging from his body, which was an essential tool for begging. An experienced person could tell what it was for at a glance.
They would generally avoid a horse-drawn carriage carrying people. Dalang said that when the driver took them to school, these people never stopped the carriage, probably because they saw that they were just children and had no conditions to give them anything.
Qin Yao sent the children to the gate of the Ding Family School and watched them walk into the school. Then she drove back to the official road to meet up with Liu Dafu, and the two of them went to Kaiyang County together.
The closer we got to Kaiyang County, the more beggars we saw on the road. At first, I could understand what they said and tell which village or town their accents were from.
But when they arrived in Kaiyang County, they saw a group of people speaking with foreign accents. As the saying goes, the dialect changes every ten miles and the customs change every hundred miles. Qin Yao could not understand most of what those people were saying.
Under the national conditions of Shengguo, large-scale population movement is not a good thing.
Normally, most people never leave their small village in their entire lives.
"Where did they come from?" Qin Yao asked suspiciously.
Liu Dafu was well-informed and guessed, "The sound should be coming from further north."
"Where is further north?" Qin Yao's memory of the original owner had gradually faded, and she actually didn't understand many things.
She only knew that the original owner's hometown was in the northwest, that she had several family members in the past, and what their names were.
The rest has become so blurred with the passage of time that I can no longer remember it.
The longest distance she has ever walked is from Liujia Village to Kaiyang County.
She promised Liu Dafu to help escort Liu Li to the capital of Zijing Prefecture, so when they arrived at the county town, they had to go to the bookstore to buy a map first.
By the way, Manager Wu has been to the provincial capital. When you return to the village and pass by the Jinshi Town Mill, it would be safer to consult him.
Without GPS positioning and intelligent navigation, Qin Yao could only distinguish east, south, west and north.
Seeing that she had no idea about the outside world, Liu Dafu told her what places were north of Kaiyang County while testing whether she could tell the directions.
Don't let his Liu Li escort fall into the pit.
Feeling Liu Dafu's suspicious eyes, Qin Yao looked up at the sky speechlessly. Although she did not have the map of Sheng Country, she was also a person who could come and go freely in the primeval forest. His worries were really unnecessary.
In this way, the two of them tested each other all the way with distrust, and finally entered the county seat of Kaiyang County.
Qin Yao first went to the bookstore to buy a map and wait for Liu Dafu, who had to deliver food to various restaurants. The two agreed to meet at the gate of the yamen in the afternoon.
It was the first time that Qin Yao stepped into a bookstore. She had only bought school supplies from the stall in front of the bookstore before.
As soon as she walked in, she found a few scattered scholars in the bookstore looking at her in shock, as if it was unbelievable that a woman walked into here.
Qin Yao has never been afraid of these gazes. Instead, she looked back. Under her confident and powerful gaze, several scholars lowered their heads in panic, but couldn't help but glance at her, curious about her movements.
Qin Yao raised the corner of her mouth slightly, and without wandering around the store, she walked to the counter and asked, "Do you have a map of Shengguo?"
The shop owner didn't say whether she had any or not, but instead asked her where she was going.
When he heard Qin Yao say that she was going to Zijing Prefecture, he raised a smile and motioned her to wait.
Then, under Qin Yao's puzzled gaze, he took out paper and pen, ground the pen on the spot, and drew a route for her on the paper.
Qin Yao looked at the "map" handed over by the shopkeeper. It was about the size of two palms, with a serpentine curve on it, a tree symbol drawn in the middle of the curve, and circles representing official post stations drawn on both sides of the road.
To be honest, Qin Yao felt perfunctory at first sight.
But the shopkeeper pointed to the picture and told her confidently, "To get to Zijing Prefecture, go southwest from Kaiyang County Official Road. There is a post station every thirty miles, and you will pass twelve post stations along the way."
He pointed to the circle on the map and said, "If you can pass the post station, it means you are on the right track."
"The tree over here is a big fork in the road. There is a wooden sign in the middle of the road pointing you to the right. Just choose Jinyang Road."
He also told Qin Yao that he could pay attention to the trapezoidal mounds on the road. These mounds were called hou (hou), and each mound was five miles apart. He could use them to judge how far he had walked, how far he was to the next post station, and so on.
Qin Yao thought to herself, I've learned something new.
The so-called official road is equivalent to the modern highway, and the official post station is equivalent to the service station on the highway.
There will also be many road signs along the way. The roads that people and vehicles often take are called certain roads or certain roads. The wider ones are called Kanghezhuang, the ones with many forks are called Kui, and the small roads are called Jing, Xi, and Chong.
The store owner may not be able to draw a precise map of the same scale for Qin Yao, but as long as Qin Yao follows the map he draws, he will definitely reach his destination.
"Is there a bigger map?" Qin Yao asked curiously.
The shopkeeper nodded and said, "Yes, they do, but they're very expensive."
He suspected that Qin Yao was buying the map for her husband who was going to the provincial capital to take an exam, and she was dressed very simply, so he was afraid that she would spend money, so he gave her the hand-drawn version.
Hand-drawing is affordable, and you only need to pay ten cents for paper and pen.
In addition, people usually ask acquaintances for directions, and few people go to a bookstore to buy a map.
Qin Yao was thinking about taking the items home and using them as teaching materials for her children, so as to deepen their understanding of their own country. She felt the store owner's kindness and didn't mind him making a little more money.
"I'd like to take a look, can I?" Qin Yao asked politely.
The shopkeeper asked curiously with a very good attitude: "Madam, do you understand it?"
Qin Yao smiled and nodded.
The shopkeeper looked at her with even greater curiosity and motioned for her to wait while he went to find the picture.
While looking for the picture, he frequently looked back at Qin Yao, as if he had thought of something, with a surprised but uncertain expression.
The road map is a very thick book, and because the extra-large paper is expensive, it is much more economical to cut it into smaller pieces.
However, the thumbnails are also drawn as needed so as not to affect the viewing experience.
When Qin Yao was carefully looking through the map of directions, the shopkeeper suddenly asked, "Madam, are you a female hero who fought against bandits?"
Qin Yao raised her eyes to look at him and nodded gently, "My last name is Qin, you can just call me Madam Qin."
the heroine called out, a little awkwardly.
(End of this chapter)