In the early morning, in the courtyard behind Zhuji Restaurant, people swept away the snow. In the dimly lit scene, people had already started to gather and greet each other in low voices.
The courtyard is quite large, and there are about sixty or seventy people. Most of them wear robes, and some carry musical instruments such as the erhu. They found long benches and sat up in twos and threes in the cold weather.
They were all storytellers, and Lu Si was one of them. He was holding the erhu and a few pages of paper in his hand. His eyes were a little red from staying up late. After sitting down, I saw the shopkeepers and the owner coming in.
"Gentlemen, I'm sorry, I gathered everyone in a hurry. There is a shortage of supplies in the city, and there is no fire. I will make a long story short. After I finish speaking, I will invite everyone to eat noodles. You should have read some of these short stories that have been sent to you. already."
"I've seen it." Lu Si replied in the crowd, and the answers around him were mostly neat. They are usually storytellers and pay attention to eloquence, but at this time there are no giggers. On the one hand, the prestige of the people in front is quite high. On the other hand, during the period when Jurchen was besieging the city, everyone has experienced too many things. Some people who used to know went to the city wall to participate in the defense and did not come back. His limbs were cut off and he was still alive. After all, it is because most of these people are literate and numerable, and they are arranged in logistics. They have survived now. It was only after reading the stories of some people in and outside the city last night that I realized that so many things happened during this period of time.
Lu Si was in an agitated mood after reading the two stories sent to him overnight last night. They are storytellers, sometimes vain, and sometimes they can't help but tell anecdotes and add fuel to their stories. It is different from these things at hand, especially if you have participated in it yourself.
The aroma of noodle soup was already coming from the adjacent yard, and the owner in front continued to talk.
"The printing side has just resumed work. There are not enough staff, so I can't send all of them to you for the time being. You can pass on each other after you read it. The battle with Jurchen was not very good. Many people died, but in the In this battle. No matter inside or outside the city, there are many people who rushed up and sacrificed their lives. They rushed up and sacrificed, not while fleeing. It is just for them that we need to keep these stories... "
"I don't need impassioned exaggeration, I don't need everyone to talk about Li Guang, Huo Qubing and the others, saying that those who offend me will be punished even if they are strong, or that they will be punished for their great achievements. This time we only talk about individuals, and they have been sorted out. There are a lot of things that came out, but there are many things that haven’t been sorted out. If you hear it, you can help to sort it out. When we tell stories, we may make people laugh on weekdays. But now, everyone in this city is very sad. They mentioned that there is nothing else, we will remember those who have sacrificed... We say tragic. We don't say generosity. Do you understand? If you don't understand, you can bring it up. Discuss with each other.
As soon as someone started talking, someone asked, "Master. Has the matter of peace talks outside the city been settled?"
"Negotiating and undecided." At present, storytellers are often well-informed people in the society. Sometimes, after talking about something, they can't help but discuss some evidence with others. Naturally, some people may ask about the negotiation, and the owner replied, "It sounds like There may be a tendency for peace talks on both sides, but everyone, don't forget the wolf nature of the Jurchen. If we really take it as a matter of certainty and take it lightly, the Jurchen will definitely rush over. The old hunters in the mountains know that when we encounter When it comes to the beast, the important thing is to keep an eye on him. If you don't stare at him, he will definitely bite you. You can emphasize this point when you go out."
"... If we are ready to fight, we are qualified for peace. If we don't want to fight, we will definitely be beaten."
The clamorous words continued for a while, and the noodles were cooked and served hot.
This morning, Bianliang was still white. After breakfast, the storytellers went out one after another. Together with Zhu Ji's buddies, most of them were in groups of two. Lu Si found a small market by the river and sat down, pulling up his erhu.
The city has been besieged for a long time, the weather is cold, and there is nothing to buy in the market. The two white sheds erected not far away may be the most eye-catching things. Most of the family has a surplus of money. He played the erhu for a while, and after he opened his mouth to tell the story, some people came over from nearby.
Erhu's voice was sad, and what he said was actually not an uplifting story. When the Jurchen attacked the city, he had also seen many people die. He spent most of the time in the rear, and survived by chance. Seeing people dying, or the desolate scene before death, was not much touched. Only when it is combined with these original recorded and sorted stories can the people who died in the past suddenly have meaning and a destination. The people who came around, including those who were listening from a distance at the door of the nearby house, had some experience like this.
After he finished telling a story, there were already some people gathered nearby, and there were also children dressed in burlap and filial piety, and there was a small episode after that. A woman in sackcloth from a nearby family came to beg for something. She set up a mourning hall for the minister of the family, but there were too many dead people in the city at this time, not to mention monks, and there was not even anyone around who could play musical instruments. He brought money and begged Lu Si to help him.
After Lu Si refused, the woman sat on the ground and cried out in grief, murmuring about her family's affairs. Her husband was a small landlord nearby. He was still young and liked to dance with swords and swords. Jurchen came over, and the man left his wife and Shangyou's two children and went to Xinsuanzaomen, where he died. . Now the two children are two and four years old. Although the family has left a small fortune, she is a woman in her early twenties. How can she keep this home? She has built a mourning hall for her husband, but even monks and musicians are invited. No, the woman can only send away the young husband in such a difficult winter.
It was a small family, and it was difficult for a young woman with two children to support this matter. In the past few days, the pressure on her has long been unspeakable. tears. A **-year-old child next to him, wearing hemp and filial piety, cried and said, "My father is also dead. My father is also dead..." It was all crying.
This day, the storytellers in the city mostly encountered such a situation. Whether inside or outside the city. A person's death is often not very impassioned. For the survivors in the city, the death of a loved one makes people see more of the reality in front of them. Only so many people with different identities and the same death can add a little meaning to these deaths. Even if a lot of propaganda of this significance comes from man-made, at least it will not let people sink directly into the dark abyss.
At the same time that there was a little noise in the city under the operation of caring people, outside the city of Bianliang. There was no peace in the barracks that confronted the Jurchens.
At the beginning, Zhongshi Zhong led the Western Army and the Jurchens to fight fiercely, and everyone in the Wu Rui Camp came a step late, and then news of the peace talks came out. She confronted the Jurchen in front of her. Wu Rui Camp chose a not steep snow slope to camp, and then built fortifications, rectified equipment, and began to prepare for large-scale combat.
As the peace talks progressed step by step, the Jurchens were unwilling to fight again, and public opinion that the peace talks had been decided began to appear. The other 100,000-odd troops were not here to fight the Jurchen. It's just that Wu Ruiying's attitude was put forward. On the one hand, the war was coming to an end, and they had to follow. On the other hand, they came here to get a share of this elite army before others intervened. The morale was not high, and the fortifications were done hastily. Then it became more perfunctory.
Only on the side of Wu Ruiying, fortifications will be built every day. Doing offensive drills is regarded as daily, and at first sight. Stand tall. After a day or two, someone will say, during the peace talks, don’t start provocation again. You are arguing all day in front of the Jurchen formation, like a provocation. Responsibility for peace talks.
During this period, private exchanges and lobbying among the various armies became more normal. Although Wu Ruiying could refuse some, there were also some people who could not refuse. A few days later, at the suggestion of Zhuji's staff, they also dispatched lobbyists to instigate against the capable people in the Fang army formation.
In this way, although it can be regarded as the opponent's army, in private, it is floating. There was another round of discussion, review, and reflection in the military here. Naturally, we can't focus on each other's actions, but discuss together, why we lost the battle with Jurchen, what are the differences between the two sides, and what needs to be done to defeat this group of people. In the military, whether there is talent to learn or not, they gather around to talk about their own ideas, and then summarize, unify, etc., etc.
Everyone has a brain, even if he was a peasant who didn't know big characters before he became a soldier, everyone discussed together, what made sense and what didn't make sense, and could always distinguish. Why do we lose the battle with Jurchen, because we are afraid of death, why are we all not afraid of death, but when we get together, we become afraid of death... These things can filter out some problems if we go a little deeper. The discussions over the past few days have caused some sharp things to float among the middle and lower-level soldiers, which has solved the crisis of differentiation to a certain extent. At the same time, some vigorous things have also begun to sprout inside the military camp.
Stepping on the not-so-thick snow, Chen Dongye brought his men back after training, and when he approached his tent, he saw an officer standing outside, and at the same time, he heard discussions in the tent.
The man outside the tent was acquainted with him. He seemed to be standing casually, but in fact he had the air of letting him go. Seeing that it was him, he winked and waved his hand to let him in. After he opened the curtain and went in, he saw that there were already six or seven junior officers at the rank of colonel in the tent. Seeing him come in, everyone stopped talking, and then started talking again.
What everyone said was that the Shangguan of the other units were doing things behind their backs and pulling people.
"...My brother came to me and said that as long as he is willing to go back, he will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver, and he will be promoted to the third rank immediately. These people are afraid that the world will not be in chaos, and the blood of the flowers will increase day by day..."
"Dare you say you're not tempted?"
"Hey, I'm short of money! Tell you, I just drew the knife and told him plainly. Saying this again, my brother is not right, I slashed him with a knife!"
"Brother He is domineering!"
"There is nothing domineering or domineering, how did we fight these days!"
"I can see it clearly these days, how did we lose, how did those brothers die..."
Several people in the tent are lower-level officers, and most of them are young. At the beginning, there were defeats, but after the battle of Xia Village, it was the time when the spirit and the anger were at their peak. Luo Ye's family, who was in the camp with Chen Dongye, had a family background in the capital, and he always dared to speak, and dared to fight. Most of the people gathered because of this. After speaking for a while, the voice got higher and higher, and someone patted the wood sitting next to him. Chen Dongye said, "Keep your voice down."
"What's there to be quiet!" said a man with a scar on his face opposite, "I dare to say that at the discussion meeting at night! The Jurchen has not left. They are going to fight infighting! Now this army Who can't understand it! We only have hope when we hug each other, it's really broken, everyone is like before, and we'll have a brood! Rewarding a hundred taels of silver, what if the official is promoted to the third level! Turn people into bears!"
"What I'm saying is: let's not cause trouble. General Qin and the others will not have a good time..."
After this period of time, everyone has quite identified with the chief official above, especially at such a time, in the daily discussions, they probably know some of the difficulties above, and they feel more like a group and the same enemy. The topic changed.
"Young Master Ning is amazing, he gave them a slap in the face."
"But I heard from Zhu Ji's brother that this is also a matter of rights and interests."
"It can't be dismantled or not. After all, it's up to the top to decide..."
"It's really demolished and we've become what we were before? To be honest, if we're really demolished, give me a hundred taels of silver. I'll be promoted to the third level, and next time the Jurchen comes, I'm not confident that I'll be able to fight. After saving money, Before the Jurchen comes, I have to go to a place where no one is..."
"Hey, what do you need for going to a place where no one else..."
"Put things first!" the man shouted. "I didn't know before, but I fought with Jurchen. I lost like that, now I run back and follow those bastards. When Jurchen comes again, do I still dare to fight? Last time, I rushed to see Jurchen. Kill me, I only ran away when I was injured. The next time Jurchen rushes over, I guess I will first turn around and run after those officials. , so many brothers died, to be honest, if we were together, General Qin, Mr. Ning and the others would tell me what to do, and if we took a step back, my ancestors for the 18th generation would be shit!"
This man said, his eyes were a little red, but no one could say anything about him. This man was a little sentimental, but he was always the most fierce in killing enemies on the battlefield.
Someone on the side said: "I don't know that much, but if it is really going to be demolished, what do you say?"
"Yeah, about the boss's affairs, how can our group of soldiers have the right to speak..."
"It's not that I can't speak." An officer named Luo Ye said, "The people above have a way to fight with the people above, and there are not many people below us who can help, but first of all, we have to stick together! "
"Let's fight until now, when did we not form a group!"
"Baotuan didn't say it verbally! They literati have ideas, and they just talk. We soldiers have ideas. If we want to stand up, we must fight!" Although Luo Ye is a family member, he is the most daring to fight. Fighting, regardless of the consequences, he stared at this moment, "What is Baotuan, my family knows a lot of people in the capital, whoever refuses to accept it, kill him, this is called Baotuan! General Qin and Mr. Ning, I do, but now that gang of chop sueys are in They can only deal with things from the top. To put it bluntly, it means seeing who has more people and has more influence. We are also considered human beings. Why do these people send lobbyists in private because they think we are good at starting? If we stab General Qin and the others with their knives in the back, then we have to tell them: I’m not good at fighting, we are monolithic! In this way, General Qin and Mr. Ning will be able to do things better.”
"Brother Luo, what do you say?"
"Hit! Hit him if he doesn't agree! It's the same as hitting Jurchen! Don't you understand? After a few years, Jurchen will definitely come back! It's been demolished, and we will die with those scumbags. Since it is a dead end, let’s fight! Just like Xia Village, we have more than 10,000 people together, and no one can fight! If you come to meddle, we will fight, if you are a hero, we will make friends. Now it’s not just about you and me , the national disaster is on the horizon, the collapse is imminent, and there is no time to play with them..."
Everyone nodded in understanding but not understanding. In the snowstorm, there are many similar things fermenting in the camp in front of them. Like a spark of fire, although it may go out at any time under the pressure of the outside world, at least during this period of time, with the same mood, under the pressure of the outside world, people who are determined to do something. It finally appeared.
Like the undercurrents under the ice, these things appeared among countless complicated things, and then sank, just outside the Jurchen barracks in the process of these things happening. On the other hand, a convoy was escorting some herbs, food, etc., to appease the Jurchen during the negotiation. It was the Right Prime Minister's Mansion who was in charge of these matters, and was immediately criticized.
Time passed by in the quietness of the wind and snow. In Bianliang City, the propaganda led by Zhuji gradually lifted the hearts of people who were in sadness. There are topics about people who died in wars, about heroes. Started to discuss more. Negotiations are still going on. Amid the clamor of information, Fanlou and Shishi are expecting Ning Yi and others to exert the correct strength in the negotiation bureau. Ning Yi and others and the people from the Right Prime Minister's Mansion are also in the capital at this time. This matter is running around for a few days. She could hear it occasionally—but what she didn't know was that even if she exerted her strength, this time, the feedback on the operation of the Right Prime Minister's Mansion was not ideal.
On December 23, Ning Yi quietly returned to Bianliang on the evening of the fourth day. He discussed matters with a think tank beside him and came down from Wenhui Building.
"... The current situation in the capital is a bit strange. Everyone is practicing Tai Chi, and the ones who really have feedback are Tang Ke's gang leader and sect... Tang Qinsou's personal morality is very decent. But he is not important. Negotiations, the important point is that we send troops to escort the Jurchen out of the customs, and the inner point is the issue of the destination of the Wu Rui camp. After these two points are implemented, the Wu Rui rescue will be used to rescue Taiyuan. Only the north can be preserved... Now it seems, everyone It's all a little vague. One day less now…”
"... Could it be that all the lords in the court have other ways to protect Taiyuan?"
"In this battle, Zongwang swept the Central Plains, even if Zonghan didn't make a big move, he had already emptied Taiyuan. After the two armies converged, who could stop it? Going north and cooperating with the Taiyuan line of defense can only be a little deterrent. Otherwise, it is simply watching people cut the meat with a knife. Qin Xiang persuaded His Majesty, but the Holy One... the attitude is not very clear... "
In Bianliang City, what Ning Yi is really responsible for is public opinion propaganda, the connection between the middle and lower levels, and some matters related to the military, but although he is not personally responsible, the attitude of the upper echelons of the Wu Dynasty is strange enough.
Qin Siyuan, Jue Ming, and Yao Zunian are all talented people, and there is no problem with their abilities. However, after operating for such a long time, Qin Siyuan has been sage many times, and he can't get a clear answer in all aspects, which makes people a little anxious. lit up. What is the emperor's attitude towards the army, what is everyone's attitude towards Taiyuan, and whether the negotiation ahead may get stuck on key issues, these things are all imminent, like a wheel rolling over. Watching as a missed opportunity.
Negotiations outside the city should be settled in a few days. Ning Yi was also a little surprised by the silence and hesitation of the upper echelons. I was coming out of Wenhui Building when I heard a voice in front of me.
"Fuck—it's so cold, there aren't many dead people on the street, I'm so bored, when... me!~Fuck!~Ning Yi! Hahahaha, Ning Yi!"
The voice was extremely arrogant, and he knew who it was as soon as he heard it. Ning Yi looked up and saw that it was wrapped like a panda, describing the wretched Hua Hua Tai Sui Gao Muen. When he saw Ning Yi, his expression changed a bit, and then he put his hands on his hips.
"Your motherfucker is back! Hahahaha! Ning Yi! You motherfucker dare to come back... Your good days are just a few days away! Fuck! I'll kill you then—"
He pointed at Ning Yi with one finger, and said words of unclear meaning, Ning Yi tilted his head and frowned slightly. At this moment, a loud bang sounded suddenly.
"Kill the dog—"
On the street, someone shouted suddenly, and one person lifted the cover of the nearby car, fluttering snow, the knife lighted up, and the hidden weapon flew. A hawker who was setting up a stall on the long street overturned the stall. Not far from Ning Yi, a woman wearing a headscarf and holding a basket suddenly raised her hand and slashed with her knives. Someone came from the top of the building. Leaping down, two assassins rushed past Gao Muen. At this moment, a killing formation composed of more than ten people suddenly spread out on the street and rushed towards Ning Yi, who was dressed in a scholar's costume.
At the same moment, the figure beside Ning Yi rushed out, the sword light filled the sky, and the spear shot out like a dragon roar, sweeping across the sky. The screams also burst out at the same time, like the smoke of the essence above the battle formation, in an instant, shaking the entire street, killing the sky.
There were snowflakes in the sky, clashes between human figures, the sound of weapons, the sound of fighting, the sound of steel knives slashing into flesh, and then, the outline of blood splashing all over the sky.
This was a sudden assassination. Gao Muen stood there, originally just pointing at Ning Yi, but also staring at Ning Yi. In the blink of an eye, his eyes were dazzled, figures rushed out, and a fierce man rushed towards Ning Yi. Ning Yi's eyes suddenly changed color, Gao Muen only saw this moment and then was covered by a figure, the big man rushed in front of Ning Yi, the next moment his whole body curled up, and flew to the side of the long street, a tow truck. The goods on the wagon were smashed by him, and the boxes flew around. There was a tumbling sword that made the ground, the light of the sword bloomed like a lotus flower, and then it was pierced by a steel spear and rolled over with a dark red color. In the front, the staggered light of the swords, the heads of people flew up, and the viscous and warm blood splashed on Gao Muen's face. Makes a heart-pounding scream.
"Wow-"
In the blink of an eye, blood and chaos flooded everything in front of him—
Gao Muen couldn't figure out what was in front of him at all. After a while, he realized that he suddenly shouted: "Ah, ah, blood! There are assassins, protect me, I have to go back and tell my father-" He hugged Nodding his head, he ran into the guard group, ran all the way, slammed into a tree, and rolled on the ground with his nose covered.
Due to the war, the assassination of Ning Yi by the Green Forest people had stopped for a period of time, but even so, after this period of training on the battle formation, the guards around Ning Yi were only stronger, where would they be unfamiliar. Although they didn't know how they got the news of Ning Yi's return to the city, these assassins hit the hard point as soon as they made a move. On the long street, it was a sudden massacre. Several assassins rushed into the opposite. In the restaurant, after that, I don't know who I met, someone was beheaded and pushed out. A few of the entourage beside Ning Yi rushed in, and after a while, someone was shouting. The word came out.
"The Duke of Chu is here, who would dare to drive in shock—"
Afterwards, guards rushed out from the building. ()