Dark clouds gathered over Qingni Ridge, and light rain fell. Cao suddenly yelled angrily, and when people looked back, they saw a general falling flat on his back, with mud all over his back. The Shu army soldiers, who were concentrating on the road and struggling downhill, laughed when they saw this.
It would be fine if it rained harder, but this light rain is really annoying. A general wearing a brocade red cape frowned. He was right. The surface of the hillside was wet and trampled by countless feet, forming a thin layer of mud. Below was hard soil that had been trampled hard for a long time. This road was very difficult to walk on, and if you were not careful, you would fall into the mud.
Some places are paved with stone slabs, but they are uneven. When you step on them, there is a loud bang and mud and water splash all over your face.
The general who was speaking with a frown was called Li Tinggui. He had a broad face and a strong build, a typical northern man because he was indeed from Hedong, Shanxi. Most of the imperial guards of Shu were foreign populations, the group of migrants who destroyed the Former Shu.
Li Tinggui is now the leader of the Shu army on the northern defense line. He led the northern army camp with the military power of Pengshengkonghedu, and arrived at Qingniling three days ago. The reinforcements he led were late, and as soon as they arrived in Xingzhou, they heard that Qinfengcheng had fallen; the Zhou army's actions were too swift.
Li Tinggui's current idea is to defend Qingniling and see how the situation develops. A few days ago, the Privy Council official Wang Zhaoyuan clamored for a counterattack, and Li Tinggui really wanted to slap that guy to death. The bastard only knew how to brag.
Twenty years ago, Li Tinggui felt that the Shu army could still fight for supremacy. Now, relying on the terrain to hold on, it would be a blessing. If the Shu army could defeat the Zhou army in a direct field battle, would Qin Fengcheng be lost? Li Tinggui thought that Wang Zhaoyuan was not thinking with his brain, but with his asshole; as if he claimed to have a brilliant strategy and could kill the opponent's elite soldiers without fighting or calculating.
Li Tinggui and his generals walked down the hillside, turned around and looked around. There were endless mountains and forests on the northeast and northeast sides. Except for the road on Qingni Ridge, there was no human habitation in the mountains and forests. There were no mountains and forests in some places in the east, but the continuous hillside forests in the north stretched out in all directions, and the mountains in the southeast were higher, with steep cliffs on all sides. The only road was the Shu Road in the south, and the reinforcements came along the Shu Road.
Li Tinggui and his party ignored the difficulty of the road and trekked southward along the edge of the western forest. However, the terrain was continuous and the places they could travel were always under the control of the Shu Road.
Seeing that it was already afternoon, he decided to give up this inspection and looked for a place that was easy to walk, heading east to join the Shu Road and return to the military camp.
At this time, Li Tinggui found a person wearing green clothes hiding in the bushes in a forest on a hillside. Li Tinggui looked around for a while and found that there were no villages or people around. He only saw a temple at the foot of the hillside, so he asked the guide of the Qingniling Inn: What temple is that
The guide hurriedly said: It's a nunnery.
Li Tinggui looked around again and suddenly said: There is a spy on the mountain. Come on, intercept him from all sides and capture the spy.
The two generals clasped their fists, waved their hands and led their soldiers to rush towards the hillside. When they reached the front of the mountain, they split into two groups and surrounded the back of the mountain. Li Tinggui and the remaining soldiers also followed and headed straight for the nunnery.
A dilapidated courtyard with a green-tiled rooftop building is located on the hillside. When Li Tinggui and others walked to the temple gate, they saw an old nun with a wrinkled face folding her hands and sighing: Amitabha
Li Tinggui ignored him, and the horsemen around him rode their horses around the temple. After a while, the soldiers from the forest came down, escorting a middle-aged woman in a green Taoist robe in front and behind, with her arms tied behind her back and her head hanging down, being driven down.
This woman is obviously not a nun. She has long hair and doesn't behave like a nun. Judging from her attire, could she be a Taoist priest? Everyone is curious about when nuns and Taoist priests could get together.
Are you a Taoist priest? Li Tinggui asked as expected.
The woman did not say anything. Li Tinggui continued: If you are a Taoist priest and have a certificate of ordination, we have arrested the wrong person. I will ask someone to release you.
After a while, a general cursed: General Li asked you a question, dumb
Li Tinggui immediately said: Take off your clothes and search carefully.
I am a Taoist priest, a Taoist priest, the woman immediately spoke, but her accent was that of the Central Plains.
Li Tinggui stopped talking to her and shouted: Arrest all the people in the nunnery.
After hearing this, the soldiers rushed into the nunnery. At this time, a dozen nuns wearing cloth hats and gray cloth robes came down from the stone steps of the main hall. One of the nuns, who was in her thirties, saw the soldiers rushing in and said hurriedly: "The Buddhist temple is a peaceful place, how can you rashly start a war?" The nuns behind her picked up sticks. Seeing this, the soldiers picked up their weapons and shouted: "The nuns want to resist with weapons, should we kill them?"
Li Tinggui also followed in and said:
At that moment, the nun was holding a Buddhist rosary. Seeing the soldiers rushing up, she stopped the people behind her and chanted: "Put down your butcher knife and you will become a Buddha immediately. Put down your butcher knife and you will become a Buddha immediately.
When they saw them throw away their sticks, they rushed over, totally ignoring what the nun was chanting, and tied them up with hemp ropes. Another group of people rushed in, and soon they brought out two women. One was dark and strong, and the other was a teenage girl.
At this time, the nun holding the Buddhist beads could not count the number of beads and muttered. Her hands were tied behind her back and she knelt on the ground. She said: "I am a poor nun who lives in seclusion in the mountains, with green lamps and ancient Buddhas, and I don't fight with the world. The general is a hero for dealing with us unarmed people."
Li Tinggui sneered and said: You colluded with the Zhou Dynasty, betrayed your own people, harbored spies, and lived in harmony with the world. Take them all back to the camp and torture them one by one.
Among the people with hair on their heads, two said nothing. But the teenage girl started to yell: "Who is the spy? We are just passing by and staying here temporarily. Who do you say is the spy?"
A sergeant who was escorting him laughed and said: If we say you are a spy, then you are a spy. It’s useless even if you shout at the top of your lungs.
He took the rope and was about to move forward when suddenly a cloud of white smoke rose in front of him. The soldier was confused and screamed while covering his face. The two soldiers nearby saw this and immediately rushed over. There seemed to be a flash of silver light in the white smoke, and the two men dropped their spears and cried out in pain while holding their necks.
It happened so fast that everyone didn't see how she hurt anyone. She ran to the wall, jumped up and grabbed the edge of the wall with both hands, but fell down again, sat on the ground, and cried loudly. When everyone looked back, they saw her palms spread out, and her hands were bloody. It turned out that there were sharp spikes on the wall, and she pressed them.
The girl was wearing a Taoist robe, with her hair in a bun and carrying a cloth bag. She had an oval face with single eyelids and looked pretty and cute. Her complexion was rosy and she looked very healthy. She was no more than fifteen or sixteen years old.
When everyone saw her fall down in the yard, they all breathed a sigh of relief and surrounded her calmly.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the soldier who had just been splashed with white ash suddenly went crazy, humming and jumping in the yard, happy like a madman. The general shouted, but he ignored it and continued to jump in the yard. Moreover, he was a big and strong man, and his jumping was particularly funny. For a while, the nunnery looked really weird.
Li Tinggui looked around, frowned and said: Take them all away, leave this place. Then he turned around and walked out of the nunnery first.
The young woman was caught and shouted again: My master is Fuyaozi. I have seen the imperial concubine of your court, Lady Huarui. Take me to see Lady Huarui.
Hey, Li Tinggui turned around and looked at her again, and said, the young lady should be kept separately, and don't hurt her.
This place was not far from the Shu Road. The soldiers tied the captives together and drove them onto the Shu Road, heading north along the road. When they arrived at the posthouse, it was the station for the first batch of reinforcements from the Shu Army. The posthouse became the headquarters of the central army. Except for the young lady, all the nuns and the two frightened women were locked in a guest room in the posthouse.
Li Tinggui met Zhao Chongtao, the governor of the province, who was serving as the military supervisor, in the army and asked him to interrogate the spy. However, the young lady was kept in solitary confinement and no one paid any attention to her.
Zhao Chongtao was the son of the Minister of the Central Secretariat, and he was not in charge of judging cases. His method was simple: he immediately ordered the two female Taoist priests to be hung under the eaves of the posthouse, and then, without asking any questions, they were beaten with whips.
Beat the spy to death, beat Zhao Chongtao shouted. The two soldiers were urged to take off their armor, pick up the whip and crackle, making blood splatter and screaming.
The dark and strong woman cried and begged for mercy, her body trembling under the beam, her face twisted. Even the soldiers couldn't stand the whip, let alone the woman. If the whip was used with full force, her clothes would be torn, blood would immediately appear, and her skin would be torn.
After a while, both women fainted, and the sergeant hung cold water from the well and poured it on them. The ground was immediately covered with blood. The dark and strong woman woke up faintly and immediately groaned in pain. The rags on her body were all stained with blood and flesh. The other woman hung there motionless. The sergeant went forward to sniff her breath and turned back to say: "General Zhao, one of them is dead."
I confess, I confess everything, please let me confess, the dark and strong woman begged.
At this time, Zhao Chongtao brought a stool and sat down, asking the clerk to prepare a document to record the confession. The woman said: I am a spy of the Zhou Dynasty. I really am
Zhao Chongtao asked for a long time, but the woman knew nothing about anything and just kept talking nonsense. The only useful thing she said was that she came from Tokyo and was working as a spy in Qingniling Temple to investigate the terrain.
The clerk inside said: "Lord Zhao, I know a way, left behind by Wu Zhou, that can scare the princes to death."
Suddenly, a curse was heard. Li Tinggui came out, snorted, pointed at the black woman and said: Qingni Ridge is guarded by the Shu army. Where are you getting the message from