Traveling through the Gaowu Tang Dynasty, Li Kuan and Li Shimin became the second sons of the Prince

On the way to Shuofang, Li Kuan visited the magnificent mountains and rivers along the way. At first he felt extremely happy, but after he got through the initial freshness, he began to feel bored again. However, during this period, something happened that made him feel bored. To some extent, Li Kuan felt the heritage of a thousand-year-old family left to him by his grandmother.

——From Chang'an to Shuofang, a journey of nearly a month, knights in heavy armor would appear from a certain intersection every day and join their team.

These knights range from three to five to dozens of knights. They are all mounted on tall horses and dressed in heavy black armor.

When Li Kuan was about to arrive at Shuofang, there were nearly a thousand cavalry in his team. Of course, the appearance of this team naturally spread to the ears of the border generals.

As for the existence of this King of Chu, His Majesty Li Er's eight-hundred-mile expedited plan has already stated: "If this traitor dares to leave the confinement, I will detain him, break his legs first, and then send him back to Chang'an!"

Of course, no one was really stupid enough to carry out such an order. After all, although everyone was far away at the border, it was not that they had not received the news: after the King of Chu successfully "escaped", His Majesty announced that he would stop working for a day. It is said that on that day, except for After spending the rest of the time in the Manna Palace with the Queen, he went to the East Palace and looked at the rockery where his horse was once stuck, without saying a word for a long time.

——Everyone can see that even if His Majesty Li Er has a strong heart, he will inevitably be deeply touched by his son who is determined to avenge his shame with his own hands.

Therefore, on the one hand, His Majesty Li Er said harsh words to the generals at the border, but on the other hand: the local officials along the way did not receive the intention to stop the march of the King of Chu at all. Of course, this may also be due to the "barbarian" nature of Chu. Wang's "unreasonable" temperament is almost universally known - even if it is Li Er's will, this Zhu Zi may not buy it.

And the Chuman King, whom we will definitely not buy, has already reached a mountain col in the northwest.

"I said Uncle Dou, how long will it take for us to arrive at Shuofang?" Li Kuan was talking to Dou Shilun while patting the neck of the white horse under him as a caress.

"Your Highness, we will be there in three days." Dou Shilun looked serious at this time, because after all, the border conflict has started now. This place is close to the border and has already been within the scope of activities of the Turks.

Suddenly, a homing pigeon flew from a distance and landed on Jiang Qu's shoulder.

Jiang Qu carefully took off the letter from the carrier pigeon's anklet, glanced at it, and then said to Dou Shilun: "Mr. Dou, one day, Asheng will lead his team to arrive."

"Who is Ah Sheng?" Li Kuan sensed something was wrong when he heard Jiang Qu's gentle tone.

"Jiang Gong's son is quite good in martial arts. He is also loyal to you." After hearing the news, Dou Shilun finally relaxed his brows. He first explained to Li Kuan, and then looked at Looking into the distance, he finally pointed to a higher slope a few miles away and ordered his subordinates: "We will set up camp there tonight and wait for Jiang Sheng to join us!"

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The next day, before dawn, in a quiet small village on the other side of the mountain, in a house near the village entrance, someone was already preparing to start working on their daily life.

"Auntie, I've cooked the porridge, please remember to eat it later." Agou, a young man wearing a yellow sheepskin fur, stood bare-armed in front of the only draft-tight thatched hut in the house, and warned his mother. , then, he turned around and came to the courtyard. He first fed the chickens and ducks, and then took the hemp rope from the stone mill. When he was about to turn back to get the hatchet hanging in his room, he heard a squeak. There was a sound, and an old woman in her fifties groped out of the room with her eyes narrowed.

"Auntie! The doctor said you have night blindness. It's still dark and you can't see anything. Why are you getting up?!" The young man complained about his mother, but he kept coming to his mother's side. Agou He held the old lady's arm and walked together to the hay shed in the courtyard.

"Mom, I don't trust you..." Knowing that her son feels sorry for her, this old lady who has been called "Little Flower" to "Aunt Flower" from birth to now, and doesn't even have a formal name, just stretched out her hand nervously when she heard this. She patted her son's arm that was supporting her: "Mom, I heard people say that there are wolves on the mountain these days..."

"Mom, don't worry. My son knows that I won't go deep into the forest." Agou helped his mother to sit down at the wooden table under the thatched shed. Then he filled a bowl of porridge and put it in his mother's hands: "Mom, please drink slowly. I'll try to go early and come back early. I'm not going to bring my brother-in-law back home today. Just wait and see. I've already been counting the days. I guess I'll go to the market to sell them tomorrow. The two loads of firewood I cut today can be used to pull half a bolt of linen and make clothes for my sister and my soon-to-be-born nephew. In this way, our family has done its best."

"Dog, I'm sorry for you..." Aunt Hua sniffed when she heard the words. Some words she kept in her heart only made her feel uncomfortable, but saying them out made everyone feel uncomfortable together.

"Hey, what's the point?" Agou heard the guilt in his mother's words, and immediately smiled and comforted: "They say marrying a man to a man, wearing clothes and eating, Xiaocao followed me, I won't let it go She's hungry, but there's nothing wrong with her marrying someone else, right? We can't grow up together, so she has to marry me, right? There's no such truth in the world. "

"But..." Aunt Hua's heart felt uncomfortable every time she thought of Xiaocao's father's philistine face when he came to their home to cancel their engagement: "When your father was alive, he helped their family a lot..."

"That is also a thing of the past." Agou just sighed softly when he heard this: "Mom, don't think about it, Xiaocao is married now, and talking about this is just adding trouble. Okay, mom, I have to leave, otherwise if I’m late, it will be bad if I don’t get back before dark.”

"Then go quickly and remember to be careful on the road." Aunt Hua urged her son once she heard that what he said was reasonable.

"Well, mother, please drink the porridge quickly and don't pour it back into the pot. Don't forget that the last time you had a good pot of stew, it was ruined by you." Although the mother couldn't pick it up at this time, she took it. After returning to the hatchet, Agou, who came to the door of the courtyard, still winked at her slyly.

"Okay, okay, grandma has some porridge, grandma has some porridge! Remember to go and come back quickly!" Aunt Hua turned her face towards the door of the small courtyard and waved her hand to her son.

"Auntie, wait for me to come back."

"Oh, grandma is waiting for you..."

Agou had walked countless times on the way into the mountains, but today it seemed that everything was going wrong. First, a black hare ran out on the road, which startled him. When he picked up the stone and was about to throw it, the other party saw him. There was no trace of it long ago.

Later, when he walked to a shallow beach, he saw another beach sheep that had been dead for a long time.

Agou felt unhappy for no reason as he looked at the white bones. Then he looked around and found a suitable forest. Then he took out his hatchet and started chopping wood.

Time passed quietly, and the river flowed into the distance. The young man's hatchet slashed at the scarred and thick tree of life. Those scattered branches were only obtained by holding back tears and waving sweat in exchange for meager rewards.

When the sun rose above his head, the young man had already laid the firewood. He carefully laid the hemp rope on the ground, carefully stacked the firewood in piles, and then packed it. Then, the young man straightened the firewood, and then laboriously He squatted down and carried firewood on his shoulders, which was like a small mountain compared to his body size.

The young man wearing straw sandals was walking hard like a loaded snail among the picturesque mountains and forests.

Can……

When Agou climbed over the familiar hilltop and looked at his home in the sunset, his expression suddenly changed: "A-niang! A-sister!"

Different from the past, the small mountain village at this time is no longer a warm scene of smoke curling up in the dusk. The sky-high firelight accompanied by the large black smoke is like a demon baring its teeth and claws, illuminating the young man's face pale.

Almost without thinking, Agou dropped the firewood he had carried all the way, rushed down the hillside, and started running towards his home.

But everything was still too late.

When Agou entered the village and saw the scattered corpses of the fleeing villagers, his mood almost collapsed. Tears had already wet his dark face: "Mom..."

Huge sadness ran through the young man's heart. At this time, Agou no longer had the ability to think. After all, the wisest move at the moment would be to stay away from this place, but he seemed to still have a glimmer of hope even in despair.

He hoped that his brother-in-law, who looked down upon him, would never bring his sister back home today.

But when he came to the familiar small courtyard, he saw the middle-aged man who was still full of fear before he died, throwing himself on the stone mill in the courtyard and looking at the door, and the man who fell at the courtyard door, disheveled but still protecting him. Auntie Hua, who was dying under the hay shed with her bulging belly, almost dead, and Auntie Hua, who couldn't bear to eat the bowl of porridge and threw it in front of her, Agou's heart was completely torn at this moment!

"Ah! Ah!!!" The young man roared meaninglessly, like a trapped animal that had lost everything. He clenched the hatchet in his hand, turned around and rushed out!

Agou didn't know what he should do, but he felt he had to do something.

but……

"Whoosh-"

An arrow flew from a distance and accurately inserted into Agou's neck.

"呲-"

Agou, who was lying on the ground, ignored the coldness coming from his body. While struggling on the ground to raise his head, he unconsciously had a strange thought in his heart: It turns out that the sound of blood splashing out is like this... …

Until his vision became blurry again, then into darkness, until his consciousness was about to disappear, Agou couldn't see clearly who his enemy was.

In the end, perhaps because of God's mercy, despite being nearly ten feet apart, Agou actually heard a conversation before he died.

"Bagatu, what is that?"

"Oh, it's just an angry sheep, don't worry about it."

Agou finally opened his eyes with difficulty. He was lying on the ground, next to the hatchet he relied on for a living. The bright moonlight shone on his body, making the yellowed sheepskin fur look much whiter. , finally, the sound of horse hooves sounded in the distance, and then gradually disappeared into the night, and the young man quietly died without knowing when...