Half blood

In the past few days, there are always a few people wandering around mysteriously near the city wall.Judging from their dress and accent, they should be ordinary people in the capital.A few days later, there were more than a dozen people wandering around. They would come every day when the victims of the disaster were resting and eating at noon, and stretched their slender necks to peek at what was in the wooden barrels brought from the capital. food.

After so many times, some victims felt strange and asked them what they were here for.But they refused to say it, and kept looking up and down the patched clothes of the victims with disdainful eyes, then snorted out of their noses, and said in a strange voice that they didn't care about your business.

At noon that day, the rice and vegetables in wooden barrels were transported under the city wall again.As soon as it was unloaded from the wooden cart, dozens of men with unkind faces surrounded the victims who were preparing dishes and chopsticks.

"I think your food is pretty good." One of the leaders sneered, "There are vegetables and rice, yo, and meat, it's really good, it's really good. Thinking about it, you can only drink northwest wind outside the city at first." , and then King An let you in, and after letting you in, he gave you porridge to drink, and now he simply gives you a job, with food, meat and a place to live, "

After finishing speaking, he picked up a little girl wearing a new padded jacket, and said with a ferocious smile, "There are still new clothes to wear! Why, what's the next step, why don't we just give up this place to you? Let you eat our meat, drink our blood."

An older man came out of the victims, and said to the man, "King An is just kind-hearted. He looks at us poorly and gives us a way to survive. After this winter, we will all go back."

The man seemed to have heard some big joke, and he looked up and laughed, "Of course, that traitor is kind to you! He is half of Qingzhou, and he saw his compatriots eat less meat." , I’m so heartbroken, I’m so desperate for you. What about us? Why didn’t our brothers, who have no food and no clothes, see him? To put it bluntly, it’s partiality! We’ll go back after this winter , I’ve only heard that doves occupy the magpie’s nest, I’ve only heard that it’s easy to ask gods to send gods away, but I don’t believe that you locusts will really go back in the spring. When it’s time again,”

The man changed his tone and said in a strange way: "We are poor, we have no travel expenses, we are poor and have no food to eat, we will go back in summer."

The victims turned pale when they heard this, and shouted, "What do you mean? Be respectful."

"Respect? You talk about respect with me now, do you understand if you live under the fence? Hmm? What kind of respect is there for a beggar lying on the ground begging? Let me tell you, I just can't stand it today."

The man overturned the rice bucket with one hand, and said, "You are eating our rice," kicking over the food, "You are eating our food," and finally tore off the sleeves of the little girl's cotton-padded jacket, Holding up the half of the sleeve with cotton wool floating, he shouted: "Every thread of the clothes on the body belongs to us!"

"It's ours, it's ours!" The people who followed shouted in unison, "It's ours, it's ours."

The victim stretched out his hands to protect the crying little girl and covered her ears with both hands.

The man sneered and said, "Now I'm pretending to be pitiful again. Let me tell you, I don't want to do that." Then he pushed the man violently.

Pushing away, all the people behind him rushed up, dozens of strong and powerful people, and dozens of old, weak, sick and disabled hiding aside, hundreds of people just like this They were entangled together, grabbed a fleshy thing and beat and kicked it, and kept touching the wet blood, not knowing which body the blood came from.

When Li Xuan, Li Xiuqi and the policemen arrived, the situation was completely out of control.People kept falling down, but no matter how they fell to the ground, there were always people standing, and as long as the standing people stood, he would swing the stones and wooden sticks in his hand like crazy.

In the end, the police cracked their whips to suppress the riot. Those who could stand were locked in the yamen, and those who fell were counted one by one.An irreversible thing happened. All the people who fell down were from the Yujin country. Those who came to provoke the trouble could not beat the tall and strong Qingzhou people.

The policeman handed over the list of the dead to Li Xuan, and when Li Xuan opened it, his heart trembled suddenly.This booklet is densely filled with names, and among these names, except for a few victims from the Qingzhou Kingdom, the rest are all the people of the Yujin Kingdom.

Holding the booklet, Li Xuan shouted in his heart over and over again: "It's over, it's over..."

He took a deep breath and asked the policeman, "Is this booklet complete?"

The arrester nodded quickly, and said: "If you go back to King An, it's all of them. 53 of them were from the capital, and three were victims of disasters in Qingzhou. A total of 56 people died."

Li Xuan looked at the paper full of words, but suddenly realized that he didn't know a single word.He couldn't help but feel a little upset. He closed the booklet and asked, "Where are the family members of the deceased? Did you make trouble?"

The catcher hesitated for a moment, and said: "If you go back to King An, they are making trouble outside the palace... Do you want us to send someone to arrest them?"

Li Xuan shook his head, closed his eyelids, wiped his face with his hands, and said: "Let them make trouble, don't touch them yet." The arrester nodded quickly, and was about to leave, but turned to Li Xuan and asked, "His Royal Highness, what about those disaster victims?" ? How to deal with it?"

Li Xuandao: "How many people are locked up in the yamen?"

The policeman replied: "A hundred people have been locked up."

Li Xuan nodded and said, "Let's lock them up like this for now."

"No, don't you need to punish them?"

Li Xuandao: "Everything is according to the law."

After the arrester left, Li Xiuqi came over, Li Xuan raised his eyes, but saw this kind of bewildered expression on Li Xiuqi's face for the first time, "What should I do..." Li Xuan asked.

Li Xiuqi didn't make a sound, but straightened the upturned collar of Li Xuanguan's uniform, "You go to the palace first..."

Li Xuan nodded and said, "I'll go to the palace right away." Li Xuan handed the roster in his hand to Li Xiuqi, and said, "This is the roster of the dead." Li Xuan lowered his voice and said, "All the dead are from the capital city." of."

Li Xiuqi reached out to take it, but did not open it, and said, "I know."

Li Xuan nodded, turned around and was about to leave, Li Xiuqi stopped him from behind, and said to Li Xuan: "No matter what, I still have a way."

After sending Li Xuan away, Li Xiuqi came out of the mansion and searched house by house along the street, but the walls of every house were clean without any suspicious traces, and finally he arrived at Lean Monkey's house. place.Outside the door, he could hear the movement inside. A woman was talking, and the voice was coaxing the little baby who hadn't eaten. Li Xiuqi raised his hand and knocked on the door, and the door creaked open, revealing a pair of suspicious eyes of a woman. "Who are you looking for?"

"I find you."

The decoration in this room is simple, and it is not rich, but there must be a good wife who is diligent and thrifty.Li Xiuqi saw a new arrow hole on a pillar, and knew that everything the victim told him was true.

"When will Hou Da come back?"

The woman shook her head and said: "I don't know either, maybe it will be tonight, or it may be lost all at once, and I will be back soon."

Li Xiuqi nodded, took a sip of the bitter tea, said nothing, and waited quietly with the woman.The woman was holding a piece of clothing in her hand, and the needle and thread in her hand trembled for a long time before being able to pass through the hole in the cuff of the clothing.

The door was kicked open, and Hou Dahuo rushed in from outside the door like a whirlwind.He shouted loudly: "I forgot to bring money when I went out."

Suddenly Hou Da raised his head and glanced at his wife, only to see Li Xiuqi sitting beside his wife.Hou Da suddenly became furious, rushed over in three steps, slashed the table with his big palm, and the table cracked a crack, he roared angrily: "You adulterers and prostitutes! Do this shameful thing while I'm away .”

Being accused by Hou Da for no reason, the woman's eyes were red with anxiety, and she stammered to explain, "I didn't, I didn't..."

Li Xiuqi said calmly, "Do you know this thing?" He took out a small walnut from his pocket and placed it on the table.

Seeing this thing, Hou Da was slightly stunned, then put on a fierce face, and shouted at Li Xiuqi: "Do I know that I have something to do with you?"

Li Xiuqi said: "You better know, otherwise you can ask your wife where your son is now."

Hou Day was taken aback, and looked at his wife suspiciously, but seeing that she was only shedding tears, he shouted angrily: "You mean, what can I know by crying like this?"

"I was carried away by Master Li..." After hesitating for a long time, the woman finally squeezed out these words from her teeth.

After hearing this, Hou Da grabbed Li Xiuqi's collar and roared angrily, "What do you want to do? Give me back my son!"

Li Xiuqi opened Hou Da's hand indifferently, and said: "It's very simple for you to see your son, just draw this 'Li' on your door, and get out of here Yin Shiqian."

Hou Da's eyes were wide open, he suddenly sneered, and said: "Oh, if you threaten me with my son, then I will threaten you with your life." After speaking, he grabbed Li Xiuqi's neck with both hands, and said: " I just need to squeeze a little harder, and you will be out of breath, if you want to live, give me my son back."

Li Xiuqi didn't move at all, his face was flushed red, he could feel the small pustule in his head violently shaking with his beating heart, as if all the blood had poured into that small pustule, And his head was about to explode along with the swollen pustules. "I'm not afraid of death." Li Xiuqi replied hoarsely.

Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes, but those who risk their lives are most afraid of those who do not want their lives.General Hou let go of his hand, he looked at the pale Li Xiuqi with resentment, and after a while, said: "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Li Xiuqi said in a hoarse voice: "Very good, Choushi is waiting outside the city gate, your son will send it." After saying that, he stood up, straightened his crumpled robe, and walked out.As soon as the door closed behind him, Hou Da Zhentian shouted angrily: "You damn bitch, you killed my son!" Then there was a loud crash of pots and pans in the room.

Li Xiuqi withdrew from the room, supported the wall with his hands, gasped for breath, ran his hands along his chest, stood up straight in a burst of dizziness, swallowed the blood welling up in his throat, and walked towards the Governor's Mansion.

Li Xuan was sitting in the Governor's Mansion waiting for him, sitting in front of the fire in the middle of the hall with his back facing him, Li Xuan was wearing a black official uniform with his waist bowed, like a crow that had landed on an old tree, dejected.

"Father has abolished the decree on repairing the city wall. Now the whole court wants father to abolish the queen. Today, father withstood the pressure, but he didn't stop talking."

Li Xiuqi coughed a few times to make his hoarse voice sound more natural, he walked to Li Xuan's side, and asked softly: "Who is the emperor planning to make queen now?"

"Wang Qing," Li Xuan replied, "He Xiang may not be able to conceive a child after the last miscarriage."

Li Xiuqi put his hand on Li Xuan's shoulder, held Li Xuan's shoulder lightly, and said, "Has your wish not changed, Your Highness?"

'

Li Xuan asked: "What wish?"

"Let everyone live and work in peace and contentment in Yujin Kingdom."

Li Xuan was silent for a while, and said: "I don't know, but I know I can't do it."

Li Xiuqi put his hand on Li Xuan's stooped back, and said softly: "Actually, I have another way, just to see if His Highness is willing."