laughing soul

At the junction of Huadu and Tiancheng, there is a large green bamboo forest, which is lush and luxuriant.But when dealing with such a bamboo forest, Huadu and Tiancheng reached a tacit agreement: discard it like a shoe, and kill it.

In fact, it is strange to say that it was not like this at all a few decades ago.When Qiu Sheng's grandfather was in office, the green bamboo grove at the junction of the two prefectures had always been something that everyone had tried to obtain by all means. At that time, the county magistrates in Huadu and Tiancheng thought that the bamboo would definitely sell for a lot of money, maybe With this power, he can solve the problem of food and clothing for the people in the villages and towns. Even better, he can not only enjoy the blessings in front of an official, but also have the merits that will last forever.

Later, a master of grass and trees was worried about his leisure, so he came here for a few laps, and finally came to an unmistakable conclusion: the bamboos in the green bamboo forest are all cheap bamboos, and they cannot be sold at a good price.It is used as firewood, and there is no straw to use.

Then came the current scene, the bamboo forest has changed from a hot treasure to a hot potato, and the forest is full of all kinds of bandits and robbers. Over time, almost no one dares to cross this road.

Is it because there is no one in the woods that it looks extraordinarily deep, or because the environment is so gloomy that no one visits? Jiang Chen has no time to figure out the cause and effect. He just thinks that his little emperor's taste is really outstanding. Such a broken bamboo forest located in the wilderness.

It's not easy to find a living thing in this shitty place, let alone a person.

He turned his head to look at Qiu Sheng, but saw the sincere smile on the little emperor's face that he hadn't seen for a long time.

In fact, Qiu Sheng's appearance is not too similar to that of her parents. It is probably an ability cultivated in her mother's womb, and she specially picks the best of both parties to grow into her own skin.His face has well-defined bones, sword eyebrows and starry eyes, with some manly resoluteness and courage, but the slightly long and upturned eye tails and warm and full lip line just neutralize this overly strong temperament, making him look extraordinarily good-looking. different.Such a person flickers in the crowd, whether it's a girl or a teenager, it's hard to resist the urge to trace his appearance carefully.

If such a good-looking person was born in an ordinary wealthy family, he would have a smooth life and die peacefully.

Jiang Chen suddenly couldn't bear to teach him harshly.

He had no intention of competing for the throne, he only wanted one side of the fiefdom to be stable for the first time, and spent the rest of his life singing the wind and playing with the moon. However, the other princes often made troubles and made people panic because of flattery in front of the late emperor.It's ridiculous to say that the person who longs for it is either dead or stupid. He just wants to be a bystander watching the fire from the other side, but he is inexplicably pushed into the role of the protagonist.

"Your Majesty." Good luck tricks people, but now, with several malicious sharp knives hanging above their heads, it is really not the time to lament the impermanence of fate.

The relaxed smile on Qiu Sheng's face obviously faded away: "Master Jiang, tell me, I'm listening."

Jiang Chen lowered his voice: "Your Majesty, there are many eyes and ears in the court, and I have not been able to tell you the truth. Li Rong's offensive in the north was far more fierce than expected. Although General Gao resisted this attack, he suffered heavy losses. The bad thing is that General Gao spent almost all of his army in this battle to draw a draw, while Beili only used a few small troops. From this point of view, the difference in strength between the two sides is really huge..."

Qiu Sheng frowned as she listened: "Give all the strength of the army? Is the Northwest Army so weak?"

"No, Your Majesty," Jiang Chen said, "The weapons used by the Northwest Army are ordinary swords and swords, which can only be lethal when attacking closely. Although bows and shells can be used for long-range attacks, bows and arrows consume a lot of resources. , It is inevitable that the supply is insufficient, the steps to use the shells are cumbersome, and the time on the battlefield is tight, and only when the battle begins, they have time to launch. On the other hand, Beili, they are already tall and big, and in addition to cold iron weapons, they also use long-range and light-weight weapons. , The fast and easy-to-use small shells are fired in such a dense manner that it is too late to react. Even before the two armies meet, the Northwest Army has lost more than half, and the advantage in numbers has disappeared.”

"Small cannonball? You still study this? I don't even know."

Jiang Chen observed his expression to ensure that Qiu Sheng's mood was stable at this moment: "Your Majesty, it was reported in the memorial sent by General Gao to bring Jin Ni back."

Qiu Sheng laughed dryly, he had never read the memorial.

"Then... small cannonballs, can't General Gao do it? Isn't it just to make the existing cannonballs smaller by two circles? What's the difficulty?"

Jiang Chen: "..."

He kind of knows how difficult it is to reason with a drunkard who doesn't care.

If Gao Li knew how to make small cannonballs, would he still be able to sit and be beaten?

"Your Majesty, with the current level of our army, if the shells are changed to a convenient size, the amount of explosives contained in them will inevitably be greatly reduced, and the expected explosion effect will not be achieved at all."

"Oh," Qiu Sheng nodded, "how far can it go?"

Jiang Chen thought for a long time before adapting the rigorous description in the memorial presented by Gao Li into a version that Qiu Sheng could understand: "It's almost like the kind of firecrackers you played when you were young, ten cents and a small bag .”

The scientific name of this kind of small firecrackers is small landmines, which are specially bought by adults to fool children during Chinese New Year.

Qiu Sheng held his chin, as if he was recalling the childhood fun that the little landmine brought him: "Oh, I'm afraid it's not good for that thing to kill people."

Not very good... Jiang Chen looked at him lovingly.

The little emperor has always been blindly optimistic since he was a child. It seems that even if one day the rebel came to kill and set fire with a big knife, he would just say "oh, the situation is not good" calmly.

"Did General Gao mention what kind of material the opponent used?"

Jiang Chen: "General Gao only knows about several types of guns that the Northwest Army has tried before. What the Northwest Army is using now is the most lethal 'Red Chain', and the opponent's guns are several times stronger than the Red Chain. , The entire Northwest Army has no one involved. The guns used by the Northwest Army, including Hong Lian, the ashes after burning are gray-black, while the traces left by the explosion of the guns in Beili are dark red within an hour. After a long time, it gradually turned black, and it turned into ordinary black ash after three hours."

"Getting dark? It's more like..."

"Bloodstains." Jiang Chen continued in a soft voice, "That's why the Northwest Army calls this thing 'red blood', the fist is so big, it's enough to kill a lot of people."

Qiu Sheng's brows were wrinkled: "The old man just died, and the North Li and South Barbarians came to the door together. Has the news not been suppressed?"

The first emperor was seriously ill for three years, and the good reputation of King Nanxiao's ignorance spread far and wide. After several discussions in the court, in order to appease the people and stabilize the morale of the army, he claimed to the outside world that the emperor's dragon body was in good health, and the real situation was only a few important ministers. know.

However, the current situation of the north-south pincer coincided with the embarrassment of Da Viet's foreign power and internal affairs. It is really unconvincing to say that it is a coincidence.

"you…"

"Stop! Stop the car! Roll up the curtain!"

The carriage came to a sudden stop, Qiu Sheng reacted quickly, and saved himself from the pain of throwing himself on the ground by supporting the wall of the car. Jiang Chen was old and frail, and after a while of spinning around, he lay on the ground like a shellless bastard with his arms folded. He hugged his head openly.

Qiu Sheng pulled him, and when Jiang Chen wanted to speak, he stretched out a finger: "Don't talk."

His voice was extremely low and thin, and Jiang Chen could almost recognize what he said through mouth movements.

He looked at the young man, and saw that Qiu Sheng held his breath carefully, listening intently to the movement outside the car.

He felt that something was wrong, and after careful identification for a moment, he realized that the rolling emotion in Qiu Sheng's eyes was not fear or nervousness, but faint excitement and anticipation.He didn't seem to dare to expose this feeling undisguisedly, so he lowered his eyes and bit his lips.

Dare to feel that this kid ran all the way from the capital to Huadu to play with the bandits.

No wonder he didn't let him bring his guards and imperial guards!

"Gentlemen, I'm just a small businessman. The people in this car are so small that I can't afford to mess with them. Everything on me is... all for you!"

There was a rustle outside the carriage, and the palace man in charge of the carriage tremblingly took out a few taels of silver in his pocket, and quietly untied the horses' reins, hoping that the four horses would go away without a trace. It can somewhat distract the attention of some bandits and buy time for the Long Live Lord in the car.

"Haha! The grandpas are sent away with just such a small amount? The one we can't afford to rob! When I strip him of all his clothes and raise him as a watchdog, let's see if he can still be a grandpa!" The leader of the bandits pushed the groom to the ground, "In the place of the grandpas, you're such a fool!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the younger brothers burst out laughing, the bamboo forest trembled, it seemed that there were quite a few of them.

Jiang Chen shook, glanced at Qiu Sheng, and silently asked him what he thought about stripping his clothes like a dog.

Qiu Sheng turned her head and stared at the car curtain with a fearless expression of "Welcome to pick it up".

"When I was young, I came here every now and then to fight bandits. It was exciting." Qiu Sheng had a bead of sweat on his nose, and his eyes were frighteningly bright. "How long have I endured this? It's killing me .”

Long live God is very fond of his "childhood" full of bad deeds, and he is proud of it.

Jiang Chen had never seen Qiu Sheng's skills, and he hadn't been freed from the panic of being stripped of his clothes, and fell into deep self-blame.The ideological education these days is considered in vain, he might as well save some time to feed the dogs and raise the birds, so that he can live his old age with peace of mind.

"Yo ho! Uncle Dog is talking, are you listening?" Qiu Sheng didn't deliberately lower the volume this time, the bandit leader got off his horse with a yell, and ordered the younger brother beside him, "Go, open the curtain of the car, and let Uncle Dog out !"

"yes, Sir!"

The sound of footsteps gradually approached, Jiang Chen's weather-beaten old heart almost jumped out of his throat, his eyes turned black and dizzy one after another, and he vaguely saw Qiu Sheng touched the long sword hidden under the cushion.

Holding the car curtain tightly with one hand, he licked his upper lip, and gently pulled the sword out of the scabbard, the blood all over his body boiled.

Come on, pull it away!

"Ah!" With a shrill scream, the hand that drove the curtain was ripped off, leaving a severed arm that fell to the ground.The little bandit rolled on the ground in pain, his facial muscles twitched non-stop, and vomited out the wine and meat in his stomach, bursts of rancid stench drifted away, aggravating the fear of the bandits, and they became confused almost instantly. Uncle Dog left it behind.

"Who? Who... Who is it? Get out!" The man struck very quickly, and with just a flash of a shadow, he slipped into the bamboo forest.

Qiu Sheng's bloodthirsty passion died down in an instant, and she squatted down calmly.

is a master.

Under normal circumstances, bandits are not formally trained in martial arts, and there are so many loopholes in such wild ways, no matter how many come, they are not afraid that they will not be cleaned up.

He frowned slightly, the situation seemed not so simple now.

The bandit leader waited in fear for a long time, but there was still silence in the bamboo forest. If it weren't for the shocking blood dripping down from the little brother with the broken arm, the flash just now would have been like a ghost in hallucinations, which never really existed.

There was only the rustling of the breeze in the bamboo grove, and the bandit leader decided that the provocateur would not dare to be a hero when he saw that they were so numerous, so he went to lift the curtain in person.

The wind changed instantly.

Qiu Sheng looked away, another broken arm fell to the ground bloody.

"who is it!---"

He clenched the hilt of the long sword and listened attentively to the movement outside the car.The elusive killer moved silently and quickly, and where the knife fell, the yelling bandits fell down one after another, before they even had time to utter a single word of pain, they landed neatly Met Hades.He moved quickly, if he poured a cup of hot tea when the bandit leader came to lift the curtain, the tea would still be hot when the whole gang of bandits was wiped out.

Qiu Sheng became worried, if someone came with bad intentions, he might not be able to deal with him.

"You... kill if you want..." The man killed a bunch of his servants, and finally left the bandit leader. Shang is a rare hero among bandits.

Qiu Sheng felt cold when he heard this, could it be that this master is still a pervert?

"I didn't want to do anything. I gave you a chance to leave. It was you who refused to play by ear." The voice was cold and calm, but there was a smile that was hesitant to talk.

His Majesty, who was eavesdropping, moved his throat, put down his long sword, and quietly opened a corner of the curtain to look out.

From his angle, he could see the side face of the man half covered by his long hair, his delicate nose bridge and deep eye sockets, although his face was a bit pale, but his lips were pleasantly red.And that waist...

Qiu Sheng has seen too much sensuality, but those beauties are either vulgar or vulgar, or they think they are noble, and they are out of everyone's eyes. After a night of wind, they can't recognize them on the street.But the person in front of him, with just such a glance, his lustful heart was inevitably moved.

"With the three-legged cat's ability, I have the nerve to come out to rob, and I will blush for you for the brothers of the bandit gang." He held the sword, turned his neck a few times, and asked leisurely, "Master who gave the bandit gang a low price, do you want to buy money?" Let me let you go, or just stay here? Don't worry, I will find a random grave to settle you down."

Before the bandit could react, Qiu Sheng laughed out loud in the car.

The two looked over at the same time.Qiu Sheng did not avoid it, and met his eyes directly, the man was stunned for a moment, and smiled at Qiu Sheng belatedly.

Qiu Sheng's eyeballs suddenly stopped moving.

This person is a different person when he is serious and when he is smiling, but they happen to be the type he likes.

Qiu Sheng never thought that he had any habit of breaking his sleeves. He used to never refuse anyone who came to the court. The boys in the brothel were as delicate and well-behaved as girls, and when they were drunk, they hugged them all.However, this man is a tall and slender young man through and through, with no trace of femininity in his whole body.

"Dare to ask this master's name?" He quickly accepted the fact that for the first time in 18 years, his heart was actually directed at a man, and he jumped off the carriage and walked towards that man.

"Chu Yu, Your Excellency?"

"Qiu... Yuan." Long Live Lord decisively hid his identity in order to seduce the beauty, "I just saw Brother Chu..."

"Grandpa is still lying on the ground! You are talking nonsense! Give grandpa one..." Qiu Sheng was just about to make a move to end this fool who didn't know how to advance or retreat, but saw that Chu Yu tapped the man's dumb acupoint and let him bark his teeth and claws. There was no noise at all.

In an instant, he had a little more affection for this beauty who wields knives and guns.

"There are many bandits in this bamboo forest, why did Brother Chu pass by here?"

Chu Yu: "I want to arrive at the capital on this trip. I originally wanted to enter the capital from Tiancheng. A friend told me a shortcut. Time is tight, so I had to take this route."

"Oh? Time is running out?" Qiu Sheng smiled slightly, "You still stop to save me when time is running out?"

Chu Yu couldn't hear the teasing in the words, and smiled as if responding: "You don't have accompanying guards, and the groom doesn't know martial arts, so I stepped forward to help."

In fact, he was resting on a tree branch at that time, his dream was disturbed by the bandits, and he was full of resentment, when he saw the groom pitifully shaking out a pile of broken silver, he immediately had the feeling of "the same people who have fallen into the world". , and then came to the rescue.

He glanced sideways at the bandit leader who fell on the ground, and added: "It won't take long anyway."

Bandit leader: "..."

Why didn't this little boy kill him just now?

"Brother Chu is very capable, I wonder which sect's disciple he is from?"

Chu Yu was caught off guard by the question. Most of his martial arts were taught by Gu Wei, and the ancient books in Cui Wei Pavilion also helped a lot. If he told the truth, the matter of Cui Wei Pavilion would definitely be asked. He scares away.

It's just that he doesn't know anything about the sects in the Jianghu, and he has no place to make up stories.

"I... I taught myself."

As soon as Qiu Sheng stopped laughing, the beauty started talking nonsense without even talking a few words.Although he, Qiu Sheng, is not as clear about the moves of each school as a master who has read the classics of martial arts, but the person in front of him just now has a very clear and clean way of swordsmanship, and it is by no means just relying on himself. It's hard to learn.

He pretended to be indifferent and admired: "Brother Chu is so self-taught, I admire you. Just now, Brother Chu said that he wants to go to the capital?"

"Exactly. I'm about to go to the capital to study medicine with a teacher. I just heard that all the good doctors in the capital have been taken into the imperial palace. I don't know what to do."

When Chu Yu said this, he lowered his head slightly, not seeing Qiu Sheng's wolf-like smile with a big tail.

What's this?There is only one piece of pie in the sky, and he just happened to see it. The right time, place and people are helping him to feed this delicious, delicious pie into his mouth.

He turned his back to Chu He, and then he dared to laugh out loud without any restraint.

"Brother Chu, what a coincidence, to go to the capital and enter the palace, you must come with me."