"Across the avenue in front of the palace, a collapsed corner of the house suddenly creaked open a door. An old man tiptoed out of the door, looked to the left and right, beckoned to me, and called out softly to me, 'Your son-in-law, come into the house. ’

"I was about to get up, and I felt that my legs were completely disobedient, and my body had just left the ground and fell down again.

Seeing this, the old man went out of the door with great vigilance, crossed the avenue, came to me, lifted me up, and walked to the door of the broken house.

"When I entered the door, the old man helped me to sit down in a chair, saluted, turned back and closed the door, and latched it with a latch.

"At this point, I recovered a little from my horror and anxiety, and asked, 'Old man, what is happening in City B this day?'

"When the old man heard me speak loudly, he hurriedly clung to my ear and said, 'Your son-in-law, please speak softly, I don't know if there are any spies in this city at this time. ’

"When I heard the word spy, I was puzzled and asked, 'What spy?'

"The old man said, 'Your Son-in-law, don't you really know what happened last night?'

"I said, 'Yesterday I went to a banquet at the residence of Lord Shousuke, and I was drunk and unconscious, but when I woke up this morning, I found that the city was like this, and I really don't know what kind of calamity had befallen me. Could it be that the Huandou people are attacking again?'

The old man nodded.

"I thought about it for a while, and then said to the old man: 'Since the last attack by the Huandou people, the monarch mother and the first assistant have mobilized soldiers and horses from all over the mountains and strictly fortified the city, and the various heavenly crossbow bases have also increased their troops, and added heavy crossbow iron arrows. Even if the Huandou people attack from the air again, the troops that attacked in the previous time will not be able to resist the counterattack of the Heavenly Crossbow no matter what. In addition, in the past few days, there have been military horses parading all over the city to deter enemy spies and make them fearful. According to this reasoning, Huandou people should not dare to act rashly so quickly. ’

"When the old man heard this, he sighed and said, 'There are thousands of precautions, but it is difficult to prevent thieves!'

"I sighed in my heart, and hurriedly asked: 'Old man, please make it clear, what is the difficulty of preventing house thieves?'

"The old man moved the stool he was sitting on beside me, leaned forward, and whispered, 'The general from the outer mountains is a spy. ’

"I was amazed and said, 'General from the outside mountains?'

"Then he thought of Ran Shang Tu and continued to ask, 'Could it be that General Ran Shang Tu is ......'

"The old man interrupted me and said, 'Lord Shoufu and Chief Tu have been loyal and good for generations, and now, they are the mainstays of my Drought Clan, and her two sisters will never be spies. ’

"I said, 'If it weren't for General Ransheng, who came from outside the mountains, it would only be the town guards of the other seventy-nine mountains. Old man, the town guard of Eighty-one Mountain, you should have seen it all the time, which one is it. ’

"The old man said: 'My family has lived at the gate of the palace for generations, and I have lived here for forty or fifty years. Needless to say, the civil and military officials in Tianyi City are all in the capital. In addition to these two mountains, Tianjia Mountain is the gateway to Jun Mountain, the terrain is narrow, there is no city, and the remaining seventy-eight mountain officials and generals, although they can't all know, but the main generals of the mountains, I still know. The general was not from Mount Eighty-One. ’

At this time, I remembered a person, and suddenly there was a cold air, which was cold to my heart.

"That person is Quyunling, Dutong Burning Hill.

"When Ran Yitu led the reinforcements to arrive that day, I was secretly surprised in my heart, feeling that the reinforcements came too quickly, and I didn't think deeply because I was not familiar with the border of the drought fish.

"Now that I think about it, I feel that there is something strange in the middle. I hurriedly asked the old man: 'May I ask the old man, how far away is Quyunling.' ’

"The old man said: 'Quyunling is a far place in the southwest of the dry fish, and the ground is bordered by snow. The secret territory is adjacent to the Qiangli tribe. It is 3,000 miles away from Junshan, and it takes two months to walk on foot and four or five days to fast horses. ’

"Then I asked, 'Do you have a secret way to speed up the journey?'

After hearing this, the old man laughed, then looked out the door again, and restrained his laughter.

"The old man stood up, walked up and down the house twice, and said, 'This is the way of my people. ’

"Seeing that I didn't understand, she said, 'The droughtmen have a method of stealth, a method of wall action, and some methods of self-defense and protection against the enemy, but there is no way to move quickly. Even if there is a quick method, it can only be used for a short time, not for a long time. Therefore, the drought people are the same as the Wa royal family, and the method of speed is only two legs. ’

"Hearing this, I immediately understood that the arrival of Burning Hill so quickly that day was not to save the driver, but for another purpose. But I'm still not sure she's what the old man calls a spy.

"I asked the old man, 'What evidence do you have that you say that the general from outside the mountains is a spy?'

The old man shook his head, sighed, and said sadly: 'My Drought Tribe, for thousands of years, has lived peacefully in this mountain and forest, and has no quarrel with the world, but recently there have been one disaster after another.

"'Yesterday night, I had just fallen asleep, and suddenly there was a loud noise outside, and people were running around the streets, shouting that the Huandou people were coming. I half-pushed open the door, looked out through the crack in the door, and saw the air densely hovering like big birds, so frightened that I quickly hid under the bed, not daring to make a sound.

"'There was a burst of the sound of troops running outside the door, from east to west, and from west to east, all of which did not stop outside.

"'About half an hour later, I heard the sound of swords and soldiers fighting at the gate of the palace, as if two teams were fighting.

"'Then I had the courage to creep up to the door, and when I looked through the hole in the panel, I was startled.

"'I saw that in front of the palace gate, the two teams fighting were all drought people, but there was no shadow of a happy man.

"'Soon after, a band of the Dryfish was defeated, and the victorious one began to pound the gates of the palace. After a while, the door was slammed open, and there was another fight inside, from the door to the inside.

"'I sat in the doorway in fright, not daring to move, and listened to the fighting in the palace gradually subside. After a cup of tea, the group of drought-stricken people who attacked the palace came out, led by the general from the outer mountains.

"'Then I saw Her Majesty the Mother and General Ran Xiang being escorted out of the palace gates.

"'When he came to the avenue in front of the palace gate, the general of the outer mountains shouted to the sky, saying that the king of the drought and the burning clothes had been caught, and then he was going to the West Garden to catch the princess of the drought fish, and let the heavenly Huandou people clear the defenders near the West Garden first.

"'A Huandou man in the sky told her that the drought army in Tianyi Mountain had been almost wiped out, Ran Xiang and Ran Sheng Mu had also been captured, and there was no resistance near Xiyuan, so she should hurry up and arrest the princess.

"When General Wayama heard this, he immediately led his troops to run west.

"'The Huandou people in heaven shouted again, telling her not to have a conflict with the Wa Emperor in the West Garden, and not to arrest him, otherwise there will be a conflict with the Wa royal family, which will benefit them and do no harm. They probably meant you, my son-in-law. ’

"When I heard this, I finally understood the general situation of last night, which turned out to be a sneak attack that was coordinated inside and outside. But I couldn't figure it out in my heart, how could I help the Huandou people kill their compatriots.

"I was most worried about Yuhua, and I asked the old man: 'They went to Xiyuan to catch the princess, did they catch it, and what happened in the end?'

"The old man said, 'They go west along the highway, and I will know nothing.' After another hour or so, the city fell silent. I didn't go out all night, I sat at the door and fell asleep, and when I woke up, I looked out and found my son-in-law sitting in front of the palace gate. ’

As he was talking, he suddenly heard a deep noise outside the door. ”