Jinghong Tower

Chapter 442 Desert
At this time, He Mingyue, who was being missed by Lu Chang, was tied up and standing in front of a man.

"Tell me, who sent you?" the man shouted.

He Mingyue stared with a pair of innocent big eyes, looking aggrieved: "Master, no one sent me here, I just happened to pass by."

The man snorted coldly: "Passing by? Do you think I can't tell that you are from the Central Plains? Which Central Plains woman would run to the desert."

He Mingyue sighed: "To be honest, Master, I am indeed from the Central Plains. My family has fields in the countryside and a shop in the city. Although we are not rich, we are a well-off family."

"Then why did you come to the desert?" the man asked.

He Mingyue smiled bitterly, "I never dreamed that I would come here one day. I was sold by my stepmother and her adulterer. I tried to escape several times on the road, but was caught every time. I was good at martial arts and injured their men. They hated me so much that they sold me to a camel caravan as a slave. I followed the caravan into the desert, and then encountered sandstorms. While those people were busy with their own affairs, I managed to escape. But I was too thirsty and hungry, so I mistakenly entered the master's tent."

The man looked at He Mingyue's lips that were cracked due to lack of water, and her face that was slightly rough due to the scorching sun and wind and sand, and he believed her words a little more.

In the desert, women from the Central Plains are very valuable, especially beauties from the south of the Yangtze River. Ten camels can only be exchanged for one. Although the woman in front of him looks disheveled, she is still quite pretty after washing and dressing up.

"Someone, come and fight her."

At the man's command, the ropes on He Mingyue were cut. Before she could relax her numb limbs, a bearded man punched her.

He Mingyue dodged and the big man threw punches as fast as the wind, but she dodged them all. She seized a flaw in the big man and punched back. The two fought for less than twenty rounds. He Mingyue was finally defeated and was knocked to the ground by the big man. She struggled for a few times but was unable to get up.

The big man was very proud and said to the man, "Captain, this little girl has good skills, she must be strong enough in bed."

The man nodded and said, "The Queen is in need of someone, so send her over as well."

The big man was stunned and wanted to say something, but facing the man's sharp eyes, he swallowed the words back.

The next day, He Mingyue and more than 20 other women were thrown onto camels and walked towards the depths of the desert.

When they set up camp at night, He Mingyue was placed together with the women.

They were now free, not tied up, and able to move around the camp.

There was endless yellow sand all around, and they didn't even dare to go too far away to urinate, let alone escape.

Each of them was given a bag of dry food and a bag of water. They were already starving, so they wolfed down the food to fill their stomachs, and only then did they have the energy to gather together and talk in a low voice.

"Do you know where we are being sent?" He Mingyue asked.

The women all shook their heads. Only one girl who looked the youngest said, "I heard them talking about a snake."

Another woman was shocked: "Oh my God, are they sending us to be fed to snakes? I heard there are a lot of rattlesnakes in the desert."

There were very few women who were not afraid of snakes. The thought of sending them to feed the snakes made them all tremble with fear, and some even began to sob quietly.

He Mingyue had observed their appearances a long time ago. These women, like her, were all Han Chinese. Even if they were not from the Central Plains, they were Han Chinese from the northwest.

"I was sold here by my stepmother, what about you?"

In He Mingyue's career, her stepmother was like a brick, moved wherever she was needed. In fact, He Mingyue was the third generation of Hejia Village. Both her parents were alive. She was the most favored child in the family since she was young. When He Ran formed the Ran Army, she was the first batch of top students selected. For this, her father happily killed both pigs in the family and invited all the villagers to drink and eat meat.

However, the stepmother joke never gets outdated. Once she started it, others immediately followed.

The little girl who heard the snake earlier said, "I was also sold here by my stepmother. I also heard my stepmother tell the gangster to sell me as far away as possible."

He Mingyue touched her little head and asked, "Where are you from, what's your name, and how old are you?"

"My name is Mingming, I'm ten years old, and I'm from Jincheng. What about you, sister? What's your name and where are you from?" said the little girl.

He Mingyue was stunned. Mingming?

"My name is Yueyue. What a coincidence, I have a sister named Mingming. I am from Henan, but my father does business in Xi'an, so I followed him to Xi'an."

The little girl's eyes sparkled, as if she saw a relative: "Really? Sister has a sister named Mingming? My name was given by my mother. She said that her life was too hard and she wanted me to live a bright life, so she named me Mingming."

At this point, the light in the little girl's eyes disappeared, and she lowered her head: "But I was sold here."

He Mingyue stretched out her arms and embraced Mingming: "Don't be afraid, as long as we are alive, there is hope. One day, we will all live a bright and beautiful life."

A woman nearby snorted coldly: "You talk nicely, but we are not sure whether we can survive until tomorrow night. Who knows who among us will be the first to feed the snake."

Hearing her say this, the women couldn't help crying again.

He Mingyue took a look at her and saw that the woman was about twenty-three or twenty-four years old, with delicate features and a bit of worldly air in the corners of her eyes and eyebrows. It was obvious that she came from a prostitute.

He Mingyue didn't bother to pay attention to her and said calmly: "Anyway, I won't be sent to feed the snakes. As for you, it's hard to say."

The woman glared at her fiercely: "What did you say? Say it again!"

He Mingyue: "If your ears don't work well, just cut them off and stir-fry them to make a dish."

The woman stood up suddenly, rolled up her sleeves and started to tear He Mingyue's hair. Another woman sitting next to her quickly grabbed her and said, "Xi Que, forget it, don't bother with this country girl who has never seen the world."

He Mingyue: We all agreed that we were all here to be slaves, so why are we still dividing us by whether we are village girls or not?

The noise here attracted the attention of the men. A big man shouted at them, "You bitches, why are you making so much noise? If you keep making noise, I will kill you and feed you to the eagles!"

He Mingyue recognized the big man as the one who had fought with her yesterday. On the road, she heard others call him Master Wu Si.

The woman named Xi Que glared at He Mingyue and cursed in a low voice: "I'll let you go this time, but if you dare to mess with me again next time, I'll skin you alive." He Mingyue patted her chest, she was so scared.

The women fell silent again, and the only sounds in the camp were the men's laughter.

Mingming leaned close to He Mingyue's ear and whispered, "Sister Yueyue, Xi Que was not sold here by a trafficker. She said that she and Hua Mei used to serve the king."

He Mingyue understood that these two were sent to the Long Snake Camp because the Dark Lord had gotten tired of playing with them.

That’s right, the snake they called was not to be fed to snakes, but to the Long Snake Camp. The destination of their trip was the Long Snake Camp.

He Shaolin found out that the Dark Lord was going to send a group of women to the Changshe Camp, whose leader was Wu Dongming's second son Wu Ju.

Wu Ju abducted Empress Xiao and made her his concubine. The Dark Lord not only did not punish him, but on the contrary, he sent her gold, silver, jewelry, and precious vegetables and fruits from the desert. Empress Xiao hated Hu women and Tartar women, so Wu Ju asked the Dark Lord to buy Han women to send to the Changshe Camp to serve Empress Xiao.

There are no women in He Shaolin's team, and He Mingyue feels that no one would be more suitable than her.

Therefore, He Mingyue was "successfully" captured. She did not hide the fact that she had martial arts skills, and the calluses on her hands could not be hidden from the eyes of experts. It would be more suspicious if a woman who could survive alone in the desert did not have martial arts skills.

The man yesterday was Liang Feifan, the leader of the Divine Eagle Battalion. He was a close confidant of the Dark Lord Xing Dashan. When Xing Dashan was the general of Zhangye, Liang Feifan was his deputy general. The two were as close as brothers. They rebelled together and became horse bandits together. Until now, the Divine Eagle Battalion is still the personal guard battalion of the Dark Lord Xing Dashan. Wherever the Dark Lord Xing Dashan is, there Liang Feifan and his Divine Eagle Battalion will be.

He Mingyue took the initiative to tell Liang Feifan that she knew martial arts. Liang Feifan asked Wu Si to fight with her. He Mingyue lost to Wu Si in twenty moves. In Liang Feifan's eyes, although she knew martial arts, her martial arts skills were mediocre, and she was just the right person to be a martial maid.

He Mingyue felt a little regretful that she still couldn't meet the Dark Lord.

However, the purpose of this operation is Wuju, so it doesn’t matter whether he meets the Dark Lord or not.

The starry sky in the desert is extremely vast, and the stars in the sky are as numerous as the grains of sand in the Ganges. He Mingyue lay on her back on the warm sand, and the sound of her even breathing came to her ears.

What a child he is. He can fall asleep anywhere.

When thinking of Mingming, He Mingyue thought of another Mingming.

Mingming had left Beijing long before she came to the desert. She didn't know where Mingming had gone. At that time, the head of the He family was sending troops to the northwest, and the Jinyiwei were also paying close attention to the northwest. Therefore, He Mingyue thought that Mingming had gone to the northwest. But later, she also came to the northwest. Among the secret lines that contacted her were Hongxiu and another man she had not known before, but Mingming was not there.

I don't know where Mingming went.

For some reason, He Mingyue felt that she might never see Mingming again.

He Mingyue knew very well what the five words "never see you again" meant. From the day she joined the Jinyiwei, she had been prepared.

She looked at Xiao Mingming who was sleeping beside her. It was better to be a child. They were carefree and could sleep so soundly even if their lives were hanging by a thread.

The next day, the camel caravan continued to march deeper into the desert. In the evening, they finally saw an oasis, which was the base of the Long Snake Camp.

The oasis is not big and you can see the end at a glance. It is better to call it the back garden of Changsheying than an oasis. Of course, there are no flowers here, only a small river and green trees on both sides. But for them who have eaten sand all the way, this place is like heaven.

While waiting for the handover, the women ran to the river to wash their faces and hands. Magpie and Thrush even took off their dirty outer robes, wearing only their inner clothes, and washed their hair by the river. Their thin clothes were wrapped tightly around their bodies, revealing their plump figures. The surrounding soldiers all looked over here, and some even whistled.

Xiao Mingming subconsciously blocked He Mingyue behind him: "Sister, bend down, don't let them see you."

He Mingyue did not hesitate. She bent down obediently and hid herself behind Mingming.

The soldiers' eyes swept over Mingming. How could such a thin and frail little girl compare to the coquettish thrush and magpie?

At this moment, Wu Si and a woman walked out of the tent. The woman had fair skin and dark eyes, but her eyeballs and hair were black. It was obvious that she had both Han and Hu ancestry. Such mixed-race people were common along the Silk Road.

Wu Si said flatteringly, "Miss Ah Hua, all the women who came this time are here. See if you can find anyone you like."

He Mingyue tried hard not to laugh. This girl's name was actually Ahua. Which naming expert came up with this name?

Ah Hua's eyes swept over these women one by one. When she saw Xi Que and Hua Mei, her face was full of disdain. Finally, she set her eyes on Xiao Ming Ming and frowned: "Why is there such a young one?"

Wu Si said hurriedly: "It's rare to see Han women these days. It's not easy to get so many of them together. Although this little one is young, she can do any job. It's not bad to be a little maid. Hehe, don't you think so?"

Ah Hua snorted coldly: "So they are all random people. No wonder, all kinds of random people are sent to Madam."

When she said "a mess", she glanced at the thrush and the magpie and it was obvious that she was talking about them.

Wu Si was embarrassed. Empress Xiao wanted thirty people, but after all they managed to gather together, they could only get twenty people. In desperation, they had to bring those two bitches along as well.

At this time, He Mingyue just straightened up. Wu Si saw her and suddenly became alert. He quickly said to Ah Hua, "Oh, oh, look at my memory, I almost forgot. This time, Liang Yingzhu specially picked someone who knows martial arts. Don't worry, girl. I have tested her. She is quite good at martial arts and strong. Just assign her any heavy work."

Wu Siyi pointed at He Mingyue and said, "I'm talking about you. Why are you standing there like an idiot? Come over here and show it to Miss Hua."

Ah Hua was really interested. Seeing He Mingyue's tall and fit figure, she nodded with satisfaction and asked, "Is she reliable?"

Wu Si grinned and said, "Don't worry, Miss Hua. This is the desert. She is a Han woman. Even if she has martial arts skills, she can't escape. It's impossible to be unreliable, don't you think?"

Ah Hua snorted and pointed at He Mingyue and the other seven or eight women: "You guys follow me."

Wu Si hurriedly asked, "What about the others?"

Ah Hua said unhappily, "I only want these few, you guys can handle the others."

As soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers around him smiled happily. What does "let's see what happens" mean? Of course, it means to become a camp performer.

Their Long Snake Camp was too far away, and the captured women were divided up by other camps before they even arrived here.

At this moment, a clear voice came: "I want to take someone with me. If it doesn't work, then I won't go either."