On this day, on the fifteenth day, a bright moon hung in the sky, illuminating the silent pine forest as if it were day. It was nearly midnight, and on the Linwai Avenue in Jingcheng County, Yanzhao Dadi, there was a crisp sound of horses' hooves in the distance. The sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and went straight to the pine forest.

The horse's hooves stopped at the edge of the woods, and then a figure was seen, floating like a ghost towards the grave. The figure drew nearer and nearer, and when it was almost at the grave, it suddenly stopped, looked around vigilantly, and then hurried up to the grave.

He threw himself in front of the tombstone and froze. At this moment, the moonlight through the sparse forest was shining on the figure. A Yin Tiao figure and a thin, beautiful and fair face in the moonlight, the person who came was Dou Jiande's legendary wife, the red lady Cao Xiuying.

The red lady stood motionless in front of the tombstone for a long time, and then bowed twice in front of the tombstone like a sacrifice, she worshipped so respectfully and piously that it made people feel sad.

After the red lady finished worshipping, she walked to the monument again, touched the monument with her hand, and wept. She cried for a long time before she stopped crying and whispered, "Husband, please rest in peace!" As long as I, Cao Xiuying, have a breath, I will fight to avenge you, and I will never die! When the greeting was finished, she turned around, walked briskly out of the grave, and walked out of the forest without looking back. After a while, I heard a sharp sound of horses' hooves outside the forest.

On the avenue sprinkled with clear light, the red lady rode a big red horse, a little spark flashed under the horse's hooves, and a wisp of dust and smoke rolled up behind the hooves, galloping westward like an arrow. The red lady's heart is like a knife, her soft intestines are broken, full of grief and indignation, and she is suddenly like a dream. The unforgettable scene of the first encounter between himself and her husband Dou Jiande many years ago kept coming to mind.

……

The sky was clear, and on the road from Hengshan County to Hejian County in the land of Yanzhao, there was a cavalry of more than 400 people. In front are a hundred spearmen to open the way, behind are a hundred long swordsmen to protect the tail, and on the left and right are a hundred short swordsmen to escort them; In the middle is three incense cars, each pulled by two white horses, the front one is the eldest lady Cao Xiuying, the newly appointed Hejian County Thorn Shi Cao Zheng, Mrs. Cao is in the center, Miss Cao's maid A Ju follows, three incense cars, all decorated extremely exquisitely, cowhide cover top, green leno window, car door hanging bead curtain, copper pillar silver railing, not only exquisite, but also luxurious. Captain Liu Chen wore a battle suit with embroidered tight sleeves and a bronze mirror to protect his heart, carried a saber at his waist, and rode on a black and shiny horse, walking in front very majestically. Master Ma Fei was dressed in Confucian clothes, tied a ribbon around his waist, wore a long sword, rode a white horse, and followed his wife's car proudly. Master Ma Fei is not only loyal to the Cao family, but also has martial arts, both civil and military, and is Cao Zheng's most trusted right-hand man, and also Miss Cao's teacher.

The fine rider supported the lady and the young lady's incense car, and marched all the way to Hejian County. Stepping on the plains, the sound of hooves is as dense as a drum; Galloping into the canyon, the four mountains echo like thunder. Sometimes they are lined up in a phalanx, and sometimes they are lined up in a long line, the momentum is majestic, and the natural weather is thousands.

Riding lightly, all the way to the road, after Heng Mountain, it arrived at the territory of Hejian County. A desert appears ahead. When you first enter the desert area, there is a mound of sand here and there, which is like a barrier, giving people the feeling of danger. The further you walked to the southeast, the sand pile gradually became smaller, and finally what appeared in front of you was a vast sea of sand that was grounded in the sky. The four hundred light horsemen also suddenly became lonely and small. Before entering the desert, the sound of horses' hooves, the sound of swords clattering against stirrups, and the sound of heralds in the team, although a little noisy, made people feel a kind of vitality from this noise. Unexpectedly, as soon as they entered the desert, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly disappeared, and the soldiers were in a nervous mood, and everyone pressed their weapons with their hands, and the sound of the gold weapons was no longer sounding, only occasionally there was a hoarse herald, which suddenly gave rise to a tense and dull atmosphere in people's hearts, and sometimes gave people a feeling of lifelessness.

The sun slowly turned westward, and slowly moved towards the horizon. According to the report of the sentinel who led the way, it was only necessary to walk another forty miles, and before it was dark, to cross the desert and reach the border that connected the steppe. At this time, the tension of the whole army eased slightly. A young cavalryman whispered to the cavalryman next to him: "Dou Laohu only has forty miles of land left, and he will not come for a long time." ”

Dou Laohu was the leader of a group of horse thieves rampant in this desert area, extremely fierce, specializing in robbing government convoys, so the officers and soldiers of the Sui Dynasty who escorted the family members of Lord Cao Zheng and Miss Cao Zheng were extremely nervous.

After the sentinel's report, the tense atmosphere that enveloped the whole army was obviously gradually loosening. Someone began to doze off on the horse, the horse hung its head, and the sound of swords clattering began to sound. The afterglow of the setting sun stains the desert red. As he walked, a piercing scream suddenly came from the left cavalry: "Look, Dou Laohu is here!" ”

This scream was like a thunderclap, even more terrifying than thunder. Miss Cao could hear clearly in the car, she hurriedly looked out through the gap in the bead curtain, and sure enough, on the northwest corner of the riding formation, a long row of yellow clouds rolled up, and the yellow clouds seemed to be swept by a gust of wind, and really pressed towards the riding formation.

For a moment, the cavalry appeared to be a little flustered, and only an exclamation was heard, the neighing of horses, the sound of swords unsheathed, and the shouting of the commander of the army.

The panic quickly subsided, and in the flash of sword light and a few majestic commands, a solemn aura quickly rose again.

At this time, I saw Captain Liu Chen standing on his horse, waving the saber in his hand, and with an order, he led a hundred cavalry spear team to meet him. Suddenly, hundreds of iron hooves, carrying smoke and dust, rushed straight towards the row of rolling yellow clouds that pressed in. In an instant, the hundred horses disappeared in a thick fog, and nothing could be seen clearly.

What the red lady Cao Xiuying saw in the car was just a thick fog rolling towards Paiyun. The clouds and the fog gradually came closer, and came closer, and finally they merged together, and became a row of yellow clouds, stopped, and the yellow clouds rose higher and higher, and when I listened carefully, I only heard that under the row of yellow clouds, there were constant bursts of thunder rolling towards this side.

Captain Liu Chen led a hundred cavalry spearmen, and after rolling up a cloud of dust and smoke to meet him, he saw that the yellow cloud stopped, but it rose higher and higher, and below the yellow cloud, there was a faint thunderous sound rolling over to this side. All the people in the cavalry formation watched nervously at the yellow clouds that were rising higher and higher, and for a while, the entire cavalry formation became a dead silence.

Suddenly, another shout came from the cavalry formation: "It's broken, we're defeated!" ”

Cao Xiuying hurriedly looked up, only to see that the row of tall yellow clouds was leaning towards this side again.

When Cao Xiuying saw this scene, she couldn't help but feel a little sad in her heart. I thought to myself: "The iron cavalry elite soldiers that my father often boasted about proudly, is it so vulnerable!" Could it be that the name of my father's great I was ruined by these horse thieves! She bit her red lip and felt a sadness in her heart. She seemed to feel that she had been hurt too, and a little anger flashed in her sadness.

Master Ma Fei was a little panicked, and ordered the hundred horsemen and swordsmen in the rear team to also meet them. The hundred cavalry long swordsmen, led by a captain, rolled up a burst of flying sand and rushed up again. Master Ma Fei was busy arranging the cavalry on both sides of the car into a phalanx, and the three cars were strictly guarded at the core, and Master Ma Fei immediately took the sword next to Mrs. Cao's car.

After the hundred horsemen rushed forward, the row of yellow clouds stopped again, and no longer rose, but expanded in all directions, and gradually turned into a large thick cloud again. The roar of thunder was louder and more urgent. The sound of a dense clash of swords was faintly heard, and in a few moments, the thunder gradually turned into a roar, and it became more and more clear that it was coming in this direction. The thick yellow clouds also rolled with the roar. In a blur of sand and dust, more than ten cavalry shadows have loomed, like more than ten arrows shot at the corner of the formation, only to see countless lightning flashes, as a few cavalry officers and soldiers fell off their horses, the corner of the formation was broken open a small opening. Then twenty or thirty horsemen and horses passed through the sand and dust, galloped towards the corner of the formation, and broke into the gap, and there was a thrilling sound of swords clashing, mixed with a few terrible screams, the gap was torn bigger and bigger, and the whole corner of the formation was suddenly chaotic.

There were more than 20 horseback thieves, hissing with their manes, and they rushed into the formation like a phoenix gallop. Rushing in front was a fiery red horse, riding a man on horse, with a red scarf wrapped over his head, wearing a white breast-buttoned shirt, his right arm exposed, holding a sword shining with a cold and cold light in his hand, his surprisingly strong arms and the xiong muscles that were about to burst out of his skin, and his body was as majestic as an iron tower. Cao Xiuying looked at the horse thief again, except for the two eyes that burned with anger, almost the entire face was hidden into a pitch-black beard. This suddenly reminded her of Zhong Kui in the painting, and she couldn't help but want to laugh again, but she couldn't laugh. I saw the horse thief on the fiery red horse, slashing the knife with a sharp and piercing wind, and rushed towards the place where there were many officers and soldiers. As soon as his horse arrived, several people immediately fell off their horses, and the rest hurriedly avoided it.

This is the situation when the red lady Cao Xiuying first met Dou Jiande, at that time Dou Jiande wore a camouflage beard, and Cao Xiuying thought that he looked like Zhong Kui in the painting, which was ugly. In fact, after an in-depth understanding, she learned that Dou Jiande was originally very handsome and a majestic and beautiful man.

In the fierce scuffle, Dou Jiande accidentally discovered that Ma Fei, the master of the Red Lady's family, was his savior, so he led his horse thieves to withdraw.

The red lady Cao Xiuying was arrogant and arrogant, and she believed that she had a body of martial arts, and when she saw the horse thieves fleeing suddenly, she thought that they were all timid and incompetent, and thought that she could use her outstanding martial arts skills to catch the leader of the horse thieves, Dou Laohu, and support her father's face.

Because he saw that the officers and soldiers had been killed by the horse thieves just now, he was very contemptuous, so he chased the horse thief leader Dou Laohu alone.

Cao Xiuying chased the northwest direction alone, and at first saw a piece of dust and sand raised by the horse's hooves in front of her, but after chasing, the dust and sand were cleared, leaving only an empty desert. At this time, the sun had completely set below the boundary between heaven and earth, and the four fields had become gray, and a cool breeze came to her with the night, making her suddenly feel a terrible loneliness. She was desperate to see people, anxious to go where there were people. She looked at a row of dark shadows not far in front of her, and she recognized the mountain, so she rode her horse towards the row of black shadows. After walking for about half an hour, she finally reached the bottom of the mountain. The mountain, black and overwhelming, towered head-on, and I couldn't see how high it was. At the foot of the mountain is a sparse forest, and you can faintly see the dangerous rocky cliffs rising from the sparse forest. Cao Xiuying got off the horse, hugged the horse tightly, walked into the sparse forest with trepidation, and sat down against a big tree, the sword in her hand held tightly. A pampered Miss Houmen, although she grew up in the side, but she usually lived a life of a hundred promises, but at this moment she was alone in the wilderness, with nothing but a horse and a sword by her side. She really wanted to cry, but she was afraid that crying would alarm her. She thought to herself that it would be better for a horse thief to be willing to go there than to be alone here.

The moon rose slowly, and the cold light sprinkled into the sparse forest, and the darkness was dispelled a little, and her nervous mood calmed down slightly. She felt a wave of exhaustion hit her, her eyes closed several times, and she struggled to open them again. I thought about walking around a few times, and as soon as I stood up, I still sat down again. Suddenly, a cool breeze blew from the woods, and with the wind, there was a staccato singing. The song seemed so distant, so sad.

She heard clearly, the song came from the mountainside, and who was the singer?

The song echoed through the woods, casting a melancholy atmosphere over the silence. Cao Xiuying felt a burst of horror. She helped her horse to the mountainside. Looking around, I saw two or three bonfires burning in an open field that looked like a mountain lawn, and I faintly saw a few figures swaying in the firelight. Cao Xiuying's heart stirred up a burst of ecstasy, she finally saw the figure. Her most urgent desire was to draw near to the firelight and the figures, and to throw herself into their midst. As for who they were, she didn't think much about it or care about it. So, she led the horse through the sparse forest and finally found a narrow path. Following the path, we walked diagonally towards the mountainside and came to a dense forest, through which we could already see the fires. She led the horse into the woods and walked softly towards the firelight. When they reached the edge of the forest, they stopped under a large tree. The scene in front of me was vivid: a lawn outside the forest, and three blazing bonfires were burning in the middle of the lawn. A sheep is roasting on a campfire. About twenty or thirty people sat around the campfire, gobbling up wine and meat. The man sitting on it, with his breasts exposed, was looking up to drink, and the big gourd scoop containing the wine covered his entire face. I saw that the xiong preserves, shining in the firelight, and as soon as the wine scoop was removed, a face full of thick beards appeared. Cao Xiuying almost screamed: she recognized it, and the person was the horse thief riding a fiery red horse. She steadied herself, held her breath, and stared at them intently. I thought: This must be Dou Laohu.

The young horse thief with a black face and beard sitting next to him was also recognized by her. This burly, bearded, black-faced young horse thief was a very brave horse thief who rushed over with Dou Laohu's side at that time. Sometimes, when he pulled his horse away and galloped away, he wiped the sweat from his face with his sleeve or tried the edge of his knife with his left hand, as if he were not fighting, but playing. Because he rushed back and forth in the officers and soldiers, he was unstoppable, so the red lady was deeply impressed by him. Listening to the horse thief next to him call him Liu Heimin, it seems that the young horse thief with a black face and beard is named Liu Heimin, and the red lady silently remembered that this guy is also a thief and should be taken down with Dou Laohu.

After Liu Heimin drank half a scoop of wine handed over by Dou Laohu, he asked: "Big brother, the old scribe who was rushed off the horse by me today, we can find out that he is now the master of Hejian County's assassin Shi Cao, and you said that he is the uncle who saved you in the past." You read that right? ”

Dou Laohu said: "I recognized it, yes. ”

One of the horse thieves, who was wrapped in wounds and still covered in blood, came over with a big scoop to toast Dou Laohu and said, "Big brother, I killed him happily today, and I lost his hundred and ten horsemen, not to mention it." The prestige of the officers and soldiers has been swept away by us, and although your great revenge has not been avenged, you can also resolve your hatred! ”

Dou Laohu took the wine, drank it, and said, "In order to send a few girls, such a big formation is obviously coming for our brothers." If you don't show them some color, you say that our brothers can be scared! ”

Liu Heimin said: "That Lord Cao will definitely be annoyed and angry if he loses this big face, we might as well disperse and let him toss in the air." ”

Dou Laohu suddenly became a little sad. He looked around at the brothers around him, pondered for a moment, and said, "It's fine." I also want to go back to see my father's grave, my blood revenge should also be avenged! ”

The atmosphere around him suddenly became gloomy, the horse thieves stopped talking, and there was silence on the lawn again.

Cao Xiuying felt a little surprised, it turned out that such a murderous god who did not blink an eye was still thinking about her father's grave, and she also had love and hate in her heart!

Another gust of wind blew on the lawn, blowing the flames all around. With that gust of wind, the sad song began again.

The song echoed in the mountains and forests, and the horse thieves lowered their heads one by one.

Cao Xiuying heard it clearly and saw it clearly, the desolate and poignant singing voice was sung from Dou Laohu's thick beard, and she couldn't help but feel waves in her heart, the fear and disgust that had shrouded her heart just now gradually disappeared, and the new surging was anger and surprise; There is doubt, and there is compassion.

After Dou Laohu finished singing, he scooped up half a scoop of wine, and poured it into his mouth as soon as he raised his neck. His beard was covered with beads of wine, glistening in the firelight. Cao Xiuying looked like a pearl with a beard.

The buzz is back in the thrift among the horse thieves. Some were talking about the movements of neighboring tribes, while others were talking about the scene of today's rush and killing. A horse thief sitting at the bottom said: "Everyone says that Miss Cao is beautiful, and she is called the 'Red Lady', and she is a flower in the land of Yan Zhao." It's a pity that we didn't look at it and withdrew, it's a pity, it's a pity! ”

"You pity a hairy, don't you still want to eat swan meat! Haha-"

There was a burst of laughter among the horse thieves.

Cao Xiuying had never been ridiculed like this, she was so angry that she bit her red lips, and the hand holding the sword trembled slightly.

At this moment, the horse beside her suddenly neighed. Although the hiss was not loud, it was like a tiger's roar in the quiet forest. With this sudden neighing of horses, the laughter around the campfire came to an abrupt end, and several of the horse thieves jumped up, and the knives at their waists were drawn, and everyone looked into the forest with surprised eyes.

"Who, come to the bright place!" Dou Jiande snorted.

Cao Xiuying hurriedly tied the horse to a tree, carried a sword, and stepped forward.

Dozens of pairs of eyes looked at this side in amazement in the light of the fire. I saw a faint figure, floating out of the depths of the darkness, so light that it was silent, like a ghost. So much so that some of the horse thieves were horrified to see it.

Cao Xiuying walked to a place ten steps away from the bonfire and stood still, and everyone saw it clearly, only to see that she was wearing pale red clothes and trousers, a pale red ribbon around her waist, her head was full of pearls, and she reflected a pair of shining eyes. Under the light of the fire, her delicate and light body was revealed, and her beautiful and dignified appearance was faintly illuminated.

Especially Liu Heimin, his eyes almost fell off when he saw it, he had never seen such a beautiful woman, and in an instant, he was fascinated.

Dou Laohu also half-knelt up, pressing the short knife on his waist with one hand and crossing his waist with the other, his eyes wide open, staring at her in disbelief. After a moment of silence, Dou Laohu asked in a muffled voice, "Who are you?" What are you doing? ”

"Miss Cao Xiuying, the daughter of Cao Mansion! Catch the Dou Tiger. Cao Xiuying replied coldly.

Cao ...... Elegant...... Hero? Red...... Mother...... Child? Dou Laohu looked her up and down carefully.

This is the first time the Red Lady and Dou Jiande met, the Red Lady will never forget, every time she closes her eyes, she remembers it vividly, as if it was yesterday.