On the desert outside the Great Wall, there was a rider traveling westward, with two knives on his waist, and the man was wearing coarse linen clothes.
Further to the west of Liangzhou, there were three military towns in Fengxiang Linyao and Qingcang in ancient times, controlling the upper reaches of the Central Plains, and at the same time forming horns with Tie Tiemenguan, together controlling the vast Western Region. It's just that the three towns have long been deserted, and have become an excellent shelter for tens of thousands of refugees. These desperadoes who are waiting for crimes are especially brave and good at fighting. Not to mention young and strong men, they are women and children of seven or eight years old , as long as you give them a wooden spear, they dare to fight the soldiers of Beiliang. The Liangzhou frontier army has always had the habit of using refugees to perform martial arts training. . For the screening of crossbowmen in Beiliang, the first thing is to throw them here, and only give a horse a crossbow and a cold knife, and then ask for blessings, and only if they can live for another month can they pass the first pass. Threshold, if he died, even collecting the corpse would be an extravagant hope, he would have been whipped to pieces by those criminals who hated Beiliang to the bone. People in Lingzhou far from the border say that the children who grew up there like to kick and play with the skulls of soldiers who died in battle in Beiliang, so the guys there are neither human nor ghost, very creepy.
When I rode west for two hundred miles, I met a group of future crossbowmen who had just joined here. People, these elite soldiers have returned without success, so they no longer expect to gnaw off this hard bone. Although the number of beheads after returning to Liangzhou is linked to the amount of silver rewards, the original intention is to survive. Since it is clear that the guy's head cannot be chopped off , After picking up the crossbow arrows one by one, he made a detour and left silently. This place where refugees gather is full of hidden dragons and crouching tigers. There are many people from the rivers and lakes who fled outside the Great Wall after committing crimes in Liyang. Those who can gain a firm foothold here are either high in martial arts or proficient in heresy ways. That's why those soldiers met this man The saber knight in white sackcloth didn't think it was so strange, but it was strange that this young guy blocked all the attacks without even drawing a knife out of its sheath, which made them fearful.
Tens of thousands of refugees mixed with fish and dragons are not scattered, mainly concentrated in Qingcang Linyao Fengxiang from east to west, the three abandoned cities that have been removed from the map of Liyang, because once they disperse, they will definitely become soldiers of Beiliang Ghosts under the sword, refugees rarely have weapons close by, such stragglers, when they meet a team of soldiers who are expected to become Beiliang's elite scouts, they will die even if they are not afraid of death. As for why Beiliang didn't take down the three cities in one go, the refugees who are lucky to be alive don't bother to care about this. They wish that the old man of Beiliang would treat them as a fart, but they heard that this man Tu is dead. Half-believing, half-doubting, he was more or less relieved at first, and then rumors spread in the three cities that the new king was in power, and that if they wanted to use them to make a living, they would soon be overwhelmed by soldiers, which immediately made people fearful. These refugees actually hate that poisonous man Li Yishan the most. When the Xu family came to rule Beiliang, those young and strong families of the local wealthy families who showed a little bit of dissatisfaction were exterminated. After being driven here, soldiers from Northern Liang came here to hunt for military exploits, and not allowing a catty of salt and a piece of iron from Liangzhou to flow into this place were all ordered by Li Yishan. In order to exchange a stable life with Beiliang, Li Yishan ordered the slaughter and dumped the corpses directly outside Qingcang City. All the refugees gave up their hearts completely. The one surnamed Li was determined to let them Be a lonely ghost for a lifetime! As for the old Beiliang king Xu Xiao, in the past the refugees hated it very much, more out of fear, but now that the man was slaughtered, they turned to hate, because someone said with a nose and eyes, that the man had a last word before he died, and asked the new king to use it. 200,000 refugees were buried with him, so fortunately, in the underworld, there are millions of powerful soldiers, so that they can go to wrestle with Lord Hades. This kind of unbelievable nonsense at first glance, in the precarious land of refugees, no one does not believe it!
As soon as the rider approached Qingcang City, the smoke from several villages could be seen faintly in the twilight. There are few northern Liang cavalrymen who dare to plunder unscrupulously in this area. Here is a long walk around the city. The man with the saber led the horse and begged for a ladle of water from a family in a mud house at the entrance of the village. A family of four, a robust couple with dark complexion and a pair of children without shoes, looked very cold, probably from the visitors. The two knives around his waist were intimidated, so he suppressed the urge to kill and steal the horses. Enduring the pain in his body, the man in charge scooped up a ladle of muddy water from the bottom of the water tank and handed it out. The man didn't drink the water himself to quench his thirst, but reckless Used to clean the horse's nose, the two children of this family looked at each other from a distance with fiery eyes. Here, with an iron knife, it is easier to live. As for a good horse to ride, it is purely a luxury. It is okay to have a backer, otherwise it is equivalent to writing the four words "begging to die" on your face. large characters. When the young-faced but gray-haired knight was passing the gourds and scoops, he squinted at the two children, who were also looking at the knives. There was a young boy at Daomaguan, for the dream of a clean world in his mind. Children, they are thinking about how to kill when they are killed. There is a world of difference between the two, but there is no right or wrong. Before leading the horse to leave, he took out a large piece of silver from the bulging money bag and threw it out. The man caught the silver, bit it down hard, and grinned at him with no gratitude in his eyes.
Not long after, the man called out to the twenty-odd young and strong men in the village, carrying wooden spears that every household can do without warm quilts and women can't do without, and some strong women and older children are not far behind, aggressive, He intercepted the wanderer who accidentally exposed the yellow and white things, saying that the interception was not accurate, because the guy stopped his horse not far from the village, as if he had been waiting for them. Riding alone with the hanging knife, he threw the money bag lightly on the open space in front of him, and said in an authentic Beiliang accent: "Don't be afraid of death, if you have the ability, take it away."
In this way, no one dared to take the lead in acting rashly. Of course, the bag of silver was attractive, but the young ranger with a sword and a horse didn't look like a short-lived thing that was easy to be robbed and killed. Seeing that they hadn't moved, the ranger clamped his horse's belly, stepped lightly on the ground with his horse's hoof, and went to the bag of money. At this moment, a wooden spear flew out quickly, and the sharpened spear pierced the ranger's chest. The man who shot the spear was a tall and strong young man. The spear skill was cultivated by the young man by killing countless treacherous gerbils. , Self-pointing and stabbing, the quasi-head has nothing to say. It's just that the wooden spear is sharp, but unfortunately the ranger didn't know how to move, so he turned the spear point and held the wooden spear lightly. Except for the ruthless young man who was at a loss, the rest of the men and women retreated with the spear, so as to separate themselves from the young man boundaries. The saber ranger pierced the money pouch with the tip of his spear, and rode his horse slowly towards the young man. The money pouch was tightly knitted, and stopped when it slid down the middle of the wooden spear. The horse's hoof is not heavy, but it knocks on the hearts of the refugees. The young man who was eager for money did not stand still, instead of retreating, he ran wildly towards each person and horse, and did not run in a straight line. He twisted like a snake and slid on the sand. The young man skimmed over half a foot of the horse's head, twisted his toes, and ruthlessly turned and slammed into the side of the horse's belly. The ranger casually reached out, grabbed the boy's head, threw it high, and pointed the spear point directly at the boy's abdomen.
At this time, there was a wailing sound from behind those men and women, a scrawny girl staggered out of the human wall, the ranger frowned, and the spear drew a half arc in the air, the boy fell heavily to the ground, and escaped being killed by his own wooden The fate of the spear piercing through to death, he fell hard, but shook his head, tried his best to stand up, protected the little girl with a yellow and thin face behind him, and stared at the ranger on the horse who was leaning on the wooden spear.
The ranger threw a wooden spear and nailed it obliquely into the yellow sand a few steps in front of the boy and the girl. His eyes jumped over the head of the boy, and glanced at the group of homeless men and women. Then he reined in the horse, turned around and walked away go.
The girl who was so skinny that she couldn't even rot with chilblains, sobbed and hugged the boy who was dependent on each other. With trembling hands, the boy who survived the catastrophe pulled out his spear, pulled the heavy money bag into his hand, unwrapped the knot, poured out only a small piece of broken silver, and then handed over the money bag to the village elders to "split the spoils". It's not that the young man is poor and generous, but that, not to mention what he eats alone, even if he wants a little more, he will be beaten hard. Only this time, the boy was surprised. None of the thirty or so men and women in the village came forward to take the money bag. The young man was not stupid, he remembered the look of You Xia before he left, obviously it was the master of the rivers and lakes who made these people dare not touch money. The young man lost his elders early in his family, and even if he hadn't read a word for a day, this world taught him some sophistication, so he used money to buy pitiful dried meat and coarse grains from those people.
After squandering a bag of silver, the boy did not rush back to the village, but handed the remaining small piece of silver to his sister, squatted down, let her ride on his neck, stood up slowly, and almost killed him with the pole The young man felt a little annoyed that the money bag was also taken away, he looked towards Qingcang City, but he could no longer see the ranger, the young man smiled brightly and said: "Little grass root, it's silver. "
The little girl who tightly held the broken silver rested her chin on her brother's head, and hummed vigorously.
That rider rushed into the dilapidated Qingcang City before the gate control, there is no customs certificate here, the biggest customs certificate is to be alive, who cares about your surname and your household registration. In this city, it doesn't matter if you are Zhang Julu or Zhang Shoufu, even if you are the emperor's son. I'm afraid only the person surnamed Xu in Beiliang can speak for himself. After entering the city, the ranger sits on his horseback and looks around. It is really not like the cities in Beiliang's jurisdiction. It has nothing to do with whether it is rich or poor. It is also poor in Daomaguan. It is just a passerby in Daomaguan, living a stable life. Zizi, on the inner streets of Qingcang City, there are actually many wealthy men with brocade clothes and satins showing their faces, but everyone is in danger, looking at each other, and they are all wary, and there are few tourists alone, mostly in groups, some squatting on the street Qingpi, a local ruffian with nothing to do, is not as lazy as the local snake in the Central Plains, giving people the feeling that he is half dead. At this moment, when he looks up at his group, they are all radiating fierce lights, as if he can be counted out all at once. How much silver taels can be sold for one horse, two knives and one property, and also weighed whether or not to work hard for this windfall. In such a dangerous place where everyone is a wolf, if a scholar who recites the wind and the moon is thrown into it, he will probably end up being hacked to death on the spot.
The ranger raised his head lightly, and saw the towering Wolf Smoke Tower in the city. There were hundreds of thousands of refugees. In the past twenty years, only four people fought their way out and proclaimed themselves kings. Three of them occupied Fengxiang Linyao Qingcang, Separated from Zixiong, the last "vassal king" established a sect that feeds nearly 10,000 people between the two old military towns of Fengxiang in Linyao. The blunt knife cuts the flesh, the power is the weakest, but the temper is also the most violent. His real name is Cai Junchen. He used to be a low-level swordsman in the Liyang Jianghu. , What is it called Qianshuangwan Sydney Flower Sword? Once a famous swordsman comes, he will be "invited" to learn swordsmanship by the lord of Qingcang, and then those swordsmen will have no more, and those sabers will become Cai Junchen's treasured playthings , When encountering troubles, he likes to plant famous swords on women, euphemistically called "a tree of pear blossoms", which shows that this city lord, who is honored by the local refugees as the Dragon King of Xixia, is very "elegant".
The ranger went west along the beacon tower in sight. Cai Junchen's "Dragon King's Mansion" was in the west of the city. There was no way out. Qingcang was the closest to Beiliang in the east. Cai Junchen could run faster when he abandoned the city. The Dragon King of Xixia kept saying that one day he would lead troops to fight to that Qingliang Mountain, who would believe it? I'm afraid Cai Junchen himself will be the first to not believe it.
The Dragon King's Mansion in Qingcang City covers the entire West City. According to the shape of the capital, it also divides into the inner palace and the outer imperial city. The so-called imperial city walls are nothing but red-painted battlements more than two feet high, but some palaces and pavilions in the city are still intact. It really cost a lot of money to paste bright yellow glazed tiles all over it, and it finally looked like an imperial family, but it was completely destroyed by the watchtowers of different heights. Every time Qingcang rebelled, the imperial city wall was easily overturned, and then these hedgehog-like arrow towers made meritorious deeds. However, this kind of uprising will only support two or three hundred people, not even as good as some horse thieves fighting in the land of refugees. This rider was a hundred feet away from the gate of the imperial city, and was intercepted by a team of leather armored infantry blocking the road, holding a rare bright iron spear. The leader is a strong man with a sword in the shape of a school lieutenant, wearing an iron armor in the style of the old Southern Tang Dynasty. After he caught a glimpse of the two sabers of the fat guy, he couldn't take his eyes off the burning eyes, and laughed loudly: "There are thieves who are good at Break into the imperial city, boys, kill on the spot!"
More than twenty spear-wielding pawns charged forward with a whimper. There was no formation at all, but the victory was in their vigorous stature and incomparable bravery.
The captain suddenly shouted sharply: "Wait!"
The pawns stopped abruptly, Tangjia drew his sword, pointed at the ranger, and said with a smile: "Boy, the sword is a good sword, tell me the name of your saber before you die. It's better to grab a famous sword." Robbers, the latter don't need to care about their names, I don't know how to pity women, but I am a man who cherishes good knives."
You Xia'er was dressed in sackcloth like snow, and said with a smile, "One embroidered winter, and the other a pawn for crossing the river."