Do you know: I’m Xu Jiazi

"What do you do? Where is the owner of this donkey?"

The thieves, whose weapons had been removed and whose hands were bound, lay aside. Qingyun and He Guan were pulling out the arrows from their bodies and asking questions.

Xu Zaijing patted the agitated donkey's neck.

After comforting him for a while,

He easily opened the cloth covering the wicker basket.

Looking at the things hidden in the basket,

Xu Zaijing's eyes narrowed slightly.

aside,

Gu Tingye, who was originally watching the torture of He Guan and Gao Puyu, his eyes widened when he saw what Xu Zaijing took out from the wicker basket.

Gu Tingye walked to the other donkey, looked at the bundles of crossbow arrows in the basket, raised his head and said in surprise: "Brother Jing, here, they."

Xu Zaijing looked at the accessories of the strong crossbow in his hand and said, "They are trying to ambush us."

Saying that, Xu Zaijing turned his head and looked forward,

There are many trees planted on both sides of the official road in front. The trunks may be as thick as a bowl or as thick as a boy's arms. They are not sparse and block a lot of the field of vision.

The bloody smell has dispersed on the road,

Although the three people who were shot down were sweating from the pain and screaming, they did not answer the questions asked by Qingyun and He Guan.

Qingyun looked up at Xu Zaijing and said, "Sir, these three people are like dead men, very tough-talking."

Xu Zaijing nodded: "Yes, apply medicine to stop the bleeding and return to the capital to hand it over to the officials of the Imperial City Department in the capital."

Hearing Xu Zaijing say this,

The three people who were hit by arrows had different expressions.

Some exhaled, relaxed and were dragged away by Qingyun;

Another trickle of blood flowed from the corner of someone's mouth. The blood flowed from the mouth when the corner of the mouth was raised to sneer;

The oldest one had his head lowered, and Xu Zaijing could not see any expression.

Looking at the expressions of the three of them, Xu Zaijing said: "The men and horses are wearing armor!"

Da Zhou official said,

Beside a brick and earth bridge,

On both sides of the bridge, there are mounds of soil dug out from the dredging, as high as one person.

Looking from the mound, there are trees blocking a lot of sight.

Through the gaps in the woods, I could vaguely see smoke and dust floating not far away, and the sound of horse hooves could be heard.

There is little water in winter, and most of the rivers and ditches under the bridge have dried up. Only a few puddles washed out by the river beside the bridge are still moist.

There are a lot of dead grass around the puddle beside the bridge. You can see through the withered grass that the puddle is actually dark red.

In the dark bridge hole directly under the brick-earth bridge, there were several young figures in shabby clothes lying there. The puddles were stained red by the blood flowing out from under them.

Not far away there were bundles of firewood scattered around.

Beside the mound on the river ditch,

There were a dozen people holding crossbows and knives hiding there.

These people all wear face coverings, firstly to cover their faces, and secondly to prevent the white breath they exhale from being seen.

As the sound of horses' hooves gradually became louder, some people began to step on the front stirrup of the powerful crossbow, using both hands and feet to load the arrow.

Suddenly,

The sound of horse hooves that should have been getting closer and closer actually gradually disappeared.

This caused the dozen or so people behind the mound to stop.

There were people standing aside, taking advantage of their position to quietly look outside.

In the field of vision, the targets who were supposed to be advancing lightly were actually wearing armor at this time, both men and horses.

Xu Zaijing stationed his horse on the official road,

He glanced sideways at the reed depression with harvest marks.

Then he looked at the ground of the official road a dozen steps away.

Then he looked at the mound by the river forty or fifty steps away.

Following Xu Zaijing, Gu Tingye, who was wearing armor, looked forward curiously through the gap in his pocket.

"Brother Jing, what's wrong?"

Gao Puyu on the side said: "Erlang, there is a tripping rope. Here, it is at the place where the wind blew up the dust."

"The road looks flat, maybe there are pits dug for the horses' legs."

When Gu Tingye heard this, he looked forward carefully.

Gao Puyu saw Xu Zaijing looking back and shouted knowingly: "Fire!"

soon,

The Gu family soldiers who followed behind them used the reserved fire to light several fire-feathered arrows tied with flammable grease.

The fired arrows quickly ignited the reeds on the roadside.

The north wind blows in winter,

Xu Zaijing and others were in the upwind direction.

The fire took advantage of the wind and started burning in just a few breaths.

Seeing the dark figures getting up and running away deep in the reeds, He Guan, who was beside Xu Zaijing, had already drawn his bow and arrow and shot at the thieves.

"Erlang, let's go!"

"ha!"

Gao Puyu shouted from the side.

Afterwards, Gu Tingye followed Gao Puyu, led his soldiers, rode his horse down the official road, and detoured towards both sides of the mound beside the bridge.

He Guan and Qingyun rode their horses in a circuitous way towards the other side,

While the horses were galloping, He Guan and Qingyun kept drawing their bows and shooting rapidly.

Beside the bridge in the distance,

Seeing things come to light,

There were already people behind the mound, shouting loudly and instructing people to defend the flanks on both sides with crossbows.

While everyone was riding around,

Behind the mound, crossbow arrows were shot from time to time.

Gu Tingye skillfully used equestrian skills such as hiding in stirrups, dodging arrows, or drawing the bow.

Xu Zaijing did not follow the official road, but outside the water-draining ditch on one side of the official road, riding his horse at a trot and walking straight towards the bridge.

The reeds on the other side were blazing with flames, and black plant ash flew into the air.

"bite"

"Pa"

From time to time, crossbow arrows were fired, but they were knocked away or knocked down by the arm of Xu Zaijing's strong bow.

Behind the mound, when the thieves were loading their crossbows, Xu Zaijing would draw his bows and fight back.

When we were still a dozen steps away from the bridge,

Looking at the terrain near the mound, Xu Zaijing turned his head to avoid a crossbow arrow and then suddenly clamped the horse's belly.

The little Liju, who cooperated tacitly, immediately increased his speed and ran towards the slope.

Looking at the little Liju speeding towards me,

The thief behind the mound quickly suppressed the crossbow of his companion and shouted in Beiliao dialect: "Wait until his mount goes up the slope, and the mount's stomach has no horse armor!"

The thief's companion understood, and the horse stepped uphill, and its belly was no longer downward, but slightly upward, which was a good opportunity to shoot.

To shoot a man, shoot a horse first; to capture a thief, capture the king first!

If the horse is injured, frightened and falls down and pins down the knight, such a heavy horse armor plus the weight of the horse, no matter how complete the knight's armor is, is still a lamb to be slaughtered.

While talking,

Xu Zaijing has already approached on horseback,

Then,

In the surprised eyes of the thieves, Xiao Liju suddenly turned around and faced them sideways.

At this time, Xu Zaijing, who had inserted the strong bow back into the bow pouch and held the long spear with one hand behind his back, put a slight force on the saddle with the other hand, and with his feet standing slightly on the stirrups, the whole person instantly jumped into the air.

Then, Xu Zaijing dismounted directly from Xiao Liju's butt and tail.

During the whole process, the belly of the little horse without horse armor was never exposed to the crossbow arrows.

"Crack~"

Changsha danced in Xu Zaijing's hand, blocking the crossbow arrows fired from behind the slope.

But it seemed that Xu Zaijing's actions surprised them too much. The time when the crossbow arrows were fired was different.

"Ding~"

"哚~"

Some crossbow arrows were nailed to Xu Zaijing's arm shield, while others were nailed to the front of Xu Zaijing's armor.

These crossbow arrows only slightly hindered the footsteps.

Xu Zaijing then rushed towards the thief quickly.

"Woo~"

The sound of a long tree breaking through the air came,

The bandit leader who had just given the order in Beiliao dialect reflexively raised his crossbow to block it.

"Crack"

There was a heart-wrenching sound of tearing wood, and the crossbow was reduced to pieces. The leader's chest sank and he was slapped to the ground.

Prick, collapse, penetrate, pick, split.

The bright blade shuttled through the crowd of thieves like a swimming dragon.

If you touch it, you will be seriously injured, if you touch it, you will die.

As Xu Zaijing moved around, crossbow arrows shot from behind him from time to time.

Some of them were nailed into Xu Zaijing's armor, and some were shot into the thief lying on the ground after being dodged by Xu Zaijing.

After a dozen breaths,

Because Xu Zaijing suddenly advanced in the middle, the thieves behind the riverside mound were attacked from both sides and had no choice but to flee or be chased by Qingyun and He Guan.

"叏lvlv~"

The other side of the bridge

There was the sound of horses neighing,

Xu Zaijing quickly turned around and ran towards the side where Gu Tingye and Gao Puyu were taking a roundabout way.

The thief who had just shot Xu Zaijing with a crossbow from behind had disappeared.

Xu Zaijing quickly ran to the other side,

In his field of vision was a group of thieves with their backs to him, busy shooting Gu Tingye and others.

Xu Zaijing was a little anxious and wanted to blow a whistle to call Xiao Liju, but his mouth was blocked tightly by Douchun's stiff neck.

At this time,

"Deng Deng"

"Pfft~"

Little Liju strolled up to him and snorted.

Xu Zaijing happily patted the back of Xiao Liju's armored neck.

"Chi!"

The long branch of the tree was inserted into the earth,

Xu Zaijing took off the strong bow from the saddle of the little Liju and began to call the names one by one.

Just four or five arrows,

The thief who turned his back turned to one thing instead of the other, and was soon being chased by Gao Puyu and other Gu family soldiers.

Why didn't Gu Tingye go? It was because his horse was hit by a crossbow in the leg.

In the reed depression beside the official road,

The reeds had been burned by the fire, leaving only ashes on the ground and a few wisps of smoke.

The bridge where shouts and killings had just begun was now as quiet as it should have been in a winter afternoon.

By the bridge,

Gu Tingye was unloading the armor on his mount with eyes filled with pity, and he glanced at Xu Zaijing's location from time to time.

Not far away, Qingyun and He Guan, who were chasing people, each dragged two or three bodies towards us from the other side of the river, leaving red drag marks along the way.

Gao Puyu and several soldiers of the Gu family were also dragging the bodies or the thieves who were shot but not dead.

Not far in front of Xu Zaijing, a clear and charming woman with disheveled hair that did not hide her fair skin and beautiful face, with watery eyes in her hair, was lying aside with her legs curled up and her body coquettishly.

This woman had an arrow stuck in her shoulder, and her expression of tears was very endearing.

But Xu Zaijing had no time to look at the woman, because when he had just used his spear to kill the thief, several arrows shot by the thief were still stuck in the armor on his back.

Xu Zaijing, with a crossbow on his back, looks a little funny in the sunset.

After pulling out a crossbow arrow embedded in the chain armor, Xu Zaijing carefully looked at the arrow cluster of the crossbow arrow.

After a while,

Gu Tingye came over to help Xu Zaijing pull out the crossbow arrows.

Qingyun and He Guan joined the team collecting the corpses.

Soon, the thief's body was neatly arranged, and the injured but still alive thief was dragged aside and tied up.

"Master!"

Qingyun's shout came from the river ditch,

Xu Zaijing and Gu Tingye looked sideways,

Then he saw the bodies of four children, both male and female, in ragged clothes that had been brought out from under the bridge.

He Guan looked at the traces around him and sighed: "I think it was these children who were collecting firewood nearby. They were unlucky enough to see these thieves and were silenced by them."

Saying,

He Guan walked aside, took off the bow and arrow from his mount, and walked towards the thief who was tied to the side and still moaning about being injured.

"Open your mouth!"

He Guan's cold voice came.

"Bang!" A bowstring vibrated.

After two bow strings vibrated, two more corpses appeared next to the row of corpses.

Xu Zaijing said: "Brother He, don't take action yet. Someone is coming. Don't scare them."

He Guan looked up and saw someone in the distance of the ditch walking tremblingly along the mound of soil beside the ditch.

It was an old man wearing thick clothes and leaning on a cane.

As he got closer, looking at the scene on the roadside by the bridge, the old man swallowed his saliva, held up his crutches and said:

"Heroes, Lao Chan, Lao Chan is a local elder, and he once served under General Yao of the Western Army. I wonder if you heroes, have you ever seen the young children in Lao Chan's village?"

"Around the same age"

Halfway through the words, the old man looked at the scene not far from the bridge and lamented: "Oh, oh! Come here and take a look!"

While sighing, he paused repeatedly with his crutch.

Hearing the old man's cry,

Not far behind the old man, several villagers of both men and women appeared.

soon,

There are more and more people around.

Amidst the painful cries of the children's parents, some of the villagers gathered nearby sighed with sadness on their faces, while some young and strong men looked at the woman who was shot by an arrow not far away and whispered.

The old man who was the first to step forward now stood aside with admiration on his face, nodding his head and saying: "It turns out that the personal soldiers of the young masters of Yongyi Marquis and Ningyuan Marquis are here to eliminate thieves. I'm rude to you. "

As he spoke, the old man looked at the horse with a strong bow and armor not far away with envy from time to time.

Gao Puyu on the side said: "Just now, if my father-in-law doesn't come, we will have to search nearby!"

The old man nodded repeatedly.

Xu Zaijing said: "My father-in-law, when the reward for these four dead children in the village comes from the Imperial City Division, I will still have to take the trouble to distribute the money."

The old man cupped his hands and said, "Don't worry, I will definitely keep it in mind."

Xu Zaijing cupped his hands and said, "Thank you, father-in-law."

At this time, He Guan said: "My father-in-law, we are about to punish these living thieves on the spot! Let the villagers avoid them."

"There is no need to avoid this Yuhou. Killing the thieves here can be considered as giving them some comfort."

The old man said and looked at the children's family members who were still crying.

"Yeah! That's good!"

Saying,

He Guan walked towards the three Beiliao spies behind who were tied to the car and were standing next to the donkey.

The three Northern Liao spies who had just been tied up in the car and thought they would survive until entering Bianjing looked at He Guan approaching, and some of them had a rare look of cowardice in their eyes.

"Let me go! Whatever you want to know, I'll tell you!"

One of the spies who had been silent just now was stuttering and shouted with fear.

Someone on the side yelled angrily in Beiliao dialect, seeming to be scolding the cowardly person.

soon,

"Zhou Dog~"

"Maitreya is alive!"

After the shouts of curses and prayers, there were three bow sounds from He Guan,

Looking at the companions who were still alive by the bridge and being punished by He Guan one by one, the eyes of the woman who was hit by the arrow gradually changed from the determination at first to not daring to look at He Guan.

At the same time, he looked pitifully towards Xu Zaijing, Gu Tingye and others.

Gu Tingye licked his lips and when he wanted to speak, he looked at Xu Zaijing's cold eyes and swallowed.

Subsequently,

When He Guan walked over, pulled the Northern Liao spy's hair, and dragged him towards the rows of corpses,

The spy didn't speak at first, looking calmly waiting to die.

But just halfway through, the spy ignored the arrow wound on his shoulder and kicked up his legs: "I, I, I know many, many things, don't, don't kill me!"

The voice was shrill.

The old man glanced at Xu Zaijing. After a while, he already knew that among these strong men, it was this young nobleman who had the final say.

"Two young masters, several Yuhou, and I have also served in the army. I know that a living, rebellious enemy is much more useful than a dead one! So, let this Yuhou stop!"

As he spoke, the old man looked at the eight arrows not far away, standing on the ground, with their tail feathers trembling in the north wind.

The tangy smell of blood made the old man feel like he had returned to the northwest battlefield decades ago.

The second day

In Bianjing City,

British government,

The corners of Zhang Jia Wu Niang's lips were slightly raised, her eyes were full of teasing as she looked at everyone in the room, and said, "I heard that Brother Xu Wu brought a woman back to Beijing last night!"

"ah?"

"What?"

Several officials and noble ladies in the room exclaimed.

Scenes of various coincidences of kindness, unintentional friendship, and reciprocal love flashed through the minds of some of the ladies in the room.

The fifth lady of the Li family, who was short-sighted, squinted her eyes, held Yu Yanran's hand, and sighed: "Huh? This, the Xu family brother, he is confused!"