In the early morning, in the courtyard behind the Zhuji Restaurant, people swept away the snow. In the not yet bright light, people had begun to gather and whisper hello to each other.

The courtyard was quite large, with about sixty or seventy people, mostly wearing robes, some carrying musical instruments such as erhu, and they found a bench and sat up in twos and threes in the cold weather.

They are all storytellers, and Lu Shi is one of them, he is holding an erhu, holding a few pages of paper in his hand, and his eyes are slightly red because of staying up late. After sitting down, I saw the shopkeepers and proprietors in front of me come in.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm sorry to get you all together in a hurry. There is a shortage of supplies in the city, and there is no fire, so I will make a long story short, and when I am done, please eat noodles. You should have read some of these little stories that have been sent to you. ”

"I've seen it." Lu Shi replied in the crowd, and most of the answers around him were neat. They are usually storytellers, and they pay attention to sharp teeth, but there are no gags and jokers at this time. On the one hand, the prestige of the people in front is quite high, on the other hand, during the period of the Jurchen siege, everyone has experienced too many things, some people who once knew went to the city wall to participate in the garrison defense and did not come back, and there were also those who were cut off by the Jurchens before and their hands and feet were not dead at this time. After all, it was because most of these people were literate and numeracy, and they were arranged in logistics, and now they have survived, and it was not until last night that they saw the stories of some people inside and outside the city to know that so many things had happened during this time.

Lu Shi finished reading the two stories sent to him overnight last night, and his mood was agitated. They tell stories, sometimes they tell some vain novels, sometimes they can't help but tell some hearsay anecdotes, add fuel and vinegar, and these things at hand are always different. Especially if you have participated in it yourself, it is even more different.

The aroma of noodle soup was already coming from the adjacent courtyard, and the owner in front continued to speak.

"The printing side has just started to resume work, and there are not enough people, so I can't send them all to you for the time being, and you can pass them on to each other after you finish reading. This battle with the Jurchens. The fight was not good, and many people died, but in this battle, both inside and outside the city, there were many people who rushed forward and sacrificed their lives. It was sacrificed in a rush, not when they fled, just for them. We need to leave these stories behind......"

"There is no need for impassioned rendering, and there is no need for everyone to say that those who offend me will be punished even if they are far away, and what is the great cause of sealing the wolf. This time we are only talking about individuals, who have been sorted out and who have not been sorted out, and there are many such things, and everyone has heard them. It can also help with tidying up. Let's talk about stories, maybe it will make people laugh on weekdays. But now in this city, everyone is very sad, you have to go and give them a boost, nothing else, those who have died, we will remember...... We say tragic. Not to mention generosity. Do you understand? If you don't understand something, you can bring it up and discuss it with each other. ”

Immediately someone began to speak, and someone asked, "Boss, has the matter of peace outside the city been decided?" ”

"The peace is undecided." Storytellers these days are often well-informed in society. Sometimes, after talking about some things, it is inevitable to discuss some empirical evidence and negotiation with others, and naturally some people may ask, and the proprietor replied, "Speaking of which there are eyebrows, both sides may have a tendency to negotiate peace, but everyone, don't forget the wolf nature of the Jurchens, if we really take it as a matter of nine out of ten, and take it lightly, the Jurchens will definitely pounce." The old hunters in the mountains know that when encountering a beast, the important thing is to keep an eye on him, if you don't stare at him, he will definitely bite you. You can go out and emphasize this. ”

“…… If we are ready to fight, we will have the qualifications to make peace, and if we do not have the intention of fighting, then we will definitely be beaten. ”

The noisy words continued for a while, and the noodles were cooked and served hot.

This morning, Bianliang was still white, and after breakfast, the storytellers went out one after another. Together with Zhu Ji's men, most of them worked in groups of two, and Lu Shi found a small market by the river to sit down and pull up his erhu.

The siege has been long, the weather is cold, and there is nothing to buy in the bazaar, and the two white sheds erected not far away are perhaps the most striking things. He pulled the erhu for a while, and after talking about the story, some people came over nearby.

Erhu's voice is mournful, and what he said is actually not an exciting story. When the Jurchens were attacking the city, he had also seen many people die, and he was in the rear most of the time, and he survived, and the bleak scene of people dying or before death was not greatly touched. Only when these original records and sorted out stories are combined together, the people who died at the beginning seem to suddenly have meaning and destiny. The people who came around, including those who listened from a distance at the door of the nearby house, had seen and heard this way, and after being pulled out of reality by the story, most of them couldn't help but feel sad and compassionate.

After he finished telling a story, there were already some people gathered nearby, and there were also children wearing linen and filial piety, and then there was a small episode. A woman in sackcloth from a nearby family came to beg for something, and she opened a mourning hall for her family, but at this time there were too many dead people in the city, not to mention monks, and there was not even a person who could play musical instruments around.

After Lu Yan refused, the woman sat on the ground and cried, muttering about the affairs of her family. Her husband is a small landowner nearby, he is still young, he likes to dance and play with swords on weekdays, and when the Jurchens came, the man left his wife and two young children at home, went to Xinshuojuom, and died there. Now the two children are two years old and one is four years old, although the family has left a small fortune, but she is a woman in her early twenties, where can she keep this home, she has set up a mourning hall for her husband, but she can't even invite monks and musicians, and the woman can only send off the young husband in such a difficult winter.

It is a small family, and it is difficult for a young woman with two children to support this matter, and in the past few days, the pressure on her body has been too great to speak, and when she cried and said it, the people around her also wiped their tears. An eight- or nine-year-old child next to him who was wearing linen and filial piety cried and said, "My father is also dead." My father is dead too......" was a cry.

On this day, most of the storytellers in the city encountered such a situation. Whether inside or outside the city, a person's death is often not too impassioned to speak of. For the survivors in the city, the death of their loved ones makes people see more of the reality that is pressed in front of them, and there are only so many people, with different identities, who have died in the same way. to add a little meaning to these deaths. Even if a lot of propaganda of this meaning is artificial, at least it will not make people sink directly into the dark abyss.

While there was a little noise in the city under the operation of people with intentions, outside Bianliang City, the military camps confronting the Jurchens were not calm.

At the beginning, the division led the Western Army to fight with the Jurchens, and the people of the Wurui Battalion were one step late, and then there was a rumor of peace talks, and the Wurui Battalion and the hundreds of thousands of people who came from the rear one after another set up a formation and confronted them in front of the Jurchens. The Wurui camp chose a snow slope that was not too steep to camp. Then the fortifications were built, the equipment was reorganized, and large-scale preparations for battle began, and the rest of the people saw the movements of the Wurui battalion, so they also began to build fortifications.

As the peace talks progressed step by step, the Jurchens were reluctant to fight again, and public opinion that the matter of peace had been decided began to appear, and the remaining more than 100,000 troops did not come to fight the Jurchens head-on. It's just that the attitude of the Wurui camp is put out. On the one hand, the war was coming to an end, and they had to do the same. On the other hand, they rushed over in order to carve up a piece of this elite army before others intervened, and the morale was not high, and the fortifications were done hastily and sloppily. Then it became even more perfunctory.

Only on the side of the Wurui battalion, day by day, the construction of fortifications and offensive drills are regarded as daily life. A day or two. Some people said, during the peace talks, don't start another military provocation, you show your teeth and claws all day long in front of the Jurchen formation, as if provocation, in case the other side of the ferocity comes up and continues to fight, who can bear the responsibility of sabotaging the peace talks.

During this period, private correspondence and lobbying between various armies were the norm, and although the Wurui Battalion could refuse some, there were also some people who could not refuse. After a few days, under the mention of the Zhuji staff group, the lobbyists were also sent to oppose the capable people in the army.

In this way, although it can be regarded as the opponent's army, in private, it is floating. There was another round of discussion, review, and introspection in the army here. Naturally, we can't focus on each other's actions, but discuss together why we lost the battle with the Jurchens, what are the differences between the two sides, and what we need to do to defeat these people. In the army, regardless of whether there are those who have learned or those who have not, they gather around and talk about their ideas, and then summarize and unify them, and so on.

People have brains, even if they were illiterate farmers before they became soldiers, everyone discussed together, what makes sense and what doesn't, they can always distinguish something. Why did we lose the battle with the Jurchens, because we were afraid of death, why did each of us not be afraid of death, and when we got together, we became afraid of death...... These things, as long as you go a little deeper, can filter out some problems. These discussions over the past few days have led to some sharp things floating among the middle and lower class soldiers, and the crisis of being divided has been resolved to a certain extent, and at the same time, some vigorous things have begun to sprout in the barracks.

Stepping on the not too thick snow, Chen Dongye came back from training with his subordinates, and when he approached his tent, he saw an officer standing outside, and at the same time, he also heard the discussion in the tent.

The man outside the tent was familiar with him, and seemed to be standing casually, but in fact he smelled of letting off steam, and when he saw that it was him, he made a look, and waved his hand to let him in. When he opened the curtain and went in, he saw that there were already six or seven petty officers of the rank of lieutenant in the tent.

What everyone said was that the officials of the rest of the troops were doing things behind their backs and pulling people in.

“…… My brother came to me and said that as long as he was willing to go back, he would be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver and immediately promoted to the third rank. These people are afraid that the world will not be chaotic, and the blood spent will be more and more every day......"

"Do you dare to say that you are not tempted?"

"Hey, is Lao Tzu short of money! Sue you, at that time, I directly pulled out my knife and told him clearly, say this again, my brother is not appropriate, I slashed him with a knife! ”

"Brother He is domineering!"

"There's nothing domineering or domineering, how did we fight these days!"

"I can see it these days, how we lost, how those brothers died......"

Several of the people in the tent were lower-ranking officers, and most of them were young, and they were defeated at first, but they were killed in the battle of Xia Village. It is the time when the sharpness and anger are at their peak. Luo Ye's family, who is in this camp with Chen Dongye, has a background in a family in Beijing, and has always dared to speak, and he dares to fight, and everyone probably gathered here because of this. After talking for a while, the voice grew louder, and someone slapped it on the wood sitting next to him. Chen Dongye said: "You should be quiet. ”

"What is there to be whispered about!" A man with a scar on his face on the other side said, "At the discussion meeting in the evening, Lao Tzu dared to say that!" Before the Jurchens left, they were going to fight! Now who in this army can't understand! Only when we hug each other can there be hope, it is really broken up, and everyone will be in a nest like before! A hundred taels of silver, what about the promotion of the third level! Turned people into bears! ”

"What I'm saying is: Let's not make trouble for the top, General Qin, I'm afraid they won't have a good time......"

After this time. Everyone has quite agreed with the chief officer above, especially at such a time, in the daily discussion, most of them know some of the above difficulties, and they have a sense of unity and hatred in their hearts. The topic changed from mouth to mouth.

"Ning Gongzi is very powerful, and he gave them a dismount."

"But I heard from Zhu Ji's brother that this is also a plan for rights."

"Whether to dismantle or not, after all, it is the upper hand who has the final say......"

"If it's really demolished, we'll be like before again? Frankly. If you really tear us down, give me a hundred taels of silver. The official was promoted to the third level, and the next time the Jurchens came, I didn't have the confidence to fight. After saving money, I had to run to a place where no one was before the Jurchens came......"

"Hey, what more money do you need to go to a place where no one is ......"

"Something first!" The man shouted. "I didn't know before, I fought with the Jurchens, and I lost like that, but now I run back and follow those sons of bitches, and the Jurchens will come again. Do I still dare to fight? Last time, after I rushed, I saw the Jurchens kill me, I was injured before I ran, the next time the Jurchens rushed over, I guess I will first turn around and run, follow those officials, steal chickens and eat money and empty salaries, how to fight, is it reliable! I finally got out of the bottom and died, so many brothers died, to be honest, if we were together, General Qin, Mr. Ning, where they pointed out, I will fight, and if you take a step back, the eighteen generations of my ancestors are all dogs! ”

This man said, his eyes were slightly red, but no one could say anything about him, this man was a little sentimental, but he was always the most fierce when he killed enemies on the battlefield.

Someone on the side said: "I don't know so much, but if you really want to demolish it, what do you say?" ”

"Yes, the affairs of the superiors, how can we have the share of a group of soldiers......

"It's not that you can't speak." The officer named Luo Ye on the side said, "The people above have a way to fight with the people above, and there are not many people below us who can help, but first of all, it's still that sentence, we have to hold together!" ”

"We've been fighting until now, when have we not been in a group!"

"Huddles aren't just words! They literati have ideas, that is, they speak, we are soldiers, we have ideas, if we want to stand up, we must fight! Although this Luo Ye is a son of a family, he dares to fight the most, regardless of the consequences, and glared at this time, "What is a huddle, my family knows a lot of people in the capital, who is not convinced, kill him, this is called huddle!" General Qin and Mr. Ning obey me, now that those miscellaneous people are doing things behind their backs, they can only deal with it from the top, to put it bluntly, that is, to see who has more people and has more influence. We are also people, why do these people send lobbyists in private, just because they think we are easy to start, and if they want to stab General Qin in the back, then we have to sue them: Lao Tzu is not easy to start, we are a monolith! In this way, General Qin and Mr. Ning will be better able to do things. ”

"Brother Luo, what do you say?"

"Hit! Whoever disagrees will beat him! It's the same as beating the Jurchens! Don't you understand, in a few years, the Jurchens will definitely come again! was demolished, and with those flies and dogs, we were dead. Since it's a dead end, let's fight! Like Xia Village, more than 10,000 of us get together, and no one can fight! If you come to make a stalk, we will fight, and if you are a hero, we will make friends. Now it's not just about you and me, the national disaster is at hand, and the overthrow is imminent, so I don't have time to play with them......"

Everyone nodded as if they didn't understand, and in the wind and snow, there were many similar things fermenting in the camp in front of them. is like a spark, although it may be extinguished at any time under the pressure of the outside world, but at least during this time, people who are in the same mood and start to hold together under the pressure of the outside world and are determined to do something have finally appeared.

Like an undercurrent under the ice, these things appear in the midst of countless things. Then it sank again, and in the process of these events, outside the Jurchen military camp, there was a convoy escorting some herbs, food and other materials inside, which was to appease the Jurchens during the negotiations. The one in charge of these things is the Right Prime Minister's Office. Immediately, it was criticized a lot.

Time passed in the silence of the wind and snow, and in Bianliang City, the propaganda led by Zhuji gradually stirred up the hearts of people who fell into sadness. There was a lot of talk about the people who died in the Great War and about the heroes. The negotiation is still going on, and in the noise of these information, the master is looking forward to Ning Yi and the others exerting the right strength in the negotiation bureau - Ning Yi and the others and the people from the Right Prime Minister's Mansion are also running around the capital for this matter at this time, and in a few days, she can occasionally hear about it - but what she doesn't know is. Despite all the efforts he has made in it, this time, the feedback from the operation of the Right Prime Minister's Office is not ideal.

On December 23, on the evening of the fourth day when Ning Yi quietly returned to Bianliang, he discussed things with a think tank beside him and came down from the Wenhui Tower.

“…… The current situation in the capital is a little strange, and they are all doing tai chi. What really gave feedback was Tang Ke's gang leader and faction...... Tang Qinsuo's personal morality is very acceptable. But he doesn't matter. Regarding the negotiations outside the city, it is important to note that the point inside is that the fate of the Wurui battalion is the question of the fate of the Wurui battalion. These two points were implemented, and Wurui rescued Taiyuan. The north can survive...... Now it seems that everyone is a little vague, and now it is a day less ......"

“…… Could it be that all the lords in the court, there are other ways to protect Taiyuan? ”

In this battle, Zongwang swept across the Central Plains. Even if Zong Han didn't make a big move, he had already emptied the side of Taiyuan. After the two armies converged, who could stop it, the Wurui battalion was the only unit with a victory, and it went north with more than 100,000 people to cooperate with the Taiyuan defense line, which was a little deterrent. Otherwise, it's simply watching people cut meat with knives. Qin Xiang lobbied His Majesty, but the saint was on the other side...... The attitude is not very clear......"

In Bianliang City, what Ning Yi is really responsible for is still public opinion propaganda, the tandem of the middle and lower levels, and some things related to the military, but although he is not personally responsible, the current attitude of the upper echelons of the Wu Dynasty is strange enough.

Qin Siyuan, Jueming, and Yao Zunian are all human spirits, and there is no problem in terms of ability, but after operating for so long, Qin Siyuan has been saint many times, and he has not received a clear answer in all aspects, which makes people a little anxious. What is the emperor's attitude towards the army, what is everyone's attitude towards Taiyuan, and whether the negotiations ahead are likely to get stuck on key issues, these things are all imminent, like wheels, and once you hesitate, you have to watch the missed opportunity.

The negotiations outside the city should be decided in a few days, and Ning Yi was also a little strange about the silence and hesitation of the upper echelons. As he came out of the Wenhui Building, he suddenly heard a voice in front of him.

"I'm so cold, there are few dead people on the streets, I'm so bored, when will I ...... I! ~Exercise! ~Ning Yi! Hahahaha, Ning Yi! ”

The voice was extremely arrogant, and he knew who it was as soon as he heard it, Ning Yi looked up, and sure enough, he was wrapped like a panda, describing the obscene Huahua Tai Sui Gao Muen. When he saw Ning Yi, his expression changed slightly, and then he crossed his hands on his hips.

"You're fucking back! Hahahaha! Ning Yi! How the fuck do you dare to come back...... Your good days are numbered! I'm cāo! I'm going to kill you—"

He pointed at Ning Yi with one hand, and said this unclear word in his mouth, Ning Yi tilted his head and frowned slightly. At this moment, there was a sudden commotion.

"Kill the Dog—"

On the street, someone shouted suddenly, and one person lifted the cover cloth on the nearby car, and the sky was full of snow, the sword light was lit up, and the hidden weapon was flying. On the long street, a vendor who was originally setting up a stall overturned the stall, and not far from Ning Yi's side, a woman wearing a headscarf and holding a basket suddenly raised her hand, and slashed with two knives, someone jumped from the top of the building, and two assassins rushed past Gao Muen's side. At this moment, a killing array composed of more than ten people violently unfolded on the street, pounced on Ning Yi, who was dressed as a scholar.

At the same moment, the figure next to Ning Yi rushed out, the sky was full of sword light, and behind the side, the gun came out like a dragon's roar, sweeping across the area. The shouts also erupted at the same time, like the spirit of wolf smoke above the battle array, and in an instant, the entire street was shaken, and the murderous aura was soaring.

The sky was full of snowflakes, human figures clashed, there were the sounds of weapons, the sound of fighting, the sound of steel knives slashing into flesh, and then, the silhouette of blood flying in the sky.

This is a sudden assassination, Gao Muen stood there, originally just stretched out his hand to point at Ning Yi, and also stared at Ning Yi looking, in the blink of an eye, the dazzled, the figure rushed out, and there were also fierce men rushing towards Ning Yi, on the other side of the field of vision, Ning Yi's gaze also changed color suddenly, Gao Muen only saw this moment and then was covered by the figure, the big man rushed to Ning Yi, the next moment the whole body curled up, and flew to the side of the long street, the goods on a towing carriage were scattered by him, and the boxes flew around. There was a tumbling of the Ditang knife, and the light of the knife bloomed like a lotus flower, and then it was pierced by a steel spear, and rolled over with a crimson color. And ahead, the staggered sword light, the human head flew up, the viscous and warm blood sprinkled on Gao Muen's face, and a hunchbacked swordsman waved a long knife, slashing all the way like a flowing cloud, and let out a palpitating strange cry from his mouth.

"Wow-"

In the blink of an eye, blood and chaos had filled the front of him.

Gao Muen couldn't figure out what was in front of him at all, and after a while, he came to his senses, and suddenly shouted in his mouth: "Ahhhh Protect me, Assassin, I'm going back to tell my father-" He held his head and ran into the group of guards, scurrying all the way through, slamming into a tree and rolling on the ground with his nose covered.

Due to the war, the assassination of Ning Yi by the people of the Green Forest has been suspended for a while, but even so, after this period of training on the battle array, the guards around Ning Yi are only stronger, and they will be unfamiliar. Although they don't know how they got the news of Ning Yi's return to the city, as soon as these assassins made a move, they immediately ran into a hard idea, on the long street, it was a sudden massacre, several assassins rushed into the restaurant opposite, and then, I don't know who they met, someone was killed and pushed out. A few people from Ning Yi's entourage immediately rushed in, and after a while, they heard someone shouting. The words came out.

"The Duke of Chu is here, who dares to be shocked-"

Afterwards, there were also guards rushing out of the building. (To be continued......)