The night is sinking, but Xiaqiu City is still very lively. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 The light of the fire reflected half of the night sky, and with the wind came a faint scorching heat and the sound of screams and wails hidden in the minute. Obviously, Cao's army had already broken through Xiaqiu City. Apparently, this group of bandits who had been transformed from the Yellow Turban Army were killing people and setting fire to the city of Xiaqiu.

A mass grave in the west of Summerhill is an unremarkable place. The crazy Cao army either did not go to the city to enjoy all kinds of pleasures, or obeyed the general's urgent grip to hold the city gate everywhere, and did not let a single person escape, and for the place full of graves two miles from the city, most of them did not dare to go when it was dark and cold. Although they always have one reason or another in their own hearts for relief from the actions they are doing at hand, they are still empty in their hearts.

Mrs. Li, Li Sheng and Xu Ding, three people and two horses galloped from Yan Village. As soon as they entered the mass graves, the three dismounted. At that moment, Mrs. Li, who was a little familiar with all this, led them to a tombstone marked "Worship my father".

"Is this it?" Li Sheng and Xu Ding looked at Mrs. Li.

"That's right! This is my father's grave. Mrs. Li nodded, stretched out her hand to caress the tombstone made of bluestone, and her face couldn't help showing a look of remembrance: "My father was upright and upright all his life, but because he offended the eunuch, he finally ended up being murdered by a man who was killed by his wife." If it weren't for the day of the raid, my nurse took me with her because she wanted to go home and couldn't let me go, I'm afraid that I don't know where I would be spending my time at the border today. ”

"I see!" Li Sheng couldn't help but nod secretly when he heard this, "Mrs. Li was originally born in the family of an official eunuch." This seems to explain why she has so many books in her home. Li Sheng thought so, he didn't seem to have considered the problem in Mrs. Li's words: when the incident happened, Mrs. Li was in infancy and had never received even a little education. What if it's an official house? If it weren't for other encounters in her life, I'm afraid that she would be as full of mercenary air as those ordinary businessmen today.

But this is just the end, and even if you don't think about it, it's nothing. It doesn't affect the matter at hand.

"Please open it. Now is not the time to be sad. Although I think that everything is empty and it doesn't matter if you take that kind of thing or not, since you think it is necessary for the employer, I still think that it needs to be done quickly. Xu Ding urged unceremoniously. Maybe he didn't have the idea of being unkind, but after studying the teachings of Futu for a long time, he couldn't help but have the idea that all things are equal and everything is empty, and he acts without any emotion, so naturally listening to the ears of others becomes a kind of unkindness.

"Hmm." Mrs. Li nodded shyly, and reached out to turn the ball on the tombstone.

With a creaking sound, a large hole four feet square appeared in the ground three feet next to the tombstone. A long bronze ladder leads to the ground as far as the eye can see, and I don't know how deep it is.

Seeing that the entrance to the cave was open, Mrs. Li was not busy getting down. She first asked everyone to wait on the top for a while, and then asked Xu Ding to take an oil lamp holder with an iron frame on it, light it, tie it to a five-zhang long rope, and gently send the oil lamp down. Because of this hole, Pingsuri has been sealed for a long time, and there will inevitably be a lot of epidemic gas during this period, which is enough to kill people. The only way to go down is to open the cave first, and wait for the plague to dissipate. The use of oil lamps to test whether the epidemic has dissipated was a more practical method at that time. After all, the plague in this cavern can't make the flames burn.

After about a cup of tea, everyone pulled the rope up from the ground, but when they saw that the fire on the oil lamp was still shining brightly, they couldn't help but feel a little relieved that they could go down. At that moment, Mrs. Li led the team in the front, Li Sheng followed second, and Xu Ding hung in the tail to protect the order of the first two people and entered the cave.

The cave is underground, and it is the entrance to a tunnel. The road follows the terrain, so it is not a straight walk, but a continuous winding underground. If it weren't for Mrs. Li's guidance, Li Sheng would feel that it was a black light that kept spinning in place, and it was easy to lose everything in the darkness. Because there are no lights in this passage.

I don't know how long I walked underground, maybe only a quarter of an hour, maybe a quarter or two. In short, as he continued to move forward, Li Sheng could clearly feel the continuous upward movement of the corridor under his feet and the faint sound that could be heard faintly. The voices were very chaotic, the footsteps of people running on the ground, the almost inaudible screams of people in the distance, the howls of women, the cries of men, and the cries of boys. Although he was still underground, he could not see with his own eyes what was happening above, but by listening to the chaotic sounds, the Venerable Master below understood what was happening above.

The so-called slaughter of the city can never kill people directly. The massacres are often followed by acts of looting and setting fire to houses.

"It's miserable!" Listening to the movement above, the people below couldn't help but think about it, and they couldn't help but sigh again and again.

"Cao Cao is unforgivable for killing so many people." Originally, he just saw such a thing in a book, and he didn't feel much about it, but at this moment, he was in a real troubled world and experienced such a thing himself, and Li Sheng couldn't help but be angry. Hearing such a miserable voice, he had another strange thought in his heart:

"Is there any difference between Cao Cao's current actions and Dong Zhuo who burned Luoyang? Dong Zhuo still set fire to the city because he couldn't beat it, but Cao Cao's is now doing such a thing after breaking through the city. Although there are many people in Luoyang and few people in the five cities of Xuzhou, the slaughter of a million people is a massacre, is the slaughter of 100,000 people not a massacre? Some people say that Cao Cao's merits outweigh his faults, and that the lives of the people under his rule are much better than before, but for now, Cao Cao's efforts to make the people live well are only a by-product of his own goals.

He didn't do those things for the sake of the peace of the people. He had the heart to pacify the troubled times, but not for the sake of the people but for his own ambitions, but for the realization of his ambitions, he had to have a useful rear, a group of people who could be driven by him. It can be said that everything Cao Cao did was subjectively for himself, and the benefits for the people were just some objective results.

As for waging war against the ethnic minorities on the border, it is also for the sake of the stability of their own rear. For this matter, Zhuge Liang did it later, and Sun Quan did the same. It's just that Zhuge Liang made it softer and won people's hearts; Sun Quan did a little worse, and finally Wu I Shanyue did not calm down after all. And Cao Cao's means and strength were even more extreme, he slaughtered all the rebels.

On the surface, this is indeed exciting, but the end result is that the hatred between ethnic minorities and Han people outside the Han border has been further expanded. This was naturally no problem when the Central Dynasty was still strong. However, in the later era of the decline of the Central Dynasty, it was easy for outsiders to invade. Although wolves are meant to kill after all, why can't we tame wolves into wolfdogs? ”

When Li Sheng thought about it, he couldn't help but be in a daze, in the corridor that allowed one person to pass, he couldn't block the road behind Xu Ding.

"Little brother, what are you thinking? Why don't you catch up? Xu Ding frowned and urged again and again.

"Oh...... Be! Li Sheng hurriedly pulled back his distant thoughts.

The entrance and exit of Yongdao in Surabaya Ju is on the floor of Mrs. Li's own bedroom. At the end of the road, Mrs. Li did not know what kind of mechanism she had fiddled with, when she heard a creaking sound, and the ground above her head moved away with the bed.

A large stream of air with a hint of scorching temperature and a strange smell of burning turned into a gust of wind, making the three people who were about to jump feel a different atmosphere from usual.

Luckily, the smell was coming from somewhere else. At present, the fires in Xiaqiu City are the most intense in the south and west of the city, but the north and east of the city have not been burned by the fire for some reason.

When they came up to the ground from the middle of the road, the three of them couldn't help but sigh: "Fortunately, Cao Bing has already checked here." ”

Judging from this bedroom that was messed up, Cao Bing's action to search the house was not ordinarily meticulous, not only the kitchen cabinets in the house were turned out, but even the mats on the ground were turned over and thrown aside in a mess. However, they couldn't get anything from here after all, after all, the useful and valuable things were taken away by Mrs. Li in advance, and all they left behind was such a large building and some bamboo slips that they couldn't take away. For these things, ordinary people will not go to loot. Because they can't read that at all.

Although Mrs. Li is in charge of leading the way, it is Xu Ding who is currently in charge of the security work. Entering such an environment full of dangers, Li Sheng could clearly feel the tension of his momentum. At present, Xu Ding is like a cheetah who chooses people and loves people, and his whole body has condensed the power that is waiting to explode. He walked with a cat, signaling Mrs. Li and Li Sheng with his eyes that they should not move around at will, but he came to the bedroom window with great care. He gently propped up the corner of the paper window and looked out into the courtyard with great alertness. While watching, listen intently to the movement outside. After a long time, he turned his head and said to the two people behind him: "It's okay, there is no Cao Jun outside the courtyard." ”

"Yes!" Hearing this, the two of them were obviously relieved.

At present, there are no Cao Cao's soldiers outside, which is naturally very beneficial to the actions of the three of them. So, they asked Mrs. Li to lead the way to the courtyard that belonged to the bell on the opposite side.

Because it was not far from Mrs. Li's bedroom to Zhong'er's bedroom, the three of them arrived quickly. As soon as I entered the room, I found that the house had also been searched once. The yellow package they were hoping to find was so obvious that it was naturally picked out early. They may have wanted to find something valuable, such as silver or gold, but when they opened it, they found that it was someone's spiritual seat and an unknown pamphlet, so they were very interested and threw them aside. In their own opinion, this is very useless.

"It's okay...... OK...... There is no breakage. Although the things were discarded, when Mrs. Li picked them up, she found that the things she was looking for were only slightly dirty and not damaged, and she couldn't help but be overjoyed.

Now that you have got what you want, you naturally have to retreat quickly. After all, the current place has been occupied by a group of murderers. Although there is no Cao army coming here now, it is still an enemy-occupied area that may encounter danger at any time. So the three of them looked at each other and quickly retreated.

。 As soon as the three of them withdrew to the door, they heard someone coming from outside. The three of them couldn't help but be startled, and hurriedly straightened their feet and shrank behind the door.

"Hiko, this harvest is really good. Not only that, but I got a full ten taels of silver, and I also found such a treasure. Someone said in a **** tone. He seemed to send it twice somewhere, causing a low, mournful whine.

"We were lucky. Although she had to hand over the daughter of the county order to the gang leader, the little maid beside her was not much worse than that young lady! And young. Speaking of which, Lao Tzu has grown so old and has not enjoyed the taste of a woman before the first letter. The man known as Hikoko laughed out loud, looking very ambitious. As soon as he said this, the little maid in their mouth was frightened, and they couldn't help but struggle.

"What's the fuss, be careful that Lao Tzu finishes you and eats you again." The man who spoke first was obviously annoyed by the little maid's struggle, and immediately roared loudly.

"Uh......h Woo! The sound of crying came whining, and it was evident that the little maid was frightened.

At this time, he said in a voice called Yan: "Little girl, don't cry." In normal times, we would have let you live after using it, but now that the general has already issued an order to kill, we can't just let you go. However, if you wait for a good wait, we will let you finish it quickly, and save you so much bits and pieces. ”

"Woo......" The little girl snorted, but stopped talking, thinking that she had accepted her fate.

The three of them did not come to Zhong'er's room, but to Mrs. Li's bedroom. Although there will be no problems for a while, it is blocking everyone's way back. And the three of them were so busy that they didn't return the couch to its original place, but they were afraid that as soon as these people left, this matter would be bad.

"No, it's going to have to be hot. Otherwise, neither you nor I will survive. Xu Ding said fiercely to Mrs. Li and Li Sheng: "You just stay here, and leave this outside matter to me." ”

"Yes!" Mrs. Li nodded lightly and agreed.

Seeing that his employer agreed, Xu Ding jumped up with a kicking leg, quickly pulled out the long sword at his waist, and slashed at the figure in front of him, shouting uncontrollably: "Thief in Qingzhou, take your life." ”

He is a native of Xuzhou, and he has also suffered from the scourge of the Yellow Turban, so he has a bitter hatred for the Qingzhou Yellow Turban, which has been incorporated into the official army. He once traveled to Luoyang to study and visited Wang Yue of Binlou as a teacher, and learned this sharp swordsmanship. Although he finally accepted the teachings of Futu because of the influence of his brothers in the family, and he did not care about himself, he was still a little hot compared to the detachment of his brothers in his family who were sincerely devoted to the Buddha. Therefore, he did not follow his brother to Yuzhang to preach, but stayed in Xuzhou and dared to act as a temporary bodyguard.

At this moment, he slashed out with a sword, and attacked the person in front of him from behind. He was very confident that the two people in front of him would die under his sword. After all, his swordsmanship was learned from Wang Yue's side, and he was considered a very clever swordsmanship. And in the past few years of fighting, he has not met an opponent who can compete with him, so he naturally has a proud confidence in his own skills. Although he usually hides this confidence very deeply, he does not show much of it.

But something happened suddenly. The sword swung from behind slammed into a piece of gold and iron, making a crisp sound of "dang ......", and suddenly burst into a burst of brilliant sparks in the darkness.

"Where did the thief dare to sneak up on me, Huang Yan." The man who had just spoken turned violently, and showed his formidable countenance—a dark complexion, eyes the size of a brass bell, and a short beard tied around his chin. Although he was only wearing a small soldier's leather armor and holding an iron spear in his hand, the bulging muscles all over his body and the explosive power implicitly contained in it made Jean feel that he should not be underestimated. He is a very powerful person, and just by blocking it just now, it has already made Xu Ding's hand holding the sword numb for a while.

"It's so strong. Is this man really a creep? Xu Ding thought to himself. However, even with such a change, Xu Ding still did not have any doubts that he could kill the two people in front of him. He clearly knew that the sword in his hand was good at taking the edge and using skill to kill and injure the enemy, which was the two extremes of the opponent's iron spear completely relying on strength and fighting himself. Although the opponent's strength is very strong, even if he can't fight him, but looking at his spear method, you know that he just has no strength. The spear was used to stab, and it was a weapon that valued skill, not smashing like he did.

With the power of that block, Xu Ding's body was like a light Feiyan, and after spinning his head in mid-air, he was firmly rooted on the ground. "Sneak attacks are also common sense. Doesn't it say that soldiers are not tired of deceit? Xu Ding smiled coldly, the long sword in his hand suddenly trembled, and a few silver sword flowers flashed in the dark night, stabbing towards Huang Yan quickly, like lightning crossing the sky on a rainy day.

For such a fast sword, Huang Yan's eyes were dazzled. Having survived countless fights, he naturally sniffed out the danger involved. So, instinctively, he stepped back, and the spear in his hand was desperately rounded, and a huge shield was laid in front of him. Although this move was only the result of his Huang Yan's temporary intention, his temporary intention this time was to block Xu Ding's stabbing sword very easily.

"When...... While! "Constantly stabbing and being rounded by the iron spear that was continuously rounded and resisted, frantically wrangled up. As if he had been swept away by a whirlpool in the river, his sword had long been uncontrollably swept into it. A heavy spear fell down at once. This continuous strangulation made Xu Ding's sword-holding hand constantly hit one after another, and it became more and more numb.

"That's not going to work. If I continue like this, I'm going to lose. I didn't expect the other party to use such a simple but practical move against him, and Xu Ding obviously felt that it was not good. He felt a call from hell, and he resisted it at once.

"Damn!" Xu Ding suddenly shouted violently, suddenly drew his sword and retreated, leaving the range of Huang Yan's strangulation.

The sword had been twisted and twisted by the twisting it had just been wrenched. This is also because the material used for this sword is more strange and belongs to the more flexible type. If it is an ordinary sword, I am afraid that it will break after a few blows.

Looking at the long sword that had become like this, Xu Ding only had a wry smile in his heart. He didn't want to be so embarrassed by a small soldier with a spear in Xuzhou today. I still want to kill him, but I don't want to kill him, but the weapon in his hand is beaten to the point that he can't use it.

"What a trick." Xu Ding laughed angrily. In this time of setback, his heart calmed down. All kinds of arrogance, self-confidence, arrogance, and deliberate indifference in the past were forgotten by him in an instant. At this moment, his heart is as calm as water, reflecting everything in the past, as if he has returned to the era of learning from the sword master.

"Soldiers are mortal iron, and no matter the sword, gun, sword, or halberd, they have any spirituality at the beginning of their appearance. It's just us who want to get him moving. Those who use weapons must always remember that it is we who are using the sword, not the sword. The teachings of the past flashed in Xu Ding's mind between the lightning and flint, and suddenly made him understand something.

So, he moved. After a fish leaped to the ground, his whole knee-hugging area rolled up, rolling towards Huang Yan like a rolling ball.

This is also Te's strange posture, Huang Yan has always wanted to stab him with the spear in his hand, but he has been dodging left and right to avoid it. At this moment, Xu Ding is like a fast-rolling ball, making it difficult to figure out his tricks. "What exactly does he want to do?" Huang Yan couldn't help but be a little stunned, he was slightly in a daze, and he didn't notice that the other party had rolled to his side.

"Huh!" Xu Ding quickly slashed out the sword in his hand that had been hit and made invisible. A mist of blood floated up, and a scream shocked the sky. Huang Yan's sturdy body fell backwards suddenly—his feet had already been cut off by Xu Ding at that moment. Sharp pain, such a big man rolled on the ground. The so-called "ten fingers connecting the heart", in fact, is not just ten fingers? The feet are also connected.

This change was only accomplished in the work of a cup of tea. Although there was still a Cao soldier by Huang Yan's side, that person was timid. Seeing such a fierce fight, he didn't dare to step forward, but just watched from the sidelines, holding the little maid in his hand.

At that moment, I saw that Huang Yan was defeated in a while, and he ended up being beheaded with both feet. Suddenly, I was surprised. Seeing that Xu Ding had turned his gaze to himself, he became more and more empty. He pushed the little maid in front of him, put the knife in his hand on her thin white neck, and threatened sharply: "Don't come, if you come again, I will kill her." ”

took such a little girl to threaten there, Xu Ding had no choice at all. Although he didn't want to kill Huang Yan and the Cao soldier in front of him to save people, in such a situation, it was undoubtedly best to save innocent people from death.

"What should I do?" Xu Ding stopped moving forward. Although his swordsmanship was high, he was still not sure that he could quickly pass Cao Bing's sword on the little girl's neck. Facing Cao Bing's hideous smile, he was in a dilemma.

Seeing that a stalemate had formed at the moment, Mrs. Li and Li Sheng were in a hurry. They all understand that staying here for a moment is more dangerous. But how to break such an impasse, Mrs. Li has no way, because neither she nor Xu Ding can care about the life and death of the little girl.

At this time, Li Sheng stood up, paced to Xu Ding's side with a calm face, and said coldly to Cao Bing: "If you want to do it, please hurry." It's just that the result of this hands-on action, you should understand it yourself. Do you think your own life is important, or is the life of such a girl who has nothing to do with us important? We're in a hurry, please don't procrastinate, okay. ”

"You ......" Cao Bing thought that when he came out of this threat, the other party should be at a loss, but he didn't want to meet such a child with a calm face, and he was choked up and speechless. He originally thought that it would be best for him to drag down the current situation, but after listening to Li Sheng's words at this moment, he couldn't help but doubt the importance of the little girl in his hands. As a hostage, it is natural that you have to have a certain status in the other party's heart in order to make them jealous. However, the current situation is that he himself caught an outsider who has nothing to do with the other party to threaten the other party, and how much such a threat can be relied on, you can know if you think about it.

"Let her go, we'll let you go." Li Sheng said at this time. He had already seen the wavering in the other party's heart, so he quickly threw the other party a hope.

"It's not impossible to let her go, but what if you go back and destroy her?" Cao Bing said with a frown.

"I can swear." Li Sheng said solemnly. Unlike later generations, at this time, the oath was still quite convincing.

"It's useless for you to swear, I want him to swear." Although Li Sheng also looked a little like an adult, compared to Xu Ding, Cao Bing naturally believed that Xu Ding was a little more, after all, the sword was held in Xu Ding's hand.

"Okay." Regarding Cao Bing's request, Xu Ding happily agreed. He believed that this was the only way to find the safest solution in the current situation. At that moment, he stood solemnly, pointed his sword at Changtian and swore an oath: "As long as the person in front of him lets go of the little girl in his hand, I will not kill him." With that, he put down his sword and looked at the Cao soldier with a calm face.

"It's time for you to let go." Li Sheng reminded him opposite.

"Hmph, don't you say I know." The Cao soldier snorted viciously, lifted the girl's body high, and smashed it directly towards the two of them like a sandbag, "It's your business whether you can receive it or not." If you fall to her death, it is naturally your fault. As soon as he threw it here, he rushed out frantically. Now that he felt that his life was important, he didn't pay attention to his comrades who were still lying on the ground and groaning.

"Alright. We're leaving. Li Sheng grabbed the little girl who was thrown over, let her get off the ground, and said to Mrs. Li who had just come out.

"What about this man on the earth?" Mrs. Li looked at Huang Yan's miserable appearance, and felt a little unbearable.

"No matter. We can't take him with us. Xu Ding replied indifferently.

"Does Madame still need to have mercy for a group of murderous robbers? If it weren't for us, I'm afraid that the fate of this little girl would be very bleak. This is Li Sheng's statement. The little girl who had just come over was like a frightened little rabbit, her eyes were red, and she looked at everyone pitifully.

"It's the same." Mrs. Li nodded and stopped mentioning the matter. She glanced at the poor little girl and asked softly, "What's your name?" ”

"The slave is called a little kite." The little girl said in an unusually low voice. If it weren't for the fact that the three of them were very close to her, I was afraid that no one would know what she said.

"Little kite, I'm afraid your master's family has already suffered. This city can no longer be inhabited. If you don't have anywhere else to go, you can follow us from today onwards. Mrs. Li took pity on her as a little child and wanted to take her in.

"Thank you, ma'am." The little kite agreed in a low voice, although it was still quiet, but everyone heard the joy in her heart from her voice. In these troubled times, there is nothing more important than having a place to live.

Then the crowd went back. Because there was a little kite who needed more protection, the order of going back changed slightly-Xu Ding walked in front, Li Sheng and the little kite followed behind him, and Mrs. Li went to the end because she wanted to annihilate all traces.

Since everything seemed to be going very smoothly, Li Sheng and Mrs. Li's guards relaxed a little. And Xu Ding, who is in front, is the role of pathfinder, and it is impossible to notice what is going on. Therefore, everyone didn't notice that Huang Yan, who was originally humming on the ground, had already grasped his original spear at some point.

"These people are unforgivable." Seeing that he was abandoned by others, and even ignoring his robe, Huang Yan's heart was full of deep resentment. He glared fiercely at the people in front of him, knowing in his heart that everything he was seeing was caused by the other party.

"If it weren't for you...... If it weren't for you, how could I have encountered such a thing? He gritted his teeth, and the anger in his chest burned irrepressibly: "Since you don't want me to have a good time, I naturally won't spare you, and everyone will finish together." He endured the severe pain, gathered the strength of his whole body, and threw the spear in his hand at Mrs. Li's beautiful back.

"Ah......" There was a sudden scream, and when Li Sheng, Xu Ding, and Little Kite in front turned around, Mrs. Li's right chest had been pierced by a spear, and the blood quickly oozed out and stained her clothes.

Getting carried away, cutting the grass but not eradicating the roots, it is often at this time that tragic tragedies occur.