Chapter 2 The Strong Man (Part 1) "What kind of person is Zhang Xutuo?" "Can he tolerate me?" On the way south to take office, Xuzi, who had suffered a big loss at the hands of Yu Wenshu, had been feeling uneasy.
After arriving at Qihe, he finally stopped worrying, because a bigger trouble came to him. A group of scoundrels followed him from behind, targeting the black wind under his crotch and the luggage on the back of another mount.
Xuzi galloped several times, hoping to get rid of this group of people with speed. His destination, Licheng, was not far from here. If he rode faster, he would be able to see the open city gate within half an hour. But the group of refugees was obviously
He is very familiar with the terrain here. Whenever Xuzi thinks that he has left them far away, the refugees can always come out from the side roads or from behind some mountain nooks, blowing a shrill trumpet to notify
The specific location of the "fat sheep" of our partners
Li Xu was very helpless towards this group of refugees. If he pulled out his knife, none of these dozen ragged men would want to leave alive. But he was unwilling to add a few more innocent lives to his knife, and neither did those people.
As a last resort, Xuzi had already seen too many tragedies on his way to Qijun to take office.
The land in the counties of Henan is far more fertile than that of the counties in Hebei. The rushing Yellow River is so nourishing that every handful of soil here can produce oil. With sufficient nutrients and warm weather, there is no lack of oil in the fields even in November.
Are those neat green things wheat? Asahi is not sure that his hometown can only grow one crop every year. After harvesting the first crop, even if he seizes the time to sow the seeds, the seedlings that grow will not be able to grow.
survive
According to Xuzi's conjecture, areas with fertile soil and warm climate should be more prosperous. After all, this is south of the Yellow River and close to the East China Sea. When Yu Wenshu's army returned to Luoyang for a long distance, Yang Xuangan's rebels did not destroy these places, nor did they.
It affected this place, but the facts he saw along the way were exactly the opposite of what he expected. Anyone who has seen the scenery along the way, unless his heart is made of stone, can understand why there are so many beacon smoke rising over the counties in Henan.
The counties in Henan are indeed rich, especially the cities. If you pull out any nameless county, it will be ten times richer than the seat of Shanggu County, Xuzi's hometown. Yixian County has tall city walls, neat government offices, straight streets, and vermilion gates.
These are scenes that are not seen in Yixian County. Compared with the wealthy and luxurious homes in Henan counties, the county government offices in Shanggu County can at best be regarded as rundown. But after leaving the city two miles away, there is another world in front of you.
The thatched shacks are so densely packed that you can never see the end of them. They are only three feet, or at most five feet high. They have no windows, and the door is just a handful of wheat straw. The owner of the shack is sitting at the door, with blank eyes and a sad look on his face.
The emperor's chariots did not pass by here. They were not forced out by the government. In addition to the government, there was something called money, which made them lose the qualification to live in the city.
In the shack areas nearest and farthest from the city wall, there are always two lively markets. There are no supplies of daily necessities such as meat, fish, grain, and tea in the market. There is only one kind of goods, and that is three living boys.
A hundred coins, a hundred coins for a girl, half a coin for a mature man, one and a half coins for a young woman, two coins for a mature girl. If you are a big buyer, the traffickers will give you a discount. Occasionally, a person in luxurious clothes will pass by on the official road, and the "shopkeepers" will immediately
Waving the whip in his hand, he displayed dozens of living people like driving animals. The men and women with hemp ropes tied around their ankles and straw marks on their heads were at the mercy of others like puppets and wooden stalks. They didn't know how to resist, and they didn't know how to resist.
They lost all sense of resistance and were as cold as zombies. Only the occasional sneezing caused by the north wind made people realize that they were still breathing.
"Don't the officials here care about it?" When he was drinking horses at the post station, Xuzi once complained to an old postman. The old soldier looked at him in surprise and shouted as if he had encountered a monster, "Sir, you
If you are kind-hearted, just spend a small amount of money to buy a dozen of them, and it will cost them their lives! If someone buys them, they can live as slaves and maids. If they can't find a buyer until they are out of business, the traffickers will kick them out because they think they have lost money.
If not, they will starve to death!"
After listening to the words of the old postman, Xu Zi understood that he had made a fool of himself again because of his overflowing sympathy. So, he became more and more disgusted with the rebels. If those people hadn't been burning, killing and looting everywhere, the imperial court wouldn't have to raise so many soldiers.
If there were more soldiers, the taxes would not be so heavy. If there were no heavy taxes, the refugees would be able to live and work in peace and contentment. Xuzi used the simplest reasoning to anesthetize himself. As for whether this reasoning made sense, he did not dare to go into it. When he went deeper, he
I'm afraid I'll have nightmares at night
As a general of the army who had experienced the battle to suppress bandits, Xuzi never believed that the rebels were "doing justice for heaven." The facts outside Liyang City told him that those who caused the most serious damage to the people were precisely those who were under the guise of justice.
No matter how bad the military discipline of the rebel officers and soldiers is, they will at least restrain themselves in the city or in front of the general. But the rebels are not like that. They have no military discipline at all.
The whistle sounded again in the woods on the left side of the official road, this time three times, indicating that there was another wave of refugees trying to make war horses.
The speed of the war horse made him regret that he believed too much in past experience. Before taking office, he declined the personal soldiers recommended by his colleagues. If there are three or five personal soldiers at this time, even if they come with various purposes, at least they can defeat them based on their numbers.
Those bold refugees were intimidated so that they did not dare to come forward easily to provoke them.
"Squeak--squeak--squeak-!" Seeing Li Xu escape, the whistle rang three more times, this time two long and one short, as if conveying some order. Then, a dirty stick bounced on the official road ahead.
The rusty rope said, "I opened this mountain, I planted this tree..." More than twenty naked people with wooden sticks in their hands jumped out from behind the woods and blocked Xuzi's path.
"Nothing new at all!" Xuzi lowered his head and pulled out the black knife from his waist. The moment he raised his hand, he had cut the rope into two pieces. Black Wind and another war horse carrying luggage said "Xi Liu Liu"
With two long hisses, he ran in front of the blocker like a demonstration, leaving a lot of yelling and curses behind him.
"Little thief, don't leave if you have the guts!" "We are all in front of you, you can't run away!" The refugees shouted in a strange dialect, "Only fools play with you!" Xu Zi said.
He replied in northern Mandarin, speeded up, and rushed up the mountain ridge ahead along the official road.
This is a hilly area, and each mound is not high, but running one by one on this terrain is very tiring and can lead to danger. After about half a stick of incense, Asahi slowed down.
He believed that the refugees should catch up after seeing his sword skills.
Before he and Hei Feng could take a breath, the whistle sounded again from the front left. This time it was louder and more rapid, accompanied by the faint sound of horse hooves. Xuzi realized that something was wrong. The refugees should not be so bold.
He clearly remembered that he had met refugees on the official roads in the counties of Hebei three months ago. The bones of those people were stronger than those he met just now, but those people never dared to think of war horses.
A group of "cavalry" rushed out diagonally from the valley floor. Three people rode horses in front, and one person in the middle rode a long-eared mule. Behind the mule, there were more than a dozen people, brandishing kitchen knives and bamboo spears. The mounts under their crotches were used to pull carts.
donkey
"Stop, stop, what kind of silver are you? You are not allowed to go forward. The leader of the team has a gray-white corner flag behind him and rushes towards Asahi.
, while shouting loudly that he didn't have any armor on his body, and the weapon in his hand was a wooden pole with scars still on it, with only a knife tied to the tip. Since the equipment on his body was very light, the men and horses were extremely fast when charging at short distances.
, he has already rushed to Xuzi's side
"Poof!" Li Xu cut the man and the weapon in his hand into two pieces with just one blow. When he encountered a rebel, Xu Zi didn't dare to show mercy anymore. The document and seal were put in the luggage of another mount.
, once he falls into the hands of the rebels, the other side will definitely not easily spare him, General Wu Yalang, who is about to assist Zhang Xutuo in annihilating the rebels.
He heard the whizzing sound of the wind, which was the sound of arrows piercing the air. The thieves had bows in their hands, but their archery skills were poor, or they were reluctant to shoot two horses to death. Those inferior long arrows were far away from both sides of his body.
It flew past and soon lost its power, splashing a stream of smoke and dust on the hard ground on both sides of the official road.
"The power of the bow is less than a stone!" Xuzi came to the conclusion based on his blood-earned experience on the battlefield. His horn bow was hung behind the saddle, but he did not dare to take the bow to fight back. More and more rebels were in front of him, and he shouted
Fortunately, they couldn't run fast enough, or no one wanted to make the same mistake as the leader. All the rebels tried their best to keep pace with their teammates, so as not to be the first to touch the dark and cold light.
the blade
"Kill him, kill him!" the gangsters yelled louder and louder, and their courage grew bigger and bigger. "Whoever stops him will get a horse!" I don't know which leader gave the order.
, under the heavy reward, many brave men had the courage to jump onto the official road and stab Xuzi's thigh with the bamboo pole in his hand. The black wind rushed past him, Xuzi's arm twitched down hard, and then
, the dazzling blood lang jumped up in the sun, leaping into the air with a puff of smoke. Then, the smoke rose higher and higher, the soul flew away, and the blood was blown away by the wind like petals.
"Kill him, kill him, he killed Tu Gen'er, kill him to avenge Tu Gen'er!" The gangsters shouted like crazy and swarmed forward without any formation.
Xuzi chopped down the first person who tried to block the road, and then wiped out the second one. Soon, the third person fell under his knife. The thieves were shocked and scattered to both sides of the official road like flies, but they didn't know they were there.
What price did the leader offer again? These timid but greedy guys shouted and gathered around again. All the weapons greeted Xiang Xuzi, and almost no one tried to hurt the war horse.
Soon, Xuzi's clothes were soaked with blood. Not a drop of it was his own, all of it was other people's. These gangsters were even worse trained than the anti-thieves under Yuan Wuben's command. They were almost forced to the tip of the knife.
Xuzi couldn't remember how many people he had chopped down, but he saw Heifeng kicking away at least three reins with his front hooves. Another chrysanthemum green horse tied to Heifeng's saddle was not to be outdone, even kicking and biting.
Don't give thieves a chance to get close to it at all
"Coax!" The bandit team was forced out of a river of blood by Xuzi, and the road ahead became clear again. Xuzi slashed away a bandit who was pursuing the most aggressively with his sword, and then quickly raised his head. The road in front of him led to another mound.
There is a pavilion on the mound for travelers to rest. The walls of the pavilion are three feet high. Several people on horseback are standing inside and watching.
Those people were wearing the iron armor of the Sui generals! Xuzi's spirit suddenly revived. He discovered his companions at almost the same time. The people in the pavilion also discovered him. The two riders stayed in the pavilion, bending their bows to warn.
The other two rode horses and rushed down the mound, one to the left and one to the right, and quickly rushed to his vicinity.
"Stop, stop! Don't let them get close, don't let them get close!" The rebels were shouting incoherently and at the top of their lungs. Dozens of strong men broke out from their own ranks, trying to separate Xuzi from the people who came to rescue. A large number of feather arrows were fired.
, Bamboo spears and wooden sticks flew up from the enemy army. The rebels were furious. No one cherished the two horses under Asahi's crotch and beside him anymore.
"They are very afraid of the people who rush down!" Li Xu realized the reason why the enemy soldiers killed them so hard. He asked himself whether he had the ability to kill all the arrows with one strike, and danced the black knife into a ball of light to protect himself and Heifeng's vital points.
, while desperately urging the mount, trying to use speed to escape from birth.
Most of the arrows lost their target, two bamboo spears were picked up by the black knife, and one stabbed Ju Huaqing in the stomach. Ju Huaqing, who was carrying the luggage, let out a painful cry and fell softly. Li Xu stabbed him
Cutting off the reins, he avoided the tragedy of Hei Feng being torn down by Yu Hua Qing. Then, he quickly turned the horse's head, circled in a very short radius, came back, and cut off all the arms close to Ju Hua Qing.
Several people who tried to seize the luggage jumped away holding their shoulders, covering their broken arms with their fingers, and watched helplessly as blood spurted out from the wounds. They did not expect that Li Xu was a master who would give up his life rather than his wealth, and his eyes were full of anger and dissatisfaction.
After counting their breaths, several people's faces turned pale and fell to the ground one after another.
"Sorry!" Xuzi muttered in his heart. At this moment, he really felt some pity for the enemy. Soon, the pity in his heart turned into fear. More people rushed towards Juhuaqing who fell to the ground, as if he fainted from hunger.
When a group of wolves saw their prey, "There is a large amount of property on the horseback, otherwise the guy with the black knife would not give up and escape." The group of thieves thought this way, scrambling for the first place.
"There's no money in it! Get out of the way!" Xuzi shouted angrily, swung the knife as fast as he could to cut the rope tied to the luggage, then leaned over, lifted the luggage roll up with one arm, put it on Heifeng's back, and quickly danced and bent with the other arm.
Knife, chop off more arms and heads
Hei Feng, who was carrying too much weight, was no longer flexible and rushed left and right in the crowd. Li Xu, who was trapped in the crowd with multiple injuries, was also in a hurry. His eyes were blood red with anger, and his swords were all killing each other.
The wooden spear stabbed his arm. The owner of the wooden spear was too weak to hurt his bones. Asahi grabbed the wooden spear with his hand and stabbed the wooden spear into the visitor's throat with one arm.
Two sickles and three wooden sticks. In the critical moment, Asahi's senses became extremely keen. He remembered all the moves taught by the coppersmith master back then. He knocked away one sickle and chopped down the other sickle that tried to hurt Heifeng.
At the same time, the master turned sideways to avoid the tip of the wooden stick. The blade slid down the wooden stick. Taking advantage of the inertia of the horse's forward motion, he chopped off several fingers and there were two wooden sticks that could not be dealt with. Asahi tightened his muscles and tried to
After carrying these two blows, the expected pain did not come. Two feather arrows flew out from the pavilion, shooting the owner of the wooden stick down in front of Asahi's horse.
At this time, the reinforcements coming from the left and right also penetrated the interceptor's team. They were two young men about the same height as Asahi. With the impact of the horse and Changsha's good flexibility, they
Just waving his arms a few times, he lifted the strong men who came forward to fight into the air.
A gangster fell from the air waving his limbs. The general on Asahi's left side stabbed the gangster's neck with his long spear. Then, with a strong swing, he threw the body towards the enemy and then
He stabbed the gangster closest to Li Xu, crossed his horse, leaned over, and quickly cut off the noses of the two men with a knife.
"I want to count!" The man put his nose into the leather bag behind the saddle, then smiled at Asahi, showing his neat white teeth.
"Luo Shixin, Luo Shixin!" Xuzi heard the horrified shouts of the gangsters, and then found that there was no one around him again. The gangsters quickly retreated, fearing that they would fall behind their companions.
The general who rushed over from the right rode up to catch up with him, his long spear flew up, and he knocked over four or five enemy soldiers in an instant. He circled diagonally for half a circle, and actually forced the surrounding enemy soldiers away for more than twenty steps.
Then, the man quickly returned and, together with the general on the left, protected Li Xu's wings.
"Licheng Luo Shixin!" The young general with a baby face and a hobby of collecting enemy noses smiled and stretched out a big bloody hand to Li Xu.
