Sha Po Lang

Master Xu used to be like everyone else. Before coming here, he had a kind of irrational trust in Marquis An Ding, who represented Xuantie Ying, as if wherever there was Gu Yun, he would be able to go there, and if the sky fell, he would be able to carry it... …Of course, that trust is now shattered.

Deputy Inspector Xu's Xiaobai's face was ashen, and he asked with the last ray of hope: "Marshal... Did you intend to cross the river this time?"

"How is it possible?" Gu Yun looked at him inexplicably, "Oh, I told Feng Hangong a long time ago that this thing is definitely unreliable. The reason why the black eagle can fly fast is because it can rely on manpower to control it in the sky. He makes such a big thing, it’s fine if the weather is calm, but he has to rest when there is a bit of wind and rain, didn’t he deliver food to people when he went to the battlefield—look, he really stopped.”

Ge Chen vomited up and down, and said with tears in his eyes, "Your official...you must tell Feng Hangong when you go back."

Xu Ling's gallbladder was about to burst, he couldn't be as optimistic as Ge Lingshu, he felt that he might not be able to go back.

Fortunately, there is someone who can speak human language. Chang Geng turned his head and smiled at Fushi Xu: "Don't listen to him, I'm scaring you. This place is flat, and you can't see the garrison camp as far as you can see, which means that the enemy's forward is not there at all. Nearby, there are thunderstorms again tonight, and the sound of explosions and thunder are mixed together, he has already calculated that it will not attract a large number of enemy troops, at most the vigilant patrols will come to see."

Gu Yun had a smirk on his face.

Xu Ling looked at Prince Yan almost with tears in his eyes. Among other things, he was totally impressed with Prince Yan's mind and courage, and said sincerely, "Your Highness is wise."

"Wisdom?" Chang Geng waved his hand, "I have been fooled by him in different ways since I was a child, and I have experience in this."

Xu Ling: "..."

For some reason, he felt that there was a strange intimacy in the few words that King Yan mentioned about Gu Yun.

It's not very pleasant to lie in ambush in the wild grass on a rainy night. Fortunately, the Western patrols came quickly, but after a while, someone came cursing and speaking Fanbang dialect. There was a slightly trembling sound of horseshoes on the ground, and Gu Yun, who was still smiling just now, suddenly frowned. Wrinkled, whispered: "Strange."

Xu Ling was afraid of his sudden surprise, and hurriedly asked, "Gu Shuai, what's so strange?"

"There are...three, four, five...how come there are only so few people here?" King Yan on one side said in a low voice, "Isn't it too childish for Westerners to patrol?"

"I don't know," Gu Yun shook his head, "Let's do it first and then talk about it—does anyone understand their babbling Fanbang dialect?"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes focused on King Yan in unison. Chang Geng looked at each other for a moment with the twenty or so guards who were waiting to be fed, "What are you looking at me for?"

Ge Chen was shocked and said, "Your lord can't speak Fanbang?"

Chang Geng was puzzled: "...I can speak a few words of Suzhou slang, but when can I speak Fanbang dialect?"

It turned out that for more than a year, people either felt that he was unpredictable, or that he had a deep scheming mind, or that they simply thought that he was a capable person.

At this moment, Fushi Xu on the side suddenly said: "The lower official actually understands a little bit."

Only then did the gazes staring at King Yan shift collectively—and King Yan himself was added.

Xu Ling coughed dryly, not showing any signs of cowardice, and said: "I'll tell you the truth, the prince and Gu Shuai guarded the gate of the capital, and all the officials followed the saint to the gate, and the subordinate officials also joined them. Once I used it, but I didn't master the six arts, and I felt powerless to fight the enemy, so I thought about making up my mind to learn that language. If I fight again in the future, I can't wear steel armor, if I can follow the generals on the saddle, and learn it as an errand If you say it, it is not in vain to support a seven-foot body in this world."

The last sentence is almost sonorous. In fact, in this group of people, except for Xu Fushi, they are either old Jianghu or Xuantie black crow. They are treacherous, cunning and cunning. Thrilling, if it were someone else, it would have collapsed long ago. It's hard for Mr. Xu, a weak scholar, with a heart for life for the people, to grit his teeth and bear it all the way.

The wind and rain are like darkness, but there is a scholar between heaven and earth.

Even Gu Yun rubbed his chin, ashamed to tease him again.

"I'm going to trouble Master Xu later," Gu Yun's playful eyes sank, and there seemed to be a cold iron light in his eyes, "Here we come!"

Saying that, a group of western patrol soldiers in light armor walked up to them.One person came out more and more, walked around the fire and wreckage that had not been extinguished by the rain for a long time, and murmured something.

Xu Ling whispered: "He said, 'It's raining so heavily, there shouldn't be a fire for no reason, and there are no outsiders in this area, so what happened'."

What does "there are no outsiders in this area" mean?

Just as Gu Yun tilted his head, another foreign soldier picked up a piece of burnt wreckage from the ground, held it in his hand and flipped it open for a while, then suddenly jumped three feet high, and said something again.

Xu Ling hurriedly said: "He said, 'There is a sign of Daliang people's military factory on it, and Daliang spies have sneaked in'—Gu Shuai, they are getting nervous, have we been discovered?"

Wood can be charred, but stone and iron sheets can't. It seems that the symbol of the Spiritual Pivot House has made people recognize it.

Xu Ling: "Gu Shuai, I'm afraid these barbarians will warn you..."

Gu Yun put one hand on the wind-cutting blade at his waist, turned his head to look at Chang Geng, Chang Geng unhurriedly took out a clairvoyant that could be clamped on the bridge of his nose, lightly wiped the water droplets on the lens with his fingers, He plucked the bowstring slightly, as if he had checked his ears to see if it was damp, and then slowly pulled the bowstring away under Xu Ling's dumbfounded gaze.

As soon as Gu Yun waved his hand, more than [-] personal guards of the Black Iron Battalion quickly passed through the weeds.

I saw a Western patrol soldier unfasten a horn-shaped trombone from his waist, took a deep breath, and was about to raise it to his mouth to sound a warning, when an iron arrow suddenly pierced through the air, and came right out of nowhere. His left ear was pierced, and the man's head was shot into a rotten red and white watermelon on the spot.

The brains sprayed all over his accomplice, and the next moment, several black shadows rose violently and rushed towards the unresponsive Western soldiers like thunder. He fell to the ground, leaving a killer who had not had time to dismount, raised his hands tremblingly, and looked at the weeds suddenly emerging from it in horror.

It wasn't until then that Xu Ling let out a sigh of relief, and dumbly finished what he had said just now: "...bring in accomplices."

Gu Yun patted him on the shoulder, and replied sincerely: "We can't recruit him now - strip him naked, tie him up and take him away, it's not suitable to stay here for a long time, retreat first!"

Hearing this, the two Xuantie personal guards took the Western soldier hostage in a very bare manner, stripped him of his armor and searched him like garlic skin, stripped him clean, and then tied the Western soldier who looked like a raw white chicken into a ball and waited. The pork that was slaughtered, gagged, and took it away.

"I think there's a small village over there, let's borrow a place for a trial." Chang Geng said as he walked, "Generally, in this kind of place near the river, during times of war, all those who could run away, I'm afraid there are only a few old, weak, sick and disabled left at home. Ten households and nine empty spaces, when they met with people, they happened to ask the locals what was going on in the occupied land, but Master Xu had to be asked to go first, the brothers in Xuantieying were always murderous if they didn't speak or move, don't Let them scare the common people."

Xu Ling hurriedly said: "Yes, I will follow orders."

As he spoke, he took a peek at Chang Geng. King Yan was drenched by the rain, and a strand of hair fell from his temples, dripping wetly. He was clearly walking in a desolate wilderness. In the mud pond, the expression on his face still seemed to remain the same indifference, with his bowstring on his back that was astonishing as soon as he pulled it away.

Chang Geng raised his head inadvertently, just in time to meet Xu Ling's gaze, and asked kindly, "What does Master Xu want to tell me?"

Xu Ling's face changed a few times, but he finally swallowed the words that came to his lips, and shook his head politely.

A group of people walked into the small village, and saw that the small village was as quiet as a ghost village, except for the sound of wind and rain and their respective footsteps, there was no movement, the dilapidated firewood doors were half-opened and half-covered, and the weeds in the courtyard were half-grown. The wall is high, and the entrance is full of broken tiles. There is a child's bean green bellyband hanging at the door of a family. The mud and soup are dripping, and it has become a piece of rag.

The most spacious in the village is the ancestral hall, the compound can be seen from a long distance, where outsiders can settle.

Ge Chen took out a stick the size of a small fire from his bosom. After unscrewing the lid, a faint light shone from inside. The roof of the ancestral hall was incomplete. It was raining heavily outside and lightly raining inside, and the tables, chairs and benches in the house were down. It's down, it's bad, there are only a few rags left in the corner, printed with plain colors from the south of the Yangtze River, and vaguely condensing the prosperity of the old three-autumn osmanthus.

Xu Ling looked around the inside and outside of the ancestral hall, and asked, "There seems to be no one, Gu Shuai, the locals have all run away, right?"

Gu Yun also frowned slightly, summoned a few guards to search around, and bent over to pick up the calico in the corner.

"The last time I went to the south of the Yangtze River, it was the time when the spring was warm and the flowers were blooming." Gu Yun said, "The flowers are full of flowers, the warm wind is blowing, and even the rebels are not in a hurry, so they get some merchant ships full of incense to secretly transport purple streams. gold……"

Before he finished speaking, a soldier rushed in quickly: "Commander, take a quick look, behind the ancestral hall... there is... in the backyard..."

Gu Yun raised his eyebrows: "What?"

The soldier's expression flickered for a moment, avoiding Gu Yun's eyes, and said with difficulty: "... from the village."

The small village in the south of the Yangtze River is meandering and graceful. There is a small river in the village, and the houses on both sides live along the stream. The gurgling does not distinguish between north and south, east and west. Now it is dilapidated. The four stone plaques of "loyalty, filial piety and righteousness" at the entrance of the ancestral hall have been broken in half. The rotten stone rolled into the weeds, and Xu Ling kicked something under his feet. He looked down and almost jumped up—it turned out to be a dead man's skeleton.

Xu Ling: "This... this..."

While speaking, King Yan had already entered the backyard of the ancestral hall first——in the entire courtyard, the memorial tablets of the true ancestors were scattered all over the place, the ruins of the collapsed gods and Buddhas were covered in dust, and on the black stone slabs, there were countless corpses with separated heads. Neatly arranged among them, men, women and children can't figure it out, but the black bones and eye sockets are covered with spider webs.

Xu Ling gasped, and unconsciously grabbed the door frame.

"This place extends in all directions," Chang Geng said in a low voice after being silent for a long time, "there are open seas and canals in the north and south, and the official roads in the east and west can lead to the sky, the sea and the north. It must be unsustainable, and our people can easily get in, I think they... have to do a thorough cleaning."

Xu Ling asked blankly: "How do you call it thorough?"

"Send Chongjiatu Village," Chang Geng said in a low voice, "draw a circle, drive the people in this circle together, clean them up, and don't let any living people in again, and then just send people to block the entrances and exits of a few major official roads. There will be no more incidents of thousands of Xuantie Battalions sneaking into the Southwest under the guise of traveling merchants—now I finally understand why there are only a few soldiers on patrol just now."

"...Because this place is no man's land at all." While speaking, Chang Geng suddenly got angry, and kicked the Western prisoner's stomach. The prisoner's intestines were so hanging that he kicked it out with anger, and he couldn't scream. When he came out, he had to grumble on the ground like a pig being slaughtered.

Gu Yun took the illuminating object from Ge Chen's hand, and illuminated a piece of soaked wood, on which there was a line of handwriting carved with fingernails——

A soldier asked, "Marshal, what is that?"

Gu Yun's throat twitched slightly: "...the tears of the survivors are all in the dust... only half of the words are in it."

There is a skeleton under the big wooden pillar, it has been rotten into a ball, the bones are full of white bones, it is really frightening, only one index finger, which has been eaten clean by insects and ants, is still pointing at the ball of writing.

As if still silently asking: "Where are the ghosts and fires in the land of fish and rice, where is General Wang Shi's cavalry?"

After being drenched in the rain all night, the chill finally penetrated his bones until now.

And the four words "Jiangnan fell" came across the paper with unprecedented force, and the entire ancestral hall was dead silent for a while.

I don't know how long it took before Chang Geng gently pushed Gu Yun: "Don't look, Zixi, there are many dreams in the night, let's leave here first, it's important to meet Mr. Zhong."

Gu Yun's fingertips were tense, and he straightened up when he heard the sound. For some reason, his eyes went dark, and he staggered for half a step before he stood still. Chang Geng was startled, and held his elbow: "What's wrong?" ?”

Gu Yun felt tightness in his chest, and felt a sense of weakness and fatigue that he hadn't felt for many years. For a moment, he felt an indescribable feeling of weakness—since he was injured in Xiguan, whether he quit drinking or not, Even reducing the medicine, nothing can stop his body from deteriorating. It seems that all the debts he owed in the past have all come to him.

Now facing the questioning of a skeleton, he was speechless, and even felt a bit of weakness in his heart - Gu Yun thought: "When can I take Jiangnan back? Will I... have time?"

However, the many doubts and worries in Gu Yun's heart only arose for a moment, and he forcibly suppressed them when he turned around - at least from the outsiders' perspective, he had returned to normal.

"It's okay." Gu Yun glanced sideways at Chang Geng, pulled his elbow out of Chang Geng's palm, and said to Xu Ling nonchalantly, "Master Xu, ask the white-haired monkey where they live, how many people there are, how many armors, how many armors are there? Where is A hiding? Ask without telling, just cut off one of his fingers, bake it and give him a tooth sacrifice."

Legend has it that most of the Western soldiers were bought with money, and they didn't have the integrity to be brave and fearless. Gu Yun's many methods of intimidation were not used in time.

As Chang Geng said, they cleared the large riverside plains into no-man's land, leaving only one sentry guard in each area, and there were only a dozen or so people in a sentry post, most of whom were cavalry.

"Part of the large army is the vanguard, confronting General Zhong and the others..." Xu Ling pursed his lips with difficulty, and translated, "...looting around, forcing the captives to be laborers to be miners and slaves for them, and the robbed Send things back to their country and silence those who want the Pope to step down."

At this time, the shower had stopped, and the thick clouds suddenly parted, revealing a little moonlight. Looking far and wide, there was a lot of wild smoke, and the puppet farming was busy in the fields, and the farmers were drinking tea and discussing the state of the country. Difficult to appear.

Xu Ling said in a low voice: "The lower official thought that the refugees in Jiangbei were already in extreme hardship, but they still have a straw hut to keep out the rain, and they still have two bowls of gruel to receive all day long..."

Chang Geng: "It's useless to talk too much, let's go, let that foreign dog lead the way, and go to their guard post."

The two personal guards of the Xuantie Battalion immediately set up the Western soldier in response.

"His Royal Highness Yan Wang!" Xu Ling took a few steps and called Chang Geng to stop, "When can we fight the Western Dog?"

Chang Geng kept walking and replied without turning his head: "If the refugees in the north of the Yangtze River can be settled smoothly, God will put an end to the natural disaster, and recuperate for a year or two, until the [-]th department runs out of ammunition and food, and re-opens the purple stream in northern Xinjiang. Golden channel, I don't believe we can't do anything to these Western dogs!"

It's just that now the government and China are in a mess, and it's difficult to move forward. Thousands of refugees are still displaced.

Xu Ling took a deep breath, his eye circles were red, caught up with King Yan, and whispered in his ear: "My lord, you know that you have made too many reforms in the court. A thorn in my side... Not to mention anything else, but this time when I go south to investigate the case, if Yang Ronggui is really greedy and conceals the report, he will definitely receive rumors in the past few days. It is said that the prince, in order to enforce the beacon ticket, you will use all means to impose various targets that cannot be met by the local officials. They are forced to take bribes and break the law. The Procuratorate and the Yushitai will definitely catch up and attack - what will you do then?"

Chang Geng smiled vaguely: "If there is really someone who can take over this chaos, regain Jiangnan, and stabilize the Quartet, what can I do if I pack my luggage and leave? Master Xu, what I did was not for myself, nor for myself. It’s not for the sake of those people saying hello to me—whoever is willing to participate will participate, I ask myself to be worthy of the principles of heaven and conscience, whether it’s good to sleep in the military plane in the middle of the night, or sleep in the sky prison, no ancestors come out to slap me, other...”

He stopped talking any further, a wry smile with a hint of sarcasm flashed across his young and handsome face, Xu Lingwan seemed to see the loneliness and helplessness lingering around King Yan, his heart was shocked, his face The burning pain——

It wasn't the first time that Yushitai was slapped in the face by King Yan in public, and he wished he could seize some clues and bite Yan Wangdang all over his head.

And the Procuratorate is the gathering place of the "clear streams" in the court—all of them are like Xu Ling, who neither wants to cling to the powerful, nor disdains to join forces with merchants, businessmen, and stinky people. Coupled with rumors and gossip, they always think that King Yan is a power traitor who is deep in the city and plays with the emperor in applause.

This time Xu Ling followed King Yan to the south. It was one aspect to investigate and deal with corrupt officials. More importantly, taking advantage of the fight between the aristocratic family and the upstarts, the Qingliu of the two courts had already planned to join hands with King Yan, who was the instigator. Xu Ling Here, the purpose is not simple, that is, Emperor Long'an is worried about Yan Wang Li Min, and it is also a handle for the two courts to seize the disobedience of Yan King——

Some people are working hard for the devastation in Jiangnan and Jiangbei, even if the methods are a little more drastic-but they are waiting in the middle of the court to blame others. Who is it that is bringing disaster to the country and the people?

Xu Ling couldn't help but choked up a little: "My lord..."

Chang Geng slightly raised his eyebrows, and asked in confusion, "What's wrong with Master Xu?"

Xu Ling was speechless for a moment.

Gu Yun led the way without saying a word, and Xu Ling, the scholar, thought he was whispering, but in fact, with Gu Shuai's hearing ability when he was not deaf, he could hear every word in a downwind place.

Out of the corner of his eyes, he caught sight of his enraged soldiers on one side, and then glanced at Ge Chen, who was flickering. He probably knew where the "accident" of entering the enemy's line by mistake came from.