Located in the west of Qilian Mountain, the Linsong Shallot Valley under the Horseshoe Mountain is a cultural hometown where scholars have always liked to get involved in paying respects, Xiao Hua and Yuan Zai deliberately changed the route in order to visit this place, and decided to take a detour to Dunhuang from here. Stop to admire the Horseshoe Mountain Grottoes excavated by the sages, and feel the style and bones left by the Confucians of the Wei and Jin Dynasties.

Zahu Zhonghou can't understand this kind of behavior, isn't it just a hillside forest? Liaodong is full of these things. Although it is to pay tribute to the sages, there is nothing to hang on, and there is not even a pile of graves.

Xiao Hua said that Guo He, Guo Yu, Liu Wei and other famous people in Hexi, they have never heard of them, and they don't know what these guys have to worship.

While the two were exploring the cave, the two miscellaneous beards were bored at the entrance of the cave.

There was a shrill shrill shuffling whistle from the hillside, and dozens of bandits on horseback, waving their blades in their hands, surrounded the cliff, and the four of them seemed to be the target.

The two lieutenants quickly turned over their horses, drew their horizontal knives from their waists, and looked at these tattered mountain bandits with wary eyes.

The man at the head was holding a long-handled battle axe in his hand, with a beard on his cheeks, and a fat body, and he was also riding on a fat horse, and the armor on his body was rusted, as if it had been made by hand from a variety of armor pieces.

"In vain, we waited in this valley for many days, and finally came a few pieces of fat, and if you want to live, you can do it yourself, and take off the money and the inner and outer skins for me, and put them on horseback for us!"

The two lieutenants narrowed their eyes, and their eyes gradually became fierce, and the leader of the mountain bandits waved his axe and pointed at the two and shouted: "Look at what to see!" Untie me the breastplate and soft armor, or I will kill you!" ”

The two nodded tacitly, and one of them held the hilt of his knife and clenched his fist towards the mountain bandit and said, "This master, we are the officials of the imperial court, what is the crime of robbing the imperial officials, don't you know?" ”

"Bullshit court officials, Lao Tzu fell into the grass, it was you court officials who forced it, today it is in the hands of Lao Tzu, you two dog officials are unlucky."

Xiao Hua and Yuan Zai, who were visiting the cave, had already heard the movement outside, they were all weak scholars, and they were already so frightened that they were so frightened that they leaned on the stone walls on both sides of the cave to cover their mouths and noses, and they didn't even dare to breathe.

A lieutenant marquis's tone softened, and he said in a consultative tone: "Since you make a living from looting, I don't think it's better to do this, we have a few copper coins on us, and we can hand them over to you." But armoured horses are the foundation of our lives, and cannot be given to you. ”

"Hahaha!" The bandits let out a wild laugh, and the leader laughed and said, "Your lives are about to be lost, and you dare to bargain with us." ”

As soon as the bandit leader's words fell, one of the lieutenants suddenly rode his horse and pounced, wielding a knife to decapitate the leader's head, and the bandit leader swung an axe to block it. The two crackled and exchanged hands twice on the horse, and Zhonghou put away his sword and leaned over on the horse, highlighting the encirclement of the bandits and running towards the valley.

Another man rode his horse from the side, quickly slashed down the two bandits with a sword, and fled towards the valley.

The galloping horses were unstoppable for the mountain bandits walking on foot, and they avoided the horse's head one after another, and immediately chased in the direction of the two fleeing.

The mountain bandits who were chasing at the forefront rode their horses, always following them closely. One of the lieutenants quietly took out a horned bow from the side of the horse, drew an arrow to tie the string, and suddenly straightened up and twisted from the horse, pulled the bowstring and shot it out, hitting the face of a bandit.

The bandit let out a scream and fell from his horse, rolling down the green shallots.

"Ha," Zhonghou smirked and continued to gallop his horse, these mountain bandits were armed with rudimentary knives, and it was simply beyond their strength to deal with them, these well-armed court military attachés with skilled bows and horses, as long as they came and went a few times, they could scatter these people and kill them.

But just in the next second, the bandits chasing behind him seemed to have no intention of hiding, and they found their crossbows out of nowhere, and pulled the crossbow machine in their hands, and the three arrows hit the back of one of the Zhonghou in the heart, and his body lay on the back of the horse.

Zhonghou, who was fleeing at the front, screamed in fright, glanced back and quickly lay down on the horse's back, and shouted in panic: "You are not mountain bandits!" ”

The mountain bandits were also stunned suddenly, and then they accelerated more and more and twitched their horses' whips, determined to shoot the court official who had pierced the truth on the horse.

After Zhonghou understood his situation, he quickly adjusted the direction of his escape. If you escape from the flat valley, you will be shot by the pursuers without any shelter behind you, but on the opposite side of the slope of Linsong Mountain, the pine forest is like arrows on the ground, which can act as a cover. He rode back and forth through the pine forest, his thick trunk holding out the arrows fired by his pursuers.

He sneered and looked back, but the horse's hooves suddenly fell forward, and between the two pine trees two groups of men pulled up a tripwire, causing the horse to tumble and neigh.

Zhonghou was thrown out of his horse and fell to the ground, and one of the bones got up and continued to run, but the pursuers had approached him, and the crossbow was snapped in response, and arrows pierced into his back like nails, and fell in the pile of pine needles with a pop.

A man with an axe stepped forward unhurriedly, raised the axe in both hands, and slashed down at the corpse lying on the ground.

The mountain bandits stripped off the clothes and armor of the two lieutenants, and also took away their slightly scarred horses.

Xiao Hua and Yuan Jae hid their heads in the cave, the darkness obscuring the expressions on their faces, and only the violent sound of their heartbeats could describe their fear. They anxiously hoped that the bandits would not go and return, but contrary to their expectations, the bandits returned to the cave and freed their horses from the trees.

The leader of the bandits deliberately shouted: "There are two horses here, it seems that there are more than two officials in charge, let's search the cave, find out and kill them!" ”

Xiao Hua was so frightened that he almost cried, and Yuan Zai whispered in despair: "My life is at stake!" ”

Outside the cave, another thief's shout rang out: "Oh no! Chieftains! The cavalry of the Imperial Court Ning Kou Army appeared in the Linsong Valley! ”

"Quick! Fast! Brothers,! ”

……

Tranquility quickly returned to the outside of the cave, only the sound of the rustling wind blowing through the pine branches, and the urgent breathing of Xiao Huayuan and the others gradually became smoother. They slowly stood up against the walls of the cave and quietly moved to the entrance of the cave to peek out.

It was indeed empty, only sparse loose and green everywhere, and the two men walked out of the cave with relief, but the horses were gone.

Xiao Hua sighed, there were their bags and dry food on their horses, but fortunately, their bodies and seals were loaded on their bodies, and they could borrow horses from the post station to ride with their official status, so the situation was not too bad.

Suddenly the neighing of horses sounded again under the slope of the pine forest, and the two of them, like frightened birds, quickly turned and ran in the direction of the cave, their legs like cramps. The sound of horses' hooves is getting closer. This is really a blessing and a blessing!

"I'm the captain of the Ningkou Army Cavalry Battalion! Why are you two running so fast? ”

The two of them paused to freeze their bodies before slowly turning around and looking up to see a young general wearing silver mountain armor arching his hands on horseback.

The two of them were physically and mentally exhausted, and each showed a smile of relief, like two civilized people who had stepped into the wilderness and saw the dawn of civilization again.

"We were sent by Zhongshu Lingcheng to come to Hexi on business, a certain is Xiao Hua of Langzhong of the Criminal Department, he is the Dali Temple Si Zhi Yuanzai."

The young general turned over and dismounted and said with a smile: "It turned out that it was a messenger sent by the imperial court, we just intercepted a group of mountain bandits in the valley, they left two horses and fled in a hurry, to see if it was your horse and luggage." ”

He waved his hand and ordered his soldiers to lead the horses over, and the two nodded excitedly and said, "That's right, this is our horse." ”