Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 232: I'm Going to Die Today (3)

"Although the Southern Dynasty has a vast land and rich resources, and the total number of soldiers and civilians is dozens of times that of mine, everyone is indulged in leisure and entertainment, and their military equipment is not repaired. It is not easy to promote the Southern Dynasty to conquer Liao. The original Song Emperor Zhao You was a little courageous. He shrank back and refused to send troops to attack Liao." The voice paused, as if it was a pity for the Southern Dynasty, and then said, "Fortunately, Zhao You passed away, and the new emperor appointed Zhao Zhifu as his chancellor and Shao Wu as his privy envoy. Use Chen Dong again. Among the three, Zhao Zhifu first flattered Cai Jing Xingjin, and after he was able to participate in political affairs, he realized Shang's intentions and was devoted to embarrassing Cai Jing. According to the Qingliu of the Southern Dynasty, they are good at fighting with spirits, while Chen Dong is suave, aggressive, talkative, and unconventional. Both of them have many party members and are good at talking about soldiers. Start with people. Zhao Zhifu and Da Khan have an old relationship, if the general situation in the court of Song Dynasty is formed, and our court will use profit to lure it, and now that success is ahead, Zhao Zhifu will definitely push Song Dynasty to conquer Liao Kingdom in the north."

This Mr. Han knew the important officials of the Southern Dynasty like a few treasures, which gave the Kingdom of Jin a lot of advantages in dealing with the Song Dynasty.Wanyan Zongbi nodded and said: "Thank you, sir. I will make arrangements to make friends with the courtiers of the Song Dynasty. Please take care of me about contacting the Han army."

Wanyan Zongbi stood up, took his leave respectfully and left.He had met Han Ningshuang several times a few years ago, and he could not forget this woman since then.For the past month or so, the Han army has coerced the people everywhere, their momentum has risen sharply, and there is also a discussion of an alliance.Hearing that Miss Han was going to return to Liaodong, Mr. Han persuaded the fourth prince to marry the Han family, which not only brought the power of the Han army to the Kingdom of Jin, but also served as a powerful leverage for the fourth prince to compete for the Khan throne.The Jurchen aristocrats can be at the head and shoulders of the princes, but once the Han army camp is loyal to him, they don't have much choice.

Xu Detai and others left Taibai Mountain, pretending to be smuggling merchants, traveling all the way overnight, and heading north along the Huntong River.On this day, they came to a village, and all the Han troops stayed in private houses separately.That night, Liu Zheng was on duty, when he heard a slight sound, his heart moved, he gently pulled out the horizontal knife, and followed the sound to the courtyard.But I saw a rope hanging from the branch of an old elm tree. A woman in plain clothes was stepping on a bench and slipping her neck into the rope.

Liu Zheng secretly thought it was bad, and shouted: "No way!" The woman stepped on the ground in panic and fell from the bench, but her neck was hung in the rope ring, and she was suddenly out of breath, like a swing. swing'.Liu Zheng hurriedly stepped forward, ignoring the suspicion of men and women, hugged the woman's waist and legs, and lifted them up.The woman struggled desperately, and the two fell to the ground together.

At this time, someone shouted in a low voice: "What's going on?"

Liu Zheng looked up and saw that Zhao Xingde, Du Chuijiao and others were already standing at the door, pointing to the ropes hanging from the beams and saying: "She wants to commit suicide," and then looked at the owner of the house who was peeking out from the main room, and distinguished, "I just came here and rescued her." At this moment, Liu Zhengcai looked down at the woman who wanted to die, her face was pale, there was a red mark on her neck, and her clothes were quite neat, not like a slave.

Seeing this scene, Zhao Xingde hadn't spoken yet, but he heard someone scold behind him: "You bastard, you've disgraced my Zhang family." He frowned slightly, turned his head to look, but the master's family came out with their clothes on Yes, the old man in his 50s has gray hair.Zhao Xingde and others were standing around with weapons in their hands, but the old man didn't dare to go forward, looking at the woman with a gloomy expression, he just kept cursing.The woman rescued by Liu Zheng sat on the ground with a look of despair.

The old man scolded for a while and told the woman to go back to the house by herself, but the woman didn't respond, so she cupped her hands and said to Zhao Xingde: "My daughter-in-law is suffering from insanity, please let the old man take her back Go to the room." Without waiting for Zhao Xingde to agree, the old woman beside him rushed up with a few servants and twisted the woman's hands and feet, but the woman seemed to wake up suddenly, struggling desperately and crying at the same time Shouting: "Let go, let me die." Zhang Ruo was crazy, she cried loudly, and struggled desperately, making a fuss in the yard.

Several soldiers stood in the courtyard looking at each other, Liu Zheng couldn't bear it, walked up to Zhao Xingde, and said in a low voice: "Boss, this woman hanged herself in the middle of the night, there must be something wrong, since we have met, can't we just take care of it? "At this time, the old woman suddenly raised her hand, and slapped her hand so hard that blood was drawn from the corner of the woman's mouth.Zhao Xingde's face darkened, and he shouted: "Stop!"

The old woman was instructing several servants to drag the woman into the room, she didn't pay attention to Zhao Xingde's shout.But Liu Zheng got the permission, and came out in response, the scabbard repeatedly slapped the arms of the servants to save them.The woman was leaning against the old elm tree panting, the old woman looked at Liu Zheng with an angry face, and saw the unsheathed knife in his hand, and dared not scold each other, but the old man next to him said: "Guest officer, this is My Zhang family's family affairs, why are you doing this?"

When Xu Detai heard the commotion, he also rushed over with his people, and seeing the 'chaos' in the yard, he also asked, "What's going on?"

Zhao Xingde pointed to the woman, and said in a deep voice: "This woman wanted to commit suicide, but was rescued by my brother. My younger brother was thinking about it, so I decided to save her to the end and ask what happened." He spoke easily, Xu Detai smiled wryly in his heart, and secretly said, I am burdened with the burden of Wanjun, but you are busy minding other things. The Han army set up mountains and camps, while looting houses, and occasionally doing things for the heavens. In the current situation, Zhao Xingde wants to meddle in other things He couldn't dissuade him, so he could only stand by and watch.

Zhao Xingde frowned, and said to the woman in a low voice: "Sister-in-law, you must have suffered some grievances in your life and death. Since you asked my brother to save you, you might as well tell the grievances. You have also seen it, and we are all wronged." The bandit who is in exile, pays attention to doing justice for the heavens, if there is a grievance, I will help you get justice." Although he was determined to reach out to take care of this nosy matter, he still slightly concealed his identity in his words.

The owner of the house stood in the yard, secretly regretting that he was greedy for money to let these evil guests stay, he didn't dare to scold Zhao Xingde, he just cursed at the woman: "Bitch, you are shameless, but my family is shameless. "Liu Zheng's face darkened, he pulled out half of the horizontal knife, and shouted: "Shut up." The old man felt his heart skip a beat, and he stopped talking immediately, secretly said: "This group of people will not seriously kill people. Like a gangster in the ocean."

Seeing this, the death-seeking woman was silent for a long time, then suddenly knelt down on the ground, desperately kowtowed towards Zhao Xingde, her voice was booming, all the soldiers on the sidelines showed sympathy, Xu Detai also sighed inwardly.

Zhao Xingde hurriedly asked Liu Zheng to help her up, but saw that the woman's forehead was bloody and bloody.Liu Zheng is a man of pity and tenderness, so he immediately patted his chest and said, "Say, if there is any grievance, we will avenge you." The woman thanked him, sobbing while narrating, it turned out that the woman's husband had already She died, and her husband's family forced her to remain a widow.Just three days ago, a group of Khitan soldiers passed by, and when the leader saw the widow, he humiliated her forcibly, and said that the woman was his slave, and he would do it three days later. After finishing his military duties, he will take her away when he comes back.The family did not dare to disobey, several servants watched her all day, for fear of getting lost, and when the Khitan soldiers returned, they offered the widowed daughter-in-law with both hands.

The woman sobbed and cried, all the soldiers could only hear their eyes crack, Liu Zheng pounded his fist on the tree trunk, and cursed: "Bastard!" Zhao Xingde's face turned cold, and he looked at it coldly The old man glanced at him and said in a deep voice: "How many Khitan troops are there, but they will be back tomorrow?" Kneeling down together with the men and women who were standing in the courtyard, weeping for their father and mother, their voices were ten times more miserable than that of the woman just now, as if someone had It was as if the knife was on his neck.

Seeing the dawn, the family was making such a fuss, and there were movements in the neighbors. Zhong Twelve, who was next door, didn't dare to come over to have a look, but eavesdropped through the wall, thinking to himself: "Couldn't it be Lao Zhang? Has the family been robbed? Tsk tsk, is it possible that the thieves are going to 'rape' his daughter-in-law again?" Unknowingly, she swallowed her saliva and pressed her ears against the wall, feeling itchy.His wife asked from behind: "Master, what's going on?" Zhong Twelve waved his hands behind him vigorously, signaling the ugly monster not to interrupt.

Du Chuijiao smiled and said: "I'll kill the Khitan soldiers to avenge your daughter-in-law, what do you beg for mercy, old man?"

It doesn't matter if he doesn't speak, but when he speaks, the old man is even more mournful, crying loudly: "My mother!" He knelt down and kowtowed to Zhao Xingde: "Master, please forgive me, please forgive me!" Zhong Twelve, who was eavesdropping next door He also staggered and fell to the ground, his face was pale, and he murmured: "It's over, I'm going to die, I'm going to die." Standing up while leaning on the wall, his hands and feet trembled unconsciously.

Looking at the chicken feather-like chaos, Zhao Xingde felt a little strange, and was about to ask, but Xu Detai sighed and said: "Mr. According to the rules, as long as any Khitan soldier dies, the nearby villages will be slaughtered, so that our Han army has no choice but to be wary." It must be said that the Liao court's tactics were extremely vicious, and the Han people in many villages did not dare to help the Han army, and even desperately Prevent the Han army from killing the Khitan near the village.

"Hero, if you kill a Khitan man, all the elders in our village will pay for their lives. If you kill him, you will kill more than 300 people in the whole village." Old people with freckles, women with babies in their arms, and men in their prime all began to beg for mercy from the thieves in the courtyard.

This was the darkest time before dawn, and the dark night was like dried blood, covering the earth heavily, and even the eastern sky did not reveal a ray of light.The voices of the common people begging for mercy were particularly harsh, Xu Detai's face was gloomy, the soldiers looked at each other, Zhao Xingde stood in the courtyard, the old man and his family in front of him were still kowtowing, the woman who wanted to die was ashamed, her eyes were ashen. A bleak despair flashed in him.