The sunset is like blood.

When the Tie Ce army in the field began to bury the pot and cook, Qi Zhuji's carriage returned to the camp.

"That's it. ”

Qi Zhuji, who jumped out of the carriage, nodded at Wang Chaozong and the others who came forward and said.

"What about the man?"

Wang Chaozong was stunned.

"In the back. ”

Qi Zhuji glanced behind him and said, "Most of them have injuries on their feet, I asked those people in Tongshan Prison to give them medicine, and they each gave them a new pair of shoes. ”

After he replied to Wang Chaozong like this, there was a long time for tea, and on the road outside Menglong City, some ragged and hobbled figures appeared.

"You actually use death row prisoners?"

A voice of surprise rang out.

Luo Jilian looked at the figures walking towards the camp, and she quickly judged the identity of these people. These people seem to have some difficulty walking, because they usually wear shackles on both feet, and when these shackles are on their feet for a long time, the flesh and blood around the feet will be worn out, and even the tendons and bones will rot inside.

In the Southern Dynasties, only death row inmates who committed heinous crimes were generally shackled for a long time.

These death row inmates are usually obedient and fine, but if they are still violent and untamable, the general prison guards will not give medical treatment at all, not even some of the worst sores and rotten medicines, and let these people's feet festering to the point that they cannot walk.

His feet were ulcerated and he couldn't walk, but he still had to serve the same labor as other prisoners on weekdays, so he was afraid that he would not be dragged to death for long.

Although Xiao Yan rectified after he ascended the throne, after he ascended the throne, he purged the old party forces of the previous dynasty, and did not want to let the people have chaos, so it was heavier in terms of sentencing, and there were only a lot more criminals in various places, and the prisons were even more overcrowded.

From top to bottom, prisons with more recidivists have a higher tolerance for the death of their offenders.

During the three years of the Heavenly Prison, Jiankang Jingzi Prison was extremely hot in the summer, and several cells were poorly ventilated, suffocating more than 30 people, and those officials were only demoted by one level and fined for one year.

This is evident in the tolerance of the Southern Dynasties to the mortality rate of prison inmates in various places.

"This....why is she here?"

Qi Zhuji was stunned when she saw Luo Jilian at a glance.

Luo Jilian joined the army, how much help she could bring to Tie Cejun, Tie Cejun is now known from top to bottom, looking at Qi Zhuji's stunned appearance, Wang Chaozong immediately whispered a few words and explained clearly.

"At that time, on the way to Meishan, I felt that her style and temperament were completely different from the women of the Southern Dynasties, at that time, I only thought that Dongliang Prefecture bordered the Northern Wei Dynasty, and thought that her temperament was closer to the women of the Northern Wei Dynasty, but I didn't expect that there was such a layer. ”

Qi Zhuji was only surprised that Luo Jilian was here, for the senior sister in the courtyard, he would not have lacked courtesy, especially now that it is a big help from Tie Cejun, he looked at Luo Jilian from a distance and saluted, and said, "Senior Sister Luo." ”

"It's no wonder that you left Zhongli City and marched all the way here, but you didn't recruit troops, and you didn't draw elite soldiers from the local army, you actually had such an idea. Luo Jilian was not as restrained as the rest of the cultivators, she jumped forward, and the two ups and downs had already reached Qi Zhuji's side.

"Different generals have different characteristics in leading the army. Your Tiece army that walked out of Zhongli City all came out of the Shura Field where hundreds of thousands of elite troops of the Northern Wei Dynasty were strangled. These are all death row inmates from prison..... Qi Zhuji, your iron army, it seems that you want to directly build a Shura army, a dead soldier army that is simply full of dead soldiers. ”

Luo Jilian was full of interest and looked at the prisoners, "I just don't know what your criteria are for selecting these prisoners?"

"Chivalrous. ”

Lin Yi's voice rang out.

Lin Yi also walked out of the camp and went to their side.

"None of the fourteen people I selected from the Kiriyama prison were the bravest outlaws, but most of them were imprisoned for their injustices, and in my opinion, these people were truly brave, and they were respected rangers in some dynasties in ancient times. ”

He looked at Luo Jilian, who was full of interest, smiled slightly, and said, "Then I asked each of these people to choose five people, and those who can be like-minded with them are naturally not bad." ”

"Combat power can be replenished the day after tomorrow, you are indeed a natural general, and what you are looking for is a type of person similar to you. Luo Jilian couldn't help but shake his head, "However, Lin Yi, you are really bold, dare to directly mention so many serious crimes, you yourself are a criminal minister, and you suddenly gained power, you are so aggressive, and you are not afraid that the emperor will think that you are forming a private party." ”

"I'm equivalent to exile the party item on my own, and I still care about his thoughts, no matter how dissatisfied he is, I am with the party item war, can he still send someone to lead the army to bring me back?" Lin Yi smiled.

"You, at that time, you had to rely on a letter of recommendation to enter the Nantian Academy, in the eyes of those students in the Nantian Academy, you were already a broken household in Jiankang City, just like our students in the fifth year of the Heavenly Prison, if you move out casually, your family background is enough to crush you alive, but you are good, you were a tattoo at that time, and one person offended the entire five years of the Heavenly Prison. Luo Jilian smiled, and she spoke directly, "Now that you are growing in your wings, you don't even pay much attention to the emperor's thoughts." ”

"It depends on what everybody thinks. ”

Lin Yi smiled and said: "The real Ming monarchs of all dynasties in history and the courtiers under them also respect each other, not looking at the position, only looking at who is polite." No matter how many classes of generals I am, if I don't cross the line between monarchs and ministers, why should I be afraid to think about what he thinks. ”

"Although the words are reasonable, but in the entire Southern Dynasty, how many people dare to think like this, dare to do this?" Luo Jilian smiled slightly mockingly, "The Southern Heavenly Academy is known as the best academy in the Southern Dynasty, there are so many students, not to mention the generals who can really lead the army, there are not many who are used to seeing and are comfortable to watch." ”

"Awesome, there are some. ”

Qi Zhuji glanced at her and retorted.

He didn't mean to raise the bar, when Luo Jilian said that, he naturally thought of Ni Yunshan and Wang Pingyang.

Luo Jilian smiled.

She wasn't angry in the slightest.

Because she had already seen Li Moxiao just now, and she thought that Ni Yunshan had deliberately gone to help Lin Yi before, so that the Sword Pavilion would be included in the Tie Ce Army. When Qi Zhuji said this at this time, she couldn't help but think that those really powerful characters in the Southern Heavenly Courtyard really seemed to naturally merge into Lin Yi's iron army.

......

"See General Lin. ”

After a difficult trek, these prisoners of Tongshan Prison finally arrived at the camp of the Tiece Army, and when some of the soldiers of the Tiece Army began to distribute the camp tents, one of the prisoners who was promoted came to a short distance in front of Lin Yi and saluted, "Thank you General Lin for saving your life." ”

"What's your name?"

Lin Yi bowed slightly and returned the salute, he looked at the prisoners who were very quiet at this time, although most of their feet were ulcerated, and said, "It seems that there are three more?"

"My name is Liu Huaiyao. ”

The prisoner replied quietly, " We heard General Qi say, you recruited us into the army, is to fight the party, you give us the right to bring five people out of each person, this is naturally a great reward for us, we dare not abuse this reward, we each selected to bring out people, some of them are absolutely good people, wronged and imprisoned, some are careless, committed serious crimes, some are really useful for the conquest of the party, and some, but offended the local magnates before they were imprisoned, it is impossible to live in Tongshan Prison, we carefully selected, in the end there are still three more, can not choose, so they informed General Qi of the difficulties, General Qi also approved。 ”

"You are Liu Huaiyao, who was originally a private school teacher, but when he saw injustice, he killed three people in anger, from Qingyang Town, Dingzhou?"

Lin Yi looked at this person with some surprise.

The prisoner in front of him seemed to be about forty years old, and his face was withered, but according to the records of the case file he had seen before, this man was only thirty-one years old.

Among the prisoners he selected in Tongshan Prison, this Liu Huaiyao was one of the first people he selected.

According to the records of the case, this private school gentleman was not a practitioner and had never practiced martial arts, but when he saw a local rich man bullying a mountain man who sold bamboo in the town, he killed him in anger, and he did not use a sword, but only sharpened green bamboo.

After killing three people in a row, he committed suicide by stabbing himself in the throat, but he was rescued and imprisoned in Tongshan Prison.

Lin Yi's gaze fell on his throat, and sure enough, he saw a hideous scar.

At this time, Liu Huaiyao lowered his head, the scar was not obvious in the night, but Lin Yi could see that the stab was very hard at that time, but the location was wrong, if it was deflected by another inch, the left side would be shattered the Adam's apple and esophagus, and it should not survive, and to the right would be the main blood veins were broken, and it could not be treated directly.

"General Lin, do you know me?" Liu Huaiyao's body shook slightly, and he was even more surprised.

"I've seen all the cases of you people, otherwise I wouldn't have picked you out of so many people first. Lin Yi nodded and said, "I'm just a little puzzled, according to the case file, the mountain man who sold bamboo is not related to you, although the rich man bullied him, but he didn't seem to want his life, why did you rise up and kill those three people?"

"I don't really know the mountain man, but I happen to hear the three men talking. ”

Liu Huaiyao took a deep breath and said slowly: "That mountain man has an old mother in his family, and a wife who is quite attractive. It wasn't that the rich man didn't know the mountain man before, but he happened to have seen the mountain man and the mountain man's wife before, so this time he saw the mountain man in the town, the rich man deliberately asked two of his attendants to provoke and bully, if the mountain man dared to fight back, the two of his followers would be deliberately injured, and then he would try to put the mountain man in prison, and then naturally he would do the thing of bullying the mountain man's wife. I happened to listen to the discussion between the rich man and the two entourage, and the mountain man was also patient when he was bullied by them, but the methods of these three people became more and more despicable, and even forced the mountain man to swallow horse manure on the ground. It's just that if this mountain man does it, no matter what, his family is doomed to ruin. The fate of my mother and wife may be very bleak, but I am different, I was alone at that time, my parents died early, I supported myself by teaching people to read and write, what I taught those children on weekdays was the truth of being a human being, and after thinking about it, I couldn't help but snatch the sharp bamboo of the mountain people and stab the three people. The three of them were defenseless against me, and in a moment's daze, they were all stabbed by me. ”

"I heard that you were rescued by suicide later, and you were originally going to be beheaded, but countless people in the town asked for your life, so you were put in Tongshan Prison. Lin Yi glanced at him and said, "It's just that the details of why you killed these three people are not recorded in the case file." ”

"I originally thought that I would die, so that I would not be punished again in prison, but although I was not beheaded, I knew that it was impossible to be pardoned according to the law, and that my appeal was useless, so I accepted it and worked hard in Tongshan with peace of mind. ”

Liu Huaiyao said calmly: "Some prison officers know how I went to prison, but they take care of me, so although I am weak, I have been free of illness and disaster over the years. ”

Lin Yi didn't judge these old things, he looked at Liu Huaiyao, who was calm-hearted, and said, "You came here on behalf of them, so naturally you want to ask me some questions?"

"General Qi's carriage goes first, and there are no sergeants along the way, aren't you afraid that after we leave Tongshan Prison, we will each escape?" Liu Huaiyao did not answer his question first, but asked rhetorically.

"If you believe it, you use it, and if you don't believe it, you don't need it. ”

Lin Yi said: "If it's not the person I want, there's no pity to escape." ”

"Most of us are not sergeants, even if we have the heart to repay our kindness desperately, do you really think we can be used on the battlefield?" Liu Huaiyao raised his head, looked at Lin Yi, and said seriously: "Of course we are not afraid of death, but I am afraid that we will mistake the general." ”

"In the past dynasties, those most outstanding figures, the most dead people around them, there were only a thousand people, such as the Liuchun Marquis under the seat of the founding emperor of the previous dynasty, he had 700 dead soldiers, but these 700 dead soldiers were more feared than 70,000 troops. The most terrifying thing about these dead soldiers is not absolute force, but the real heart of death. ”

Lin Yi laughed with some pride, he turned his head to look at the camp tents around him, and looked at those sergeants who were like "miscellaneous troops", "You should know Zhongli City, how the people in my Sword Pavilion fight, the people in the Sword Pavilion are real dead soldiers, and now, these people who came out alive from Zhongli City, the entire Tiece Army, are real dead soldiers." ”

"The cultivator's true element, flying sword, and all kinds of powerful weapons are all external forces. ”

Lin Yi retracted his gaze, he looked at Liu Huaiyao, and said, "Ordinary people have strong armaments, and their combat power will be good. But even if they had such weapons, it was unknown whether they would be able to kill the enemy to the death. But you are different, you killed three people with a sharp bamboo back then, if you were given the best armament, would you not dare to fight with the party members?"

"Of course I can kill people alone, but a group of terrible people can kill the enemy faster than a terrible person, and it is easier to make the enemy scared. ”

Lin Yi looked at Liu Huaiyao, who was silent, and said seriously: "I need sergeants who are like dead soldiers, but when I go to the party, I don't want you to die, but to get the victory you want as soon as possible." ”

......

As the night deepened, the camp was filled with the smell of some cool medicine in addition to the aroma of food.

Almost all of the injuries on the bodies of these people in Kiriyama are not difficult to heal.

Chen Baoyun and Lin Yi walked side by side to the outskirts of the camp, and stopped on the side of a ditch near the official road.

"Leaving?"

Chen Baoyun didn't say anything before, but Lin Yi looked at the look on her face at this time and guessed a certain possibility.

"You can not care too much about the emperor's thoughts now, but the Chen family can't care less. ”

Chen Baoyun took a deep breath, she turned her head to look at Lin Yi, her eyes were very bright in the dark, "The emperor will recruit your father back to Jiankang, he will be more at ease, if I stay in the Tiece Army for a long time, he may have many associations that are not favorable to us, and if I return to Jiankang, of course he will be more relieved." My father and my brother are both in the north, and when I go back to Jiankang City, I can watch a lot of things for them and for you. ”

Lin Yi was silent for a moment, "When are you leaving?"

"Just tonight. ”

Chen Baoyun looked at the flowing water in the ditch in front of him, and said: "I will leave tonight, but everyone outside will think that I am still in your army, whether it is against me or against you, I don't think that your way to the party is a smooth road, you should be careful." ”

Lin Yi shook his head: "I'm afraid it's not the party members who are difficult, it's not so much that I have to be careful, but that you have to be more careful when you go back to Jiankang." ”

"Chen Jianru has a high opinion of you, you are the kind of general who can be sworn to follow, because everyone will soon find that while you trust them, you are trustworthy enough. So even if Luo Jilian came at this time, it was because of your personality, which has nothing to do with luck. Chen Baoyun straightened his hair that was blown away by the wind, and then said: "If there is anything to worry about, I am only worried that you are not treacherous enough, that is, you will not be willing to act on the surface." You don't like to be on guard against others, and of course you don't like others to be on guard against you, so you didn't like the emperor before, and you won't like it in the future. ”

"When you say that, you're actually worried about the emperor, worried that he will do something that I can't bear in the future. ”

Lin Yi understood what she meant, he thought for a while, and said, "Since this is the case, then after you arrive in Jiankang, help me think of more ways to try to get my father to come to my side and not let him stay in Jiankang." ”

"Good. ”

Chen Baoyun nodded without hesitation.

At this time, she didn't think that she was helping Lin Yi, but helping the entire Southern Dynasty and the emperor.

"I owe you all the time. ”

Lin Yi looked at her side face in the dark, and at this moment when he was about to part, he said this.

Chen Baoyun smiled sweetly, "It's good to know." ”