There was wind outside the window, the wind drifted in with fine snow, the charcoal fire was faintly flamed, crackling and exploding, the indoor temperature was very high, as soon as I came in, it was a lot warmer, but the breath exhaled from the mouth and nose naturally turned into a white mist in an instant.

Gu Qingqi was sitting, and sitting in front of him was Wu Kui, the big boss of Qianli Village, and Hu Yue, the second master.

Looking at the dim firelight in silence, after a while, Gu Qingci handed the token in his hand to Hu Yue and said, "You two, the inner guards, why did you come here to be horse thieves?"

Token, a token unique to the guards of the Great Xia Kingdom.

Gu Qing resigned as a county magistrate for a year, and the various tokens within the court could naturally be distinguished, but he never expected that the horse thief he was going to kill was actually the role played by the imperial court's internal guards and the emperor's own soldiers.

Wu Kui coughed lightly, his hands trembled a little like withered and stretched out to the charcoal fire, and then he said slowly: "It's been nearly twenty years, at that time, like you, Lord Gu, I was also in my youth, full of spirit, and I passed the selection in the army and became the inner guard. ”

"I remember that I was not yet twenty-five years old, and the second child was personally arranged by His Majesty to come to the 100,000 Mountains, we were a group of more than 40 people, with a mission to come here, at that time we didn't expect that this stay, that is, nearly 20 years, now, even the emperor is no longer the emperor before, but we are still here, I don't know if there is a chance to return to the Central Plains in this life. ”

Gu Qingci's heart suddenly swelled with a throbbing, although he didn't know what mission Wu Kui and Hu Yue had come with, but it had been nearly twenty years, and it was already very admirable to rush this point.

"What kind of mission are you here to perform, can you say?" Gu Qingci asked.

"Ahem...... Ahem......"

As soon as Wu Kui opened his mouth to prepare, he immediately coughed violently, Hu Yue hurriedly patted Wu Kui's back gently, and when Wu Kui eased up a little, he said: "For you, Master Gu, you can naturally speak!"

Hu Yue suddenly sighed and said: "Twenty years ago, the emperor accidentally learned that the Han people here in the 100,000 Mountains were living in hardship and were oppressed by foreign people. ”

The form of the Xia Kingdom, Gu Qingci is very clear, not to mention that twenty years ago, even if the current emperor was ambitious and actively reformed, the Xia Kingdom has become much stronger in recent years, but the situation is still tense, and several countries are eyeing each other, these 100,000 mountains nominally belong to the Xia Kingdom, but in fact they exist in name only.

Hu Yue looked at Gu Qingci's expression, knowing that Gu Qingci must have understood the form of the Xia Kingdom, so he didn't explain more, and continued: "In order to make the people of the Xia Kingdom of the 100,000 Mountains live a little better, the first emperor quietly divided the internal guards into several groups and arranged to come to the 100,000 Great Mountains, in order not to attract the attention of other countries, he could only let us pretend to be horse thieves. ”

Wu Kui also sighed: "We are the third batch to come, there are more than forty people together, over the years, in order to live up to the emperor's entrustment, there are only three or four old brothers left alive, and the others have died in the battle with the Xianbei people, but they, even if they die, they can't get the honor they deserve......

When Gu Qingci heard this, his mood became very complicated, and he didn't know why, he suddenly remembered his previous life, those frontier soldiers, guarding the territory of the motherland alone, how could they not be like Wu Kui and them, some of them even dedicated their lives to the frontier, but how many people knew them, how many people remembered their merits, and how many people got the honor they deserved!

There is also a kind of people, in order to carry out the mission, to be undercover, just like Wu Kui, they may have sacrificed, but they have not been able to recover their true identity, they are actually real heroes, but the world knows only their identity as bandits, it is possible that their descendants will be labeled with this label.

"It's not just us," Hu Yue said: "There are several Han bandit dens in these 100,000 mountains, in fact, they were all the internal guards of the year, and after the new emperor succeeded to the throne and sent people to contact us, most of us still chose to continue to stay and let some young people come here...... After all, that's another lifetime, and we've been here for most of our lives anyway!"

Gu Qingci took a deep breath, suppressed the complexity in his heart, and asked, "But, why did I see you robbing the food of the Han people, and I heard that you slaughtered the village and killed people?"

"Alas," Wu Kui shook his head and said, "In our area of Niutong Mountain, there are many Xianbei people, who often come to the Han villages to wreak havoc, and we spend most of our time confronting or fighting against the Xianbei people, where do we have time to prepare more food by ourselves, and it is impossible for the imperial court to give us grain and grass." ”

"Another point, our identity is a horse thief, we must cover it up well enough, the horse thief doesn't rob, how can it be possible, but, we have never robbed a lot, Lord Gu, you should have seen it all the way, do you think we ask for a lot of food?"

"Uh......" Gu Qingci thought about it for a while, nodded, and said, "It's almost the same as paying taxes in the imperial court!"

Wu Kui nodded and said: "We all collect the moon according to the tax requirements of the imperial court, as for what slaughtered the village and killed people, most of them were false news that we deliberately released, first, it was to hide people's eyes and ears, and second, it was to establish a very murderous image among the people that we were horse thieves." ”

"The Han people who were really killed by my Qianli Village are all those who colluded with foreign people, and the so-called Tucun is just taking the blame for the Xianbei people, but we are also willing to bear this pot and completely root the murderous name. ”

Gu Qingci listened, although Wu Kui's tone was very flat, but his heart was surging like a river and a sea, he didn't ask about Hu Yue beating people in that village, and he also said about robbing other people's mothers-in-law, no need to ask, he also knew why.

It is nothing more than Wu Kui to make a name for murder, because there is a thing called the human heart.

If Qianlizhai does not show toughness in collecting grain, those people will get more and more inches, even if they know that there are some special circumstances, but the precedent cannot be opened, not to kill, but to make a murderous attitude, to scare ordinary people.

Moreover, most of them are really horse thieves, let's kill people, it's normal, even if they really kill the sixth son, Gu Qingci doesn't plan to take revenge!

What exactly is chivalry? What is saving people?

In order to give the sixth son, or the people of that village, stand out...... Kill Hu Yue and let more people be harmed?

The most important thing is that Gu Qingci doesn't want to kill Hu Yue now, there is not much reason, he doesn't want to kill, he just doesn't want to kill!

Gu Qingci and Wu Kui Hu Yue chatted for a long, long time, until midnight, Wu Kui had to rest because of physical reasons, so he gave up, and Wu Kui was seriously injured in order to protect the Han people, and when he fought with the Xianbei people, he was injured!

When leaving, Wu Kui said: "Master Gu, my identity, please don't tell Xiao Li, I may not have a chance to return to the Central Plains in my life, but I hope Xiao Li can go back to his hometown for me to take a look, I remember, my hometown is actually very beautiful......

This night, Gu Qingci stood by the window, looking at the snow, he thought a lot, he thought that he was a hero, but in the face of Wu Kui, in the face of Hu Yue, in the face of those true heroes who died on the frontier and no one cared about, he knew that in this world, there is a kind of greatness, called obscurity!

The people who are protected don't know that they are protected at all, and they still hate the hero who protects them in their hearts, but the hero he just smiles, because he knows that he has protected the weak!

There is a kind of person, sonorous and iron-clad, no matter the frost, ice and snow, or the spread of wind and sand, he is on the frontier, maybe ten years, maybe a lifetime, maybe tens of millions of years, buried in a foreign land, no one knows, but he has no complaints, still insist!

That person died, and the world said that he died well, because he was a horse thief, but at the moment he fell, he smiled, he felt that he had died a well-deserved death, even if he would always carry infamy, he naturally straightened his waist and faced heaven and earth!

Some people are dead, and he is still alive!

Some people live, and he should live......