On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, thirteen years after the signing of the Alliance of Shangzi, Chen and Xiliang went to war again.
The Qixi night battle, like lightning across the night sky, will end in less than a day.
Before the war letter was even sent to the Liao, Yuan, and Chen dynasties, the party army was recalled and returned without success.
On the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, at the Battle of Tongguan, the Qinling Mountains and the Xiliang army who entered the city killed a total of 17,000 people and captured 13,000.
The next day, Xiliang Helianda made an emergency report and recalled the regular army and cavalry team disguised as horse thieves, gathered the remnants, and retreated thirty miles.
That night, Bian Lingbai was seriously ill and died.
In the early morning of the next day, the newly appointed imperial envoy rushed to Tongguan, reorganized the army, and took over the border commander Bai Junquan.
"Before you set off, the shepherd told me that your thinking is clear, your work is very organized, and you can take into account all aspects. Now that you see it, you can't help but sigh and sigh."
Zheng Li was in his sixtieth year and had a snow-white beard. When Duan Ling's grandfather was still alive, this old man once led Nan Chen's army to fight outside the Great Wall. It was the best choice to invite him out of the mountains to sit in Tongguan.
Duan Ling said ashamedly: "I don't dare to do it. Fortunately, Mr. Fei and Wu Du are there."
Standing in front of Zheng Li, Duan Ling really had to be humble. Although the Tongguan situation was brought about by himself, he was full of loopholes in the process of carrying out the mission, and nearly lost his life twice. Can't do it.
Zheng Li kept Wang and Xie still, and simply reorganized the army. Duan Ling saw that Zheng Li was going to use Xie Hao soon, so he knew that there was no need to remind him which one was available. Although the mission at Tongguan was over, Duan Ling still had a lot of messes, and he had to clean it up. He immediately said goodbye to Zheng Li and went back to Xichuan.
"I met you, seven years ago, in the medicine hall in Shangjing."
Wu Du finally remembered.
On the night of Qixi Festival, Duan Ling finally told him: "Yes, it's me. You even used the Golden Crow to startle me."
"But you..." Wu Du really couldn't understand, the events of the past flooded into his mind in an instant.
After the torrential rain in autumn, Tongguan was washed with clear sky, and the carriage set off again for the south. It was still the dumb coachman with Wu Du and Duan Ling in the carriage.
After leaving Qinling, when entering Bashan, Duan Ling asked the driver to stop the car on the side of the road. The two roads were full of maple trees. Duan Ling helped Wu Du down, rested for a while in the maple forest, and went to fetch water to change him. medicine.
Behind him was a flaming maple leaf. Wu Du injured his palm and sprained his ankle during the battle. He got out of the car and entered the mountain, sat on a big rock, and stepped on the horse with his bare right foot. Duan Ling adjusted the ointment and changed the dressing for him. First, he relieved the swelling of the ankle, and then untied the bandage on his left hand to stop the bleeding and build muscle.
"The injury on the hand will heal in about a month." Duan Ling said to Wu Du, "If it doesn't purify, it will be fine, but the ankle will take a while, and the injury will take a hundred days. Be careful these days."
Wu Du fixed his eyes on Duan Ling and replied, "It doesn't matter."
"You are so good at Qinggong." Duan Ling said, "Don't leave any root causes."
Wu Du said, "What did you want to tell me earlier? After a while, there is no one around here, so I can finally say it."
Duan Ling smiled at him and said, "The day before you were in the cave, you said something and wanted to tell me, what is it?"
The previous night, before the two had time to talk, they were interrupted by the party's withdrawal of troops, followed by endless incidents. In the past two days of Wu Du, I couldn't think of why Duan Ling would be in that scene seven years ago. Appeared in a medicine hall in Shangjing on a snowy night.
But Duan Ling also said that his father was a medicine dealer, so maybe he was the shopkeeper of the medicine hall
"Let me ask first, why did I see you at that time?" Wu Du frowned and said, "Aren't you from Xunbei?"
"Fate." Duan Ling replied, "The fate of our meeting was buried back then."
Duan Ling carefully placed the medicine on Wu Du's hand.
Wu Du unnaturally glanced at the maple trees that covered the mountains and plains, and the red leaves were falling everywhere.
"Fate? I..." Wu Du said, "I have sworn an oath at the teacher's door in my life, that I cannot marry, start a family, or even start a career."
"Why?" Duan Ling asked.
"Assassins are all like this." Wu Du replied, "If you have a family and a lover, you will have a weakness. If you kill your enemy's family, the offspring of the other party will come to seek revenge, and they will kill your wife and children and set your house on fire. What kind of future can a person who is committed to killing people have a future?"
"But what about your master and mistress?" Duan Ling asked again, "Didn't they also get married?"
"They are not married." Wu Du replied, "I don't have a name, but in my heart, she is always the wife of a teacher. Later, when the city of Shangzi was broken, the teacher died in battle, and the wife also died in love. This white tiger and bright light armor on your body, The whereabouts are unknown, and the swordsmanship of mountains and rivers has also fallen into the hands of Zhao Kui, who came to rescue."
Duan Ling asked, "That's why you came to Zhao Kui to find it, right?"
Wu Du nodded and said, "Zhao Kui knew that once I found it, I would leave, so I hid it."
Duan Ling asked: "After finding it, what are you going to do? Restoring the division?"
Wu Du replied: "The division has fallen, and the original inheritance has long since fallen away. Zhenshanhe doesn't know where to go, but Baihutang still has a responsibility to protect the emperor in this chaotic world."
"But the emperor doesn't need me to protect him." Wu Du said, "Although the prince intends to recruit me, I know that he wants an obedient assassin, not a descendant of Baihutang. In the end, he still doesn't need me. ."
Duan Ling thought that I need it, I need it.
Wu Du said: "No matter whether it is Zhao Kui, the shepherd, or the crown prince, except for the late emperor, what everyone wants is a killing knife, but no one can blame anyone.
Duan Ling hesitated, but Wu Du thought he wanted to comfort him, but instead he patted him on the shoulder and said, "Shan'er, what about you? What are your plans? I know you want to stand out, and you are already ten years old this year. I'm six years old, and I'm by my side all day long, so I can't help but delay you."
"What... what?" Duan Ling suddenly felt amused and felt warm in his heart.
"As you said, seven years ago, I originally went to Beijing to perform a mission, and it was fate that I met you at that time." Wu Du added, "God sent you to me, maybe this is the reason. Fate is still there."
When Duan Ling heard this, he couldn't help but have mixed feelings in his heart. Is it fate? Maybe from the moment he was born, everything was doomed. It was doomed that he was the prince of Nan Chen and the son of Li Jianhong. He would be taken to Shangjing one day, and it was destined to meet Wu Du on that day.
"I don't have a family." Wu Du said, "But you are different, you can't just follow me for a lifetime, go back and think about it, just turned sixteen years old, you have a lot to do in the future..."
"Of course I'll follow you for the rest of my life." Duan Ling wrapped the bandage on Wu Du's hand, wrapped it up, and said, "I don't want to start a family, but it's okay to start a business."
"You..." Wu Du seemed to have expected Duan Ling to say this, and said, "Follow me, you have no name and no share, what is this? Be my servant for the rest of your life? What about your fame? You don't want to climb up. Is it?"
"Like your master and wife." Duan Ling said.
Wu Du's entire face suddenly turned red, and Duan Ling also felt that the words were a bit nondescript.
A maple leaf fell and fell silently on the pile of leaves, making a sound of "sand".
Wu Du looked at Duan Ling and said, "Then... you can either... simply..."
"Simply what?" Duan Ling asked blankly.
Wu Du thought about it, waved his hand and said, "That's all, just talk about it."
Duan Ling was at a loss, and Wu Du said again: "If you are lucky, if you didn't follow Zheng Yan, then... let's settle it for now."
"Zheng Yan?" Duan Ling asked, "What does it have to do with Zheng Yan?"
"It's nothing." Wu Du waved his hand and said, "Go back."
"Wait." Duan Ling said, "I still have something to tell you."
Wu Du: "?"
Duan Ling took Wu Du's hand, thought for a while, and suddenly understood what Wu Du said before. They had never talked about this issue before, although in the eyes of Mu Kuangda and others, the boy who appeared inexplicably was the son of Wu Du's friend. But both of them were very clear in their hearts. Wu Du also knew that Duan Ling was only sheltering under his protection for the time being, and maybe he would leave.
Hearing what Duan Ling said, Wu Du was very happy, and he was rewarded for treating him well.
"My father is gone, this is the saddest thing in my life." Duan Ling replied, sitting on the rock and holding Wu Du's hand, but Wu Du took advantage of the situation to separate his fingers and intertwined with Duan Ling's ten fingers. , holding his hand and not letting go, with a somewhat unnatural expression, he said to Duan Ling, "I will treat you well."
"Remember the day we just met?" Duan Ling said again.
Wu Du laughed and said, "Your father is a doctor from Rongchangtang? I remember that you took root ginseng for pregnant women to hang their lives."
"It was for Wuluohoumu." Duan Ling said, "He was stabbed by you with a sword and almost died."
Wu Du: "..."
Wu Du's smile disappeared instantly, and he looked at Duan Ling in disbelief.
Duan Ling replied: "'Zhu' is the first person I killed in my life. At that time, Wuluohou Mu took my father's order and went to Shangzi to find me. After receiving me, he hid me on the In the capital. You brought the Chen Guoying team, raiding day and night, looking for my whereabouts. After Ye Zhu died, the next day, you went to the school to find me, recognized the wrong person, and arrested Cai Yan."
"Later I grew up in Shangjing, and in the spring of two years ago, my father came back to me." Duan Ling said, "I taught you things that you think I shouldn't know, such as leading troops to fight, jumping lightly... He trained I shoot arrows, and also taught me the swordsmanship of mountains and rivers."
Duan Ling let go of Wu Du's hand, got up, and said, "Look."
Duan Ling was concentrating, recalling the palm of the mountains and rivers, and with one step, he swept up the maple leaves flying all over the sky. Wu Du was still in a state of extreme shock, while Duan Ling shuttled through the blood-like maple flowers, going up and down, retracting his palms, and pressing sideways. From beginning to end, I played a set of palm techniques.
"There are a few things wrong," Duan Ling said a little nervously, "but it's mostly right."
Wu Du was speechless for a while, and Duan Ling sat down beside Wu Du again, shook him, and said, "Hey, Wu Du, are you listening?"
"Well... Then what?" Wu Du trembled, his mind was blank for a while.
Duan Ling took Wu Du's hand, still clasped his fingers with him, and said, "Then I went to the capital to break, I didn't wait for my father, and I escaped with Cai Yan."
Wu Du was full of shock at this time, staring at Duan Ling, Duan Ling said in a trance: "I don't know what happened after that, in short, when I returned to Xichuan, it became like this, I don't know who pretended to be I have nothing left, Lang Junxia... Wuluohoumu poisoned me and threw me into the river, maybe I drifted down the river and was rescued by you again."
"I'm sorry, Wu Du." Duan Ling said, "I lied to you about a lot of things before. I didn't dare to say anything. I'm afraid you are the minister of the minister..."
Wu Du staggered, got off the rock, and landed on the ground.
Duan Ling was inexplicable.
"You are... Sure enough... I don't think it's right..." Wu Du trembled, "You are the real Highness... You... You..."
Wu Du, who was still injured, knelt upright in front of Duan Ling.
"Get up!" Duan Ling said hurriedly.
"His Royal Highness." Wu Du gasped and said, "I was incompetent and did not protect the late emperor well..."
Duan Ling hurriedly knelt down and said to Wu Du, "Get up quickly!"
"Get up quickly..." Wu Du wanted Duan Ling to get up.
"Get up!" Duan Ling said urgently.
The two stared at each other blankly for a moment, Wu Du suddenly hugged Duan Ling tightly, his excitement was indescribable, and everything that was previously incomprehensible was explained accordingly.
"I don't blame you." Duan Ling said, "I really don't blame you. You are innocent. If you think you are guilty, I will forgive you for your late father. From now on, you don't have to take this matter anymore. keep it in mind."
Wu Du hugged Duan Ling tightly, the strength made Duan Ling feel pain.
"Get up, Wu Du." Duan Ling asked Wu Du to get up and looked at each other for a long time, all kinds of feelings flooded into his heart, but he didn't know how to speak.