Kaifeng Monster

Chapter 59
The moonlight of the Shang Dynasty was far more distant than any moonlight Zhan Zhao had seen in his life.

A huge fuzzy cold moon in front of the head seems to be scattered by the tentacles, and it becomes thinner as it gets closer to the edge, and finally merges with the dark gray night.

After walking for a long time, I came across a tree with bare branches, standing alone in the wilderness. I don’t know how much cold and heat it has been waiting here. I stretched out my hand and lightly dusted it, as if it could shake off the loneliness accumulated over the years.

Before encountering this tree, Zhan Zhao had already walked for a long time.Originally, he didn't intend to stop, but now, he changed his mind.

Zhan Zhao stretched out his hand to caress the trunk of the tree, slowly stroking the rough and ravine-like bark, and the unique smell of trees came from his nose.

This is already an old tree, and maybe it will not be able to sprout branches in the coming year, or maybe after the next day of lightning and thunder, there will be only a rotten tree trunk.

But at this moment, it was the closest thing to him.

The sense of strangeness and desolation brought by the other world was far beyond his imagination. He felt no pain when he fell into the abyss, and he was unconscious when he was trapped in the mud.But when he regained consciousness, he seemed to be a human again.When he opened his eyes, his whole body trembled, as if he had experienced the pain of being born out of a mother's body.

He staggered to his feet, not knowing where to go.East, west, north, south, general scenery, the horizon is looming as far as the eye can see.Picking a direction at random, walking along, the sound of footsteps lingering behind him like a sigh, stepping on the dust all the way, not meeting a single person.

It doesn't matter, he has someone in mind.

Finding people has never been an easy task, especially in the vast expanse of searching for a needle in a haystack, finding nothing but finding nothing, no wonder it is one of the eight sufferings of Buddhism.

Fortunately, Duanmucui does not belong to this category.

With a high position and weight, and a prominent background, she is a man of the hour, all eyes are on her, and people rush towards her like a tide. He doesn't even need to work hard to find her, he just follows the flow of people and just wants to meet her eyes.

Thinking of this, Zhan Zhao showed a gentle smile on his face.

He has never paid much attention to high-ranking officials, wealth, power and background, but Duanmucui's various things made him feel both kind and proud.

At this time, he didn't know that Shen Yuan was different from a dream, and all the things in the dream might be wiped away like a spider's thread, but Shen Yuan would definitely leave a deep scar in his heart.

If you let it go, the deep scar will gradually swell up, and one day it will be a beggar, and it will gradually become deeper and wider. stranger.

I only hope that someone will let him know, and it is not too late to make up for it. The moment when the gold is broken and the jade is broken will never come.

After resting for a while, just as he was about to move on, he suddenly tilted his head slightly and listened intently for a while, with a slight frown between his brows, he quickly bent down and put his ears close to the ground.

There was a faint rhythmic vibration, and after a while, the loess in front of him seemed to be covered with dust.

This voice is not unfamiliar to him.

hooves.

To be precise, it was the sound of horseshoes.

If there is a sound of hooves, there must be someone.The messy sound of hooves is often the beginning of the story.

Sure enough, riding a fast horse, Juechen came.

Sitting on horseback seems to be a girl.

At that time, more than half of Zhan Zhao's figure was hidden among the shadows of the trees. If the girl hadn't seen him, she might have just passed by, and there would be no follow-up.

But the girl turned her eyes away, and suddenly caught a glimpse of the figure under the tree, her complexion changed, and she hurriedly reined in her horse's head.The horse couldn't bear the pain, the bridle neighed endlessly, and its front hooves kicked up violently.The girl was caught off guard and flew out with an ah.

Of course it cannot fall.

Zhan Zhao's figure was as straight as an arrow from the string, he flew towards him in an instant, stretched his long arms forward, and made a sharp turn in mid-air, he had already embraced the girl in his arms, and pulled the horse's reins sharply with his other hand, exerting force on his wrist, the horse was stubborn After a while, he became obedient.

When she looked down, the girl's temple hair was disheveled, covering most of her face, her complexion was as pale as paper, her lips were uncertain.Zhan Zhao didn't expect her to be so frightened, but secretly blamed himself for being abrupt, and smiled at that moment, and was about to comfort her, when the girl suddenly burst into tears, knelt down to Zhan Zhao, and cried, "Xia The scholar is benevolent and righteous, and begged to save my family's life."

Zhan Zhao's heart trembled, he quickly stretched out his arms to help her up, and asked anxiously, "Where is your family now? What happened?"

The girl burst into tears, pointed to the direction she came from, choked up and said, "It's at the other end, I met the thief who cut the trail."

Zhan Zhao didn't say much anymore, he slapped the horse's head with his palm, the horse neighed, turned its head, Zhan Zhao jumped on the horse's back, stretched out his hand to pull the girl up, and said in a deep voice, "Sit still."

Before the girl could react in time, she leaned back and nearly threw it again. Fortunately, she moved quickly this time and put her arms around Zhan Zhao's waist. Withdrew.

After walking for a short time, he saw an overturned carriage lying in front of him, the belongings on the carriage were scattered all over the place, and a few feathered arrows were inserted messily on the side of the carriage.Three men in short kudzu clothes were besieging the old man Kong Wu with white beard and hair beside the chariot.The old man's kung fu is mediocre, but his strength lies in his strength. He wields a shaft with a thick arm and dashes from left to right. There is no rush to put him in the bag.Not far away, there was another thin man with gray hair, holding a cane, who also confronted the man in Ge in front of him.The man in Ge Yi shot quite hard, in the blink of an eye, the thin man's arm was already covered with paint, and he limped when he turned around and ran away, Zhan Zhao realized that he was disabled.

Seeing the scene in front of her, the woman couldn't hold back anymore, she called "Father" first, then "Second Uncle", her voice was miserable and her face was miserable.

Zhan Zhao was furious and shouted, "Stop!"

At the same time, the sleeve cage hangs down slightly, and the three sleeve arrows shoot out as soon as they are grasped.Hearing a loud shout, the man in Ge Yi who was fighting against the thin man was hit by an arrow in the arm, but the other two sleeve arrows passed across the other three men in Ge Yi, which did not hurt anyone, but broke up the confrontation open.

The person hit by the arrow yelled angrily: "When you encounter a hard point, be careful."

The other three people responded in unison, each held their knives in their hands, and slashed at Zhan Zhao in three directions: left, middle and right.Zhan Zhao saw that they were well-dressed, and two of them were carrying crossbows and arrow bags behind their backs. They didn't look like ordinary thieves. They took a step back to avoid the oncoming attack, and the scabbard was horizontal. Like electricity, bend down and sweep.The three of them screamed and were all brought to the ground.

The face of the person who was hit by the arrow was terrified, as if he was very afraid.Zhan Zhao didn't want to hurt people's lives, he said flatly: "You all swear to change your past and stop doing this path-cutting thing, so I won't make things difficult for you."

As soon as these words came out, not only the person who was hit by the arrow showed a look of sarcasm, but even the other three men in Geyi sneered and said in a hurry: "What are you, you want us to obey your orders!"

Before the words were finished, the three of them rushed forward together.Zhan Zhao's face darkened, and he was about to make a move when the two people in front suddenly withdrew their weapons, one left and one right, hugged Zhan Zhao's arms tightly, and twisted Zhan Zhao's lower body with his legs, as straight as the roots of an old tree , the other person looked happy, and raised a knife to chop.

Zhan Zhao had never seen such a rogue style of play before, his heart was extremely angry, his arms trembled, and he wanted to shake the two of them away.Unexpectedly, those two people were not afraid of death at all, instead they became more tightly entangled.Zhan Zhao had no choice but to move his body and change positions, but the knife he slashed by the man missed his aim and landed on his companion's back.At the same time, the man who was injured earlier saw the gap, ran to the girl's horse, stretched out his arms and dragged the girl off the horse, and rode away.Fang took two steps, suddenly felt that the front hoof was short, but it was the old stick dancer who swung the horse's front hoof with a stick.The man didn't guard against this move, rolled off the horse, and before he could stand up, he was hit hard on the back of the head, and it was the crippled man who came to help.

One hit was not enough, so he made up a few more hits, and sent the man back to his hometown directly.

Fang Fang's cooking here is clean, and he heard Zhan Zhao's angry shout, but Zhan Zhao couldn't hold back anymore, and finally shook the two people who were entangled with him away, and snatched the third person's waist knife with his hands, Reversing the blade, he hit the man hard on the head with the back of the knife, knocking him away.

As soon as the body was empty, Zhan Zhao flew to the side of the wounded horse, bent down to sniff the man in Ge Yi, knowing that he was dead, he was shocked and angry: even though the girl said that they were strong men, he didn't With the intention of hurting others, I didn't expect these two old men to attack so viciously.

Thinking of this, Fang heard screams again and again, when he got up hastily, it was the old man and the lame man who shot the three men in Ge to death again.

Seeing the frightened and angry look on Zhan Zhao's face, the old man hurried forward and said: "The chivalrous men don't know, these trail-cutters have another lair, if they escape back and gather people to take revenge, the old man's family will be fine." It's not as simple as killing people and killing people."

The crippled man also said: "Brother is right. These strong men have always acted cruelly. I don't know how many times we have caused them to harm our small town. Which family has no blood feud with them? The knight thinks that we are incompatible with each other." Love, as long as there are more, I will still do it this way."

Zhan Zhao was silent, paused, and sighed: "I think they have a certain amount of advance and retreat, and they are quite organized in their battles, not like ordinary bandits."

The old man sneered and said: "The chivalrous man also saw it? What kind of banditry and banditry, they are clearly scattered soldiers who have learned their skills in the army, but they come to make things difficult for us common people."

While talking, the girl came over fully dressed, bowed down to Zhan Zhao Yingying, and kowtowed for saving her life.When they met each other, they realized that the girl was Qi Mu Yiluo, the old man was her father, and his name was Qi Mu Dian, and the lame man was Qi Mu Dian's second brother, his name was Qi Mu Ding. The place where I live is frequently attacked by war, so I went to the nearest county with my family. Unexpectedly, people cut the path halfway up the road.

Qimu's family is grateful for Zhan Zhao's life-saving grace and invites him to accompany him.Zhan Zhao thought about the remoteness of this place, so he could take care of him along the way, and he would also be able to inquire about Duanmucui's news when he entered the county, so he immediately nodded in response.

Qi Mu Dian and Qi Mu Ding hastily covered up the corpses of those people, and then they got back on the road.There is not much to say on this journey, when we arrived at Anyi at dawn, it was actually a small city.There are no guards on the low towers, and there is only one main street when entering the city. Because it is still early, there is no popularity.

Banner Mu Dian sighed: "The Xiqi army crossed the border, and the defenders fled watching the wind, leaving us the common people to suffer."

Zhan Zhao's heart trembled, and he couldn't help but ask, "The Xiqi army is passing through?"

Qi Muding looked at Zhan Zhao strangely, and said, "Doesn't the chivalrous man know that Xiqi Prime Minister Jiang Ziya's military tent is dozens of miles away. It's just that what they want to take is Chongcheng, and they go around the city from Anyi." However, not even the garrison soldiers were left behind."

Zhan Zhao was both surprised and delighted: "Since Jiang Ziya is here, so are all the soldiers under his banner?"

Qi Mu Dian snorted and said, "Why do you need to ask this? Jiang Ziya attacked Chongcheng twice to no avail, so he urgently recruited soldiers from all over the world to help. Now there are like clouds of fierce generals outside Chongcheng, and there has been no shortage of them in the past two days. There will definitely be soldiers coming, just wait for the time to come, this Chongcheng... oh, this Chongcheng..." At this point, he shook his head and sighed.After Zhan Zhaolue thought about it, he already guessed that Qimu's family must be the people of the Yin merchants, so he sighed a lot at Jiang Ziya's attack on Chongcheng.

While speaking, Qi Muding got out of the car first before he reached a big house in the street, and went to call the door with a limp.Qi Mu Dian said to Zhan Zhao: "Fortunately, I bought property in Anyi before, otherwise there would be chaos and chaos, and I don't know where to go."

Zhan Zhao hesitated for a while, and couldn't help but said: "Old man, I heard that the Xiqi army..."

Before he could finish speaking, the door opened with a creak, and an unkempt young man poked his head out, staring dazedly at the person in front of him.Qi Muding hit him on the knee with a cane, and said angrily: "You son of a bitch, you don't even know the owner?"

The young man suffered from the pain and woke up with a jolt. When he saw the person in front of him, he was inexplicably pleasantly surprised. He hurriedly opened the door, and while coming out to help, he loudly said to the door: "Old Master, Second Grand Master And the girls are all back, don't get up yet!"

Qi Mudian chuckled, and took Qi Mu Yiluo's hand to the door.Qi Mu Yiluo took two steps, turned around and saw that Zhan Zhao was still standing on the ground, he couldn't help but whispered, "Hero Zhan? Hero Zhan?"

It was only then that Zhan Zhao came to his senses, smiled slightly, raised his lapel and walked slowly to follow, suddenly felt a chill on his face, when he looked up again, there were dark gray clouds surging above the sky, which was actually a harbinger of the oncoming rainstorm.

The rain was so fierce that Zhan Zhao fell into a deep sleep amidst the torrential rain. In his sleep, he could vaguely feel the sound of footsteps. His eyes were blurred and banners were everywhere. He seemed to see an endless army of troops. Woke up with a start, and when I carefully discerned, there were heavy footsteps, which seemed to be overwhelming.Just when he was in doubt, he heard someone from outside replying to Banner Mu Dian: "It's Xiqi Gao Bojian's army, presumably he was ordered to go to Chongcheng to fight, bypassing Anyi..."

So it was so, Zhan Zhao felt relieved, turned over, and fell asleep again.

Seeing that things in the outside world were almost over, Qi Mudian turned and went back to his room.As soon as he entered the door, he saw Qi Muding standing leaning on the table with a long bundle under his arm, he couldn't help but sneer.

Qi Mu Dian hastily turned around and closed the door, stretched out his hand to wipe the cold sweat from his forehead, and said in a low voice: "This time Lai Zhan's help is safe and secure."

Qi Muding snorted and said, "Is there any danger? According to me, the real trouble is only at the beginning. Tell me, we encountered Xiqi soldiers not once or twice. Did you risk your life this time? Just now that Zhan Zhao said that as long as they correct their mistakes, they will be spared, which one of them listened to it? Isn’t it just like a vicious spirit, rushing forward regardless of life.”

Qi Mu Dian took it lightly and said, "Have you taken this to heart? It's the time when the two armies are at war, and it's inevitable that Xiqi will be more cautious than usual."

Qi Muding said: "Why haven't you thought about it, let me ask you, which general in Xiqi is so brave and desperate to win?"

Qi Mu Dian was taken aback for a moment, and suddenly felt guilty: "According to you, you won't bump into that evil star, right?"

Qi Muding ignored him, and threw the underarm package directly at Qi Mudian: "Look for yourself."

Qi Mu Dian didn't understand what it meant, he hurriedly opened the package, only to find that it was the feathered arrow that had just been pulled from the shaft of the chariot.He picked up one of the arrows and rubbed the root of the arrow with his fingertips, first he touched the word "Duan", his face turned gray, and when he touched the word "Wood", although he had expected it, he still endured it. He couldn't help sighing: "Say it's okay, it really offended her."

Qi Muding's expression became more and more serious: "Among the Xiqi generals, she is the bravest and the most protective. Now that her soldiers are dead, do you think she will let it go?"

Qi Mu Dian shook his head: "Second brother, you should be more careful. Anyway, Duanmucui is the chief general of Duanmu Camp, and the one who died was the bottom one. She can't afford to be ruthless for these people."

Qi Muding sighed: "Let's leave it to the past, of course it won't. But today the weather is not good, everything is not good, I am afraid that things will not follow people's wishes."

Qi Mu Dian laughed and said, "We have buried the bodies of those soldiers, so things may not come out."

Qi Muding shook his head: "First, the people in Duanmuying will definitely track down those people who disappeared due to the investigation of Yin Shang's spy work; second, we didn't bury those people deeply, and the sudden heavy rain will definitely expose their bodies Thirdly, when Gao Bojian's army went to the battle of Chongcheng today, they would definitely find those corpses. After a little tracing, they would find that these people were all from the Duanmu camp. Think about it, Gao Bojian sent the corpses there, Can Duanmucui not be disturbed? According to her temperament, she doesn't know how she will become angry. Just wait and see, Duanmucui's soldiers will definitely come and turn Anyi upside down in a short time. "

It was noon, and the Zhuchang camp had a custom of going to bed at noon, so although the gate of the camp was wide open, there were not many soldiers and guards walking around, only those on duty were left to guard the camp.

The sound of the horse's hoofs is from far to near, it is obvious that the horse is riding alone, but the sound of the hooves is obviously heavy.The battalion guard narrowed his eyes curiously, and when the rider got closer, he saw that although the man on the horse had a handsome appearance, his eyes were clean and menacing, and he also had a heavy hand on the saddle. The bronze three-pointed two-edged knife, recognized Yang Jian, hurriedly went forward to hold the reins.Yang Jian got off his horse and strode towards the tent of the Chinese army without saying a word.

The soldiers and guards holding halberds outside the tent of the Chinese army saw Yang Jian from a distance, and were about to salute and say hello, Yang Jian raised his hand to stop, but all the soldiers and guards fell silent, and all moved aside.

Yang Jian walked outside the tent, stopped for a while, his face suddenly sank, and he pulled down the curtain with a snap.

(End of this chapter)