Running out of the Jiang's backyard, Jiang Heng suddenly stopped and stared blankly at the home where he grew up.
Jiang's house has been torched, and the houses on both sides are quiet, except for this big house, which burns red to the half of the sky in the north of the city in the sound of "Bi Pei".
Geng Shu extinguished the sparks on Jiang Heng's body, and the two of them watched the fire at home together as if they were dreaming.
After a long while, Jiang Heng said blankly, "Fight the fire! Is there anyone? Hurry up and put out the fire!"
Jiang Heng took a step forward, but was pulled back by Geng Shu. The fire was so burned that it could no longer be saved, and the fire began to spread downwind, licking the neighbors.
"The First Minister of the Ming Dynasty"
Geng Shu grabbed a handful of snow and pressed it on Jiang Heng's waist. Jiang Heng was in pain and looked back at Geng Shu with the expression on his face still waking up from a big dream. Did their house burn down like this
No one came out of the neighbors, and no one shouted and ran. On this street, only the Jiang family lived with two children, and the others did not know where to flee.
Geng Shu suddenly saw the three figures at the end of the alley, his anger surged in an instant, and he lost all reason.
"Beast!" Geng Shu roared wildly, "Beast!!"
Jiang Heng was yelled at by Geng Shu, and was instantly dumbfounded. He glanced at Geng Shu subconsciously, and then turned to look at his home. The flames had burned through the main entrance, and the entire Jiang family mansion sprayed flames in all directions, like a monster venting its anger.
Geng Shu dragged his black sword backwards, took a deep foot, a shallow foot, and chased across the snow with his bare foot, like a desperate wild beast that was about to perish with this world.
If he was allowed to catch up, the three would be hacked to death in the snow tonight.
Suddenly, there was another loud noise from behind, and the flames burned through the beams and columns in the main room.
Jiang Heng was so shocked that he finally regained his senses. He hurried to the neighbor's door and knocked on them one by one, shouting, "Get out of the water! Wake up! Don't be burned to death!"
"Get out of the water! Run away!" Jiang Heng knocked from door to door, barefooted.
Geng Shu chased out of the alley. The three of them didn't know where they were fleeing. He looked around in confusion, and Jiang Heng's shouts came from far behind.
Geng Shu turned his head and glanced again, only to see Jiang Heng's clothes in tatters and tatters on his back, with burnt scars on his lower back, stepping on the snow with his bare feet, and the cold wind blew up his dirty trousers, revealing the thin He was still knocking on the door, telling the neighbors to run for their lives.
Geng Shu stopped chasing, and leaned the black sword on the snow, trembling with pain.
"Brother?" Jiang Heng said, "Brother!"
Geng Shu's eyes were full of tears, trembling and he took off the only remaining single shirt on his body, and shirtless, let Jiang Heng put it on.
"I'm not cold..." Jiang Heng pushed aside, "You wear it, you wear it."
"Wear it! You are wearing it!" Geng Shu yelled at him madly.
Jiang Heng was so roared that he couldn't help gasping for breath.
Geng Shu's eyes were red, and Jiang Heng realized that he was in pain, so he quickly comforted him: "Don't cry, don't cry, it's all external things, money is all external things... brother!"
Geng Shu grabbed his neck and stood for a while before he calmed down.
"Smoked," Geng Shu said, "not crying, you are dressed, come, I will carry you."
Jiang Heng wanted to insist, but Geng Shu didn't allow him to refuse, so he carried him on his back, and the two watched for a while. After the roof collapsed, the fire became less and less, and Jiang's house was completely burned to coke.
Geng Shu carried Jiang Heng on his back, let Jiang Heng wrap his hands around him, grabbed the black sword, and walked down the alley.
Jiang Heng finally felt that the burned area began to hurt. In order not to worry Geng Shu, he had to endure it with gritted teeth.
Geng Shu heard a voice in the distance, so he followed the voice. Jiang Heng also turned back from time to time to look at their home in the distance.
At midnight, Geng Shu swayed, walking barefoot across the long street with nearly half a foot of snow.
"Brother." Jiang Heng said softly.
Geng Shu took a deep breath and shivered uncontrollably.
Jiang Heng rubbed Geng Shu's face with his arm, and his hands were full of tears and black ashes.
"The Yujue left by Dad is not lost," Jiang Heng said, "it's still there."
Xiaoxue descended tightly, and Geng Shu asked, "Are you cold?"
Jiang Heng was cold and painful, and the burns were painful and hot, but he dared not say it, for fear of making Geng Shu even more worried.
"It's not cold." Jiang Heng looked back again and said, "But the house was burned down, what should I do? Mother came back, can't you find us?"
Geng Shu said: "Find a place to hide first, I will go back every day to see."
"I should have left a few words at the door." Jiang Heng said.
Geng Shu didn't know whether to laugh or cry, and said, "The family is gone, and I still leave a letter, but you can read it. Why are you crying that afternoon?"
He didn't know that Jiang Heng had read these many books, and he had already had a faint insight into the appearance of all beings in this world. For him, the only important things were his mother, Wei Wei, and Geng Shu. However, scrolls, gold and silver, etc. are all external things and can be discarded at any time. Zhuangzi even said, "I take the heaven and the earth as the coffin, the sun and the moon as the bib, the stars as the pearls, and the myriad things as the gift."
"I can go down to the ground." Jiang Heng asked, "Are you cold?"
"It's not cold, it's almost here." Geng Shu saw the noise on the hillside in the west of the city, and the sky was white with fish belly, and said, "What book are you reading before going to bed?"
Jiang Heng thought for a while, and said, "Heaven and earth are a finger, and all things are a horse."
"Is everything a horse?" Geng Shu said again.
"Well," Jiang Heng said, "we are all lice on this horse."
Geng Shu shook his head and said, "I don't know."
At dawn, the two went to the Xuanwu Temple in the west of Decheng. This temple enshrines the Xuanwu beast. Xuanwu is the god of water control. Legend has it that he is the god of the north among the four gods in the world, and blesses the river from bursting the embankment and the mountain torrent.
The two kingdoms of Ying and Zheng were at war, and the war broke out. The big families in the city packed up their belongings and almost escaped. The rest of the people who had nowhere to go and dragged their children with their daughters feared that the city would be destroyed, so they went to the Xuanwu Temple to avoid the temporary war. Although the Ying army broke through the city and could not hide anywhere, everyone was safe together.
But just earlier this morning, many people brought back news from outside the city: The Ying Army has withdrawn!
It is said that General Ying Guo died suddenly in front of the battle and was assassinated. The entire Ying army retreated thirty miles. It is currently unknown whether it will make a comeback. There was chaos in front of the temple, people looking for wives and children, and inquiring about news, whispered in an endless stream, making noises like a market.
"Ouch! Isn't this the Jiang family's boy?" Someone found Jiang Heng, but did not recognize Geng Shu. Geng Shu came over with Jiang Heng on his back. Jiang Heng didn't recognize many of them, but maybe the people recognized his watery eyes that looked like Mrs. Zhao, and hurriedly took him into the ancestral hall, under the Xuanwu statue. Make room for the two children to sit.
"Where's your mother?" Someone asked.
"He's my brother," Jiang Heng asked, "Brother."
Geng Shu first got up to find Langzhong, kowtowed three times to Langzhong, and said, "Please treat my brother." Then he brought it over to see Jiang Heng's wounds.
This injury caused Lang Zhong to click his tongue again, adjust the medicine, and said, "Why didn't you come to the temple earlier?"
Geng Shu is a boring gourd, he doesn't talk to people easily, Jiang Heng asks three more questions. Not long after, some people saw the two children shivering and being pitiful, so they gave them a quilt. After Geng Shu got the ointment from Langzhong, he put it on Jiang Heng, and then spread the quilt half on the ground and covered the other half. , let Jiang Heng lie down and continue to sleep.
"Don't lie down." Geng Shu inspected Jiang Heng's wound. The spot where the fire column burned was exactly his previous birthmark. The birthmark was gone and replaced by a burn scar.
Geng Shu was afraid that Jiang Heng would press on the wound, so he asked him to come over slightly.
Jiang Heng opened his eyes to see Geng Shu, and waved to him, indicating that he would also come to sleep. Geng Shu was exhausted, so he also shrank in.
"What are you thinking?" Geng Shu asked.
Jiang Heng put his pillow on Geng Shu's arm and said, "Ask someone to bring a letter to my mother? But we have no money."
Geng Shu was really annoyed and wanted to go down the mountain by himself, but he was afraid that something would happen when he left Jiang Heng. When he looked up, he said, "I'll ask someone to take a look later. If they retreat, they will naturally go back."
Jiang Heng slept for a while, and after a while, he heard soldiers coming to distribute rice porridge and woke them up. Geng Shu took the porridge, and the soldiers said, "Which one of you belongs to the Jiang family?"
"We are all," Jiang Heng said, "can we..."
The soldier interrupted: "The magistrate invites you to go after you have eaten the porridge."
Jiang Heng had only heard of the magistrate from his mother's mouth, but he had never seen it before, so Geng Shu got up and said, "Let's go."
The county magistrate lived in the backyard of the shrine. He had been shot by an arrow earlier and was bedridden, but the single room that was temporarily packed was warm.
After Jiang Heng went in, he finally felt more comfortable and stopped freezing.
"Where's your mother?" the magistrate asked.
The magistrate of Xundong County had blood oozing from his shoulders, legs, and abdomen, with a stench on his body.
Two days ago, he went out to fight in person and was shot off his horse. The seven thousand defenders in Xundong were almost wiped out. Fortunately, the enemy did not expect Zheng Jun to be so useless, for fear that it was a trick to lure the enemy and stop the pursuit.
"I don't know," Jiang Heng said. "She and Granny Wei went out a few days ago and never came back."
The county magistrate looked at the ceiling and murmured: "Is the assassination completed? I'm afraid I can't hold it anymore. If she comes back alive, you must say something to her for, for me, for... the people of the whole city..."
"Forget it... I don't need to say anything." The county magistrate sighed again.
After speaking, the magistrate turned his eyes with difficulty and said to Jiang Heng, "Your article is excellent, but unfortunately... you are born in a troubled time. Otherwise, you will definitely make a difference."
Jiang Heng knelt down, thanked the magistrate for his praise, and the magistrate said to himself, "You two just stay here for now. Get them something to eat and something to wear."
The soldier went out and asked someone to borrow some coarse clothes to put on for the two brothers. Geng Shu changed into an adult man's underwear, tied it with a knot, and called for clean water to wash Jiang Heng's wound and change the dressing. Jiang Heng couldn't find anything to wear, so he borrowed a girl's clothes and wore them for the time being.
After a while, the magistrate coughed a few times. Jiang Heng had read some medical books and touched his pulse. Knowing that the magistrate was very ill, the chance of recovery was only 20-30%, and he couldn't help feeling sad.
When the soldier brought the boiled egg porridge, the county magistrate said, "Let's eat it for the two children. Why waste food when I am a dying person?"
"Eat," Geng Shu took the egg porridge and said, "I feed you?"
"Eat together, you must be hungry too." Jiang Heng replied.
The two ate a bowl of egg porridge cleanly, Geng Shu spread out the quilt on the ground, hugged Jiang Heng, huddled in the corner, and fell asleep with each other after a while.
When Jiang Heng was asleep, he still clutched Geng Shu's sleeve tightly with one hand. Geng Shu wanted to go out to inquire about news, so he had to accompany him to sleep. He was frightened and exhausted all night, sighed, and Xuan Yi fell asleep.
On this day, eleven-year-old Geng Shu and nine-year-old Jiang Heng did not know how the destruction of their homes would bring about a drastic change in their lives. Jiang Heng still naively thought that his mother would come back soon, and Geng Shu also knew that Mrs. Zhao was very skilled in martial arts, so she must have been caught by the enemy and couldn't escape.
At nightfall, the county magistrate of Xundong coughed a few times first, then vomited a mouthful of blood, and then coughed a few more times on this cold day with the wind and snow flying. Died silently.