Liu Cheng looked at the bamboo basket, which contained four jars of wine, a few mouthfuls of killed sheep, and a few vegetables, vegetables and fruits, which were exactly what they needed at this time, and said with a smile: "Since He Qianhu is so gracious, then it will be disrespectful!" “

"What did Lord Liu say!" The smile on He Qianhu's face is going to be rotten, as long as you say a few kind words for the villain from the army master, the villain will be here! ”

"Well said, well said!"

He Qianhu said a few more greetings, then said goodbye, Liu Cheng and Du Guoying sent them out of the door, looking at the other party's distant back, Du Guoying smiled: "It seems that you and I are too worried, this He Qianhu is kind this time." ”

"Well, it must be this guy who thinks about it, and finally thinks it's better to bet on both sides!" Liu Cheng said with a smile: "It's okay, everyone will also have a tooth sacrifice at night, and the stomach with little water in the clear soup will be called my mother these days!" ”

So Liu Cheng ordered the meat and vegetables to be divided and made a good meal, but the wine was detained, which made a few good wines complain. After eating, they each rested in peace.

About the third watch of the night, Liu Cheng was awakened by a rapid knock on the door, he got up from the bed with a bone, pulled out the saber hidden under the pillow, and shouted: "What's the matter? ”

"My lord, it's out in the water!" The voice outside was quite urgent, and Liu Cheng could hear that it was Wang Xingguo, who was actually Liu Cheng's personal guard, and slept on the ground outside Liu Cheng's door at night. Liu Cheng hurriedly put on his clothes, pushed the door out, and the place as far as his eyes could see was already burned, and the sky was also half red, and with the night wind came the cries of the people who had lost their homes and relatives by the fire.

"How so, how can the fire be so big?"

"My lord, it should be that the sparks in the stove are splashed out, the families of military families are poor, and many of them are just thatched huts, and there are not even a few tiles on the roof, just a little!"

Liu Cheng's face was ugly, but he knew very well that Wang Xingguo was right, there were no matches in ancient society, in order to avoid the trouble of making fire, most people left an ember fire in the stove, covered it with thick ash to keep warm, and added charcoal or firewood and grass when cooking the next morning, and then set it on fire as soon as the stove was stabbed, and most of the poor people's houses were thatched houses

The distance is very close, and the slightest mistake in this situation can cause a large fire.

"Your Excellency!" Du Guoying also ran over out of breath: "Tear down the few rooms near the fire, otherwise we won't be able to run as soon as the fire jumps over!" “

"No way!" Liu Cheng looked at the situation around him: "The fire has already risen, the city of thousands of households is too small, the houses are all close together, and the wind is too strong tonight, let's go out of the city first!" Speaking of this, Liu Cheng shouted: "Wang Xingguo! ”

"In!" Wang Xingguo responded.

"You go to my house and take out the two tin boxes under the kang!"

Wang Xingguo responded and went into the house, and when he came out a moment later, he was holding an iron box in each hand, Liu Cheng turned to Du Guoying and said: "You gather the soldiers immediately, we will go out of the city immediately, remember, don't pull Mr. Yu down!" “

Liu Cheng and his party moved quickly, and after a quarter of an hour, more than 20 people had already left the north gate of the guard city, and there was a small river not far from the city gate, and Liu Cheng planned to wait there until dawn the next day to make a claim. As soon as the group walked for a short while, Wang Xingguo, who served as the outpost, suddenly grabbed Liu Cheng and said in a low voice: "My lord, there is an ambush ahead!" “

"Anyone?" Liu Cheng's nerves tensed all of a sudden, and he lowered his voice and asked, "Are you sure?" “

"Someone must have been!" Wang Xingguo pointed to the bushes not far away: "My lord, the night birds are screaming fiercely on the woods by the river, and there must be people hiding below, who should be coming for us." “

Liu Cheng listened carefully, and sure enough, as Wang Xingguo said, there were bursts of birdsong on the bank of the river, thinking of He Qianhu, who specialized in delivering wine and meat during the day, and sneered: "Sure enough, it is nothing to offer courtesy, either treachery or theft, this He Qianhu is a spicy hand, lest we not die!" ”

"Toji!" Du Guoying also came up and asked: "I don't know how many of them there are, otherwise let's withdraw first, anyway, the field books are all cleaned up, and it will be done if they are sent to the army master!" ”

"It's not that simple!" Liu Cheng sneered: "Our baggage is in the city, how far can a two-legged black cloth go in the middle of winter?" The next morning they will catch up when they find out that we are not inside, so what will they do? ”

"Catch up? We are the envoys of the Governor, and they dare to do it in broad daylight? Du Guoying said in disbelief.

"They even dare to set fire to the imperial court's guards, what else do they dare not do?" Liu Cheng was already full of murderous anger: "If we don't do it now, tomorrow morning that He Qianhu will definitely bite back and say that we burned Hewei City, at least one charge of negligence can't escape, that dog official surnamed Lu has long wanted to trouble us, but there is no reason, now that such a good handle falls into his hands, will he let us go?" ”

"So what do you say?" Du Guoying was already panicked and grabbed Liu Cheng's arm.

"If you don't do it, kill him!" Liu Cheng pointed to the small forest by the river: "If I guess correctly, that He Qianhu must be waiting for us in that forest, as long as we hold him in our hands, we will be invincible." ”

"Okay, okay, I'll listen to your arrangement!" Du Guoying lowered his head in a dejected manner.

As Liu Cheng had predicted, there were sixty or seventy men dressed in black hidden in the grove, and the He Qianhu who had recently sent wine and fat sheep was among them, some of whom were the soldiers of the Qianhu House, and more were the domestic slaves of several local gentry. When He Qianhu looked at the flames rising in the Guardhouse City, his deep feelings were quite contradictory, both the joy of the completion of the great achievement, and the regret that the foundation of his own family was burned. A middle-aged man next to him in a brown robe with small melon skin sneered: "What's the matter, He Qianhu, are you distressed?" “

"That's nature!" He Qianhu's face twitched: "How can you say that it is also the inheritance left by the ancestors after a hundred battles, just such a fire, tsk-" Speaking of this, He Qianhu couldn't help but shake his head and sigh.

"Phew!" The middle-aged man spat and sneered: "Dozens of broken thatched sheds, what is a pity to burn down?" The city can't be burned down, so if it is reported to be on fire, it will naturally be rebuilt with money from above. ”

"What do you know?" He Qianhu was fascinated by what the middle-aged man said: "What matters to these thousand households is not the land, but the people, who were willing to be soldiers, if this fire goes down, at least thirty or fifty lives will be killed, and I am considered to be out of the door for this thousand households, damaging yin and morality!" ”

When the middle-aged man heard this, his face showed a look of disdain: "He Qianhu, He Qianhu, you also listened to my lord personally allowed you, as long as you stand on the side of the gentry this time, your youngest son will be stable in the government examination this year, and he will be lifted."

The hat is in hand, and he will be a knowledgeable master in the future, isn't this a hundred times stronger than continuing to be this Qiu Batou? “

Hearing the other party mention his son's future, the look on He Qianhu's face suddenly became nervous, and he grabbed the other party's sleeve: "Steward Ma, your master shouldn't be tricking me about this house test, right?" “

"Phew!" The housekeeper shook off He Qianhu's hand and spat on the ground: "I don't know anything, what do you think my master is, and what he says will be false?" I'll give you a bottom line, the chief examiner of this year's government examination is the protégé of my old lady who was accepted in the Ministry of Rites, and my lord is a brother of the family, as long as my lord writes a letter to the past, your youngest son's hat is a certainty, you just wait to hear the new imperial examination people call you father! “

Hearing what the housekeeper Ma said, the smile on He Qianhu's face was almost overflowing, and he hurriedly arched his hand: "If that kid from my family can be admitted to the lifting of people, he will naturally not forget Master Ma, and he will not forget the benefits of the housekeeper!" “

"It doesn't matter if it's good or not, it's the most important thing to do the errand right now!" The expression on the horse's face became more and more arrogant, and he pointed to the flaming Guard City in the distance: "Will that gang of thieves run out with the army?" “

"Don't worry, I also sent wine and meat this afternoon, there are only twenty people in total, and I sent four jars of good dates to brew over, all of which are more than fifteen years old. You also know which soldier is not the same as seeing his own mother when he sees wine, these four jars are drunk, don't talk about fire, even if you magnify the cannon in your ear, you can't wake up! ”

"Good, good! It's such a good wine to drink these rough embryos, it's a waste! "Steward Ma knows that this jujube brew is a famous wine in Juzhou, made of yellow rice, sorghum and a small amount of jujubes, maybe because of the addition of jujubes, the entrance is particularly sweet but the stamina is very large, if it is an ordinary man, the entrance will be drunk to death if it is one or two catties, the four jars of wine are one hundred and twenty catties, and it is more than fifteen years of aging, which is enough to make the twenty Qiu Ba drunk to death. This horse steward is also a good wine on weekdays, and when he thinks that so much wine has been drunk by others, but he can't touch a drop, he can't help but feel sorry.

"Steward Ma, don't worry!" He Qianhu laughed: "I still have a jar of the best over there, when this is over today, let's go and have a good drink!" “

"Good, good!" Steward Ma was overjoyed when he heard this, and he only felt that the wine worms in his stomach were about to dance, and he couldn't wait to finish his errand and drink happily immediately. At this moment, there was a burst of scolding behind the two of them, and when they looked back, they saw that several fires had been burned and were spreading towards themselves. Steward Ma couldn't help but scold angrily: "Which fool lit the fire, and if he catches it, he must be beaten to death!" Then he said: "It's May now, and the grass on the ground has grown, why is it still burning?" ”

"Butler, you don't know anything!" He Qianhu knew the reason: "Outside this forest is the wheat field, and the military households will pile up the wheat straw in the field after harvesting, and this forest is originally a firewood forest in the city of Qianhu, and some military households often cut off the branches and pile them in the forest clearing, and then pull them back as firewood when they are dried, so there are a lot of dry firewood and grass in this forest, just a little!" ”

"Why didn't you say it sooner!" When the steward saw that the wind was blowing towards him, and the fire was getting bigger and bigger, he ran towards the river in a hurry, and Naga Qianhu also hurriedly followed, and their men also ran towards the river in a hurry.

He Qianhu had just run to the river to take two fresh breaths, when he heard a loud noise, and then saw more than a dozen of his subordinates running in front screaming and falling to the ground. Before he could react to what was going on, he saw a dozen black shadows jump out of the riverbank in the moonlight, killing him. These uninvited guests moved as swiftly and swiftly as tigers, cutting down He Qianhu's men to the ground like mowing grass. He Qianhu's brain didn't think twice, and his body was instinctively driven to turn around and flee into the forest.

What happened next was only a blur in He Qianhu's memory, and the only thing he remembered afterwards was rapid breathing, hot throats, feet as heavy as lead, and full of fire and screams. It was as if he had fallen into a nightmare from which he could not escape, when suddenly, he tripped over something, hit his head on a tree stump, and passed out.

Burst!

A basin of cold water was splashed on his head, and He Qianhu's body twitched a few times, and his eyes opened. He looked around blankly, suddenly remembered what had happened before he passed out, got up from the ground and turned to run away, when a familiar voice nailed his feet to the ground like nails.

"He Qianhu, why are you in such a hurry to leave! I still have half a jug of wine here, so let's stay and drink it together! ”

He Qianhu turned around, he tried his best to put a smile on his face, but it looked worse than crying. I saw Liu Cheng sitting on a tree stump, and on either side stood four or five fierce military men with knives and guns, looking at him with a smile. He Qianhu's knees weakened, he fell to the ground, took a few steps forward on his knees, kowtowed four or five heads, and shouted while kowtowing: "Lord Liu, no, Grandpa Liu, I was forced, spare the villain's life!" ”

"Forced?" Liu Cheng sneered and shouted, "Bring the horse butler up!" As soon as the words fell, Wang Xingguo brought someone over from the side and slammed him to the ground, He Qianhu saw that it was the steward of the horse who came with him tonight to set the fire, but now he was barefoot, bareheaded, and his face was blue and purple, and he had long lost his arrogant appearance not long ago. As soon as Steward Ma got up from the ground, he pointed at He Qianhu and shouted: "Master Hugh listens to this nonsense, he is a dignified Qianhu, a military attache of the fifth grade, which one can coerce him?" Obviously, he wanted to befriend my master, and his son was able to go through the exam, so he took the initiative to set the fire. ”

When He Qianhu heard what Steward Ma said, he immediately became anxious, and scolded: "Dog slave blood spews people, this city of Qianhu is the inheritance left by my He family's ancestors, if it weren't for the persecution of you gentlemen, how could I do such a thing?" “