East China Sea dust

Several thatched huts were newly built outside Jinyang City. The thatch on the roof was blowing up and down in the cold wind. Every morning, someone had to climb up the roof with a wooden ladder to shake off the snow that was pressed on it. Otherwise, the thatched shed would be at risk of being crushed before noon.

Ao Zhan sat cross-legged by the fire, staring silently at the heavy snowflakes flying outside through the narrow crack of the door.

After nightfall last night, the wind and snow blew up, and the strange boy escorted him from the deep forest to the side of the hut.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one noticed, the boy stopped, quietly turned his head, and glanced at the series of footprints on the ground.Immediately, he shot like lightning, tore off the cloak that was originally on the man, and put it back on himself.

Pulling up the hood attached to the back of the cloak and covering it, Zhang Qinglan's face was immediately covered by a hat trimmed with a circle of soft fur, and only her sharp and thin chin was exposed.

Suddenly losing the heat source, Ao Zhan felt the cold air wrapping around his body, and shivered involuntarily.

Zhang Qinglan saw the other person's black face, the corners of his mouth curled up a bit, he raised his finger and pointed to the little fire light reflected from the crack in the door of the thatched shed next to him, and said softly to the man, "See you by fate."

The attitude is very natural, as if the two are not enemies.

From the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of the pig iron shackles hanging on his hands and feet, and the man's expression became serious... It's so cold that even the supervisor doesn't bother to come out of the city.Anyway, as long as there are shackles and blood curses on their hands and feet, they naturally don't worry that the captives will escape.

Ao Zhan's eyes were deep, he stared at the small half of the boy's exposed face, watching the thin lips open and close, and did not answer.

Nor farewell.

The young man disappeared, and before he finished speaking, he jumped out of the place with a whoosh.The back figure flashed several times in the dark world, and soon rushed to the distant city gate.

From a distance, Ao Zhan vaguely saw him standing at the gate of Jinyang City communicating with those soldiers in armor.

It seemed that a jade tablet was pulled out from the sleeve. The soldiers knelt down on one knee after seeing the decoration on the tablet, and the rest opened the city gate and let him in with respectful eyes.

It wasn't until the back of the young man was completely obliterated behind the city gate that Ao Zhan withdrew his gaze, turned around and pushed open the wooden door of the shed.

……

"General."

I felt someone pat on my shoulder, and then the shackles collided, making a few crisp knocks.

Ao Zhan looked up after regaining consciousness, and found that the deputy general who led the troops to fight was holding a piece of dry food, dragging his leg shackles and sitting down beside him, and said in a hoarse voice: "General, where did you go yesterday evening?"

As he said that, the deputy general extended his hand to Ao Zhan and handed a piece of rough cake the size of a palm: "This is the ration distributed by the supervisor yesterday. I hid a portion for you. You can eat it while it's hot."

The pancakes held by the young man had been baked with fire, emitting hot white steam, but they were tasteless, with a few pieces of black ash stained on them, which looked very shabby under the light of the fire.

Ao Zhan took the pancake from the opponent's hand: "Thank you."

Looking around, most of the people in the shed were nestled in the corners of the surrounding area, wrapped in a thin layer of faintly black quilt, sitting in twos and threes, with pale faces and dull expressions.

Only he and the lieutenant were sitting upright by the bonfire, the cold wind blowing in through the crack of the door, even carrying a few sporadic snowflakes.

At this time, the wind and snow were blowing outside, and the sky was so dark that it was difficult to tell whether it was day or night.

The deputy general looked at the tasteless pancake in his hand, looked around and sighed: "It's freezing cold, some brothers can't hold it anymore."

"If this is the case every day in the future, I am afraid that most people will not be able to survive the beginning of spring, and will..."

At this time, Ao Zhan's stomach was also empty, and he took a bite of the bread.Hearing the lieutenant choked up, he continued in a deep voice: "He will freeze and starve to death."

The lieutenant general was still young, so he couldn't help but complain when he heard the words: "The monarch fled before the war, leaving the city full of old and young women and children."

"As long as the monarch has the slightest intention to resist, we will not be besieged in the valley by Jinyang's army because of the shortage of food and grass, and finally end up in this situation."

The bloody scene of the fight with Jinyang flashed before his eyes, Ao Zhan frowned, and squeezed the pancake slightly with his fingers.

He was born in Jiangmen, and his family has assisted the monarch for generations and fought in all directions.

It's a pity that this monarch is a bloodless bastard. He met Jinyang's army at the border that day, and he led his troops to fight bloody battles for three full days... What he finally got was the news that the monarch took the initiative to hand over the city.

Ao Zhan laughed at himself, raised his hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.

At this moment, there was a sudden burst of gong beating outside the thatched shed.Different from the usual silence, the noisy voice seemed out of place in the whistling wind and snow.

The deputy general was still immersed in indignation just now, but now he heard the noise with a dazed expression: "What's the matter?"

The soldiers who were lying in the corner got up one after another, some of them were even wrapped in quilts, and looked out of the house with dull eyes.

The lieutenant took a few steps forward and carefully pushed open the door panel, and suddenly the wind and snow poured in, blowing the burning flames on the ground into chaos and sparks flying everywhere.

The thin robe on Ao Zhan's body was blown away by the cold wind, revealing a small piece of smooth muscle underneath.

Signaling others to stand by inside the house, Ao Zhan listened to the beating of the gong outside, and stepped out the door together with the lieutenant general.

At this time, the sound of the wind weakened, and half of the dark clouds piled up in the sky overhead also dissipated.The weak sunlight penetrated the clouds and fell on the snow, clearly illuminating the group of people standing in the middle of the open space.

Ao Zhan folded his arms and raised his eyebrows lightly.

In the center of the open space surrounded by thatched sheds, three large bamboo baskets covered with thatch were stacked on top of it.

There were several attendants standing next to each other. After placing the baskets on the ground, they put the burden on their shoulders aside, and then retreated to the two sides, with their hands in their hands, bowing their heads in silence.

Standing in the middle of the crowd was a young man wearing a snow-white fox fur with some plain patterns embroidered with dark blue embroidery thread on the cloth.I don't know if it's because of the cold weather or something else, but even though she was dressed warmly and thickly, her cheeks still had no color, and her thin lips were even pale with some bruises.

The man leaned half against the shed, grabbed a piece of straw and put it in his mouth, looking at everything in front of him.

The lieutenant followed Ao Zhan with a strange expression, stretching his neck and looking towards those Jinyang people, wondering which play they were singing again.

Seeing a group of people faintly surrounding him, a middle-aged man who had been following the young man finally stood up and shouted at Zhang Qinglan with a smile: "Third Young Master."

The man held a small gold stove inlaid with jade in his hand, wore a soft mink hat, and was followed by two respectful servants, all of whom were much more luxuriously dressed than the young man.

Before Zhang Qinglan could answer, the handsome man waved his hand, signaling to the guards who followed him to remove the thatch covering the basket.Turning to the captives standing around the shed, he said proudly: "The son of the first family in Jinyang is here in person, why don't you come out and kneel down to welcome the son?"

The voice fell, and there was a moment of silence in the snow.

Not only because of the long-standing grievances between Jinyang and Taiji, but also because everyone has resentment towards the prince of the enemy country.What's more, the discerning people present can see that although the middle-aged man is a "son" and "young master", when he looks at the young man, his eyes are mostly disdainful, and his tone of speech is mostly mocking.

Especially looking at the attitudes of the servants around, they treat him more respectfully than they treat the young man... It can't help but make people feel puzzled.

The man's words drew everyone's attention to the young man, and the angry eyes from all directions almost completely drowned the young man standing in the middle of the snow.

Zhang Qinglan lowered her eyelashes, her eyes drifted away, and she showed an unaffected look of being unscrupulous. She even hooked the corners of her lips at a certain Taiji soldier who spat at him, showing a pure smile.

Ao Zhan saw all this in his eyes, and his eyes gradually darkened.

As the thatch on the basket was lifted away with a wooden stick, the contents inside appeared in front of everyone——

I saw a basket of pancakes, a basket of rotting meat with indistinguishable colors, and a basket of rotten vegetable roots and leaves. They were randomly arranged together, which was particularly conspicuous in the ice and snow.

Most people turned green when they saw this, and the deputy general couldn't help but stepped forward and asked, "What do you mean?"

Seeing someone making trouble, the man with a big belly was not angry at all. Instead, he smiled and responded: "Of course it's freezing cold, my son understands that you are not full and warm, so I came here to bring you some food, It’s also good against the cold.”

Everyone looked at the things in the basket that were not as good as pig food, and their faces were very ugly.The deputy general was even more furious, spat out and said angrily, "It's just too much deceit."

"Third young master," the man seemed unaware of the lieutenant's roar, but he did not forget to turn his head to confirm with the young man: "Do you think so?"

Zhang Qinglan only remembered to raise her head at this time, but she didn't even look at the other party.There was only a random "um", which was obviously prevaricated.

Ao Zhan caught the flash of embarrassment and malice on the man's face, and then heard the man's slightly hoarse voice in the open space: "Then what are you waiting for? Why don't you hurry up and give the food to me?" All generals."

I saw the boy raised his hand and rubbed the tip of his nose which was flushed by the cold wind, but he couldn't tell whether he was willing or not, he stepped forward a few steps to the basket of dry biscuits and bent down.

Seeing that his fingertips were about to touch the bread, he only heard a "whoosh", and a stone came through the air, smashing hard on the back of the boy's hand, leaving a red mark.

Zhang Qinglan subconsciously withdrew her hand and got up helplessly.

Looking around, he found that many captured soldiers had already come outside the hut, holding stones picked up from the snow in their hands, and staring at him covetously.

Seeing his goal achieved, the man next to him stood aside with his arms around the stove, deliberately lowered his voice and said to Zhang Qinglan: "Third young master, this is the order of the head of the family... If you can't finish eating today, you can't step into the house .”

As soon as the words fell, the surrounding stones fell towards Zhang Qinglan like raindrops, leaving overlapping gray spots on the snow-white robe.

The young man's expression was dim and difficult to distinguish, he stood motionless in the middle of the snow field, but suddenly raised his head - stared straight at Ao Zhan's eyes, and blinked slowly, slowly.