Although he has a special mission, Iwao Konno still has his own moral bottom line for killing.

He was able to kill the three Zuaf soldiers who tried to "vigate" him without hesitation, and if he was allowed to dismember them, he would not have any psychological barriers, but he would never do it to kill a poor pregnant girl for some purpose.

Iwao Konno thought about the possibility of using that priest again, and finally gave up, this priest could not be very important to Li Weiye, and his death would not allow Li Weiye to leave Hanoi to fight.

He sighed, he was actually far from being in terms of intrigues.

Before coming to Vietnam to join the Black Flag Army, Iwao Konno had never been an aggressive man, but once he joined the ranks of the Black Flag Army, he easily adapted to it. This, he believes, is a gift, like anything else. Some people can carve birds out of wood, some can play the piano, and priests are good at rhetoric. Your own will doesn't matter at all, it's the structure of your nerves that determines everything, whether or not you can keep your hands agile and your mind calm in battle, without becoming dumbfounded and making all sorts of wrong judgments, whether they are fatal or not. Plus, add a strong physique that kills enemies in hand-to-hand combat.

As the time came to an end, Iwao Konno left under the shade of the trees, trying to make as many trips as possible. But after only walking for an hour, I was so tired that I could barely take a step, and every time I lifted my foot, I had to go through a lot of hard work. At this moment, he saw two people standing in the place where the path in front of him was cut by the river, and although they were far apart, he could also tell that they were two Vietnamese farmers. Therefore, Iwao Konno didn't bother to hide in the woods again. Instead, keep moving forward. The two men stood by the riverbank. One of them was holding a large bamboo pole, and the other was kicking a pig rolling in the muddy water with his foot, but the pig was indifferent. He picked up a bamboo pole and poked it hard at the pig, who reluctantly struggled to his feet and staggered forward. The two of them passed by Iwao Konno with a look of vigilance in their eyes.

Iwao Konno was so weak that for a moment he wished he was the pig, lying in the mud and wallowing in the mud. Until someone pokes him with a pole. But he took off his boots and waded to the other side, then left the road and walked downstream along the river, intending to find a hidden place to cook some porridge and drink. But the wind changed direction, bringing in the aroma of a real meal from somewhere downstream.

Like a bear, he threw his head up, blinking his eyes, sniffing constantly with his nose, following the smell of meat in the air, and soon saw a camp at the bend of the river. A couple of Vietnamese-style caravans. There were a few horses, and some rough gray cloth tents with pointed roofs in the woods.

Iwao Konno hides behind bushes. Watch carefully as the people in the camp go about their lives. These people were dressed in all kinds of clothes, both men and women, and Iwao Konno guessed that they were just like himself, homeless people who were destined to die in the world. Artists, people who escaped from labor, and horse dealers all came together to form a hodgepodge. The horses were scattered around, eating the tall grass under the trees, some of them were full of spirit, and some of them were not far from death. However, bathed in the golden afternoon sun behind him, the horses seemed beautiful to Iwao Konno - the graceful curve of the neck, the shin bones protruding from the thin skin above the hair. Iwao Konno guessed that they were hidden here for horse dealers. The Vietnamese horses died too much on the battlefield, and now they are very rare, and the price is staggeringly high. After the French army captured Hanoi, they sent people to collect horses everywhere, but almost none of them were given. Iwao Konno was a little tempted, hoping that he could have the money to buy a long-legged gelding, ride it and press the bridle, bidding farewell to his status as a walker. But he didn't have that much money, and besides, with a horse by his side, it was difficult to hide his tracks. It's not easy to hide something this big, and besides, it won't cooperate obediently. Therefore, this dream of beauty can be forgotten.

Perhaps these wanderers would have some sympathy for him, and Iwao Konno walked into the camp with his hands empty, hanging at his side at a glance. The people here were generous to the uninvited guest, but Iwao Konno knew that if they had the chance, they would steal all his things. They were simmering an iron pot of soup over low heat, which contained rabbits, cats, a stolen chicken, and all kinds of vegetables that had been brought by the sheep, and the soup was very dark. Large chunks of pumpkins are roasted over a charcoal fire in an iron oven. A woman, dressed in a skirt made of rags like the quilt, spoons the food onto Iwao Konno's iron plate, and then busily boiled corn kernels in a pot. The fire under the pot made a crackling sound, like the sound of gunfire from the battlefield in the distance.

Iwao Konno leaned against a tree, eating and looking around. The babbling river flowed over the stones, creating ripples; A tree is the first to show the mood of autumn, and the bright yellow leaves flutter in the breeze; Smoke curls up from the camp and beams of sunlight penetrate through the camp; Children frolic in the shallow water by the river; Other Vietnamese were busy tending to their horses, and a boy dipped a corn cob core in a bucket of filthy gray slurry to wipe an old mare's body and cover its gray fur, then cleaned its teeth with a small, pointed stick. Iwao Konno saw that it was much younger.

Iwao Konno had a lot of dealings with the Vietnamese. He felt that these predators among the human beings had a rare honesty, and they frankly admitted that they would not let go of any loopholes to exploit. But in this tranquil ravine, they appear to be indisputable from the world. How the Black Flag Army and the French turned out in the war had nothing to do with them. No matter which side wins, there is always someone to ask for the horse. For them, this battle is nothing more than a temporary hindrance to business.

For the rest of the day, Iwao Konno stayed with the Vietnamese, scooping a spoonful of soup from the pot when he was hungry and drinking. Then he fell asleep.

At the end of the afternoon, he saw a dark-haired woman walk up to the herd and put a bridle on a gray-brown mare. She was not very old, she was wearing a long black dress with a man's dress on it, and she was very beautiful. I don't know if it was her black hair, or her manners, or her slender fingers, that reminded Iwao Konno of his long-lost Japanese woman for a while.

She gave him the impression that she was indeed a Japanese woman, not a Vietnamese woman. Although she was dressed in Vietnamese clothes.

He sat on the ground. Eyes follow her. Watch her grab the hem of the long skirt and the petticoat and bite it into her mouth, revealing her white calves.

Yes, she must be a Japanese. Iwao Konno thought.

Due to the relationship between kneeling and sitting for many years, the calves of Japanese women are very plump, and the difference between Vietnamese women and Qianguo women is very obvious. As a Japanese, he can't be mistaken.

She rolled over and got on the mare and rode to the river, where the water was deep. By the middle of the stream, the horse was already unsteady on its feet and slipped several times in the water. It struggled to get ashore with a hard back buttocks, and the water was pouring down its back and stomach, and the woman's clothes were wet all the way to the buttocks. She rode well, leaning forward to keep her balance, her face almost to the horse's neck, her black hair hanging down and mingling with her black mane, making it difficult to distinguish from each other. Up to the flat ground. She smacked her heels and galloped away through the open woods. It is a cheerful picture that excites Iwao Konno. He was grateful for the privilege of witnessing it.

In the evening, some young Vietnamese boys cut a twig into a shuttle gun, forked frogs in a blister, and caught a bucket full of them. They cut off the frog's legs, skewered them with sticks, and grilled them over a charcoal fire. At this time, a man approached Iwao Konno with a bottle of French champagne and said that he had exchanged it for someone else. The man didn't quite know what it was, but he wanted to sell it for a high price. Iwao Konno counted out some money to buy it, drank champagne and ate a plate of frog legs to fill it up for dinner. These two things are not bad together, but for a man as hungry as he is, it is a drop in the bucket.

He wandered around the camp, trying to get something to eat, and eventually made his way to the entertainer's car, a performing group that sold drugs in a trick. There was a man sitting next to the tent, and when he saw Iwao Konno, he came up to him and asked him what he was doing. The man was tall and thin, and he looked to be a handful of old men, with blue bags under his eyes and gray hair. He seems to be the head of the place. Iwao Iwano asked if he could spend money to buy a meal to eat, and the man said that it was not a problem, but it would take a long time to eat, because they had to practice kung fu before it was dark, so Iwao Konno might as well sit on the side and watch.

A moment later, the dark-haired woman he had seen earlier came out of the tent, and Iwao Konno's eyes were glued to her. He carefully observed her attitude towards the man, trying to guess the relationship between them. At first, he thought the two were husband and wife, but later he didn't feel like that. They erected a plank, and the woman stood in front of it, and the man began to throw a throwing knife at her, and the blade grazed and nailed to the plank. Iwao Konno thought that this hand alone would be enough to attract a large group of people to watch the excitement.

After dark, they beckoned Iwao Konno to have dinner together. Everyone sat on the floor by the fire, talking to each other while eating, and whoever wanted to say it could say it, without asking for instructions or hindering them.

After eating, they all squatted down to the river with their respective plates and scrubbed them clean with the sand in the river. Then the older man added dead branches to the charcoal fire for cooking, and without any thought of saving firewood, he burned the fire until it was shoulder-high. A sake jar was passed around in the hands of the people, who sat around the ground and told Iwao Konno various stories about what had happened during their journey.

After a while, Iwao Konno could no longer hear what was being said, and only thought about how beautiful the woman was in the firelight—her hair was illuminated by the fire, and her skin was white and delicate. Iwao Konno was in a state of his own wrecklessness when the man suddenly said something very strange. He said there was soon to be a big war here.

His words made Iwao Konno very curious, so he listened carefully.

The man said that the Qianguo army had secretly entered Vietnam to help the Black Flag Army fight the French.

Hearing this news, Konno Iwao was very disapproving in his heart, as far as he knew, Liu Renyi, the leader of the Black Flag Army, had plans to return to his homeland, but he did not get his wish.

After Li Weiye occupied Hanoi, in order to prevent possible foreign interference, he came up with a very clever method, that is, after tearing down all the fortifications in Hanoi, he immediately withdrew from the city, announced that it would be "returned" to the Vietnamese government, and he himself led his troops to build blockhouses in important places outside Hanoi. This move greatly overwhelmed the Vietnamese government, which was originally ready to pour the whole army into a big fight with the French, and began to sit down at the negotiating table with the French again, and strictly ordered Liu Renyi's Black Flag Army to withdraw to Baosheng and not move without incident; Li Weiye's troops then occupied Nam Dinh in the same way, and more than 1,000 Vietnamese troops broke up after a period of resistance, which made Liu Renyi begin to lose confidence in the Vietnamese court. He felt that if he continued like this, the French would sooner or later threaten his survival in the Baosheng area. So. His annual income of 80,000 taels of road money will definitely not be guaranteed, and the livelihood of thousands of Black Flag troops will become a big problem.

In fact, this kind of thing has happened once before: the Vietnamese court ordered the Black Flag Army to evacuate Baosheng because it wanted to negotiate trade with the French, so as not to affect the trade plan with the French at this "Black Flag Toll Station", and that time Liu Renyi relied on the threat of mutiny to force the Vietnamese king to change his mind, but it still left a shadow in his heart.

The sense of crisis caused by the long period of displacement prompted Liu Renyi to seek the support of the Daqian Empire, which was more powerful than the Vietnamese government, and was awarded the post of "Deputy Admiral of Sanxuan" by the King of Vietnam for his meritorious work in helping the Heavenly Soldiers of the Kingdom to exterminate the giant bandit Huang Chongying. According to the Vietnamese official system, officials above the third rank have the right to build a cemetery of no low standard for their parents, and this treatment gives Liu Renyi a God-given opportunity to "return to his homeland". At the beginning of this year, Liu Renyi returned to his hometown in Qinzhou with a group of entourage as Vietnamese officials, and gave a grand funeral for his parents and uncle who died of famine under the envious eyes of the poor villagers. Of course, he also had another purpose for this trip, that is, to contact the officials of the Daqian Empire and express his strong desire to return to the country and serve his life, for this reason, he returned with as much as 100,000 taels of silver, except for part of the tomb repair, in front of the villagers to grow face, basically used for joints. And in order to return to China, Liu Renyi even released "I am willing to be a thousand (total) for Middle-earth." I don't want to mention the town for Vietnam".

Because of the exploits of the "Emperor of France". Some local governors in the Daqian Empire also began to pay attention to this armed force in Vietnam, but it was composed of Qianguo people from all levels.

However, the Great Qian Imperial Court, which was far away in Beijing, did not have a single word of evaluation of Liu Renyi's Black Flag Army, and because the Qianguo and the French had always been friendly with the French, although they knew that the French had ambitions for Vietnam, the Great Qian's Imperial Court never asked about it, and the French army did not send troops over when it occupied Hanoi, and the man went so far as to say that the Qianjun had secretly entered Vietnam to help the Black Flag Army fight the French army, which was simply impossible.

But the man was conclusive, and said that he had sold a batch of medicine to the Qianjun and took out a silver ingot with the Qianguo script, but Imano Iwao shook his original opinion.

As the night wore on, Iwao Konno took his parcel and went into the woods outside the camp, where he lay down with a blanket on the ground, and could still hear the sound of people talking. Because of the news that the man said, he couldn't sleep anymore.

Could it be that what he said was true?

In that case, the Black Flag Army, which was supported by the Qian, would definitely launch an attack on Hanoi, and Li Weiye would face a terrible battle, and if the fighting between the two sides escalated and there were casualties among the senior generals (Li Weiye or a Qianguo general), then he would not need to do anything more than watch France and Qianguo slide into the quagmire of war because of Vietnam.

However, how could the cadres send troops in such a secret way?

Without the order of the Great Qian's court in Beijing, would the governors of Yunnan and Guangxi dare to send troops into Vietnam to support Liu Renyi without authorization?

Thinking of the current governor of Qianguo Yungui, Cen Yuying, Konno Iwao's heart suddenly lit up.

Could it be that Cen Yuying did it?

According to the information he saw in the intelligence department of the Ministry of the Army, Cen Yuying had always been known for his fierce actions, and he was extremely bold and dared to do what he thought was right behind the back of the imperial court.

There has always been such a saying in Qianguo, that he deliberately sent someone to kill the British translator Margaret, just because Margaret took the dog in a sedan chair and let him worship the dog when he greeted him!

The "Margaret Incident" caused tension between Britain and Qianguo for a time, and although it was finally resolved peacefully thanks to the efforts of Lin Yizhe and Guo Yunxian, the trouble it brought to Qianguo at that time was huge.

If the truth of the matter is really as rumored in the streets, then it is not impossible for Cen Yuying to secretly support the Black Flag Army against the French army now!

If that's the case, Cen Yuying has done what he Iwao Konno has never been able to do!

In any case, as long as he returned to the Black Flag Army's station, these doubts could be easily solved.

After thinking about it, Iwao Konno felt a burst of relief. He wrapped himself tightly and took a sip of the remaining champagne as he prepared for bed. But suddenly his mind drifted to the dark-haired woman and the girl named Hannah, who was holding Hannah and her legs were so soft on his arm......

The memory is finally gone, and Iwao Konno falls asleep. He had a dream that was as real as it was during the day. As in the real world, he dreamed that he was lying in a broad-leaved forest, and the branches of the trees had grown after a summer, and they were clearly tired, and in a few weeks they would turn yellow and wither, and enter the autumn. A drizzle of rain poured down through the thick leaves and flowed on the ground, so thin as paper that it could not even soak through his clothes.

During the day, the Japanese woman appeared in the woods and walked slowly towards him, as soft and ethereal as a drizzle. (To be continued.) )

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