Although the rain was not heavy, it never stopped.

The water vapor soaked the clothes, and the cotton clothes had long lost their function of sheltering from the cold, like a layer of soft ice on the body. Ruyi only felt that the whole person was cold.

Erlang then instructed, "Find a nearby village and trim it up a little." ”

At this moment, they had entered the boundary of Jiangning - the rebels crossed the river from Cihu and attacked Jiankang from the south to the north, so Jiangning County bore the brunt. However, there is a lot of farmland in Jiangning, and the people take crops as their business, and most of them are relocated. There are few refugees. And here there are many low mountains and rivers, lakes and rivers are all over, which is easy to attack and difficult to defend. Therefore, after the rebels plundered, they did not garrison here.

The tense spirit of the group couldn't help but relax.

Ruyi also came back to her senses when she heard the voice, and said, "A-Niang once told me that if you pass by Jiangning, you must go to see if Aunt Zhai is safe." ”

- Soon after Erlang and Ruyi left the palace one after another, Xu Si sent Aunt Zhai out of the palace to be raised. Originally, she had been living in Dongchanggan, but before the rebels crossed the river, she suddenly said that she wanted to go back to her hometown to see her nephew's family. Xu Sicai sent someone to send her back to Jiangning County, and Li Hu killed the Yangtze River. The two sides couldn't communicate with each other, and Xu Si was always worried.

Erlang asked, "Where does Aunt Zhai's family live?" ”

Ruyi said, "It seems to be called Hengpi Village." ”

He Manduo interjected, "Then you have to go a little further - can you see the river in front of you?" He raised his hand and pointed.

Ruyi looked at the past, and sure enough, he saw a ravine in front of him diagonally, and there was a simple stone bridge on the bend in the distance, which was the river He Manruo pointed to. But she didn't see the water flowing in the river—dry rivers are rare in the south of the Yangtze River, let alone in so much rainy season. She felt a little strange and said, "See, but is there no water in the river?" ”

He Manru said, "This river flows around Niushou Mountain, I think the landslide in front of it has silted up the river." He added, "This river is Hengxi, and after crossing the river we go to the mountain on the other side, and the high ground in the middle is Hengpi." ”

There was still a mile or two ahead, and Erlang saw that Ruyi was shrinking badly, so he ordered, "Hurry up." ”

Li Dui suddenly said, "Silence-"

When they came out of Niushou Mountain, there were nearly 200 people in their group, and they fled all the way to Jiangning, and few people were left behind. It's just that people are tired and tired, and they are gradually slowing down. Still, there were no complaints in the team. After Li Dui reminded him, he didn't hear a word. The sound of muddy water trampled by a horse's hooves on a dirt road, the sound of a horse's nose from time to time, and the sound of drizzle all over the mountains.

Erlang glanced at Li Dui, Li Dui gave him a look, and Erlang immediately ordered, "Put on your helmets and prepare your weapons-"

Before the words fell, he heard the sound of horses' hooves in the hills on both sides, and the shouts of killing began, and two teams of men and horses slanted out.

Before the men and horses arrived, a wave of feathered arrows came like flying locusts. Fortunately, the distance was too far, and most of them didn't shoot into the formation. However, several knights were still shot and fell from their horses, and one of them was flying past Jiro's cheek. Erlang's pupils couldn't help shrinking.

There were four or five hundred pursuers, twice as many as theirs. The group hurriedly covered Erlang's escape. However, they traveled from Shizigang to Niushou Mountain and then to Jiangning, and fled for dozens of miles in the rain, snow and mud in one day. Erlang's generals could only kill back and delay the pursuers for the time being, and Li Dui and He Manduo would protect the two sisters and brothers.

The arrows rained down, and Ruyi could only desperately stick his body on the horse's back, grasp the reins and let the horse run away on its own. Her vision was already blooming, her ears were full of wind, and she didn't even know which direction she was running. She turned her head in a panic to look for Erlang's traces, and was a little relieved to see that he was indeed running beside her.

Suddenly, however, Jiro quickly fell behind - only for a split second he fell out of her field of vision.

She desperately turned around, but saw Erlang's horse fall to the ground, and Erlang was getting up from the mud - the enemy soldiers behind him were about to catch up.

Ruyi suddenly recovered from the panic, and she quickly turned the horse's head and ran back regardless of it.

- She finally got ahead of the pursuers and returned to Jiro's side.

She reached out and tried to pull Jiro onto his horse, but their hands were slippery and cold, and they slipped away with a single effort. She circled around Erlang a few times, but her two hands never held one place.

Seeing that the pursuers were getting closer and closer, but fortunately their own men had returned in due time, and had come together with the pursuers, they jumped off their horses as they wished.

Jiro was talking to her, but her ears were filled with the neighing of people, the neighing of horses, the clashing of swords, and the sound of knives slashing into flesh...... She couldn't hear clearly. She only picked up Jiro and tried to push him onto the horse.

The pursuers were already about to surround her, and she had no time to get on the horse, so she could only pat the horse's buttocks with all her might, so that Erlang could escape first.

Almost as soon as the horse took off, several feathered arrows drove into her shoulders, and she threw herself to the ground in pain—and where the horse was, the arrows were driven into the muddy water.

She fell into the muddy water and did not move for a long time. The pain ran through her body, and her consciousness was already a little dim and numb, and the sound was fading away. She thought in the chaos, doesn't Erlang matter, he should have escaped...... And she's probably going to die here.

But then someone forcibly pulled her out of the mud and carried her on her back.

Ruyi came from the dark and dim pain in a trance, only to see the man's snow-white and cold neck as white jade drenched by the drizzle, and the messy broken hair on the neck. The man turned his head, and his red and tearful eyes met Ruyi's gaze, and there was a fierce and relieved determination in that gaze—Ruyi subconsciously looked up at her horse in a daze, and saw that the horse's back was empty.

…… At the last moment, her brother jumped off the horse and chose to live and die with her.

Maybe she should be resentful that he failed her sacrifice, maybe she should be glad that she wasn't left behind, maybe...... But no matter how many possibilities there are, the only thing Ruyi felt at that moment was actually brightness. The fire of survival that had been extinguished in her heart was ignited again at this moment. The world, which had been dark and dark, suddenly had color again. She was forcibly dragged out of the river of Santu River, and the tenacious will she had cultivated since childhood returned to her heart again.

She leaned on Jiro's shoulder, instinctively pushing him to avoid a few feathered arrows.

But the pursuers had indeed entered, and gradually surrounded the two of them. He Manduo couldn't get out of the way, and Ruyi knew very well that she and Erlang couldn't rush out with their strength.

Behind them was the Hengxi, which was not devoid of water, but shallow in its water, with a large amount of mud and rocks exposed in the riverbed, and large swaths of reeds growing on the shallows. The shallows were more than a foot deep, and the soil on both sides had collapsed after a few days of rain, and the weeping willow trees on the shore were lying to the side.

And they tumbled down from the willow tree. They fled to the reeds.

The reeds were more than a man's height.

The roadside pursuers caught up and shot a few arrows into the reeds, but saw the two sisters and brothers staggering out of the reeds and trying to wade across the river.

At this time, the river water is cold and biting, and the pursuers are reluctant to go down the river to chase them.

In a moment's time, the two siblings had reached the middle of the river, and the river was only up to their waists. Seeing that they were about to escape, the rebels immediately gave the order and drove a group of men and horses down the river to chase them, while the rest went around to the bridge in front of them and crossed the river from the bridge to intercept them.

Although the river is not deep, the current is a little turbulent due to the slope of the terrain.

And Ruyi was injured, and most of his weight was leaning on Erlang, and they were actually very staggering forward.

It was a definite battle, and even if they struggled to the end, they would probably end up being captured—they had lost their horses, and even if they came ashore, they would soon be overtaken by their pursuers. But for some reason, none of them had any intention of giving up. Just trying his best to clear the heavy and cold current, trudging to the other side.

The pursuers behind him had all gone down the river, and they were only half a river wide apart. And they all rode horses.

The distance shortens little by little.

Jiro finally waded to the river, and grabbed the willow hanging down on the opposite bank.

The water on this shore is very deep, and the slope is steep, so it is not so easy to go up. And Ruyi's legs were heavy, and her lower abdomen hurt as if she had been hit hard, and the pain made her dizzy. She had long since lost sensation on her right hand. She soaked in cold water and inadvertently let go of her arm, looking like she was about to slide off Jiro's shoulder.

Jiro hurriedly grabbed her waist and lifted her to her back. His voice trembled, as if pleading, "Hold me tight, sister...... Never let go. ”

The voice woke Ruyi up for a moment, and she didn't say anything more, "Let go of me, you can run away first." He just raised his arms as best he could, clasped them together, and wrapped them diagonally around Jiro's shoulders.

Jiro lifted her up again, stepped on the rocks on the riverbed, and climbed the willow tree.

And the pursuers behind him have also waded through the middle of the river.

In the distance, there was a sudden thunderous sound like thunder, a landslide, and a galloping horse.

All sounds were drowned out, and both sides that were still fighting couldn't help but stop their weapons and look at the source of the sounds.

I saw a murky stream of muddy water that carried the mud, gravel, and dead branches, roaring and rushing from the top of the river like a dragon breaking through the chains. The yellow dragon opened its huge mouth and devoured the impact along the way, the god blocked and killed the god, and the Buddha blocked and killed the Buddha. The people and horses in the river disappeared into the turbid current in the blink of an eye, and the wooden bridge in front of them was shattered in an instant.

Among all the people in the river and on the bridge, only Xiao Huaishuo stepped on the opposite bank with his sister on his back at the last moment.

The banks of the river began to collapse in the turbid currents. He took one last leap with Ruyi on his back, and finally fell to the ground. And the yellow dragon-like turbidity was finally restrained by the riverbank, and it failed to swallow them.

They fell to the ground, and the pursuers on this side of the river just stared at them dumbfounded.

Many of these pursuers had previously followed Xiao Maode to Niushou Mountain to chase Ruyi, and more were people that Xiao Maode had arranged in advance at the mouth of Niushou Valley - Xiao Maode's original plan was also to have a front and back attack, and he would take Ruyi as his prey, because he wanted to completely enjoy the pleasure of a hunt. He didn't think he would die in an ambush himself. The pursuers who were ambushed at the mouth of the Niushou Valley could not get a signal for a long time, so they could only track Xiao Maode and his party from a distance. It was not until the people who fled from Niushou Mountain brought back the news that Xiao Maode had been killed, and the command of this unit was changed, that the action began.

And in a single day, many of them witnessed two mutations. The psyche is in a state of shock.

And all this qiē Xiao Huaishuo did not know.

When he finally came to his senses, he only helped Ruyi up again, supported each other with her, and continued his escape.

-- And this escape is indeed far from over.