Xuan Jia Ao was located to the north of Qing Province, a village at the border of the Security Army. Now, it was already close to being abandoned.
When Luo Ye and the others arrived, it was already close to dusk. The autumn rain hadn't stopped yet. The abandoned village under the dark gray sky looked just like an uninhabited ghost town. In reality, they didn't run into the Jurchen army again along the way, so they were already a bit prepared. The scattered Black Flag Army troops didn't head this way, very likely heading southwest.
They didn't find anything.
After a day of rain, everyone's spirits were a bit dispirited. The captured Jurchen warhorses seemed even more dispirited, starting to have diarrhea, already lacking the strength to run. They could only find a nearby place to spend the night.
Out of caution, the group concealed their tracks. They first sent scouts to investigate the situation in Xuan Jia Ao's abandoned village. Soon after, they discovered that there were still a few families living in Xuan Jia Ao.
In this abandoned village that seemed to have experienced quite a bit of chaos, there were six or seven families currently living there. There were more than ten people, all of them old and frail. When the Black Flag Army's twenty or so individuals appeared at the village entrance, the first elder who saw them still turned around, wishing to run. However, after walking a few shaky steps, he turned around again, his eyes filled with alarm and confusion as he looked at them. Luo Ye was the first to walk up. "Sir, don't be scared. We are from the Chinese army, the Chinese army. Does Takeshi know? There should be those large carriages coming to sell things. Did no one inform you that the Jurchen have arrived? We came to resist the Jurchen, to protect you all … "
After he finished speaking, he had the local soldiers repeat what he said. Some people came out from the shabby village and saw them, causing a small disturbance.
This small disturbance calmed down not long after. The dozen or so old and frail people in the village lived an extremely difficult life here. It seemed like their families no longer had any descendants, and they didn't have the ability to move to other places. As a result, they lived here with great difficulty, struggling at death's door wasn't an exaggeration. When they saw Luo Ye and the others, their first reaction was to run. However, at this distance, running was already useless. Only then did they choose a wizened old man who seemed to have seen a bit of the world to negotiate.
Luo Ye expressed goodwill. After explaining the general situation, the twenty or so people found a few houses that could still shelter them from the rain and lit a fire inside. They killed two warhorses outside the house and distributed the other two warhorses, which could no longer move, to the villagers. They also brought some dry rations. The old people in the village accepted it in fear and trepidation, and then they became friendly.
The skinny old man explained the situation clearly to them. Actually, even if he didn't say it, Luo Ye, Qu Qing, and the others could more or less guess.
Since the beginning of last year, the Xixia people who had invaded the south had launched a wantonly massacre in this area. They had carried out large-scale massacres at first. Then, they had carried out small-scale killings and frictions. Hundreds of thousands of people had died during this period of time. After the Black Flag Army defeated the Western Xia army, the non-inhabited areas continued to be in chaos for a period of time. The fleeing Western Xia army brought about the first wave of military disaster. Then came the banditry, followed by famine, and amidst the famine came an even more intense banditry. After a year like this, the vitality and order that the Zhong Family Army had maintained in this land for decades had been completely broken.
Xuan Jia Ao was too far away from the city. The people who had originally lived here had either died or left. This place was no longer suitable for living. Because of their old age, it was very difficult for them to choose to leave even if they were lucky enough to survive. They had planted some fields and wheat nearby. Not long ago, during the autumn harvest, the mountain bandits had come over again and again and robbed almost all of the food. If there was no food, this winter, they could only rely on wild vegetables and tree barks, or they would freeze and starve to death.
The warhorses and dry rations that Luo Ye and the others had distributed to them could more or less fill their stomachs for a period of time.
That old man had a sallow complexion and was emaciated. In the end, he could only say a thousand words of thanks. Luo Ye and the others listened bitterly and asked them about their future plans. Then, he told them about the arrival of the Female Zhenren, the Little Cang River, the Yanzhou, Qingzhou, and other places where they could receive porridge. But the old man was at a loss — they had been in this place for too long and were afraid of the outside world. They also didn't know how they could survive in another place.
After this negotiation, the old man went back and brought another person with him. He gave Luo Ye and the others some firewood, a pot to boil water, and some wild vegetables. The person who came with the old man was a skinny woman who was not good-looking. She was mute and couldn't speak. She also had a slight limp. This was the old man's daughter, Xuan Manniang. She was the only young person in the village.
He asked the mute woman to do some rough work for them. When he looked at them, he wanted to say something but hesitated. In the end, he didn't say anything.
They killed the horses and cooked the meat. After eating, more than twenty people rested here for the night. Zhuo Yongqing had already been drenched in the rain for two to three days. He had undergone high-intensity training in the Little Cang River and was usually fine. But now, because of his chest injury, he finally felt a little dizzy when he woke up the next day. He forced himself to sit up and listened to Qu Qing and the others discussing whether they should continue chasing in the southeast direction.
At this time, the rain outside the window finally stopped. Just as they were about to set off, they suddenly heard a scream coming from the other side of the village. After listening carefully, they knew that someone was coming and had already entered the village.
Outside the door, Qu Qing, Luo Ye, Hou Wu, and the others each made a few hand gestures. More than twenty people silently picked up their weapons. Zhuo Yongqing clenched his teeth, pulled the string of the crossbow, and went out. The mute and crippled woman ran over from the front and gestured to the others. Luo Ye raised a finger at her, then waved his hand and called a group of people to go forward. Qu Qing also waved his hand and led Zhuo Yongqing and the others to the other side of the house.
The village in front of them was still chaotic. Someone smashed open the door, and there was the scream of an old man, pleading for mercy. Someone shouted, "Don't you recognize us? We are the righteous warriors of Mount Luo Feng. This time, we came out of the mountain to fight against the bandits. Take out the food! "
Someone else shouted, "Where is the food! Come out, where did you hide the food? "
"Smash their nest and chase them out!"
"Old thing …"
The bandits came from the north. Luo Ye and the others moved forward along the corner of the wall and made some hand gestures with Qu Qing, Hou Wu, and the others in the gaps of the shabby mud houses.
There were about sixty people.
There were horses.
The shouting outside continued, "Come out, all of you!"
"What is this — —"
"There are two horses, why do you have horses — —"
Attack, kill them.
The Black Flag soldiers behind the wall raised their crossbows. Zhuo Yongqing wiped his nose, Mao Yishan shook his hands and feet, and someone pulled the spring.
With a few swishes, people fell from different parts of the village. Luo Ye raised his sword and shield and suddenly rushed out. Shouts, screams, and sounds of collisions were even more intense. People rushed out from different parts of the village, and in groups of three to five people, they fiercely killed their way into the formation of the bandits.
"Someone — —"
"Save — —"
"Be careful — —"
"Die — —"
Luo Ye's shield sent a person flying. He swung his sword and chopped down, splitting open the chest of a bandit who was wearing wooden armor. Countless pieces of armor flew out. Behind him, he pushed his spear forward, stabbing several bandits back. When the spear was pulled out, it drew blood from their chests. Then, he fiercely stabbed it back and pulled it out.
"Who are you, I am the righteous Luo Fengshan, you — —"
Zhuo Yongqing used all his strength and slashed a bandit leader who was shouting loudly and seemed to have some martial arts skills. The leader only blocked Zhuo Yongqing's slash for a moment. Mao Yishan had already taken care of a few bandits and walked over with his blood-stained sword. The leader's eyes were filled with ruthlessness, "Don't think that I'm afraid of you — —" He changed his stance and swung his sword like a gust of wind. Mao Yishan raised his shield and was slashed by the leader several times as he walked. Mao Yishan walked faster and faster, and when he was close enough, he stabbed his sword into the leader's stomach. After blocking a slash with his shield, he stabbed again. He stabbed three times in a row and sent the leader flying into a pool of blood.
This battle ended very quickly. More than twenty of the bandits who entered the village fled in panic. The rest were mostly hacked into pools of blood by the Black Flag Army. A portion of them still hadn't died. An elder was killed in the village by the enemy. The Black Flag Army's side basically didn't have any casualties. Only Zhuo Yongqing, when Luo Ye and Qu Qing began to give orders to clean up the battlefield, swayed and fell to the ground, retching. A moment later, he fainted.
*****
Zhuo Yongqing wasn't injured in this battle. It was just that the bone injury in his chest had lasted for two days. In addition to the effects of the cold, the injuries on his body finally erupted when he was exhausted after the battle.
His mind was in a daze. In his remaining consciousness, squad leader Mao Yishan said a few things to him. It was most likely that there was still a battle ahead and they couldn't bring him along, hoping that he could properly recuperate here. When he became clear-headed again, that ugly crippled mute girl was currently feeding him herbal medicine. The herbal medicine was extremely bitter, but after he finished drinking it, his chest warmed up slightly. It was already afternoon.
Zhuo Yongqing's mind relaxed a bit. Even though as a Yanzhou native, he also knew what was called intrepid folk customs, this was still his first time on the battlefield after all. Following his companions' repeated battles and seeing so many people die, the impact on him was still extremely great. Only, no one expressed any abnormalities towards this, so he could only suppress his complex emotions at the bottom of his heart.
On the contrary, right now, he relaxed. When he closed his eyes, he could see a bloody scene. There were many companions he trained with for more than a year who died under the enemy's blade in their first encounter. The possibilities of these companions and friends for the next few decades froze in an instant, and then suddenly ended. He actually began to feel a faint fear inside. He might still have to experience many things in this life, but on the battlefield, these things could disappear in an instant at any time.
This type of emotion accompanied him. Inside the room, that crippled mute girl also sat by the door to accompany him. When evening arrived, she went to boil medicine and fed it to him. Then, she fed him a bowl of porridge.
When the sky was about to brighten, the mute girl's father, that shriveled elder also came, coming over to ask a few things. He was much calmer than before, but his words were hesitant, as if there were some things that weren't very appropriate to say. Zhuo Yongqing vaguely knew what the other party was thinking, but he didn't say it out loud. In such a place, these old people probably already had no hope. His daughter was mute, and having a crippled leg wasn't pretty, so there was no way for her to leave. The old man probably hoped that Zhuo Yongqing would be able to take his daughter and leave — this wasn't unusual in many impoverished places.
The old man didn't speak, and Zhuo Yongqing naturally didn't reply. Although he was just a commoner in Yanzhou, his family's life was still alright. Especially after joining the Huaxia army, he didn't have to worry about food and clothing in the valley of the Little Cang River. If he wanted to marry, he would be able to match up to the daughters of some wealthy families in the northwest. Zhuo Yongqing's family was already taking care of these things. Although he didn't have many fantasies about his future wife, he naturally didn't have much affection for the crippled mute girl in front of him.
His physical fitness wasn't bad, but his bone injury was accompanied by a cold. On the second day, he could only lie in bed to recuperate. On the third day, his body still didn't have much strength, but he felt that his injury was almost healed. Around noon, he suddenly heard screams coming from outside. Following that, the screams grew louder. Zhuo Yongqing got out of bed. When he tried to stand up and pick up his knife, his body still didn't have any strength.
The mute girl rushed in from outside the door.
She didn't make any gestures. She just muttered a few words and came over to help Zhuo Yongqing leave. Zhuo Yongqing struggled to pick up his knife, shield, and armor. The mute girl shook her head with all her might, but in the end, she went over to pick up these things and came over to help Zhuo Yongqing.
At this moment, Zhuo Yongqing's whole body was weak. Half of his body was also pressed against the other party's body. Fortunately, although the mute girl's body was thin and small, she was extremely tough and could actually support him. The two of them stumbled out of the door. Zhuo Yongqing's heart sank. Among the battle cries coming from not far away, there was a faint Jurchen voice.
The two of them passed through a few dilapidated houses and went in the direction of the dilapidated ancestral hall of the village not far away. They stumbled into a small room next to the ancestral hall. The mute girl let go of him and tried to push away a stone in the corner, only to see that it was actually a dark cave below. The mute girl was just about to come over to help him up when a figure blocked the light from the door.
Zhuo Yongqing subconsciously wanted to grab his knife, but before he could do so, someone kicked him away. He was wearing an unlined shirt at the moment, without any armor, so the other party didn't kill him at the first moment. Zhuo Yongqing's head banged against the corner of the wall, making a buzzing sound. He tried to turn over his body. The mute girl had also been knocked to the ground. The Jurchen soldiers at the door were already shouting.
Other Jurchen soldiers also came over. Some of them saw his weapon and armor. Zhuo Yongqing's chest was kicked again. He was picked up and knocked to the ground again. Then someone grabbed his hair and dragged him all the way out. Zhuo Yongqing tried to resist, but he was beaten even more.
In the center of the village, the elders were dragged out one by one. When Zhuo Yongqing was kicked and beaten all the way to this side, his face was already completely covered in blood. This was a small Jurchen troop made up of about ten people. They might have also gotten separated from the main group. They were talking loudly, and someone brought out the Black Flag Army's Jurchen warhorses. The Jurchen Adept was furious, hacking an elder to death on the ground. Someone else came over and punched Zhuo Yongqing who was barely able to stand.
He fell to the ground with a bang, his teeth falling out. However, this bit of pain was already nothing to Zhuo Yongqing. It was quite strange. When he thought of the battlefield before, he was still scared, but at this moment, he knew that he wouldn't be able to live, so he instead wasn't that scared anymore. Zhuo Yongqing struggled to crawl towards the weapon the Jurchen Adept had placed on the side. When the Jurchen Adept saw this, she kicked him again.
Zhuo Yongqing continued to crawl. Nearby, that mute girl was actually struggling with 'ba ba ba' sounds, as if she wanted to plead for mercy for Zhuo Yongqing. Zhuo Yongqing only saw this out of the corner of his eye. He was still reaching towards the weapon. A Jurchen said something, and then she pulled out a thin and long knife from her body and fiercely stabbed it into the ground. Zhuo Yongqing cried out in pain. That knife stabbed into the back of his left hand and into the ground, nailing Zhuo Yongqing's left hand there.
When Zhuo Yongqing shouted, the surrounding Jurchen Adept laughed. Right now, Zhuo Yongqing's body was powerless. He reached out his right hand to grab the knife hilt, but he was completely powerless to pull it out. The group of Jurchen Adepts looked at him, and someone brandished a whip, lashing at his back. That mute girl was also knocked to the ground. The Jurchen Adept stepped on her and said something to Zhuo Yongqing. She seemed to think that this mute girl was someone related to Zhuo Yongqing. Someone tore open the mute girl's clothes.
Behind him, among the old people, the mute girl's father rushed out. He ran two steps and knelt on the ground. Just as he was about to plead for mercy, a Jurchen Adept slashed over with a knife, and that old man fell to the ground. Zhuo Yongqing shouted, "Ah — —". The nearby Jurchen Adepts tore off the mute girl's clothes, revealing a dry and bony upper body. The Jurchen Adepts discussed for a while, and they were quite disgusted. They dragged the mute girl in front of Zhuo Yongqing. The Jurchen Adept who was stepping on the mute girl held the long knife with both hands and stabbed towards the mute girl's back.
"Ba … Ba … Ba …"
Zhuo Yongqing looked at the blood gushing out of the mute girl's mouth, and the faint light in her eyes slowly disappeared. Zhuo Yongqing used all his strength to pull out the knife that was nailed to his left hand, but he still didn't have the strength. The Jurchen Adept laughed and began to kill the others. Someone kicked Zhuo Yongqing's body again, and then he was whipped again. The smell of blood pervaded the air, and Zhuo Yongqing heard a strange "Pu" sound.
A Jurchen Adept fell.
Then there was the sound of chaos. Someone rushed over, and the weapons suddenly clashed. Zhuo Yongqing only stubbornly pulled out the knife. Unknowingly, someone rushed over and pulled out the knife with a swoosh. As the surrounding weapons clashed, the blade stabbed into the chest of a Jurchen soldier.
"Zhuo Yongqing, Zhuo Yongqing …"
It was a vague shout. Zhuo Yongqing staggered to stand up. In his vision, the old people in the village had already fallen, and the Jurchen Adept was also gradually falling. The ones who came back were the teams of Qu Qing, Luo Ye, Hou Wu, Mao Yishan, and the others. They killed this group of Jurchen Adepts in the battle. Zhuo Yongqing's right hand grabbed a long knife and wanted to slash, but there was no one he could slash.
He sat down on the ground. In front of him was the corpse of the mute girl who had died in humiliation. Luo Ye and the others searched the entire village and came back. Mao Yishan came to bandage Zhuo Yongqing's wounds and said a few things. The battle outside had already become completely chaotic. They headed south and saw the vanguard of the Jurchen Adepts, hurriedly heading north. During the time they left, the main force of the Black Flag Army had another big battle with Lou Shi. It was said that there were many casualties.
Not long later, the Jurchen Adept might come here. They originally thought that the direction of Xuan Jia Ao might be the Jurchen Adept's choice to shift, but it was only now that it was realized.
It was hard for a small force to fight against the Jurchen army. Luo Ye and the others discussed about quickly moving or waiting at a certain place to join the main force. They could actually join the main force if they went around the Jurchen Adept, but Luo Ye and Qu Qing were extremely proactive. They felt that rushing ahead of the Jurchen Adept would always be beneficial. At this time, after discussing for a while, they might still have to turn north as much as possible. During the discussion, Zhuo Yongqing, who was covered in bandages and looked like he was on his last breath, suddenly opened his mouth and said with a hoarse voice, "There … there is a place …"
Not long after, Zhuo Yongqing led them to a small shabby house next to the ancestral hall and saw a dark cave.
This was the place where the old people in Xuan Jia Ao Village hid their food. After being discovered, the Jurchen Adept had actually already gone in and moved the things out. There were only a few pitiful bags of food left. The place below was not small, and the entrance was also very hidden. Not long after, a group of people gathered here. Looking at the dark entrance of the cave, it was hard to imagine what they could do here …
*****
In the evening, more than twenty people entered the cave. Luo Ye and the others disguised the scene outside. They tried to make it look as if the battle in the abandoned village had ended and all the survivors had left. They also let some people "die" on the road to the north.
Whether this would be useful or not, whether they could catch the fish or not, depended on their luck. If a small group of Jurchen soldiers passed by, they could ambush them in the chaos. It could also be considered as adding a force to the main force. They originally wanted to let someone bring Zhuo Yongqing to a nearby barren mountain to recuperate, but in the end, because of Zhuo Yongqing's refusal, they still brought him in.
"If a lot of people come and we are discovered, it will be like catching a turtle in a jar …"
"Looking outside, after closing the entrance, it is still quite hidden."
The Jurchen Adept had not arrived yet, so they did not close the entrance. However, as the sky gradually dimmed, the entire cave was also pitch-black. Occasionally, someone would talk softly. Zhuo Yongqing sat in the corner of the cave. Nearby, the squad leader Mao Yishan asked a few questions about his situation. Zhuo Yongqing only weakly replied, indicating that he was not dead yet.
This was the only thing that everyone expected from him. His whole body was injured, and it was already a great fortune that he did not die immediately. The atmosphere in the cave was oppressive and had a bit of a rotten smell. Zhuo Yongqing sat there, his mind constantly revolving around the deaths of the villagers and the mute girl.
That woman was not beautiful, mute and lame. She was born in such a family, and probably had not encountered anything good in her life. When outsiders came, her father hoped that they could bring her out and not wait for death here, but in the end, he did not say anything. What did she think in her heart? Did she have this hope in her heart? This kind of life … until she was finally killed in front of him, she might not have encountered anything good.
He was only thinking about this matter in his heart. Gradually, the Jurchen Adept came outside. They quietly closed the cellar. The sound of footsteps rumbled past. Zhuo Yongqing recalled the mute girl's name for a long time. It seemed that she was called Xuan Manniang. In his mind, he still remembered how she looked when she died. At that time, he had been continuously beaten, and his left hand was pierced by a knife. Even now, it was still bleeding, but when he recalled it, he did not feel any pain at all.
Mao Yishan sat in the darkness. At a certain moment, he heard Zhuo Yongqing weakly say, "Squad leader …"
"Yes."
"I want …" Zhuo Yongqing said, "… I want to kill people."
"Yes." Mao Yishan nodded. He did not think much of this sentence. On the battlefield, who did not want to kill people? Mao Yishan was also not a meticulous person. Moreover, Zhuo Yongqing was injured to this extent. Perhaps he was simply sighing with emotion.
In the darkness, nothing could be seen clearly.
In that darkness, Zhuo Yongqing sat there. His entire body was injured. The blood on his left hand had already soaked into the bandage. Until now, it had not completely stopped. His back was riddled with scars from the whip of the Jurchen Adept. His skin was lacerated and the corners of his eyes were broken and already swollen. A few teeth in his mouth were knocked out and his lips were also split. But even with such severe injuries, he sat there with his mouth overflowing with blood. The only part that was still fine was his right hand tightly gripping the hilt of the knife.
He seemed to have already recovered. His body was burning, and the last of his strength was condensed into his hand and the knife. This was his first battle experience. He had also killed a person outside Yanzhou City, but up until now, he had never truly and urgently wanted to take someone's life — he had never felt this kind of feeling before, until this very moment.
Above the cellar, the Jurchen Adept was moving. Zhuo Yongqing did not think about his own injuries. He only knew that if he still had one last moment, one last bit of strength, he only wanted to hack at these people's bodies …
— I want to kill people.
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