The next day.

After what happened last night, Shen Xiao and I were stopping at a small tea stall on the road from Luyang to Qintong to take a short rest.

At present, the tea stall is crowded with down-and-out people in ragged clothes, and all of them have a look of languishing and depressed on their faces.

It seems that this group of people should have escaped from the direction of Qintong, and several of them don't know if they were infected with the epidemic, and they were already lying on the ground looking sleepy, and their dying lives seemed to be completely wiped out of that body at any time.

Their family members are by their side, and from time to time they will be fed a few mouthfuls of water, as if to continue their weak lives.

Now, their faces were no longer the fear of illness that they had had at the beginning, and all that was left was a deathly cold silence except for a sickly thin and numb look.

For them, this disaster is not only sudden, but also devastating, they not only have to bear the despair of watching their loved ones die in front of them little by little, but they can't do anything, and who knows when they will fall? In what manner will they die?

It is an indefinite despair, and their lives and futures seem to be left in the midst of this catastrophe.

Plagues and wars were like roaring waves of annihilation, crushing everyone's hearts in an instant.

Reminiscing about the past

In that night when the arrows flew freely, the dreams of countless people finally returned to the never-ending darkness with the flames that burned out, and the homes on which countless people relied for survival were crushed by the iron hooves of war horses and pierced by sharp feathered arrows.

Finally, an even more terrible catastrophe was finally unfolded in the rotting and stinking corpses.

And now, everyone is just habitually repeating the action of taking care of people, like a group of ants huddling together for warmth, life for them, it was obviously so majestic, but now it has become so lowly, like a tired machine like tomorrow, hope and light, these originally inconspicuous words, at this moment in everyone's heart seem so precious and unattainable.

Shen Xiao and I glanced at each other, and when we were thinking about how to ask the group of people about Qintong, I don't know which guy in the crowd who didn't have long eyes suddenly wailed, "It's over, it's over, the plague of Luyang and Qintong hasn't been eliminated yet, and the remnants of the Jin army have come back to take revenge, God really bless me!" Pity me just a businessman, I went to Dachuan to do business and encountered a rebellion, and I finally escaped after nine deaths, and now I have encountered the plague and the remnants of the Jin Kingdom, why am I so unlucky! ”

Following the sound of looking over, I saw a fat man in extraordinary clothes covering his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and was howling to the sky, "God, why am I so unlucky! ”

Seeing this, I couldn't help frowning, "What do you mean by what you say?" What does it mean that the remnants of the Jin Kingdom have come back for revenge? ”

When the fat man heard me speak, he forgot to cry, and only stared at me and wondered, "Don't you know? Last night, Luyang was burned down, and all the people's bones were gone, this is all the remnants of the Jin Kingdom! In order to catch them, the general of the Qintong garrison has sent someone to block the exit of Luyang, and now without catching the remnants of the Jin army, everyone should not want to take a step out of Luyang, this news spread early this morning, you don't know yet? ”

Hearing his words, Shen Xiao's hand that was originally wiping his sword suddenly paused, and then he hooked his lips and smiled, "This old man, now that the two armies are facing each other, it is when the situation is tense, do you know that you will end up with such nonsense?" ”

"Nonsense?" The fat man was naturally not happy to hear Shen Xiao say this, and even if he put on a posture of wanting to have a good theory with him, he rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward, "You still don't believe that you are lonely and unheard?" The Jin army burned the city, which was witnessed by someone! ”

"Oh?" Shen Xiao smiled faintly, glanced at the fat man with the tips of his eyes, and a touch of ruthlessness immediately revealed from those eyes, "But do you remember that you just said that the burned bones of all the people in Luyang City are gone?" I'm curious, is this a human or a ghost? Oh yes."

Speaking of this, Shen Xiao patted his head again, and said with a sudden look on his face, "At this moment, it was about five hours ago before Luyang was burned down, and it was exactly five hours from Luyang to Qintong. ”

After that, Shen Xiao stared at the fat man.

The fat man's face moved, and then he returned to his place and sat down without saying a word.

"There's something wrong with that person!"

After the fat man left, I secretly felt for the short blade hidden in my sleeve.

Seeing this, Shen Xiao pursed his lips and smiled, gently pushed my hand back, and only lowered his voice and said to me for a long time, "It's not just that person, in my opinion, these people have problems." ”

"What do you mean?"

Shen Xiao didn't explain it to me, but only glanced at these people in the tea stall before pulling me up and walking out of the tea stall.

I didn't know why, so I asked, "You haven't made it clear yet!" What do you mean by what you just said? ”

It was only when he walked to the bamboo forest where the horses were tied that Shen Xiao turned around, looked at the tea stall that had condensed into a small black shadow in his sight at this moment, and said with a light expression, "There must be something wrong with that person just now, how could a businessman who is greedy for life and afraid of death stay with a group of people who seem to be infected with the plague?" ”

"That's right!" I nodded slightly.

Shen Xiao continued, "Actually, he has only one purpose, which is to spread the matter of the remnants of the Jin army burning the city, so as to disturb the people's hearts, but one thing he may be right when he says it, the exit of Luyang may really be blocked." ”

"But what is that man doing this for? Could it be that he is a Dugu Ao, and he is shirking his responsibility by saying this? ”

Shen Xiao didn't speak, just looked into the distance with his eyes like a torch, in fact, there were two reasons why he didn't say it, one is that as I said, the emperor burned the city, and the behavior of ignoring the lives of the people in the whole city would inevitably make him lose the hearts of the people, the emperor did this just to block the mouths of the people in the world, and second, through the remnants of the Jin army as a disguise, it could also distract Qian Xu's soldiers who stayed in the three cities, and even if the emperor blatantly killed them, this account would at most be counted on the heads of the remnants of the Jin army. It is not unjust to charge Qian Xu's soldiers with a dereliction of duty, and let them bury the people who died tragically in a city.

In short, no matter what happens, it has nothing to do with him, the king of a country. And the reason for sending people to block Luyang City, which is the only exit from the four cities, is that he wants to make the people he has to deal with nowhere to escape, and second, to let the fewer people who know about this matter as possible.

At that time, an intriguing smile appeared on Shen Xiao's thin lips.

I didn't quite understand, but after hearing him say that the fat man's intention was to disturb the people's hearts, he felt out the short blade and prepared to go to the tea stall.

"Don't be impulsive!" Shen Xiao hurriedly took my hand, with some helplessness on his face, "Do you think that if you kill that person, the rumors will be stopped?" But do you know that those refugees are easy to mess with! ”

"Refugees?" I couldn't help but be stunned, "What do you mean by that?" Do you think that the refugees are in league with that person? ”

"Naturally not," Shen Xiao immediately denied, "Who would be stupid enough to spread the news to their own people?" ”

"And what do you mean?"

"The identity of this group of refugees is not simple."

Shen Xiao only said this, and then turned around to lead the horse.

But one of his words reminded me of the note hidden in the bluegrass.

Who will be the one who reminds me to leave? Could it be Yin Linxi? The four cities have just experienced war, and now it is already a mixed situation, and the situation is extremely unstable, I don't know where Yin Linxi will be at this moment?

"What do you think? So fascinating? ”

Shen Xiao, who was holding two horses in his hands, had already walked behind me at some point, staring at me with inquiring eyes.

I was uncomfortable with him, so I sneered, took the initiative to pull the horse in his hand, and turned over neatly, "Let's go!" ”

After Shen Xiao saw me sitting on horseback, he raised his chin slightly, and made a very surprised look on his face, "I haven't said where to go yet, you're going to come out?" ”

"Aren't you going to Qintong?"

I take it for granted.

Shen Xiao sneered, "If it weren't as I expected, Qintong's ending tonight would be the same as Luyang City, and now if we go straight to Qintong, we will inevitably collide with Duguao's people, and when the time comes, you say, will he let us go easily?" ”

"What?" Although I also knew that if the emperor wanted to let his own people replace Qian Xu's generals, he would definitely kill the two severely affected areas of Luyang and Qintong, and finally blame the remnants of the Jin State fabricated by him, but I couldn't help but be shocked when Shen Xiao said the facts, "If this is the case, after Dugu Ao knows that the news of Luyang's incident spreads, the soldiers stationed in the city will be more vigilant, so why does he still burn the city separately?" Isn't this exposing one's own behavior? ”

Shen Xiao looked straight at me, and there was a hint of playfulness in his dark eyes, "The reason is actually very simple, the reason why he destroyed Luyang first is because he is now near Luyang, and Qintong is just a matter of going to Dachuan Road, no one will suspect him as a Qincha who transports supplies." ”

"In that case, then we should go straight to Okawa?"

"Don't worry, before that, we have to go and meet this old guy."

Meets

Could it be that Shen Xiao wants to do something to Duguao?

Seeing my dazed appearance, Shen Xiao pulled his lips and smiled, no longer explaining.

Wonderful!

(m.. = )

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