The river flows leisurely, along the road along the riverbank, the outline of the city of Ye County is already faintly visible, and there are houses and villages and a small Pingba threshing floor among the nearby fields.

A sick old yellow dog walked slowly on the road, sticking out his tongue in the hot weather, and then, lifelessly, lay on the weeds on the side of the road, his slightly closed eyes reflected the three figures running in front of him, and his footsteps quickly passed in the direction of the city gate.

Rushing into the city, the three pedestrians who squeezed through the street rushed to the county office, but they were stopped, and there was a quarrel, and there were office officials inside and out, or pedestrians passing by to attract them to come and see the excitement.

"What's going on over there......"

“…… It seems that the two men and a woman want to see the county order. ”

"Who are you when you are?!"

The temperature was hot, standing in the scorching sun, Yun Niang's thin body couldn't stand the high temperature, and she shook a little, and the voices of the people around her came noisily, and she felt dizzy. At the gate of the county office, an impatient-tempered errand rushed over, pushed Cao Ang and Wu Anguo out with weapons, and scolded: "You should be plagued, don't say a good word, and then talk nonsense about the plague, be careful to serve with sticks." ”

In the midst of the scolding, some companions came to pull him, "Okay, don't say a word." Then, he turned his head and warned the two men: "The brothers from the county order have already gone in to report, you can wait here with peace of mind, don't spread rumors and make trouble, otherwise the three of you will be arrested and put in prison." ”

"Talk to them, it's time to arrest them directly!"

The impatient and irritable servant wrenched his companion's arm and looked murderous. "I'll kill you—" As soon as the man's words fell, the strong man with a broken wrist suddenly burst out, and his bare arm slammed into the face of the shouting officer, knocking the other man directly to the ground.

Around, the people were boiling, and several errand officers from the county government hurriedly took out their weapons and rushed over when they saw this, and the errand who had been persuaded before also rushed up, next to them, the delicate figure opened his hands and stopped in the middle, and the knocked down officer on the ground got up and spit out the teeth and blood that were knocked out of his mouth, "Girl, you go away!" These two men dared to attack the officers at the gate of the county office, but they violated the law. ”

"No!" Yun Niang's eyes were a little scared, but she stubbornly didn't move half a step.

"Yun Niang, get out of the way, I'm going to wake up these guys who only know how to hide in the house." Wu Anguo was once able to fight with Wenhou Lu Bu for more than ten rounds, and in terms of martial arts, he was considered to be strong, and he was once a leader, even if he had a disability in his hand, Xueyong had never been cold.

Between the tension, in front of several medical halls on more than ten streets in this county, there were crowds, and a large number of people and pedestrians stopped to look inside, and vaguely heard the painful moans of patients in the medical hall. Moan, as if there is nothing.

In the crowd of onlookers, some of them are relatives and friends of the patients inside, since the beginning of the summer, it is easy to get sick, some headaches and brain fever are normal, serious, get the wind and cold, can withstand it, just go through, can not stand it, most of them have been waiting for death at home, rolled up the straw mat and threw it into the pre-dug soil pit to bury it.

However, in recent days, there have been more and more people who have suddenly fallen ill, and those who have spare money at home have been hurriedly sent to the hospital for treatment.

"The day before yesterday, Liu Ergou's mother-in-law fell down while walking, and she was a good person two days ago, and she was not sick when she said she was sick."

"It's not ......"

"I can't figure it out if it's the plague......"

"Phew...... If you don't say anything nice, take back your nonsense. ”

The crowd whispered, and in the midst of the small fragmented words, the sitting doctor in the medical hall was cutting the pulse of a lifeless girl through the curtain, and the old doctor frowned, and then, reaching out and touching the child's back, he quickly took his hand out again.

The brow furrowed even more.

"It's so hot......," he said, looking at the child's parents, "have you heard the child have a headache, or a nosebleed, or a stomach ache and diarrhea?" ”

Over there, the more honest-looking couple nodded again and again: "Yes, yes." Sometimes I get delirious and talk nonsense. ”

After saying this, I saw the old man sitting in the hall, his eyelids jumped wildly, and he was finally convinced of one thing, and hurriedly let go of the hand that cut the pulse, and hurriedly opened the curtain of the side door and entered, there were wooden couches in the inner hall, and patients were sleeping on each bed, he hurriedly called the apprentice who was boiling medicine, and the young man who wiped his sweat put down the pu fan and ran past him: "Master, what's the matter?" ”

"You immediately go out from the back and go to the county government to tell the county order that there may be a plague in Ye County...... Don't delay on the way, go—"

Outside the medical hall, the crowd was bustling and noisy, and someone was sent in, it was a child, the child's parents cried and bowed to the ground, begging the museum medicine craftsman to save his child, such a sad voice continued to come out of the towns and villages in the city and outside the city.

Far away in Nanyang County, the figure standing on the head of the city looked at Yuzhou in the north, stood in the sun for a long time, in silence, Jia Xu's eyes were indifferently stable, turned to Zhang Xiu next to him, and said softly.

"Let's go back."

In the alternating months of June and July, the sky is shining, and the hot wind and waves carry untouchable terror, brewing, and beginning to spread.

***********************

Crossing the clouds and going to Xudu in the north, a drama of closing the net has fallen.

Boom –

The dull sound of thunder passed through the clear sky, the blue sky, and occasionally a few white clouds could be seen floating above the city, and birds flapping their wings to look down on the scattered buildings in the city.

Below, the crowd at the entrance of the Dongmen vegetable market is crowded into a thick semicircle, the passing pedestrians are still rushing over under the shouts of family and friends, and the passing carriage is also parked not far away, and the curious figure stands on the carriage, looking at the execution ground in front of him with relish.

The tall wooden platform, Xu Duling sat majestically in an official robe, originally such a prison sentence was ignored, but what this group of people did, and the other party's status as an important minister in the court, had to let him sit in person. Normally, the wives and children of criminal officials would not enter the official mansion, be sold as slaves and maids, or as rewards to other meritorious courtiers, but this time it was different, Cao Cao had never been soft on the enemy, let alone merciless, as was the case with his former friend Zhang Miao's family.

Betrayal is always an unforgivable scar.

Full of favored eyes swept over the two figures standing on the city wall in front of him, and then asked people to go down to count the number and names of the criminals, after verifying that it was correct, he waved silently, a large group of men, women and children with disheveled hair were pulled to the open position of being surrounded by ropes, most of them were shivering in the sun, and their steps were extremely slow, but they were still pushed and scolded by the soldiers and pushed forward, and stood in order, and after a while, more than a dozen executioners drank the wine in their hands and sprayed the wine on the blade.

Fearful and timid men and women cried quietly.

Most of the onlookers had seen the notices standing at the execution ground, and they all understood that these hundreds of people were from the families of several high-ranking officials, and they committed the great crime of gathering a crowd to rebel, but the scene of the whole family being sat together is still rare.

"It's also the ...... A good official is not appropriate, and everyone thinks crookedly. ”

"Pity the women, many of them are pretty good-looking...... Alas! It's a pity. ”

"There are still children in it, who are only so big, and they were beheaded, and they can only blame themselves for voting for the wrong people......"

In the buzzing and noisy conversation, more than 20 family members of the convicts in the front row were crying, and they were pushed forward, pulled and knelt down, and a strong man with his bare chest wiped the blade, walked forward, raised his hand, and cut off-

More than 20 heads fell to the ground in unison, the hot blood instantly stained a large area of the ground, and the fishy smell spread, and there were women and children in the crowd who were so frightened that they quickly covered their eyes, and then hurriedly squeezed out with their children and ran away. More people are still silent and watching, and there are also people who have good deeds, who even applaud and whistle.

Man Zhong closed his eyes and waved his robe sleeves: "The next batch." ”

The second group was already frightened like dead dogs, and was dragged forward, knelt down, and cut off their heads, and then in the third and fourth groups, a child in the middle looked timidly at the blood-stained blade held high, and drilled into the arms of the beautiful woman next to him.

"Mother, I'm afraid!"

"Well, don't be afraid."

The woman was tied with her hands behind her back, and she was trembling slightly, she lowered her head as much as possible and rubbed the child's head with her cheeks, and said in a gentle tone: "It's just that your father is stupid and has been affected by us, but don't be afraid, when we get down, our family can still be reunited, huh...... In the next life, you don't want to vote for such a person again, you know? ”

The child nodded ignorantly.

Soon, it was his turn, pressed forward, knelt down, the child trembled sideways, took one last look at his mother, and shouted: "Mother! ”

The blade fell.

The controllers of this city, Cao Cao and Gongsun Zhi, stood on a section of the city wall that they could watch, quietly watching as the figures were pulled forward and their heads cut off, it was a heartbreaking scene.

Cao Cao squinted his eyes: "Gongsun, have you ever felt uncomfortable?" ”

"Naturally, it's going to be a little uncomfortable......"

Half a step away, the tall figure with falcon-like eyes nodded and replied softly.