Late Tang

"How far is Dengzhou?" The rain fell on Lian Hua'er's goose face like a cow's hair, soaking in her hair and tattered clothes.

There are endless crowds on the road, like a huge army advancing.They are old and young, dragging their families with their mouths, carrying luggage, pushing small carts, and staggering forward with support from left to right.The road soaked by the heavy rain, like the flour poured with too much water, became a mess.Countless feet stepped on it, cars ran over it, and suddenly the mud became even muddier, completely turning into a swamp full of traps.

Everyone walked forward in the rain, crying and shouting from time to time.Some people suddenly fell down while walking and couldn't get up again.Most of those who fell were old people, and most of them were hungry.The old people are weak, drenched by the cold autumn water, and there is no food along the way, so they can't walk.Their relatives were crying beside them, but people on the road were already used to such a situation, and even became numb.

Along the way, there were too many fallen people, and there were such corpses everywhere on the roadside, and one could be seen every once in a while.

Lianhua was leaning on a wooden stick in her hand, and there were bursts of hunger pains in her stomach, and she felt that her whole stomach was sour.If it weren't for the stick in her hand, she would have almost passed out on the muddy road several times.

Shaking her head to wake herself up, Lianhua pushed up her loose hair, revealing a smudged face.Looking at the profile, this is a long goose face with a good shape. If the mud on the face does not obscure the original face, she must be a beautiful woman.The body is a little thin, and most of it is covered under a simple raincoat strung with large leaves.

But it can still be vaguely seen that this is a young girl, and the bun on her head indicates that this should be a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl who has not yet left the court.For some reason, he followed the crowd of people walking on the road alone.

"It's not far away. We just passed Mount Tai. Go east along this Wenshui River and you'll reach Qingzhou. Once you reach Qingzhou and go east, you'll be Dengzhou after Laizhou." The younger boy said.The boy was wearing some coarse cloth clothes, his black hair was casually tied up in a bun, and a wooden stick was inserted, without even a cloth towel.On the muddy ground, he simply rolled up his thin trousers and tied them tightly to his knees.A pair of straw sandals broke the first belt, so he simply took off the sandals and tied them to the cloth belt around his waist.Walking directly in the mud with a pair of bare feet.

The boy looked to be only fourteen or fifteen years old. He was as thick as a calf, and his whole body was tattered, but he carried a long cloth bag on his back, which contained two spear-like objects.That's what Lian Hua'er guessed, the cloth bag on the young man's back is very precious, no matter where he goes, he never untie it, and he never took it off and opened it.Lotus can only guess based on the shape that there may be two long spears inside.But looking at the straps of the cloth bag that were tightly strung on the boy's shoulders, it seemed like two heavy things.

"Dengzhou is really as good as everyone said. When you arrive in Dengzhou, you can eat enough and don't have to go hungry?" Lianhuaer asked again.

"I heard that's the case. Some people in our Shouzhang County fled famine and went to Dengzhou. That was last year. Later, I heard that their family stayed there. In May, the man from that family came back for a visit. , rode a tall horse, and came back wearing silk and satin. When he came back, he brought back a few carts, which were full of grain and cloth. The man was an orphan when he was young, and he grew up eating snacks. I gave birth to a girl from the same village. During the famine last year, I couldn’t make it through. I said I was going to Dengzhou to find an aunt who married in the early years. Who knew that after arriving in Dengzhou, a general was recruited as a soldier, and then followed the general He went to the battlefield and fought for a few times, and he made a lot of military achievements and became a team leader. When he came back this time, he went back to his hometown with a lot of food and cloth to the people in the same village, and then sent his father-in-law The family went to Dengzhou again. Some time ago, I heard his father-in-law wrote a letter to Shouzhang’s relatives, saying that Dengzhou is doing well now, and let them all go to Dengzhou.”

When the boy said these words, his eyes were full of light, which was a kind of yearning.

When Lianhua'er listened to the young man's words, his eloquence was extraordinary and very elegant, so he couldn't help but admire him even more.She was originally a maid from a wealthy family in Yunzhou, and the young lady who usually waited on her was also invited to invite Mr. Xixi. She followed by, and she also knew some characters and arithmetic.Maybe this young man's family used to be a family of officials, but maybe his family has fallen, Lianhua guessed.

The two met on the halfway in Yanzhou. At that time, Lian Hua'er got separated from the owner's carriage on the road, and was helpless and lonely like a poor stray puppy.The boy caught a snake at that time, and was preparing to stew the snake in a broken earthen pot, but he couldn't make a fire no matter what.Not only did the wet tree branch fail to catch fire, but it caused a lot of smoke, so that the boy in the ruined temple had to escape, and then they met.

When the boy saw the lotus, she was still wearing clean clothes, and she was spotless, but the pear blossoms were covered with rain.The boy couldn't help being startled at the time, and asked in a daze, "Can you cook with fire?"

The girl was moved by the boy's simple and honest appearance, so she stopped crying helplessly, followed her into the ruined temple, and helped him cook the pot of snake soup.When the fire was being lit, the young man just sat beside him and looked at her stupidly, secretly looking at her from time to time.

The two shared the pot of snake soup. Although there was no seasoning, the two enjoyed it very much.

When the boy learned that the girl was also a fellow of Shouzhang in Yunzhou, he couldn't help becoming more cordial.The girl was going to go to Qingzhou with the head of the family to seek refuge with relatives, but she got lost on the way. "I'm going to Dengzhou, just passing by Qingzhou. If you believe me, you can go with me. I'll take you to Qingzhou first." The young man said this at the time, and Lianhua agreed without any consideration at that time. She just felt that This boy is trustworthy.

The two arrived at the border of Zizhou from Yanzhou all the way, as long as they passed through Zizhou, they would be Qingzhou.

After staying for a long time, there is something special between the two of them.

Every night when it was dark, Lianhua would sleep next to him. At first they were far away, worried about the difference between men and women, but later, Lianhua got closer and closer.One day when he woke up in the middle of the night, he found her snuggling up to him with her arms tightly around his waist.At that time, he lay there listening to her breathing, for a long, long time, finally he suppressed the impulse in his thigh.He told himself that he should be a gentleman, and at this moment, no matter what the reason was, he couldn't have any wrong thoughts.

Later, he placed the cloth bag that he always carried with him between the two of them, and silently separated them.Liu Xiahui can keep his arms in check, but he is afraid that he will not be able to control himself.In the cloth bag were two iron guns that he never left for a moment.He believed that seeing these two iron guns, he would not do anything out of line.

Lianhua has a head of jet-black hair, which is shiny and black. The young man thinks that this is the most beautiful woman he has ever seen.Especially her skin is very fair, her body is a little thin, but she is very slender.Especially the place that should be big will never be small, the chest is full, and it looks even more attractive under the thin figure.And her waist is very thin, it seems that he can hold it with both hands as long as he stretches out his hand.Several times, he had the urge to reach out and hold the willow waist of the lotus.

A few days ago, a private school teacher with a walking stick also passed by them for a few days, and then fell asleep one night, but never woke up the next day.When they were together, one day the old gentleman said: "My fair lady, a gentleman is so good, you like this girl, but why do you always reject her thousands of miles away?"

He hesitated for a long time, and finally said a word: "Why is the family?"

The old man looked at him in surprise, opened his mouth to say something, but in the end he let out a long sigh and said nothing.The next day, the old man never woke up again, and he would never know what the old man wanted to say at that time.

It was another long night, and they were lucky. At the foot of a mountain by the roadside, there was a temple that had collapsed. From the looks of it, this temple seemed to be destroyed when Wu Zong exterminated Buddha.But for those passing refugees, whether it is the emperor or the gods and Buddhas, it is extremely far away at this time.It would be a great thing to have a ruined temple in this bad weather.

The boy took the lotus and found a corner in the ruined temple. They found some branches and leaves and an old table in the ruined temple and opened a fire. The gentleness of the fire made them feel much more comfortable, even temporarily. Take away the discomfort caused by hunger.

The two leaned together as before, and as always, the boy put his gun pouch between them.The exhaustion of the day hit, and they fell asleep quickly.

"Ah!" Lianhua's scream woke the young man up.Through the dim light of the fire in the temple, he saw four strong men with vicious faces approaching the lotus flower, with obscene expressions on their faces.

The young man pulled Lian Hua'er behind him and glared at the four men.

"Little bastard, it's none of your business. If you are sensible, hand over the girl, and I will give you a play after the grandpas have played. If you are not sensible, don't blame us for being rude."

The other said viciously: "What are you talking about with him? Just knock this kid out. After we have played with this little lady, we will just roast this kid. Look, this kid is quite strong, just big enough for us." Have a meal. Damn, people are almost starving along the way."

In the ruined temple, apart from them, there were dozens of other refugees, but at this moment, no one came forward when they saw this happening.On the contrary, when those few people said they were going to kill the boy and eat the barbecue, there were actually a few people's eyes revealing expectations.

The young man picked up the gun bag on the ground, and said coldly to these villains: "I have two guns, one is called the Breaking Formation Overlord Gun, and the other is called the Tiger Roaring Tooth Gun. Now, I will give you one The choice is, would you rather die under the Spear of the Overlord, or the Spear of the Tiger Roaring Tooth?"

The boy's gaze was cold and ruthless, completely opposite to the way he treated Lianhua.Looking at these villains, he has already sentenced them to death in his heart!

"Hahaha! Boy, you don't even look at the person you are bragging about. In front of us, you are not afraid of the strong wind flashing your tongue. If you kneel down obediently to us now, kowtow thirty times, and slip through our crotch, perhaps We can spare your life, boy. If the grandpas are in a good mood, we will eat meat later, and you can still drink soup."

Before he finished speaking, he saw a sudden afterimage flashed by, and there were a few whirring sounds, and then the pretending man stopped abruptly.

There was a sudden silence in the temple, and only then did everyone see the young man take a few steps back.But after looking carefully, he found that he stepped back a few steps and was still standing in the same position as before.Only then did everyone understand that just now no one saw clearly that he had advanced a few steps.

The young man still had a cold expression on his face. He retreated to the original position, turned around, and pulled the panic-stricken, pale lotus closer, embraced her whole body in his arms, and held her face Press it in front of your face.

Lian Hua'er was in a state of confusion, nestling against the boy's chest, listening to the slightly rapid heartbeat, her own heart was beating faster and more violently.

The other people in the temple still haven't figured out what's going on, and they don't know why, why the four villains suddenly didn't speak, and they still stood there like statues.Just when everyone was still confused, the villain who spoke just now suddenly fell backwards, and the whole person fell to the ground on his back with a bang, motionless.

Immediately afterwards, there were three more bang bang bangs, and the other three villains also fell one after another. They all fell to the ground on their backs, motionless.

At this time, some people with sharp eyes who were close at hand suddenly discovered that there was a small red dot between the eyebrows of the four people.That spot of scarlet was the blood that slowly seeped out.The boy just now pierced the four people's eyebrows in an instant, not only killing four people in a row, but also making them unable to react until they died.

Everyone was horrified, and when they looked intently at this moment, they saw that there was a big black iron gun in the hand of the original boy, and they didn't know whether this gun was the Overlord Spear or the Tiger. Howling tooth gun.

But it wasn't until this moment that they discovered that what the boy asked just now was actually true.

Feeling the eyes of the people in the temple cast on him, the young man glanced at him in a blink of an eye, and immediately made those refugees who were planning to eat meat and drink soup horrified, immediately kowtowed like garlic, and begged for mercy.

"Get out!" The boy snorted coldly.

A group of people in the temple were pissed off and scrambled to escape.There was a bolder man, dressed in extraordinary clothes, who seemed to be the son of an official. When he fled to the door, he stopped and asked from a distance, "I don't know the name of the young hero yet!"

The young man hugged the lotus in one hand, slammed the iron gun in the other, and shouted coldly, "Wang Yanzhang, the iron gun, was born in Xiayunzhou. I am going to Dengzhou. If you have any ideas, I will be waiting for you at any time."

"Don't dare, just ask the young hero's name, and make him famous for the young hero in the future, don't dare to disturb, leave!" After saying the last scene, he turned and disappeared into the dark rainy night.

(To be continued)