When Zhu Dachun, who was wearing armor, dragged his sick leg, which had been lame for decades, and led people to carefully follow the traces of the fight on the side of the road to the small courtyard, he happened to see Lu Yi and the Ma family brothers who were cleaning up the mess.

"Lord Lu!"

The old man waved the big knife in his hand, excited, and couldn't help but shout.

Fortunately, Lu Yi didn't have an accident, otherwise how would he explain to the prince.

Lu Yi saw Zhu Dachun and his party who were late at the door, and just nodded lightly, which was counted as a response.

It's not that he is indifferent by nature, or he blames Zhu Dachun and others for coming too slowly, it's just that he is still worried about the safety of Gu Xuan, who is outside.

Zhu Dachun limped in front of him with difficulty, and hurriedly hugged his fists and said, "Lord Lu, it's too late!"

As he spoke, he glanced around again, and suddenly the corpses all over the ground came into his eyes, Zhu Dachun suppressed the shock in his heart, and immediately ordered his subordinates who followed him: "Go, go and search around to make sure that no thieves are still nearby!"

When the soldiers were ordered to leave, Zhu Dachun suddenly gritted his teeth, knelt down on one knee, and said in a deep voice: "Zhu Dachun, the soldier's book in the barracks, is late, and I ask Lord Lu to punish him!"

Lu Yi was taken aback, and hurriedly went up to support the old man with bad legs, shook his head slightly, and comforted: "This matter has been planned by thieves for a long time, and it is definitely not Zhu Lao's fault, and I hope Zhu Lao will not be worried." ”

Zhu Dachun stood up, his eyes were slightly red, and he couldn't help but sigh and said: "Alas, these thieves should have sneaked in from outside the North City Gate and killed the defenders who entered the city. ”

These young people in the barracks, for Zhu Dachun, who has never had an heir, are like their own sons, staying with them every day, directing them to train, and then eating together, for so long, they are really closer to each other than their families, especially those who don't want to stay in the barracks, they really serve and respect him as their own fathers, and now more than ten lives have died early, how can he not be sentimental?

You know, these people joined the city guard because of him, otherwise there would be more than that, how would he explain it to their relatives!

Lu Yi stretched out his hand, grabbed the old man's shoulder, and said in a deep voice: "What we have to do is not to blame anyone, but not to let the children's sacrifices be in vain, and at the same time to ensure that there will never be such sacrifices in the future!"

The old man raised his head, tears welled up in his eyes, his gray beard trembled, and he nodded thoughtfully: "What Lord Lu said is true!"

Lu Yi, who came back to his senses, returned to his calm and calm appearance in the past, and continued to instruct: "The pension must be paid down, if the family has no living support, the widows will be taken care of by the yamen, they are all sacrificed for the court, and the court will never treat them badly!"

The old man nodded lightly, this was the rule set by the Liangguo Imperial Court, naturally there was nothing else to say, and he couldn't help but ask suspiciously: "Lord Lu, do you know where these thieves come from?"

Lu Yi said calmly: "It should be a horse bandit in the desert, but there must be someone else behind this as a promoter, all the reasons, wait for the news from outside to come back in two days." ”

Zhu Dachun thought for a while, and then said: "When the old man brought the children here, he saw that there were still five corpses of people in black on the street, two of which were in the alley next to him, and the other three were on the main street, all of them were killed with one hit, could it be that there are masters to help tonight?"

Lu Yi knew that Feng Tiesheng didn't want to reveal his identity, this time it was purely to repay his kindness and act righteously, otherwise he wouldn't even bother to inform Zhu Dachun, an old friend, so he said inscrutablely: "Those who have attained the Tao have a lot of help, and those who have lost the Tao have little help, the prince cares about the people, and is willing to fight for Huangsha County, and the people feel it. ”

Zhu Dachun nodded, knowing that Lu Yi didn't want to say more, so he had to change the topic and said: "Speaking of the prince, does Lord Lu know when the prince will come back? ”

Gu Xuan was not at the scene, Zhu Dachun always felt as if the backbone was gone, and he felt a little overwhelmed, the old man himself understood that this was because he had trusted the other party from the bottom of his heart, and he naturally pinned all his hopes on him, and if something happened, he naturally hoped that he would deal with it and stabilize the situation.

Speaking of this, Lu Yi, who had been divining the hexagram for Gu Xuan just now, could only sigh helplessly: "In a few hours, it will be clear, Elder Zhu doesn't have to worry." ”

When Zhu Dachun heard this, he was slightly stunned, but seeing the mysterious appearance of the other party, he didn't ask any more questions.

"The situation here is unknown, so Mr. might as well go to the military camp in the north of the city with the old man for temporary refuge. Zhu Dachun proposed.

Lu Yi didn't answer immediately, but just moved his gaze into the distance, and at this moment, a gentle white light had quietly appeared in the sky, and in just a short while, the sky was about to brighten.

"It's finally daylight. Lu Yi sighed with emotion, then shook his head and said, "The thieves have all retreated, there is no need to take refuge in the military camp, Zhu Lao will leave some people with me to count the losses, and the search in the city will also begin, once a suspicious person is found, take it down immediately, and bring it to the county government for personal interrogation." ”

Zhu Dachun didn't ask much, just clenched his fists and said in a deep voice: "Yes, the old man will go immediately!"

At night, a group of thieves sneaked in from outside the North City Gate, and then ran all the way to the county government to kill, no matter how it should be his Zhu Dachun's dereliction of duty, because he was in charge of the city defense, so after hearing the order, he did not hesitate at all, and went directly.

Lu Yi didn't look at the other party, but looked up to the sky and sighed: "The heavens will descend on the people, and they must first suffer their minds, strain their muscles and bones, starve their bodies and skins, empty their bodies, and act chaotically, so they are tempted to endure and gain what they can't." ”

Ma Erhu, who was standing next to him, was stunned when he heard this, but seeing that Lu Yi looked very emotional, his mouth opened, and he still didn't dare to disturb him, just silently stood aside.

It was almost noon.

On the wall of the east city gate, a soldier on duty suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted to his companion next to him: "Look over there!"

I saw a conspicuous white horse on the ground in the distance, which seemed to be carrying something on its back, staggering slowly towards this side.

Yesterday, from Huangsha County all the way over the mountains and mountains to the boundary of Yanzhou, and then from Yanzhou to the Yannan Mountains in the middle of the two places, tossing and turning, fighting all night, only to finally break through the encirclement, the spirit of the horse, even if no one took the initiative to drive, still all the way to the back of the owner ran back to Huangsha County, but after running for so long, and did not have much rest and food, even if it was made of iron, it was no longer able to hold on.

The soldiers on the city wall did not dare to open the door rashly to investigate, after all, such a tragic thing had happened last night, and they were still apprehensive, so they discussed it, and immediately someone got down the city wall and ran to the city to report the news.

The white horse withstood the scorching sun above his head, endured the fatigue of his body, and ran all the way to the city gate, when he finally couldn't support it, his front hooves bent directly, and his whole body fell straight to the ground, and even the people above him were thrown to the ground, I don't know if he was unconscious or dead at all, and he threw off the horse, but he didn't make a little movement.

The white horse fell to his knees and couldn't get up, so he had to stick out his tongue and lick his master's face incessantly.

As soon as I entered the boundary of Youzhou, it was on the edge of the desert, and the temperature rose suddenly, especially now it was still noon, and it was so hot that people were dizzy, but the white horse had a spirit, and Rao was already thirsty, but he was still trying to lick and cool down for his master.

In the middle of the morning, on the head of the east city gate, Zhu Dachun climbed up with difficulty, he was already old and frail, and he worked all morning in the county government, his legs and feet were not good, when he came up, it seemed that he had gone to half his life, and he was reluctant to be supported by the soldiers next to him, leaning on the battlements to look down, the old man slapped the stone bricks next to him, and couldn't help but exclaim: "It's the Hulan Divine Horse!"

Regardless of whether there was an ambush outside, Zhu Dachun hurriedly shouted: "Open the city gate, open the city gate quickly!"

The city gate, which weighed thousands of catties, was slowly opened by the organs in the city, and a whole team of soldiers protected Zhu Dachun and rushed out together.

"There is still breathing, hurry up, hurry up and call a doctor!" Zhu Dachun was shocked, stretched out his hand to lie on the ground, Jinglong, who did not know whether he was alive or dead, leaned down his nose and hurriedly shouted to the soldiers behind him.

Jinglong's current appearance is really miserable, there are injuries everywhere on his body, there are a few knife wounds that can be seen deeply, and some black burns, as for some subtle ones, not to mention, especially his back, which was pierced like an arrow, and the smell of blood all over his body was extremely strong, Zhu Dachun himself was even wondering if there was any possibility of this person being rescued.

Under his order, a soldier immediately stepped forward, carefully lifted Jinglong on a stretcher, and then ran to the city one after another, and the other soldiers saw that the war horse on the ground could not run, and they could not just throw it here, so they could only send some food and clean water first, and after the white horse first recovered a little strength, he picked it up and led him all the way inside.

When the city gate finally closed slowly, Zhu Dachun reacted.

"Where's the prince?"

A chill suddenly ran up the old man's back, stimulating him to a thrill.

"Open the door, open the door again!"

The old man couldn't help but shout in a panic, and then dragged a sick leg and wanted to go out.

A soldier next to him couldn't help but persuade: "It's dangerous outside the city!"

Zhu Dachun turned his head and said angrily: "Then don't you look for the prince? Hurry up and open the door for Lao Tzu!"

The soldier boldly said: "However, we can't see any trace from such a distance, and we don't have war horses, how can we find this!"

Zhu Dachun didn't have an idea when he asked this time, there was no war horse, if he wanted to find it with manpower, it was really stupid, and the key was that they didn't have much manpower available, so after thinking about it, he could only say: "Go to the county government to find Lord Lu first!"

Now that Gu Xuan is not there, Jinglong is in a coma, it is the biggest Lu Yi, no matter what, he must report to him first before making a decision.