Along the canyon trail, the group walked more than 40 miles, turned a mountain cliff, only to feel that the eyes were bright, and it turned out to be out of the mountain range.

Everyone looked at it with great eyes, only to see that the sky was high and the earth was wide, the sunset was like fire, and on the reckless plain, beautiful hills were dotted among them. More than ten miles away, a big water flows from south to north, shining with golden light, and the end is as bright as a bright glow and as magnificent as brocade.

Not far away, there is another water system that flows in, forming an upside-down "Ya" character.

At the confluence of the two waters, there is a small castle, and the shore is full of large and small boats.

Everyone couldn't help but smile when they saw such a beautiful scenery, but Xu Guanzhong was taken aback, his body trembled slightly, and he shouted: "Ah! How is this water, this water, going north? ”

Cao Cao had never seen him lose his temper like this, so he was stunned for a moment, and hurriedly said: "Brother, don't panic, and speak slowly, but what went wrong?" ”

Xu Guanzhong's face showed remorse, and he pointed to the castle in the distance and said: "The younger brother heard in the Huining Mansion before, through the Muling Woji Ridge, to the east for more than ten miles, is the confluence of the Mudan River and the Hailang River, this castle here, called the Little Pearl Fort, the lord of the Jin Kingdom sent a Mou Ke to serve as the lord of the fort, leading more than 300 Bohai soldiers to be stationed here, all the pearls picked by the pearl households, must be delivered in this fort, and then sold to the merchants by the officials. ”

Cao Cao looked at the castle from afar, nodded and said, "So what?" ”

Xu Guanzhong smiled bitterly, shook his head and said: "His fort, because he is afraid that the Zhuhu will resist, and he wants to exterminate smuggling, so he has a good warship, the younger brother wants to take his warship, if not, then try to buy a big boat with the merchants, so that we go down the river, turn into the gurgling water, and then enter the Huomen River, you can enter the sea, who ......knows."

Cao Cao hadn't heard the clue yet, but Li Jun and Zhang Shun were startled, and said in unison: "Down the river? ”

When the two of them called, Lao Cao Fang understood it, and said in a low voice: "Could it be the opposite?" ”

Xu Guanzhong nodded bitterly: "The little brother is gullible in people's words, only that the river flows from north to south, who knows that at this moment, it is completely opposite!" There was such a mistake, but it was a mistake for my brother. ”

Cao Cao was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said: "That's it, it's not your fault, it's hearsay, and the person who talks to you may not have come to this Mudan River at home, so it's inevitable that it will not be informative...... I don't think the current is very fast, and we can go against the current. ”

Li Jun said: "Brother and Brother Guanzhong, just rest assured, let the younger brother and Zhang Shun be here, and go against the trend. ”

Xu Guanzhong sighed: "Although it is not impossible to go against the current, in this way, the ship will inevitably be slow, and it will inevitably delay the hour." If Ah Guda found out that we had been to the Flagpole Ridge Racecourse, it would not be difficult to speculate on his whereabouts, and at that time, he would send a message to Hai Dongqing, asking us to be arrested along the way, but wouldn't it add a lot of waves? ”

Zhang Shundao: "Don't be afraid of him, when you get to the water, it is me and Li Juntian, even if the Jurchens are good at fighting, how dare they come to the river and sea to catch me?" ”

Cao Cao patted Zhang Shun appreciatively and said with a smile: "That's it, the matter has come to this, you don't have to think about it Guanzhong." Seeing that it was getting dark, I waited for a rest, and when it was dark, I hid in the fort and took his ship. In the latter matter, there are two brothers Li Jun and Zhang Shun to rely on. ”

Xu Guanzhong nodded slowly: "Brother doesn't blame the younger brother for negligence, but the younger brother can't stop there, today is attacking the city, the younger brother should be the vanguard, and he will desperately take the warship and break the credit." After that, the eight-character eyebrows have been raised, and in a pair of apricot eyes, the gaze is like a wildfire, ruthless and abnormal, not like the usual scattered appearance.

Cao Cao frowned when he saw it, suddenly grabbed Xu Guanzhong's hands, shook them slightly, raised his head and looked at him fixedly, and said gently: "Guanzhong, we are human beings in the world, how can we be without fault?" Even if the wise man thinks a thousand times, there is a time when he misses. Besides, in the eyes of my brother, this matter is not to blame. If you want to be a pioneer and a brother, you can naturally go, but you must firmly remember that you and I are brothers, and you must be more careful, understand? ”

Xu Guanzhong, who is both humanistic and martial, and is familiar with astrological arithmetic, means in the rivers and lakes, and strategizing in the temple, are not short, and they are young, although they talk modestly on weekdays, but how can they not be arrogant in their hearts? If it weren't for being arrogant, how could he get the nickname of "Crane Soaring to the Sky", and he wouldn't have abandoned the official and ran to Cao Cao.

In his own heart, he has long regarded himself as Cao Cao's mastermind, although he later saw Wu Yong, Li Zhu, Xiao Jiasui and others, but he didn't think that he was inferior to others, but this time he was negligent for a while, and made a big leak, and he was ashamed and angry, which is really unimaginable to ordinary people.

Fortunately, Cao Cao's wisdom is not under Guan Zhong, if you talk about arrogance, a person who can say "the hero of the world and me" can also be imagined, so there are more than ten brothers here, only Cao Cao can really feel Xu Guanzhong's mood, afraid that he will be reckless under the agitation, so he hurriedly grabbed him and said these words seriously.

Xu Guanzhong was stared at by Cao Cao's deep pool-like eyes, only to feel that the nameless fire in his heart gradually dissipated, Cao Cao's serious voice was deeply engraved in his heart, and he couldn't help but secretly admit himself, took a long breath, nodded and smiled: "Brother rest assured, if the younger brother wants to help his brother achieve the supreme greatness, how can he throw this body lightly?" ”

Cao Cao saw that he was enlightened, so he was relieved, and the two looked at each other with hands and laughed with relief.

After more than an hour, the sky was dark, Cao Cao and the others came to the castle three miles away, let Duan Jingzhu and Wulu take care of the horses, and the rest of the brothers, all changed into fish scale armor, only two eyes were exposed, and quietly hid under the castle wall by night, Xu Guanzhong said: "Brother, wait for the younger brother to go up to see his clues, and then make a plan to break it!" With that, he jumped up, jumped lightly on the wall, jumped high again, stretched out his hand to climb the wall, and jumped lightly.

Many brothers rarely saw Xu Guanzhong show his skills, and they all shouted at this moment: "Unexpectedly, Guan Zhong has such light skills!" ”

Shi Qian said in a low voice: "In the past, the younger brother followed his brother to work in Tokyo, and my brother sent me to perform light skills and go to Gao Taiwei's mansion to write a book. ”

After Xu Guanzhong climbed the castle wall, he took a bird's-eye view and saw that the castle was roughly divided into two parts, the north side was neat, both were military camps, and the area against the wall was a horse corridor. On the south side were high and low houses, and according to what he had heard, there were merchants, inns, and a few houses, and the tallest in the middle was the residence of the lord of the castle.

Along the east side, there is an old pond, there are several large and small warships in it, and there is a river channel connected to the Mudan River outside, but there is a water gate on the river, which is tightly closed at the moment.

After a closer look, he had a number in his heart, and he climbed out of the wall, fluttered to the ground, and drew the terrain on the soil by the moonlight, and discussed with Cao Cao: "Brother, please see, there are more than 300 soldiers here, although they are Bohai people, but they are not useless like the Song army, if it is a head-on battle, we and other brothers are few, if anyone misses, regret it, the younger brother's opinion, it is better to capture the thief and capture the king first!" ”

Cao Cao said: "How to act? ”

Xu Guanzhong said: "The younger brother also performed light skills to enter, attacked and killed the lord of Namoke Fort in one fell swoop, and then set a fire, and taught a few extravagant brothers to climb in from the north city, and when they saw the fire, they took the horses from the horse gallery, and took advantage of the chaos to kill and disperse his soldiers, so as to facilitate the arcade to set fire; When he saw the navy, he had to open the water gate to escape, and then teach a few brothers to lie outside the door, where the river channel was narrow, and when the boat came out, he robbed his biggest warship, what did his brother think? ”

Cao Cao said: "If you have a plan, we will act accordingly, but be careful." ”

Xu Guanzhong nodded, still performing light skills, and jumped onto the wall.

Cao Cao was not at ease, so he smiled at Shi Qian and said: "He followed you that day, and you follow him today." Brother, you quietly tiptoe to the loyalty, if there is anything wrong, you can help. ”

Shi Qian's light work, his own family is extremely proud, the last time he was followed by Xu Guanzhong, although he didn't say it, he was a little unhappy in his heart, but he didn't expect to have a chance to get back to the field today, how could he not want to? Immediately rejoiced: "My brother still knows my heart!" And let the crane rush to the sky to know, and the fleas on the drum are not in vain. ”

After that, he unfolded the method of swimming against the wall, like a big gecko, and jumped straight up against the wall, like a silent light smoke, far away with Xu Guanzhong.

Cao Cao allocated manpower according to what Xu Guanzhong said: "You wait for a few brothers, go here, you wait for a few brothers, you can go here to ......"

Xu Guanzhong entered the castle, fluttered lightly, only walked in the shadow of the eaves, avoided the patrol soldiers all the way, until the castle lord's mansion, lightly jumped over the wall, saw the front hall was brightly lit, and faintly heard the voice, so he quietly hid in front of him, licked the broken window paper with the tip of his tongue, looked inside, and couldn't help but be secretly angry.

I saw that in the hall, in the center was a tiger skin chair, behind the chair two small guys playing fans, an extremely fat man sat on his back, about fifty or so much, shirtless, with a high belly, with a rude look on his face, while drinking tea, he pointed to a pair of father and daughter kneeling in front of him and scolded: "Damn man! I am the Mouke of the Great Golden Kingdom, and the lord of this little pearl fort! Isn't a noble person like my lord worthy of your cheap girl? You must know that it is a blessing for your family to take a fancy to her, and you don't know how to cherish it, and you dare to refuse the good intentions of the master. ”

The father and daughter looked like a hard-working person begging for a life on the water, especially his father, whose arms and calves were dark purple spots, but he was under water pressure from perennial diving, his face was full of wrinkles, and his beard was pale. ”

A girl kneeling next to her was also trembling with fear.

This girl was only thirteen or fourteen years old, and although her skin was dark, her face was quite handsome, and if you looked closely, she could even be called exquisite. It's just that this woman is extremely thin, and she wears strange shorts and pants like her father, which seems to be made of fish skin, and her wrists and knees are bulging, and she hasn't eaten a full meal for a long time.

With a snap, the fat Mouke smashed the tea bowl to pieces, stood up with fat and trembled, and roared angrily: "Shameless face, in this case, the master will kill you, and the girl will not be able to get out of the master's mouth." ”

took two steps forward, kicked the father somersault and flew out, fell a foot away, vomited blood again and again, he stepped forward to chase and beat, but the woman hugged her legs and feet, and screamed: "Please don't beat my father." ”

Fat Mouke looked down, and on a fat face that was shining with oil, a prodigal and hideous silver smile suddenly appeared: "Gaga, your name is Mingzhu'er, isn't it?" Hehe, what kind of pearl can you raise when your family is so poor? You are from the master, and from then on, this is the pearl. ”

Then he stretched out his hand to pull the woman, and the girl screamed in fright, and even crawled to escape, and Na Mouke laughed, and chased after him, and suddenly screamed, but he stepped on the tea cup he had smashed.

It was hard for him to have such a fat body, so he jumped a few steps on one leg, sat back on the chair, and lifted the soles of his feet with great difficulty to see that a small wound was coming out of a few drops of blood. The guy was so angry that he scolded: "What about people? I don't know how to clean and hurt the soles of my master's feet, shouldn't it be a capital crime for you to wait? ”

The two little servants who were waiting for him had no faces, trotted, took water and white cloth to bandage his wounds, and then were pulled to the ground by the big-eared scraper, but they got up without saying a word, quickly cleaned up the debris on the ground, and hurried out in the scolding.

Xu Guanzhong hurriedly shrank and hid behind a bush, but listened to the whispers of the two little servants: "This Han girl is really pitiful, if she falls into the hands of the master, I am afraid that she will be killed in a day or two." The other hurriedly said, "Shut up!" Hearing this, do you and I still have a life? He came to this city, and he didn't kill dozens of women in a year, can you come here pitifully? ”

In the hall, the self-proclaimed Nemur Fat Mouke pointed at the Han girl Mingzhu'er and shouted in a deep voice: "If you hadn't dodged, how could the master have been injured?" Slut, come over by yourself, so that you can serve the master, otherwise, you will kill your unknown father first, and then throw you to the barracks to suffer. ”

Mingzhu'er shed two lines of tears on her face, and said sadly: "In order to dive pearls for you, my mother, my eldest brother and second brother all died in the water, and my family has never picked less pearls, why are you persecuting us to death like this?" ”

Nemur glared at a pair of rat eyes, and the fierce light shone: "Slut, people like you have all done sins in the previous life, and they have come to repay in this life, and their fate should be like this, what is there to say?" If you don't come, I'll kill your father first!" ”

Before the words fell, the girl suddenly took out a bright pearling knife from her arms.

Nemur was slightly stunned, and then laughed: "Interesting, interesting, master, I have experienced a hundred battles, and I don't know how many Khitan dogs have been killed, are you afraid of your knife?" ”

As he spoke, he got up, took off a big knife from the wall, danced lightly, and laughed wildly: "See? Master, this is called a knife! ”

Mingzhu'er suddenly put the pearl diving knife to her thin neck, and said with tears: "Our lives are hard, and we originally fought you, but today the poor girl died here, if you still have a trace of conscience, you will let my father die!" ”

Nemur laughed and said: "You die, you die, you really dare to cut yourself to death, I will let the dog eat your father alive." ”

When Mingzhu'er heard this, she felt a dilemma between life and death, turned her head to look outside the house, and saw the bright moon in the sky, her heart was sad and indignant, and she exclaimed: "Grandpa Tian, open your eyes, this world, is it really not allowed for my father and daughter to live?" ”

Nanemur laughed and said, "Of course Grandpa Tian has eyes, otherwise why would my Dajin Kingdom be prosperous?" Why can I enjoy all the glory, sir? ”

When I was proud, I suddenly heard someone shouting: "If this woman thinks that the sky has no eyes, then today is the time when the sky opens its eyes, and if you fat pig thinks that the sky has eyes, then today is the day when the sky closes its eyes!" ”

Several people in the hall looked at each other in amazement, but saw the window snap open, and a man wearing strange scale armor with only his eyes exposed jumped into the hall, holding a thin iron rod in his hand.

Nemur is worthy of being a general, although he is fat now, he still has no shortage of courage, the first to react, looking at the thin iron rod in the hand of the comer, laughed: "Are you an assassin who came to assassinate the master?" Have you not heard of the name of my Nemur? Kill me with a long chopstick? ”

Xu Guanzhong said lightly: "My sword, unless I see a great evil, never comes out of the sheath." Sir, you have such a character, but it deserves to be unsheathed once. ”

As he spoke, he held the iron rod with his left hand and twitched it with his right hand - his iron rod was no more than the thickness of his little finger, who knew that there was really a sword hidden inside! This sword is extremely thin and thin, but it is extremely sharp and bright, Xu Guanzhong has a sword in his hand, dancing in his hand, Mingzhu only feels that a piece of light rises in front of him, it is like a bright moon in the sky, and it is like a pearl was born! It's more like the sky, the eye that opens and closes.

There is a division of teaching: the flea is on the drum and there is no sound, and the crane wants to soar into the sky and become lighter. Loyalty and righteousness are full of reward for the world, and the pearl is long and the moon is always bright.

(End of chapter)