Defend the Tang Dynasty

Chapter 1 Deadly Story

Under the setting sun, the wind blows.

Dust danced wildly over the abandoned beacon castle, blowing up the tents, rolling up the bonfire and smashing it towards the dilapidated manger.

A black horse was scalded by sparks, terrified in pain, broke free from the rein, galloped wildly, and disappeared in the sandstorm in the blink of an eye.The remaining two horses neighed desperately as if encouraged, and circled around the manger tied at the end of the bridle.

The wind in the vast sea can really kill people, it can roll up people and throw them several miles away, and they will be smashed to pieces.

A few breaths ago, the barbarians who were sitting around the dry well to warm up the fire did not bother to chase the black horse that had escaped. Some braved the wind and dragged the goods they had unloaded before to the earth wall, and some were in a hurry to lead the horse. A camel dozing on the ground.

In the earthen hut, the barbarian with the machete heard the commotion outside, whispered something to the gray-clothed boy who was laying blankets, then quickly put on a cloth towel to cover his mouth and nose, opened the door and rushed out.

The raging wind rushed in with sand and gravel.

The gray-clothed boy was caught off guard, and was choked upright by the wind and sand. Even the black scarf that wrapped his head was blown off, and he quickly used his body to resist the bolt tightly.

A pair of eyes stared at him in the dark corner: "Why did you shave your head too, are you a monk?"

The gray-clothed boy brushed the dust off his body, walked over to open the cover of the qi death wind lamp, and lightly pulled the wick inside.With the dim light, a face somewhat similar to the boy in gray appeared in front of his eyes.

He was wearing a weird wide-brimmed high-top cowhide felt hat and a black fur fur. His youthful face was covered with dust, and his eyes were extraordinarily bright and clear.Although it was tied tightly like a big zongzi, it gave people a kind of calmness that was incompatible with their age and situation.

"You are the monk." The gray-clothed boy leaned over and took off the fur boy's hat, playing with it curiously.

"I'm not a monk." The fur boy smiled and asked, "Do you like it? I like it for you."

"Why did you shave your head if you're not a monk?" The boy in gray patted the dust off his hat.

"If you keep your hair too long, you will get lice. It's better to shave it off."

"I see."

"Why did you shave?"

"Because you shaved it, so I want to shave it too." The boy in gray hated the rich and powerful the most. Got it, thank you."

The fur boy asked in surprise, "You're learning from me!"

The boy in gray raised his arm, touched his unaccustomed head after shaved, and asked, "Han Ping'an, don't you think we are very similar?"

"Hey, if you don't tell me, I really don't care. There is a little resemblance, but it's only a little bit."

"Don't worry, it will become more and more similar."

"How do you say that?" Han Pingan asked suspiciously.

The gray-clothed boy put on Han Ping'an's weird felt hat, and said seriously: "You are going to die, and when you die, I will be Han Ping'an."

Han Pingan was stunned, and asked in surprise: "You want to kill me and then pretend to be me?"

The boy in gray nodded and looked at Han Ping'an's fur, thinking that this fur must be very valuable.

"Don't look, even if you take off the young master's fur and put it on!" Han Pingan didn't expect to encounter such a thing, and emphasized: "There are also accents, living habits, and even walking postures are different. , it is full of loopholes, you are not afraid of being seen by others."

"It makes sense. Fortunately, you are a lunatic. You have neither friends nor relatives in Yele City. People don't bother to talk to you on weekdays, so how can you pay attention to these things. Of course, I will also be careful. After entering the city, talk less and talk more. Pretend to be crazy, and after a year or so, the fake will become real."

"Are you planning to play a spy war?"

"What spy war..."

"You still don't understand." Han Ping'an moved his body with difficulty, and asked curiously, "How old are you this year?"

"Sixteen, one year older than you."

"If you are a sheep, tell me, are you my father's baby born outside, otherwise we wouldn't look so alike. I didn't expect, I really didn't expect that my old man with thick eyebrows and big eyes would be so flirtatious. Not only did he carry me outside Raised Xiaosan, and gave me a half-brother."

What thick eyebrows and big eyes?
What little three?
The gray boy felt slightly bewildered, thinking to himself that this person was indeed as crazy as in the legend.

"I know why you took the risk. It must be my father who pulled up his pants and refused to recognize anyone. He didn't care about your mother's life and death, and caused you to fall into the grass and become a horse thief. But it's none of my business. The wrong has its own debt. , you should go to my father."

"..."

"But even if my father can't forgive you, you can't tear up the ticket. You must know that blood is thicker than water. We are half brothers. If you kill me, it will be brotherhood!"

This is where and where!
The boy in gray stared straight at him, unable to keep up with his jumping thinking.

"Brother, why are you in such a hurry, don't kill me, okay? I'm only fifteen this year, and I haven't married a woman yet, and I haven't tasted a woman. If I knew this would happen, I should have agreed to Uncle Six. His family Although the girl was born of an orchid, she looks like an orchid. But when the lamp blows, she slips into the bed, just like us Tang Dynasty girls."

Thinking about women when he was about to die was really heartless.

No wonder everyone in Yele City called him "Han Sancrazy", and no wonder his servants called him "Crazy Young Master" behind his back.

The gray-clothed boy didn't want to listen to his nonsense anymore, so he interrupted: "Han Ping'an, you're thinking too much, we're just somewhat similar in appearance. I have a father and a mother, and it has nothing to do with your family."

"You are not my father's baby outside, so my father offended you?" Han Pingan's jaw was a little itchy, and he lowered his head and rubbed on the hemp rope that tied him.

"No."

"That's trying to make money. You want to kill me so that you can pretend to be me and inherit my father's property."

Han Pingan thought for a while, then shook his head again: "But my good-for-nothing father is an upright official, and he didn't have much salary, and I have squandered his salary all these years. Even if he secretly saved some private houses Money, it’s not up to you to inherit it. You must know that I am a concubine, and there is Dalang Erlang above me.”

A lunatic is a lunatic, and what he thinks is really different from that of ordinary people.

The gray-clothed boy opened his eyes and couldn't help laughing: "I'm not looking for your family's money either."

"Then what exactly is it?" Han Ping'an looked at a loss.

"This is my business and has nothing to do with you."

"You can't be a spy of Dashi, you want to pretend to be me and sneak into the city, and spy on my Tang army!"

The boy in gray was too lazy to talk nonsense with a lunatic, so he leaned over to pick up the cloth bag, took out a naan bread from the bag, tore off a small piece, stuffed it into his mouth, and chewed slowly.

Han Pingan was a little anxious, and asked: "Even if I don't have any relatives and friends in Yele, if you pretend to be me, others can't see the flaws, but my father will definitely be able to. You are not afraid that my father will see the flaws and chop off your head Hanging at the gate of the city?"

"Your father can tell, after all, you are his son, but dead people can't speak."

"You not only want to kill me, you also want to kill my father!"

"If your father and son are not dead, what should I do with Han Pingan?"

"My father was also tied up by you?"

"Not really, but he won't survive the sun setting tomorrow." The gray-clothed boy finished eating the naan bread in his mouth, and said in a familiar way: "Han Ping'an, you're actually not that bad luck. At least your mother died early. , and the other relatives are all in their hometown in Luozhou, otherwise it would not only be the father and son who died, but the whole family would die."

The death of the whole family is really nothing at the border.

But it's creepy to come out of the mouth of a 16-year-old, and say it with such conviction.

Han Pingan didn't expect him to be so vicious, and said with a sad face: "I don't want to die, I just want to live in peace. Even my father thinks so, otherwise he won't let me eat and wait to die, let alone give me Name it Ping An."

The gray-clothed boy said flatly, "But this is the Western Regions, and this is the vast sea. It's not a place to live in peace."

The vast sea is not a sea, but a wasteland.

During the war, this was the battlefield where the armies of Tang, Tubo, and Dashi fought.

Usually, this is the military buffer zone between the Tang Dynasty and Tubo, Dashi and the Turkic and Turkic ministries on the other side of Congling.

There is no government office, no royal law, no city-states and villages, and no people here, only desperadoes of various ethnic groups who burn, kill, and loot.

Honest and kind people can't survive here, only the treacherous and evil can survive here.Even the Sogdian caravans traveling back and forth between Dashi, Western Turks, and Tubo tribes will show their fierce looks when they enter the vast sea, and they will rush to plunder without hesitation as soon as they see those who are alone.

"The vast sea is not very peaceful."

Han Ping'an nodded, and then changed the subject: "Actually, it's not the first time I've come to Hanhai to play, nor is it the first time I've been tied up. Do you want to know how I was tied up last time and how I escaped?"

The boy in gray took a sip of water and asked with a smile, "Want to delay?"

"Worried about me running away?"

"Can you run away?" The gray-clothed boy looked at the rope on his body, thought that if he wanted to pretend to be him, he needed to know him better, and said with a smile, "Let's listen."

"That was in August five years ago. I just came to Yele from Guishu with my father. A Hu merchant said that someone had captured a litter of wolf cubs. I was very curious. I wanted to buy them and raise them to see if they could be tamed. , so I asked Li Er to go out of the city to look for it. In the end, I met a fugitive from the frontier army. He brought a baby older than me, and neatly tied me and Li Er."

Han Pingan licked his lips, and continued: "They put a knife on my neck, but they didn't take my life, they didn't ask for money, they didn't even rob me of my water and dry food, they only asked me for five sea catches from the yamen. The document is the kind of reward notice with a portrait."

"What do you want a sea arrest notice for?" the gray-clothed boy asked mysteriously.

"I also wondered at the time, but saving my life is the most important thing, so I asked Li Er to go back and look for it. Speaking of which, Li Er is an idiot. Naturally, I said in front of the fugitive that I should not disturb my father. But he really didn't tell my father after he returned. Just ran to the gate of the city so stupidly and secretly tore off a few sea arrest notices to redeem me."

"That servant of yours is stupid enough, what happened later."

"I never thought that the fugitive kept his word and let me go as soon as he got the arrest notice. After asking my father, I found out that the reason why he wanted the arrest notice was to atone for his crimes."

"How to atone for the crime?"

"Because in the 12th year of Tianzheng, Mr. Zhongcheng...that is, the Jiedu envoy in charge of our four towns in Anxi, learned that there were many fugitives in Yele Town, and some frontier soldiers were committing crimes. Afterwards, they all fled into the vast sea. The wind cannot last, Master Zhongcheng was furious, and immediately ordered the fugitives who have repentance to make atonement, as long as five fugitives are killed, the past crimes will be forgotten."

"Understood, the fugitive with the baby wanted to exchange his head for extrajudicial favor."

"What do you understand!" Han Pingan glared at him and explained, "You must know that those are the heads of five fugitives from the Tang Dynasty, excluding the horse thieves in the vast sea and those barbarians who committed crimes in my Tang Dynasty. , that is to say, you can’t cut off a few heads casually to make up for it.”

Naturally, the Western Regions belonged to the Tang Dynasty, but the Western Regions were mainly Hu people. There were not many real Tang people, and there were even fewer fugitives from the Tang Dynasty.

It is not an easy task to find and behead five fugitives from the Tang Dynasty in such a harsh climate, such a vast area, and such a dangerous sea.

The gray-clothed boy came to his senses, and said in a deep voice, "If you want to gather five heads, at least you have to kill fifty horse thieves."

Han Pingan sighed: "Not to mention killing people is easy, but it is difficult to survive."

"Finished?"

"Nope."

Han Pingan smiled slightly, and said unhurriedly: "After a year, I forgot about that. Suddenly one day, a thirteen or fourteen-year-old boy knelt at the gate of the city holding a roll of notices about sea arrests." There are five human heads beside him, as well as some waist tags, sword shields, bows and arrows that can prove the identity of the heads."

"He was dressed in ragged clothes, with a gray face, dull eyes, and blood stains all over his body. Maybe those heads were not handled well, and several of them were rotten. Maybe he hasn't bathed for a long time, his body smells bad, and he doesn't even blink when he cuts people on the battlefield. None of the scouts are willing to approach."

The gray-clothed boy couldn't help asking: "The son of the fugitive?"

"Well, if I didn't look carefully, I almost didn't recognize it."

"And later on."

"I recognized him, or rather she."

"Why is he not his?"

"She is not the son of the fugitive, but the daughter of the fugitive. Maybe the people in Hanhai are too bad. Her father was worried that horse thieves would see her as a girl, so he made her dress like a boy, so that I was They didn’t notice when the father and daughter were tied up.”

The lunatic was obviously trying to buy time for his life, but the story he told was quite attractive. The gray-clothed boy laughed to himself, but asked, "What about later?"

Han Pingan sighed lightly, and said solemnly: "I not only recognized her, but also a human head next to her. Later, a school captain who went to identify the human head also recognized it. It was the escaped pawn. It's her father's."

"She killed her father!"

"My father questioned her, but she just didn't open her mouth. How did her father die? It was all buried by the wind and sand in the vast sea. No one knows unless she tells me."

"Then did your father let her go to the city?"

"She came back with a sea arrest notice and five fugitive heads. Besides, her father is a fugitive, and she is not a fugitive. My father has no reason not to let her enter the city. It's just...just like her Unlucky people are not easy to accommodate, although what we need most in Yele Town is a woman, but no one is willing to take her in, and no one dares to marry her."

"She even dared to cut off her father's head. If it were me, I wouldn't dare to marry her either."

"In fact, she didn't just cut off her father's head. It is estimated that half of the other fugitives' heads were cut off by her and her father. As for the other horse thieves... During the years of fleeing in Hanhai, she Together with her father, I don’t know how many people have been killed.”

The gray-clothed boy couldn't believe that there was such a woman in the world, and frowned slightly: "She dares to kill!"

Han Ping'an confirmed very seriously: "She not only dares to kill, but also knows how to kill."

This story was a bit weird, and the boy in gray didn't want to hear any more, so he asked coldly, "Is it finished?"

"No, there's the finale, and this finale has something to do with you."

"What's the big ending, what does it have to do with me?"

"Of course it matters, because I took her in, and now she is helping me kill people, and she is right behind you." Han Pingan looked at him like an idiot, with a smile that was not a smile.

The gray-clothed boy was startled, and turned his head subconsciously.

Suddenly, I found a woman in black with something like an eye mask hanging around her neck. She didn't know when she quietly entered the earthen house and stood behind her like a ghost.

However, he didn't see the face of the woman in black clearly, and before he even had time to shout out, the woman in black hugged her head.

Immediately afterwards, there was a chill on the neck, and blood spurted out!

He didn't have time to feel the pain at all, and his eyes were full of fear from the heart.

(End of this chapter)