sinking into sand

The arrival of the messenger is indeed a signal, but it is not the signal of the refugee army in the distance, but the signal of the destruction of Daocheng.

Around noon, these people in official clothes finally showed their true colors and started going door to door, asking for money in the name of searching for suspects.

At first, the common people thought it was just a change of routine by the Liger Gang. After all, they often ask for money in various names on weekdays.I just complained a few times, so I gave it all.

But this time is different, these people come one after another.A family was walked by these people several times, and half of the money was looted, and the next group of people began to ask for jewelry, decorations, and even the clothes they were wearing.

Knowing this situation, many people hid their belongings and did not intend to give them away. Then those officials who were supposed to protect the local area began to use their knives and murder people from house to house.

If you don't give money, you will die.

Taking life as a threat can always squeeze out the last drop of oil and water in these people's homes.If you can't squeeze it out, then your life will be gone.

In the streets and alleys under martial law, the transmission of news among the people is also slow. Only the bandit camps near the outposts in the city can receive the news one step faster.

When the second wave of money grabbers left Zhou Qu's residence, both Ye Wanwan and Xun Er got wind of what was happening in Daocheng.

Xun Er felt chills all over his body, and his hands trembled so much that he couldn't even hold the letter that Zhou Qu brought back.Hong Fei has already died, and women have always been a kind of property in troubled times.By the time Zhou Qu went to the outpost with all his troubles, Hong Fei had already been taken away.The jewelry and clothes in the house were also looted, and the only thing left was this bloody letter.

He took advantage of the commotion in the city gradually caused by the murder before returning to the stronghold.It may be because the speed of these people's raids is limited, and there have only been two visits here.

Guan Lan and Ye Wanwan's expressions were extremely serious at the moment.They changed their countenance when these people came to the door for the first time.Xun Er didn't ask at the time, but at this moment, seeing the news that Zhou Qu sent back at the risk of his life, she couldn't tolerate her not asking.

"He......are they..." Xun Er's lips trembled, and he couldn't say a word.

"The Huns." Ye Wanwan said decisively in the room, "Sweeping and killing people, and finally slaughtering the city, is the usual method of the Huns."

As soon as this remark came out, everyone in the hall was shocked.Among the few people here, no one knows the fighting style of the Huns better than the King of the North.Since Ye Wanwan said so, there is no doubt about it.

"General Guan is stationed at Liaoding Pass! There has been no news of the Huns going south recently, so how could there be in the pass?!" After Ye Wanwan finished her deduction, she was instantly puzzled by her own deduction.She has been in Quehuo for a long time, and she is very familiar with the news from the north. She never believes that the Huns appeared in the pass because of the negligence of the Guan family.

She looked up at the others in the room. Guo Heng's face was unpredictable, as if he had already guessed.But Guan Lan didn't say a word, but he seemed to know a thing or two about this situation.

Ye Wanwan was irritated by this realization, she patted the table again, and angrily attacked Guo Hengzhi. "Mr. Guo! Regardless of whether everyone is still preparing for peace talks, we are all Han Chinese first! The Jian'an Rebellion has only passed more than ten years, and the hatred of the country and the family is just around the corner! The horse passed through the Liaoding Pass! Now, what are you still hesitating about?! Is there anything you can't say?!"

Guo Hengzhi was yelled at by Ye Wanwan, but he still didn't speak directly.He looked up at Guan Lan, who was also thoughtful, and asked, "This little friend, seems to have a guess too?"

Guan Lan is not Yu Sha, even if he understands, he is impatient to argue with these people, so he said straightforwardly: "I heard two rumors when I was traveling in the Central Plains."

"One, the northern palace did not slaughter all the Xiongnu who went south. These people intermarried with the people of the Central Plains in the hinterland of the Central Plains and formed their own new settlements."

"two."

The second rumor is obviously more appalling than the first one. Guan Lan opened his head, and then slowly raised his head to look at Guo Hengzhi: "In this dynasty and even the previous dynasty, if there is a war, there are often insufficient soldiers or laziness in combat. Therefore, in the past dynasties, there was a tradition of mercenary soldiers from the Rong people in the north. Many of these people moved to the hinterland of the Central Plains to survive after the war, and the Guanlong area even served as military residences.”

Guan Lan's expression is clear, as if he can see all the dirty secrets that people don't want to say.In front of Yu Sha, Guo Hengzhi still had room to deal with him, but with Guan Lan, he didn't know how to say a good word for a long while.

In the end, he could only sigh and acquiesced.

Ye Wanwan was so shocked by the truth that she didn't know what to say. She looked at Guo Hengzhi, and her mouth was full of vitriol: "Mr. Your family guarded the northern border of the Central Plains for you, and you ended up raising tigers in the Central Plains?!!"

Guo Hengzhi didn't want to say much about this matter, but after careful investigation, this hidden danger was not only the fault of the Xie Dynasty. In the past, when the kings of the dynasties were fighting, borrowing troops often happened.And not just the Huns.Khitan, Xianbei, and Qiang have long had their own gathering places in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and most of them are xenophobic. By the time of the Daji Dynasty, the local Han people had already been less than half.

This is not a problem that will happen overnight. The court knows it well, but there is nothing to do about it.It can only be said that the place where they occupy is not rich, nor does it pass through the two main commercial routes connecting the north and the south.In addition, if there is an extraordinary period, I am afraid that we will have to borrow troops again, so we can only let it go.

These long-standing disadvantages and helplessness, if you talk to Yu Sha, he will probably understand.But if you talk about listening to the Guan family, talking about listening to the northern princes who have been fighting with these Rong people outside the Great Wall for many years, you will not be forgiven.

Guo Hengzhi remained silent for a long time, and at the end, he had no choice but to bow to Ye Wanwan, his words of shame were self-evident.

Seeing the old man bend his back towards her, Ye Wanwan suddenly felt very tired.

The world is already in such chaos, but it can be even more chaotic.

She doesn't need an apology from this respectable old man, she needs to solve the problem.

The Huns appeared in the hinterland of the Central Plains, and the civil war must be stopped.The first job of the northern palace is always to fight against foreign soldiers, not to rule the Central Plains.

The current plan is to try to convey information to both Dingzhou and Quehuo, and naturally ask Fengcheng for help.In any case, these enemies who are raging in the Central Plains must first be driven out of Liaoding Pass, and then it is the question of who has the final say in the Central Plains.

After Ye Wanwan decided on a strategy, she began to communicate with Wu Jun, preparing to contact the people in the city and escape from Daocheng as soon as possible.

Just as she was discussing with Wu Jun, Guan Lan was silent for a while, and then suddenly spoke.

"What do you want to say?"

He looked at Xun Er and asked.

When he opened his mouth like this, Ye Wanwan seemed to have just remembered that there was another person in this room who seemed out of place.She followed Guan Lan's gaze, only to see Xun Er standing beside him, his expression tense, his body still trembling uncontrollably.

"Why are you calling her? Don't you think she's not scared enough?" Ye Wanwan frowned. "What can she say? She's been in Han for a long time, and she hasn't seen the Huns."

Rao Ye Wanwan said so, but Guan Lan didn't turn his head, he still looked at Xun Er, as if he was sure that she had something to say.

His attitude even made Guo Hengzhi beside him curious, wondering what this weak and ordinary girl with a ruined face had to say.

Xun Eryi was stared at by everyone, except Zhou Qu, who was unknown and looked at her with concern.The others looked at her either probing or impatiently.

Trembling uncontrollably on Xun Er, she remembered that she had a pipa in her hand that day at Fenghua Terrace on the Li River.It was her most trusted weapon, holding it, she even dared to use a commoner coat to brush off the faces of those nobles in the Lijiang River.

But here, she doesn't have the pipa she is familiar with, but only a piece of letter paper that Hong Fei sacrificed her life for.

Unlike these people, she is familiar with the general trend of the world and historical reasons.But she did have something to say, something she had to tell them.

"No...no...no..." Xun Er opened his mouth with trembling lips, and couldn't even utter a word.She dug her nails into the palm of her hand, and the pain brought some sobriety, not much, better than nothing.

However, Ye Wanwan had completely lost interest in what she had to say, she lowered her head, and started to discuss with Wu Jun the details of how to escape from the city.

Seeing her avoiding eyes on Xun Er, her heart twitched, and the courage she had accumulated so hard to speak out was gone, and she suddenly began to deceive herself as if comforting herself.

Forget it, what she knows may not be correct. Does she, a commoner girl, know better than these people in front of her how to deal with the current situation?

Forget it, just follow their decision and follow them.

At the moment when Xun Er's thoughts faded away, Guan Lan reached out and put his hand on her shoulder.

"Tell me." Guan Lan looked into her eyes, "Don't be brave, and don't give up on yourself."

Xun Er was stunned for a moment, and the feeling of panic seemed to fade a little.Looking at Guan Lan now, it seems that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Perhaps, indeed, for her now, it is too early and too far to put herself in the same position as them to think about problems.

But she vaguely remembered what Guan Lan had said to her.

Of course, there are things that people can't do, and there are things that people want to do but can't do, and they don't know how much they need.

Either endure, or change, just cannot accept fate.Of course, there is the easiest way.

Get someone to help.

Xun Er's mood suddenly became strangely quiet.She stretched out a hand, held Guan Lan's hand, collected herself, and then said what she wanted to say.

"...No...you can't go out of the city." She stammered and finished a sentence, "But...they...but...maybe not...not the Huns."

As soon as these words came out, Ye Wanwan frowned and looked up at her first, only to make Xun Er tremble with fright, and gripped Guan Lan's hand even tighter.

"It's not the Huns?" Ye Wanwan stared at her with unfriendly eyes, "Are you doubting my judgment?"

"No!" Xun Er answered quickly, she finished two words, and then began to hesitate,

"I... I have seen... I have seen the refugee army..." Xun Er stammered, "They...they are like this too."

As soon as the words fell, the person frowning became Guo Hengzhi.

"Girl, this matter is very important, don't think it over carefully." Guo Hengzhi said, his tone was very cautious: "I and the refugee army mostly fought in the tea and salt trade area. According to the reports submitted by the front line, although there are occasional harassment of the people. This move, but no one killed indiscriminately."

On the second day of Xun Er, listening to this venerable old man spitting out important news, and spitting out an informative report, he became sluggish.He hesitated, words of affirmation swirled in his throat, but he couldn't say anything.

Guan Lan squeezed Xun'er's hand, and said encouragingly: "Did you see it at my mother's place in Lijiang?"

Now that Guan Lan answered, Guo Hengzhi and Ye Wanwan couldn't help but pay more attention to this matter, and looked at it with scrutiny again.

When Xun Er saw this, he closed his eyes, turned his heart, and said everything: "Yes! It's the same! You may have never seen those people. They don't go out of the Lijiang River, and they only move west or south around the surrounding area. Set up camp after slaughtering villages."

What she said was certain, Ye Wanwan was a little convinced, but she considered the information from the Central Plains and the experience in the northern border, and still felt that the Huns were more likely to cause the rebellion.

She was noncommittal, but Guo Hengzhi thought for a long time and asked Xun Er a question.

"My lady, I have a question, I don't know if I can answer it." He looked at Xun Er and asked, and Xun Er immediately said that he was nervous again.Fortunately, his question is not tricky.

He asked what happened when he went north and approached Daocheng, and he often saw the banner of the Liger Gang on the hill near Daocheng.Meat Wen) day} more ⑦% 9> zero dance _ eight' bar dance [-] zero]

This is a question that has just been answered.

So on the second day of Xun, he told the news that he learned from Hong Fei today, that those flags were all forced by the Liger Gang to hang up in the cottages.

After she answered this question, it suddenly occurred to her that apart from Guan Lan, she also had an older brother who could act like a tiger.So he said swearingly that Yu Sha also said before that the Liger Gang and the refugee army are definitely related, and it is also related to the flag-hanging incident.

Guo Hengzhi's expression was unclear, he twirled his beard a little, and said in a deep voice: "Princess, maybe this girl is right. I'm afraid it's too late to leave the city at this time."

Ye Wanwan looked at Guo Hengzhi with the look that you must be sick, thinking that he might have lost his mind and gone crazy.

But Guo Hengzhi was unmoved, and directly uttered his guess.

"If it's just for the sake of my life, there is no need to massacre the city. If it was just the Huns who rebelled, there would be no such thing as before. At this time, most of the bandit camps outside hung the banner of the lion and tiger gang. It is difficult to tell who is the enemy. I’m afraid I’ll die on the way to help.”

"The refugee army and Rong Di in the hinterland of the Central Plains joined forces to attack the north together." Guan Lan finished his statement in conclusion, "undermine the peace talks, show the ability to the court, and induce Dingzhou to make a judgment and go ahead with the northern expedition."

"How can he be sure that the court will start the Northern Expedition after seeing him as a Hun soldier?" Ye Wanwan was very puzzled, "Shouldn't those people in Dingzhou see this wave of people cutting seats for the first time to separate themselves? "

"Because there is no basis for discussion." Guo Hengzhi said in a deep voice, "Once the Xiongnu soldiers show up, the imperial court's laissez-faire over the years and the blood feud of the Jian'an Rebellion will be liquidated together. Guan Jingyue does not need to negotiate peace, and can directly command the Central Plains. "

"The imperial court had to go north first."

"For kingship."