twelve

The dusk of the twenty-second day of the lunar month finally descended to the backing mountain. Marin walked out of the twilight door again, with two bright guns stuck in his waist. He walked to Geng Laoba's house in the west of the village, and when he fought fiercely with Lu Da and his gang a few years ago, Geng Laoba made great contributions. He remembered that Geng Laoba had two muskets, and that time when he beat Lu Da, Geng Laoba's muskets rang out and were accurate, and one shot overturned a mustache, and another shot knocked down a horse that rushed over. A few years ago, in less than a bag of cigarettes, only one mustache and the injured Lu Da ran away, and the corpses of the other mustaches were thrown in the field outside the backing mountain, and later they were pulled crazy by hungry wolves and vicious dogs.

That time he had a big fight with Hu Zilu, clean and neat. A few years have passed, and Marin's gratitude to the villagers is still in his heart. That time, Marin did not feel that he was helping the villagers to remove their beards, but was grateful for the scene where the villagers cheered him on together. At that time, not to mention a group of Lu Da, even all the beards entrenched in the area of Gushantun came, and they didn't want to get a little cheap in Gushantun.

Marin's lonely footsteps resounded on the streets of the village, and he walked towards Geng Laoba's house. The words that Qiu Ju had said to him in the afternoon were still ringing in his ears. He knew that Lu Da had been preparing for revenge for several years, and Lu Da at this time was not Lu Da a few years ago, Lu Da wanted to extinguish the prestige of the fast gunner last time, and this time Lu Da wanted Marin's life. Marin also knows: a good man can't resist a wolf, and a good iron can't hit a few nails. To defeat Lu Da and eliminate Lu Da, it is very difficult to rely on Marin himself.

Geng Laoba's house was darkly lit, and there was no movement inside or outside the house. Marin was banging on the door, patting for a long time, and finally a dim oil lamp lit up in the room, and then the door squeaked open, and Geng Laoba half stood in the light and half in the darkness. He quickly saw Marin standing in front of him, and an object in Geng Laoba's hand fell to the ground.

Ma Lin said: Uncle Geng, Ma Lin sees you coming.

After speaking, Marin squeezed into the house from Geng Laoba's side.

Everything in Geng Laoba's house shocked Ma Lin, and the scene he had seen at Mr. Qian's house during the day was repeated in Geng Laoba's house. Ma Lin didn't understand that on the twenty-second day of the lunar month, there were so many people in Gushantun who were rummaging through boxes and cabinets, and the black lights were still tossing.

Ma Lin asked: Uncle Geng, wow, what are you doing?

Geng Laoba first stood in the middle of the house, and after listening to Ma Lin's questioning, he squatted down, squatting into a black shadow, and his head was deeply rooted in his crotch.

Aunt Geng was originally sitting on the kang to sort out a well-laid burden, but at this time she also twisted her body and turned her back to Marin. Marin seemed to understand, and he didn't seem to understand anything. He stood there stunned, not knowing what to do for a moment. After a while, he said: I won't leave when I come back this time. He also said: Lu Da will come to me tomorrow to avenge the revenge of a few years ago, and this time I promise not to let Lu Da go out of the backer.

Geng Laoba finally raised his head and said in a dumb voice: "Big nephew, don't blame you Uncle Geng for not being righteous, I'm afraid I won't be able to help you this time."

The crazy woman Geng Lian had fallen asleep in another room just now, and woke up when she heard someone talking, she pushed the door naked again and walked in, and said to Marin suspiciously: You me, you want to me?

Geng Laoba stood up like crazy, and he danced with his hands to push his daughter out. Geng Lian didn't follow, and tore apart with her father, still saying in her mouth: Dad, don't care.

Geng Laoba got angry, waved his hand and slapped Geng Lian twice. Geng Lian didn't cry, covered her mouth that was hurt by the beating, and said, "Dad, what are you doing with me?"

Geng Laoba squatted on the ground again, and said like a wolf: Oh my God, I, Geng Laoba, really lacked great virtue in my previous life.

Aunt Geng, who was sitting on the kang, shrugged and cried.

Marin stood there, not knowing what it was like for a moment.

He said: Uncle Geng, it's me who can't stand you.

After saying that, he felt that he had no reason to stand any longer, and he walked out.

Uncle Geng said behind him: "Big nephew, Uncle Eight can't stand you."

Ma Lin also heard Geng Laoba say: "Big nephew, you will hide tomorrow."

Ma Lin understood everything, and understood what he saw at Mr. Qian's house and Geng Laoba's house.

Marin was standing on the street again. On the night of the twenty-second day of the lunar month, the waning moon hung in the sky, shining coldly, and the surrounding snow fields were white. A sneer flashed at the corner of Marin's mouth. The sound of lonely footsteps sounded again, the snow creaked at his feet, and he walked towards the fox Yu's house. The fox Yu was in the middle of the street, and before he entered the door, he saw the fox Yu coming out of the door of his house in a panic, holding something in his arms, and walking to the backyard. As soon as he looked up and saw Marin, the fox asked in a panic, "Who?"

Uncle Yu, it's me, Marin. Marin said this and walked over.

The fox hurried back into the house like a tiger at the sight of a tiger. Marin heard a commotion in the house, and soon the fox came out again. The fox who came out folded his hands as if nothing happened, and closed the closed door with his body. The fox Yu was already smiling, he put his hands on his chest, and said with a smile on his face: It's the eldest nephew of the Ma family, you look at this whole thing, I heard that you are back, and I haven't taken the time to see you, so I asked you to come to see your uncle, how bad is this matter.

Marin doesn't want to go around in circles with the fox, the fox is not Geng Laoba, and the person who deals with the fox all the year round is more shrewd than the fox.

Ma Lin stood on the snow of the fox Yu's house and said bluntly: Lu Da is coming tomorrow.

The fox said, "Yes, why haven't I heard about this?"

Ma Lin said: The current Lu Da is not the same as the Lu Da of a few years ago, they have more people and more guns.

The fox Yu said again: He, what is he doing here?

Marin said: He came to me to take revenge a few years ago.

The fox Yu smiled, still cloaked his hands, and said with a very sorry look: You see this whole thing, it's really not a coincidence, tomorrow the second child of his aunt's family will get married, or your uncle can't see the joke about it.

When Marin heard this, he didn't want to say anything, and a sneer flashed at the corner of his mouth.

The fox Yu Chong Ma Lin's back said: "Big nephew, if you don't do that, you will hide tomorrow and avoid this formation."

Marin walked down the cold streets. He knew that no one would believe that Marin would be able to defeat Lu Da. He was going to go down one by one, but now there is no need for that. In a time of despair, Marin returned to his hometown full of hope, but what did his hometown give him?

On the night of the 22nd day of the lunar month, the famous fast gunner Marin felt more lonely than ever. With a sneer on the corner of his mouth, he walked towards his home in a blank way. At the door of his house, he saw Qiu Ju standing in the shadows, and Qiu Ju had been standing in the shadows for a long time. As Marin walked past her, he felt the chill emanating from her body from the inside out. It was at the moment when he passed by that he saw the teardrop in the moonlight in the corner of her eye. Marin's heart tugged.

A baker's dozen

The moment Qiu Ju saw Marin, she felt unprecedented despair. She understood that Marlin had not gotten anything, and that was what worried Marin the most. When Marin went out, she knew that Marin was looking for those villagers. As soon as Marin went out, her heart tightened. After falling asleep to the grass, she began to wait outside the door, and finally waited for Marin to return, and without asking, she understood everything.

She can't watch Marin lose in the hands of Lu Da, she wants to help Marin, she wants to persuade Geng Laoba, Fox Yu and the villagers to help Marin, Marin can only defeat Lu Da with the help of everyone.

Marin walked home disheartened, and she walked out of the house again full of hope.

Qiu Ju found Geng Laoba first. Geng Laoba didn't expect Qiu Ju to come to him, and as soon as he entered the door, Qiu Ju knelt down for Geng Laoba, and Qiu Ju said with tears in her eyes: Uncle Geng, you can help Ma Lin.

Geng Laoba said in a panic: What are you doing, Qiu Ju, what are you doing.

Qiu Ju said: If you don't help him, he will be killed by Lu Da.

Geng Laoba said: Qiu Ju, didn't Ma Lin divorce you, what do you care about him?

Qiu Ju was still kneeling, raised his head and said: It's his business to take a break from me, and it's my business to help him or not.

Geng Laoba squatted on the ground again, and said sincerely: Qiu Ju, it stands to reason that our two families hate Lu Da the most, and they should avenge this the most;

Qiu Ju said firmly: This time Ma Lin will definitely be able to kill Lu Da, he is a fast gunner.

Geng Laoba sighed, sighed far away, sighed and said: You know, Lu Da came to Ma Lin this time, Ma Lin has a gun, Lu Da also has it, Lu Da still has people, but Ma Lin has it? You let me let a Zhuang family go to help Ma Lin, how can we be the opponents of those beards.

Qiu Ju swallowed her tears back into her stomach and asked clearly: Eighth Uncle Geng, you really can't help Ma Lin again?

Geng Laoba lowered his head even deeper.

Qiu Ju slowly stood up from the ground, and she walked out of Geng Laoba's house without looking back.

Qiu Ju found Fox Yu in the backyard of Fox Yu's house, and Fox Yu was burying a few fox skins in the snow.

Qiu Ju knelt behind the fox Yu and said, "Uncle Yu, Qiu Ju pleases." These two sounds frightened the fox Yu a lot, and he sat down on the snow with his butt and looked at Qiu Ju in a daze. When he saw Qiu Ju clearly, he immediately sat on the snowdrift where the fox skin had just been buried with his buttocks, and said with a sigh: I, I didn't bury anything.

Qiu Ju said: Uncle Yu, please, help Ma Lin.

Fox Yu listened to Qiu Ju's words, seemed to be relieved, he sat on the snowdrift and said: Qiu Ju, how can you let Uncle help; Uncle is so old, he can't fight, he can't kill, Uncle only has the strength to breathe now.

Qiu Ju said: If you don't help Ma Lin, Lu will kill him.

The fox Yu suddenly cried, snot and tears, he said while crying: Qiu Ju, uncle knows that you are not easy, uncle's life is easy, we are small, dare to offend anyone, not to mention let uncle help Marin kill people, that is, let uncle kill fox, now uncle also has that heart and no strength, uncle does not know how to live in the future.

Qiu Ju stood up, she said with a cold face: You really don't help?!

The fox wiped his snot and said: Uncle is really not good, otherwise why not help.

Qiu Ju turned around, her hopes were dashed, and the world in front of her was dark.

The fox Yu said again: I still have a musket, if Marin wants to use it, you can take it, and my uncle can only do this one thing in front of him.

Qiu Ju turned around and said seriously: I want a musket.

The fox quickly went back to the house and took out a musket and stuffed it into Qiu Ju's hand.

Qiu Ju held the musket and walked back to the courtyard of the Ma family, she heard the sound of sharpening knives and the sound of asthma from Ma Zhanshan's house. Qiu Ju went back to her lower room and lay down, and for the first time she did not hug the fine grass in her sleep, but hugged the musket tightly.

fourteen

On the morning of the twenty-third day of the lunar month, it was said that it was here, and the difference between the backer and the past was that there was no peaceful cooking smoke wafting around the village in the past, and there was no rooster and dog barking.

The backer is empty. At dawn, the villagers of the backing mountain tun hugged the old and the young, stepped on the kneeless snow out of the backing mountain, they escaped from the backing mountain on the morning of the twenty-third day of the lunar month, away from this black day.

Only the fireworks of the Ma family floated at that time as in the past. Qiu Ju was making the last breakfast for the Ma family, Qiu Ju made oil cakes, salted eggs, and a big pot of porridge.

Marin, who had eaten breakfast, had been standing in his yard, and the two fast guns in his waist were still jet black. From the moment he opened his eyes in the morning, the corners of his mouth began to hang with that cold smile.

Ma Zhanshan has sharpened the pig-killing knife to an extremely sharp point, and the blade can shine on his old face. Ma Zhanshan stopped sharpening his knife, and he carried the knife in his arms. After doing all this, Ma Zhanshan walked towards the cellar mouth with asthma and struggled to remove the two stones that were pressed on the cellar mouth, and then removed the two bundles of grain and grass that were covering the vegetable cellar mouth. After doing all this, Ma Zhanshan looked around blankly, he first saw his son standing in the middle of the courtyard, his son Ma Lin was loading bullets into the gun, and the yellow and shiny bullets were filled into the belly of the gun by Ma Lin "squeak". The sound of loading bullets sounded so refreshing to Ma Zhanshan, and he said in his heart: Boy, when you kill Lu Da, Lao Tzu will also kill people!

Ma Zhanshan looked away from his son Ma Lin, and he saw Qiu Ju again, who was sitting on the threshold of the lower room and wiping a musket. When Ma Zhanshan saw this, he thought about it for a while, he didn't know where Qiu Ju's musket came from, and he didn't know what she was doing with the gun. In short, Ma Zhanshan's mind was very messy at that moment. Ma Zhanshan moved his gaze to the same chaos, and he saw Yangmei, who was looking at the snowman that he had built during the day yesterday, and overnight, the snowman had become ice-like and hard. Yangmei lingered on the snowman with a caressing gaze, and finally Ma Zhanshan had no choice but to choose Yangmei. So he shouted: Girl, girl. After Yangmei entered this house, Ma Zhanshan didn't know Yangmei's name, so he could only call Yangmei like that.

Yang Mei heard Ma Zhanshan's shout, and when she was sure that Ma Zhanshan was shouting herself, she even smiled at Ma Zhanshan. She walked towards Ma Zhanshan and walked in front of Ma Zhanshan. At this time, Ma Zhanshan had already sent half of his body into the cellar entrance, only exposing his shoulders and head.

Ma Zhanshan rushed over to Yangmei and said: Now I will go in, and when I go in, you will cover the mouth of the kiln with those two bundles of grass and those two stones, and when Lu Da dies, you will help me open it.

Yang Mei felt that Ma Zhanshan's actions were a little incredible, and she saw Ma Zhanshan sharpening his knife last night, and she thought that Ma Zhanshan was going to kill Lu Dana. Although Yangmei was puzzled, she still nodded. Ma Zhanshan was very satisfied when he saw Yangmei nodding at him. Just when he was about to put his head in the cellar, Ma Zhanshan said again: Girl, what is your name.

Yangmei was stunned for a moment, but still replied: Yangmei.

Ma Zhanshan said: If you are not afraid of a beard, you will sit on a stone.

Yangmei smiled at Ma Zhanshan again, and Ma Zhanshan's eyes disappeared into the cellar with the smile of Yangmei.

Yang Mei first put two bundles of grain and grass on the mouth of the cellar, and with great effort, pressed the two stones on the side. While doing this, Yangmei was so tired that she was out of breath, and finally she really sat on the rock. After sitting down, she found that this place was so good, she could see all the topography of the backer, and she could also see the snow road that stretched out of the backer, and she remembered that she had come here with Marin along this snowy road two days ago.

At some point, the sun was already at its top.

In Yangmei's sight, a team of horses came on the snow road leading to the outside of the village, and she counted them, there were eighteen horses in total, and eighteen people with two guns were sitting on the horse.

Marin, who was standing in the yard, also spotted the horse team, and then he turned around and smiled warmly at Yangmei, who gave him a smile in return. With a wave of his hand, Marin pulled out the twin guns at his waist and walked heavily towards the center of the street.

The fine grass who was peeing in the backyard also saw the horse team, and he didn't have any urine yet, so he ran back, and he shouted as he ran: Mother, mother, the horse is coming, the horse is coming.

The grass shouted excitedly and loudly.

Qiu Ju walked out with a musket, and she said to the fine grass: Be obedient, don't go out, my mother will come back in a while.

When Qiu Ju walked out of the door of the Ma family's courtyard, she took a serious look at the bayberry sitting on the stone at the entrance of the cellar, and she found that the bayberry was also looking at her.

And the gun rang out, at noon on the twenty-third day of the lunar month.

fifteen

At twilight, the people who fled from the backing mountain came back again, and for a time the backing of the mountain was full of chickens and dogs, and it was very lively.

In the twilight, people saw that under the old poplar tree in the middle of the village street, blood stained the snow red. Twenty corpses were laid out on the snow, eighteen people were lying around the old poplar tree, the old poplar tree was leaning on Ma Lin, and the other was Qiu Ju, looking from a distance, the two people seemed to be tired of walking, sitting under the tree, leaning on the tree body to rest.

Marin's eyes were wide open, holding the two fast guns flat, the sneer hung on the corner of his mouth, and the blood was already his body.

Qiu Ju was holding a musket tightly, and her head was tilted to Marin's side. She also had a smile on her face, but it was not Marin's sneer, but a very happy smile.

Strangely, there were no gunshot wounds on the eighteen beards, and all the blood was coming out of their eye sockets, and the fast gunner Marin first made them all blind before letting them die.

Hososoya sat beside his mother, who seemed to have been sitting for some time, and his legs became numb. He first shouted one after another: Mother, mother, let's go home, go home. Then he stopped shouting and stared blankly at everything in front of him. A wind blew, the snow on the ground fluttered one after another, and the fine grass shouted: Whirlwind Whirlwind, you are a ghost, three sickles cut your legs......

People also saw the woman named Yangmei sitting in the cellar in the courtyard of the Ma family. The woman sat there motionless, like a stone monument.

The night finally drowned out the backer.

In the wind on the evening of the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the madwoman Geng Lian whispered: Come on, you all come to me-