Lei Yue Longmen

Cen Zhu avoided Guyang Avenue, walked for a day and a night and finally arrived at the edge of the Zhuo River, and walked upstream along the river.

At dawn, she saw an earthen house in front of her that was emitting ashes and smoke. She urged her horse to go there, and found that the roof was burnt with only a few logs left, and the walls were black.The door fell outside, and there were obvious signs of fighting around.

Cen Zhu pushed the gray smoke in the air, covered his mouth and nose with his sleeve and went into the house to check. He found two charred corpses in the corner. One of them was still holding a knife and axe. It was not only the owner of the house but also a bandit.After leaving the house and continuing to go west, I saw two black corpses by the river. The lower body was lying on the bank, but the upper body was submerged in the water. There were crawling marks on the river beach, probably crawling over from the earthen house. .

Sad in her heart, she sat down cross-legged, recited the mantra for the dead soul, got on the horse and continued on.

Later, there were more and more corpses, and they just lay upright in the grass and on the sand dunes.Different from the four charred corpses encountered earlier, these corpses were all pierced to death by various weapons, and their heads were all chopped off and disappeared.In Yurui, the soldiers were rewarded according to the number of enemy heads they cut off. There were no less than a hundred of these headless corpses, and it was estimated that they could save a centurion.

Cen Zhu walked through the corpses with numbness, one by one to check whether there was Gu Qing among them, and when he saw a short and thin one, his heart tightened, and he carefully peeled off the front of his clothes to check.Wait for all the corpses to be checked.She calmed down for a while, and saw a group of villagers carrying hoes and pulling carts in front of her, rushing this way.So he went forward to inquire and learned that the other party was sent by officers and soldiers to collect the corpse.They carried the headless corpses into the car, covered them with straw mats, and prepared to send them to the barren hills for unified burial.Cen Zhu resisted the discomfort in his stomach and asked the other party about the movements of the officers and soldiers.Knowing that the imperial army had suppressed the bandits on the bank of the Zhuo River two days ago, the sound of killing was loud, and after the suppression of the bandits, the army withdrew to the southeast.

Cen Zhu followed the route guided by the villagers, and chased in the direction where the army was withdrawing.It was another day and night journey, she felt tired and exhausted, so she stopped to rest under the shade of a tree, and unconsciously fell asleep.I don't know how many hours have passed, she vaguely heard the panting sound of "ha~ha~" coming from her ear, she woke up in a start, and saw a row of sharp teeth on the top of her head, and a red tongue, she was startled , punched the black dog's head with all his strength, rolled and jumped up on the spot.A Lang was beaten by her and screamed, desperately trying to break free from the collar around his neck and seek revenge from her for punching him.

Behind it, the 19-year-old girl in orange clothes smiled easily while tugging on the dog's leash: "You're not welcome, you're right there, when will I send you a message?"

Cen Zhu smiled and said: "Since it's a oral message, it's natural that the listener will have a share."

Cen Zhu turned his head and looked around, and found that his black horse was gone, so he asked, "Where's my horse?"

Li Jingxi shrugged his shoulders and said: "Who knows, you slept so deeply, maybe you were taken away by some passerby! I can't tell, but you ran pretty fast! It took only two days and two nights to get around Such a big circle, hey, what do you want to do? You don’t want to go back to the barracks, do you?”

"Can you control it?" Probably because his identity was found out, and there was no need to hide it anymore, Cen Zhu was not very polite to her.Looking at the barren mountains and wild mountains around, where there would be passers-by, I very much suspected that the horse was let go by her on purpose.But no evidence was obtained.

Glaring at her angrily, looking at the tall and healthy white horse not far away, Li Jingxi seemed to have sensed her intentions, and immediately said: "That's my horse, don't try to use your brains."

Cen Zhu gave an uncommon expression, patted the weeds on his body, turned his head and left.Li Jingxi smiled leisurely, turned around and rode on the white horse to catch up from behind.

"Hey, are you tired?" After walking for a while, Li Jingxi asked her interestingly.

Cen Zhu had a cold face, with an expression of "You still ask me when you're tired?", and ignored it.

"Tch, what's fierce, I just want to see how long you can last?" Li Jingxi didn't care at all, and hummed leisurely on the horse, seeing that Alang seemed to be tired, he hugged him again. Come up, sit at the front, one person, one dog and one horse, following Cen Zhu at every step, just like the supervising army, feeling happy with the cool wind blowing on his face.

At the foot of a mountain, Cen Zhu suddenly abandoned the road and turned around to walk up the mountain. The horse couldn't move forward, so Li Jingxu had to stop and rein in, and called her: "Hey! You don't want to walk on the good road, go take the mountain road! Yes! You really want to have trouble with me, don't you?"

Cen Zhu ignored it, Li Jinghui had no choice but to leave the horse angrily, and led A Lang up the mountain to chase her.Seeing that he was about to catch up, the guy suddenly stopped, turned around, and ran down the mountain quickly.

Li Jingxi groaned inwardly, and wanted to arrest her.But the other party had a premeditated plan, bypassing her, and rushed straight to the place where the horses were tethered down the mountain.The speed was so fast that the back of her butt was on fire, and even Ah Lang couldn't catch up with her.

At the foot of the mountain, he jumped up, got on the horse's back, slammed the whip, "Drive!" and galloped to the road.

Li Jingxi chased him to the foot of the mountain, he was about to explode with anger, he waved his fists in the air,

"Come back to me! You ungrateful bastard!!!"

The big wolf dog also caught up at this time, and she kicked it away with all her strength, "You bastard is a bastard, you asked for it!"

"Damn it! Come back to me!"

Cen Zhuo ran for more than ten miles in one breath, and finally got rid of the two followers. She thought that when Li Jingxuan went out, there would be guards following him, so she didn't care.Continue on the road alone.

After walking for half a day, on the way, I met a team of no less than a hundred people in plain clothes, marching northward.Cen Zhu and Le Mahou were on the side of the road, looking at the battle, it seemed that they were holding a funeral for someone.

In the team, Cen Zhu saw Lou Manguan's uncle Lou Ren, and several counselors in the East Palace, all dressed in plain clothes, riding a black horse, with solemn expressions, as if they had been catastrophed.

Her heart skipped a beat, did something happen to Li Jingchen?

Not caring about revealing his identity, he rushed to inquire immediately, Lou Ren recognized Cen Zhu, overjoyed and said: "I thought Mr. Cen was taken away by Thief Gu, it must have been a bad luck, but I didn't expect Mr. Cen to come back safely. Now I'm finally relieved, and I can explain to my nephew."

After the Bell and Drum Tower incident, Cen Zhuo and Lou Manguan have become close friends. This time when he came to the front line, Lou Manguan wrote a letter asking his uncle to take care of Cen Zhuo.Seeing her return safely now, Lou Ren is sincerely happy for her.

Cen Zhu didn't answer in a hurry, but first asked him why he was wearing plain clothes?

Lou Ren replied: "Unfortunately, the son-in-law of the Eastern Palace was killed by a thief. I am rushing to northern Xinjiang to report the funeral to the Marquis of Dingguo under the orders of His Highness." Cen Zhu was slightly surprised when he heard that Tu Yunkai had died. Three confirmations: "You mean Tu's son-in-law is dead?" When Wu Jingchai killed Tu Yunkai, she was still insane and knew nothing about it.

Lou Ren nodded: "Tu Consort was tortured in the enemy camp, he would rather die than submit, and finally died for the country. All the soldiers of the three armies sighed and mourned."

Cen Zhu felt that there was an indescribable weirdness in his words.However, since the person is dead, it is meaningless to speculate.As long as it's not Li Jingchen, it's fine.

Lou Ren asked her how she escaped from danger, and Cen Zhu explained: "I am ashamed to say that I fell ill halfway, and the bandits mistakenly thought that I had tuberculosis, and they were afraid of being infected, so they abandoned me in the wilderness. Save me, I can save this body, and when I get better, I will come to find the army."

"That's how it is!" Seeing her sick face, Lou Ren was convinced of this, and said with emotion: "It's God's will, that bandit Gu was so cruel, he repeatedly tortured and killed the captured soldiers, and almost none of the captured soldiers survived. None of them were spared, but Mr. Cen escaped due to illness, so it's not auspicious person!"

Cen Zhu said embarrassingly, "I'm ashamed, because I've affected the whole army because of my spirit, I'm so sorry, I'm about to go to the barracks to plead guilty to Your Highness."

Lou Ren disagreed: "The truth? In principle, Master Cen, as a military supervisor, should not risk his life, but logically, I still admire Master Cen as a person. With all due respect, if I changed my subordinates at that time, I would follow suit. Master Cen did what he did. If you are a husband, you can’t stand up to save your wife, what kind of man are you!"

Cen Zhu was dumbfounded.Lou Ren has a bold personality, so he hurriedly said: "Don't blame Mr. Cen, because I heard Man Guan said that Mr. Cen has a good helper, a famous doctor in the capital, and he has been kind to him. That day, the book boy of Mr. Guan , with delicate features, excellent medical skills, and deep affection for adults, I probably guessed that it was Mrs. Ling. Although female relatives are not allowed in the army, there are no exceptions for women who are helpful to the entire army. For example, the empress dowager, the elder The princesses are all heroines of the female school, and they are in charge of the Chinese army, and their command is sure, which is a blessing to the three armies. Lou will never disclose it to the outside world. Don't worry, my lord."

Cen Zhu breathed a sigh of relief, cupped his hands and said, "General Lou understands righteousness, and I am very grateful."

Lou Ren waved his hand? There was no need for that, and Cen Zhu took the opportunity to ask, "Does General Lou have any news about his wife?"

"Madam Ling seems to have been slightly injured, but she has returned to the barracks safely."

"Injured? Why are you injured?"

Lou Ren saw that her expression changed in a hurry, showing deep meaning on her face, and said: "My lord, don't be excited. When I surrounded Gu Rentu, Mrs. Ling was being hijacked by rebels. Thanks to Lord Wu, he disguised himself as a bandit and sneaked into the enemy's house." Inside, when the two sides were confronting each other, they unexpectedly threw Gu Rentu down and held him down. Fortunately, there was no danger, and his wife was rescued, but his arm was slightly injured, and Gu thief was also captured alive on the spot. The rest of his men Fleeing to death, I was ordered to search the mountain for several days, and I have wiped out the remnants of Langshan."

Hearing that it was Wu Jingchai who rescued Gu Qing, Cen Zhu felt slightly puzzled, and thought to himself that the young master had feelings for Gu Qing, and with his protection, Gu Qing should not be in danger for a while.And from Lou Ren's tone, he didn't seem to know that Gu Qing was Gu Rentu's younger sister, that is to say, when Li Jingzhe changed the hostage, she didn't reveal her identity. A touch of sourness.

Afterwards, the two bid farewell, and Lou Ren showed him the position of the former army, and he could arrive there in half a day by riding a fast horse.

Cen Zhu continued to travel southward for more than ten miles, when he saw a person lying on the side of the road, Cen Zhu immediately got off his horse and saw a commoner woman, with disheveled hair and dirty face, lying weakly in the grass, but luckily she still had breath in her nose.Cen Zhu brought water, fed her to drink, and cleansed her face. He found that the woman was seventeen or eighteen years old and had a good appearance. He suspected that she was a girl from a nearby village, and she fell down by the road for some reason.

After a while, the girl slowly woke up, and seeing Cen Zhu's face showing fear, she screamed in panic, as if seeing a ghost.After Cen Zhu comforted him, his expression became "slightly more stable", but he was still trembling and unable to speak.Seeing that she seemed to be terrified, Cen Zhu comforted her gently, "Don't be afraid, girl, I'm not a bad person, and I won't hurt you."

Seeing her sallow and emaciated face, she seemed to be extremely hungry, so he took out dry food for her.The woman grabbed the steamed bun and put it in her mouth, but after eating half of it, she spit it out again, as if she couldn't swallow it.

Cen Zhu handed the water bag again, "Don't choke, drink some water first."

"Girl, what's your name? Where do you live? Why do you live here alone? Did something happen to you?"

The commoner girl's eyes were dull, and she immediately showed panic. Cen Zhu tried to pat her on the back, "Don't be afraid, don't be afraid, you are safe now, and I will protect you."

Unexpectedly, as soon as the words fell, the woman hugged Cen Zhu, trembling around her neck unceasingly, and faltered in her mouth: "Kill...people, kill...kill people!"

"Kill? Who killed?"

"A lot, a lot of people, a lot of people."

Hearing her slurred speech, Cen Zhu was extremely flustered, and couldn't bear to ask any more, so he said, "Can you tell me where your home is? I can take you home."

"Laojia Village." Cen Zhu pieced together the place name from her trembling lips and teeth. It seemed that it was not far from the former army camp, but it was not close to here. It seemed that she had traveled quite a distance.

"Well, since it's on the way, I'll take the girl back."

"No, I won't go back, I killed someone, I killed someone at home!"

In order to comfort her, Cen Zhu said, "Okay, if you don't go back, I'll take you to my house, okay?"

The girl was willing to ride with her. On the road, Cen Zhu slowly figured out her name. It turned out that her name was Lao Biao'er, and she was the daughter of a farmer in Laojia Village.Yesterday evening, a group of officers and soldiers broke into Laojia Village, claiming that some villagers were harboring bandits and would kill anyone they saw. They even wiped out more than 20 households in the village.Her parents and elder brother were also slaughtered, because she escaped by hiding in the haystack of the cowshed.Afterwards, the officers and soldiers chopped off the heads of everyone in the village, took away all the cattle and sheep, and set fire to the village. She took the opportunity to escape and ran for a day and a night, exhausted, and fell down by the roadside.

Cen Zhu's heart was as heavy as falling into an abyss. From her narration, she had roughly guessed the reason for the disaster in her whole village.These soldiers often commit crimes collectively in groups. If they cannot kill the enemy, they go to kill innocent people and use their heads as rewards to the imperial court.

Unexpectedly, after so many years, these atrocities devoid of conscience and humanity will see the light of day again!What's the point of those people like my father risking their beheading to fight for reason?If the blood of justice cannot wash away sin, what good is it to shed it?

In the evening, Li Jingchen was reading military books in the tent, when suddenly he heard a commotion coming from outside the tent, someone raised his voice outside the tent and called out: "Your Highness, please be the master of the people!"

She heard the voice vaguely familiar, and thought it was Lao Dun who had experienced auditory hallucinations for several days, until Yun Zhong came to report that Cen Zhu brought more than 20 people and carried more than a dozen charred corpses into the barracks.She hastily put down the book, tidied up her clothes, and moved outside the tent.

Cen Zhu ordered these headless charred corpses to be carried to the entrance of the Chinese army tent, lined up one by one, and many villagers who survived by chance, kneeling in front of Li Jingzhu, enumerating the sins of the officers and soldiers who killed the good and pretended to be meritorious. One-tenth of all the villagers in Jia Village were killed. Your Highness might as well go to Laojia Village to have a look. There are scorched corpses everywhere, like a hell on earth. Although bandits are evil, how is it different from bandits when they kill good officers and soldiers? Soldiers and bandits are really poor and vicious ghosts, the source of extreme evil, if you don't kill them, you won't be enough to anger the common people, if you don't kill them, you won't be able to command the entire army, if you don't kill them, you won't be enough to enforce discipline! Your Highness, please be the master of the people!"

"Your Highness, please be the master of the people!" The villagers headed by Lao Biao'er knelt on the ground, crying loudly.

As if he had been hit by a stick in the face, Li Jingchen tried his best to calm down and comfort the villagers, announcing on the spot that he would definitely find out the murderer and give justice to the villagers.

Back in the big tent, her footsteps were a little unsteady, she turned her head and growled at Cen Zhu, "What on earth are you trying to do?!"

Cen Zhu looked at her puzzled, "What are you doing? Naturally, His Highness is asking for justice."

"You carry so many corpses, do you really want me to uphold justice? Or are you deliberately making trouble so that I can't get down in front of the whole army!"

"Can't you step down? In the face of so many lives, you only care about whether you can get down?" Cen Zhu argued, "Could it be that these innocent souls are not as important as your face in front of you?"

"Could you stop being arguing?" Li Jingchen had tried his best to suppress his anger, "There is obviously a more reasonable way to deal with this matter. Now that you have brought all the dead bodies here, there is only one..."

"The only one? I would like to know what is the more reasonable way His Highness said? Is it to give some money away, or to make a big problem into a small one? Or simply, kill people and silence them!"

"Put away your unfounded speculations, and don't think that you are the only one who insists on justice. I say that the more reasonable way is not to condone and raise rape, but to minimize the damage of this matter as much as possible. Before you carry the corpse Before upholding justice, you should at least ask me first!"

"Ask you? If I say that the soldiers who committed the crime are all soldiers from the northern border, would you dare to bring them to justice one by one? Your husband is newly dead, and it's too late for you to comfort your father-in-law. How can you be willing to kill his soldiers?"

"you!!!"

"Give justice to this matter, or I will use the most vicious language to publicize the evil deeds of the Northern Border Army to prevent them from being ruined. I, Cen Zhuo, will not be a human being!"