The dead enemy in the previous life gave me joy

The Battle of Chuanling, the fourth year.

The young general boarded the tower and looked at the flames of battle outside the city. After removing the ghostly face from his face, he said to the lieutenant beside him with a dignified look: "The Sichuan army attacked the city once last night. There will be no more sieges, so I will go to Caotang Temple now."

The lieutenant general looked at the exhausted face of the man in front of him who hadn't slept all night, and said: "You once said the theory of gods and ghosts, if you believe it, you don't believe it, if you don't believe it, you don't. Since you don't believe it, why are you going?"

The young man put his hands on his shoulders, forced a little smile on his face, and said, "I believe it today, I will try again."

Without going any further, he got on a red horse, pulled the rein, exhaled thin and long white air from the horse's mouth, kicked the horse's hooves a few meters away, and left the most distant city to the north without looking back. The city that suffered the fire first.

The horses that had traveled thousands of miles that day finally stopped, and they would probably reach the Caotang Temple in another ten miles. After thinking about it, he found a roadside tea stand and asked for a pot of tea.

"You are from the south, can you tell me about the war in the south?"

The stall owner lit up the stove and boiled a pot of tea for him. When he picked it up, he smelled it. It was not ordinary bad tea, but Dendrobium officinalis. It seemed that the stall owner specially brought it out for him.

The war in the south is indeed worrying, and it is impossible to describe it in the word "bad", but he doesn't want to bring this level of anxiety to the people of Ling Kingdom who have not been affected. It's a good thing, he pretended to be very excited, and said: "Well, the Sichuan army attacked the city again last night, but they still didn't break through the city gate. I just went back to Canary City to announce the good news."

Now the stall owner was also very happy. Regardless of Tao Jiang's evasion, he clamored to cook another bowl of noodles for him, and went straight to work.

There was no one at the tea stall for a while, and Tao Jiang wanted to continue on his way. Tao Jiang put the doubled amount of silver on the table, got up, and the next moment, a Yunyou monk who came from nowhere sat down and was sitting in the position he had just now.

"Master, please tell the stall owner for me later. I put the tea money here. If the stall owner cooks noodles, I will give you the bowl."

Unexpectedly, the monk said leisurely: "Why is the benefactor so anxious? It's not too late to sit down and eat noodles before leaving. The country is about to fall, and how can one person be able to reverse it."

Chu Chu had never believed in fate, so he said to the monk, "I never believe in fate, only myself."

The monk looked at the back of the galloping horse and said with a smile: "Whether you believe it or not, you will come back after all."

The Caotang Temple in the daytime, with green tiles and gray bricks, is so peaceful. Tao Jiang, who has not had a peaceful heart for many years, found peace at this moment. He told the old abbot that he came to pray for the quelling of the war. The old abbot looked at him , He hesitated to speak, and finally prepared a joss stick and a wish paper for him. Tao Jiang wrote the eight characters "No worries in the mountains and rivers, peace in the country" on the paper, threw it into the brazier devoutly, and made three bows.

After praying with the monks in the monastery, he knew that it was time for him to go back, and the people in the south were still waiting for him.

The Battle of Chuanling, at the end of the fifth year.

In Panning City, heavy snow fell like sprinkling salt, and the boundary that was originally covered with sand and soil suddenly became white and yellow.

The red-robed general didn't have time to take off his armor and replace his sweat-soaked underwear, so he put it on again and went back to camp facing the wind and snow.

The Sichuan army did not give them a chance to breathe, and came to attack the city again. To his surprise, this time they were facing an increased enemy army of [-]. I am afraid that this battle would be the time to break the city.

He solemnly confessed to his left lieutenant general: "I'm afraid Pan Ning really can't hold it anymore. If the Sichuan army comes to attack and I go out of the city alone, you will lead the remaining brothers in the army to cover the people and go north. How far can you go?" No matter how far, I will try my best to hold them back."

In his eyes, the left lieutenant was with him through life and death, but he seldom cried, and at this moment he was sobbing, and he asked his general: "What about you, what do you do?"

The red-robed general rubbed his hair and said: "Leave me alone, you can evacuate at ease, I won't die, I can't bear to abandon you."

The drums are beating, it's still the ghost face, the silver gun, or the red horse. On one side is a hundred thousand elite cavalry, and on the other side is a single person.

The red-robed general nodded first to those who were confronting him.

He said: "Gu Changning, no matter what, you and I will decide the winner today, are you happy?"

Clothed in red and silver armor, with long bundled hair fluttering in the wind and sand, he called out his name for the first time, and it was also the first time that Gu Zhai felt through his mask that he was smiling, smiling calmly and calmly. calm.

"Okay, then let's fight hard for the last match. I'm happy no matter whether we win or lose." Gu Zhai also smiled, wantonly and flamboyantly, that is the confidence that everything is sure and clear.

The two confronted each other and still failed to gain the upper hand, but Gu Zhai didn't care, he wasn't afraid to confront him, and after another round of close contact, Gu Zhai and Tao Jiang said: "Don't think I can't see your tricks, don't you just want to To delay time for them, I have learned this time."

He suppressed Tao Jiang's silver spear with all his strength, and issued an order with his backhand: "At this moment, attack the city for me! No one will be left behind!"

Panning was no longer guarded, and the gate of the city was quickly blasted open by the huge pillars of the Sichuan army. The spies who had entered the city earlier had already inquired about the direction of the retreat of the remaining sporadic Ling troops, and brought the hundreds of thousands of Sichuan troops who entered the city. , from south to north.

Tao Jiang was flustered, and Gu Zhai got the chance, he grabbed Tao Jiang with his backhand, turned around and climbed up the tower, he said: "Look, the army of Sichuan Kingdom has already set foot on the land of your Ling Kingdom ,you lose."

"Don't kill them, how can you not kill them?" Tao Jiang's voice was a little humble.

"You beg me, maybe I'll let them go." Gu Zhai said half-jokingly.

Tao Jiang didn't open his mouth. He knew that begging him would not save everyone in Ling Kingdom, so he said, "They are just innocent people..."

"Don't ask for it." Gu Zhai's voice roared from the tower: "Your Majesty has an order to destroy the Ling Kingdom! No piece of armor will be left behind!"

Chu Chu looked at it helplessly, seeing the cold light from the raised soldier talisman, his heart also turned cold.

"I only asked for your life from the Holy Majesty, but I didn't ask for theirs. Whether they live or die has nothing to do with me."

"Do you know how you lost, your saintly compassionate heart is your weakness, and I don't have such a weakness." Gu Zhai said to Tao Jiang.

Gu Zhai didn't intend to follow the army to the north, anyway, the Ling Kingdom had no army strength, and sooner or later the [-] army would be able to attack the capital of the Ling Kingdom, Jinque, so he took Tao Jiang back and imprisoned him in the Sichuan camp. He wanted to take off his mask, but Tao Jiang refused, and stayed in that corner all day long, refusing to eat or drink, just dazed, and Gu Zhai didn't know what he was thinking.

He tried to talk to Tao Jiang: "Didn't you lie to me that you were the leader of the army trained by your lord in private? You also said that you swore to defend Panning to the death. I believe you. I have been deceived by you for so many years. You liar."

He put a full bowl of water shield soup in front of him: "Eat some, you have lied to me so many times, and I lied to you this time, you should take advantage of it."

A day later, this time he served shepherd's purse wontons with a tempting aroma. He said, "Hey, if you don't eat or drink like this, you will really starve to death. If you have resentment, you should eat some."

But Tao Jiang still didn't eat it.

The next day, he changed back to water shield soup, and he said to him: "Your life is what I have worked so hard to obtain from His Majesty when I went back to Beijing overnight. You can't just starve yourself to death like this. You said that you are considered a famous general of a country, you died not in battle but in the enemy camp, will you be laughed out of your mouth?"

I don't know how long it took, and finally the news came back.

That was a sentence that Tao Jiang thought he would never forget: The one hundred thousand army has completely wiped out the Ling Kingdom.

The country is broken and the mountains and rivers are [1], and the country will be captured when the country is destroyed. This is probably the case. He finally spoke with a difficult and weak voice: "Gu Zhai, do you want to bring me back to Sichuan?"

Gu Zhai was very happy, not because he got the news of the war, but because he finally spoke again.

"I'll take you back to Shangjing City, Shangjingcheng is really good, you'll know when you go, anyway, it won't be worse than here." Gu Zhai looked at the person in front of him and assured him swearingly.

"Okay, I promise you, can I go to Panning again before that, I want to watch the sunset in Panning again."

"If you can eat obediently, I will reluctantly agree." Gu Zhai coaxed him.

From then on, he ate whatever Gu Zhai gave him, whether it was water shield soup or shepherd's purse wonton, until that day when the army pulled out of camp.

Gu Zhai did keep his promise to Tao Jiang. He rode a horse and took Tao Jiang back to the edge of Panning City. He watched him climb up the tower, but he tied the horse and slowed him to follow.

The setting sun that was about to set still bathed Tao Jiang's body, and the back that Gu Zhai was looking at was still the one in the afterglow.

The last twilight of the sunset quickly dissipated, and the accident happened suddenly. The man on the top of the city pulled out a short dagger from nowhere and stabbed at his heart. Even Gu Zhai's quick reaction was still too late.

The people on the top of the wall fell towards the bottom of the wall very quickly, and Gu Zhai's heart also fell down along with it.

He flew down the city, but couldn't keep up with the man's falling body.

The dull sound of the man falling to the ground just shook his heart.

He lifted the man who fell heavily on the ground, tears and his blood fused together.

Gu Zhai yelled angrily: "What are you doing, what are you doing! You promised me, liar, you lied to me again!"

Tao Jiang still couldn't swallow his remaining breath. He took off his mask forcefully, looked into Gu Zhai's eyes, and said, "Do you know why I always call you Gu Zhai instead of Gu Changning? My hope is just these two words, it's ridiculous that the person with this name is you."

The person in his arms still closed his eyes slowly, and the temperature on his body was also slowly withdrawing, becoming cold and stiff. Under the tower, he was alone, only one of the former two generals remained.

Gu Zhai caressed the face of the man in his arms, wanting to engrave his appearance into his heart, after a long time, he finally got up, blew a secret whistle to summon his lieutenant general.

His voice was hoarse and choked, and he ordered word by word: "There is a valley outside Panning City, and the scenery is the most beautiful. If you find the highest place to bury him, you must be able to see the sunset."

The author has something to say: [1] It comes from Du Fu's "Spring Hope".

-

This chapter is also called "The Love Story That God of War Agu and Bai Yueguang Ajaan Have to Tell"!