The moon crossed the sky in the quiet night, and in the city above the earth, the lights gradually went out, and after the deepest night, the white of the fish belly was slightly revealed from the winter sky. Pen % fun % Pavilion www.biquge.info

The rooster crowed three times, and the city of Zezhou began to be lively again, and the early vendors hurriedly entered the city, but today they did not have the mood to shout loudly, and most of them looked panicked and uneasy. The patrol officials and catchers passed through the streets of the city in long columns, and You Hongzhuo had already gotten up, watching a small group of soldiers passing by on the street, and then a team of soldiers escorting the bandits.

Most of the bandits who were escorted by the soldiers who entered the city were wounded, and some were even covered in blood, unlike the prisoners I saw yesterday who shouted that they would be good men after eighteen years, the group in front of them occasionally spoke, and there was also a hint of despair and slaughter. If those people who were sunburned to death yesterday wanted to show that "grandpa is a good man", today's group of bandits are more like ghosts who crawled out of a miserable and desperate situation, angry and desolate.

"Look - there is retribution - " A man covered in blood was bound by ropes, and was dying in a prison car, and suddenly shouted outward, and the soldier next to him swung the hilt of his knife and smashed it on his mouth, and the man fell down, covered with blood, and probably half of his teeth were smashed off.

There was a lot of chatter in the crowd, and there was panic: "Hungry ghost...... It's a hungry ghost......"

"Hundreds of thousands of people were scattered on the banks of the Yellow River...... ...... arrived this morning."

"You can't get to the south...... It's going to eat us......"

"...... of Iniquity"

This morning, thousands of hungry ghosts have come from the south. As everyone said, if they can't cross the Yellow River, they will come back to eat people, and Zezhou is on the cusp.

In the midst of everyone's discussion, You Hongzhuo watched the group of people pass, and suddenly, what happened in front of him, an officer and soldier shouted. You Hongzhuo turned his head to look, but saw that above a prisoner car, a person stretched out his arm and held a black cloth high. When the officer next to him saw this, he shouted, and a soldier rushed forward and swung his steel knife, severing the arm with a single blow.

Blood was flying, and in the cacophony of voices, the wounded shouted: "I can't live, what have the people who want to go to the south done, what have they done wrong—you will starve them to death......"

His shouting was mixed with the pain of a broken hand, mixed with the exclamations of everyone, and it was extremely sad, and the soldiers and officers around him were also drinking, and one person waved a long knife and stabbed him in the mouth. At this time, some people in the crowd also reacted and thought of another thing, only to hear someone whispering: "Black flag, black flag ......" The voice spread like ripples in the crowd, You Hongzhuo was a little far away and couldn't see clearly, but at this time he had already understood that what the person was holding in his hand was probably the flag of the Black Flag Army.

The crowd chatted for a while, and someone shouted, "What about the black flag!" ”

But it was the officer who led the team, and he got off his horse, grabbed the black cloth on the ground, and held it high.

"No matter what others do, I, the people of Zezhou, live and work in peace and contentment, and have never fought with others. Hundreds of thousands of hungry ghosts went south, slaughtering several cities and destroying lives, and my army was dispatched to do the right thing for heaven! Now we are only the leader of the evil party of Wang Shitong, and it has not affected others, what else do I have to say! Brothers and sisters, where our soldiers are, is to protect the family and the country, to protect everyone, today from Zezhou, whether it is a hungry ghost, or what black flag, as long as there is trouble, we will definitely risk our lives to defend Zezhou, there is no ambiguity! You just need to live a good life, as usual, and obey the law, and then Zezhou is peaceful, and no one can move-"

The general's words were impassioned and resounding, and when he finished speaking, he drew his steel knife and slashed the black flag into pieces with a few strokes. In the crowd, there was a sudden burst of shouting: "Okay-"

Someone shouted, "That's right—"

"I'm waiting for the people of Zezhou, and I haven't messed with you-"

"You will starve to death, and you will come and make trouble, and what will happen to those whom you have slain—"

"Bah-you brutes, if you dare to come, I'll kill you-",

"Scum!"

The emotions of the crowd had an outlet, and in the midst of the shouting and scolding, someone picked up the stones and hit them on the prisoner's cart, and for a while the beating and scolding boiled in the street, and the sound of rain did not stop.

Outside the city of Zezhou, the army moved to the south of the city like a long dragon, guarding the main roads outside the city, waiting for the arrival of the hungry ghosts who were still dozens of miles away. Despite this situation, the gates of Zezhou were not closed, and the army was reassuring the people while strengthening the defenses in various parts of the city. The general Sun Qi led the guards into the state capital and began to really sit in the center.

The rich gentry and big families in the city were even more flustered, they only visited Lu Anmin, who was relatively easy to talk to, last night, and looked at the posture of the army today, obviously they did not want to be forced to close the city by the displaced people, and each family strengthened their defense, so they were worried about connecting in tandem, discussing whether to make up money and goods, to beg the general to take it seriously, or to strengthen the guard of the soldiers in everyone's homes.

When the Wu Dynasty was prosperous before, there were occasional tides of displaced people and hungry people in winter, and whether the big cities at that time were closed was considered, even if the city gates were not closed, under the disaster relief and pacification, there would be no chaos. But now the situation is different, these hungry people have also been on the battlefield to kill people and even slaughter the city, if they take a risk, even if the army can be ambushed, their own people are not stingy will become a burial.

In the midst of everyone's anxiety, the local civilians in the city have become crowded, and they are quite unfriendly to outsiders. In the afternoon of that day, in the south of the city, the chaotic begging and migratory teams approached the soldiers' blockade point in twos and threes, and then saw the corpses and heads planted on the flagpole in front of them, which belonged to Gu Dahao, Tang Side, and others, as well as the body of Li Guifang, who had been blown up to black and tatters—everyone could not recognize him, but they could more or less recognize the other one or two.

The crowd gradually increased, they were tattered, emaciated, and unkempt as grass, some of them were pushing wheelbarrows, some of them were carrying burdens of one kind or another, and most of them had a look of despair in their eyes—most of them were not beggars, and some of them were even well-off when they set off for the south, but now they have become more or less the same.

The crowd began to become helpless in front of the army and the corpses, and after a long time, the gray-haired old man with a large crowd knelt in front of the army, kowtowed and begged, and the crowd began to cry. The human wall formed by the army was unmoved, and in the evening, the military official who led the team waved his hand, and the cart containing white porridge and steamed buns was pushed out, and only then did the hungry people line up to receive food.

With food, large swaths of the hungry began to obey the command of the army, and the officers in front looked at all this with a smug look on their faces - in fact, without the leader, most of them were civilians who could not produce much harm.

threatening, inciting, attacking, dividing...... That night, what the army had done outside the city was reported to the city of Zezhou, and the crowd in the city was full of excitement and talked about what Sun Qi had done. Without the thousands of displaced people, even if there are bad people, they can't set off the wind and waves, and they originally thought that Sun Qi's army should not disperse the hungry ghosts by the Yellow River and cause trouble to the people who came from the north, but for a while they felt that General Sun was really the reincarnation of Wuhou and a clever plan.

On this day, even in the temple of the Great Light Sect, You Hongzhuo clearly felt the restless mood in the crowd. People insulted the hungry ghosts, the Black Flag Army, the world, and the Jurchens in a whisper, balancing their minds in this way. There were several groups of gangsters who were found out from the city by the army, and then there were various small-scale fights, one of which was near the Great Guangming Temple, You Hongzhuo also quietly went over to see the excitement, and the bandits who confronted the officers and soldiers were blocked in the room, and the army shot them all with bows and arrows.

You Hongzhuo couldn't help but worry in his heart, in such a situation, individuals are powerless. The old rivers and lakes that have been in the red dust for a long time have many means of hiding, and there are also various ways to interact with underground and green forest forces, but You Hongzhuo is not familiar with these at all at this time. He was in a small mountain village, his family was forced to die by the Great Light Sect, he could crawl out of the pile of dead people, and kill all the men and women in a small temple.

However, there is no point in fighting with these armies, and the only end is death.

When he entered Zezhou City, Mr. Zhao had made a road guide for him, but at this time, You Hongzhuo didn't know if the road guide was really useful, if it was fake, it was found out - maybe he should have left here earlier.

He pondered the matter, and felt that this emotion was too timid. Before it was decided, an army came to the Liang'an Inn that night, and began to inspect one by one, You Hongzhuo was ready to fight for his life, but fortunately, the road guide played a role, and the other party asked a few words, and finally left.

After this little episode, he felt that he didn't have to leave immediately.

This day was June 27 of the eighth year of Jianshuo, and there were still four days before Wang Shitong was to be beheaded. During the day, You Hongzhuo continued to go to the Great Guangming Temple, waiting for Tan Zheng and others to appear. He listened to the news in the crowd and knew that someone had been arrested for robbing the prison last night, and there were several waves of chaos, and some people had even died in the east of the city. By the afternoon, Tan Zheng and the others had not yet appeared, he looked at the increasingly westward slope, and knew that there might be no results today, so he left the temple.

Walking down a few streets, he found himself being targeted.

There were not many pedestrians on the street in the evening, and when a man with a knife on his back approached him on the opposite side, two people from behind surrounded him and forced You Hongzhuo into the alley next to him. The martial arts of these three people do not seem to be low, You Hongzhuo took a deep breath, thinking about how to speak in his heart, and at the other end of the alley, a figure came into his eyes.

“…… Fourth brother. You Hongzhuo muttered softly, on the other side, it was his former "fourth brother" Guo Wenbai, he was dressed in white, carrying a single whip, looking at You Hongzhuo, there was a faint look of smugness in his eyes.

You Hongzhuo settled down and smiled: "Fourth brother, how did you find me?" ”

"The fifth brother taught me a truth, only a thousand days to be a thief, there is no thousand days to prevent thieves, I do such a thing, and I run away from you, I can't go to drink flower wine and find powder without worry right now. So, in order to wait for you, I also took a lot of effort. ”

I'm going to do something like that...... Hearing this, You Hongzhuo already sighed in his heart.

"That'...... Fourth brother ...... "His heart was heavy, and it was a little difficult to speak at this time, "Brother and sister, are you still alive?" ”

Guo Wenbai looked at him, was silent for a long time, and suddenly smiled: "What do you think, how is it possible." He reached out and touched the single whip, "I'm really relieved that you're leaving today." ”

"Yes...... Why is that? You Hongzhuo said loudly: "We have worshipped! (To be continued.) )