Sun Erniang didn't eat or drink for a day, coupled with the fright and the grief of losing her father, she really didn't have the strength to run away with Qiu Ci at this time, the two of them committed themselves to moving forward in the waist-deep reeds by the river, the road was very difficult, even Qiu Ci himself staggered all the way, let alone a weak woman.

Before the two escaped from the painting cave temple, Qiu Ci swore to the heavenly gambling curse, saying that he would take her out of Jiankang and return to Guangzhou alive, Erniang had no relatives in this world, and there was war everywhere in front of her, and she couldn't survive alone, so she didn't care about etiquette, righteousness and shame, and planned to follow Qiu Ci to escape first, and then make plans after arriving in Guangzhou.

The two fled south together to a village, only to see that the whole village was black and lifeless, and it felt like a ghost village. Qiu Ci said softly: "Erniang, you wait here for a while, I'll go into the village to see if I can find a safe place to live, and then dress up tomorrow morning before leaving." Erniang was originally unwilling to stay alone in this wilderness, she was really frightened too much today, but she was exhausted and didn't have the strength to follow him over the wall and enter the house, so she pulled Qiu Ci's sleeve, nodded pitifully and said, "Engong, you must come back to me, I won't wait for you anywhere here." ”

Qiu Ci's heart was hot when he said this, and a sense of pride that the big husband tried to protect the little woman spontaneously arose, and he swore and said: "Don't worry, I will definitely come back to you, you wait." With that, he committed himself and sneaked towards the village. It turned out that most of the people in this village had fled to Yuedi or Jiangxi, and there were still a few families who refused to give up their houses and fields or whose families were poor and could only wait for death.

Qiu Ci came to the door of a family's house, took advantage of the night to touch in to see, although it was messy but seemed to have some food to eat, Qiu Ci took a sweet potato to eat, while rummaging through the kitchen to search for other food, and finally found a little flour behind the cupboard, he was very happy, so he hid the food, and secretly went out to bring Erniang into the village.

The two didn't dare to light the lamp, Erniang made a big bowl of noodles with that bit of flour in the kitchen for Qiu Ci, Qiu Ci put down the sweet potato in his hand, smelled the fragrant noodles, and felt that the roundworms in his stomach were dying at the moment. Hula took a sip of hot noodle soup, and Qiu Ci felt that all his strength was beginning to recover.

Qiu Ci said to Erniang gratefully: "Erniang, I'm afraid that I won't forget this side of you in this life, can you make it for me every day when you return to Guangzhou?" Sun Erniang was also hungry at this time, her chest was pressed against her back, her eyes were staring at the bowl of noodles in Qiu Ci's hand, Qiu Ci saw this and remembered that this little girl had not eaten rice all day, so she got up and found a porcelain bowl, drove out half of the noodles, handed it to Erniang and said: "You see that I only care about myself, I'm sorry Erniang." ”

The little girl was a little squirming at first, but she couldn't stand the hungry rumbling in her stomach, and even Qiu Ci heard this movement, so she comforted her and said, "Eat, only when you are full will you have the strength to continue running." At the moment, Sun Erniang was no longer ambiguous, picked up the bowl and started eating, Qiu Ci saw that she was eating happily, and she also drank violently, and after a while, two empty bowls were placed in front of her, Qiu Ci took out two sweet potatoes again, handed one to Erniang and said: "There are sweet potatoes here, let's eat them separately, wait for a little rest, and after dawn, I will go to find two sets of shabby clothes and pretend to be a beggar and then run away." ”

Sun Erniang took the sweet potato and nodded silently, at this time she also felt that her limbs were weak, and she only recovered a little strength after drinking a bowl of noodle soup, and fatigue also came, but the current environment made her feel panicked, unable to rest calmly, Qiu Ci lent her shoulder and said, "It's okay, with me, you can sleep in peace." ”

Fortunately, it was dark, and no one saw that Sun Erniang's face was already crimson at this time, she didn't make a sound, just quiet like a docile kitten, snuggled on Qiu Ci's shoulder, and slept with peace of mind.

The two snuggled up to each other by the kitchen stove in someone else's house and gradually fell asleep. Before dawn was the darkest time of the day, at this moment the two of them were sleeping soundly, suddenly there were only a few dozen troops outside the village came in, the military generals on horseback took the lead in the front, they held torches and made a loud noise, and the military generals on horseback said loudly: "Give me a careful search, all the living ones will be killed, and all the food and property in the village will be brought back to the camp." The soldiers shouted in response. So they scattered and went to kick the door from house to house.

This is Hou Jing's troops, after the Jiangbei people arrived in Jiangnan, they wantonly slaughtered the innocent people in the Jiankang area, murdered, robbed, set fire, rape, and committed all kinds of evil.

A few soldiers came to Qiu Ci's house where they were hiding, and suddenly a soldier said: "Look at how there are fireworks floating out of the kitchen in this house, the leading soldier held the torch and looked, sure enough, there was a stream of black smoke coming out of the kitchen, so he raised his foot and kicked the door open, but this door was very strong, and the door was very thick, and the soldier's foot was kicked on the door with a loud bang, and the door did not move, but his foot was sinned."

The door could not be opened, so a sergeant took the initiative to climb over the wall and enter, opening the door from the inside. A group of people rushed towards the kitchen, and Qiu Ci and Sun Erniang hid in the straw pile in the kitchen after being awakened. The soldiers rummaged around the kitchen with torches, but found no one, but a soldier pulled the sleeve of the leader and looked at the straw pile Nunu, only to see a ribbon hanging out of the straw pile, and the straw pile was still trembling.

The leading soldier raised his spear and shouted at the straw pile: "Who, come out for me, or I will kill you with a knife!" Qiu Ci knew that he and Erniang had been discovered, so he could only come out of the straw pile, kneel on the ground and pray: "Master Jun, we are a young couple who have fled, and our belongings have been looted, please let us live." After saying that, he knelt down and kowtowed to these rebels.

The leading sergeant walked up to the front and looked at Qiu Ci under the light of the torch, thinking that he was dressed okay, but he was very embarrassed, his hair was messy, his face was dirty, and he looked like he had fled. The leader looked at Qiu Ci and asked, "Are you two really husband and wife?" Qiu Ci raised his head and said with sincerity in his eyes: "If you go back to your lordship, this is my son-in-law, and I am about to flee Jiankang to take refuge in my relatives in the south." Please let us go. ”

The leader is also a soft-hearted man, seeing that he can take his wife to flee regardless of life and death, thinking of his wife who is still in Xiangzhou, Hebei, his heart is hot, and he waved his hand: "It's not impossible to let you go, but at this moment this place has been occupied by us, if you go out, you will die, it is better to find a new place to hide first, so as not to be found by other sergeants It is difficult to escape death." ”

Qiu Ci hurriedly pulled Sun Erniang, who was still trembling, to kowtow to the leading sergeant, and kept saying: "Thank you for not killing, thank you for not killing." Several of the soldiers around him were leading fellow villagers, and a very young scholar asked puzzledly: "Big brother, why should I let them go, is this okay?" If anyone knows that we have released a suspect privately, we will be beheaded. ”

The leading sergeant was silent, he was actually unwilling to kill anymore in his heart, he had seen too many bloody slaughter scenes in the past few days, and most of them were unarmed ordinary people, if it was Nanliang's army, it would be fine, but these were innocent people, and they didn't rise up to resist them, so why kill them all so cruelly. After seeing Qiu Ci and Sun Erniang, he became more and more unbearable.

Qiu Ci didn't dare to wait for them to think about it before leaving, since the leading captain said that he and Erniang could go, he immediately pulled her up and was about to go out. I saw the deputy captain grab Sun Erniang and said, "This little girl looks good, leave it for me to be my wife." The captain still wants to speak, but these people have been obviously attracted by Sun Erniang's appearance, although they look at her face covered with oil and dirt, but the young girl has a taste no matter how she looks at it, and her body development is really good, although the family is poor, but some people are like this, drinking boiled water can grow meat. Erniang is one of them.

As soon as Qiu Ci heard that they were going to rape and slander Sun Erniang, he was anxious at that time, and hurriedly stood between Erniang and the sergeant, and said with a smile on his face: "Ladies and gentlemen, this is my daughter-in-law, I beg the military masters to raise their noble hands." The lord had promised to let us go. The deputy captain was **** at this time, grabbed Qiu Ci's collar and said viciously: "It was he who said to let you go, I didn't say it, besides, you have enjoyed such a young wife, and the old men haven't opened the meat yet, why are you so stingy, hahaha." ”

The look on the captain's face is not good-looking, this deputy captain is not from the same place as himself, and he usually disagrees with himself in the team, isn't it because he has a brother-in-law who is a military Sima so that there is no one in his eyes. Seeing that these people wanted to rape and defile this little daughter-in-law, he cleared his throat and said: "What are you doing, the general said that all the property collected must be paid to the camp first, and there is a deacon's pen Cao to distribute it, and there is no forgiveness for those who hide their property without permission." ”

The vice captain turned around and smiled: "This girl is also considered property, this can be divided into eight pieces, I want her head." Hahaha. The captain stepped forward and pushed him away, and he also said loudly: "Even if it is a living person, it will be assigned to you as a wife, and she belongs to the public family at the moment, how can it be arranged that it is not your turn to speak, do you want to disobey?" After saying that, he stared at the other sergeants, who were all his fellow countrymen, who usually only listened to him, but at this moment, when he saw that the captain was angry, he immediately retreated to the side.

Seeing that no one supported him, the vice captain immediately said stupidly: "Okay, you have the final say on what you do if you are the captain." Qiu Ci saw that they were going to take Sun Erniang away, and when they arrived in the camp of this group of robbers, the result of Erniang's identity can be imagined. Immediately knelt down in front of the captain again and begged: "My lord, you are a big camper, how can you not talk without words?" The captain said helplessly: "That's all I can do, it's better than losing your lives." "Let's just let Sun Erniang drag it away. Sun Erniang desperately shouted for help, and Qiu Ci also stood up and rushed up to stop them.

The deputy captain was already full of resentment, but at this moment, he was even more vicious, he pulled out a short knife and grabbed Qiu Ci, and with a snort, the knife pierced his chest accurately, Qiu Ci was stunned for a moment, looking at his chest and bleeding out, his eyes collapsed without any brilliance, the captain still wanted to save him, but it was too late, and pushed away the deputy captain and said loudly: "How much do you have to kill to be satisfied?" ”

When Sun Erniang saw Qiu Ci being killed, she fainted at that time, and the captain asked a sergeant to carry Sun Erniang like a sack and left. The sky began to turn white, and only Qiu Ci's cold corpse was left in the courtyard, and the whole village was plunged into a kind of noise and restlessness, and the few remaining families were also slaughtered, and their food and belongings were looted.

Most of Hou Jing's rebels came from the north, and they had no rear base in the south of the Yangtze River, so there was no such thing as food supply, but so many people had to eat and drink every day, and they had to pay money to win battles, where did these things come from? Xiao Zhengde's bad idea for Hou Jing was to take local materials, there were many wealthy families in the Jiankang area who had not been in war for decades, and it was enough for them to eat and drink for a period of time by robbing some middle-level landlords. So Hou Jing ordered a part of the army to be responsible for going out to rob the village and looting the big households, and also robbed all the people's property, and snatched the beautiful women they met back to Hou Jing and other generals. (To be continued.) )