"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.
"Shanggu Li Zhongjian!" Li Xu stretched out his hand and struck each other with his palms.
"Licheng Qin Shubao! I've seen General Li!" Another Sui general immediately stretched out his hand and struck Li Xu with both hands. The three war horses turned their heads and rushed towards the pavilion quickly.
"Are you the Li Zhongjian who traveled across Liaodong?"
"Are you the Luo Shixin who was specially ordered by the emperor to draw a picture and pass it on to the ministers?"
“I’ve heard about General Qin for a long time, but I didn’t expect to meet him here!”
"Qin has also heard the name of General Li for a long time!"
The three of them were chatting and didn't care at all how many pairs of vicious eyes were behind them.
"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 Yuwenshu, was always uneasy. After crossing Qihe, he finally
He was no longer worried, because a bigger trouble came to him. A group of scoundrels followed 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
The refugees are obviously very familiar with the terrain here. Whenever Xuzi thinks that he has left them far away, the refugees will always come out from the side roads or from behind some mountain nooks and whistles.
, inform partners of the specific location of the "fat sheep".
Li Xu was very helpless towards this group of refugees. If he pulled out his knife, none of these dozen ragged men would leave alive. But he was unwilling to add a few more innocent lives to his knife. Those
People have no choice. On the way to Qi County to take office, Xu Zi has seen too many tragedies.
The land in the counties of Henan is far more fertile than that of the counties in Hebei. The rushing Yellow River moistens every handful of soil here to produce oil. With sufficient nutrients and warm weather, even in November, the fields are full of moisture.
There is no lack of oily green. Are those neat green things wheat? Xuzi can't confirm. His hometown can only grow one season of crops every year. After harvesting the first season of food, even if he seizes the time to sow the seeds, it will grow.
The seedlings also cannot survive.
According to Xuzi's guess, 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. Yuwen Shu's army did not damage these places when they returned to Luoyang for a long distance. Yang Xuangan's rebels,
It did not affect 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 the sky above the counties in Henan
So much smoke.
The counties in Henan are indeed rich, especially the cities. If you pull out any nameless county, it will be ten times richer than Yixian County, the seat of Shanggu County, Xuzi's hometown. 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 office in Shanggu County can at best be regarded as a run-down house. But two miles away from the city, another world is in front of you.
One after another thatched shacks are lined up so densely that you can never see the end. They are only three feet, or at most five feet high, with 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, and 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.
There are always two lively markets in the shack areas nearest and farthest from the city wall. 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 living people.
Three hundred coins for a boy, one hundred coins for a girl, half a coin for a mature man, one and a half coins for a young woman, and two coins for an older girl. If you are a big buyer, the trafficker will give you a discount. Occasionally, a person in luxurious clothes will pass by on the official road and say, "Shopkeeper
The men immediately waved the whips in their hands and displayed dozens of living people as if they were 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 earthen puppets and wooden stalks.
They didn't know how to resist, and they had lost the intention to resist. They 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?" Xuzi once complained to an old postman when he was drinking horses at the post station. The old guard looked at him in surprise and shouted as if he had encountered a monster. "Sir,
If you are kind-hearted, just spend a small amount of money to buy a dozen of them. This is their life! If someone buys it, they can live as slaves. If they can't find a buyer until they are out of business, the traffickers will lose money.
Drive them out and they will starve to death!"
After listening to the old postman's words, 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 burned, killed and looted everywhere, the imperial court wouldn't have had to maintain so many soldiers. If the imperial court didn't
Without raising so many soldiers, taxes would not be so heavy. Without heavy taxes, the refugees could live and work in peace and contentment! Asahi used the simplest reasoning to anesthetize himself. As for whether this reasoning made sense, he did not dare
Looking deeper, he was afraid that he would have nightmares at night.
As a military general who has experienced the battle to suppress bandits, Xuzi never believes that the rebels are "doing justice for heaven." The facts outside Liyang City tell him that those who cause the most serious damage to the people are precisely those who use various methods to suppress the bandits.
Rebels in the name of justice. No matter how bad the military discipline of the official army 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 who were interested in war horses. Asahi glared at the place where the whistle reminded him of in disgust, then shook the reins and sped up two times.
The speed of a war horse. He regretted that he believed in past experience too much and declined the personal soldiers recommended by his colleagues before taking office. If there were three or five personal soldiers here at this time, even if they came with various purposes, at least they could
The daring refugees were intimidated by their numbers, so that they did not dare to challenge them easily.
"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. Immediately afterwards, a stick bounced up from the official road ahead.
Dirty ropes, "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. Heifeng and another war horse carrying luggage "Xi Liu Liu"
He let out two long hisses and ran past the blocker in a demonstration, leaving a sound 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 are playing with you!" Xu Xu
Zi replied in northern Mandarin, speeded up, and rushed up the mountain ridge in front along the official road.
This is a hilly area, and each mound is not high, but they are one after another. Running on this kind of terrain is very energy-consuming, and it is also very easy to be in danger. After about half a stick of incense, Asahi slowed down.
He thought that after seeing his sword skills, the refugees would not dare to catch up again.
Before he and Heifeng could take a breath, the whistle sounded again from the front left. This time it was more shrill, more rapid, and accompanied by the faint sound of horse hooves. Xuzi realized that something was wrong with the situation. The refugees should not be like this.
Bold and 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 much 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, waving kitchen knives and bamboo spears, and the mounts under their crotches were pulling carts.
The donkey used in the sedan chair.
"Stop, stop, who are you? Come from there. Don't go forward. The leader of the team has a gray-white corner flag behind him and rushes towards
Xuzi yelled loudly. He didn't have any armor on his body, and the weapon in his hand was a wooden pole with scars still on it. Only a knife was tied to the tip. Because the equipment all over his body was very light, the men and horses were extremely fast when charging at short distances.
Quick, as he spoke, he had already rushed directly in front of Hei Feng.
"Poof!" Li Xu cut the man and the weapon in his hand into two pieces with just one blow. When he met the rebels, Xu Zi did not dare to show mercy. The documents and seals were placed on another mount.
Once his luggage fell into the hands of the rebels, they would definitely not easily spare him, the Wu Yalang general who was about to assist Zhang Xutuo in wiping out the various rebels.
The next moment, he heard the whizzing sound of the wind. It was the sound of arrows breaking through 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 fell from his
The two sides of the body flew far away, and soon lost their strength, 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 the experience gained with blood on the battlefield. His horn bow was hung behind the saddle, but he did not dare to take the bow to fight back. There were more and more rebels in front,
Shouting and rushing up the official road. 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 flash.
The blade glows with cold light.
"Kill him, kill him!" the gangsters shouted aggressively. Their voices became louder and louder, and their courage grew bigger and bigger. "Whoever stops him will get a horse!" I don't know which leader made the call.
After receiving the order and receiving a heavy reward, some brave men jumped onto the official road and stabbed Xu Zi's thigh with the bamboo pole in his hand. The black wind rushed past him, and Xu Zi's arm twitched down hard.
Immediately afterwards, dazzling blood waves jumped high 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 bandits shouted like crazy and swarmed forward without any formation.
Soon, the clothes on Xuzi's body were soaked with blood. Not a drop of it was his own, all of it belonged to others. These gangsters were even worse trained than the anti-thieves under Yuan Wuben, and they almost went to the edge of the knife.
Send. Xuzi couldn't remember how many people he had chopped down, but he saw Heifeng kicking at least three away with his front hooves. Another horse, Juhuaqing, whose reins were tied to Heifeng's saddle, was not to be outdone and even kicked
With a bite, thieves won't have a chance to get close to it.
"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 chasing the most aggressively with his knife, and then quickly raised his head. The road in front of him led to another bandit.
On the mound, there is a pavilion for travelers to rest. The walls of the pavilion are three feet high, and several people on horseback are standing inside and watching.
Those people were wearing the iron armor of Sui generals! Xuzi's spirit suddenly revived, and he discovered his companions. Almost at the same time, the people in the pavilion also discovered him, and the two riders stayed in the pavilion, bows bent on warning.
, 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 shouted 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, bamboo spears, and wooden clubs flew up from the enemy troops. The rebels were furious, and no one cared about the two war horses under Xu Zi's crotch and beside him.
"They are very afraid of those who rush down!" Li Xu realized the reason why the enemy soldiers killed them so hard. He asked himself if 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.
Critical, 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 down softly. Li
Xu cut off the reins with a knife, avoiding the tragedy of Heifeng being torn down by Yu Huaqing. 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 Huaqing.
.
Several people who tried to seize the luggage jumped away with their shoulders covered, 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 filled with anger and anger.
Puzzled. After counting their breaths, several people's faces turned pale and they fell to the ground one after another.
"Sorry!" Xuzi muttered in his heart. At this moment, he really felt some pity for the enemy. But soon, the pity in his heart turned into fear, and more people pounced on Juhuaqing who fell to the ground, such as
The hungry wolves saw their prey. "There is a lot of property on the horseback, otherwise the guy with the black knife would not give up and escape." The thieves thought this way and scrambled to get there.
"There's no money in it! Get out of the way!" Xuzi shouted angrily, swiping the knife as quickly as possible to cut the rope tied to the luggage. Then he leaned over, lifted the luggage roll up with one arm, and placed it on Heifeng's back. The other arm quickly
Swinging the scimitar, he chopped off more arms and heads.
Heifeng, who was carrying too much weight, could no longer move his body. He rushed left and right in the crowd and was injured in many places. Li Xu, who was trapped in the crowd, was also in a hurry. His eyes were blood red with anger, and his swords were all killing moves.
A wooden spear stabbed his arm. The owner of the wooden spear was too weak to hurt his bones. Asahi snatched the wooden spear with his hand and stabbed the wooden spear into the throat of the visitor with one arm.
Two sickles and three wooden sticks were handed to him at the same time. At the critical moment, Asahi's senses became extremely keen. He remembered all the moves taught by the coppersmith master back then. He knocked a sickle away and chopped down those who tried to hurt him.
The owner of Heifeng's other scythe. At the same time, he turned sideways to avoid the tip of the wooden stick. The blade slid down the wooden stick, and with the inertia of the horse's forward motion, he chopped off several fingers. There were still two wooden sticks that could not be connected.
After dealing with it, Xuzi tensed his muscles and tried to bear the two blows. The unexpected pain did not come, and two arrows flew out from the pavilion, shooting the owner of the wooden stick down in front of Xuzi's horse.
At this time, the reinforcements coming from the left and right also penetrated the interceptor's team. They were two Sui generals who were about the same height as Xu Zi, making them both Changshan. With the impact of the war horses and Changshan's good performance,
With their elasticity, they just waved their arms a few times and lifted the strong men who stepped forward to fly 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, he swung the body hard and threw the body towards the enemy.
.Then he stabbed the gangster closest to Li Xu, jumped on 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 retreated quickly, 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 knocked over four or five enemy soldiers in an instant. He made a diagonal half-circle and actually forced the surrounding enemy soldiers away for more than 20 seconds.
Then, the man quickly circled back 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.
"Shanggu Li Zhongjian!" Li Xu stretched out his hand and struck each other with his palms.
"Licheng Qin Shubao! I've seen General Li!" Another Sui general immediately stretched out his hand and struck Li Xu with both hands. The three war horses turned their heads and rushed towards the pavilion quickly.
"Are you the Li Zhongjian who traveled across Liaodong?"
"Are you the Luo Shixin who was specially ordered by the emperor to draw a picture and pass it on to the ministers?"
“I’ve heard about General Qin for a long time, but I didn’t expect to meet him here!”
"Qin has also heard the name of General Li for a long time!"
The three of them were chatting, not caring about how many pairs of vicious eyes were behind them. (To be continued)