After a day's rest in Tanfu, more than 3,000 black spearmen and thousands of reinforcements from the surrounding cities arrived, Tanfu is an important town in Xiangzhou, with 5,000 troops stationed, and the total of these soldiers and horses exceeded 15,000. The number of barbarians who invaded Xiangzhou has been clearly investigated, only 15,000 people, and it is estimated that there are more than 10,000 people left in this wave after siege and pursuit.

The other 15,000 people also fought with the Northern Zhou army, and the hundreds of thousands of pursuers had no choice but to take these 15,000 people. Even more grim news was that the 100,000-strong army of barbarian cavalry had attacked the Great Wall a few days earlier, and the smoke was soaring into the sky.

Wang Liangqin judged that the barbarian cavalry would not stay in Xiangzhou Mansion for a long time, Xiangzhou Mansion is so big, there must be many resistance forces in the city, as long as the reinforcements attack in time, the barbarians will flee in anticipation. In addition, Xiangzhou Mansion was the first state city in the Northern Zhou Dynasty to be breached, the imperial court must be furious, and the reinforcements from all walks of life did not dare to delay. She asked Tanfu and reinforcements to send troops to rescue Xiangzhou, but the generals in the army repeatedly shirked and said that they would wait for Qi reinforcements to act.

Wang Liangqin did not persuade again, and only set off with 5,000 black spearmen. As expected, the gates of Xiangzhou Mansion were open, and the barbarian cavalry had retreated, and less than a third of the land in the city was slaughtered. The news returned to Tanzhou, and the princess drove back to the imperial capital of Wangzhou.

Shi Keqi returned to Osmanthus Fang, only a few days of work, the streets of Osmanthus Fang are full of all kinds of garbage, there are tattered cloth bags, broken seats, and stenching objects of unknown origin, a typical scene of the end of the world. Fortunately, there was no major loss in the house, except for the damage to the doors, windows, seats, cups, tea sets, and tableware. He went to the end of the alley, went to the innermost room, the door was closed, knocked on the door, and no one answered.

I don't know why, the first thing he wanted to see was Granny Liu, who had only met once, who lived together in Osmanthus Fang, and maybe had a photo, but he definitely didn't have an impression before.

"Granny Liu, are you okay?" asked Shi Keqi. There was still no answer, only the wind in the alley whined, like a conch, and the red paper on the gate was torn.

Scoch climbed over the wall at the end of the alley and went to the backyard, the back door was also closed, and the left window was broken with a large hole.

"Granny Liu, are you at home?" is silent, the earth is quiet, and the house is quiet.

Skech slipped through the window, the light was dim, and the room was a three-bedroom structure. There was no one in the kitchen, and there was no one in the utility room, so he pushed open the bedroom door and shouted Granny Liu every time he pushed open the door.

The sound stopped abruptly, a pair of feet dangling in the air in the bedroom, and a hand stove on the table against the wall was full of agarwood, and the sweet fragrance permeated the air and lasted for a long time.

Granny Liu had a big red flower on her head, her feet were stiff and slightly swaying, a pair of cloth shoes were stuffed in her arms, and a hanging hand was grasping a piece of red paper, and the words of happiness on the paper were so bright.

The bedroom has a large bed, which takes up more than half of the room. A large pile of cloth shoes was piled up on the big bed, which took up most of the bed.

The shoes were grown men's sizes, black, white, cyan, and full. Each pair of shoes is embroidered with a person in red thread, vaguely like a man. In the corners of the four sides are several wooden boxes with peeling red paint, each with a brand new word for happiness pasted on it, and a pair of cloth shoes on the top of the box.

The pen does not dare to stop, afraid that the words will become swords, and only remember the bright and beautiful that has nothing to do with the history books...... The curtain of the sky is deep, the shallow world, and the river is full of green smoke...... What if I leave and Brother Hao can't find me when he comes back...... It seems that someone whispers these words in their ears.

A scene came to Shi Keqi's mind, a few decades ago, an ordinary-looking young woman stood on the edge of the Xiangjiang River, looked at the surface of the river where her husband went into the water and died, and muttered: Brother Hao, why have you swam for so long and not come home, I have made ten pairs of cloth shoes that you like to wear...... Why shouldn't you ...... me Don't worry, no matter how young you are, your sister Liu will wait for you to come back.

Shi Keqi put Granny Liu down, and the body was already stiff. He found a hoe to dig a hole in the house, digging and digging, and a line of tears suddenly flowed uncontrollably. He didn't know why he was in tears, probably because the whimpering wind outside the house passed by.

The last pair of shoes was placed on Granny Liu, the cloth shoes had already covered her whole body, and Shi Keqi filled the earth with small wings, full of piety.

The phrase "I played the west wind, and waited year after year" sounded faintly, drifting away in the wind and gradually ceased, and finally even an end note disappeared, like many voices in this world that disappear every day.

......

Xiang Ya Ge also suffered some damage, and after half a month of rapid replacement and finishing, it began to open. The barbarian soldiers retreated early without a trace, the black spearmen had returned home a few days ago, and the government troops from all walks of life came to help a total of 50,000, plus the defeated Yunmeng army, Xiangzhou Mansion had nearly 70,000 troops.

The walls were not damaged, and the barbarians climbed up that night with ladders, and there were no large siege weapons to destroy the walls.

As for whether these 70,000 troops can hold the city wall, those who have experienced the destruction of the city overnight really dare not have much hope. There are not so many people in Osmanthus Fang, and they have returned one after another, and only a few people are still stranded at relatives' homes in the suburbs.

Shi Keqi is still working as a handyman in Xiangyage, he can't stir-fry and be a chef, he can't cut vegetables and be a kitchen, he can use spells to burn fires, he doesn't have to work hard after practicing Wula bellows, he meets all the conditions that handymen need, he doesn't do who does.

The shopkeeper Niu is not a person from Osmanthus Fang, and he has not seen Shi Keqi retreat from the barbarian soldiers, and he is a little dissatisfied with Fang Zheng's words that he deliberately came over to take care of him, but some words will not be said in vain, and they have some effect.

The cow shopkeeper was about to rush out of his mouth once or twice when he cursed, and he held his throat stiffly, and coughed for a while, and the kid saw this scene, and laughed out of the pig while washing the vegetables.

This guy just owes a beating, the cow shopkeeper thought, but he didn't dare to say this, regardless of whether he knew martial arts or not, businessmen were kind and polite, so they didn't fight and kill rude.

......

"Master, you are so good at using knives, I also want to learn knives. Shi Keqi was practicing martial arts in the backyard of the Zhenbei Martial Arts Hall, and he asked when he remembered Yan Zhenbei's mighty horseman's ability to split the brute into two pieces.

"The practice of swords and swords varies from person to person, and people with strong martial arts are generally proficient in eighteen kinds of martial arts, but there must be one or two kinds of weapons that are the most advantageous. Your talent lies in the sword, practice it well, and in the end the sword is both a sword and a sword. ”

“...... What the master said was a bit abstract. Shi Keqi pondered the words.

"In this way, after the battle of the barbarian invasion, you seem to have a lot of feelings, so you won't practice today, stop and talk about the Tao, and you can say whatever you want. I want to ask you, what is a sword?"

"The sword is one of the weapons, and the ordinary sword is three feet six inches long, and it is three hundred and sixty days. The width of the sword is one inch and eight minutes, half of the Tiangang. The short sword is two feet eight inches, and it means twenty-eight stars. The width of the sword was one inch and two minutes, which was twelve months. ”

"The back of the book is good, but what is the real sword? The sword is the belief of those who practice swords, not only to practice swords but also to train people, people with faith are particularly strong, people must always have a sword in their hearts, draw a sword for injustice, draw a sword for their family, draw a sword for something that needs to be protected. ”

"I understand, practicing swords and practicing people, together it is a sword man. ”

"If you go away, I'm afraid I can't help but beat you. ”

“......。 ”

"Master, I have a question, why did the black spearman dare to roar at the princess, saying that she would go back no matter what. Shi Keqi said with a swagger.

"We used to call them barbarians, and the Tu people are rebellious in nature, and they annoy whoever you are. Originally, their territory was not under the control of the imperial court, but was ruled by the headman, who was their soil emperor. After returning to the imperial court, only General Wang Liangqin could control it, and the imperial court loved and hated them. ”

"General Wang is from my Dahan clan?"

"No, she is the daughter of the head of the Tu tribe, and her father took in a wandering Xiucai of the Dahan tribe, and she has been reading and reading with Xiucai since she was a child, so she is closer to my clan. ”

"We have so many soldiers, why can't we beat the barbarians in defense?" Shi Keqi threw out another question.

"Without it, the sheep policy and corruption are just that. ”

"Corruption is easy to understand, what does sheep mean?"

"The male sheep has large, spiral-shaped horns, which look very majestic, like an elder who can spell, but in fact has no meaning, while the female sheep has only small horns or no horns. ”

"Sheep are timid and docile, no matter which dynasty the ruler wants the people to be sheep, the officials are shepherds, it is good to be a sheep, there are people to protect and comfort without trouble, and they can offer their hair regularly, and they will not be slaughtered. ”

"But if the sheep do it for a long time, the bad will appear, and the wild nature will disappear completely, and the beast nature born in the bones will evolve into reason. But the barbarians don't reason with you, they ride naked horses and rob them with knives, kill people and set fire to their houses. ”

"Well, poor sheep, when the barbarians come they don't know how to resist. Just like a wolf rushing into a flock, the sheep will only hide, will run, and will not resist. ”

"The sheep policy is feasible in a civilized society, and the ruler says that this is indoctrination, and that there are advantages and disadvantages to indoctrination, and in general, as long as the shepherds are restrained from doing whatever they want, there are still more benefits than disadvantages to the people. In the past, there were officials who held the official position of shepherding and keeping watch over sheep. ”

"There is also a town guard, most of them are in the barbarian war land, the word is not very friendly, the town guard itself contains the meaning of suppression and protection, suppression is often used on foreign enemies, and protection is used on the people. But sometimes there is a misalignment, the people can't survive anymore, and the rulers are transformed from guardians to repressors because of the stuttering and food revolt. ”

"The army composed of sheep is still sheep, it is difficult to fight the wolves from outside, and all kinds of corruption are getting more and more unbearable, hey, the only use of the Northern Zhou army that cannot achieve external victory is to waste food and suppress the people. ”

Shi Keqi fell into deep thought, he had never heard anything like this before, and felt that his thinking had opened another window, and he said, "Master, how do you know so much." ”

"Wisdom will not fail those who use their brains, and time will not fail those who are punctual, as long as you are good at thinking and understand what is so difficult about these!"

Yan Zhenbei continued: "Of course, when you meet a good shepherd, the sheep's life will be better. The shepherds most do not want the sheep to know that the harsh taxes and miscellaneous taxes are fiercer than the tiger, and the officials force the people to rebel against Liangshan; they want to tell the sheep that paying taxes is glorious and that tax evasion is shameful and the national law is ruthless. ”

"But why should the shepherds be accused of stealing taxes if they do not pay the full amount of taxes, and if they do not hand over their own things, can they be called stealing? The act of taking other people's things is not robbery? It is really necessary to pay so many taxes to maintain the cost of rule? The official word has two mouths, one eats the people, and the other eats all things. ”