The last glimmer of light belonging to the day was gone. The www.biquge.info seems to be just a turnaround, and the magnificent sunset afterglow of the sky is replaced by an opaque and thick indigo. From the lowest to the highest part of the firmament, the stars begin to twinkle, casting silhouettes over the earth – the mountains being the most conspicuous of them.

The burning wood crackled and popped. The firelight swayed under the night wind, and in the open space where the twenty-five bodies were placed, only Li Yongzhong's suppressed voice echoed: "If others don't admit it, I admit it!" What about military merit, and what about rewards? I'm not rare! The brothers who died in the war were given thirty taels of silver, and the family was given ten acres of land, and within ten years, my Li family did not collect rent and paid official grain! Injured brother, the Li family pays for the soup and medicine! If you are physically disabled, I Li Yongzhong will raise you for a lifetime! When we return to Bijie, we will talk about the merits! Those who should be given silver, those who should be given to fields, and those who should be promoted, when the time comes, it will be clearly calculated! ”

His voice disintegrated in a gradual depression, the anger, sadness, and pain that had been forcibly concealed revealed from the shattered wreckage, and the hoarse voice of the young man was torn apart by the howling mountain wind: "Others are sorry for you, I want to be worthy!" ”

The guards were silent. But no one would think that they did not react to Mr. Lee's words. If you look closely, these simple, honest, loyal and sincere faces have suppressed excited looks, and many people have tears in the corners of their eyes, and their hearts are stirring. If it was just because of the guard's share of the money before, now, these people are willing to die for Li Yongzhong! Not for anything else, but for him to see them as human beings!

Li Yongzhong swallowed the last syllable, took the torch handed by Cao Jinliang in the whimpering wind, two guards carried tung oil over, and splashed it on the body and firewood without hesitation, when the last drop of oil was poured clean, the guards retreated, Li Yongzhong stepped forward, looked at the last look, he used his wrist force, the torch lightly followed a parabola, fell on the body, and the raging fire immediately rose into the air.

The fire was so strong that you could feel the scorching heat five or six steps away. Li Yongzhong felt that he might have heard the sound of weeping, but when he turned around, he found no trace of tears on anyone's face.

The Ming army stood at a distance and watched, subconsciously distancing themselves from the crowd that was completely different from them. They all heard Li Yongzhong's previous words, and some people's faces flashed with a hint of envy, and some people quietly sighed with their companions, "This is a good master who has met benevolence and righteousness." Some people inquired about Li Yongzhong's origin, and when they heard that it was Chen Xianda's son-in-law, they even asked: "Does this Zhongguan want a family?" ”

Because of the large number of people, the cremation took a long time, and soon after, the guards dispersed in twos and threes. Only a handful of people stayed here until late at night. Except for a few guards in charge of this matter, Liu Xiaoqi was the only one left, and he sat on the hillside not far away, staring blankly at the skyrocketing fire that lit up the area.

In the final assault, Liu Xiaoqi's colleague Zhao Bing was covering him when an enemy wielding an axe split through his collarbone and almost split the man in half. He turned around, shouted silently with red eyes, and thrust his spear into the heart of a unsuspecting enemy—at such a close distance, his armor did not provide him with a better defense than paper, and the sharp tip of the spear pierced through his chest, and he could not see it alive.

Since Liu Xiaoqi was appointed as the commander of the army by Cao Jinliang, in just a few days, there have been two old faces in the army, the first Liu Zhu died in front of the village in Muxi Mountain, and this one Zhao Bing died on the Pingshan Dam by the Qingshui River. Liu Xiaoqi had already picked up the bones for his two brothers, and according to the rules, when he returned to Fushun, he still had to send the ashes of his brothers who died in the war home, and he suddenly felt that he couldn't imagine such a scene.

For the first time, Liu Xiaoqi began to suspect that he might not be suitable for this bloody job at all.

The night is long, but the dawn will eventually come. By dawn, all the bodies had turned into a handful of gray dust. The guards used the improvised pieces of cloth to gather the ashes one by one, and some people muttered: "Let's fish in a pot and sleep on the bunk, you go first, if other brothers are mixed together, it will be the same as before." As he spoke, the head of the masked cloth was already wet.

Compared with the heavy atmosphere on the side of the guards, the Ming army was much happier. Of course, it is a pity for the comrades who died in battle, but on the battlefield, the head of the sword and gun is silent, the soldier eats food, and the head hangs on the belt of his trousers, and it is only a bad fate to die. This time, Li Yongzhong no longer walked with the official army, and only Feng Baoqun and Chen Mingjiang were by Chen Xianda's side in the Chinese army. Feng Baoqun also arranged for the wounded to be loaded with grain and grass, captured and placed in the Chinese army, and the surviving Ming army was divided into two teams, both of which were unsheathed.

The journey was uneventful. Feng Baoqun rode the horse before and after the two teams to inspect it, and returned to the Chinese army sweating under the sun, and couldn't wait to hold a water bladder to quench his thirst. He threw the half-empty water bladder to his soldiers, turned his head and sighed with Chen Xianda: "When we come out this time, we will almost capsize in the gutter!" Now that my subordinates think about it, they are all afraid for a while! ”

Chen Xianda has been recuperating for two days, and compared with the first injury, it is much better. He couldn't ride a horse now, so he had to ask the caravan to vacate a frame cart and put a thick cover, so that the Qianhu officials could lie on it. Hearing Feng Baoqun speak like this, he smiled dumbly, coughed a few times, and said, "This time is really dangerous!" This gang of brutes is really different from what we have encountered in the past. Speaking of this, Chen Xianda's face became serious, he tapped his index finger on the frame twice, and said: "In the past, among the barbarians, except for Yi Miao and others, it was the Southwest Zayi, but this time I heard Mingjiang's statement, and later met a group of Han people!?" ”

"Yes." Feng Baoqun lowered his voice with a serious face and said, "Not only Han people, but also wearing armor!" Among these barbarians, except for the direct generals of the two thieves, where can the rest of the barbarians wear armor? Although the officers and soldiers can't wear armor, most of them can still wear fat jackets decorated with armor leaves, and the barbarians will snicker if they can wrap themselves in a gown. ”

Chen Mingjiang also said: "After the war, Zhong Guan'er and I went to look through the corpses of that group of people, and saw that almost everyone on the tiger's mouth who was used to holding knives and guns had calluses on their heads, and they looked at the soles of their feet, but there were not many calluses, and they were not farmers who were used to being barefoot!" Many people have scars and gunshot wounds! ”

Chen Xianda nodded slightly, "This is no difference, I think most of them are first-class mountain bandits and strongmen, and it is reasonable to mix with the barbarians." But despite that, Chen Xianda, as a veteran soldier, still sensitively felt that there were a few twists in the place, he pondered for a while, and then asked: "Didn't find anything else?" He gently asked his son, "You and Zhong Guan'er are both careful, so you found such an idea?" That's what it means to be dissatisfied.

Chen Mingjiang hesitated for a moment before he spoke, and his face was a little hesitant. Chen Xianda and Feng Baoqun were taken aback by this--it was rare to see this from the face of the leader of the pro-army, who had always been calm--he obviously thought about it for a while before he carefully worded his words: "There are other discoveries, but they were reported by one of Zhongguan'er's subordinates, and I don't dare to be sure now......" As he spoke, he pursed his lips and looked ahead.

At about the same time, Li Yongzhong was also talking to Cao Jinliang about this.

Although Cao Jinliang was not lightly injured, he had always been strong, and most of the injuries were on his flesh and skin, so he insisted on riding a horse and did not ride with the wounded soldiers. At this moment, he didn't see his usual laziness on his face, and said with a little coldness: "I just don't believe that this matter is such a coincidence!" It's not very strange for the official army to be ambushed by barbarians, but this is a good thing, we happened to meet thousands of households along the way, and we met the mountain bandits of the Han people? The so-called coincidence of the world is that there are seven or eight adults! ”

Li Yongzhong also nodded in agreement with his opinion, and sneered: "I have seen the arrow that injured my father-in-law, it is not half similar to the bamboo bow used by barbarians, but it is very similar to the infantry bow of the official army, only that kind of big bow can shoot heavy arrows that can break armor!" Otherwise, how can ordinary arrows penetrate the fish scale armor on his father-in-law's body? ”

Cao Jinliang took the reins of the horse, let the mount move slowly, and moved closer to Li Yongzhong, he whispered: "There is a little brother Chen who was not there, I didn't have a good time to tell you. ”

"You just tell me."

"Xiao Qi told me a strange thing." He drove the horses, walked side by side with Li Yongzhong, and whispered in the rustling footsteps: "Yesterday he seemed to see a familiar person among that group of Han people. ”

Li Yongzhong immediately raised his attention, and at the same time, a dark cloud drifted through his heart, and he asked, "Who?" ”

"Guan Er." Cao Jinliang said it in one mouthful, and when he saw Li Yongzhong's blank face, he immediately knew that he probably hadn't heard of this person at all, and explained to Li Yongzhong: "It's normal for this person to be an official in the middle of nowhere, I heard that he used to be born in Fushun Town, and worked as a handyman in the well field with Xiao Qi for several years. ”

"Well field!?" Li Yongzhong immediately keenly grasped the key word, "The original Li family went out? ”

"Exactly." Cao Jinliang originally said to him: "I heard that this person was originally cowardly, but there was nothing wrong with him, and he was also good friends with Liu Xiaoqi. ”

Cao Jinliang actually didn't know much, and he didn't know much about what happened later, so he had to pick what he knew and tell Li Yongzhong: "Later, Zhong Guan'er went to see him once, and I heard that he had a fight with Guan Lao Er. ”

Li Yongzhong sneered, and suddenly asked Cao Jinliang: "Jin Liang, you said that this bandit has never met before, and he knows our roots like this?" Those gang of mountain bandits, if they don't look for the bad luck of the official army, why do they keep fighting around you? There was already an angry look on his face, "Jin Liang, after listening to you just now, I concluded that since we left Fushun, our whereabouts have already been leaked!" ”

He and Cao Jinliang glanced at each other, and a flash of inspiration flashed and said in unison: "Liu Sankui! (To be continued.) )