The sky is still dark.
The elderly watchman, holding an oil paper lantern, yawned non-stop through the streets and knocked the wooden fish he was carrying so loudly that a few dizzy roosters crowed in surprise.
Li Dingguo was suddenly awakened by the noise. The bluestone under his cloak was freezing cold. He turned around quickly and saw that the blood-stained package was still safely beside him. He was relieved and breathed a sigh of relief.
After a long time, he returned from the dream to reality.
Reality is more than cruel!
Li Dingguo's ancestral home is Yulin, Shaanxi. He grew up in Yulin. He is a native of Sanqin. Before joining the cavalry regiment, he had been active in the north and had only been to Shaanxi and Liaodong further north.
Unexpectedly, one day, he would accidentally run to the south and watch his brothers being killed one by one, leaving only him to go back.
The southern soldier who followed Li Dingguo and acted as an interpreter to bargain with Zheng Chenggong in Fuzhou had died more than ten days ago.
Now, the southern soldier's head is contained in this black package, and his only companion who can speak the vernacular is forever silent.
There were five other heads in the package. Except for one civil servant, the others were Li Dingguo's brothers in the Seventh Corps. They all lost their lives because they demanded ransom from Zheng Chenggong.
Unexpectedly, the local gang did not follow the rules at all. They were discussing the ransom amount one moment, and then suddenly killed people the next moment.
Li Dingguo was very shocked. You must know that Zheng Chenggong's father is still alive and well. The Supreme Emperor is also planning to arrange a fiefdom for the old man in the north (Ninggu Pagoda) so that the old man can enjoy his old age in peace. I didn't expect that the Zheng family would be so cruel. They were forcing Emperor Wu Ding to break up his vote.
The brothers left their bodies in Fujian and followed Mr. Li with their heads, traveling through mountains and rivers and returning to Daqi.
"I, Li Dingguo, will not be a human being unless I take revenge for this!"
Li Dingguo clenched his fists and swore in his heart.
After daybreak, he would go to the alleys of Raozhou Fucheng West Street. According to the clues provided by the coir raincoat guard, somewhere on Raozhou Fucheng West Street, there was a hidden pile left by Shen Lian during his lifetime.
Zhang Dong, Liu Xingzuo and the others have not contacted the hidden stake for many years, because only Shen Lian knows the secret code for contact between the two parties and the specific address of the hidden stake.
Fortunately, Coin Yiwei was sorting out the intelligence files not long ago and accidentally discovered the news about this hidden stake.
This time when they went south to meet the Zheng family, they did not take the initiative to search for this hidden stake. Considering that the two sides had not been in contact for many years, anything could happen. People in the enemy's country should be cautious.
But now Li Dingguo has reached a desperate situation. It may not be easy to escape back to Daqi by himself. Therefore, he decided to go to the undercover named Yu at dawn, hoping to get his help.
While Li Dingguo was thinking hard, a dozen steps ahead of him, deep in the alley, suddenly heard a woman crying, mixed with the lewd laughter of several men.
Li Dingguo lived among the refugees when he was a child and traveled to many places with the refugee army. He had seen many such things.
He thought for a while and decided not to interfere in this matter. After all, there were more important things to do now.
Suddenly, the woman's cry became louder and shriller. Li Dingguo hesitated for a while, carefully pushed out the package, bit his waist knife, climbed out from under the carriage, gently put the package filled with his subordinates' heads aside, and rode on the city saucer. The fire groped in the direction of the cry.
The morning light has not yet appeared in the eastern sky. On the big trees on both sides of the street, the tips of each leaf are covered with dewdrops on one side and hidden in the shadows on the other.
In front of her eyes were a few ragged flowers, hunched over like shrimps, surrounding a woman, openly showing off their prostitution in the shadows of the alley.
The woman's clothes were pulled off, and she was struggling helplessly in the darkness. Her hands and feet were held down by Huazi, and her mouth was blocked by something. Li Dingguo stood behind Huazi and could vaguely hear some Hakka dialect.
A flower boy who was standing on the outside watching the excitement suddenly had a tremor in his body, as if he was swinging. His hunched body was bent into a bow shape, his hands spasmed, and then they hung down softly. His companion in front was still happy, and two people flashed in the dark night. There was a cold light, and the two of them covered their necks at the same time, looking behind them in horror. Before they could see the murderer clearly, they fell into a pool of blood.
At this time, the last Hanako finally reacted and pushed the woman away. This was the leader of the four, who was obviously thicker. He threw a few hidden darts from his sleeves and shouted at the alley, While lifting up his pants, he fumbled for the fire fold on the ground.
The torch was finally lit, and the disheveled woman huddled up and squatted under the wall with her knees in her arms.
"Come out! Niang Xipi!"
The torch illuminated the alley, reflecting the face of a stern young man.
The boss of Hanako swung the wooden stick and hit the boy. As soon as the wooden stick was released, he heard a whooshing sound and felt a sharp pain in his heart. When he looked down, a short arrow more than five inches long had already penetrated into his heart. His body went limp. Kan fell down.
The young man immediately repaired Hanako's knife, and groped for broken silver and women's jewelry on several people. Looking at the firelight, the jewelry was still stained with blood.
He collected the broken silver, put it in his arms, wiped the jewelry on the body, and threw it to the frightened woman in the corner. Then he put out the torch and just turned around when he heard someone behind him saying:
"Benefactor, please stay, thank you for saving me."
He spoke Ming Dynasty Mandarin, his voice was clear and exciting, and he must be fifteen or sixteen years old.
Li Dingguo was surprised. This was in Raozhou. How could ordinary people speak Mandarin?
However, he was busy now and had no time to study these details. Without looking back, he said to the woman:
"I'm a foreigner. I'm passing by here and I can't do much. If you want to report to the official, go as soon as possible."
"What kind of official should I report to? I've never been treated so lightly..."
At this time, the sky was already dark, the soldiers were shouting and cursing from the Ximen City Disk, the suspension bridge on the moat was slowly lowered, and the city gate was about to open.
The creaking sound of a shop opening could be heard on the street. Not far away, a man selling Chaos was walking toward the two of them humming a tune. The Chaos dumplings in the bucket were still steaming.
Li Dingguo glanced back and saw that the woman was neatly dressed, but her head was lowered.
He turned his head quickly.
"My benefactor, can you please look back? I didn't see her true face just now."
Li Dingguo was eager to get away and said impatiently: "Can you see it clearly so that you can go to the government to receive the reward?"
After that, he walked towards the city gate without looking back.
~~~~
Li Dingguo's eyes were slightly red and swollen. Fortunately, the sixteen or seventeen-year-old boy was full of energy and was still full of energy even after half the night.
He changed into clean clothes, put a human head on his back, and carried a knife on his shoulder. He left the city from the west gate, walked around Raozhou City twice, spent a penny on a bowl of soup cakes at a restaurant outside the city, and picked onions at the beginning of the morning. The vegetable seller sneaked into the city from the north gate together, and even the penny paid to enter the city was deceived by him.
By this time, the market was already very lively. The people stood in rows in a daze; occasionally a woman poked her head out of the door. Most of them also have swollen eye sockets, disheveled heads, and yellow faces that cannot even be applied with makeup.
The murder of several Hanako didn't seem to cause any ripples, at least they didn't see the whole city chasing the murderers.
Before he came here, he heard from people in civil affairs and business that the taxes in Jiangxi Province had been paid by Emperor Hongguang for seventy years. The people had to work for the Ming Dynasty for seventy years. The end could be seen at a glance. No wonder The eyes of the common people were empty, as if they had lost their souls.
He walked north along the North-South Street, passing through several intersections without stopping. At noon, he had tea at a teahouse in Niugu Lane in the north of the city.
At this time, some of the tea guests sitting in the tea house had begun to talk about the murder that happened last night. As soon as the tea guests opened their mouths, the room was full of strong Gan dialect. Li Dingguo listened for a long time before he could barely understand the Qing Gang, Words such as "picking flowers" and "knowing the state's daughter" are a few words.
But this is enough.
"Grandma, that woman is the daughter of a state governor? How can she be with a bunch of flowers?"
While he was thinking wildly, Dr. Tea came up and asked if he wanted to refill the tea. Li Dingguo nodded to him.
Since entering the city, Li Dingguo has not spoken much. He speaks pure and authentic Yulin dialect. If he suddenly appears in the hinterland of Jiangxi, it will bring him some trouble.
"You don't know yet? The daughter of Dai Zhizhou's family went to Longhua Temple to worship Buddha yesterday, but when she came back, she was ruined by a gangster! The gangster also killed four Huazi, how cruel!"
A fat tea customer moved the chair under his butt with difficulty and lowered his voice to the people around him.
Another thin tea-goer came over and corrected him: "That's nonsense. It was Hanako who was frivolous and Zhizhou's daughter was saved first."
"Raozhou Prefecture does not close its doors at night and does not pick up lost items. The people are simple and honest, but there are such vicious and evil people!"
The most well-informed tea guest said mysteriously:
"Who do you think you are? Just a few barbarians from the North who ran to the ground in Fujian and assassinated the Chief Soldier (Zheng Chenggong). In the end, they were all killed by General Zheng. Only this barbarian was left, who could not escape. Dai Zhizhou A manhunt has been carried out throughout the city.”
An ominous premonition came to mind. Just as he was about to pay and leave, he bumped into several arrogant government soldiers.
"You idiot, you don't have long eyes, you didn't see the uncle, get out of here!"
~~~~~~
With his amazing memory, he finally found the house with the pear tree at the door.
After looking around to make sure no one was following him, he breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to knock on the door.
Emperor Hongguang and Emperor Daqi signed a peace treaty. The two countries formed an alliance and became a country of uncles and nephews. However, there were many cases of nephews being unfilial.
After the fall of the capital, the Jinyiwei fled to southern Zhili one after another, and a small number of them also fled to other provinces.
Could it be that these people have already targeted themselves?
Li Dingguo stood at the door, taking a deep breath to regain his consciousness.
A fat middle-aged man's face stuck out of the door. He looked around and saw no one at the door. Just as he was about to close the door, Li Dingguo jumped out of the alley and said the code word:
"The country has been destroyed by mountains and rivers, but thousands of miles of rivers and mountains can be restored in a day,"
The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, looked at the visitor in disbelief, and said to Li Dingguo:
"The city is springy with deep vegetation, and I want to dream of Wu and Yue."
There was no problem with the code. The middle-aged man looked around and walked in with Li Dingguo.
As soon as Li Dingguo entered the courtyard, he looked around. This was an unusual house with three entrances. There were some pear trees planted in the front yard, and the pear blossoms were in full bloom. They were as white as the flags used by the army when they went out to fight.
"Yu Chengze?"
"Call me Lao Yu." Lao Yu walked in front, his eyes narrowed.
Suddenly, there was the sound of messy footsteps deep in the yard.
Li Dingguo realized something was wrong. He tightened his grip on the knife and looked around cautiously.
Lewen
