Cangzhou beacon fire

Chapter 1 The Road to Purgatory
The sky was dark, dark clouds covered the sun, and there were faint thunder and lightning flashes, but there was not a drop of rain falling for half a day.

On the road from Jinxi to Yueguo, the hungry and thirsty Yueren dragged their tired steps and moved slowly eastward, lamenting one after another. This purgatory-like road back to the country is endless, and along the way, three yuan bandits burned and killed Looting and starvation killed countless people, and then the plague of corpses began to spread, and the number of dead increased exponentially.

On a certain section of the Jinxi Road, the returnees meander like a long snake. Wherever they go, the insects and rats are eaten up, and even the grass roots and bark are not spared. Their legs moved forward numbly like puppets, and they couldn't feel any vitality. The only thing that made them agitated was the field mouse that jumped out suddenly.

With a "bang", a sallow-faced and thin old man in the crowd suddenly stepped on the ground and fell face down heavily on the ground.

"Old man!" The wives who were supporting each other were so startled that they hurriedly lowered their bodies to inquire about the situation. The exclamation did not stop Yue Min who was slowly passing by. No one paid attention to the fallen man, and even turned to look Without a glance, the puppet still moved forward.

The old man's sunken eye sockets have been closed, and there is still a vague breath left in his nose.

Grandma shook the old man's body, and shouted in a hoarse voice: "Hold on, old man, get up quickly..."

No matter how grandma pushed and pushed, the old man remained motionless.

"We...haven't found our grandson yet." Grandma stopped pushing, and sat down next to the old man in despair, Nan Nan said.

"Tian'er..." Maybe the old man reacted when he heard the word grandson, struggling to look at his wife.

"Live...to live, you must...find...Tian'er..." The old man uttered his last words in a weak voice, and then closed his eyes forever.

Grandma sat beside her dead wife in a daze, and it took a long time for a teardrop to fall from her sunken eye sockets.

"Yes, there is still Tian'er..." Thinking of the lost grandson, Granny's dejected face gradually came alive, and there was a gleam of light in her eyes. She helped the old man straighten his clothes and said, "Don't worry, old man, I will definitely find Tian'er." son."

Then grandma got up on her legs and walked forward without looking back at the old man.

On the other side, a tired woman led her seven-year-old son and slowly followed a small group of migrants who moved east. They all head east, but their destinations are different. Some go north, some go south, and in the end there is only this small group of dozens of people still gathered.

"Mom, I'm hungry..." The boy looked at his mother with his dry mouth open. In the deep sunken eye sockets, the eyeballs had lost their original blackness and turned pale. His eyes were full of longing.

"Zheng'er, hold on a little longer, the water god will bless us." The woman looked at her son distressedly and comforted her, but can you believe this?She doubted herself.

"Mom, I'm really hungry..."

Seeing her son's sallow and thin face and pleading eyes, the woman hesitated for a moment. She looked around vigilantly, and secretly reached into her left inner pocket with her right hand, tore out a small piece of bread, and quietly placed it in her son's hand.

The miscellaneous grain noodles are not delicious, to be precise, they are terrible, but at this time, it is enough to satisfy the hunger. If the woman is not clever, the thieves would have snatched the bread.

As soon as the boy saw the bread, his eyes lit up, and he anxiously took the bread and started to gobble it up. The woman hurriedly covered her son's moving mouth, for fear of being discovered.

"You... why do you still have food! Give me some." A middle-aged man next to him found the boy who was chewing, pointed at the woman and begged weakly.

"Who has something to eat? Give me some, give me some!"

"I want it too, I want it too..."

All of a sudden, the hungry Yuemin bee chrysalis gathered around, and the pair of shining eyes formed a stark contrast with the sunken eye sockets, just like a little bit of cold light in the dark, staring at the woman's spine with chills.

"Please everyone." The woman's eyes were flushed, she protected her pocket with one hand, and her son with the other, begging in panic, "I just ordered this, and left it for my son."

The hungry and thirsty people didn't care about her, they rushed forward to snatch her after making a lot of noise.

The crowd came, and the woman held her son in her arms. She didn't want him to see the ugliness of the world, and the bread in her pocket was taken away in the chaos.

Seeing that someone had grabbed the cake, Yuemin, who was famine and demented, immediately shifted his target and surrounded the person who took the cake.

"The horse bandit is here!" A cry came from behind in the chaos.

When they heard about the horse bandits, everyone was startled and ran away one after another. Those who snatched the cakes didn't forget to stuff the cakes into their mouths, and the scene was a mess.

Everyone heard along the way that a gang of horse bandits came out of nowhere, killing anyone they saw, and blood flowed everywhere they went.

Looking at the chaotic scene, the woman was at a loss for a moment, her tired body was extremely difficult to take one more step, let alone escape.

However, she looked at her son, and her eyes slowly became firm.

"Zheng'er, let's persevere." The woman gritted her teeth, regardless of whether the son answered or not, she pulled her son up and quickened her pace.

Along the way, she had seen the horrors of corpses strewn all over the field, so much so that when she passed through the purgatory of blood corpses, she kept covering her son's eyes. That was the masterpiece of the horse bandits.

Dust and smoke billowed in the rear, and the sound of hoofbeats sounded like a reminder for death.

"Found another group of Yue country pariahs! There is an order from above, no one will be left, come on!" The scarred man headed by the horse bandit shouted at his accomplices behind him, waving a bloody machete.

"Ah!!!" More than a dozen horse bandits beside them clasped their legs, roaring and rushed towards the Yue people who were moving east.

Wherever the hoofbeats sounded, there would be screams and howls.

The bald eagles flew up from the bare tree trunks by the roadside and hovered in the air for a long time without falling. The screams of the eagles and the bloody howls and laughter were mixed together. It is no exaggeration to call it a purgatory on earth.

There was another thunderclap, and a flash of lightning pierced the sky, and it finally started to rain.

The cold rain was dripping, and the muddy woman dragged her son to avoid the bandits who roared past, and the fellow villagers around her fell into the rain one after another.

"Can you run away? Untouchables." A roar sounded from behind the woman, and before the woman had time to react, a knife light hit the woman's back.

"Ah!" The woman screamed, blood gushing out from her back, and when she fell down, the woman still did not forget to press her son under her body.

When he fell to the ground, the boy saw a fine horse leaping past, and also saw the ferocious and triumphant smile of the scarred man on the horse's back, and the bloody machete in his hand.

The bloody woman on her back tightly covered the mouth of her son below her with one hand, preventing him from making a sound.

Blood oozed from her mouth, and the woman leaned into her son's ear and said, "Zheng'er...don't make a sound..." The woman who was about to die knew that the situation was chaotic now, and if her son didn't make a sound, he might have escaped. .

The seven-year-old boy lay terrified in the rain, and the mother who was protecting him was gradually losing her breath, but the hand covering his mouth did not let go at all.

The boy looked at the dead mother on his body. He didn't know whether it was fear or the cold rain. His body was shaking constantly and he couldn't control it at all.

The screams had subsided, only the dripping rain and the neighing of the horses were left, which was especially ear-piercing to the boy's ears. He didn't dare to move a little bit, and he didn't dare to breathe out. Even though he was only seven years old, he still Know the consequences of being discovered.

"I remember that this bitch has a baby!" The words of the strong man with the scar sounded nearby.

At this moment, the corpse of the woman on the boy's body was picked away by the strong man with the scar with the back of his knife, and the boy saw the hideous smiling face of the scar again.

"Let me just say, there is a baby, hehe." The strong man with the scar licked the blood from the knife edge, and spewed out a mouthful of bloody phlegm. In his eyes, this boy was about to become a corpse.

The boy trembled and got up, looking around in horror, other horse bandits had also slowly surrounded him.

"Hey, I'll send you to reunite with your mother right away." The strong man with the scar looked at the boy with a grin.

"Ah!" The boy roared out of courage, and instead of running away, he clenched his fists and rushed towards the scarred man. He wanted to avenge his mother, but he was so powerless.

The horse bandits became interested and began to joke.

"Oh, this baby is still a bit bloody."

"Boss, be careful, don't get beaten to death by that little fist, haha."

"Oh, stop playing, boss, it's important to search for property."

In the heavy rain, the strong man with the scar pulled up the rope and adjusted the direction of his mount to avoid the children's attacks, like an old cat playing with a mouse.

The child chased and punched a few times with his small fists, but all failed, and finally lay on the ground panting heavily due to exhaustion.

"Okay, I'm tired of playing, here's a treat for you." The strong man with the scar put away his smile and raised the machete in his hand.

When the knife was raised and lowered, there was only a whoosh, the sound of sharp arrows piercing the air.

The strong man with the scar was stunned for a moment, and when he looked up, he found that the arm holding the knife had been pierced by a sharp arrow, dripping with blood.

"Ah!!" The strong man with the scar screamed in pain.

The arrow came from behind the leader, and all the bandits naturally looked behind the leader.

A hundred meters away, a young man in silver armor is riding a white horse, holding a bow in his left hand, majestic and majestic.

Next to the young man was an old man in black riding a black horse.

The young man is in his early 20s, fair-skinned and handsome, but the most impressive thing is the mole between the eyebrows.

"Two people? Cut it into nine hundred and ninety-nine pieces for me!" the strong man roared while enduring the severe pain in his arm.

At this moment, rows of cavalry behind the young man slowly appeared in the heavy rain with spears in their hands. Although it was in the rain, one could vaguely see the cavalry uniforms, with white armor on their bodies, and a blue feather stuck in the head of each horse. .

A crowd of white-armored cavalry glared at them, their auras so captivating that even the horse bandits' mounts were a little restless.

"Qingyu Cavalry of Yue Country!" The strong man with the scar shrank his pupils, ignoring the pain and exclaimed. When the surrounding companions heard the name of Qingyu Cavalry, they all trembled. They were the most valiant cavalry in Yue Country. , Rumor has it that they can compete with the Luo Guoqi Thirteenth Battalion.

The young man put away his bow, and stared at the scarred man with his handsome eyes. If eyes could kill, the scarred man would have died more than ten thousand times at this time: "Keep the one hit by the arrow, and not the other one."

With an order, the white-armored cavalry on both sides rushed out like a flood, all of them clenched their teeth and their eyes were like fire.

The rain had stopped, the sky was slightly bright, the child came to his senses, and the surroundings were already in a different scene.

The white armored cavalry are all like slaughter gods, and the fallen horse bandits will be shot a few more times by the white armored cavalry who are behind.

The child looked around in confusion, not knowing what happened.

When the sun came out through the clouds, the horse bandits were already cold corpses, and the only one alive was the burly man with the scar who fell to the ground and was dying. Get out of the way.

The handsome young man jumped off his horse and walked towards the heavily wounded burly man with the scar.

As he approached, the young man bent down and grabbed the bloody back collar of the scarred man, and dragged a long dent to the child. The hundred-jin man was like a light feather in his hands.

The young man threw the scarred man to the boy, stared at the boy and said, "Kill him."

The boy was trembling. He looked at the young man, then at the dying man with the scar, and took a step back. He didn't kill anyone before, so he didn't dare.

Bang Dang, the young man pulled out the saber from his waist and threw it in front of the child, his tone became more serious: "Take it up and kill him!"

The child took two steps back, shook his head aggrievedly, tears were already in his eyes.

"He killed your mother."

The young man's words shocked the child, and he turned his head to look at the place where his mother fell in the distance.

"mother……"

When the boy looked at the strong man with the scar again, his eyes had changed, with anger and murderous intent.

"Ah!!!" the child roared, quickly picked up the saber that was as tall as him, and pierced the scarred man's chest with a roar.

The strong man with the scar let out a miserable cry, tilted his head and closed his eyes, but the boy didn't stop, his roar was louder, and he kept slashing with his sword.

The young man, the old man behind him, and the group of white armored cavalry all watched silently, only the boy's mournful roar echoed in this purgatory.

When the boy stopped, the body of the strong man with the scar was already bloody.

The boy wearily threw away the sword in his hand, staggered towards his mother's corpse, and then lay down on the corpse and began to cry bitterly.

Yoshihisa
"Young master, is this baby with you?" The old man in black behind the young man drove forward, looked at the young man and asked.

The young man nodded and asked, "How many? Uncle Fu."

The black-clothed old man named Fu Bo took out a book from his horse's back and flipped through it: "Including him is one thousand and eighty-six."

The young man looked around, the blood mixed with the rain had stained the entire muddy road red, and there were men, women, old people and even young children among the corpses everywhere. Looking at this tragic scene, he could not help feeling sad from the heart.

Fu Bo put away his notebook and jumped off the horse, picked up the machete used by the scarred man and looked at it for a while: "Young master, the weapon is excellent, not like an ordinary horse bandit."

"It should be the Sanyuan Army pretending to be so devoid of conscience..."

"Hey, the new king doesn't care, our Zhong family's ability is limited..." Uncle Fu stood up and threw away the machete, sighing helplessly.

Yes, there are hundreds of thousands of people living in Jinxi Guiyue, they cannot be saved...

The young man withdrew his thoughts and walked slowly behind the boy, put his hand on the boy's shoulder and said, "Do you know who killed your mother?"

The boy turned back with sobs, tremblingly pointing at the bloody corpse.

The young man bent down to wipe away the tears from the boy's eyes, and said, "No, it's Sanyuan."

"Then who are you?" The boy looked at the young man in front of him vigilantly and asked blankly.

The young man straightened up, touched the mole on his forehead habitually, and replied confidently: "Zhong Yao."

Zhong Yao, the eldest son of Zhong Lin, the great general of the Yue Kingdom, in the year of his birth, his father Zhong Lin hired two famous physiognomy teachers to show him. The two physicists disappeared one after another not long after and have not been heard from again.

However, Zhong Lin did not give up on this unlucky child. Zhong Yao was sent by his father to the military camp for training since he was four years old. They thought that the unlucky Zhong's parents and sons were connected by their father's relationship. Only the soldiers of Zhong's family knew that Zhong Yao was the last one to walk on the training ground, and Zhong Yao was also the one who rushed to the front on the battlefield.

　I don't want to follow the trend, don't want to follow the trend, just want to quietly write a novel of my own style.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)