Ah Gui took two mules and led four mules to the other side of the stream. As he walked, he whistled to the woods on both sides, and soon his dog answered his call, rushed out of the woods, and circled around his body, Gui happily stroked the shiny fur on his dog's back, while the dog licked his hand affectionately. Humans and dogs walk on fallen leaves and pine cones, and their steps appear to be particularly brisk.

But when Gui returned to the wall with the team of mules drawing water, his dog refused to go in, and ran cautiously to the stone wall to sniff the crevices of the rocks, and then hurried backwards, as if there was something he did not like. Gui had to grab the leather cord around his neck and drag him hard into the low wall, but it couldn't be done - Gui's four-legged brother had shoulders almost as high as the base of his thighs, weighed about the same as him, and had much more strength.

"A, what's wrong with you?" Ah Gui looked at his dog in surprise, those slightly green eyes stared at him, and finally Ah Gui had to give up this effort, he untied the leather cord from the dog's neck, and patted the other party's shoulder: "Okay, you are in the forest by yourself, and you will meet me when you return to Dalinghe Fort!" When Gui turned around and walked into the stone wall, the big black dog had been standing in place, its black eyes staring at its master's back.

"It should be safe inside the walls!" Gui said to himself that he was condescending, and the nearby area was in his field of vision, and the north, east, and west sides of the Oxhorn Hill were very steep, only the south side was slightly soothing. Despite this, as the sun gradually set over the horizon, a sense of unease arose in his heart. To the north is the East Captive, and he told himself how many famous generals and ministers of the Ming army have been defeated by those barbarians over the years. How many soldiers of the Ming army died in this land!

"Enough, don't think about it!" Gui told himself that he had climbed the stacked stone wall and looked at the sun, which was already halfway below the horizon. To his left, the Daling River meandered to the southeast, its surface shimmering with golden light. It's like molten gold. In the upper reaches of the river, the land becomes more rugged and full of dense forests, and farther away, the forests are replaced by thickets on the rocky hills. These stone mounds stand unbridled and stretch north and west until the end of Gui's line of sight.

Nearby, surrounded by a world of trees, since the Battle of Quang Ninh in the second year of the Apocalypse. This generation of residents either moved back to Liaoxi with the Ming army, or was forcibly moved away by the Later Jin army, and it became a no-man's land, where all kinds of trees grew wildly, shrubs and small trees have been connected with the more expansive, intertwined primeval forests to the south and east, and only the occasional eaves and reddish-yellow sorghum ears can make people recognize a trace of the pastoral. The north wind blew, and Ah Gui heard those trees that were far older than himself sighing, and thousands of branches and leaves danced collectively. For a moment, the forest seemed to turn into a sea of green. With the flow of the wind, it never stops, like the sun and the moon are constant, and it is impossible to guess its end.

"It seems that I am still different from Anda, it belongs here, and I belong to these stone castles and farmlands!" Gui thought as he stood on the stone wall. Know that the sun disappears below the horizon and is surrounded by dark shadows.

"Ah Gui, don't look down and eat, it's windy up there!" A soldier shouted.

"Huh!" Gui answered and jumped off the wall. By this time, the Ming soldiers had already set up several tents inside the wall. And lit a bonfire behind the stone wall, the boiling hot soup in the iron pot gave off the aroma of people, and Ah Gui felt his stomach start to growl.

Seeing Ah Gui approaching, the soldiers by the fire gave him a place, he sat down, took off his boots, stretched his feet to the fire, and made a comfortable ** sound.

"Take a bite to warm up!" A cup stretched out next to him, Ah Gui took the cup and took a sip, a sour and viscous liquid flowed into his mouth, and his whole body immediately warmed up, it was mare's milk wine! Ah Gui immediately became excited, and before he could take a second sip, the cup was snatched back.

"Just take a sip, it's a mistake!" Feng Jingshi handed the cup to another personal soldier, and the people around this fire were all high-ranking officers and soldiers in this small army, who passed the cup and drank the bag of mare's milk wine on the waist of President Qian, and soon, the atmosphere around the fire became lively.

"Ah Gui, do you think you have to go north?" Feng Jingshi asked in a deep voice, although Ah Gui's position in this small unit is not high, his past experience and outstanding ability have given him a high right to speak, and even the commander attaches great importance to his opinion.

Ah Gui did not immediately answer Feng Jingshi's question, he casually broke off a small branch and drew a rough map on the ground three times and twice, and at the same time explained in his mouth: "This is Jinzhou, here is Zhongzuo (that is, Dalinghe Fort), here is Dalinghe, we should be here now, and further north is the Thirteen Mountain Station, where there is the Tunpu of Dongyu, and there are often rangers in this area, in fact, we may have been discovered." “

"Hmm!" Feng Jingshi nodded: "You mean that if you go further, there will be a high possibility of encountering the Dongyu Tanqi?" “

"Hmm!" Ah Gui nodded: "Do you remember when we came over, the grain in the fields on both sides of Jinzhou Road had just been opened, and when the crops were cut and hunted, it was said that there would be more rangers in Dongyu." But their land is more north than ours, and the day when the grain should be opened will be pushed back by a few days, maybe their crops haven't been cut yet, and the possibility of us encountering rangers should be much smaller! “

"You mean if you want to keep going, you have to hurry, or you just get here?" Feng Jingshi asked.

"Yes!"

Feng Jingshi lowered his head and groaned, it turned out that under the military system of the Later Jin Dynasty at that time, except for a few elites such as the Balaya soldiers, most of the soldiers of the Eight Banners did not have military salaries, and the crops in the fields were their important or even main source of income. Therefore, in the spring ploughing and autumn harvest seasons, the mobilization rate of the Eight Banners army will drop sharply, the reason is very simple, even if the soldiers of the Eight Banners have serfs to cultivate the fields for him, but at this juncture the master must also urge the serfs in the field to step up sowing and harvesting, so as not to delay the agricultural time, this is a matter of life and death for the family, even the emperor Taiji and the owners of the banners can not violate this law.

"That's it, Ah Gui picks a few good riding skills. Bring two horses, go ahead together, and come back if you're okay! Feng Jingshi made a decision: "The few who were selected don't have to be on duty tonight, so they can rest and get up early tomorrow morning to hurry!" ”

Soon, the tired soldiers finished a simple dinner. Except for a few unlucky ghosts on duty at night, the rest of the people were roasting around the fire, Ah Gui was about to go back to rest, but was stopped by Feng Jingshi: "Ah Gui, come to my tent, there is something to tell you." ”

As the commander of the team, Feng Jingshi enjoyed a tent alone, and after entering the tent, he picked up a pocket and filled the cup. He handed it to Gui and said, "Come, drink some more, I know you didn't enjoy it just now!" ”

"But—" Gui took the glass a little embarrassed, and wanted to say something. Feng Jingshi waved his hand: "I know how much you drink, this pocket is all drunk before it has been enjoyable, anyway, you don't deserve to be on duty tonight." “

Since this is the case, Ah Gui did not shirk and drank all the wine in the cup. Feng Jingshi found another plate and loaded some nuts picked on the road as an appetizer. The two of them shared a cup, and you and I drank it one by one. After three rounds of drinking, Feng Jingshi suddenly asked, "Ah Gui, do you think it's surprising that you came out all the way this time?" “

"Surprisingly quiet?" Ah Gui was stunned for a moment when he heard this, and then he understood what Feng Jingshi meant: "You mean that you didn't meet the rangers of the Eastern Prisoner?" “

"Not bad! Supposedly, we are also going deep into the enemy territory this time, although it may be that the crops are about to be opened. Dongyu was tidying up the crops at home, but I always felt that something was wrong, but I couldn't tell why. ”

Ah Gui nodded, he understood very well what Feng Jingshi was talking about, veterans like them had formed an inexplicable intuition about danger. They can't do what they want to do, but the facts often prove that these hunches are correct. For what Feng Jingshi said, Ah Gui also felt the same way, if you insist on saying that the two are different, it is that Ah Gui's ominous premonition is stronger and more direct.

"You think so, too? That's right! Feng Jingshi's face became more and more serious: "In my opinion, the terrain here is very good, so we have to step up our preparations, set up spikes and pits, repair the gaps in the wall, repair the female wall and perforations, this time there are tiger squatting cannons and bowls, and there is a lot of gunpowder." The most important thing is water, let the brothers dig the puddle tomorrow morning, the brothers will call me for being blind, but then it will save everyone's lives! ”

"Your Excellency!" Ah Gui hesitated for a moment, but he still decided to ask, "Why are you guarding here?" It is more than 80 miles away from the center and left, and if the Donglu attacks in a big way, no one here will want to go back alive. ”

"There are two reasons, first, not far from the south of here is the ferry of the Daling River, whether it is down the river or crossing the river to the east, we can't avoid here, as long as we light the wolf smoke, we can send an alarm to Lord Zu in advance. Second, the terrain here is steep, if the eastern captives attack, we can greatly kill and injure a group of enemies, and severely reduce the morale of Huang Taiji. ”

"Do you want to avenge your uncle who died in Liaoyang so much, and put your eighty brothers in this place of death?" Gui shouted in his heart, but he didn't show anything on his face, just drank the liquor from the cup.

Feng Jingshi sensed something from Ah Gui's actions, he sighed and tightened his pockets: "Let's stop here tonight, you have to hurry tomorrow morning, rest early!" ”

"Yes, sir!"

When Gui walked out of the tent, there was a burst of laughter and sad music played by the reed pipes by the fire not far away. Ah Gui looked at the figures flickering in the firelight a little distractedly, would those people still smile like this if they knew their future? Unbeknownst to Gui, he stood for a while and walked towards his tent.

In the tent, Gui lay on a cowhide cushion, but he could still feel the cold air coming up through the cushion and penetrating into his bone marrow, and soon the heat from the food and wine was gone. The sound of the wind came through the tent, and it seemed that by the next morning the snow would cover the ground and the tent ropes would freeze and stiffen. Gui closed his eyes and tried his best to sleep for a while, but he couldn't fall asleep, what prevented him from falling asleep was not the cold, but the fear emanating from his heart, the fear of an unknown fate.

Then there was a howl in the darkness, faint and distant, but undoubtedly the howl of the wolves. The voices of these beasts rose and fell, as if they were a lonely ballad. Gui's hairs stood on end, and suddenly he saw a pair of eyes staring at him in the darkness, with a hint of green. Instinctively, he got up from the ground, and with his right hand he had drawn the short knife from his waist. There were a few familiar breathing sounds from the opposite side, and Ah Gui hesitantly inserted the knife back into the sheath and said in a low voice: "An A, is it you?" “

Ah Gui's right hand felt the slippery tongue, he breathed a sigh of relief, reached out and stroked the dog's head twice, and said in a low voice: "An A, you are finally willing to come in, is it too windy outside?" Come, come up to the cowhide mats, it will be better here! ”

Gui wanted to share the cowhide mat with his faithful brother, but An Da circled around his master, sniffing Ah Gui for a while, sniffing the air for a while, and not being quiet, at first Ah Gui thought it was hungry, and turned out two pieces of dried meat from its backpack, but An Da didn't pay attention to it at all, obviously what it wanted was not to eat.

"Did Ann wake me up and warn me to tell me something?" Ah Gui's nerves tensed up suddenly, and he asked, "An A, did you find something under the mountain?" ”

The black dog jumped away, stopped, and looked back at Gui. Gui picked up his saber and bow, put on his cloak, left the camp, and walked out. As he walked into the wall, Gui could clearly hear the shrill whistle that characterizes the wind blowing through the cracks in the stone wall.

"Who?"

It was the soldiers on duty at night who shouted, and Ah Gui walked into the firelight to let the other party see his face clearly: "It's me, my dog is a little wrong, I'll go outside the fence to have a look." ”

"Outside the fence?" The guards looked at Gui and his dog with some strange eyes, he had also heard of the legend of Gui and his dog, and in his eyes, this man dressed in black and his dog were like the legendary witch at night. He took a step back timidly: "You go, but be careful!" (To be continued.) )