In Huangsha County, Hedong County, Youzhou.

At this time, the sky outside has completely darkened, the sky in the northwest place, clear as the sea, smooth as a mirror, on the curtain at night, the stars are shining, the moonlight is fading, every household, has carefully closed the doors and windows, the people in the city, have already entered the dreamland, on the streets, the popularity is scattered, only the yellow sand is fluttering.

In this small border city, once the time comes to the sunset, it seems to stand still, after all, it is not like the people in the big cities further south, all night long, carnival all night, never close the door, drunk and gold-obsessed, for these ordinary people who are still struggling on the food and clothing line, every day at this time, it is a rare time of the day, completely belongs to themselves, of course, you must cherish it.

However, even at this time, some people still do not get rest, and on the four walls, there are more than a dozen admirable young people who are still sticking to their respective posts.

If you think that the world is actually warm and beautiful, it is because there are always people who are silently sheltering you from the wind and rain in places you can't see.

Seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming, the winter chill has gradually faded with time, but on the edge of this vast sea of sand, at night, standing on the high city wall, the cold wind blowing from the north, whipping on people's faces, you can still feel the biting cold, like a sharpened knife, constantly scraping on your face, until you cut off a bloody piece of flesh.

The only thing to be thankful for is that, thanks to the gift of the new official master, these young men have already put on brand new cotton clothes, even the inner lining is thick wool, and they are very warm on their bodies, so as not to get frostbite on their faces when they stand guard, even their faces are covered with masks made of fine hair, revealing only two tired eyes and a nose that needs to breathe.

Originally, Zhu Dachun did not approve of this, because wearing this kind of mask and helmet would definitely affect hearing, but at Gu Xuan's insistence, he still added this kind of mask to protect the faces of the soldiers.

The cold wind raging at night can easily freeze people's ears, which is why the people of Huangsha County have to lock the doors and windows tightly at night, Gu Xuan has this idea, and he can be regarded as sympathetic to his soldiers, but this small change, whether it is good or bad, will be verified today.

Huangsha County four city walls, one side of ten people, one of them for the captain, three for a team, the implementation of three shifts rotation system, every once in a while, the soldiers on duty can change into the corner tower, drink a sip of hot soup to warm up, people stand for a long time, it is inevitable to be tired, it will also affect vision and reflexes, even if the cause of freezing is not considered, it is necessary to take a good rest.

In the city, there is still a sign of peace and tranquility, since Lu Yi began to renovate the entire county, the whole county has been cleared, and even the number of petty thieves has been greatly reduced, especially after the curfew has been restored, it really has the appearance of a county seat, at least it looks much more comfortable.

The husband recruited by the yamen competently shouted the words "The weather is cold, close the doors and windows", and when he shouted, the assistant next to him would gently beat the gong and report the time to the people in the city.

When it is ugly, in the middle of the night, generally speaking, it is the deadliest time for ordinary people to sleep, unless it is a big movement, it is difficult to be awakened.

In the wing room of a small house in the city, five people sat quietly around the earthen kang.

The location of the yard is in the innermost part of the whole alley, which is very remote, and Rao is so, in order to avoid being discovered, the five people in the house have not lit up.

If there were soldiers who had experienced the turmoil at the gate of the north city when the horse bandits attacked the city that day, they would definitely feel very familiar, because the five of them were one of the villagers of the so-called Dayao Village who were rescued before, but the situation was chaotic at that time, and no one would ask them to get to the bottom of it, not to mention that the five of them came prepared, and they easily deceived the simple soldiers and lurked in the city.

The five of them were all dressed in tight-fitting nightwear at the moment, each holding their hands on their chests, sitting on the kang, leaving a safe distance between them, each carefully leaning against the wall, resting silently with their eyes closed.

Outside, suddenly a huge black cloud like a canopy slowly drifted in, directly covering most of the sky above the head of Huangsha County, no longer drifting away, and the unlit house suddenly became even darker.

One of them sensed the change in light and woke up, even though they weren't really asleep, just quietly recuperating.

As soon as he moved, the other four people in a circle also opened their eyes one after another.

No one spoke, not even the sound of their own breathing.

The man by the window quietly used his calloused fingers to open the curtain next to him, peeked into the sky, and a hint of joy suddenly appeared on his face.

And at this moment, the sound of the man outside dragging on also sounded at the same time.

"It's freezing, close the doors and windows!"

"Boom!"

"Knock knock!"

The four gongs and drums were slow and fast, all dragging on a long tail, and several people knew in their hearts that it was now the fourth watch.

Several people looked at each other in the dark, like hungry wolves in the desert, they were all martial artists, after years of training, their five senses were much stronger than ordinary people, and it was not uncommon to see things at night.

"Let's go. ”

The person who lifted the curtain just spit out a word softly, as subtle as a mosquito and a fly.

At that moment, a person flew up in the air, and a handsome harrier turned over and landed on the ground lightly, without making a sound, extremely chic.

He reached out with both hands, grabbed the wooden latch, and lifted it up slightly.

A little 'squeak' sound that is almost inaudible in the quiet night sounds, this is not because he is not proficient, but this wooden door is too old, a little movement, it will inevitably make a sound, this hand, in fact, has demonstrated his good skills.

As soon as the gate opened, a bone-chilling wind poured in from the courtyard along the opening.

The spirits of the other four were shaken.

The five men walked out of the back room in turn, in order, and gathered in the courtyard.

The leader looked at the low fence next to him, and weighed it carefully, next to it was someone else's yard, and the earthen wall used for isolation in the middle was not compact, and when he accidentally stepped on the air, it was not good to make a sound and alarm the people inside, so he directly chose to jump towards the door lightly.

Then, in the same way, the same man carefully opened the door open a crack, and a pair of eyes that were still shining in the dark night looked left and right.

The alleys at night are quiet, there is no popularity, only the cold wind blows, and the yellow sand blows.

He didn't even look back, just stretched out his left hand, made a gesture to the people behind him who understood each other's meaning, and then directly opened the door.

The rest of the people followed the fish, and at last, when they were about to go together, the leader gave a gesture, turned around, and closed the door lightly.

The moon is dark and the wind is high and the night kills.

The five people lined up in a long snake formation and quietly advanced, and the first person was like a slippery snake, drilling around, and without paying too much attention, he knew what was moving nearby.

This is not an exaggeration, but because when he passed through a dangerous intersection, he actually spit out a wet and slender snake tongue from his mouth, beating in the cold wind, and then directly waved his hand to stop the people behind him, and after a while, there were really several catchers from the county government who arranged night patrols to walk slowly.

Fortunately, the dark clouds overhead, the alley where they were hiding was too dark, a few people stood against the wall, and there were only people walking by only three meters apart, and they didn't even notice it.

After all the teams patrolling the street had passed, the person in front of him waved his hand gently, and the five people crossed the street lightly like enlightened civets, and the speed was fast, and they saw five black shadows flashing, even if they were accidentally seen, they were afraid that they would think they had seen a ghost.

As soon as the patrol people passed, they quickly moved forward, turning around, picking a secluded and uninhabited alley, during which they passed by the shop of the Feng family's blacksmith, and also passed by the poor mother and daughter's house who made baskets to make a living, and even the small courtyard of Zhu Dachun's house, which was snoring like thunder, although their route went around and around, but the destination was directly to the north gate of Huangsha County.

On the tower of the north city gate, seeing that it was about to be the time for the changing of the guard, although the three soldiers did not know when the specific time was, but they probably still felt a little, and they couldn't help but relax a little bit when they thought that someone was about to replace them, and they couldn't help but relax a little, standing for so long, and occasionally walking back and forth along the racetrack for a few laps to inspect, the whole person's spirit was already very tired, even if he was standing, his mind was groggy, and he almost fell asleep and fell off the city wall.

The ears that were wrapped in masks to keep out the cold also lost the agility that the monster had, and the three of them didn't hear the movement behind them at all.

In the dark night, a slender dagger quietly came around his back, and when the poor young man finally reacted, a strong big hand had quietly covered his mouth that wanted to sound the alarm, just as he was about to struggle, Leng Buding's neck was cold, and all the strength of his body flowed out quickly along the wound, and when he finally collapsed weakly, the last world in his eyes only saw the other two companions who had also lost their lives.

Of the five Assassins, three quickly changed into the clothes of the stripped soldiers, while the other two quickly cleaned up the corpses and blood on the ground, and then quickly ran into the shadows and went into hiding.

By the time the other group of soldiers left the warm corner tower and pushed open the door, one of them was still muttering through the mouth of a mask, why there was a strange smell, and the three people who came over had already sent the sharp knife into his young heart, and then covered his frightened face and stirred it fiercely.

In an instant, three poor young men fell, and the three corpses that had not yet cooled down were directly pushed off the city wall, and the night wind howling like a ghost crying buried three dull heavy objects falling to the ground, and outside the city gate, thirty horsemen had been waiting in the cold wind for a long time.