The second story of the ancient sword II

The autumn wind was bleak overnight, and yellow leaves piled up all over the ground.When I woke up in the morning, the air had lost the dry smell of the previous few days. It turned out that it had been a little rain last night.Yi Ze finished washing and was about to go downstairs when he heard some noise in the next room.Standing at the door for a while, I saw a big fluffy tail sticking out from the door of the next room.Accompanied by Ahri's soft call, Ah Ruan soon appeared in Yi Ze's sight.

"Ah Ruan." Yi Ze smiled, "I got up really early today."

"Yize." Ah Ruan lowered his head, a little afraid to look at him, his eyes flickering.

Yi stepped forward and held Ah Ruan's shoulders, a large black bruise on his neck suddenly came into his eyes. "This, this...does it hurt?"

A Ruan shook his head, and said softly, "After dinner, let's go on the road early."

The two went downstairs one after the other, and the morning sunlight shone into the corridor, straight and bright.The corridor was silent, leaving only the footsteps of the two of them.

"Ah Ruan." Yi Ze hurried to catch up, "You...are you blaming me for last night..."

"No, it's not." Ah Ruan looked up, "It's just that Ah Ruan is not used to it. How could I complain about Yi Ze?"

Yi Ze finally showed his face, "I... I'm not used to it either."

After breakfast, the two of them set out on the road early.The weather was fine and the sun was warm.Ah Ruan regained his former vivacity, flying in the sky with Yi Ze's waist in his arms.There are quite a lot of mountains in this area. Looking down from the heights, the winding roads wind and wind, wrapping around the mountains like belts.Every green mountain is dotted with snowy wild camellias.

"Yi Ze, look over there!" Ah Ruan behind him suddenly saw a group of ragged people who were being driven by officers and soldiers, moving forward with loads on their shoulders.

"Let's go down and have a look!" Yi Ze stared into the distance, the mist rising in mid-air, it seemed that nothing was real.

Landed in the bushes a little far away from the team, and observed carefully, most of those people were underage boys, skinny, with no expression in their eyes.Pairs of feet without shoes, dirty and full of dirt.Most of the things carried on the shoulders are wood and the like, and those who are a little stronger will be arranged at the end of the team to push the carts carrying stones.The leading officers and soldiers always felt that they were walking too slowly, so they kept whipping them with whips.

"These people are so pitiful, why do they have to do such heavy work?" A cloud of melancholy gathered between Ah Ruan's eyebrows.

"Ordinarily, the people who do these jobs should be exiles or official slaves of the imperial court, and these children are not all criminals." Yi put his knuckles under his jaw, "Let's go further. "

The sunlight leaked from the layers of branches and leaves, and fell on Yi Ze and A Ruan. They followed the tail of the team and sneaked in the bushes.Ahri, who was walking in front, seemed to have noticed something, and motioned for them to follow quickly.Suddenly there was a dull tearing sound from behind.

"Oh, the skirt is caught!" A Ruan turned around and saw that the branch of a small wolfberry seedling on the ground was tightly hooked to her skirt.Yi stretched out his hand to break off the branch.

"Don't." A Ruan blocked his hand, "It's still so small, if you break off this branch, you may not live long, I'll just untie it slowly." After saying that, A Ruan leaned over and carefully unwrapped the quilt Wrapped skirt corners.

On one side of the bushes, a man in a black python pattern narrow-sleeved riding suit was sitting on a tall brown horse. He had fair skin, and a hollowed-out golden crown tied with black hair.Watching the scene ahead, a cunning smile flitted across the corner of his mouth.

"Is that the woman?" He tilted his head and said to the man beside him with the rhododendron on the bamboo hat.

"Returning to Your Highness, it is this woman, um... the word beauty is too mediocre to be used on this woman." Du Azalea man replied in a thin voice, "It's just...just...she has already..."

"Oh? Is that the man in front?"

"About...right."

"The man's figure..." The man on the horse squinted his eyes and tried his best to take a look, displeasure quickly stained his face, and his eyebrows frowned, "Isn't that the third brother?"

"Your Highness the Second Prince... I don't know the little ones, I don't know the little ones..." The Du Juanhua man hastily admitted his mistake.

"It doesn't matter." The second prince's frowning eyebrows quickly relaxed, "It's really easy to find nowhere to go! Send someone to follow them secretly, remember not to startle the snake."

Catching up with Ari, the road ahead gradually opened up to a small village, and the team also stopped to rest for a while.The two leading officers and soldiers sat down at a bun shop at the intersection and asked for some food.As soon as Yi Ze and A Ruan stopped, they saw many old and young women and children in ragged clothes rushing towards the entrance of the village.Some women immediately knelt down excitedly when they saw the officials who were eating and drinking, "Please, please, please, please let my son go home. There is not even a boy in the family..."

One of the slightly bloated officials stuck out his head and took a look, then kicked the kneeling woman, "Go away, go away, don't hinder me from eating!"

A group of dirty half-grown children swarmed up, and the surrounding smell was not very pleasant.Ah Ruan was overwhelmed by the sudden crowd, she turned her head and saw faces full of longing for the buns in the mouth of the official, and an inexplicable sadness welled up in her heart.

"Yi Ze." Ah Ruan grabbed Yi Ze's sleeve and shook it, frowning tightly, "Ah—" Before she could react, someone pushed her, staggered, and almost fell to the ground .

A hand passed through the crowd, grabbed her tightly, and pulled her to an open space with a complicated expression on her face. "The skirt is stained." Yi Ze frowned.

Ah Ruan lowered her head, and there were some mud marks on the hibiscus-colored skirt, as well as the child's handprints.Ah Ruan rubbed his chin and looked at the skirt for a while, then turned his head to look at those skinny and dirty children, and said, "Yi Ze, why did they all come here?"

The loud cry from behind made Yi hesitant to speak, and quickly looked back, those thin children looked eagerly at the older boys who were formed into a team to transport wood and stone, and kept calling "Brother. "

"Let's go!" The leading official raised his long whip and lashed the table twice. The sudden sharp noise made the begging woman back several steps.Seeing the team go far away, those women and young children had to kneel on the ground and cry loudly, and their voices resounded in all directions.

"Old lady." Yi stepped forward and helped an older woman up.The old woman didn't cry out, but two lines of muddy tears rolled in the corners of her eyes.Stretching out his hand to wipe two handfuls, he stood up tremblingly. "Old man's hands are dirty, son, don't..."

"It's okay." Yi said with a peaceful smile, "Can you tell me what happened in your village? Why are so many children sent to be young men?"

"Send it?" The old woman had an angry look on her face, "Who would send your own dolls to suffer? They were all taken away. You seem to be from a wealthy family, so how do you know the hardships of our poor family! Border There are wars every year, and the men are all dead, so they robbed these children to build the Immortal Linyuan... What kind of Immortal Linyuan is built, how can there be any immortals coming...to do evil..."

"Xianlinyuan?" Yi searched for bits and pieces of information about this word in his mind.

"Don't you know, sir? I heard it was built for the birthday of the sage. There is no man in the family, the land is barren, and there is almost no food..."

Looking at the stumbling back of the old woman, Ah Ruan held Yi Ze's hand thoughtfully and said, "Yi Ze, let's buy some steamed buns for them."

They brought a lot of money with them on the way to buy steamed buns, and they bought all of them from the shop at the intersection, so it would not be a problem if they thought about it.It is also a good thing to let everyone eat a mouthful of hot steamed buns.

Yi looked at the mud marks on A Ruan's skirt, smiled wryly, and bent the corners of his mouth, "A Ruan, listen to me, a steamed bun can only relieve a temporary emergency. They have not eaten for a long time. Those officers and soldiers who pass by dare to come forward and beg. If they distribute steamed buns, they will come up to loot them. What should we do? What should the store do? When things calm down, Ah Ruan will find a place to rest, and I will go there Can."

Yi was silent for a while, and looked up, the fields in the village had long been barren, the ridges of the fields were overgrown with weeds, and the ditches in the fields had long since dried up.Under the sun, the dry air is full of dust, and the village is full of shriveled and hungry people.

"You don't know that the two hundred prefectures of the Han family in Shandong, thousands of villages and thousands of people grow thorns. Even if there are healthy women who plow the plows, there is nothing to grow in the long acres." Yi Ze silently said, "The country will fall, and the people will suffer; the country will prosper, and the people will suffer. It's also bitter. It seems that it's all a joke..."

"Yize." Ah Ruan called him softly, looking up with sadness in his eyes, "I don't understand what you are talking about, but I think Yi Ze's heart must be the same as mine. So, how can we make them Not bitter?"

"How can we make them not suffer?" These words echoed in Yi Ze's ears, and infinite sorrow rose in his heart, and the sense of desolation quickly overwhelmed all his emotions.The common people are really like that rootless duckweed. When encountering tyranny, they can only drift with the tide and be fragmented.

That fatuous king is no longer fit to sit in this position, and the second brother is even more brutal.When the time comes, we will integrate the forces of all parties and turn the world around!I will eventually sit on that dragon chair, not only for Ah Ruan, but also for the common people in the world.For today, this scene will not be staged again.One day, thousands of miles of rivers and mountains will truly belong to my feet, so that the young can be taught and the old can be supported.

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Here Yi began to wake up.