The entrance of the government office.

Gao Qitang, the prefect of Suzhou, is the head of the entire Suzhou. At this moment, the prefect was commanding a dozen or so soldiers to move a large box of gold, silver and jewelry to the two official boats moored on the bank of the small river.

Next to him stood his wife's chamber and his concubine's chamber, and his two sons from his concubine's chamber. The two sons of the concubine, one was six years old and the other was eleven years old. The youngest son looked at the soldier carrying things in a daze, and his dark eyes looked dull; The eldest son shouted "Hurry up!" Come on! He seemed to be dissatisfied with the speed at which the soldiers were carrying the boxes.

The concubine held her youngest son's hand tightly, and there was a hint of panic in her eyes; The wife took off the golden hairpin on her head and put it up for the personal maid next to her.

Behind Gao Qitang, stood Xuanfu Dou Han and Zhu Linyu, who were also ready to escape by boat with the prefect.

At this time, looking around the city from the gate of the palace, you can see the brilliant fire light rising to the sky not far away, a cluster of flames will reflect the whole city as bright as day, there are crowds of shouts and curses in the firelight, thick smoke is filled, black fog is shrouded, and bursts of black ash float around the palace.

"Phew." Gao Qitang spit out the black ash in his mouth, and subconsciously adjusted his collar. At this time, he had already taken off his official robe and put on a long cardigan, dressed like a businessman.

"Your Excellency!" At this time, a general dressed in white rushed over from the east side of the city bridge, holding a simple knife in his hand, and when he saw the scene of the soldiers moving things, two forks rushed straight from the soles of his feet to the top gate, jumped off his horse, and shouted angrily: "My lord, are you trying to escape!?"

This white-clothed general was Pan Long, the commander of the white shift guarding the east gate, who was the first to spot the enemy attack and had the whole city informed by the sound of drums and beacons.

Pan Long is one of the generals with outstanding martial arts in Suzhou City, once with Zhang Jin with General Chong Ge when he went to the Western Xia, he shot and killed a commander of the Western Xia with a crossbow, because of his outstanding military achievements, he was directly promoted from the small soldiers, and became a general who has the right to command 500 soldiers today.

Seeing Pan Long coming, the prefect was overjoyed: "Zilong, it's great that you're here!" Hurry up and escort me out of the city, and reward you with ten thousand taels of gold! "The word Zilong is Pan Long's table word.

The Xuanfu envoy and general judge behind the prefect also squinted his eyes and smiled, with a look of asking for help. In the whole city of Suzhou, who doesn't know the prestige of Pan Zilong? Although he is only a general, his skills are very good, and he won the first place in last year's school competition. Even the Huai general Zhang Jin beat him, the veteran Liang Zhong is not his opponent, and Wu Zihui of the city defense battalion is a drunken man, not to mention.

I heard that the rebels are all farmers, but I'm afraid that they can't even be counted as Pan Zilong's enemies, right? If they can be escorted by Pan Zilong, their hearts can also be steady.

Who knows, Pan Long stared at them one by one, and shouted: "Lord Prefect! There are 100,000 households in Suzhou! Could it be that the prefect wants to abandon the people and ignore them!? ”

The prefect Gao Qitang said urgently: "Zilong! It's too late to say anything! Fang La sent 400,000 people to besiege the city, 400,000! It's too late to escape through the water gate! Zilong, you quickly escort the official out of the city, and the official will share 10,000 taels of gold for you...... Oh no, half of you! Divide your half! ”

Pan Long's eyes were cracked, and he approached Gao Qitang step by step, his eyes were already red, and he gritted his teeth and said, "My lord! Three days ago, the last general said to prevent Fang La from attacking Suzhou, and asked Wu Song's battalion Chen Jiedu to send troops to assist in the defense, and the adults said that they didn't have to, Hangzhou could hold it, Fang La couldn't beat Hangzhou, and it was impossible to attack Suzhou! ”

"Now...... Look...... Look! Pan Long raised his knife and drank categorically: "Fang La captured Hangzhou two days ago!" 400,000 people besieged the city...... 400,000 people besieged the city...... Are you scared? In a hurry to run for your life? ”

Pan Long tightened the Pu knife in his hand, his eyes were blood-red, and he pressed step by step, Gao Qitang was so frightened that he took two steps back, and Xuanfu made Dou Han a martial artist, blocking in front of the prefect, and shouted: "Pan Zilong!" What do you want? Are you going to rebel too? ”

Pan Long's eyes were like fire, and he glared fiercely at the prefect, the Xuanfu envoy, and the general judge, the three great officials who showed off their martial arts on weekdays, and scolded loudly: "In the city of Suzhou, there are 100,000 households, 3,000 guards, 37 artillery, 17 guards, and countless arrows and weapons...... What's so hard about defending the city? But it is because of a few of you that the situation of today's city being destroyed and people are dying! If you still have even the slightest conscience, distribute the gold and silver to the guards and soldiers, and gather the people of the city to defend the city together, instead of abandoning the city and fleeing! You bastards!! ”

"Pan Zilong!" The Xuanfu envoy shouted: "This official orders you to escort me out of the city!"

"Out of town?" Pan Long snorted and sneered, "Do you still want to get out of the city now?" If we can't hold it, we'll all die!" ”

"All have to die!!"

The shouts echoed around, Gao Qitang's youngest son trembled with fright, and the concubine picked him up.

"Pan Zilong, you ......" Xuanfu pointed at Pan Long, so angry that he couldn't speak. It's just that at this time, the lower official is disobedient, and he can't either.

At this time, Gao Qitang had a tear in his eyes, knelt down on his knees, and knelt in front of Pan Long.

This move stunned everyone.

Xuanfu envoy and general judge exclaimed: "My lord, you ......"

Gao Qitang knelt on the ground, kowtowed three times to Pan Long, and said with a face full of repentance: "General Pan, the lower officials know that in the past few years, they have been owed to General Pan, and the lower officials are also ashamed of the people of Suzhou City...... But, General Pan, for the sake of my wife and concubine and son, will you escort us out? You can get out yourself...... Yes? ”

"I heard that Fang Lajun will kill and eat the flesh of the official when he catches it, and he will not let go of the official's family......" Gao Qitang had two tears on his face, and looked at Pan Long with pleading eyes: "Zilong, you are also a person who is preparing to get married, I heard that you are also engaged, and you also have a family and parents...... Do you want to watch me being cooked by Fang La? My wife, concubines, and children...... Zilong ............ Zilong, please escort my whole family out of the city, and I'll give you all the money, okay? I don't want money, I don't want money, I just want my family to be safe...... Zilong, Zilong, the lower official kowtowed to you......" said and kowtowed.

"My lord, why are you doing this......" Xuanfu Envoy and Tongju sighed, but did not kneel down like the prefect. Although they are facing life and death, they still can't do it if they let a sixth-grade official kneel and kowtow to a general who is not in the grade.

Seeing Gao Qitang kneeling on the ground, the six-year-old youngest son was crying, and the concubine was holding the youngest son and kneeling on the ground. The wife sighed, but did not kneel.

Pan Long looked at Gao Qitang, who was kneeling and kowtowing, stood in place and stared straight for a long time, and suddenly slammed the Pu knife in his hand to the ground, and said angrily: "You are greedy for life and afraid of death!" Take out your arrogance of oppressing the good people in your daily life! The thing you did to Captain Liu...... Don't think I, Pan Zilong, don't know! Do you have wives and children, and no one else has them? You only want to abandon the city and flee! Aren't you afraid of infamy through the ages? ”

After speaking, he returned to his horse, no longer caring about Gu Zhifu and the others, and looked straight at the east gate.

"This ......" Tong Juan looked at Pan Long's distant back, his face wrinkled, "What does this mean?" ”

Xuanfu said: "He doesn't escort him, let's escape by ourselves." Prefect, get up, get up......"

The prefect's family, the Xuanfu envoy, the general judge, and the four soldiers took two official boats, and after rewarding the other soldiers with a lot of gold and silver, they hurriedly rowed and fled.

The four soldiers drew their swords and looked around vigilantly, the rowing was the prefect's butler and the chief entourage of the Xuanfu envoy, and there were no extra people, and the group did not wear official uniforms, only ordinary clothes, dressed as merchants, and the soldiers also pretended to be family members.

The boat passed the Panmen, bypassed several stone arch bridges, and looked in the direction of the canal, where there was a small canal, which was newly built this year, and which led directly to the canal, which might not go unnoticed, and perhaps escape from the city. Although there were many rebels in the city wearing turbans along the river, these rebels did not seem to notice the two boats.

Seeing the boat rowing past the peony pavilion and approaching the route of the escape canal, he suddenly heard a voice from above.

"Captain Liu, there!"

"Dog officer! I knew he was going to run away from here! ”

…

Back at the second watch, in the dead of night, a faint light came out of the courtyard, and the coughing sound of the old man came from the house.

Under the light of the bean lamp, on the wooden bed with some straw, an old woman with half silver hair was lying on a straw mat covered with a shabby quilt, coughing violently, trembling all over, and looking sick.

In the hall outside, a man in full military uniform, with a wisp of beard, about thirty years old, with a resolute face, bowed solemnly to the tablet in front of him, and bowed solemnly three times.

The incense burner in front of the tablet is lit with three sticks of incense, a pair of wax, and the candlelight of red wax illuminates the yellowed words on the tablet very clearly.

The tablet reads: "The spirit seat of the deceased wife Qi's heroic tenderness."

After the man bowed, he was stunned for a long time at the tablet, his eyes were a little red, and when he closed his eyes and thought about it, it was all the picture of her being insulted, and when he thought of this, his teeth were clenched, and his hands were clenched into fists.

"......Destiny," the sick old woman in the room cried out weakly, and stretched out a withered hand from the shabby quilt.

The man walked into the room, gave the old woman some medicine, knelt at the head of the bed, looked at the seriously ill old mother, his eyes were red, and tears came out at once.

"Mother, the child is not filial! Children are not filial......"

"Destiny...... Don't cry...... old woman was so angry that she said breathlessly: "I don't have a ...... for my mother I didn't give you another kiss, for my mother...... I'm sorry for you...... It's my mother who doesn't have the ability to ......."

"Yes...... Can...... Ahem, cough ......" As she spoke, the old woman coughed violently, as if she was about to cough out her heart and lungs, and the man got up and patted her on the back gently, and took another sip of medicine to get better, and she continued: "But you ...... You can't rebel! ”

"Mother, the child is not a rebellion!" The man looked indignant: "The child is avenging Rou'er!"

"Alas...... Mother knows, mother knows, Yingrou is a good girl. That...... Dog Officer Gao Qitang...... took possession of her body and harmed her...... Alas...... But you can't rebel! Son, I only have a son like you...... You can't rebel...... Ahem...... "The old woman gasped.

Listening to the old mother's words, Liu Ming just closed his eyes and exhaled heavily, and scenes of the past came to his heart.

Ten years ago, Qi Yingrou, the cousin of her childhood sweetheart, was married to him for less than half a year, and was deceived by Gao Qitang, the then magistrate of the county, after getting him drunk, into going to Zhang Yu's dog house and insulting him.

The cousin committed suicide with a knife at Zhang Yu's house on the spot to show her innocence. When I did the autopsy, I found that my cousin was just pregnant, but I didn't expect it to be a corpse with two lives......

After he learned that his wife had committed suicide, he took a knife into Zhang Yu's house and hacked Zhang Yu to death on the spot, but Gao Qitang had already realized that something was wrong, bribed Shangguan, and put all the blame on Zhang Yu, saying that Zhang Yu raped his wife, and was afraid that he would retaliate, so he hurriedly used his connections to transfer to Hebei to take up a post.

Ten years later, Gao Qitang returned to Suzhou as the prefect again, and it seems that he had long forgotten the crimes he had committed back then.

And he couldn't forget it......

"Mother, forgive the child for being unfilial, and I can't give you the old age to the end." After Liu Ming finished speaking, he knelt down and kowtowed a few times.

After getting up, he grabbed a spear in the main hall and resolutely walked out of the house.

There were already a few subordinates waiting at the door.

"Captain Liu, let's go and kill that dog officer together!"

Inside the house, the coughing and shouting of an old woman could be heard.

"Life, life...... Ahem......"

…

"Captain Liu, there!"

"Dog officer! I knew he was going to run away from here! ”

Followed by a few subordinates, Liu Ming shot his horse close to the riverbank, and when he saw the two official ships below and the prefect Gao Qitang, two rays of revenge shot out of his eyes, and he looked up at the sky.

"Rou'er, my husband is going to avenge you today......"

(End of chapter)