On Yaqian Street, Gu'an County, a team of heavy horsemen in armor escorted a middle-aged man riding a white horse. The doors and windows on both sides were closed, and the street was sparsely populated, and the occasional passer-by was trembling at the wall, as if he had thought about it.

The man on the white horse was Xiao Siwen, the king of the Southern Courtyard, and when they came to the county office, Xiao Siwen turned over from the horse in a dashing manner, and saw that he was a man with a long body, a well-rounded face, and a very good appearance.

He thinks so himself, so he is always very particular about dressing, and he usually doesn't wear armor. The two banners on the hat were red silk, as if they were his beautiful sideburns; This drape is cooler in the summer and is completely decorative, but in the winter when the weather is cold, it will be replaced with animal fur, which is very warm.

Xiao Siwen dismounted, carefully brushed the beard on the middle of the person with his fingers, let the beard tilt slightly to the sides, raised his head and strode inside.

He always cares about his appearance so much that his subordinates often say bad things about him, so there is such a discussion: The king loves to trim the edges, and he is not handsome.

However, Xiao Siwen didn't care about the big families and said that he loved beauty, and he was very tolerant of generals, so he was still very popular with the Khitans and Xi people in Youzhou...... As for Han'er? No matter what they do, the Liao army has not been supported in Youzhou for 20 years, and everyone is very accustomed to this status quo.

"The people from the 'Nuli' are coming to ask for help, what should we do?" Seeing Xiao Siwen's calm appearance, a general couldn't help but ask in Khitan language.

The colleague was surrounded and suppressed by the Zhou army, and finally ran over to report the news, but he had several arrow wounds just now, and the situation looked critical. At this time, Xiao Siwen was still caring about his beard, which really made the generals look anxious.

The general who spoke just now was called Brother Xiao Xi, that is, he often spoke ill of the king. Xiao Siwen has heard of it, and he hates this person in his heart.

Brother Xi often abused Han'er, and everyone persuaded him: The king has prejudices against you, don't be caught and take revenge...... Brother Xi has also done a lot of bad things, such as robbing the merchants of the southerners before, arresting people and trying their best to torture and kill for fun, and the cruelty of the means, some people have come out to say it.

At this time, I only heard Xiao Siwen say slowly: "I'll lead the soldiers to rescue." ”

Brother Xi immediately said: "The southerners are deceitful, the king will save him without preparation, don't fall for the trick." ”

Xiao Siwen's face turned pale when he heard this: "Are you saying that I can't even beat the Zhou army?" ”

Brother Xi hurriedly said: "The last general doesn't mean that. Just to remind the king to be careful. ”

Xiao Siwen raised his head and squinted his eyes and said: "As long as the army of the Zhou lord Guo Rong (Chai Rong) is not the Rejection River, who is this king afraid of?" It's useless to use any tricks. Southerners are sheep, we are wolves...... It's something that flows in the blood and is born. Have you ever seen a wolf being killed by a sheep? ”

When the generals heard this, they laughed, and some people happily chimed in: "Unless the sheep don't eat grass, they eat meat instead!" ”

After hearing this, Brother Xi was also very useful to this kind of remarks, and immediately shouted: "A sheep can never become a wolf, but a wolf may become cowardly if he learns from sheep!" Those who are close to Han'er are not good for them to learn bad habits! As long as we Khitans regard the southerners as sheep that can cut meat, don't be fooled by them. ”

Xiao Siwen stretched out his arms, made an exaggerated movement to attract everyone's attention, and said: "If we don't learn the good things of Han'er, we are still just prodigal sons on the grassland; It is precisely because of Youzhou that we can get excellent armor. It doesn't matter if you learn from someone else's strengths...... Because our Khitan people have noble and strong blood, they will not fall easily. Those who have learned the strengths of Han'er are not cowardly; Only people whose blood is contaminated are bullied. ”

Xiao Siwen said: "After my brother died, he left a Han concubine, and his son was included in the account; Later, the concubine gave birth to a son, because that kid had Han'er blood on his body, so he was completely different from others, and he was often bullied by his peers but did not dare to resist...... See, this is the revelation that our ancestors gave us. Foolish people turn a blind eye to the subtleties and do it to themselves! ”

After listening to the "revelation", everyone looked at Xiao Siwen with awe.

Seeing this, Xiao Siwen sang loudly: "Victory will belong to the powerful Khitans!" I have felt the foreshadowing from heaven, so take your horses, your brothers, your people, your bows and arrows, your iron bones, and your armor, and follow me. The king of the Southern Courtyard will lead you to defeat the Han who invaded from the Zhou Dynasty. ”

The generals were suddenly in high spirits and wanted to fight. Xiao Siwen then told them to go back and bring their subordinates together, and decided to go on the expedition.

……

Soon after, Guo Shao heard that the scouts had reported that the Liao cavalry had arrived at the Zhuoshui bank in the east. Immediately ordered: "Send a herald out immediately and tell the commanders: Xiao Siwen's men and horses are coming from behind." ”

The generals around him listened to the scolding and scolding, and they were unwilling. After everyone set out, they chased and compressed the Khitan light cavalry from east to west, and although they drove those scattered light cavalry around, they had not yet achieved any results...... Now that I am returning, I will naturally have nothing to gain.

Guo Shao saw the reaction of the soldiers, and immediately shouted: "The military order must be written clearly." Strictly order all the departments to immediately withdraw from Zhuozhou! ”

The large group of horsemen scattered nearby gathered their formation one after another, turning the direction to the north. Guo Shao remembered the TV show "Animal World" he watched in modern times, so he said loudly to the soldiers around him: "Brothers, think about it, the tigers and leopards in the grassland and the forest, hunting is not always in hand, and they often run in vain, constantly looking for opportunities and trying to successfully get the delicious food." ”

Although he didn't hit any "prey", he also called Xiao Siwen to dispatch a large army; The Liao army crossed the river from Gu'an and trekked over, but it was not in vain.

At this moment, Li Chuyun rode his horse to catch up with Guo Shao and said, "It's too hard for us to chase like this, why don't you invite Xiao Siwen to Zhuozhou and ask them to send it to the door?" ”

Guo Shao said casually: "We are hospitable, but Xiao Siwen is a Khitan barbarian and does not understand etiquette, so I am afraid that he will not appreciate it and will not accept our invitation." ”

When several generals and soldiers heard this, they were originally a little depressed and were amused with laughter.

Li Chuyun also smiled: "If you don't give some gifts, the Liao people naturally don't appreciate it." Aren't Zhang Ying's subordinates some Youzhou Han'er? sent a few people to deceive the surrender, saying that the people of Zhuozhou wanted to make meritorious contributions and were willing to open the city gate for the Liao army, and lured them to take the initiative to come. ”

Guo Shao was noncommittal, thinking that the Khitans didn't seem to trust the Han people in Youzhou very much, and it didn't seem very clever for someone to surrender suddenly. What if Siwen is a very smart person? His first move was so rough, it was really out of level, and he didn't agree to Li Chuyun for a while.

He only said: "Go back to Zhuozhou first to see the situation, it is possible that Xiao Siwen himself will come without us asking." The Liao army was dispatched, and it always got to go around the city...... Xiao Siwen must not be afraid of us, otherwise the ranger is so bold and has gone all the way to Qigou Pass in the southwest. ”

A group of people rode back to Zhuozhou and met Deng Feibu at the south gate of the city. I saw Deng Fei sitting in a horse-drawn cart, Guo Shaoce immediately stepped forward to take a look, and saw an arrow stuck in his thigh.

Deng Fei helped the cart down and hugged his fists and said, "Meet the lord." ”

Guo Shao took the horsewhip and pointed at the arrow on his leg: "After chasing for so long, I saw that you were injured." ”

Deng Fei scolded: "There is a Liao man who is very accurate in riding and shooting, I chased him for a few miles, but I didn't catch anyone but was shot off my horse by him." The thigh was injured and the horse was too painful to ride, so I happened to pass by a village, so I requisitioned an ox cart from the village, and the ox did not ask for it, but replaced it with a horse. ”

After that, Deng Fei's men followed Guo Shao into the south gate. Everyone waited on the city tower for a long time, and the generals of each department had returned, Guo Shao was relieved and let Deng Fei continue to take the cart back to the Chinese army.

After walking for a while, Guo Shao remembered that there was a pharmacy on the front street, which was where Doctor Lu Shen sit, so he took Deng Fei there so that his acquaintance Doctor Lu Shen could treat his injuries.

…… Lu Niangzi is also in the pharmacy, her name is Lu Lan. The Lu family is a person who moved from Youzhou, but it should take root in Zhuozhou, and Lu Lan is already engaged to Langjun of the Li family, the owner of the pharmacy.

She was also busy at this time, her father and most of the Langzhong in the city were requisitioned by the Zhou army, and she had to go to the state capital and other places to treat the wounded soldiers during the day, so she helped to test the prescription and grab the medicine in the pharmacy.

The Lang Zhong who can sit in the hall has some fame, not the barefoot Lang Zhong can compare. Although Lu Lan has no name, she has learned a lot from her father since she was a child, and the Li family's pharmacy is short of manpower to call her for emergency help, so there is no big problem.

At this moment, Li Jialangjun, who was wearing a hat and a robe, walked out and beckoned, "Lu Niangzi, you come in and help me take a look at this batch of medicinal materials." Lu Lan looked up and saw that the old shopkeeper was crackling and planning to make a plate, so he responded: "Okay, just come." ”

Housheng lifted the curtain of the back door and let her pass. When Lu Lan passed by, Hou Sheng smelled the fragrance on her body, and his face suddenly turned a little red...... I saw that although she was dressed tightly, she was so attractive for some reason.

It may be that Lu Lan's face is white and smooth, and it is easy to make people think that the skin on her body is also so white and lovely, but her body is tightly covered by a dark and simple coarse cloth...... Then I had an urge to peel it open and look at the skin inside.

Lu Lan didn't notice that she was very familiar with the people of the Li family. The marriage between the two families is to get acquainted with each other first, and then talk about it slowly. She asked, "Which herbs?" ”

The Li family took her into a side room. As soon as she stepped through the door, she saw that this room did not look like a place to put medicinal herbs at all, and she was immediately alerted and was about to exit. Unexpectedly, he was pushed by the latter and stumbled in.

The latter immediately blocked the door and followed.

Lu Lan hurriedly said, "What do you want to do?" I'm going to call someone! ”

"You would have married into the Li family, what's the use of calling people?" Hou Sheng's face was flushed with excitement, and he stared at Lu Lan slowly approaching.

"I'm not married yet, and you're not afraid of being talked about when you do this?" Lu Lan took a few steps back, but seeing that he didn't pay attention to him, he immediately shouted, "Come on......

Hou Sheng was in a hurry, and he stepped up with an arrow, immediately covered Lu Lan's mouth, pressed her to the corner, and immediately reached out to pull her collar.