The fall of Jicheng, Shuozhou, on the other side of Guanhe River, was unexpected.
Xia Qingsheng was promoted to Langjiang. The city was busy with the flow of soldiers and food. Everyone was talking about another war. It was probably because the war in Yuzhou was urgent and the army from Liangzhou was going to support Yuzhou. Two days later, the battle report came in and found something wrong. The Tabai Army had actually run to the other side of the Guanhe River.
Duan Xu led General Wu Lang to feign an attack on the northern city of Yuzhou, but secretly sent Xia Qingsheng to cross the frozen river when the snow and wind were strongest in the middle of the night and the Huqi people's archery was blocked, and unexpectedly captured Jicheng of Shuozhou.
As soon as Jicheng was captured, Duan Xu immediately abandoned the northern city of Yuzhou, and led the Tabai army northward without looking back to join the Tabai army in Jicheng, and fought a fierce battle with the Danzhi army in Shuozhou.
When He Simu heard the news, she didn't find it strange. When Duan Xu asked her about the wind direction, she knew what he was going to do.
The Huqi people were so fierce and warlike. It was a courageous thing for this young general to fight his way to the Danzhi homeland. I wonder if he is lucky enough.
These stories were extraordinary to Shen Ying. He held his chin with a face full of longing, and even slowed down the speed of eating melon seeds and peanuts. He said: "General Duan is so amazing. They all say that General Duan is the first general in Daliang to cross the Guanhe River!"
He Simu thought, yes, whether from the perspective of martial arts or military strategy, he doesn't look like someone that can be cultivated by a family of three generations of civil officials.
"I also want to be a man like General Duan in the future! I want to defend my country and avenge my father!" Shen Ying clenched his fists.
He Simu spit out the melon seed shells, turned around and looked at Shen Ying for a while, thinking that this seemed to be a good place to go.
"Do you want to follow Duan Xu?" He Simu asked.
Chen Ying was a little confused. He Simu thought for a moment and continued, "I've looked around the city these past few days. Everyone is living a miserable life. There are no good families worth entrusting. Duan Xu is not bad. I helped him by helping him. If he can come back alive, I can let you follow him. He has a prominent family background. You will never go hungry by his side in the future. Maybe you can even get promoted. Well... Isn't this what mortals want?"
As she was talking, she noticed that Chen Ying's eyes were not right, and he was about to burst into tears. He pulled He Simu's sleeve and said, "Little sister... are you going to leave me to someone else? I... I want to follow you... I can eat less rice... I won't even eat peanuts or melon seeds..."
He Simu looked at Chen Ying calmly for a while, wiped the tears from his face, and said in a gentle and decisive tone: "That's not possible either. I said early on that I will only take care of you for a while."
Are you kidding? Life and death are two different paths. How can a living person follow a dead person all his life
Chen Ying looked sullen and remained silent.
He Simu pinched his face and said, "You can follow Duan Xu if you want? He might die in Shuozhou and never come back."
Chen Ying raised his eyes and let out a sad "Ah...", as if he had suffered a second blow and could not accept the fact that his hero might die.
"What shall we do if Brother General dies?"
He Simu thought, this is a good question. She still has many curiosity about Duan Xu. If he died and became a wandering soul, his name would be in the ghost book. Then his life would be clear to her.
She was somewhat looking forward to it.
Next was the Sword of Delusion in his hand. She didn't want her uncle and aunt's treasure to be buried underground with him and never see the light of day.
He Simu then asked Chen Ying: "Do you remember a few days ago when we were chatting with the neighbors, there was a person who was the widow of a suona craftsman... named..."
"Widow? What's that?" Shen Ying showed a confused expression.
"She's the one whose husband died."
"Oh! Aunt Song?"
"Yes, go and invite her over to crack some melon seeds, and bring her suona as well."
Shen Ying jumped off the bench obediently and ran away.
Not long after, he led a woman in her forties into the yard. The woman was holding a box in her hand, with a white flower on her head, and she looked a little fat and heavy, with a depressed look.
She lifted the curtain and walked into the room where He Simu was. He Simu asked her to sit down, so she sat down and put the box on the table and asked, "What do you want the suona for, girl... I always feel sad when I see this thing recently."
She stroked the box and said, "My husband has been preparing for weddings and funerals for his whole life, but when he finally dies, no one plays his funeral song..."
Aunt Song's husband was the only suona player in the city before, and he died in the massacre.
He Simu placed the melon seeds and peanuts in front of her and waited quietly for her to calm down before speaking.
"Auntie Song, can you lend me this suona?"
Aunt Song was surprised and asked, "Miss He can play the suona?"
"I learned a little bit before." He Simu said with a smile.
Aunt Song agreed immediately. He Simu took the suona and lubricated the reed. He recalled carefully for a while, then raised his hand and sang "A Hundred Birds Paying Homage to the Phoenix".
Aunt Song was very surprised. She clapped her hands while listening, and her eyes became red. She thought she would never hear the suona again.
"Auntie Song, is my music still in tune?" He Simu asked after he finished playing the song.
Aunt Song nodded hurriedly and said, "The girl has great skills, and she is on target."
He Simu asked Chen Ying again, and Chen Ying's eyes sparkled with admiration. He also said that the music was played well and not out of tune.
Luckily it was okay, she couldn't tell whether the tune was correct or not.
He Simu asked Aunt Song if she could lend her the suona for a while.
"What do you want the suona for?"
"Someone I know is in danger. If he dies, I plan to send him off." He Simu said lightly.
I think if he died, his coffin would have to be transported from Liangzhou back to Nandu. It would be quite sad if there was no funeral music on the road.
He sang a funeral song in exchange for his sword that could break delusion.
Anyway, he was dead by then, so he couldn't protest. After all, it was an exchange of one thing for another, and it didn't violate her principles.
The person was not dead yet, but He Simu had already completed the planning of the funeral and exchanged half a basket of eggs for a one-month rental of the suona.
Chen Ying sent Aunt Song out the door and came back skipping. He stood on tiptoe on the table, looking at the suona in the box with curiosity.
"Little sister, how come you know everything? You can even play the suona!"
"I have nothing to do." He Simu picked up the suona and turned it in his hands: "My father taught me this when I was a child. There are almost no instruments he can't play."
Although she was born as an evil ghost, she was raised in the human world before inheriting the throne of the ghost king. Her parents seemed to want her to be like a living person. So now she can barely pretend to be a human without being exposed.
Of course, it’s a different story if you meet that little fox Duan Xu.
"Little sister, what does your father do?" Shen Ying jumped onto a small stool, sat upright and asked.
He Simu thought about it, and turned the trumpet in her hand a few times before she found a similar description: "My father... used to be a butcher's manager. There is a place in my hometown where all the people living there are butchers."
If her father, the former Ghost King, heard her analogy, he would definitely applaud and say it was brilliant.
"Ah, butcher, like Zhang the butcher who sells pork on the street?"
"That's about right." He Simu smiled, his eyes becoming somewhat nonchalant: "Butchers are very difficult to manage."
"How did the little sister's parents die?"
Chen Ying was still at the age of speaking without restraint, and he asked whatever questions he wanted to ask, not knowing that some questions were inappropriate.
He Simu glanced at Chen Ying, who was frightened by the dark cloud in her eyes and kept silent.
She just smiled and ignored the topic, and asked Shen Ying to go to the street to buy her two taels of soy sauce. Shen Ying immediately ran away as if he had been pardoned.
After Chen Ying walked out of the courtyard, He Simu took out the pearl that had just trembled from his arms and asked, "Feng Yi, what's wrong?"
"I'm here to report the situation to you." A young man's cheerful voice came from the other end.
"I went to look up Duan Shunxi in detail. He is the third son of the Duan family, one of the four children. He was famous for his talent when he was young. He had a photographic memory and could memorize more than a hundred poems and songs. When he was seven years old, his grandmother in Daizhou fell seriously ill, so he was sent to serve her. During this period, he often published articles and became very famous in Daizhou. These experiences were quite common. The only unusual thing was that he encountered robbers when he returned to Beijing from Daizhou at the age of fourteen."
"All his attendants and servants were killed, but he survived and traveled all the way to Nandu. He settled down in Nandu from then on."
He Simu knuckled on the table and said thoughtfully: "All his servants died, and he was the only one who survived? What happened to the old lady of the Duan family later?"
"Not long after Duan Shunxi arrived in Nandu, the old lady passed away."
In this case, almost all the people who knew him during the seven years in Daizhou are no longer alive.
What a coincidence! Is there such a coincidence in the world
Or is he trying to hide something
He Simu cracked melon seeds, thinking that this little general was really a treasure. The more he dug, the more he found. It just so happened that she was a little hungry recently, so she could go to the Shuozhou front to find some food. And by the way, she could go and see if the little general was alive and well.
It was a dark night. In front of Shuozhou city, the sounds of killing shook the sky and the sounds of swords clashed.
He Simu concealed her true form and walked slowly amidst the swords and bloodshed. She was wearing her favorite red and white three-layer gown with curved hems, and the jade pendant on her waist was sparkling.
Continuous death, continuous soul fire, bright lights rising into the sky, reincarnation. The bloody battlefield is like a grand festival of sky lanterns in the eyes of evil spirits.
She squatted on the ground, selected a dying Huche with a plump skull, and touched his eyes with two fingers. He blinked and saw the evil ghost in front of him.
"I can fulfill one of your wishes and then eat you. Is there anything you want?" He Simu asked him in Huqi.
Seeing his usual confused look, she briefly explained the pros and cons in Huqi language. The Huqi man grabbed her dress with one hand and called out tremblingly: "Lord Cangshen..."
He Simu turned his head away: "I'm not some Cang God."
“Lord Cangshen… kill that… guy!” The Huchi man raised his finger, his face covered in blood and his features could not be seen clearly, but the hatred and anger in his eyes were clear.
He Simu looked in the direction of his finger. In the world in her eyes that was illuminated by the soul fire and was as bright as day, Duan Xu was riding a dark horse, wearing armor and holding a blade, fighting in the crowd, and blood was splattered three feet away.
His expression was calm and indifferent, without any anger or hatred. However, beneath the calm surface of the lake, there seemed to be something hidden.
She couldn't see what was hidden.
"You want me to kill that man?" He Simu pointed at Duan Xu and turned to her quasi-food.