Among the crowd, a young man silently walked up to the carriage, looked at the package with dull eyes, and involuntarily stretched out his hand slowly, trying to grab the package that was so close at hand.
Li Tong couldn't help it any longer, he roared, jumped down from the carriage, and slashed the young man to the ground with his sword.
He looked around at everyone present with his sword and shouted sternly: "Whoever dares to take a step forward again will be killed without mercy!"
Li Tong was originally a young man from a wealthy family, cheerful and optimistic, but now even a young man like him couldn't help but kill people with a sword, which shows how angry he was inside.
Two other volunteers also stood beside Li Tong with swords in their hands, glaring at the people around him, gritting their teeth and roaring: "In order to save you, we lost three brothers. Is this how you repay us?"
"
Liu Xiu was injured, Zhang Ping, Li Tong and a rebel brother were also injured, and three more rebel brothers died in the battle.
After the battle, there were nine of them, seven of them were injured or killed. What is sad and deplorable is that they fought tooth and nail to resist the barbarians and protected the common people, but now they want to arrest them and send them to the officials, just for that one bite of food.
Listening to the shouts of the two volunteer brothers, and looking at their bloodshot red eyes, and the bloody swords in their hands, people felt ashamed and afraid, and the crowd that had originally gathered began to slowly retreat.
Li Tong felt like a huge boulder was pressing on his chest, suffocating him so much that he couldn't breathe, as if he was going to explode. He roared to the sky, raised his sword, and slashed hard on the ground.
"Dimension." Liu Xiu, who was sitting on the carriage, called him softly.
Hearing Liu Xiu's call, Li Tong, who was filled with grief and anger, gradually calmed down. He walked back to the carriage with his sword in hand and said, "Uncle Wen."
"As long as there is still a glimmer of hope, as long as there is still a way to survive, they will not do this. People are forced out."
Liu Xiu could understand what the common people were doing. If a person is hungry, all ethics and morals will be forgotten. If a person is extremely hungry, he can do no matter how bad things are.
There are too many lessons like this.
At this time, Liu Xiu had already felt very strongly. If the ruler of a country could not keep his people fed, it would be really sad. Such a country would never be too far away from falling apart.
Seeing that the people were all scared away, Liu Xiu coughed and whispered to Long Yuan: "Uncle Zhong, hurry up and chase. Don't come into contact with the barbarians. Just find out where they fled and where they are hiding."
We'll get along well, we'll meet up in Xunyang."
Long Yuan looked at Liu Xiu worriedly and said, "Uncle Wen, then you..."
"I'm fine, go quickly!" Liu Xiu felt that the barbarians he encountered this time were extraordinary. They should be the elite of the barbarians. So it would be unusual for these elite barbarians to flee to Hanzhong. He had to figure out what else the other party had to offer.
How many people are there and what is the purpose.
Long Yuan was still hesitant and worried about leaving Liu Xiu alone. Zhang Ping said: "Uncle Zhong, as long as I am here, I will protect Axiu."
Li Tong then said: "And me!"
Long Yuan looked around at everyone, nodded, no longer hesitated, and went straight to chase the barbarians in the direction they were fleeing.
Liu Xiu looked at Zhang Ping and said: "It is not suitable to stay in the place of right and wrong for a long time. I inform everyone to leave immediately. Also, bury the sacrificed brothers on the spot!"
As he spoke, he propped himself up and wanted to get off the carriage. Zhang Ping, Li Tong and others hurriedly held him down. Zhang Ping said: "Axiu, we don't want the luggage, you just stay in the car."
Now that the carriage is broken, it is impossible to pile up so much luggage inside. Only the dry food is left, and nothing else is needed.
Zhang Ping, Li Tong and others dug a pit on the roadside, put the three volunteer brothers who died in the battle into the pit, filled it with soil and buried it. There were many corpses of civilians who had been killed by the barbarians on the road, but they could no longer control it.
So many.
When they were about to set off, Li Yi, who had escaped earlier, ran back. Everyone just glanced at him, and then continued their busy work, and no one spoke to him.
Li Yi himself knew very well that what he had just done was too unreasonable. He walked up to the crowd and stammered in explanation: "Just now... I was really frightened by the sudden appearance of the barbarian...
"
No one answered or paid any attention to him. Everyone was just busy and ignored him completely.
Being in the military is different from being in other places. There is a need for 100% trust between brothers. When fighting against the enemy or fighting, one should always give his or her back to the brothers. This is equivalent to giving one's own back.
His life was put in the hands of the other party, but obviously, Li Yi was not a trustworthy person.
Seeing that everyone ignored him, at this moment, he also strongly felt that he was excluded by people. He shouted excitedly: "I am not a coward!"
People still seemed not to hear what he said, including Li Tong. On the contrary, Liu Xiu waved to Li Yi and said softly: "Ji Wen, come back to the team."
Li Yi looked at Liu Xiu who was sitting on the carriage, and Ye Qingqiu who was kneeling beside him to take care of him. On the surface, he saluted Liu Xiu, but in his heart he didn't take it seriously. If he had known that only a few dozen barbarian soldiers came, he would not have
No more running.
Ye Qingqiu and Man'er originally had a good impression of Li Yi and felt that this person was quite warm-hearted. However, they were also disappointed with his behavior of escaping from the battle just now.
Looking at the pale Liu Xiu sitting aside, Ye Qingqiu wanted to talk, but didn't know what to talk about. She picked up the water bag, carefully handed it to Liu Xiu, and said: "Mr. Liu, you... have a drink of water.
!”
Liu Xiu opened his eyes, looked at the water bag handed to him, smiled gratefully at Ye Qingqiu, and shook his head to show that he was not thirsty. He said: "Miss Ye, don't call me Mr. Liu, call me Axiu."
Or Uncle Wen would be fine."
Ye Qingqiu looked happy, nodded in agreement, and then said: "Ah Xiu, don't call me Miss Ye anymore, just call me Qingqiu." Seeing Liu Xiu nodded, she asked: "Ah
Where is Xiu from?"
"Nanyang County, Caiyang Chongling native."
"Why did Axiu come to join the rebel army?"
"Just a casual meal." Liu Xiu said calmly.
"Actually..." Ye Qingqiu was about to speak when suddenly, a brother from the rebel army shouted on the roadside: "There is still a barbarian who is not dead here!"
After hearing this, Liu Xiu immediately turned around and saw two rebels dragging a bloody barbarian from the roadside to the carriage. Wang Ping stepped forward and looked down at the barbarian. Sure enough,
There is still one breath left.
He asked in barbarian language: "How many of you are there?"
This barbarian soldier was seriously injured. He was dying and unconscious. He murmured: "Water...water..."
Wang Ping leaned close to his ear and said: "Answer my question, and I will give you water. How many people are there among you?"
"Flying Tigers... Centuries..."
Hearing this, Wang Ping frowned. Others may not know what the Feihutu is, but Wang Ping, who was born in Yizhou County, knows very well that it is the elite vanguard army among the barbarians. The number is not large, but each one
They are all carefully selected brave and capable warriors.
"Are you Feihutu?"
"yes……"
"Who is your leader?"
"Wuli Creek."
Wang Ping is no stranger to the name Wulixi. He is a fierce general from the Southern Barbarian Ugo Kingdom. It is said that he is extremely powerful and is good at using a giant hammer to defeat enemies. He is very famous in the Southern Barbarian area.
Nanman is just a general term. There are many kingdoms in this huge area, and Ugo Kingdom is one of them.
"Where is he now?"
"Dead...dead..."
Wang Ping suddenly thought about it and asked someone to fetch the head of the burly barbarian and asked, "Is he Wuli Xi?"
The barbarian soldier glanced distractedly and said, "Yes..."
When Wang Ping heard this, the corner of his mouth curled up. Unexpectedly, Axiu accidentally killed Wulixi, the famous general of Ugo Kingdom. He asked: "Aren't you supposed to be in the southwest area? Why did you come to Hanzhong?"
"Break...break..." The barbarian soldier only said two words intermittently, then he couldn't breathe and died.
Wang Ping patted the barbarian soldier's cheek, touched his carotid artery, shook his head to Li Tong and others, and said, "He is dead."
As he spoke, he looked at the head of the burly barbarian, took out a piece of cloth from the package, and wrapped it. Then he stood up, walked up to Liu Xiu, and said, "Axiu, this time you
But you have done a great job, the barbarian you just killed was Wulixi, the fierce general of the Ugo Kingdom!"
Hearing this, Ye Qingqiu showed a look of surprise, but Liu Xiu acted very calmly. He had never thought about working for Wang Mang's new dynasty. He joined the rebel army this time just to help his elder brother. Whether he made meritorious service or not, it didn't matter to him.
It doesn't matter at all.
He asked curiously: "Since he is a famous general, why did he come to Hanzhong?"
Hanzhong is not the main battlefield for the battle between the Capital Army and the Nanman Army. It is too strange for a fierce general from the Nanman Army to suddenly appear in Hanzhong.
Wang Ping shook his head and said: "I don't know why Wuli River appeared in Hanzhong. The barbarian soldier only said one word."
"What?"
"Break."
"Broken..." Liu Xiu looked confused. What to break? After pondering for a while, Liu Xiu couldn't figure it out, so he simply stopped thinking about it and said to Wang Ping: "Let's get on the road."
For the rest of the trip, Liu Xiu and his party obviously sped up a lot. The women who had complained about being tired after walking a few steps now all sped up in unison.
The battle at noon scared them a lot and made them understand that the road to the county town was not safe, and barbarian troops might appear here at any time.
Liu Xiu and others originally thought that they would not be able to reach Xunyang before dark and might have to sleep in the wilderness. Unexpectedly, in the evening, they actually arrived at Xunyang.
In Hanzhong, Xunyang is a large city located at the intersection of Xunshui River and Hanjiang River. When you get to Xunyang, it is not far from the county seat, only half a day's journey.
The magistrate of Xunyang County met with Liu Xiu and others. After asking the magistrate, Liu Xiu and others learned that the Xiangyang rebels headed by Liu Yan were still in the county and had no intention of going south.
It wasn't that Liu Yan didn't want to leave, but that Wang Xun, the prefect of the county, refused to let them go.
