Outside the Vermilion Bird Voyage, the former residence of Fuqi.

This villa near Shizigang has been abandoned for more than 20 years, with decaying wooden walls and overgrown grass.

The owner of the villa is the great Sima Fuqi of the previous dynasty, he is the henchman of the mad emperor King Hailing of the previous dynasty, and he is as murderous and evil as King Hailing. Once King Hailing said that he had tasted all the delicacies in heaven and earth, but he didn't know what human flesh was like. Fu Qi invited King Hailing to the house, made a large steamer with bamboo, and steamed beauties with human milk for King Hailing to taste. After the defeat of the previous dynasty, the Fuqi Gate was destroyed. The mansion was also abandoned because it had been inhabited by such evil spirits. It also spread by the people, and gradually became a well-known barren mound ghost house.

In the early years, the people in the suburbs also tried to reclaim the land as a vegetable garden, but after digging up the walls and barren grass, they dug up the bones one after another, and finally no one dared to fight it again.

Towards evening, darkness sank into the abandoned house, and the cold fog unique to midwinter in Jiangnan quietly rose from the deserted garden. Whimpering and sobbing erupted from the dry bushes. At this time, Ren is a drunken hero passing by, and there is also a layer of cold on his back.

But now the floating corpses in Jiankang City are tired, and they have become purgatory on earth. This cold and desolate abandoned mansion doesn't even look particularly terrifying.

He Manru walked through the barren grass and bushes more than a person high, bypassed a broken wall, and came to a half-walled house in the Voqi Villa.

The window shafts had long since decayed, and the dilapidated lattice windows were half-hung and half-leaning against the window frames, making a dull turning sound in the wind from time to time.

Originally, the door was in a similar situation, but in order to protect from the wind, the occupants of the house had removed the entire door panel and blocked the door frame along with several pieces of waste wood.

He Manru lifted the door panel and bowed in.

Several people in the room obviously knew that he was back, and they didn't stop what they were doing. These people are either cleaning the windows or chopping wood to make a fire...... There was only one young boy sitting idle. He had tried to help light the fire, but after choking on the soot on his face, he finally realized that he couldn't even do this little thing, so he had to sit idle.

He Manduo walked up to him and arched his hand, "Your Highness." ”

The boy looked up and wiped his cheek. He looked extremely depressed, but his eyes were still bright and calm in the dim afterglow.

He Manru said, "As expected by His Highness, Guo Run did defect. Now the rebels are searching from house to house in the city, presumably not knowing that His Highness has escaped out of the city. ”

- Although it was all expected, the young man inevitably expressed some disappointment. But soon he added, "How many men are left outside?" ”

He Manru said, "More than 100 people broke out of the chaos before, but now they are all lurking in the area of Meizi Mountain. plus the more than 100 people who followed His Highness this time, a total of more than 230. ”

The boy said, "Let them feed the men and horses, and make them well, and meet them tomorrow." ”

In the dead of night, the boy lay wrapped in a cloak on a mat made of felt. The water vapor penetrates from the bottom, and it is cold to the bones. He couldn't sleep in the cold, so he simply folded the felt a few times, sat on the futon, leaned against the pillar and closed his eyes to recuperate.

The night watchman knew that he was cold, so they threw a few more pieces of wood into the fire. Suddenly, I realized that there was a piece of wood that felt special, and when I saw it in front of me, it was actually a piece of white bone that was more than a foot long.

The young man just opened his eyes, and when he saw the white bones, his eyes as black as cold stars blinked slowly. The voice is low, "...... Human bones? ”

"I guess I guess I guess it's from a wild dog." As he spoke, he threw the bone into the fire like wood.

In troubled times, human life is cheap, and dead people have seen a lot, so it is not the same thing for a long time. The young man only watched the bones slowly burn in the fire, and only a layer of warm fire reflected in his indifferent face.

He was unable to escape the rebels as soon as they entered the city.

-- Li Hu used countless means to attack the city, most of which were defused by him. Although he covered his face with an iron mask, his fame had already spread among the rebels. Therefore, once Taicheng was breached, Li Hu almost immediately issued an order to arrest him.

Despite this, he was only one step away from escaping - but as he rushed out, he saved a group of civilians who had been plundered by a group of rebels. It was this group that turned around and revealed his whereabouts to the rebels. Immediately the gates fell. The pursuers swarmed him, and he was almost in a desperate situation. Fortunately, He Manru contacted him in time and hid him.

During the three months of the siege of Taicheng, six or seven out of ten of the dead were covered with corpses and rotten juices, and he thought that he had seen a desperate situation in the world.

But he didn't expect that there would be a deeper purgatory.

to plunder goods, but also to vent anger. Li Hu expelled all the Chinese Wu and his children into the streets, and ordered the soldiers to be killed indiscriminately—Jiankang was a place where families under heaven lived, and those noble children who ate and drank mash were expelled from the mansion and tortured like livestock. More than 3,000 people died. On the ninth street of the capital, the carriages and horses passed, and all the bones and flesh of the ministers were trampled. Countless families have perished.

It's ridiculous that the Son of Heaven has spent his whole life dealing with the family, hoping that they can give a little profit out and give the world's poor men and wise men a step forward. But it is only like a grasshopper shaking a tree.

And less than three days after Li Hu entered the city, those lonely and high doors fell to the ground one by one like pigs and dogs.

The ministers and families are still like this, but what about the people? Whoever did not have time to escape from the city lived in the day after day of robbery.

He had been lurking for five days, and finally broke out of the city early this morning, but he also damaged nearly half of the men and horses responsible for luring the enemy.

And in the past five days, the reinforcements who had been watching from the wall outside the city finally dispersed.

-- And it is a matter of course. The sin that Li Hu has created today, the commander of this allied army must bear at least half of it. Maybe their original intention was to be the yellow finch behind the praying mantis, but now they have long lost the support and morality of the people, and they are no name teacher. What is not scattered?

Fortunately, in the Meigang area where the reinforcements were entrenched before, Li Hu's forces had not had time to seize it, and the garrison here was weak. He planned to break through from Meigang and leave Jiankang from the southwest.

As for leaving Jiankang, whether to go east to Jingkou or west to Nanling......

He thought, let's go to Nanling. Although Jingkou is close to the land of Sanwu fish and rice, and it is also close to Xuzhou, his power is not here. After the siege of Taicheng, he already hated relying on the power of others to save his life. Even if he had his uncle in Xuzhou, he would never want to be controlled by others anymore - he wanted a situation where he could be completely autonomous.

And he has soldiers and horses in Nanling, as well as nearly 300,000 stone grains and grass transported from Shu. There will be a fight. Nanling is in the upper reaches of Jiankang, and Jingkou is the key town of Jiankang. As long as his uncle can seize the Jingkou, he can form a flanking attack with him. As far as you can, you can call back.

He looked at the campfire, thinking about his thoughts, and before he knew it, sleepiness struck, and he sat down and fell asleep.

He was gently awakened in the haze, "Your Highness, the time has come." Let's get out. ”

Day and the seventeenth day of the first month of the sixth year, night.

Miyagi.

The full moon is not broken. Even though it's late at night, it's not like you can't see your fingers. Only the sky is slightly cloudy, and the moon reflects layers of dense clouds, and I don't know when the sky will change.

There was wind on the ground. The stumps and leaves in the hall that have not been swept in winter are blown by the wind, and the ground is rattled.

The cold moisture soaked in the wind, blew on the body, and instantly invaded the limbs and bones through the clothes that could not be dried, making people shiver from the bones.

The soldiers guarding the gate shrank around the fire and complained, "I can't even freeze ice in this winter in the south of the Yangtze River, why do I feel colder than when I was in Huaishuo." ”

Someone made fun of it, "It's cold, it's so ...... gathered so many unjust souls."

"It's okay, there are more monks than ghosts here, and you have to be over...... What's more, even if these sinks are ghosts, they are also nest ghosts. The group burst out laughing.

These bandits have killed more people and goods, and there are no taboos in their hearts, and the 100,000 unjust souls in the city are just a joke in their mouths. On the contrary, when it comes to the monk's temple, it is inevitable to talk about the treasures accumulated by these 480 temples, and I can't help but salivate. However, regardless of the heart of the Buddha in the north and south of the Hu and Han dynasties, Li Hu and his evil ghosts also fear the Dharma. In the troubled times, the temples of Dufomen were saved from looting, and the people threw themselves into the temples to seek refuge.

After the successive looting and massacres, there were not many people left in Taicheng. After a few days of burning and cleaning, the street is even more empty, and you can forget it at a glance. The garrison everywhere was very lax - but I heard that the king of Linchuan had not yet been caught, and the hunt was strictly ordered, so the night patrols were still very intensive.

The palace was more heavily guarded than the outside - after all, the Son of Heaven was still imprisoned here, and only this prisoner could never escape.

But...... I can't think about it for long. Since he was placed under house arrest in the Hanshui Temple four days ago, no one has sent a grain of rice in. Even if the old emperor can't freeze to death, I'm afraid he will be starved to death.

The soldiers mentioned the people inside, and I don't know who said, "Do you think Da Sima wants to be the emperor himself?" ”

Others were waiting for the interface, and a quick voice came from the door, "The inspector is here!" ”

A group of lazy soldiers hurriedly stepped on the flames and returned to their positions.

Sure enough, a moment later, a patrolling guard came over to inquire about the situation.

The soldiers were about to answer when they heard the sound of tiles falling to the ground, and they were all startled as they looked against the wall.

But I didn't see anyone.

The soldiers looked at each other, and after a moment, someone asked, "Would you like to go inside and see?" ”

As he spoke, he heard a crisp sound again. This time, however, the soldiers heard where they were coming from, and some of them went around to the opposite ruin, and looked in—and sure enough, they saw a fat woman standing by the well, fetching water, and the crisp sound was the reads she made when she had not paid attention to the scoop to the ground.

The soldiers immediately recognized that this was the cook who had been captured and plundered only the day before yesterday - all the palace ladies in Taicheng were destroyed, but this cook was disgusted because of her fat and ugly and eye disease, and she did not suffer too much. When she was short on manpower, she was expelled to do some cooking and washing work. Because of the large amount of work, I have to get up on the fourth watch every day to get up and prepare for water.

After figuring out the reason, the soldiers couldn't help but be disgusted with her for being ugly and making trouble, and hugged her and kicked her a few times.

The fat woman only held her head and shrunk aside, unable to even scream, which made people feel extremely boring. Then there was a humane, "Alright." Beat her to death again, and there is no one to cook. ”

These people stopped.

Seeing that nothing was going on, the patrolling guards quickly left.

After a while, the soldiers guarding the gate reverted to their old ways and went into the gatehouse to take shelter from the storm. Leave one alone to guard outside.

The guard, however, was also sleepy, and stepped forward to twist the fat woman's ass a few times, and suddenly saw that the skin on the back of her neck was as white as fat, and he couldn't help but feel a little angry. Just as he was about to get tired of stepping forward, he saw the fat woman turn her head stiffly, revealing the terrifying white puff on her right eye. The soldier was startled, and felt extremely defeated. scolded her a few words indiscriminately and said, "Look at it! If someone comes and peels your skin carefully! ”

He yawned and hid inside the gatehouse.

The fat woman craned her neck and forgot for a moment, and then she walked into the house lightly, took out a burden, and went around to the side of the gatehouse.

Dark clouds cover the moon, and the sky is cloudy and snowy.

There is a gatehouse to cover it, where it is almost impossible to see the five fingers, the fat woman carefully groped forward, and sure enough, she saw a person hiding in the dark, although the skin was blackened, but the outline could be vaguely distinguished.

The man only looked at her with those cold eyes—she saw the fat woman make a move to distract the guards, but she didn't do anything to kill her. But because she didn't know her position, she was inevitably wary.

The fat woman seemed to sense her nervousness and immediately stopped. After hesitating for a moment, he reached out and handed over the burden.

She doesn't answer.

The fat woman carefully laid her burden on the ground, as if she was about to leave. But the gaze is just lingering on her, the gaze is like a lonely herbivore mother, gentle and harmless, but it makes people uncomfortable from the bottom of their hearts. The fat woman still had bruises on her face that Shicai had beaten to protect her......

She grabbed her for some reason.

The fat woman was stunned for a moment, and her eyes immediately showed joy.

She hesitated for a moment, then lowered her voice and asked, "What's your name?" She wanted to remember the man's name so that she could repay it later.

The fat woman paused and said softly, "...... Qi Niang. ”

She also called, "Seven...... Mother. ”

The fat woman's nose was sore, and she immediately lowered her eyes, turned around and hurried away.

Ruyi picked up the burden, and the burden was soft. I think it's wrapped in a thin cotton coat. When she tied the burden to her body, she couldn't help but pause in her hand - the heavy burden was obviously not only the cotton clothes. She also smelled the burnt smell of the pot's bottom of the pot - after the great war, there was a shortage of food in the city, and I don't know how many people in the city starved to death, but this man gave her emergency food.