In the city of Suzhou, on a small river that crossed Panmen east along the prefect's yamen, two official boats capsized in the river, and more than half of their crooked hulls were immersed in the turquoise water.

At this time, the seemingly turquoise surface of the river has been covered with a faint layer of black by the gray dust floating on the water surface, and has become not as clear and turquoise as yesterday; There is even a blood-red liquid floating on the surface of the water, bringing the first touch of red to the clear and clear city water for a hundred years, as if it also heralds another bad luck in Suzhou City for more than 100 years.

Suzhou City, the ancient city that has stood peacefully and quietly for more than 100 years since the rebellion of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, has been subjected to war and abandoned several times since Wu Zixu ordered Wu Zixu to build the city and named it "the big city of Lu". Although the fire burned less than one-tenth of the city's area and killed only five or six thousand, it seems that it is not worth a record in the annals of history, but the mark left by the ruins of the wall will eventually remember the mourning of this ancient city.

…

In the east of the city, a small ruined temple.

This ruined temple has no main hall at all, or rather, the main hall is not enough to be called a large hall, and it is no different from the main hall of ordinary people's homes. What's more, even if the main hall is already so small, it has collapsed in half, and no one has repaired it.

In the small main hall, there is a small shrine still there, dedicated to Guanyin Bodhisattva, and there is also incense inside, and I don't know who came here to worship; There are three or four Buddha statues in the hall, these Buddha statues are either broken arms or broken heads, and I don't know how to make them like this; The vermilion lacquer gate has long faded, and there are cobwebs everywhere by the door and in the hall, and there are occasional mice and centipedes crawling on the ground, which looks very terrible.

Half of the main hall collapsed, leaving only the east wing, kitchen, and guest rooms to hide, and the west wing was in danger, and no one would want to go there.

Song Ting and the others entered the east wing room, sat in a circle, and the only futon was given to Song Ting to sit.

As soon as everyone sat down, drank some water, ate some beef jerky, and before they had time to rest their feet, they heard a man's voice coming from outside the temple gate: "Lady, it's here, it's here!"

Song Ting handed Yan Qing a look, Yan Qing immediately grabbed the steel fork and ran out, and then Hu Sanniang took an iron shovel and ran out.

Song Ting was still a little worried, and he also came out of the wing room with Lu Junyi, only to see Yan Qing and Hu Sanniang blocking the young man who looked like a husband and wife on the left and right, the man looked very young, and he was carrying an old woman on his back, looking like his mother.

Song Ting asked, "Who are you?" Why are you here? ”

The man saw that Yan Qing and Hu Sanniang were holding weapons in their hands, thinking that he had met a rebel again, and exclaimed: "Lady, bitter!" I thought it was safe here, but I didn't expect it to be taken by the thieves! How good is that? ”

As he spoke, the man grabbed his wife and was about to run away, but was stopped by Song Ting: "You are also hiding, right?" Come on in! ”

So the location of the guest room was assigned to this family. After sitting down to greet him, Song Ting learned that the man's name was Chen Bao, and his wife's name was Zhou Yun, and after listening to him tell about what had happened and was happening in the city, he couldn't help frowning.

"The first to be breached was the West Gate, then the North Gate, and then the Chang Gate...... Finally, it's the East Gate, which is miserable! The generals defending the city were beheaded one by one, and even General Pan Zilong was beheaded, I heard that he killed two or three hundred thieves before he died, and he was a good man! The old general Liang Zhong killed many thieves with cannons, and when the city was broken, he was not only cut off his head, but his body was also chopped into meat paste...... Gee...... What a pity! General Liang is a good general who has led more than 40 soldiers! Alas, these thieves are really hateful! ”

Song Ting listened to him, and inadvertently glanced at his wife, looking graceful and dignified, but she smiled with her mouth, revealing her untidy yellow teeth, which can be said to be a little scary.

"How do you know so well?" After listening to Chen Bao's explanation of the situation of defending the city, Song Ting subconsciously asked.

Chen Bao explained to him the identity of the Wu Commander, and also told him about the looting of property, rape and plundering of women, arresting and killing people by Fang Lajun encountered along the road.

After listening to what Chen Bao had seen and heard, all the people sitting around were stunned. Then I heard Chen Bao's wife Zhou Yun talk about "Kuang Juren's head rolled out" and "Miss Lin was pressed to the ground by two soldiers", and everyone followed Zhou Yun with a palpitating look in the previous incident; After hearing the latter incident, Hu Sanniang couldn't help but stand up, her face was angry, and her hand holding the shovel couldn't help shaking, looking extremely angry.

Chen Bao's old mother, Li Shi, sighed and said slowly: "Master Kuang Juren is a good person, and he gave soup porridge to the homeless people from the north a few years ago...... These people have done evil, and they have killed innocents indiscriminately, regardless of whether they are good or bad. ”

There was anger on everyone's faces, you and I said one sentence at a time, even Chen Dabeard and Lu Junyi were involved, only Song Ting and Yan Qing did not speak.

Song Ting was not worried about what threat Chen Bao would bring to him, but he was worried that he would accidentally attract Fang Lajun, so he confirmed with him many times whether Fang Lajun was coming, and after getting a negative answer, he was still not at ease, and asked Yan Qing and Hu Sanniang to go to the sentry.

Everyone stayed up until the evening, and they were indeed relieved that they did not encounter Fang Lajun's search for them.

Chen Bao's family of three hid in the guest room, Song Ting and other seven people were in the east wing, and the small dilapidated temple was crowded with ten people. When it came to about the end of the day, Song Ting asked Yan Qing and Hu Sanniang to go to the vicinity of the broken temple to pick up some firewood, and decided to make a fire to cook to solve the problem of hunger, Lu Junyi and Lao Liu put a whole sack of food from the hotel to eat for a while, but unfortunately the water was not enough, so they decided not to cook and roast things first, roasted some taro, broad beans, and by the way, took some beef jerky, and everyone ate it.

Smelling the fragrance wafting from the east chamber, Chen Bao agitated his throat, swallowed his saliva, looked at his mother and wife, obviously hungry, after all, he hadn't eaten all day......

Chen Bao regretted that he didn't bring some food, even a few taro, it was still very fragrant when roasted, thinking about it, he kept swallowing his saliva......

At this time, there was a little spark in the darkness, and he handed over a few black and slimy things, and said, "Take it and eat it!" If it's not enough, we still have. ”

Chen Bao caught these black and slimy things with both hands, carefully held them in his hands, and a burst of roasted taro fragrance entered his nose, his eyes rolled, and his heart was overjoyed: It's really taro, roasted taro!

He counted it, exactly six, each of which was the size of a ripe persimmon, and his family could divide two each, thinking of this, he couldn't help but burst into tears, at this time, these six taro were simply charcoal in the snow!

After thanking the figure who had left in the dark, he immediately peeled the taro and gave it to his mother and wife, who almost couldn't help crying at the thought of his mother and wife being displaced with him, but fortunately his wife took his hand in time.

Song Ting gave Chen Bao six taro, not because of the overflow of sympathy, although they didn't have much grain storage, and they didn't know when Fang Lajun's city washing turmoil would end, and he didn't know when he would have the opportunity to go out of the city, but seeing the loving appearance of this young couple, he couldn't help but think of the princess wife who was worried about him at home.

Counting the days, there are seven or eight days, and when he rode away from the Horse Mansion, Zhen'er waved her hand at him lightly dressed in white and shouted, "Xianggong, come back early!" Her expectant eyes, her smiling and beautiful eyes, always appeared in his mind.

It's only been less than a year to get along, but there have been many times to divide and merge, alas, this time I came to Suzhou to find Chen Dabeard, but accidentally fell into the chaos of Fang La's rebellion, he is a dignified horse master, with Lu Junyi, Yan Qing, Hu Sanniang and other powerful people as bodyguards, and still have to hide in this broken temple. Aren't those ordinary people more like ants? Life and death can be pinched at any time? Thinking of this, he couldn't close his eyes while sitting on the futon, got up and walked to the broken temple wall, and saw Hu Sanniang staring blankly at the sky.

"Master Pony." Perhaps hearing his footsteps, Hu Sanniang turned around and called softly.

Song Ting stood side by side with her, in the faint light and shadow of the night, he only felt the faint fragrance on her body, and couldn't see her face, and said softly: "What are you thinking?"

Hu Sanniang exhaled slightly and said, "I'm thinking about the girl surnamed Lin, she is only fifteen years old......"

Hearing her say this, Song Ting knew that she remembered what Chen Bao's wife Zhou Yun said about the incident she saw on the road, so she patted her on the shoulder and said: "Others think that you are a 'Yizhang Qing' who has no opinions, but in fact, I think otherwise, you have too many ideas, but you don't want to tell others, you don't have to be restrained in front of me, just say whatever you want."

Listening to his words, Hu Sanniang's heart trembled inexplicably, such words, but no one has ever told her that her husband Wang Ying didn't understand anything before, although many things could accommodate her, but unfortunately she still couldn't understand her after all, I didn't expect that this noble horse could understand her so much, so that she was moved at the moment, and couldn't help but sigh in her heart: "Alas, it's a pity, I'm twenty-six years old......"

"That girl, she is indeed very pitiful, she is going to face such a great misfortune in life at the age of fifteen," Song Ting's voice sounded softly, falling into her ears, warm as jade, like a spring breeze, she only hoped that he could say a few more words, he did as she wished, and continued: "But we have no way to save her, our own situation is already bad enough...... Speaking of which, it's not really that we don't want to, it's that we can't. There's nothing we can do to save this city, to save this world......"

"No," she didn't know why she said this, but since she had already exported, she chose to continue, "Master Ma, you can, Brother Song Jiang is willing to follow you, and Yongtai County is also proud of you, in fact, you are more popular than anyone in the court...... Including the emperor...... You can really do it......"

She didn't know why these words came out of her mouth, and after saying that, she fell into a moment of fear, this ...... Is it to persuade him to rebel? No, no, no, that's not what she meant.

"I understand what you mean, you don't have to be nervous,......" seemed to feel her heavier breathing, he just said so gently, so that her heart relaxed suddenly, and looked sideways at him, although she couldn't see his face clearly, she could still imagine his elegant and smiling appearance......

"Actually...... We probably all belong to the same kind of people, and in one word, it is 'powerless', you dare not fight your fate, and I dare not do anything out of line...... You know, I have Zhen'er......" Song Ting said softly.

"Master Pony, I understand." Hu Sanniang nodded secretly.

"It's all said, you're actually very smart." Song Ting patted her shoulder again, smiled slightly, and then said coldly and went back to the east wing.

Hu Sanniang looked at the sky faintly, the corners of her lips pursed slightly, learning his tone, and gently spitting: "You know, I have Zhen'er ......" couldn't help but sneer.

(End of chapter)