across the Quartet

In the fall of the third year of Zhao Wangqian, Zhao's routine hunting ceremony was held as scheduled.

Li Mu's army can't all evacuate from Jingxing yet.Previously, the Qin army seemed to be retreating, but according to reports from the front scouts, Wang Jian stationed troops in the Jinyang area, ready to cross the Fenshui River at any time, go east to Shangdang, and smash the back of Handan.At present, the loss of Zhao Jun's students is serious, and it is urgent to care for the orphans and widows, and to train soldiers.But in order to protect Zhao Wang's hunting safety, Li Mu had to hastily mobilize his infantry and stationed outside Bairen City.

The field is undulating, and the autumn grass has turned yellow.A group of red-robed knights whistled and drove the herd of deer to an open field for the princes and nobles to shoot and hunt for fun.In Zhao Jun's camp not far from here, Zhao Jun was competing in riding, shooting, wrestling and martial arts.

dusty.A vigorous sorrel horse came galloping from the east, spraying its nose and stepping on the snow with its four hooves; in this fleeting time, the knight on the horse picked up his bow and set his arrows, each arrow was as fast as an arrow, and he hit three shots in a row. bullseye.

"Okay!" Gai Nie and Niu Er mixed among the soldiers watching, couldn't help cheering loudly.

"These are string-controlling men brought by General Li from Yanmen. I heard that all of them are sharpshooters." Someone beside him said, his face was full of pride. "When the Huns invaded the border..."

Gai Nie pricked up his ears and wanted to hear, but suddenly he was slapped on the back, and a low-pitched shout sounded next to his ear: "You boy told me to find it!"

Before he could fully turn around, he was dragged out of the crowd by his arms, until he reached a remote place, where he saw Sima Shang, who was sweating profusely, fanning the wind with one sleeve while panting, looking a little out of breath.

Gai Nie hurriedly saluted, "General—"

Sima Shang pulled him up: "The sword test meeting has already started, and you are still here to watch the excitement!"

Ge Nie lowered his eyes in embarrassment, and said: "This subordinate has learned swordsmanship since childhood, and has never seen such superb riding and shooting skills—"

"You'll see in the future. It's important." Sima Shang dragged him to the south again.Not long after, a high platform ten feet square appeared in front of my eyes; it was surrounded by people on three floors inside and three floors outside.There were two Zhao soldiers on the stage, one with a red scarf on his head and the other with a white scarf, each holding a long sword and fighting fiercely.

Sima Shangdao: "This competition, regardless of background, regardless of military rank, as long as it is the son of my Zhao Jun, everyone can challenge on the stage. And the winner in the end will not only be rewarded with gold and silk, but also be selected as the most important hundred for the general. Golden Warrior."

"A hundred-gold warrior?"

"That is the most powerful elite of our Zhao army. Only 300 people are selected from the [-] army. Once selected, a hundred gold will be given immediately to support their families, so that the soldiers will not have to worry about it. They are all good at riding and shooting, and good at fighting. , Everyone has extraordinary abilities; usually serve as the pro-army of General Mu, and when necessary, they can be used as the vanguard of the assault to join the battle, such as driving a tiger into a pack of wolves, one can be ten against one, and is not afraid of death."

Hearing these words, Gai Nie could not see any joy or anger on his face, but his eyes became brighter and brighter.Sima Shang suddenly said: "Do you still remember that I told you a few months ago that you have to do something else for me during the sword competition?"

"My subordinates remember."

"That's good. Although everyone in the Zhao army can participate in this competition, when it comes to swordsmanship, the swordsmen from the Red Leopard Battalion must be the best. You not only want to defeat them for me, but also test their moves. Let me Observing from the side, we can deduce their origins." Sima Shangyu said earnestly, "Do you still remember those Handan swordsmen who joined the army a few months ago? I suspect that there are hidden stakes planted by Guo Kai or Young Master Jia'an among them."

Gai Nie felt compassionate.Not long ago, Sima Shang gave him a detailed review of the current forces in Zhao Guochaotang.

After the meeting in Mianchi, Qin and Zhao confronted each other, and the son of Qin went to Handan with another person, while Chunpingjun, the prince of Zhao, went to Qin as an envoy; when King Xiaocheng became seriously ill, the prince was still detained in Xianyang.Zhao Guojun and ministers did not want to be held hostage by Qin State, so they made another son, Xie, as king, which was Xian Mourning King Xiang.Guo Kai, as the servant of Zhao Xie's house, has been reused since then.Guo Kai is a man who is usually the best at figuring out what he wants, and he does what he likes, and he is deeply loved by King Zhao.For example, King Mourning Xiang intends to include an advocating woman in Handan City, but was strongly opposed by Li Mu and other veterans; Her son Zhao Qian became the prince.Zhao Qian is mediocre and weak, with a good temperament, and he relies more on Guo Kai in political affairs.

After Zhao Qian succeeded to the throne, Guo Kai was in power for a while, and the king of Zhao and the queen mother were manipulated by him without knowing it;In addition, many ministers in the court were deeply dissatisfied with Guo Kai's unscrupulous behavior.These forces got entangled secretly and began to plot together to get rid of this person.Zhao Guomin is fierce and martial. Since the three families were divided into Jin Dynasty, there have been several "mutiny" deeds.The most tragic thing is the change of Dune Palace where Master Zhao's father was starved to death.This time Guo Kai took power, and the elders of the clan also wanted to deal with him with the help of the leading general with a large army in his hand.And Li Mu, a famous general with illustrious military exploits, naturally became the first target they wooed.

Prince Jia secretly sent envoys to the army several times, intending to make a secret agreement, and asked Li Mu to lead the army to attack Handan, kill Guo Kai, depose King Zhao, and establish a new king.Needless to say who this "new king" is.However, Li Mu is very disgusted to involve Zhao Jun in the dark and treacherous court strife. More importantly, Qin's army has been eyeing the border.

"Li Mu led the army, but for the protection of the country, not for chaos. What's more, Wang Jian is a famous general of the Qin Dynasty, and he will never lose his chance. If our army enters Handan, Jingxing will be empty, and it will be tantamount to handing over the danger of Taihang to others. Handan is safe. If you keep it, you are not far from subjugation."

It's a pity that no matter how reasonable Li Mu's words were, the emissary still left angrily.From then on, Zhao Guo's clan headed by Gong Zijia became suspicious of him.

The ministers have evil intentions, and Guo Kai is certainly not stupid; he has internal servants such as Han Cang as minions, and military generals such as Handan General Hu Zhe externally, and his power has become stronger and stronger.It's a pity that Hu Zhe's talent is mediocre, and he was beheaded by the Qin people during the first battle in Wucheng.Guo Kai also came up with Li Mu's idea. Not only did he repeatedly send people to Laojun to show his favor, but he also falsely praised Li Mu in front of Zhao Wangqian, saying that the general would use Wu to fix the country and prestige Anbang, and proposed the title "Wu'an Jun".As a result, the clan ministers became more and more suspicious, guessing that Li Mu and Guo Kai had colluded and wanted to control Zhao Guo together.

In fact, no matter whether Li Mu treats Gong Zijia or Guo Kai's people, his attitude is the same clear and cold.His only enemy is Wang Jian in the west.Those villains who are good at scheming are not worthy of being his opponents.However, as Li Mu's lieutenant general, Sima still had to worry about his situation.

"I'm afraid that if they fail to win them over, they will use all means to attack the general." He once said to Gai Nie worriedly, "Except for the trilogy brought by General Mu from Yanmen, the generals in the army, Zhao Cong Prince of the royal family, Captain Yan Ju was recommended by Guo Kai; if something happens to the general, let one of these two lead the army, and their goal of controlling the Zhao army will be achieved."

"Could it be that Zhao Guo sent assassins to murder the general?" Gai Nie felt a chill down his spine.

"It's not so easy for them to assassinate." Sima Shang sneered, "Not to mention that the general himself is also called a master in the world, and our men of gold are on duty day and night at the general's side, and they will never give people lightly. Take advantage of this opportunity."

Ge Nie was slightly relieved, but Sima Shang said again, "However, what I'm afraid of is that they will lurk in the army, infiltrate the core step by step, and deliver a fatal blow when everyone loses their defenses. So the recruiting process in the past two years At that time, I paid special attention. Most of Guo Kai or Gongzi Jia’s servants would not pretend to be refugees to join the army: first, these people used to be pampered and refused to surrender their status; second, if they were mixed into the infantry battalion, It's easy to lose your life while charging into battle, so there's no need to spy on the news. As a middleman, the most important thing is to save your life and get close to the target. So I speculate that most of them will defect to the general as famous swordsmen from all over the world, hoping to get promoted quickly .”

The reason why Sima Shang organized the Red Leopard Battalion separately was that on the surface he respected these extraordinary swordsmen, but in fact he secretly guarded against them and prevented them from intervening in military affairs.

This time Sima Shang asked Gai Nie to compete with swords on the stage, and Gai Nie gradually realized some deep meaning. "General, could it be said that the real purpose of this competition is to catch the spies who infiltrated the Red Leopard Camp with the bait of 'becoming a personal soldier of General Li Mu'?"

Sima Shang sneered and said: "Exactly. The swordsmen of the Red Leopard Battalion didn't have many opportunities to get close to the general before; if there were really bad intentions among them, they would never miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. They will do whatever they can to win, And their eagerness to win often reveals their true colors."

Ge Nie didn't have time to answer, and suddenly he heard a loud applause erupting beside him.Looking up, he found that a pair of swordsmen had changed on the stage.The strong man wearing the white scarf was tall and strong, his thick short jacket was bulging out of his knotted muscles, and he swung his heavy sword vigorously.This person's swordsmanship is unattractive but practical, simple and crisp, with a strong sense of killing, it can be seen that it has been tried and tested on the battlefield; especially the top-to-bottom slash, it seems to be powerful, it can be Smashed the opponent's bones.But the man wearing the red scarf was a pale and thin man, almost unable to parry such a heavy move, he had to stagger and take a step back every time he blocked a blow.

Sima Shangzheng was watching intently, when he heard Ge Nie beside him sigh softly: "...I'm going to lose."

"That's not true." Niu Er who didn't know when he squeezed into their side said casually, "The strength is too weak, the red one is not an opponent at all."

"...I meant that Baijin is about to lose."

These words were quickly lost in the exclamation.Just now, the skinny swordsman who was backing back and forth almost to the edge of the martial arts platform changed his footwork, swayed the epee he had cut head-on, and cut into the opponent's arms like a baby swallow throwing a nest.The man with the epee was startled suddenly, and it was too late to retreat, but the man wearing the red scarf stabbed behind the ear with a backhand sword!

This sword was fast and tricky, fierce and fierce, beyond everyone's expectations.The strong man roared in pain, covered his left ear, blood dripped all over the ground.

The crowd of onlookers suddenly boiled up. Perhaps the smell of rust stimulated the bloodthirsty nature of the soldiers. Some people cheered wildly, some shouted curses; Niu Er excitedly grabbed Ge Nie's sleeve, and asked He said: "Brother Ge is amazing! How did you know that person would win?! Could it be that you expected him to do this move? Could it be that you know that person?"

Gai Nie was dizzy from the string of questions, so he just shook his head.

Sima Shangning said: "I seem to have seen this move before, but I always feel that there is something wrong - it seems that this person's strength should be reserved."

Ge Nie said: "I can try him."

Sima Shang immediately turned around, held his shoulder and said solemnly: "Are you sure?"

"Seven points."

"...If there is danger, admit defeat early, or jump off the stage."

In fact, what Gai Nie said was that he was only [-]% sure of finding out the master's background of that person just now, but seeing Sima Shang's protective expression on his face, he could only slightly lower his jaw and silently jumped onto the martial arts stage.

The military medical officer has already carried away the previous wounded.Two small soldiers brought a large bucket of water and hurriedly washed the blood on the stage.As soon as Gai Niepu appeared, the east and west sides of the martial arts platform immediately beat the big drums, and the sound was as loud as thunder;

The man wearing the red scarf bowed his hands to him, and said loudly, "I'm going to Lu Goujian in the Red Leopard Camp, please give me your advice."

Gai Nie also said: "Gai in the Xiabi Ying...Ge Da. Please advise."

Unexpectedly, after the two said each other's first and last names, they were deadlocked.The swordsman wearing the red scarf took a step forward and made a gesture, but Gai Nie stood there straight, not even drawing his sword.

Lu Goujian originally saw that Gai Nie's appearance was still small, at most a weak crown, so he intended to give in; now that there were boos everywhere, he finally couldn't care less, stepped forward again and said: "Little brother, why don't you draw your sword?"

Gai Nie said: "As soon as I make a move, you will lose."

Lu Goujian choked on his throat and almost gasped.Even Sima Shang slapped his forehead fiercely from below - this kid usually talks very little, if he really doesn't sing, he will be mad at him when he sings.

On the stand, Lu Goujian's anger rose sharply, and he no longer showed mercy when he shot, he let out a soft scold, and a streak of blue frost shot out like a shooting star, pointing directly at Gai Nie's throat.Although this move is not very ingenious, it is rare and incomparably quick, and its momentum is astonishing. It seems that seven points of inner strength are wrapped in the sword wind, which is very murderous.

Gai Nie didn't move his upper body, he took a small step to the left, just avoiding the sword.

Lu Goujian sneered, and after turning his wrist around his forearm, the long sword drew an extremely sharp half-arc outward - this style changes very fast, if it hits, it is enough to cut a person's chest into two pieces!Gai Nie was as tough as a willow facing the wind, half of his body bent backward sharply, allowing the cold blade to pass by.It was too late to say it, but it was so fast, Lu Goujian seemed to have expected this escape, he took two quick steps and suddenly jumped up, kicking Gai Nie's ankle with his toe, intending to make him lose his balance.Gai Nie was always an instant ahead of him, and when there was no time left, his whole body deliberately fell over, and rolled away like a wheel after touching the ground.

Lu Goujian was so angry that he thrust his sword into the wooden platform, and shouted, "Do you want to compete?!"

Ge Nie got up and dusted off the dust, "Yes."

"Such a rogue, how can it be like fighting swords?"

"Sword fighting in the army is nothing more than showing off each other's abilities. The general did not stipulate that rolling on the ground was not allowed." Gai Nie said.There was a riot of laughter from the audience; Sima Shang covered his face with his sleeve; only Niu Er blushed and shouted: "Brother Ge, don't be afraid of him! Use your trick of slaughtering a cow!!"

Ge Nie continued unhurriedly: "There is no distinction between superior and inferior moves. As long as you can defeat your opponent, it is a good move. For example, in the previous battle, you kept feigning retreat to make your opponent follow your pace. Keep attacking, leaning forward with your whole weight and point of force, so that when you rush between his arms with 'Walking across the river', he will have no time to defend the side back empty goal."

Lu Goujian couldn't help being shocked when he heard that he not only revealed the mystery of the battle just now, but also revealed his own unique lightness kung fu.Since he became a famous figure in the world more than 20 years ago, his family's martial arts has been very rare. When he was young, he traveled to the seven countries and visited sword masters from all over the world. 'Shejiang' was learned by him under the tutelage of a master from the Southern Kingdom, because the method of raising Qi and Yungong is very different from the martial arts in the Central Plains. He is the only one in the same school who is talented and intelligent, and he has learned seven or eight points; and later passed on his martial arts. He thought that he was the only one left in the world who could use this mysterious movement technique; but now he was casually mentioned by an unknown soldier in the Zhao army, how could he not be surprised!

He wanted to ask a few questions about the origin of this young man, but his mind was confused and he didn't know where to ask; but Gai Nie finally showed his sword, said "I've offended you", and charged forward.His stance is to slash vertically downwards, it seems that everyone can do it, there is no intention of being clumsy, but it is very similar to the unique move of the big man who wielded the epee before.

Lu Goujian's mind was shaken, his footwork was already unstable, he could only barely draw his sword to block - but he didn't hear the sound of Jin Ge's crowing, but felt a breeze sweeping his cheeks; A bit of chill.

He knew that it was Ge Nie's sword.The sword energy has been withdrawn, just pointing there quietly.

The crowd in the audience seemed to be dumb.No one can see how they decide the winner.All I know is that the boy who went up to challenge later did what he said.

As soon as it was shot, the dust settled.

Gai Nie waited for a while and no one came up to challenge him, so he simply jumped off the stage.Unexpectedly, Sima Shang slapped him on the back of the head, and shouted in a low voice: "Are you a temptation? Are you a temptation?! You are simply going up to show off!!"

Gai Nie rubbed his head and said aggrievedly: "I asked him to do three tricks, to see what kind of kung fu he would perform in a hurry, but who knows, it's almost the same as before."

"Then you see the origin of his swordsmanship?"

"...I didn't see all of it, but the words of 'Xingjiang Xing' should be the martial arts of the land of Chuyue..." Gai Nie said vaguely.

A slight smile appeared on Sima Shang's lips, and he said: "I know it. This is the unique skill of Gongzi Lan, a member of the Zhao family of the Chu royal family. This person was also known as a first-class master back then, but it is a pity that he is a low-quality man who worked for a tiger. He had some secret contacts with the Qin assassin group 'Luowang'. However, his death was also very mysterious, it is said that he was hit in the eye by a golden bullet. I really don't know what kind of assassin has such a noble spirit."

Gai Nie turned his head to the side, with a struggling "I don't know the murderer" expression.