The Three Kingdoms Of The North Are Proud And Heroic

Zu Zhao didn't say anything else, took the reins, loaded the bow and short sword, and mounted his horse.

When the children saw this, they did not say a word, but jumped on their horses.

With a light drink, Zu Zhao took the lead in riding his horse out of the backyard gate, and all the children of the ancestral family came one after another. The light of the fire formed a long line of light in the darkness, and the sound of horses' hooves replaced the anger in the hearts of the knights, which was even more fierce than the torches in their hands.

The place where Gao Hong and others were attacked was Balibao, which was thirty miles northeast of Xu Wu County. Zu Zhao led his children to gallop all the way in the night, first passing through the county town, and then through a sparse forest after coming to the suburbs. Gradually, there were fewer and fewer people, and only the endless hills were left ahead.

Like Xihe Bridge, Balipu is a market place where the people of Tingxiang Township in the vicinity spontaneously gather, but because the road to the east is dozens of miles further east and the county boundary is crossed, it is not as prosperous and lively as Xihe Bridge on weekdays. Zu Zhao and the others traveled back and forth for an hour, and when they came to Balibao, they could only see countless desolations, and it seemed that they could not see even half of the population within a radius of 100 miles.

"Ah Cheng, you take a few people to walk north for a while, the terrain is higher there, and you can see it more clearly. Don't get too far away.

On horseback, Zu Zhao pressed the hilt of the short sword at his waist tightly, and commanded in a stern tone.

"Yes." Ah Cheng nodded, beckoning several children of the ancestral family to follow him. They reoriented their mounts and left the group and headed north. The two teams kept a distance not too far and were ready to take care of each other.

The team continued to move forward for half a mile, and Zu Zhao, who was leading in front, subconsciously slowed down, and the team behind him slowed down. Since we are here to search for the bodies of the victims and other available clues, we must be cautious and serious.

At this moment, someone in the group of people running north suddenly shouted: "Look, there is movement under the tree ahead." This

made everyone breathe a sigh of relief, and some subconsciously reached out to grab the bow on the horse's back, and even more had already drawn their daggers or raised their spears. Everyone looked in the direction indicated by the voice, and sure enough, under a lonely low tree in front of them, there seemed to be a black shadow swaying back and forth.

Zu Zhao subconsciously kicked the horse's belly hard and sped up to rush over. After a while, the distance narrowed, and he vaguely recognized the black shadow by the light of the stars and the moon as an ownerless horse.

"Be careful, everyone." He immediately shouted, "Ah Zhong, Ah Bin, go around from the side." "

Yes, my lord."

"Let's see if there's any other movement around the dots." Zu Zhao added.

The team gradually fanned towards the tree, and the outermost few people kept looking around, beware of thieves appearing at any moment.

When the group came to the tree, several of the older children did not dismount, but led the people to occupy several high positions nearby, raising the torches in their hands, and expanding the range of light farther. The unobstructed hilly terrain was like a blackened silk cloth, thick and viscous, and there was no movement except for the sound of the night wind blowing in and out.

Zu Zhao and several of his sons and daughters quickly jumped off their horses, and came to the bottom of the tree in three steps and two steps, and under the light of the torches of the other children around them, they saw a brown horse parked there blankly, with the reins on the horse's head and a pair of leather cushions on the horse's back. Not only that, but there were multiple wounds on the horse's belly and rump, but the wounds had been frozen and no longer bleed.

"Eldest Prince, this horse... It looks like our horses—" said one of the children at once.

Zu Zhao remembered very well in his heart that the thieves' mounts were all miscellaneous horses, and this was a big horse more than seven feet tall in front of him, which was obviously the horse on his own farm.

"You guys, look around. Ah Cheng, you lead people to continue to search forward for a while. Thinking of this, he resolutely ordered.

"Yes."

"Come with me, guys."

The group of children quickly began to move in an orderly manner, one group continued to search for the northeast direction slowly, and the other group urged the mounts to take broken steps and disperse to the surrounding area to investigate.

Zu Zhao carefully examined the horse in his hand, and many questions arose in his heart: Since the thief robbed the horse of money, why did he let this horse escape? Unless it's going to be farther away from here!

In less than a moment, a loud shout came from not far away: "Come on, find the third brother Zu and the sixth uncle in Daxingli, come quickly."

Zu Zhao's eyebrows frowned, now he was completely sure that the place where the incident happened was here, but why didn't the thief steal the horse? He suppressed this doubt for the time being, and after telling the three disciples to stay under the tree, he led the others to the place where the cry came.

Just a hundred paces south of the tree, several children were gathered in one place with torches. Two of them crouched on the ground not far apart, and beside them lay a dusty corpse. Under the reflection of the swirling firelight, it can be recognized that both of them were victims of the attack on the ancestral family's trip.

"The third brother was shot through the throat with an arrow, it's really ruthless." The older son, who was squatting in front of the first corpse, said, his tone was very solemn, revealing three points of desolation.

Zu Zhao squatted down in front of the "Third Brother Zu" and checked the feather arrow nailed into the opponent's neck.

"Torches." Something suddenly dawned on him.

A disciple on the left hurried forward and lowered the torch in his hand.

"This arrow is completely black, and even the feathers are dyed black." The older children were surprised.

Zu Zhao touched the feathers of the arrow, and the feathers were not ordinary chicken feathers or goose feathers, but like some kind of bird feathers. Although bird feathers are not rare, they are relatively much more expensive to make. He couldn't help but guess, could it be that this arrow was a special symbol of the archer? If this is the case, it will not be difficult to find the whereabouts of this archer, and it can even be used to infer that the opponent is an absolutely confident and arrogant person.

"Take out the arrows and put the bodies together." He commanded, then stood up and walked over to the other corpse.

The second corpse was nothing unusual, except that it had been succumbed to the usual heavy blows with a blade.

In the next half hour, the children of the ancestral family successively found the bodies of the other victims, a total of seven, and the number was already complete. However, in addition to the first two corpses, two other people were killed by black arrows, one in the chest and through the heart, and the other in one eye.

After Zu Zhao examined the three strange remains, he suddenly felt in his heart that this matter was not trivial, and the person who attacked the Zu family's horse team was by no means an ordinary thief. Three arrows were sent out in the darkness and killed three people, what a sharp eye and archery.

"Ah Cheng, have you found any traces of the thief?"

After placing all the bodies in leather, Zu Zhao asked Ah Cheng, who had just returned from a distant round.

"We found some bloodstains and horseshoe footprints in the north, but it was too dark to be able to trace them. The thieves must have fled north. Ah Cheng replied.

"North? Since there are clues, what are we waiting for, everyone will chase them down together, but we have to see where these little thieves can escape. Gongsun Long said excitedly, and he was most eager to try.

Zu Zhao pondered for a moment, if he hadn't found the strangeness of the black arrow, he would definitely insist on chasing, now it is not too far from the time of the crime, the first-hand clues are very important, and the possibility of catching up with the thief is also the greatest. If it were until tomorrow, no one could have known where these thieves would have fled. However, considering that there is a ruthless man among the thieves, the true identity of these people cannot be determined for a while, and it must not be easily trusted.

"It's too risky to walk at night, and since the thieves are far away, they can only think in the long run. The first thing we did when we came here was to recover the body of our brother, and since we had found it, we naturally had to send it back to our home immediately to comfort the families of the victims. Wait until tomorrow and tomorrow, and then call Zu Ji and them, and then specifically find the whereabouts of the thief. He said solemnly.

Everyone may be a little unwilling, but they dare not obey the words of the eldest prince. Although Gongsun Long was still angry, he admired Zu Zhao very much, so he didn't say anything more.

Before getting on the horse, Zu Zhao stared into the distance in the north for a while, his heart was full of emotions, and there was always a premonition that waves were rising.

On the way back to Zujiazhuang, Gongsun Long couldn't help but guess and said: "The thief came from the north and fled to the north, could it be the Hu people who crossed the border?" Although I don't know what the situation is in Youbeiping County, but in our Xuanwu County, there are often Hu people who make trouble, which is really hateful.

Several children of the nearby ancestral family heard this and followed a discussion.

However, Zu Zhao did not speak from beginning to end, looking thoughtful. It's not that he didn't hear Gongsun Long's words, but he just thinks that it doesn't make much sense to just guess now, under the black light, even the survivors can't tell the identity of the thief, and random speculation will lead astray.

As soon as he returned to Xu Wuxian, more than a dozen horsemen suddenly rushed on the official road in front of him. It was only recently discovered that the leader turned out to be Zu Ji and a dozen other children who had just returned from Xihe Bridge. This afternoon's competition, Zu Ji's side was the winner, and he stayed at the town's restaurant for a big meal as usual, and by the way, he also ate the big roe deer sent by Han Dang. After eating and drinking, he returned to Zujiazhuang, and after hearing about Uncle Hong's accident, Zu Ji and others chased after him without saying anything.

After the meeting, Zu Ji still smelled of alcohol, but he had a righteous indignant face and tone, and he was busy asking Zu Zhao and the others how it was next. Zu Zhao briefly explained two sentences, and then returned to Zujiazhuang with Zu Ji.

Zujiazhuang is still brightly lit, not only that, but there are a few more decorated carriages outside the gate of the front yard, as well as a team of guards with knives and neatly dressed pirongs, who are the doormen and soldiers under the captain summoned by the county government. Zu Zhao first personally placed the bodies of the victims, and then instructed Zu Ji to lead a group of children who participated in the drills on weekdays to take turns to rest in groups of 20 people and assist in taking care of and taking care of the chores up and down the manor.

Zu Ji solemnly responded to the order, and began to organize the idle men in the village with Zu Cheng, Zu Zhong and others.

Gongsun Long originally planned to go with him, but he was sleepy and tired, so he turned back to the west courtyard after walking halfway.