What happened? Why was I distracted? Ahead, swords and knives were dancing, blood was splattered all over the ground, bones were broken, and people were wailing. But I seemed to be walking in Xiangyang after the sunset in autumn. As the sun set, I rode slowly on the streets of Xiangyang, listened to the hawking of the neighbors, and admired the maple leaves floating gently in the sky. With the horses' hooves, the maple leaves on the ground were like the waves rising and falling at the seaside. All the people in Xiangyang were wearing red clothes, making the whole Xiangyang float in a gorgeous red. It's just that the neighbors seemed to have aged a lot, no longer as healthy as before, but at least they were still smiling at me, just like when I was young.
Suddenly, the streets were deserted, and the red scenery immediately turned into a withered yellow. All the doors of the houses were sealed, the horses walked even slower, and even the wind became stronger.
Then, the setting sun also set, and everything around was dark.
I seemed to wake up, but I could only see the flashing light of swords in front of me.
"Sa!" I felt myself in a panic and could only shout to give myself courage. I didn't know about the others, but I felt that I was going to die soon and I wanted to go home. I even wanted to stretch out my hands and let my sister carry me home, just like when I was a child, I always wanted to bury my head in my sister's arms and cry.
I was on a small boat in the vast ocean, holding a large oar in my hand, paddling hard, but I didn't know which direction was the right one. The waves were trying to throw me off the boat, and countless hands were reaching out from the water to pull me down. I was scared, nervous, tired, and hungry, and I felt like I was going crazy. I could only paddle the water continuously and use the oar to beat away the hands that wanted to pull me down, and gradually I felt an irresistible despair.
Suddenly, a hand did not come to pull me, but just held my boat, and then a yellow scarf floated to the surface of the water.
Then all the other hands disappeared.
I clenched my teeth, gasped, and looked at the soldier in front of me who was holding my horse.
"What's wrong, Lord Fengyunhou, the enemy was defeated by you. We are General Ye Jian's men, not Qu Xing's army."
"Oh, I didn't hurt you, did I?" I was sure that I was fully awake. There was still snow all around, but the sky was a little brighter. I could see our cavalry chasing the enemy's deserters everywhere. I wanted to forget what I had just thought, but I suddenly found that I could no longer remember what I had just thought, and I immediately felt much refreshed.
"It's okay, they just broke a few of our shields." I saw that most of them were looking at me from a distance of ten feet away from me. Some of them even raised their shields that I had broken halfway and revealed the wood texture as proof. They probably felt that they were safer at this distance. Only the soldier holding my reins was brave enough to approach me, but he quickly let go and stood back in their team. Soon they received a new order to continue to march westward, but my mind was blank all of a sudden. I didn't know what to do. I only noticed that someone looked back at me from time to time.
I moved around a bit and felt no injuries, except that the place on my back where I was injured was a little itchy. Damn it, how did I beat the enemy? Why can't I remember anything? No one hurt me, it's incredible.
"Brother Zhi!" Ye Jian rode his horse to my side, and when he saw me, he shouted in high spirits: "No wonder the once-glorious Xiliang Iron Cavalry was defeated by you. I just saw you charging on the hillside. At that time, I thought to myself, oh my god, there is no such brave and unparalleled charge in the world, who in the world can stop you from smashing like that, once you rushed into the enemy camp, they were quickly defeated. No wonder I saw such a big difference in the number of people on both sides of you, your side had only a quarter of the people on the other side, but the enemies on your side were the first to collapse. As long as you are here, I really can't think of how we can lose."
This call made me feel very happy. But I couldn't explain it, because I didn't know what was going on. I had to ask what was going on. I thought it was a battle between Captain Sun and Ou Xing's bandit army. I didn't expect it was Ye Jian's southeastern army. Ye Jian's troops also advanced very quickly. Since the southern slope was not very steep, they quickly followed the hillside that used to be lush with flowers and grass and went straight to the west slope of the main peak of the shogunate. However, there were many camps of Ou Xing near the main peak, and his army soon fell into the danger of being alone. Fortunately, the opponent was also a little panicked and scattered everywhere, so they were not immediately surrounded. In order to avoid being surrounded, and the terrain and trees here were complicated and we were not very familiar with them, Ye Jian's 6,000 troops quickly divided into more than a dozen Spartan battle formations to attack the opponent's troops separately to avoid being surrounded and destroyed by the opponent's advantage of familiar terrain. I didn't have any experience in mountain stations, and what he said made some sense, so I nodded in agreement. The battlefield was originally in a balance, and no one could take advantage for a while. Ye Jian's cavalry was also fighting with others on an open ground above. Once the bandit army attacking us collapsed, the battlefields developed in a direction favorable to us. The fleeing bandit army disturbed the morale of other armies, and our cavalry broke the enemy's position while chasing others. In this way, all the opponents were defeated in a short time.
However, there were some things about this gang of bandits that were beyond my expectations, that is, they were all real desperate criminals, who had committed many murders and robberies, and were very brave in fighting, so that our Yellow Turban soldiers could not gain any advantage, and many of us were new recruits from Wu County. As a result, we almost got into trouble here, and I felt that I had not considered many aspects carefully. Fortunately, nothing went wrong this time, but I don’t know what will happen in the future.
"Have you seen the soldiers on our road?"
"Yeah, Brother Zhi, you seem to have two thousand people? I only saw more than a hundred of you!"
"I asked them to come and help you first, didn't you see them?"
"We didn't see it either."
"How long have you been fighting here?"
"It was half an hour before you came."
"Oh no! Where are my two thousand men?" I felt really anxious. As a commander, I couldn't accept that my main force was missing.
They probably just set out on the road half an hour ago, but they didn't meet them. There were so many footprints there, but they might also be from Qu Xing's people.
Then, where are my two thousand people? Where can they run to according to the footprints? But now the footprints must be a mess, it will be very difficult to find them. Now I can only take one step at a time.
I asked Ye Jian to continue to go up the mountain to complete his attack mission. Ye Jian said take care, smiled and left. I told him that his face was a little dirty and not as handsome as in the camp, but he smiled and wiped it with his sleeve, which made it even dirtier. I decided to pretend that I didn't see anything. But after it got dirty, I found that his nose was very big.
At this time, my cavalrymen also came back to me one after another, and followed the lines I had arranged for me to check. Not many people were killed, especially those on my side, who seemed to be basically all there, but there seemed to be less than a dozen people on the other side, and many of them were also dead.
How did I rush? Even I am asking myself this question now, but unfortunately I can't remember anything.
But now I am completely stable and can think about what to do. I ordered those who were more seriously injured to go back to the original road and try to find our two thousand people. If they find the enemy, they should come to us. If they find our own people, they should quickly move towards us. We will continue to search for the enemy's remaining soldiers to the west.
"Follow me! Let our warhorses go and trample Qu Xing's head!"
Everyone was in high spirits. When I looked back I could always see my brothers laughing, but they didn't talk to me as much anymore. It seemed like they didn't know what to do except grinning foolishly.
I didn't care. I just needed some time to relax. On the way to the west, I met Ye Jian again. He seemed to be discussing the route of advance with his men. I used my weapon to signal me to pass by their right side. Ye Jian also nodded quickly. I really like this guy. He is not even older than me, but he has formed a team by himself. It is really amazing. What is particularly valuable is that after knowing the identity of our army, he took the initiative to join my sister's account, saving Wu from a disaster. He is also very popular among the low-level soldiers. He should be a very cute boy. The main thing is that he dares to do anything, which is more to my taste. In fact, there are some personal reasons. He has been saying good things about me until now, which makes me very happy.
Along the way, the sky became brighter and brighter, and the scenery on the mountain became clearer and clearer, but I became more and more confused. I wanted to know what was wrong with me, why did I just do that, the battlefield was not a place for children to play, why did I suddenly lose my focus and completely lose myself
Maybe I have been deceiving myself. In fact, I am timid and cowardly, but I pretend to be brave to be with so many dead bodies, especially many of them have lost their limbs and the cause of death is unknown. I use this to make everyone look at me with new eyes. In the end, it can only be my vanity. I am not that great, I am just an ordinary person. But I can't bear this kind of scene. Although I can hold on in front of so many people and facing the corpses that can't move, I can even laugh as if I am really not afraid. I tell myself that these people are dead and keep myself in a relaxed state of mind; but when I face real danger, my mind can no longer conceal the panic and fear that I can't suppress. I even want to hide behind my sister.
What I did was to curse myself for being useless. I was still ashamed and annoyed. Without thinking about what I had in my hand, I whipped the horse to urge it to go ahead. This time, the horse went crazy and galloped westward like lightning. I didn't remember why at first, but when I was about to rein in the horse with both hands, I saw the blood on the wolf's ear and I immediately understood.
I didn't rein in my horse, but just looked back. Although the other brothers were riding their horses hard, they were still getting farther and farther away from me.
I think I must have lost my mind. I didn't plan to wait for them at all. I thought that if I didn't let the horse vent its anger, it would be in more pain, so I didn't rein in the horse and just let the biting wind sting my face. I wanted to find a place to hide, but I found that I couldn't pull up the collar of the armor to cover my face, so I gave up. I thought that after the horse slowly calmed down, I would wait for the people behind me and then cover my face.
However, while the horse was still running wildly, I could see the battlefield again. But this time, it was obvious that we had the absolute advantage. A big man with a curly beard was commanding the army to attack in formation with shields. The enemy was using arrows and battering rams to resist the fortifications set up in the dangerous terrain.
I only grasped these situations, and I was already close. I made a mistake in flattering my horse, and caused such trouble. I immediately made up my mind. In order to avoid dispersing my own people, I opened my voice and shouted, "The great Han Ping An Fengyun Hou is here, brothers, make way for me to rush up the mountain!"
I never thought that my voice could be so loud. The battlefield suddenly became quiet. Our soldiers quickly moved out of the way. I just pulled the horse's head to turn left. But the snow was trampled by everyone. The horse just slipped. Although the horse's head was facing southeast and its legs were pulled back, its body just slid to the southwest. It was about to hit the brothers who couldn't dodge in time. I had no choice but to apologize and waved the Tianlang to slap the horse. This time the horse must have been completely crazy with pain. It flew with all four legs and rushed forward like an arrow. A stronger wind blew in my face, making my eyes squint.
I clamped my legs tightly around the saddle, locked the stirrups with my feet, crossed the weapon that injured the horse, and yelled again. The fear in my heart was temporarily swept away. I followed the mad horse and rushed forward with my youthful enthusiasm.
I will die here today, at the age of eighteen. These days were the days when I knew my wife of eighteen years and planned the wedding. I thought I would definitely marry her, even though I didn't know her, let alone like her, even though I knew I liked someone else, and I had only known her for a few months, but I could never be with her again... This old debt, today I will pay off my life for her.
Although I blocked several sharp arrows, I was still hit by a few wooden sticks. At first, I thought the arrows were more terrible, so I only blocked the arrows and ignored the wooden sticks. I thought I had thick skin and could withstand it. Maybe I was wrong. Although the wooden sticks were not sharp enough to pierce my skin, they were like my internal organs being crushed when they hit me. The pain was unbearable. I felt something coming up, and I swallowed it forcefully. It was fishy and uncomfortable.
But I still rushed into the enemy's position. The horse was really too fast. However, after entering, the horse had no intention of slowing down and continued to gallop. I pulled the horse hard, and the horse's head shook and even pulled the reins from my hands. I had no choice but to lie on the horse and let it turn, kick and jump at will. Gradually, I felt that I could still stay on the horse, so I picked up the Tianlang with one hand and whipped it, but this time I could only use my right hand to grab the stick because the horse kept turning left, spun three times and circled twice, completely blocking the enemy on my right side.
But it didn't seem to work. There were still quite a lot of opponents. They immediately surrounded me and threw everything at me, which made me overwhelmed. At least I clearly knew that I was stabbed by a spear on my right leg. The spear tip remained on my leg, and my right leg was extremely painful. Especially when I accidentally saw dozens of people holding long spears approaching me from the mountain, I felt that my debt was about to be repaid.
"May God have mercy on me, Zirui refuses to give in!" I suddenly remembered my suicide note and recited it out loud. I never thought that it would actually be useful this time.
But I also caught a glimpse of Guan Hai's bearded man appearing a few feet away, and they seemed to have broken through the opponent's defense line.
“God have mercy on me, and forgive Zirui for not accepting this!” I said it again, but this time I added one word, but the thought in my mind was completely different.
I reached out and pulled back the reins from the horse's mouth, trying my best to rein in the horse. I forcibly lifted the guy's front hooves by three feet. I took advantage of the situation and turned my head to use the Heavenly Wolf to nail a man, including the spear and the man, two inches into the snow, making the whole man one foot and two inches shorter. As soon as the horse's hoof touched the ground, it kept spinning in the same place. I used its power to activate the Heavenly Wolf and swing it at the enemy who was close to me. The lethality of this thing is really too great, and it is extremely brutal to fight with it. Even if the spikes in front of the opponent are hanging, a large piece of clothes, belt and flesh will be torn off, not to mention the whole Heavenly Wolf colliding with the body. In addition, the sounds I shouted from time to time were incomprehensible, just like an evil ghost who had lost his humanity and was bloodthirsty. I believe their hearts must be filled with fear.
However, as the bearded man got closer and closer to me, I felt more and more pressured. I was afraid that it would not be easy to die today.
But my opponent didn't let me relax. My arms and my horse were very busy. I was almost dizzy from the horse's spinning and couldn't free my hands. The injury on my leg also kept me highly awake, but I was about to fall off the horse. I had no choice but to pat the horse again, hoping that the pain would make it stop.
It stopped spinning, but it went crazy again. I don't know what I was thinking at the time, why did I come up with such a bad idea? Brother Guan had already attacked very close to me, so why should I just let them hold this crazy horse
God knows where the horse will take me this time. I pulled the reins hard to calm it down, but it broke. It must have been cut by someone, so it broke when I pulled it hard. But after a while of being at a loss, the answer I wanted to know was soon revealed: all the spears, several feet long, were waiting for me on the slope not far away.
What should I do? Facing more than a dozen spears that seemed to cover my body, I was helpless, and the people on the road could not stop me. I wanted to pull it, but there was nothing to pull. It seemed that I would soon become a hedgehog like Tianlang. But I was thinking, why didn't I feel scared now
Things suddenly took a turn for the better. Although the horse was in great pain, it could still sense the danger it was facing. So the poor animal did something that no one expected: it suddenly fell to the ground, gasping for air, and after it pushed me off, it grumbled at me a few times, as if complaining, "You hero, go ahead. I'm so tired and you stabbed me in the ass."
The dozen spears suddenly had no opponents and were obviously hesitant. I kept twisting my body to keep my balance to avoid falling and crawling to my feet. However, I still used my hands to support myself several times and kept defending myself in a hurry. I didn't even have time to wipe off the ice, snow and dirt on my hands after falling off the horse.
There were so many people around me that I didn't have time to spare. If they hadn't been scared of the Sirius, they would have poked me like a honeycomb. Many people's weapons were just pointed at me a few feet away, and they tried to hide behind me.
After fighting like this for a few moments, my confidence grew, and I shouted, "Qu Xingzei, come to me and die..."
Sure enough, after I shouted this, I was able to move with ease amidst the protection of all of them. However, it seemed that no one was hit by me anymore. Many people retreated exaggeratedly just after their weapons were touched by me.
I felt that I was getting more energetic the more I fought, and I was able to use what the two elder brothers Guan and Zhang had taught me. I also became more and more passionate as I fought, and kept cursing Qu Xing. I was like a god, ignoring the many enemies in front of me, and went straight up the mountain. I saw that the dozen spears were also slowly retreating backwards, and I felt very proud.
This feeling of being the center of attention is really wonderful. I alone have disrupted Qu Xing's camp and made these desperate criminals cower in fear of me. In my excitement, I opened my voice again: "Qu Xing, your death is approaching. If you surrender, you can save the lives of these brothers. God is merciful. Why do you go against the will of God and let such a brave warrior die with you..."
But this time I was in trouble. My Heavenly Wolf slipped when I was so engrossed in the moment! My eyes followed him as he slowly flew up the mountain, passed the spear formation, and fell heavily. The sound of him landing was not that loud. Amid the shouting and killing of people everywhere, the muffled sound was nothing. I don’t think this means that I am stronger, but that my death is really coming. The sound of him landing without any sound may be a hint that my life has come to an end. It just so happened that I never brought a sword with me, and I didn’t have any weapons at all. In addition, since the fight just now was meaningless and there were no casualties, there was not even a single weapon on the ground. This time I was in big trouble.
The people surrounding me obviously didn't expect this to happen. They hesitated for a moment. God bless you, if it weren't for their hesitation, I would definitely have died.
I immediately jumped up and found that my legs were really strong. My legs were at least three feet off the ground. With my long arms and my height, I was able to grab the branches above. The branches were covered with thick and cold ice and snow. However, I didn't care about the objections of my hands and quickly put away my two long legs that were in the way. My sister said that my legs were at least six and a half to seven feet long. I felt that my legs were a bit uncoordinated and long, especially now. It would be best if I had no legs. I quickly hooked my legs to another branch. When I exerted my legs, I found that the extra thing on my legs made me feel uncomfortable and painful. I have been climbing trees since I was a child, so I quickly found a higher place on the tree to look at the situation below. I also noticed that the snow stopped at some point and the sky became much brighter.
The people below obviously had no way to stop me. All the archers were at the front line, and now it was estimated that no one could survive. The others holding something below could only worry. This was probably the best time for them to kill me. I was not so willing to die on top, and the pain in my legs began to flare up at this time.
Some of them threw swords and other weapons to hit me, but most of them hit the branches and fell down. One of them was blocked by the branches, and I caught it when I was a little slow. I was not so polite. There were people piled up below anyway, so I just kept hitting them hard and I always hit them. Sure enough, after a few screams, no one tried to use this method to knock me down again. My idea was to stay up there for a while, and wait for Brother Guan to attack, and then I would go down, but it was a bit ugly. Thinking of this, my legs were in great pain. I couldn't think of a better way.
However, I didn't need to think about it, something unexpected happened again. They might not have heard anything because of the noisy voices below, but we who were high above clearly heard some crisp sounds of wood breaking. I knew it was these branches. The severe cold made these branches particularly brittle. After such a toss, plus a big man like me falling on them, it would be terrible.
Gradually, the branches below me could no longer hold me up, and I felt my body slowly falling down. I sat on the branches, my waist straight, not daring to move much, looking at the white branches around me, slowly rising, and I knew that I was slowly falling down. I grabbed the branches on both sides with all my strength, but the whole thing was about to collapse, and there was no way to save it. With another crisp but not pleasant sound, I felt as if my heart was hanging in the air, and the whole thing fell down like a big white umbrella. When I was about to land, I quickly shouted for courage.
I stepped on people with both feet, and felt that my legs were not broken. I felt relieved, but then I felt another sharp pain in my right leg. I remembered that I was shot in the same place last time. I wondered why this place was so unlucky. And the things in my stomach seemed to be completely shattered, which was extremely uncomfortable. However, a long spear came out from my legs, which scared me so much that I didn't dare to move. I forgot all other thoughts and my feeling became much slower.
After I came down, the first person I saw was Brother Guan. He was obviously not prepared. He and his brothers were leaning back, as if they were hiding from the umbrella. I quickly pulled out the gun, and a clenched hand was also exposed, but I kicked it away with two kicks. It seemed that there was a person holding a long gun, but something unexpected happened to his head. The person was pressed down, but the long gun was still held upright. I was almost killed. If I had missed it by a few inches, I would have caused a disaster. Thinking about the possible situation, I ordered myself not to think too much.
I stood still like a hero, raising my arms and shouting, "Brothers, let's go and destroy Qu Xing together." In fact, I just saw the Sirius standing upright in the snow and wanted to grab it first.
But as I continued to move forward, my legs were still limping, and the gun tip was still on my leg, so I couldn't pull it out. People who hadn't fainted under the branches stood up one after another. I just covered my stomach with one hand and used the gun with the other hand to hit the heads of the people who popped out from top to bottom like a stick, but even after breaking the gun shaft, it didn't reach my Tianlang.
However, Guan Hai finally arrived. He supported me and said, "Brother Zirui, is your leg injured? Go down and rest. I will leave this place to you." I threw away the remaining half of the stick in my hand with a smile on my face. This was the first time that Guan Hai was so polite to me, and I knew that Guan Hai was definitely not a hypocritical person. So, I was very happy and decided to follow his thoughts. I hurriedly said, "Then I'll have to trouble Brother Guan to get my Tianlang to me."
"Brother, you should pull it out yourself!" Guan Hai hesitated for a moment and asked someone to help me go. I don't know what rumors he had heard that made him afraid to let others touch it. I was very curious, so I decided to ask.
"What's wrong? Why are you like this? What did you hear?" I even limped more severely on purpose.
"Then let me pull it out for you, brother?" Guan Hai took a deep breath, as if he was ready to die.
"It's not that serious, right? What happened?"
"Do you, the Heavenly Wolf, have a spirit? Unless you are a close relative, if an outsider touches you, at the very least, thirty years of your life will be shortened, at the worst, you will suffer from a serious illness and die after suffering for 49 days?"
"Why is it getting more and more outrageous?" I was really getting more and more surprised. Every time I heard more terrifying rumors, but it also made me understand why the brothers avoided and walked around when they passed by. "I'll pull it out, I'll pull it out! ... Brother Guan, why do you believe this?"
"I don't know. I didn't believe it at first, but later many people witnessed what you did. Everyone was similar. How could I not believe it?"
I now understand what "three people make a tiger" means. I hope that by then, there won't be a bunch of people saying bad things about me.
With the help of two people, I walked towards my weapon. When I almost reached it, the battle was basically over. Some soldiers were still searching for the remaining enemies under the branches. More people rushed up the mountain around my Tianlang. The mountain was already visible from here. It was somewhat similar to Qianshan. The mountain was completely different from the surrounding scenery. It was like a flying boulder placed on the mountain, but this one seemed to be much bigger than the one on Qianshan. It was straight up and down like a knife, which was more steep. However, it seemed that no one could resist stubbornly on it, and there was no other danger along the way. This matter might be over like this. We can withdraw our troops within an hour.
Guan Hai was right beside me, and he ordered someone to capture a prisoner and ask about Qu Xing's whereabouts. I also wanted to know, so I turned around with great effort.
"Oh, the sun is out, and the weather is finally getting better." After turning around, I saw the sunlight shining on the low hill in front of me, and I was inspired. The branches of the tree had been torn off, which indeed made the front much more open.
", where is Qu Xing?"
The man lowered his head and said nothing, just pointing to the ground behind us.
We all turned around... On the empty space in the crowd, the wolf stood upright. The reason for the upright position was that it had pierced a person's face. That person was the leader of the shogunate's bandits.
Everything is over. I feel very tired. I haven't had a good rest for several days. I didn't even celebrate my 18th birthday properly just to deal with him. Now he died under my Tianlang. All the Jingzhou soldiers have never seen this man's face from beginning to end, and now they will never see him again.
At noon on the tenth day of the twelfth lunar month in the second year of Zhongping, the sacrifice at Mufu Mountain ended.