In the afternoon, the imperial city of Qingshui Kingdom was full of dry and stuffy heat, and at noon today, the heavy rain finally stopped, and the blazing sun shone on this scarred land.

The people did not rejoice because the cruel heavy rain finally receded, the cessation of the heavy rain at this time seemed to have nothing to do with them, this season's seedlings have long been rotten, most of the grain stored in the family has been paid as a tax two days before the heavy rain begins, and there is at least half a year before the next grain sowing to maturity, and how to survive this half year has become the biggest problem faced by all the people.

Every household in the imperial city has closed its door, and the rice in the rice market has risen to one or two silver and a bucket, you must know that Qingshui is a big grain producer, and in the past, it only took two strings of copper coins to buy a piece of rice.

A red horse carried two young men and girls dressed in white out of the imperial city.

Along the way, Yuan Liang had seen countless sad people, but he couldn't stop, because there was a more important place, the Yanjiang River.

The Lijiang River is a large river that runs through the east and west of Qingshui Country, and it is also the greatest reliance for Qingshui Country to maintain abundant water and soil and abundant food. The heavy rain of more than half a decade, the continuous convergence of tributary rainwater, makes the water level of the Lijiang River unprecedentedly high, the shallows where the people often go to play in the water have already reached several zhang deep, the river water has been infinitely close to the top of the embankment, and the embankment is already crumbling.

Yuan Liang and Yuan Shu looked at the outrageously high river, their brows furrowed.

"Brother, the heavy rain has stopped, this embankment should be fine. Yuan Shu gently tugged at Yuan Liang's sleeve.

"How can it be so simple, although the heavy rain here has stopped, but it is still unknown whether it is still raining upstream, not to mention, the tributaries that have accumulated a lot of water are still sending water to the river in a steady stream, this thousand-mile long causeway, I am afraid that it is not guaranteed. Yuan Liang clenched his palm tightly, at such a time of crisis, the river embankment was unguarded, and he must return to his father as soon as possible and organize the people to take care of this thousand-mile river embankment. But...... Didn't my father really think of this kind of thing?

"This little boy ......" A slightly shy call interrupted Yuan Liang's thoughts, and a young lady with clear eyebrows looked at Yuan Liang shyly, with residual tears in her eyes, "Can you come over for a while?" The little lady was slightly ragged, but very clean.

"Oh, where are you going?" Yuan Liang looked at the handsome little lady in front of him, who was about thirteen or fourteen years old, and he didn't seem to know her.

Xiao Niang bit her lip and didn't speak, just pointed to a small dilapidated temple not far away.

Yuan Liang was puzzled, hesitated and did not reply. Looking at Yuan Liang's hesitation, the beautiful little lady lowered her head and walked quickly towards the dilapidated small temple. Seeing this, Yuan Liang had no choice but to pull Yuan Shu and strode to follow.

— — — —

In the heart of the lake of Tai'an City, there is a huge building ship quietly moored, the name of this ship is "Frost Sky", it is a five-story warship, developed by the Mo family with the cooperation of 100 people, can carry 3,000 soldiers, not only the appearance is majestic, and the formation weapons on the ship are numerous, the guard is strict, the attack and defense are effective, just like a water fortress.

When the Mo family first dedicated this boat, the empress Long Yan Dayue immediately rewarded 100,000 purple stone beads, imitated them in large quantities by the Ministry of Industry, and named the ship "Frost Sky" and placed it in her own Jianlong Lake.

At this time, there were only five people sitting in the Frost Heaven Banquet Hall.

The woman dressed in the ink-colored silk embroidered gold dragon robe sat on the throne, playing with a strange crossbow with an inky blue luster, and the empress Qin Gong seemed to be in a very good mood today, and actually gave each of the four people present a cup of "Mirror Flower Water Moon".

This "mirror flower water moon" is an extremely precious immortal wine, drink it can experience a very real dream, the monk drinks it, the dream is longer, and can even slightly improve the cultivation, but due to the extremely high price, a cup will cost five hundred purple stone beads, ordinary monks drink it, it is also very luxurious.

The empress slowly got up, picked up an arrow that also exuded an inky blue luster, loaded it on the crossbow, and aimed at the gray-robed old monk sitting at the bottom, "Zhengjue, be careful." When the gray-clothed old monk nodded, she pulled the trigger.

rumble

A loud roar like a morning bell echoed throughout the ship.

The gray-clothed old monk made a handprint, and a heavy golden light mask appeared on his body, but a trace of cracks was faintly visible, scattered and cracked like a spider web at the center of a point.

The other three people present couldn't help but be stunned when they saw this, they must know that the strength of the Vajra Mudra of Buddhism can be called the first in the world, not to mention that it was used by the gray-robed old monk Master Zhengjue of the Yuan Xi Realm, and the strength of the killing power of this bow and crossbow is simply unheard of.

"Amitabha. The gray-robed old monk recited the Buddha's name, dispelled the shattered light shield, and bowed to the empress and said, "Congratulations, Your Majesty, under the Yuanxi Realm, this crossbow can kill it all." ”

The empress showed a look of satisfaction, and said lightly: "In the future, this crossbow will be called the god-killing crossbow." ”

"If you want to use this crossbow to kill the Yuanxi Realm monk, does Master Enlightenment have a way?" The empress held the crossbow in her left hand and gently rubbed the trigger with her right hand.

The gray-robed old monk pondered seriously for a moment, and said: "If a hundred people hold crossbows and heavy horses to surround and kill together, the strong people in the Yuanxi Realm will also be consumed to death, but the crossbowmen and heavy horses should also be one out of ten." ”

A flash of sharpness flashed in the empress's eyes, and she asked, "If I send a thousand crossbowmen to cooperate with the heavy cavalry, I may be able to destroy the strong people of the God Guarding Realm?"

The gray-robed old monk shook his head, "There is basically no chance, although the cultivation avenue is divided into nine floors, but this last three floors, from Yuan Xi to Shen Shou to Shen Shen, the gap between each heavy building is a moat, although this god-killing crossbow is strong, but even if it is surrounded by 10,000 crossbowmen, the old monster of the Divine Guardian Realm can easily escape." ”

The empress nodded thoughtfully and looked at the long-bearded Daoist: "Yuan Qian, my mountain family in Dongzhou, how many strong people are above the Yuan Xi Realm?"

The long-bearded Taoist arched his hand and said: "Your Majesty, you can rest assured, three years ago, my Dongzhou Yishan Mine disappeared, and there is no sect willing to use purple stone beads to pile up the ancestors of the Divine Shou Realm, plus the two ancestors of my Yuan family went out of the mountain to kill the ancestors of the Zheng family and the Zhang family, and the ancestors of the Dan family of Bao Danzhai sat down last year, in addition to the three ancestors of my Yuan family, there is only one ancestor of the Heavenly Family who has something to do with the Heavenly Family of Zhongzhou in Dongzhou. As for the Transformation Realm, the entire Dongzhou is only one of my family's Qingsong Ancestors. ”

Yuan Qian had a little pride, but then turned into worry, it's been three years, but the Qingsong Ancestor is still missing......"

The empress showed a hint of complicated emotions, and in an instant, she returned to normal, and she asked the man in silver light armor, "Masaki, how is the training of the heavy crossbow camp?"

"Your Majesty, the heavy crossbow battalion has fully adapted to the heavy crossbow and can hit every shot. The silver-armored man said respectfully.

"The Mo family has sent a message that the first batch of 1,000 god-killing crossbows has been made and will be sent to the heavy crossbow camp tomorrow. Looking at Ma Saki who was full of surprise in her eyes, the dragon robed woman added: "Give you three days to test the crossbow, and I will personally go to the parade." ”

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Masaki bowed down to receive the order.

"Wang Ye, how is the preparation of the Transsion Jade Plate?"

The middle-aged man in the purple official uniform of the Ministry of Industry bowed down and said: "Your Majesty, after two years, our Ministry of Industry has completed the placement of all the sound transmission jade plates of one hundred and thirty-six counties and nine hundred and eighty-four counties in the twenty-seven prefectures of Dongzhou. ”

The woman in the dragon robe nodded with satisfaction, and raised her glass to the next four people, "Let's drink this cup, July 15, prepare to start, this battle is over, and in the future, in this Dongzhou, the monk is just a livelihood." ”

"I would like to share your Majesty's worries. The next four people said in unison.

As soon as he drank the glass of Chinese wine, he heard the voice of the empress mixed with pride and infinite ambition in the coldness.

"This is just the beginning. ”

— — — —

Walking to the gate of the dilapidated small temple, the beautiful young lady hesitated for a moment, looked at Yuan Liang and said as if requesting: "This son, can you let the sister wait here for a while?"

Yuan Liang looked around and saw that there was no danger, so he touched Yuan Shu's head and asked her to wait at the door, and then followed the beautiful little lady into the small temple.

The small temple is small and dilapidated.

There was nothing in the temple except for a half-tattered statue of the god and a large pile of straw laid out in a messy manner.

The beautiful little lady suddenly pulled up Yuan Liang, walked to the straw, quickly untied her shirt, and grabbed Yuan Liang's hand and stuffed it to her chest.

Her cheeks were as red as boiled crabs, and she whispered to Yuan Liang: "Childe, I only need a bucket of rice." ”

Yuan Liang was stunned by this sudden move, until the soft touch from his hand woke him up, Yuan Liang quickly withdrew his arm as if he had touched the charcoal fire, but was stopped by the beautiful little lady with all her strength, she hurriedly took off her clothes more, hugged Yuan Liang's arm tightly, as if a drowning person was grasping the last straw on the shore, and said urgently with a crying voice: "Half a bucket of rice is fine, Childe, you can do anything!"

Yuan Liang mourned in his heart and nodded slowly.

Seeing Yuan Liang nodding, the beautiful little lady finally relaxed and closed her eyes tightly.

Immediately, she felt a pair of strong hands help her up steadily, and slowly tied her clothes.

She opened her eyes in confusion and met a pair of dark eyes.

"Why?" came a clear, clean voice.

She burst into tears in an instant, and said incoherently: "My brother is dying, we have been eating wild grass and wild vegetables these days, my brother has been asleep for two days, he is only three years old, he needs to eat porridge, I, I don't want this, but I need rice." ”

Yuan Liang patted her on the back gently, "Don't be afraid, take me to see your brother, I'll save him." ”

The little lady's name is Hongyu, and she lives on the outskirts of the northern city of the imperial city.

Riding a jujube red horse, carrying a handsome boy and two girls, one big and one small, galloped towards the outskirts of the city.

The relatively high terrain on the outskirts of Beicheng has led countless displaced people to live in the empty stables of villagers' homes, some to pile up a few bundles of straw and hide under the eaves of other houses, and many more people have taken refuge in the woods on the outskirts of the city, relying on trees to shelter from the wind and rain.

The red grapefruit house is in a small dilapidated thatched house just half a mile from the woods.

The father of the family has long since died, and the mother was forced to die because she could not pay the taxes and grain on the day before the heavy rain, leaving only Hongyu and her three-year-old brother to rely on each other.

When he was only ten steps away from the thatched house of Hongyu's family, Yuan Liang suddenly stopped, because he smelled a smell of meat.