In the fifth year of Jian'an, in November, in order to give Cai Mao a gift back, Ma Hong investigated Cai He, the younger brother of Cai Mao, and sent Li Mo out and asked Li Mo to carve a plum blossom on Cai He's neck.

It's just that Ma Hong didn't receive Li Hao's report before he received the news of Yuan Shao's defeat, and Yuan Shao was defeated. After Cao Cao defeated Yuan Shao, he would definitely send troops to deal with Liu Biao, and maybe he would raise troops to attack Wancheng, but Cao Cao would definitely attack Liu Bei in Runan before attacking Wancheng. Ma Hong was a little excited in his heart, he was looking forward to Cao Cao's attack on Liu Bei, then Liu Bei would definitely go into exile in Jingzhou. He had long wanted to meet the historical hero Liu Bei, and he also wanted to witness the demeanor of the traitorous Cao Cao. If you see Liu Bei, you will definitely treat him with courtesy, and when you see Cao Cao, I am afraid that you will raise troops to welcome him. Thinking of this, Ma Hong's hand holding the teacup kept trembling, and he couldn't wait. Even if Cao Cao comes, he will not be afraid, because he has renovated Wancheng in the past few months, and now Wancheng is stronger than before, and his Ma Hong's heart is definitely much stronger than Zhang Xiu, he is looking forward to it.

In December of the fifth year of Jian'an, Yicheng.

The snow fell for three days in a row, and the snow in the yard was very thick, and Ma Hong stood in the yard barefoot and looked up at the sky. Five days ago, the eldest brother was assassinated. Ma Hong knew very well how Ma Lu died, if Cai Mao wanted to defeat Liu Qi, he had to reduce Liu Qi's supporters first, and in the same way, Ma Hong was also reducing the power of the Cai family, and he also sent Li Mo to kill Cai He. The two beasts bite each other, their fur will fall off, and the real fight begins, and the next thing is to see who has the sharper minions and who moves better.

The cold air surged rapidly upwards from the soles of his feet, and Ma Hong's heart burned with flames, and Ma Hong told himself that it could not be the flame of hatred, and if the flame of hatred burned, it would burn the opponent at the same time, and it would also burn himself.

"Third brother, my father called you." Ma Liang stood behind Ma Hong and said, his face was pale and plain.

"I see."

Ma Hong came back to his senses, stretched out his hand to pat the snow off Ma Liang's head, and slowly walked into the house.

Ma Hong put on his shoes, walked to his father's room, and did not open the door for a long time. The fight between him and Cai Mao has involved the entire family, and if the fight continues, I don't know which relatives will pass away next.

"The third child?"

Father's old voice came from the room.

Ma Hong pushed open the door with a hum, lowered his head and knelt in front of his father.

Ma's father, who lost his son, is much older, and Ma's father looked at Ma Hong, who was pale, and said, "Child, don't blame you, I asked you to support Liu Qi in the first place." ”

"For the death of my eldest brother, I can't shirk the responsibility, please punish my father."

Ma Hong's whole body fell to the ground and said in a deep voice.

Father Ma sighed and said, "Get up and speak first." ”

Ma Hong got up and sat down beside his father, his fingers clasped tightly together, and the corners of his mouth trembled.

Father Ma picked up a coat and draped it on Ma Hong's body, patted Ma Hong's shoulder and said, "Child, don't feel guilty, since our Ma family supports Liu Qi, I have already expected some bad things." Even if we stop now, Cai Mao will not let us go. ”

"Father, I hope that my father will make two decisions in the near future."

"What's the decision, you say?"

"First, the Ma family's family moved to Xinye, and Yicheng is within Cai Mao's sphere of influence, so I'm worried about what will happen in the future; Second, after the Chinese New Year, my father proposed to the Kuai family, and now I need to unite the forces of the Kuai family to fight against Cai Mao. ”

The Ma family has been rooted in Yicheng for a hundred years, and if the family suddenly moves, it is indeed a big event. But Ma's father said without hesitation: "When the spring of the next year begins, the family will move to Xinye." But the second thing is a little difficult to do, if Kuai Yue marries the Ma family, he is formally on our side. ”

"Recently, I went to Xiangyang to visit Kuai Yue and asked him to make a decision."

"Then you go and inform your second brother and let him get ready to move!"

"Yes, father, you should rest as soon as possible, and the child will retire first."

Ma Hong knelt on the ground and said goodbye to his father before withdrawing.

Father Ma looked at Ma Hong's back and said in a low voice: "Hong'er, you are a star, you will definitely make my Ma family prosperous." ”

Ma's father has a secret in his heart, and it is because of that secret that he has always valued his third son Ma Hong the most. He always felt that his son must be a star in the sky, because Ma Hong was born to speak, and this secret is only known to him and Ma Hong. A month after Ma Hong was born, one night, he suddenly heard Ma Hong say a word, Ma's father didn't hear it clearly at the time, and thought he was hallucinating. The next night, he pretended to be asleep, and heard Ma Hong speak again in the middle of the night, at that time Ma Hong was still young, and his words were a little unclear, he didn't fully understand what Ma Hong said, but he was sure that his son could indeed speak, which really surprised Ma's father.

Ma's father lit the oil lamp, picked up Ma Hong and asked with a surprised face, "Child, can you speak?" ”

At that time, Ma Hong stared at him with clear eyes in his arms for a long time before he spoke again.

Ma's father couldn't fully understand what Ma Hong said at that time, the accent was childish, a little vague, and it didn't sound like a hometown dialect or an official dialect when you listened carefully. Later, under Ma's father's careful questioning and guessing, he roughly understood what Ma Hong was talking about.

What Ma Hong said was: Hearing me speak, do you think I'm a monster? Will you be scared?

If it is an ordinary person, holding the son who can speak at birth must be scared half to death, Ma's father is a well-informed person, he was not only a little scared at the time, but more of a surprise, especially after Ma Hong called him 'Abba', all the haze in his heart was swept away, and at that moment Ma's father thought that his son must be the stars in the sky.

That night, Ma Hong was half scared to death, he could not fully understand what his father was saying, he communicated with his father in Mandarin and Henan dialect at the same time, and finally he convinced his father that he was not a monster, but a star in the sky. The Chinese language and culture have been passed down for thousands of years, and most of them have changed, and in the previous life, Ma Hong could understand the languages of many provinces, but he could not understand what his father was saying. That night Ma Hong made a pact with his father not to tell anyone that he could speak, and to keep this secret for him, and Ma Father readily agreed. After Ma Hong made an agreement with his father, his heart was full of fear, so he kept silent from then on, pretending to be an ordinary baby, and no matter how much his father talked to him at night, he would never speak again. After that, Ma's father really thought that the gods had come down to enlighten him that night, and the gods wanted to tell him that his son was the reincarnation of the stars.

However, Ma Hong did not disappoint his father, he was literate at the age of two and able to write at the age of three, which made his father regard him more as a treasure in his palm and spent a lot of effort to cultivate him. Although Ma Hong in the previous life couldn't count from one to ten at the age of five, he was also out of the limelight in this life.

In the woods north of Xiangyang City, Cai Zhong carried a bow and arrows on his back and took two family members to hunt in the snow, and a heavy snow would show the traces of the beast's walking. The snow is deep, and it is not very convenient for people to move in the snow, and it is even more difficult for rabbits with short legs to run in the snow. Therefore, Cai Zhong's snow hunting harvest this time was not small, the cloth bag taken by the family was full of rabbits, thinking that he could stew a pot of rabbit meat after going back, the fat on Cai Zhongxiao's face trembled. Cai Zhong smiled and remembered his good brother Cai He, and his heart couldn't help but feel a little sentimental, in the snow season of previous years, he and Cai He would come out to hunt, but this year he was the only one to hunt.

"Brother! Don't worry, I'll serve you a bowl of the rabbit meat stewed this time and bring it to your grave. ”

Cai Zhong stood under the tree and muttered to himself.

"Master, it's getting dark, let's go into the city quickly!"

A family member said to Cai Zhongdao.

Cai Zhong hummed and was about to turn around and leave, when a small pile of snowflakes fell from the tree and smashed on his hat. Cai Zhong looked up at the tree, and there was a man sitting on the tree, the man was wearing a black cotton coat, which was particularly obvious on the snow-covered tree, the man had a pair of slender and pale hands, and held a delicate short knife in his right hand.

"Who are you?"

Cai Zhong shouted.

"Hunters."

The man said with a smile.

"Then how did you run to the tree?"

Cai Zhong shouted vigilantly.

The man laughed and said, "I'll come down now." ”

After the man finished speaking, he got up and jumped down, and as soon as the man's feet touched the ground, he heard a scream, and a short knife was stuck in his left eye. The man's feet landed, and he reached out and quickly pulled out the knife from Jiading's eye, pulling out the eyeballs together, and then the knife was quickly inserted into Jiading's mouth, and the eyeball on the short knife was thrown into Jiading's mouth. The man screamed and tried to push the man, but the man circled around the man like a loach in the snow, and the short knife stirred half a circle in the family's mouth, and the whole face of the family was cut open by the short knife.

Cai Zhong jumped backwards in shock, stretched out his hand and bent his bow and arrow, pointing at the man.

The man had already turned behind Jiading, and the knife in his hand had already slid towards Jiading's neck, and the hand holding the knife was quickly carving on Jiading's neck, and in a matter of moments, a plum blossom was carved.

"In this cold winter wax moon, only plum blossoms bloom brightly, don't you say?"

The man stood behind the family with a smile, grinning and revealing his white teeth, this man was none other than Li Yu.

The kidnapper swallowed his last breath, lowered his head, and spat out his own eyeballs from his severed mouth. The other family member fell to the ground in fright, incontinent and feces, and suddenly a foul smell came.

Li Wu looked at Cai Zhong with an unchanged face, and threw the family in his arms towards Cai Zhong.

Cai Zhong was shocked, and the bow and arrow were shot, and the arrow went into the chest of the dead family. An arrow was fired, but before he could pull out the arrow, Li Wu had already floated behind him like a ghost, took the quiver from his back, and kicked Cai Zhong down.

Li Yu took out three arrows from the quiver and said loudly, "You three come out!" ”

Not long after Li Wu's words fell, three eleven or twelve-year-old boys came out of the woods and walked to Li Wu's side. Of the three teenagers, two are teenagers and the other is a teenage girl.

Li Yu gave them an arrow and said, "Later, one of you will kill the pig with an arrow, and I will see which of you grows bigger." ”

The three teenagers took the arrows and didn't say a word, just stood behind Li Yu.

Cai Zhong stood up and looked at Li Yu with a trembling face.

The frightened family member wanted to stand up and run away, but Li Yu casually threw an arrow into the throat of the family ding, and the family Ding snorted and died.

Cai Zhong gritted his teeth and endured the fear in his heart and said: "Strong man, if you don't kill me, I will give you whatever you want." ”

"I won't kill you next, you can play with my three children! There are only two ways to survive, the first is to defeat the three of them, and the second is to escape from the woods. ”

Li Mo sighed and said slowly, but his voice was extremely harsh.

"That's true."

Cai Zhong pulled out his waist knife and asked with both hands holding the knife.

"That's nature."

Li Mo stood aside and stopped talking.