In the dark and long mountain road, Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu led their troops and marched quickly towards the place where the Hulan army had to transport grain to the rear.
The mountain road was dark and damp, and the ground was slippery, but Duan Xu's steps were still very fast, and he was already suppressing his speed - Han Lingqiu was the same. He selected soldiers with fast feet, and the whole team was flying.
Duan Xu could feel the constant gazes from behind him, and he said leisurely, "I'm very sleepy. Captain Han, would you like to say a few words to me to cheer me up?"
Han Lingqiu mumbled no, but Duan Xu could clearly feel his tense and stiff body. Duan Xu turned around and said helplessly, "Are you still worried that I'm a spy and will throw you to the Huqi people and never come back?"
"I don't have that intention."
"But Captain Han originally came from Danzhi. If he surrendered to the Huqi people, he would be like a fish in water. Wouldn't that be faster?"
Duan Xu put the hat of treason on Han Lingqiu, but Han Lingqiu naturally refused and immediately lifted the hat.
"I have never hidden my origins from Wu Langjiang or Tabai. I no longer remember anything about my time in Danzhi. Since I was rescued by a Han couple and brought to Daliang, I have been a Daliang person."
"You just don't remember. If you still have a wife, children, parents or brothers in Danzhi, can you still say without any worries that you are from Daliang?" Duan Xu quickly put the hat back on him.
Han Lingqiu was silent for a moment, then struggled to say, "General, I was only fourteen years old when I came to Daliang."
How could a fourteen-year-old boy have a wife and children? He had wounds all over his body, new and old, and he didn’t look like he had any parents who cared for him.
"Even if you have no relatives, what if you were very close to the Huqi people like He Yan before, or simply trusted them wholeheartedly and worked for them?" Duan Xu pressed on.
"I don't want to think about the past. I just think of the past as dead."
"What if you remember it one day?"
"That's someone else's life, not Han Lingqiu's." Han Lingqiu finally got rid of the accusation that Duan Xu had put on him.
He did not notice that he was the one who originally suspected Duan Xu, but Duan Xu turned the tables and the debate turned into a debate for him to prove his innocence.
Duan Xu laughed heartily and stopped asking questions, seeming to be satisfied with the answer. He said calmly, "Don't be nervous, I just want to get closer to you and talk more."
… I’ve never seen anyone use this kind of topic to get close to someone.
They chatted quietly as they walked quickly. Soon, the mountain road came to an end and the light became brighter. At the end of the mountain road, there were some huge moss-covered rocks. Hiding behind the rocks and looking down, they could see the crooked official road at the foot of the mountain.
This official road is indeed a bit shabby and looks dilapidated. I'm afraid it's a legacy from the previous dynasty. It hasn't been renovated until now. The Danzhi took over this territory but seemed too lazy to manage it properly.
Duan Xu led his troops to hide behind a huge rock and ordered scouts to investigate the situation. He ordered the soldiers to form a battle formation and wait for the troops to reach the foot of the mountain. He first shot the captain to death. After the captain was killed, he first used archers to knock down 70% of the enemy, and then rushed down from the left wing to destroy the enemy convoy.
"The target is the grain trucks, don't fight to the death." Duan Xu repeated again and again.
As soon as he finished speaking, the scout came to report that the grain team had appeared. Duan Xu asked the soldiers for a □□, took out an arrow and put it on the arrow path, held up the crossbow with one arm as a support, leaned forward slightly, squinted his eyes and aimed at the calibrated mountain.
The boulder was far from the official road, and there was a strong wind, so even for an excellent archer, it was difficult to aim at a person on horseback. The second step of arrow rain suppression only required the general position to be correct, and the scale was important.
But the one in Duan Xu's hand is meant to kill with one strike.
Han Lingqiu was a little worried and was about to persuade Duan Xu to replace him, but he saw Duan Xu pull the trigger of the crossbow without blinking in the cold wind.
In an instant, the arrow broke through the air, passing straight and swiftly, making a tearing sound, and accurately pierced through the eyes of the Huchi man on the tall horse leading the team.
The Huqi man's head exploded instantly, and he screamed and fell off his horse. The Danzhi soldiers who were transporting grain became alert.
Duan Xu smiled, raised his hand and said, "Release the arrow."
Arrows rained down like rain, and the enemy screamed incessantly, but Han Lingqiu stared at Duan Xu in a daze. The image of the arrow piercing his eye just now lingered in his mind.
Duan Xu was used to aiming at the eyes of his prey when shooting arrows.
Many familiar scenes flashed through his mind, making his head ache, but Duan Xu said, "Captain Han, what are you standing there for? It's time to get off."
He leaned against the stone wall and jumped down lightly, drew out the Delusion-Breaking Sword from his waist, held it in his hands left and right, and spun it, splashing blood and killing people. The few surviving Danzhi soldiers were quickly wiped out, and they took control of the grain cart.
Han Lingqiu was a step slower, and when he ran to Duan Xu, Duan Xu suddenly fixed his eyes and pushed him away.
An arrow grazed Duan Xu's arm, leaving a long bloody streak. The Daliang soldier standing between Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu was unable to dodge and was shot through by the arrow, slowly falling to the ground.
Duan Xu looked up and saw a group of Huqi people with bows and swords emerging from the mountain on the other side, surrounding them from a high position. There seemed to be thousands of them, surrounding them like a huge black cloud.
He was silent for a moment, then laughed and said, "Ah, it turns out that the mantis stalks the cicada while the oriole is behind. We are ambushed."
This was really an unfortunate coincidence. It seemed as if he had really brought them to the Huche people, leaving them like meat buns to beat dogs and never to return.
The leading Huqi man stood on the cliff and whispered something in the Huqi language to the person who had just shot the arrow. He then gestured to Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu, and then stretched out his palm and drew a line in the air.
This gesture indicated that Duan Xu and Han Lingqiu were to be captured alive, and the rest were to be killed without mercy.
Duan Xu glanced at Han Lingqiu, then slowly turned his head to look at the Huqi people who surrounded them. He weighed the sword in his hand, and blood flowed from his injured arm across the word "broken" on the sword.
Just as the words were gleaming, a sudden voice rang out in the valley. The same meaning was spoken in both Chinese and Huqi.
"Wait a minute."
It was a low, slow female voice that broke the tense atmosphere for a moment.
Under the cliff above the official road, in the fierce north wind in broad daylight, a ball of azure flame suddenly ignited out of thin air. The strange flame seemed to be a rootless tree, but it burned extremely fiercely, and the cold wind could not blow it even a little.
White silk threads grew out of the flames, wrapping the flames layer by layer like a cocoon, turning into a jade-like hollow ice-crack hexagonal palace lantern. From the top of the lamp grew a slender locust wood lamp pole, which was shiny black.
A woman gradually emerged from the lamp pole. She sat on the lamp pole with her legs crossed, stroking the strange light with her left hand and resting her right hand on her knee. She was wearing a gorgeous red and white three-layered gown with a curved hem. The outermost layer of the rust-red gown was embroidered with flowing clouds and honeysuckle patterns. Her long hair fell to her waist and was tied with a red headband.
In contrast to her gorgeous clothes, her face was as pale as paper, with only the small mole beside her eye standing out. She was truly as white as ice and as delicate as a living person.
Carry a lantern in the dark to guide people.
Holding lanterns in the daytime, clearing the way for ghosts.
The woman smiled slightly and said to the Huqi soldiers on the hillside in Huqi language: "I am an evil ghost and don't want to get involved in your affairs. It's just that I was greedy and ate the little brother who was shot dead by you. He asked me to save these Daliang soldiers, and I agreed."
The soldier who had just been shot through by a Hucheti arrow fell in a pool of blood, with teeth marks faintly visible on his neck.
She tilted her head slightly and said, "Dear warriors of Danzhi, can you please give me, a demon, some face and let them go?"
The people on and off the mountain all looked as if they had seen a ghost in broad daylight - this really was a ghost. For a moment, the world was silent, and most people were rubbing their eyes, wondering what they had seen, and could not respond to her immediately.
Duan Xu stared at the strange female ghost in the air without blinking, pursed his lips, and called out, "He Xiaoxiao."
The female ghost didn't even look at him, as if she didn't know who he was calling.
Duan Xu laughed and said, "Stop pretending."
The ghost girl seemed to chuckle softly and slowly turned her head. A black crow landed on her shoulder, and then a black rain of crows densely fell on the mountain, each one with its black eyes open, looking around. Not a single crow called, and the scene was eerily quiet.
She blinked her dark eyes and said with a smile, "Who dares to bully you? I didn't expect that our little fox would also make mistakes."
The Huchi people on the mountainside finally reacted. They were also obviously shocked by this strange scene. After a rustling sound, the leading officer shouted loudly: "God bless you, how dare the pagans pretend to be gods..."
Before he could even utter the word "ghost", He Simu let out a faint hiss, and a blue ghost fire suddenly ignited on his body. After a scream, he instantly turned into charred bones and collapsed to the ground.
He Simu turned his eyes over and said with a smile in Hu Qi language: "Do you think I am really discussing this with you? You may not be tactful when you are alive, but you will recognize me when you die."
When she appeared in this cold and beautiful true form, she had an aura that was completely different from He Xiaoxiao's. Her laziness and giggling were completely gone, and even when she smiled, she looked fierce, arrogant, and impatient, as if she was a knife that would cut you if you just looked at it.
When the Huqi people saw that the situation had finally eased, they turned around and shouted to the God of the Sky to bring disaster, and fled away from this strange and dangerous place, scaring away a flock of crows.
Duan Xu turned around and saw the dazed Daliang soldiers around him. They seemed to be in some kind of hallucination and stood there motionless. He was silent for a moment and walked to the Daliang soldier who was shot by an arrow and eventually died in the mouth of the evil ghost.
He was a child from Liangzhou, no more than fifteen years old.
He squatted down, closed the soldier's wide-open eyes, and whispered, "Take a rest."
Then he stood up and walked step by step to He Simu's side, holding the suspended locust wood lamp pole with his injured and bloody hand. She turned her head and looked down at him condescendingly as crows flew all over the sky.
There were a few spots of blood on her face, probably from when she bit the soldier's neck just now.
Duan Xu then took out a handkerchief from his bosom with his clean hand and handed it to her as he did when they first met, saying, "Wipe the blood off your face, Miss Evil Ghost."
He Simu glanced at the handkerchief in his hand, then moved his gaze to his face and said coldly, "And then?"
"Then in exchange..." Duan Xu touched her face with the handkerchief. Her face was as cold as the wind.
He slowly wiped the blood off her face, and even said playfully, "Miss Evil Ghost, can you please leave me this memory of encountering a ghost?"
Judging from the dazed state of the Daliang soldiers, they probably didn't remember how they escaped death. I think the Danzhi soldiers would not remember why they retreated or why their leader died.
He Simu moved slightly closer to him, staring into his eyes from a very close distance, trying to find a hint of fear or disgust in his eyes to prove that this playful and calm appearance was all a disguise.
Duan Xu blinked, but the smile in his eyes was not fake at all. He said, "Why, do you need to introduce yourself again?"
"My name is Duan Xu, the Xu in Fenglangjuxu, and my courtesy name is Shunxi. May I ask what kind of ghost you are, young lady?"
He Simu lowered his eyes and smiled gently, then raised his eyes to look into his clear eyes, and said word by word:
"I am not talented, but the King of All Ghosts."
The words are humble, but the tone is contemptuous.
She took the bloody handkerchief from him with a smile, wiped the blood off his injured left hand, and said slowly: "Obviously, my name is not He Xiaoxiao, and you are not Duan Xu."