(a)

You and Wu Shun rushed towards the house non-stop.

You are anxious along the way, you are fast, you don't want to stop for a second, and you even eat dry food and drink water in the gallop.

This is the second time Wu Shun has seen you in such a hurry, and the first time was when you took him to rush back to Cui's house from Linshui Ding's house at a meteor-like speed. That time, your intuition was very correct, something happened at home, and Jingyun raped me. Wu Shun thought of the last time, and he couldn't help but get nervous. He is more anxious than you, and he follows you with fear, praying to Heaven that you will not be in danger again because of this gallop.

You traveled all the way through mountains and villages, through towns and villages, and soon the roads in front of you became more and more familiar. Zhuang Zhen saw that it was close.

As you rode through a wooded field, you suddenly heard a loud shout behind you.

You rein in your horse and look back, and see two dusty men rushing out of the woods, shouting at you and waving their arms.

You ask Wu Shun, "Who is it?" Are they calling us? ”

Wu Shun said: "There is no one else around, it should be calling us." “

You say, "Be careful, go over and see." ”

Ride your horses to these two men. As soon as these two people saw you, they fell to their knees and cried: "It's really Commander Cui!" Commander Cui, you're back! ”

You look at these two people carefully, their hair is scattered, and their faces are crisscrossed with sweat. You vaguely recognize one of them, it seems to be a small leader in Yu Wentao's army, named Qian Zhong, but you are not very sure.

Your heart tightens. If he was Qian Zhong, looking at this appearance, something terrible must have happened in Yukou.

You asked, "Are you Qian Zhong?" ”

Qian Zhong cried: "It's under the mark." Commander Cui, we're done, we're all done! ”

You say, "Don't panic, don't cry, start from the beginning, what's all over?" ”

It turned out that these two people were Yu Wentao's subordinates. They have reported to you the circumstances of the fall of the pass.

Qian Zhong said that Jingyun led people to open the camp gate, assassinated Yu Wentao, and joined forces with the Hesse Ministry to capture Huangsangyukou. He said that in the battle with the Hesse Ministry, before Yu Wentao's deputy commander was killed, he ordered them to take advantage of the chaos to flee and go to the bottom of the mountain to inform the defenders of Cui Jiaji that Jingyun had defected to the enemy and that Yukou was about to be lost, but they did not grab the horses, and the speed was not faster than the horse team of the Hesse Ministry, and they had just arrived near the north gate of Zhuangji, inside the north gate, Jingyun's men and the people guarding the gate had already fought, and the cavalry of the Hesse department had already rushed to the north gate. In the melee, they did not dare to continue to enter the village, feeling that the town of Zhuang had been broken, the general trend had gone, and it could not be saved, and it was in vain to kill them, so it was better to go to Linshui to report the news of the enemy's attack to Ding Youren's defenders.

They were so tired from running all the way that they had to fall down in the grove to rest for a while. As soon as they lay down, the two of them heard the sound of horses' hooves outside the woods, and the two of them rode from behind them with smoke and dust, and swept through the woods like a whirlwind.

Qian Zhong's eyes were sharp, he recognized you at a glance, and then saw Wu Shun's figure. He was surprised: "It seems that it is Commander Cui and Wu Shun of Qingfeng Village who have just passed!" Could it be that Commander Cui recovered from his illness and rushed back from Qingchuan? ”

The two of them were overjoyed, and they rushed out of the woods and called out to you.

(b)

When you heard that your father had died, Jingyun had defected to the enemy, and the bad news that Yu Wentao had been killed, it was like a thunderbolt from the sky, and you suddenly felt a splitting headache, and your heart was in a hurry, your chest was hot, and your throat was sweet, and you spurted out a mouthful of blood with a wow.

You stand pale in shock and grief for a minute, unable to move. Wu Shun looked at you like this, and he was so frightened that his soul was about to fly. He rode close to you and shook your arm, but you couldn't hear what he said.

When did my father get hurt, how could he be so badly injured, and why didn't anyone come to Qingchuan to tell me what had happened these days! I was not with my father when he died, Qin'er was alone at Zhuangji's house, and the enemy soldiers had rushed into Zhuangji......

There are so many troubles in your head that you have gone through countless chaotic thoughts.

Then, you finally take control of yourself and calm down.

You struggled to suppress the surging pain in your skull, and you instructed Qian Zhong and the others to continue to Linshui to report the news. You said that it is not yet possible to determine whether the enemy army is attacking and looting in small groups or attacking on a large scale, but you must ask Ding Youren to quickly evacuate the women and children from Linshui and make the fullest preparations for a vicious battle, and ask Ding Youren to immediately join Yan Fangcheng and Sun Zhanming of Yantang Pass to quickly report the battle situation on the northern front of the imperial court and prepare to resist the enemy on all fronts. You say you'll do your best to get to the bottom of the enemy, buy them time to prepare, and try to turn the tide of the battle. You said that you would guarantee your life to strictly guard the defense line for your father, and never let the enemy open a gap in the direction of Cuijiaji and go deep into the Han land.

Qian Zhong said to you before leaving: "Commander Cui, you can't go to Zhuangzhen now, there are too many enemy soldiers in it, you have horses, see if you can find a path to Qingfeng Village, the enemy doesn't seem to know that there are camps and several outposts on the side of Qingfeng Village, and there are Han troops in the camp, and Commander Fu may not know that Yukou and Zhuangzhen have accidents." They are now trapped in the mountains by enemy soldiers at both ends. ”

After Qian Zhong and the others left, Wu Shun asked you what to do next.

You say, "Come home with me first, go save Qin'er!" ”

(c)

Jingyun and Hesse's respective wishful thinking played very well, the timing was accurate, and the implementation was very smooth all the way.

But there is only one thing, which Hesse and the eldest brother have missed by all calculations. That's your extremely sharp instinct for the impending disaster.

You took the initiative to rush back day and night.

When the cavalry of the Hesse Department burned and plundered all the way, penetrated deep into the center of Zhuang Town, rushed into the Cui family's mansion, and began to set fire to your father's mourning hall and burn the curtains, you took Wu Shun and hurried to the south gate of Zhuang Town.

You rode your horse into Zhuangzhen from the south gate, and all you saw was the corpses of the charred-faced Cui Jiaji defenders, and the enemy's horse team had just slaughtered from here, rushed to the front, and passed you. You see from afar that my house is on fire, and the small building where I live is in flames. You leave your horse, jump onto the roof of a house, and condescendingly judge the situation of the melee in the whole village, but seeing that the enemy soldiers continue to rush into the town, the slaughter has begun for a while, and the whole town is in chaos, and the defenders in the whole town are divided and surrounded by a large number of enemy troops, and they continue to fall in the flames and swords. You know you're still a step too late, and now, with the strength of the two of you alone, there's no way to undo it.

You jumped off the roof, discussed with Wu Shun, and then went your separate ways.

In the midst of the firelight, you went up to the house again, climbed over countless ridges, and climbed up from the roof of the neighbor's house to my little building. You uncover the roof tiles and slide down the columns.

Just as you entered my room from the rooftop, my eldest brother also entered his house with the enemy's cavalry.

He finally returned to his home. He stood in the courtyard and saw the curtain in his father's mourning hall set on fire by the rebels, and his father's coffin was being engulfed in flames, and he also saw the flames of my small building.

He stood there and watched the flames burn.

This was the last time of our siblings at home.

At that last moment, we were in the same courtyard with my eldest brother, but we didn't get to see each other. We just passed by.

The grievances and hatreds of life are divided and combined, who can say clearly.

(iv)

In my old age, I no longer hold a grudge against my big brother. I began to understand that in my eldest brother's actions and choices, there was also my responsibility, my intolerance, and my hatred. I'm not innocent.

I have nothing but deep compassion for him, for us, for all of us. Deep, deep, unspeakable, compassionate.

If I could have been more considerate at that time, if I could have forgiven my eldest brother and let him continue to stay at home and stay with my father, would everything that had happened like this not happen like this? Will the whole history be changed because of this?

I am deeply repentant.