After nightfall, fireflies flew up from the bushes by the canal, and the chirping of cicadas mixed with the croaking of frogs swayed in the breeze. Water waves, embankments, rice fields, short trees, military camps and docked ships by the dock, and the continuous fire. The nearby peddlers had picked up some things to sell here and had not returned yet. Not far away, there was a fire in a small shed by the ridge of fields. Tables and chairs were set up, and some people in fine clothes were invited over to sit and eat and drink. Occasionally, the bonfire would spread and dance, and it was like a farmhouse experience of life in the future.
The summer weather was already hot, and most of the people entering and exiting the dock were fanning themselves. If they dined on the ship, they often could not stand the heat in the cabin, so they moved the tables and chairs to the side of the ship. Only when the river wind blew and the weather became a little cooler did a burst of cheers come up and down. Most of the people came out to enjoy the cool breeze. Even the Liangshan minions who were imprisoned on the side of the dock with light or serious injuries could not help but relax in their cages and show a little vitality.
The series of changes from last night to now did indeed bring a somewhat somber atmosphere to the entire fleet, but in terms of overall impact, it was still limited. The previous battle at Hongze Lake was easily resolved, which was enough to make everyone happy and applaud. But this time, although the previous night did bring a sense of danger to many of the dignitaries on the ship, the subsequent encirclement and killing of the Liangshan people, as well as the capture of more than forty people, finally diluted some of the tension.
For the "rich second generations" on the ship who had powerful backgrounds, this trip could already be seen as a realistic and shocking experience of escorting a bodyguard. There was danger, but no one was hurt. Now, it seemed that the enemy was nothing more than a bunch of chickens and dogs. And after experiencing these things personally, they would have more things to talk about to share with others in the future.
Some things could be imagined. Once these large ships arrived at Bianliang, the matter of the two of them repelling the bandits would be talked about enthusiastically. Their purpose of going to the capital was to visit, lobby, and rope in people during this birthday celebration. This experience provided them with a good opportunity.
Because of this, although they were still worried that more bandits would come, even if they left the dock, they just strolled around the nearby fields and embankments and ate something. Most people still followed the rules and only moved within the guarded area, so as not to cause more trouble to the accompanying troops — of course, this was only in terms of the degree of trouble they caused in daily life.
In the bright lights on the main ship, people were talking about the Liangshan bandits who overestimated themselves, as well as the mountain bandits who would be burned to death the next day with their legs broken. For most people, it was very exciting, but there were indeed a small number of people who thought it was too cruel, or began to point out that Chen Jingui was not qualified to carry out such an execution without the yamen. Among them, a small number of people tended to think that the people of Liangshan were indeed heroes who robbed the rich to help the poor, and it would be a pity if they were killed just like that. Zhou Pei walked through the crowd and noted down all the people who had such thoughts.
As the "rich" side, it was not difficult to imagine that they would sympathize with these heroes who robbed the rich. At this time, most of the people who went north with the ship were the second and third generations of rich and well-off families. They had all kinds of romantic ideas in their minds, and even yearned for the freedom of the heroes and hated their own families for being "rich and heartless". There were also some people who sympathized with these people after seeing the miserable situation of the wounded in the cages. Most of them were women. Of course, there was no such thing as human rights at this time, so not many people would ask for doctors to treat those prisoners.
Among the 43 people who were arrested, there were a total of 39 bandits. It could be said that the situation at this time was extremely miserable. No one cared about those who were lightly injured, and those who were seriously injured were just treated a little and left there to fend for themselves. After a day of high temperature, the wounds began to worsen, and flies flew around, looking extremely terrible. Because of this, when Yuan Jin'er wanted to go down to see the group of people who were arrested after eating and cooling on the side of the ship, Ning Yi still spoke to stop her.
"Don't go, it doesn't look good. If you see them, you will sympathize with them and feel bad."
"I won't sympathize with those people." Jin'er, who was about to pull Yunzhu off the ship, raised her chin and then said, "Do you sympathize with them?"
Ning Yi smiled on the side of the ship, "It's all the fear of putting yourself in others' shoes. Now that I think about it, it's nothing, but … their heads are broken, their hands are broken, their feet are broken, their bones, blood, and flesh are exposed outside, and flies are biting them. They are crying and shouting, kowtowing on the ground, and so on. You will still think that they are miserable. I went to see them, and my heart is not very comfortable. "
"Oh?" Jin'er looked at him for a long time, and Yunzhu blinked her eyes, seeming a little surprised. Xiaochan, who was beside her, showed a look of "so the son-in-law will also be like this", but after thinking about it, she felt that it should be like this.
"But … you still feel happy, right?"
"A little of both." Ning Yi smiled as he leaned against the railing, feeling the wind. "There is no such thing as a completely heinous villain. People are like this. When they suffer and beg for mercy, you will feel very pitiful. Some people say that they have no choice, and it will even make you feel like you are in their shoes. But in the end, it still depends on what they do. When they are strong and haven't been caught, they enter other people's homes to burn, kill, and rob. If they have enough time, they will capture the women … in the end, it is this group of people who do those things. I know you won't sympathize with them, but seeing those wounds will still make you feel sick. This is an instinct, why make yourself feel uncomfortable? "
His gaze stopped on Yunzhu and the others for a while, but in the end, he did not say what would happen if the other party captured the women. In fact, on the day that the Su family was invaded, several such incidents happened later, and they were later forcibly suppressed by Ning Yi. He did not announce it to the public, only hoping that the survivors would have a way to live. However, when they were preparing to go north, there was still an aunt of Su Tan'er who hanged herself. This matter was known to Xiaochan, but Yunzhu and Jin'er had not heard of it.
But after hearing these words from Ning Yi, they also dispelled the idea of watching the group of prisoners. But after a moment, Yunzhu asked, "I heard that these prisoners have been arrested. If they want to be sentenced to beheading or something like that, they will have to go through the yamen to judge the case and submit it to the yamen level by level for the record. If they are really killed, will General Chen and Liheng be blamed? "
But Ning Yi shook his head, "That is true, but there are special circumstances. This time, when the birthday list goes north, the situation happens to be turbulent, and I don't know how many people are eyeing this batch of things. If they keep being escorted to the capital, it may cause Liangshan people to take the risk of attacking the birthday list again, or even bring the problem to Bianliang. This time, the Empress Dowager's birthday is very stressful for all parties, so it is better to avoid trouble. If they are killed, even if they bear a grudge, they will go back to Liangshan to take revenge. These things can be forgiven if they say that the general does not obey the military orders when he is away from home. "
After saying this, Ning Yi looked at Yunzhu and smiled. In fact, Yunzhu was not really interested in this matter, but after hearing what others said, she was worried. Then she heard Ning Yi said, "Of course, if someone wants to nitpick, there will still be trouble. But no matter what, we can't give the group of people who ran away from Liangshan any hope of saving people. For the birthday list, for the young masters on the ship, for the safety of Bianliang during the birthday, it is all like this. "
Jin'er thought for a moment, and said, "But you can't stop them from coming to save people …"
"I can, because I am faster than them."
"Then why don't you kill them tonight?"
"Haha …" Ning Yi laughed, "You will know after tonight."
As they spoke, the wind blew over, and it was a cool night. Everyone on the ship took in the cool air for a while, and most of the people around them were accountants, stewards, and families of all sizes. When the children ran around, the atmosphere on the ship was livelier. Then the night gradually darkened, and the atmosphere on the ship became quiet as the heat faded. Ning Yi and the others returned to their rooms, and the maids or wives fetched cold water. After washing up, they began to sleep. There were also different scenes in different cabins. Some were whispering, some were laughing and chatting, and some were quietly snuggling together, letting the peace of being together dispel the agitation in their hearts.
At this time, there were a few figures hidden in the water plants by the riverbed in the distance, watching everything that gradually quieted down, and among them, there were also whispering to each other.
"… No matter what, with our strength, we can't act rashly. That Ning Liheng must have made all kinds of preparations. We can only go all the way north, and find … an opportunity to beat them at their own game … "
"How can we go all the way north? They are going to kill people tomorrow. If the officials' legs are broken, what can we do to save them? Brother Zhu, you can wait, but I can't …"
"Brother Yan." Zhu Wu pressed Yan Qing's shoulder in front of him, "This won't work."
"But Brother Yan is right, we can't wait," Zhang Shun said.
"If you believe me, we can only wait." Compared to before, this time Zhu Wu's expression was a bit more resolute. "They released this news so that we can't wait, and can only walk into the trap … We can only bet that he doesn't dare to do it."
"How do you bet?"
"No matter who it is, if they are sentenced to death, they will first have to be tried in the yamen, sent to the golden hall for the emperor to review, put on record, and then executed after autumn. If they are executed without waiting for the report, they will be exiled for two thousand li. They don't dare to do such a thing, they just said it to scare people! "
His words caused the other two to be stunned, "If …"
"And even if that Ning Liheng is a madman, this matter doesn't just concern him, it also concerns Chen Jingui on the ship. When the matter is pressed down, a lot of people will have to shoulder it, and they can't afford to. Once Ning Liheng enters the family, no matter how deep their connections are, others won't stand with him on this matter. If he can't make a decision, then he can't kill people. Brother Yan, if he really wants to kill people, why didn't he do it today? Why wait until tomorrow? He is waiting for us to come and see. If you are impulsive, then you will really fall into his trap! "
"… But … what if he really is that kind of madman …"
"We can only bet."
Everyone was silent for a moment, then Zhang Shun said, "Big Brother Zhu is right, we can only bet. Then what should we do next, Big Brother Zhu? "
Zhu Wu looked at the pier and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, "Keep an eye on them, there is no other way. If they go north, then we go north. Brother Yan, you are familiar with how many people there are on the ship, see if there are any loopholes we can exploit. These people all have status, and Ning Liheng can't control them. These are opportunities. Find Ning Liheng's weakness, see how he does things … we have no shortcuts now, we can only slowly think of a way to break out of this situation. I have thought about it, there are still three to five days of travel until we reach Bianliang, we can follow them, there are two places where we can test the waters … "
He paused, "His identity is a big problem, after all. No matter how many things he has done before, once he wants his subordinates to work hard, there will always be people who feel indignant. They are in the light, we are in the dark, this is our only advantage. These days, he will ask his subordinates to be more vigilant in all aspects, we can only let our brothers returning to Shandong expose our whereabouts, tell them that we have left. Ning Liheng won't believe it, but his subordinates, there must be loopholes we can exploit … The people of the imperial court are used to doing things carelessly, I don't believe they can really strain their brains and waste time with us all day long … "
Since he was ready to fight with Ning Yi, in this half a day, he had already thought of the advantages and disadvantages of each other, and calculated the possible ways to break out of this situation. Even though it could not be considered a very clear plan at this time, it was still very clear. The three of them waited here for a long time, Zhu Wu had also almost finished analyzing. At this time, the night wind had already picked up, and the surroundings were dark and gloomy. Suddenly, a small detail on the ship attracted Yan Qing's attention, and he said in a low voice, "Look."
Among the three, Zhu Wu was good at scheming and clear, but Yan Qing was meticulous and quick-witted. What he saw, however, was a faint flicker of fire on the body of the ship. At this time, they were very far away, and the three of them could not see what was going on, but they gradually approached. At a certain moment, they suddenly saw a black shadow jump down from the side of the ship.
The three of them were shocked, no matter how they thought about it, they did not expect such a scene to happen, until they saw a few black shadows jump down one after another, and then disappear into the darkness. Yan Qing had already thought that it was a prison escape, and was about to go over to help, but Zhu Wu stopped him, "Wait, this is not impossible, but it is very strange, let's wait and see … Besides, Brother Yan, you can't do anything if you go over …"
What he said was reasonable. It was mainly because the last sentence made sense that Yan Qing restrained his emotions, but after a moment, they heard the sound of a gong on the ship, and someone shouted, "The prisoners have escaped! The prisoners have escaped! "The whole small dock suddenly burst into an uproar.
At this time, there were already many people who had escaped from the side of the dock. Obviously, the people who had escaped from the ship had gone to rescue the Liangshan brothers who were locked in the cages, but perhaps they were discovered after saving less than half of them, and in the blink of an eye, they had already started fighting. There were only about ten or twenty people who had escaped, and they did not dare to continue fighting. They flipped over the side of the ship and did their best to escape, but a few of them were still killed by arrows.
Zhang Shun and Yan Qing immediately wanted to help, but Zhu Wu only wanted to delay them and see the situation. In reality, he also knew that even if Ning Yi was good at scheming, it did not mean that he could train a group of soldiers of the imperial court to become elites. No matter how good the plan was, it was common for the subordinates to make mistakes. Then, he heard someone shout in the night, "Catch them! Let Lu Junyi escape! "Only then did he finally relax," There's no problem, let's quickly go to help! "Even though he was shocked at such good luck, his suspicions had lessened.
As they chased, Zhang Shun asked in a low voice how he knew that there would be no problem. Zhu Wu said, "Squire Lu is our second-in-command. Since the imperial court knows his name, they must also know his status. Just capturing him will be a great merit. No one is willing to use a squire as bait … but we still have to be more careful from now on. We must be cautious. "
What he said was reasonable. Zhang Shun nodded and chased after them. In the night, the soldiers near the dock chased after them and tried to stop them. But Lu Junyi was indeed among those who had escaped, and the leaders were experts. Even the minions were elites. Along the way, a few more people were killed, but Lu Junyi and the others still rushed into the night. Yan Qing and the others had already prepared several horses and chased after them to lead the escape.
The soldiers from Xuzhou that had been mobilized to encircle the Liangshan people could not come at this time. Even though the three hundred or so marines on the ship had a certain amount of combat power, they could only send one or two hundred to chase after them. When Lu Junyi and the others rushed into the night and gradually pulled away, they were like dragons returning to the sea. They could no longer use the advantage of a few thousand soldiers to sweep away the enemy. However, this time, Chen Jingui's subordinates also knew that they would be making a huge mistake if they couldn't catch up. They chased after them for almost four hours before Lu Junyi, Yan Qing, and the others finally pulled away from them.
It was already early in the morning and they were still running. Along the way, Zhu Wu asked what had happened and found out that the reason they had escaped this time was because of Yan Shun. Yan Shun was skilled in martial arts, but he was not considered outstanding on Liangshan. Perhaps the people on the ship saw that they had captured Lu Junyi and focused most of their attention on him. They did not know that Yan Shun had some tricks when he was in the jianghu. After he was captured, he seized a small opportunity to secretly obtain half a thick iron wire. Later, he gradually pried open the lock and only found a chance to escape late at night. Along the way, he saved Chen Da, Zheng Tianshou, and then Lu Junyi. It was really God's blessing for Liangshan, which led to the later scene.
The four of them were all experts and had defeated more than ten people along the way without attracting any attention. They had originally wanted to save their brothers who had been captured, but they were later discovered. This was already the best outcome. After they talked about this matter, the morale of the troops was greatly boosted. Naturally, they did not stop for a moment and quickly ran away.
Although they were happy to have survived a disaster, they had all suffered a great loss at Ning Yi's hands and did not dare to stay any longer. Along the way, they paid special attention to whether there were any more soldiers chasing after them. These people were all experienced in the jianghu. At this time, they were 120% cautious. After nearly two hours, after many twists and turns, they finally met up with Lü Fang, Sun Xin, and the dozens of survivors who had moved to another place.
This time, they did not dare to celebrate. After meeting up, they quickly began to move again. In this way, they ran for more than ten miles. After that, they would reach the relatively crowded area of Xuzhou. It was difficult to find a safe place again. Thinking that they were already quite a distance away, they did some scouting and taking precautions before finally stopping. At this time, the people who had been fighting and fleeing for their lives for the past two days were already on the brink of exhaustion due to the various injuries they had sustained.
They had been running for their lives all the way and were exhausted. However, they were already very far away from the pier. At this time, it was already the darkest time before daybreak. After a while, they would probably hear the crowing of chickens and the barking of dogs in the distance. The sky was about to turn bright. The group found a hunter's hut in the complicated terrain of the mountains. It was still considered to be a deserted place. At this time, Lü Fang and the others, who had already rested in the afternoon, went out to keep watch. Zhu Wu and the others could finally catch their breath and began to chat and celebrate.
They talked and bandaged the wounded in the dark. They did not dare to show their light. Yan Shun smiled as he talked about how lucky they were during the process of escaping. He also talked about Ning Liheng's defeat this time.
"I want to see how that guy's face looks now …"
"Anyway, now that I've returned to Liangshan, my next stop is Jiangning. I must avenge this! "
"There's nothing to say. Let's go together."
"Bring him back to Liangshan. I want to cut his heart in front of Juyi Hall with my own hands to comfort the souls of our brothers in heaven!"
"As I said …"
"Ah —"
While he was still talking, a scream suddenly tore through the night sky. The group suddenly jumped up from where they were. Although the hut was built with grass and wood, the windows were open. Something flew up from the night sky and fell in their direction.
It was light.
Fire arrows flew across the night sky and whistled down. They landed sparsely on the wooden hut, on the lawn, and fell into the gaps between the trees.
Not far away, the sound of weapons clashing could be heard. Lü Fang shouted over there, "Go! Go! "
Figures rushed out.
When they rushed out of the hut, there was already a chaotic battle around them. Judging from the fire arrows and the trees, there might not be thousands of people, but it was already more than dozens of people in Liangshan. Moreover, the people in Liangshan were already injured and exhausted.
Lü Fang waved his Heavenly Halberd and quickly retreated from the woods over there. Then there was a loud bang, and blood bloomed. Lü Fang's strength was not weak in Liangshan, but he was already injured at this time. He was hit by two arrows in the dark, and in a panic, he fought fiercely with others. But with the loud bang, he let out a shrill cry, and blood appeared on his back. Then he was waved by a long spear and staggered back. He could only use the Heavenly Halberd to support his body.
The figures of Ning Yi and the others had already strode out of the darkness over there.
Since the beginning, the fighting scene had erupted to the most intense degree as soon as they came into contact with each other. It was far less ironic than the clapping last time, but for the people of Liangshan, it was like an overwhelming darkness pressing down on them. It seemed that Ning Yi did not stop at all from the beginning. Until now, when he appeared in front of everyone, he put away the gun in his hand and continued to move forward. His face was as cold as ice. This time, he really did not hold back his murderous intent.
On the other side, Lü Fang's stomach was probably already smashed, but he roared and gathered his strength to rush forward again. Ning Yi strode over and waved his hands. He grabbed the Heavenly Halberd with one hand and slashed at Lü Fang's chest with the saber in his other hand. This slash caused his bones to burst. Then, he backhandedly chopped off Lü Fang's arm, and blood splattered into the sky. Lü Fang's body was kicked back by Qi Xinhan, who rushed over.
"Ah ah — —" Zhu Wu screamed and pulled out the two sabers on his back.
On the other side, Ning Yi was also speaking. His voice came with the darkness, "'Young Marquis Wen' Lü Fang! 'Young Yuchi' Sun Xin! 'White Stripe in the Waves' Zhang Shun … actually didn't leave. It's said that if you don't seek death, you won't die. Why don't you understand! "
He strode over and reached out to grab Lü Fang's hair. In fact, Lü Fang fell backward out of reflex. Although blood was still spurting out, he was probably already dead. Halfway through his fall, Ning Yi had already dragged him with one hand. Then, he backhandedly chopped off Lü Fang's head with the force of the Six Dao Breaker. The head was thrown by Ning Yi like a cannonball and smashed into the wall of the house beside everyone. Bang, it fell to the ground.
"Lu Junyi, Yan Qing, 'Military Advisor Shen Ji' Zhu Wu! What are you guys thinking? In the past half a month, I've made more than two hundred plans and decisions for you bastards … "
A Liangshan elite rushed over, and then his chest was pierced by a spear. Ning Yi sent the corpse flying with a kick and closed in on him.
"… You guys are not even a hundred miles away from me, and you actually think your lives are safe!?"
*****
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