"The Change of Heaven"
Volume 2: The Horizon
Chapter 133: Leaving the Mountain
The place where we camped was a flat land on a slope. It seemed to have been cultivated. In some places, there were even traces of ditches and ridges. However, there were no longer farmers and crops on it. It had become a temporary residence for more than a hundred warriors. The trees here were much sparser than in other places, but in summer, these trees were enough to cover us. We didn't see our warriors eating by the fire until we were dozens of steps away. Before that, we couldn't see anything except the sounds and the flickering firelight between the leaves.
Without the young counselor and general next to me, the "soldiers" called Lao Zhao by everyone stood out among the soldiers. He stood by the fire and talked to the soldiers sitting there eating. He was calm and relaxed, with a demeanor and spirit, like a man who could do great things. It seemed that someone told him that we were coming, so he turned his face.
Soon I saw what Lao Zhao looked like. It was just as they described, a standard honest man. This kind of face is the kind that even if you ask him to chop stones, he will ask why and do it immediately. This is completely different from the feeling he exudes. He looked at me, saluted first, and then smiled. It was a very bright smile. I don’t know if he saw his own promotion from my face.
And I do intend to promote him from "the head of the army" to "the tail of the general".
A moment later, I saw the detained man again. He had a typical papaya face, and it was the kind that was wrinkled because it was collected too late. He had no expression, no panic, and no fear. If this man was a teacher in the school, he would undoubtedly be the kind of old-fashioned and outrageous or the kind of evil. Lao Zhao didn't let anyone tie him up, but a few soldiers who might have been the Yellow Turban Army were surrounding him and talking to him, as if controlling him, but there was no sense of intimidation in the scene, but it was more like a conversation between old villagers; even more strangely, it seemed that this papaya-faced uncle was asking others, but after listening to the answers of others, he still had no expression.
At first glance, this man looks like a scholar. There is a special "qi" in his old and somewhat listless body that cannot be concealed. Perhaps we can call it the so-called "temperament" (this word came out late and is now coined, author's note): that is, the quality of qi, qi comes from the heart, and the heart follows the mind. The quality is the innate nature, which is difficult to change even after a long time.
I first asked the soldiers who were chatting with him. They were from the Yellow Turban Army and were all from Qingzhou. If I was right, this uncle with a face that looked like the papaya produced in Qingzhou must be a stern and smoky gentleman from Qingzhou.
"Who are you?" Several of us surrounded him, I looked at everyone and started asking questions.
"A mountain man." He was still not afraid at all, very calm. I really didn't believe that an ordinary mountain man would be so calm after seeing our scene. So, I was very worried that this was a... cunning... mountain man. At the same time, I also felt that there was something wrong with my imagination and expression ability.
"A mountain man?" I smiled, a bright smile.
"Yes!" He laughed too, and laughed very hard.
Originally I didn't expect to get anything out of him, but I was reluctant to let him go like this. Suddenly I saw something in his collar, which made me feel this.
"Not bad Shu brocade. Although it is an old product, the quality of the silk is very high." I smiled even more brightly.
"I picked it up on the roadside. No one wanted it for a few days. But it's a piece of clothing after all, so I wore it." He smiled even harder.
"Where did you pick it up?" I kept smiling on my face, feeling a little tired.
"It's too early, who would remember it?" I don't know how he can still be so calm.
Suddenly, I decided to try my luck. Although the reason was because of my own life experience, it brought back a memory of Song.
"This gentleman used to be an official. Is he here because of the scandal ten years ago?" I had begun to believe that this person might have something to do with the Party and Factions Persecution, but thinking back on it, it seemed a bit hasty to ask this question. However, with Song's joining, this oversight became less important.
"Hey, Mr. Guan has nothing to do with me. There is nothing wrong between me and Mr. Guan." He even exudes a kind of ruffian spirit, which is really not simple.
"Uncle Zhang Jian?" Song's voice suddenly sounded, but it slowly faded away.
The man's expression suddenly changed, and the wrinkles on his face surged as if some old skin and flesh were about to pop out, but he quickly regained his calm expression; but his eyes unconsciously left me and turned to the thin scholar behind me. There was an incomprehensible flicker in his eyes, and he must be thinking and sizing up something.
"Brother, I'm afraid you've made a mistake?" His tone softened a lot.
"My uncle is Shanyang Supervisor Zhang Jian!" Song suddenly insisted. After hearing what the two said and seeing this scene, even I can be sure that he must be Zhang Jian. Otherwise, how could he be so out of control when a stranger mentioned a name that had nothing to do with him.
"Who are you?"
"My uncle once stayed at my home for a while fifteen years ago. Although I was young and ignorant at that time, I still vaguely remember what my uncle looked like. Moreover, my father often told me that I should learn to be like my uncle, so I was deeply impressed."
The uncle who was identified as Zhang Jian seemed to have some impression. He nodded slightly, but still asked him uncertainly, but pointed at me: "Excuse me, who is this..."
"Uncle, please come with your nephew!" Song suddenly became very mysterious, dragged Zhang Jian to a deserted place to talk, and left us all aside. Only the brothers were left here, staring at each other, not knowing what was going on.
"Everyone, take a break," I decided as the leader I should have a better explanation and solution: "He is an old friend, we should not disturb him, and we should go about our business."
After that, everyone was tactful and saw that there was nothing for them to do, so they all went about their own business, mostly preparing for dinner.
I obviously couldn't get my attention back to the stove, and instead looked over there awkwardly.
It seems that there is always something to talk about between scholars, but they talked for a long time. When I said this, it was obvious that I classified myself as a warrior, but it was obviously inappropriate to classify me with E Huan and Nan. Putting aside these boring thoughts and trying to recall, I seemed to have heard of the name Zhang Jian, and it must be related to the Party Banishment Disaster. He and my father might be the same person, but I don’t know what he did specifically. Originally in the school, the teacher was very taboo about this kind of thing, and no one talked about it often, at least it was much less than talking about the beauties in Xiangyang, and even less than talking about Yinling; it was only after the imperial edict of amnesty for the party members that people started to talk about it more, and even so, it did not exceed the time spent talking about women. Thinking of this, this papaya face seemed to turn into a rounder winter melon face, and the wrinkles also looked a lot kinder. And the image he should have soon became in my mind an old scholar who was strict but kind, usually spoke gently, and was neither hurried nor slow.
In fact, he did start to smile, and he kept looking at me, which made me feel uncomfortable. I wiped my face to make sure there was nothing wrong with it; I combed my hair and found that everything was normal, except that it seemed to have grown longer. I counted on my fingers and it had been some time since the Battle of Mingzi. Now when I think of that battle, I can bear the feeling relatively calmly, but my heart still twitches from time to time, just because those scenes still flash before my eyes from time to time.
"Brother, uncle asks you to come over for a moment." Song suddenly came over and interrupted my thoughts. I quickly stood up, greeted him, and walked over quickly.
He looked me over and over again and said, "I never thought that Mr. Meng Bo's son would be such a towering young hero."
"Sir, how do you know that I am my father's son?" I was shocked at the time and heard such nonsense, but fortunately no one heard it, or everyone understood what I meant.
"Well, of course it was Nephew Song who told me." Uncle Zhang looked calm, yet even surprised.
This immediately made me turn to Song Yudong. I clearly remember that he was not involved that day because my father was not rehabilitated and I did not dare to tell everyone. He immediately realized the problem, so he explained it to me first.
"Xuelin and I are close friends. He knows that I am planning for you and that we are willing to live and die together. He told me everything after drinking one day." I suspected that he had spoken out of turn after drinking, but it wouldn't hurt to tell him. However, it's really inappropriate for that bad guy Tian Jian to be so loud-mouthed. But when I thought about this, I realized that I hadn't seen him for a while.
“Who else knew at the time?”
"It's just the two of us." Although I was a little worried, I gave up after seeing his look.
"Uncle Zhang, I am not wise, but I don't want others to know." I decided to talk to this elder with all the respect I would show when bowing to an elder. "After the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the emperor issued a decree of amnesty for the rebels and cleared the grievances of the people, but my father was not cleared, so I kept it secret and didn't want others to know."
"Oh, is that so? What about the two adults Li Ying and Du Mi?" He was naturally a little confused about his father's affairs, but he immediately asked the two most famous "party members" at that time.
"The world has already restored their reputation, and the emperor intends to give each of the two adults a posthumous title." This is relatively clear to me.
"This is the truth. This day will come eventually. I never expected that I would finally get to wait for this day. I wandered around for five years, hoping every day that my innocence would be cleared. In the end, I fled to this mountain with a cold heart. I didn't expect... Well... Well... Well." His eyes were moist, but he didn't care at all whether he was innocent or not. I think he might think that it didn't matter what happened to him, and justice was in the hearts of the people.
"But I don't know what happened?" He was a little excited, "Why hasn't Mr. Meng Bo been vindicated?"
"It's okay, it's okay. My uncle also said that justice is in the hearts of the people. Although I am not very smart, I understand some things. You don't have to worry about me, uncle." I bowed to thank him.
"If you have this kind of heart, you are a good man." He deliberately hit me hard on the chest, but I remained unmoved, which made him cheer again: "Good boy, if Meng Bogong were here, he would be proud of you."
But he probably thought I looked too much like a warrior, and looked me up and down, still a little uncertain, maybe I don't look much like my father. Thinking of this, I immediately asked him if he had ever seen my father, but he hadn't, and he said with regret: I admired my father very much back then, and we have been friends for a long time, but I can't meet him, what a pity.
Song looked at his uncle and almost danced with joy, but he stayed close to me and said, "Don't mention his family to Uncle Zhang. He was the only one who escaped that year, and no one else survived."
I thought, I really want to be with him, just like me back then, but today I am only eighteen and Uncle Zhang Jian is almost fifty years old.
Uncle Zhang Jian was very happy that night. He had never been so happy in his eighteen years. When he saw some of us drinking, he even wanted to ask for some, which was like a child. How could anyone disobey his idea? So he was naturally happy that night. However, after three cups of wine, he suddenly slapped his thighs and said, "Come on, come with me. There are two people you'd better meet."
This time, my inexplicable brothers were left behind. Only Song and I accompanied him and protected him. His face turned red when he drank, like a sweet potato. He was jumping all the way like an old naughty boy, and even deliberately made fun of his drunkenness. This old man was really funny. But he still asked us to bring some former Yellow Turban warriors with him. First, he was not completely insane; second, these two people must have a great connection with the Yellow Turban Army. At that time, I even thought, could it be that the heaven and earth...
Obviously I was wrong, but it still surprised me, because a moment later we saw two big men holding steel pitchforks welcoming us in front of another fire, and behind us there was a startled and trembling whisper, but it was enough for all of us to know: "It's General Bōcai!"
Then I was surprised, but my voice was much louder: "General Bōcai? That's you?"
A sturdy middle-aged man wearing animal skins and with a thick beard said simply: "It seems to be me."
He was the Yellow Turban general who had once cornered General Zhu and almost reached Luoyang; but according to rumors, he was dead. How did he get here, and who was the latter? I thought I would find out soon, and then I did find out.
However, it was the big man behind Bō who first started to show concern for us: "Brother Zhang, who are these two? Are they your old friends visiting? That's not right. If that's the case, why did you like to make friends with children more than ten years ago?"
"Of course not, these two are the sons of my old friend. I came here this time because General Bō always cares about the safety of those brothers. Now, I brought a few Yellow Turban brothers here." Zhang Jian finished, "The ones at the back, come here."
The Yellow Turban soldiers who could no longer hold back immediately rushed over and knelt down before Bōcai. "General Bōcai, we all thought you were... dead, how come you... It's great to see you." This was the cry of one of the soldiers. These Yellow Turban soldiers actually cried in front of Bōcai. Bōcai pulled these former subordinates up and said something that was not clear.
The formal conversation started about a moment later. We sat around the fire and this time it was Bōcai who spoke first.
"I seem to be a genius." He said, "Why is my brother cold?"
"Hey, big brother Bō, my name is... Han... Xian." The big man next to him, who was also wrapped in animal skins and had a face full of hair, but it was a little sparse, was very dissatisfied with him calling the wrong name in dialect, and it seemed that this was not the first or second time.
"Isn't my name Han Xian?" Bō looked at him and said very simply, "It doesn't matter if the name is ugly. My name is also Spinach."
"But you call me Bō Cai, but my name is Han Xian. In this year, you have only called me by my name five times, and they were all Han Xian." It was obvious that the big man was very dissatisfied with the man's Qingzhou accent.
"Of course I know your name is Han Xian. Isn't yours also Han Xian? It's been a year, and you Xiaoer has been complaining all the time."
"Brother Zhang, hey, please help me judge. My brother Bōcai is a good man, very righteous. But my brother is like a dead wood, he only says one sentence a day. This mountain is boring enough, and I finally have someone to talk to, but he is still like this, making me feel like I am living alone." Han Xian seemed to have decided to complain to us when he saw us. "Hey, brother Bōcai, how can I complain all the time? I have been with you for a year, and I only say one or two sentences a day!"
"But you've been complaining all the time." Bō looked at him honestly, "Am I right? You've been complaining a lot again."
Master Zhang Jian actually looked at them in a very comfortable manner, but I think it was good enough that I could hold back my laughter. I could never be as relaxed and carefree as him. But the two of us who were listening actually held back our laughter, and we were somewhat impressed by our own self-control.
However, the two big men looked over as if no one was around. Seeing that we had nothing to do for the moment, Zhang Jian explained the reason for bringing us here: "Eighteen years ago, I thought that the rebels were extremely vicious and evil, but after staying in this mountain with these two brothers for a year, I found that it was not the case at all. These two people are really interesting. They were both honest farmers. Bōcai was taciturn, but Han Xian couldn't stop talking. In the end, you saw that Bōcai naturally won. In fact, if there were no tyrants above and treacherous people below, how could such simple farmers be bullied to this extent? It was very cold from last winter to this spring. If it weren't for these two Yellow Turban brothers helping with food and clothes, I don't know if I could survive to this day. Alas, I am a useless person who can't work hard and doesn't know the difference between grains. I am old and useless. These two brothers are in their prime and have good skills. It's a pity not to go out."
Zhang Jian finally couldn't stand it anymore: "Two brothers, listen to me, what are you fighting about? Han Xian, just say less. You know that General Bō has a heavy accent."
Let's forget about this topic and ask the two Yellow Turban generals how they got here, but this led to the following conversation, which was really beyond my expectation.
"Hey." Bōcai looked at the people standing guard for a long time, and remained silent. Han Xian turned his face away and sighed. Bōcai suddenly slammed the hunting fork in his hand into the ground. I thought he was going to get angry and curse, but his words came out slowly and in an orderly manner, more like telling a story: "I don't want it either. Once we gain momentum, some wolf cubs will want to change the dynasty and become prime ministers and generals of the founding country. I am a general who commands troops, but those few Tianshi (masters) of our peace and order... Alas, at that time Zu (Zhu) Jun was defending Wanceng (City), so I surrounded him and pretended to attack it. In fact, I had already planned to attack Luoyang directly. If I could take it down, the world would be settled. But the guy in Xinye was really powerful. He robbed my food and grass several times, and the brothers who were escorting me suffered some losses. I thought that Xinye must have some reputation. Since the food and grass were insufficient, I lifted the siege of Wancheng and let him come. Alas, this Zu (Zhu) Jun was still famous, but he didn’t come! I surrounded Xinye several times but couldn’t lure Zu (Zhu) Jun out. He didn’t come! Later, I pretended to relax several times, but he still didn’t come! I thought to myself, okay, this Lao Mao had to lie down for the time being. Xinye was in Jingzhou, and had nothing to do with Zujun. Since Jingzhou had capable people but no soldiers, it was difficult to deal with. Since he couldn't come out, we would ignore him. Anyway, it would be enough to take down Luoyang. Zujun was honest, and I watched him. I thought he couldn't jump up. I also ordered Guangming Zengdadi to "attack Hulao Pass", but asked the main force to move slightly to the south. In fact, I hoped that he would think it was a feint attack, but I wanted to catch him and destroy him. As soon as he hesitated, I rushed into Henan in one breath and took down Luoyang. At this time... "He sighed and finally said, "I was just leading the troops. Those Heavenly Masters knew my plan. They were afraid that if I captured Luoyang, I would become a general and be crowned a king or a marquis in the future. They thought that the world would be settled without their contribution. I couldn't capture Wancheng or Xinye because I was incompetent. Damn it, they just killed me! What do they know? They asked me to throw my brothers' lives into the fire pit in vain, but I won't do it. But they killed me. They didn't let me manage the army. My brothers and I are good friends, and we also know that these bastards are useless and won't do it. So they secretly ordered to kill me, and my brothers found a corpse of similar size to me on the battlefield, shaved its face and regarded it as my death." Bad). My brothers sent me out, and I hid in the mountains, but I was worried about my brothers, so I ran out to watch. The most annoying thing is this bunch of bastards. How could they fight? They didn’t set up guards when they entered the city at night, and were ambushed. They just ran for their lives and left thousands of brothers behind. Then they felt ashamed and didn’t care about the lives of their brothers. They ordered the brothers to push down the city. The bodies of the brothers filled up the city! It was so miserable! They were about to take the city, but when they saw that there were too many casualties, they were afraid that they would have no soldiers and no strength in the future, so they retreated. The brothers were forced to die. They were about to take the city, but they retreated. In the end, they died in vain! ”
The voice of this commander who once dominated the Central Plains and commanded thousands of troops actually trembled. Almost all the Yellow Turban soldiers in front of him cried even louder at this time, but he was still able to finish the story with trembling: "In the end, it was too late. They surrendered immediately and sold out tens of thousands of our good brothers. Tens of thousands! That night, many brothers were still sleeping. Before they woke up, they were... raped. It was so miserable! In one night... they were all... raped. They thought they could get a new official position, but I didn't expect that I saw them being skinned alive outside Wancheng. These people screamed like pigs for three days and scolded Zhu Jun for not keeping his word. At that time, I felt uncomfortable and happy. The bastards deserved it! But they killed so many of our good brothers!"
Han Xian shook his jaw, spat hard, and began his story: "I was the same as Brother Bō. At that time, I planned to go up the river, enter Henan, and attack Luoyang directly, but those heavenly masters and Taoist envoys took away my military power. Seeing that I was not convinced, they wanted to harm me, so I escaped."
It turns out that the Yellow Turban Army is not as simple and honest as I thought; it turns out that all the signs are far from what I imagined; it turns out that there are people fighting for power everywhere, and it turns out that there are such scums in the Yellow Turban Army. The only exception is that this time Bō spoke so long, while Han Xian finished with just a few words.
I came to the conclusion: It seems that no one can maintain normalcy in this kind of situation. But I still have an idea. I will go back and check if there are any such heavenly masters or Taoist envoys in my army. I need to make a list and have people keep an eye on them to prevent them from causing trouble for us in the future.
That night, we talked with the two Yellow Turban generals under the help of Uncle Zhang Jian, who was extremely excited at first. This scene was absolutely very strange. But I must admit that apart from that past event, we talked happily. It was just that when we talked about the various evil deeds of local tyrants, I was a little confused, as if I had not encountered much of the things they said. However, Lord Zhang Jian was the Supervisor of Posts, and the Yellow Turban Army killed such guys all the way, which made me have to believe these things, and I remembered Zhou Cang's initial incident. So I believe that what I have seen in my eyes for eighteen years is still a gap in the world. Zhang Jian was disappointed, and Bō Cai and Han Xian were angry. They used to be glorious, but they finally came to this point, and I still think that the world is not bad enough. But now I have to go to the capital of my great Han Dynasty to save people, because I believe that person should not be treated like this. Thinking back on this matter, it is very interesting. I even thought that maybe my ending is the same as theirs. But this conversation has benefited me a lot. I think I should go and see what kind of life the real people live, and understand where the crux of my Han Dynasty lies. Before, apart from the idle chats in the thatched cottage, all I knew about the outside world was just a concept of the Han Dynasty.
I asked a few Yellow Turban warriors to stand guard for us, and I told them everything. I did not hide the purpose of this trip from these three foreign wanderers who no longer existed in our Han Dynasty. This is also very interesting. In fact, I did not think of hiding it from them. The reason is that I want to ask them to come out, especially Bō Cai and Han Xian. I think I will need their help on this trip. And my biggest attraction is the 200,000 Yellow Turban warriors in Jingzhou. However, when I was talking, Lord Zhang Jian gradually changed from speaking boldly to speaking less, and then to not speaking at all. Only a few of us were left to talk.
"Brother, do you want to play?" Han Xian became excited. "Last time, I failed to conquer Luoyang. This time, I must give him a scare. I want to let the old emperor know the methods of his grandfather, Han Xian!"
Bō was silent for at least a meal before he uttered one word: "Hit!"
By this time, Zhang Jian had already fallen asleep from the alcohol, so Bōcai and Han Xian helped him into their own room to sleep first, while I talked to the sentinels outside the hut: "How many people know General Bōcai?"
"General Bō is from Jizhou. He has led our Qingzhou and Jizhou. Most of the brothers in Jizhou and Qingzhou know each other, right? It doesn't matter. We understand this principle and we will keep it a secret." One of the very young and strong men answered very straightforwardly: "The envoy of the city of gods is in our army, but we are still keeping it a secret."
He was quickly hit on the head by the person behind him, and he immediately realized that he had let the cat out of the bag, so he quickly covered his mouth. But I pulled him out in one go. Although I don't know who the Yellow Turban Army's City Envoy is, judging from the situation, this person must be an important figure. But these people all lowered their heads and pretended to be stupid.
But I didn't need to ask any more questions, I soon found out who it was. Of course, I just casually and nonchalantly asked the newly-arrived General Bōcai, and immediately got a very surprising result: "Seng Chuangsi? Isn't it Zhang Manzeng (Cheng)? He... is also in Jingzhou?"
"That's right, you ask them!" I pointed at the soldiers, put my hands behind my back and walked in front.
What surprised me was that I was not surprised by this. This sentence seems to have some problems, but it is enough to express my thoughts at that time. It seems that I have long been accustomed to it. Maybe one day, Zhang Jiao brother will look at me and smile at me in my government office, and say to me: "We are still alive." I will say: "I knew it long ago."
In my mind, I still remember how they told me about Zhang Mancheng's death, but he was obviously still alive. The amazing thing is that they even hid it from me. The court memorials also described how Dong Zhuo defeated Zhang Mancheng and killed him. No one expected that not only Zhang Mancheng's army was still there, but even his people were still alive. Maybe I was too straightforward, and they thought I would definitely leak the news, so they kept it from me until today. However, this time they hid it very well, because I had never heard of Zhang Mancheng's existence in Jingzhou, and no one reminded me of his existence, and I had never seen such a special person.
Except for Beihai, Nan, Ehuan and Deng who were still waiting for us, most of the other brothers were asleep. They were all talking around a fire. When they saw us coming, they stood up to greet us. Lao Zhao was far away, he was also not asleep. I didn't say anything, I just waved him over and we discussed together.
We didn't talk much, just introduced ourselves briefly, and then started discussing the itinerary for the next few days. I told them my plan, and as I expected, some people were a little disappointed, but Bō nodded frequently, and Lao Zhao also felt that it was safe, so I had confidence and decided to do so. After all, I felt that I was only going to save one person, not to kill a group of people.
The next day, I was woken up very early in the morning, when the sky was still a deep blue. Lao Zhao woke me up, crawled close to my ear and whispered something to me very quietly: "We sentinels have discovered that someone is watching us. We don't know who it is. There is a horse in the forest in the mountains far away, and it seems to be watching us. It's too early and the surroundings are too quiet, so we didn't send anyone to stop him, but only to keep an eye on him. What should we do?"
I sobered up immediately. It would have been difficult not to sober up at this time: "Very good. Take me to see it."
"Then follow me." I followed his posture and slowly crawled to where the sentry was lying. Following Lao Zhao's pointing, I gently pushed aside the weeds covered with lust and looked out.
The dark green forests covered the rolling hills. Sometimes the cool breeze of summer mornings blew, and the indistinct leaves rustled and fluttered, as if the sight of the falling leaves in autumn appeared in my sight. Only when the wind stopped did I realize that it was just an illusion given by the swaying of the leaves in the wind. At this moment, there were only mosquitoes and flies buzzing in my ears, making endless noises. With the prompt of Lao Zhao's voice, I still looked for a long time before I vaguely determined that there was a brown-red horse that swept its tail from time to time in a slightly sparse bush. So I continued to look around the horse, and when it was brighter, I finally roughly identified a black shadow that seemed to be a human figure.
The sky gradually brightened and the wind grew hotter. At some point, the sound of cicadas suddenly began to sound, and it seemed as if all the sleeping cicadas in the thousands of mountains and forests were awakened. All of a sudden, the originally quiet forest became noisy.
Lao Zhao and I exchanged glances, and he immediately gave orders, and several soldiers immediately and quietly followed the mountain path and went directly to look for this scout who came from nowhere.
But as soon as we turned around, we immediately found that the situation had changed. The man jumped onto the horse like a flash and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Lao Zhao and I jumped up almost at the same time. But we looked at each other at the same time, "Do you want to chase him?"
"Chase!" I made up my mind and immediately shouted loudly: "Po Liu Han Lie Ya!"
"Who?" The man had obviously just been woken up and had no idea what was going on.
"Someone is spying on us and is heading towards Shandong. Quickly lead your men to chase him along the mountain road. If he is alive, capture him. If not, shoot him."
What a Xianbei hero! He immediately understood the situation, pulled himself together, called on several people around him, drew his bow and arrow, mounted his horse and started chasing.
I could only spend the next period of time in uneasiness, but those damned and ungrateful cicadas would not lower their voices because of our annoyance, nor would they understand that their noise would make a "tyrannical" person want revenge. So at my suggestion, most people ate roasted cicadas with great appetite this morning, except for a few of us, who were worried and didn't know what would happen next, and couldn't let it go. But my ears were really quiet, because those cicadas must have regretted that they would call, and call so loudly.
Nan regretted waking up late. He jumped up at the slightest movement. As a result, one time, the people we sent out for the first time came back empty-handed. Another time, a mountain chicken was in a panic and was chased to our place by a fox that was equally ignorant. As a result, these two brothers soon began to emit fragrance. When I was bored, I tasted both of them. The mountain chicken tasted very delicious, while the fox meat was much worse. Another time, a horse was startled for some reason, and later it was found to be a grass snake, so it quickly turned black and became a charcoal. Then, a roe deer jumped onto our campfire and dropped a skin and a pair of horns... If we stayed like this, perhaps everything in this area of more than ten miles would be in our stomachs. Fortunately, the matter finally came to an end. When the grass and trees suddenly made a violent sound again, everyone had new expectations. When a Xianbei boy rushed out of the bushes, he was shocked when he saw dozens of bows and arrows aimed at him.
"My horse was tripped by a rock and fell on the road. The leader asked me to come back and report the news. I found that the man dropped this over there and they are still chasing him." He handed me an ordinary burlap bag. I could smell a familiar scent of herbs without opening it.
At times like these my mind usually works quickly, so I understood it immediately. I wasn't surprised.
"Get on the horses! Let's go! Follow them!"
As soon as I got on the horse, Bōcai grabbed the reins and said, "What should I do?"
"Oh, I almost forgot. Uncle Zhang is here alone. I'm really worried that something might happen to him." I looked at him and he nodded, obviously agreeing with me.
"The ones who walked with us yesterday come over." I called the ones from yesterday and said, "Bring an extra horse. Don't be in a hurry. Lead Uncle Zhang out slowly. Follow the mountain road. If there is no mountain road, just go east. Or follow our horse hoof prints. Bring more dry food." After saying that, I looked at Bōcai. He nodded again, led a horse from Lao Zhao next to him, and got on the horse very neatly. Han Xian, on the other hand, was a little unstable, and the horse wanted to throw her off. Maybe he mainly took the boat before.
We set off very quickly, and I asked a few Xianbei warriors to go ahead of us, throw away all the heavy loads on their backs, ride lightly, and meet up with Beihai and the others first, telling them not to kill that man.
We moved very fast along the way, much faster than the previous few days. The first reason is that we had to find the way a few days ago, but now we just need to follow Beihai and his footsteps. Even when we encounter some forks along the way, there are Beihai's arrows on the trees as signs. The second reason may be that everyone ate a lot of food last night and this morning; the third reason is that many people went to have diarrhea. The reason I added the last one is that I heard someone went to do that thing and came back to show off that he finally got through the food he had accumulated for several days and was now "as light as a swallow".
So just after noon that day, when we followed the mountain path over a col in an endless mountain range, we arrived at a place like this:
As far as the eye can see, there is a vast expanse of green, dotted with a patch of fiery red, stars of tender yellow, and occasional raised hills with floating clouds above them.
Suddenly a deer jumped over, startling countless colorful discs, which flew all over the sky. There was an unknown fragrance in the wind, and the sound of birds chasing each other was in my ears. I took a deep breath, and we finally arrived in Henan, but now I don’t want to think about these things, I just want to continue to be intoxicated in this world.
Everyone seemed to have some reservations, and no one in the team of more than a hundred people said anything; the horses were reluctant to let go of the grass, and leisurely, casually took a few snacks. This is a corner of the mountains in the west of Luoyang, the Kingdom of the Han Dynasty, in summer, but I felt like I was in an uninhabited horizon. Perhaps we did not expect this beautiful scenery, so this beautiful scenery like an uninvited guest made us, who were tired for several days, feel like we were in a paradise outside the sky, and we didn't feel sleepy at all. This unexpected power must be so great!
This may be the land that was originally annexed by the eunuchs, or the land that He Jin allocated to himself. Their fall made this place a no-man's land. Perhaps because their influence was still there, no one was willing to take the risk. It was also because of their fall that this place was restored to its original natural appearance. The natural northern plains were originally so broad and beautiful. This is something I have never seen in my life.
Just as I was looking around and almost forgot what I was doing here, my horse got startled and almost flipped me over. I finally managed to tug on the reins to steady it, but found that it refused to move forward. Without the shouting of the people behind me, I saw a majestic warrior suddenly appear on the hill in front of me. He slightly drew his bow, and in a moment a red arrow whizzed in front of us, leaving a trail like fire. In front of us, I don't know when there were already three arrows lined up side by side, and the last arrow continued to line up neatly behind, and then another arrow silently and neatly lined up.
"Master." Between this world, I completely recovered my youthful nature and rode forward with joy.
I understood that this was how Master welcomed me, and I knew who I would meet here, but I was not quite sure who else I would meet.
In short, everything always seems to be slightly different from what I have designed, but there is a big difference. After so many years, I finally understand this.