"This is for you." Tuoba Mu quickly took off the pottery whistle from his belt and handed it to the princess. Before he left, the lady's eyes were red and swollen from crying. He was not allowed to bring sharp weapons with him. When he arrived at Luoyang Palace, he was searched three times, only The little lady's pottery whistle was delivered here safely.
Xiao Luolan's daughter's whistle was stuffed in her hand. She looked at the familiar little rabbit whistle, and her heart instantly filled with a flood of longing and sourness: "Qingxue, she..."
"Princess, please go back." Wei Yanshan said.
Xiao Luolan slowly let go of Amu's hand, and she saw someone behind Amu holding a knife to his neck.
Tuoba Mu looked back at the princess and returned to the hall.
"I agree to Zhou Youzhou's terms of exchange." Wei Yanshan said: "In three days, I will send someone to escort the princess out of the city. Zhou Youzhou needs to withdraw hundreds of miles in advance."
Tuoba Mu was escorted out of the city. After he left the city, he immediately got on his horse and ran back to Sishui Pass. As soon as he arrived at Sishui Pass, Zhou Xu immediately asked, "How is it?"
Tuobamu told Wei Gong's conditions.
"You still have to wait three days?" Xiao Qingxue was very anxious. Now she just wanted to see my mother-in-law right away: "You saw my mother-in-law. How is she?"
Tuoba Mu recalled: "There was little blood on the princess's face, but her movements were fine."
Xiao Qingxue's heart suddenly went up and down.
"When the princess grabbed my hand, she whispered in my ear, telling me not to believe anything Wei Guogong said. After saying that, she was taken away." Tuoba Mu whispered.
"Are you saying that they don't want to return my mother-in-law at all?" Xiao Qingxue was immediately anxious: "Then what are they going to do?"
Zhou Xu looked in the direction of Luoyang and narrowed his eyes slightly.
The rebels' mobility was astonishing. Shi Zhi soon received the news of the rebels' retreat. Two days passed by in a flash. Wei Yanshan climbed to the top of the highest mountain of Luoyang Palace. He stared down at Luoyang City below. Xiao Luolan Trying to suppress the anxiety in his heart, tomorrow is the day for her to leave the city, but Wei Yanshan has no intention of letting her go. He is ready to leave. By then, Luoyang City will become a purgatory.
The mountain wind howled, and Wei Yanshan's robes were blown by the wind. He whispered: "The wind direction is good tonight."
Xiao Luolan looked at the sporadic fires that appeared in the city one after another, standing stiffly on the top of the mountain. The wind helped the fire, and the fire burned quickly. The raging fire light reflected in her eyes, and thousands of beautiful things were turned to ashes.
"...the property, food, military warehouses and equipment in Luoyang City are very important. Now that the Duke has burned them, there will probably be no usable items left." Xiao Luolan pinched her palms with her fingers and felt breathless: "Those ordinary people have nothing to do with you. It’s not very important to us, why not open the city gate and let them have a way out.”
For the first time in so long, Wei Yanshan heard Princess Youzhou say soft words.
He turned to look at her and smiled: "I really want to do this too. Seeing so many innocent people dying in the flames makes me feel bad."
He lowered his head and continued to look at the spreading sea of fire, his voice getting colder: "But just as I knew that Zhou Xu would not keep his promise, Zhou Xu must have been dubious about my conditions. He secretly made two preparations, withdrawing his troops while ambushing Luoyang. nearby."
"In this case, how can I dare to open the city gate?"
He was on guard against Zhou Xu, and Zhou Xu was naturally on guard against him.
"Burn the fire all night, and then Zhou Xu will think that the princess will be buried in the sea of fire." Wei Yanshan said.
Outside Luoyang City.
Under the cover of darkness, an ominous premonition arose in Zhou Xu's heart. He moved his nose and raised his head sharply.
The city of Luoyang was filled with flames, and the cavalry behind them were restless.
Shi Zhi was also looking at the flames. He was so drunk that he did not forget to let Cunzhen be by his side. His heart was in unspeakable pain. After Cunzhen poured him wine, he quietly took out the vase on the cabinet and pointed it at the back of the governor's neck. After smashing it down and waiting for the Governor to pass out, he tore off the Governor's token, closed the door tightly, and after leaving the Governor's Mansion, he rode horseback to the city gate.
The city was full of people, and the panicked people crowded together and ran towards the city gate. The flames were blazing. He Jin led Cunzhen. His riding skills were very good. He rode a way through the flames. When he arrived at the city At the door, Cunzhen held the token and shouted loudly: "The Governor has ordered, open the city gate!"
He held the token and the horse on his crotch kept shaking its head. In the noisy crowd, he shouted loudly: "The Grand Governor has ordered, open the city gate!"
"Open the city gate! Open the city gate!" People behind them surged up one level at a time, shouting loudly.
The Luoyang guards looked at each other. Cun Zhen was a popular figure in front of the Governor. After checking the token, it was also genuine. The Luoyang guards were a little unsure. After checking the token repeatedly, they opened the city gate hesitantly.
The city gate made a heavy creaking sound. As soon as the city gate opened, a force of gravity collided with the Luoyang Guard who had been in front.
All the Luoyang Guards, who numbered more than a dozen people, were knocked to the ground.
The city gate opens.
The cavalry crossbowmen, wrapped in pitch-black armor, rushed into the city without saying a word. Before the Luoyang Guard screamed for an enemy attack, a sharp sword pierced their throats.
Tuoba Mu retracted his hand and followed the general. The Youzhou cavalry rushed in from the road they broke through, scaring the surrounding people back. After that, there was a bloody killing. Soon the city gate was opened. Those who wanted to escape escaped through a side door.
Zhou Xu rode on his horse and walked against the current.
With thundering hoofs, he galloped into the sea of fire, followed by the cavalry behind him.
Most of the buildings in Luoyang Palace are made of wood. There has been a severe drought for months. A little spark can connect the houses together. The flames turned half of the sky red and the air was distorted. Xiao Luolan sat in the carriage and listened to them leaving through a secret passage. Luoyang.
Xiao Luolan looked out the window. People who were homeless because of the fire were running barefoot on the street. Someone was carrying a package and tripped over a corpse lying on the ground, revealing a suffocated toddler under the corpse. The street was in chaos. , a child curled up in the arms of a woman, crying loudly, and a young man hugged his elderly parents like crazy, howling...
Xiao Luolan watched, feeling like the world was spinning, her eardrums were filled with all kinds of cries and shouts, the carriage started running, she looked at those scenes, there was no warning, like a flying butterfly falling from the window .
Dong Xue, who was imprisoned behind him, shouted in horror: "Princess!"
The huge team stopped for a moment. Wei Yanshan turned his head and took a look, immediately galloped to the back, and then his face became gloomy.
Princess Youzhou rolled beside a pile of corpses. She held a sharp golden hairpin in her hand. The sharp tail of the hairpin flashed with cold light and pierced directly into her snow-white neck, causing bright red blood to flow.
Xiao Luolan's eyes were blurred, and there seemed to be a double image in front of her eyes. After a few breaths, she finally saw Wei Yanshan's face clearly, and then she laughed, and she couldn't even feel the pain in her body.
She holds the gold hairpin.
Wei Yanshan took a step forward.
"Don't move." Xiao Luolan said sternly, the hairpin was a little darker, and the blood quickly soaked her white sleeves: "My life is more valuable to the Duke, isn't it?"
Wei Yanshan stopped: "What do you want?"
Xiao Luolan thought of what Wei Yanshan said to her: "You are right, I can't save anyone." She spent so much effort and couldn't change anything. Thinking of this, Xiao Luolan had tears in her eyes and took a deep breath. With a tone of voice, he retreated to the burning houses facing the street: "But I don't want to go to Taiyuan with the Duke."
"Does the princess want to stay and burn herself with Luoyang?" Wei Yanshan asked.
"It's always hard to live or die in this world." Xiao Luolan looked at this hellish world and murmured: "I can't help them, and I can't save them. I have to be manipulated by you guys who are full of evil all day long. I have become a chess piece controlled by others. At this moment, why should I fear death?"
Jiang Sanlang urged his horse forward, pointed at Princess Youzhou, and said: "My lord, the fire is about to burn here. If you don't leave, it will be too late. Princess Youzhou wants to die, so let her..."
Before he finished speaking, Wei Yanshan slapped him in the face, so hard that he fell off his horse. Jiang Sanlang knelt on the ground, angry and flustered, and his father's apology sounded in his ears.
Wei Yanshan was just about to ask Yuan Shu to pass on his order. When they all evacuated Luoyang at night, they would open the city gate. How many people would survive would depend on luck. Then he heard the thunder of horse hooves galloping. If Han Fu felt something, he also Looking towards the street, his face was horrified. The Wei soldiers all protected the Duke: "What's going on? Where is Shi Zhi, why did the Youzhou soldiers break in?"
Twelve consecutive arrows were fired in the distance, like a dense rain of arrows, and they were shot here, causing the men and horses to retreat in shock.
"Lord, don't delay any longer, let's go!" Han Fu yelled. Just as he was about to kill Princess Youzhou at all costs, he was held down by someone's shoulders, unable to move.
Wei Yanshan looked at Zhou Xu through the sea of fire and the crowds, held the reins tightly, and glanced at Princess Youzhou for the last time. Then there was the sound of horses and soldiers walking quickly. Jiang Sanlang became even more panicked. Not long after he got on the horse, an arrow shot through his shoulder. , no one cared about him, the large army had already retreated, when his body fell from the horse, Zhou Xu's hand had already pressed his head, and under the huge momentum, his head was lifted and hit straight into the street. Shizhu, the last thing he saw before his death was Zhou Youzhou's face as hideous as a demon.
boom!
The red and white stuff on the brain splashed all over the floor. Zhou Xu threw away the limp body and got off his horse.
Zhou Xu panted and strode to the street house. He walked so fast that his black cloak stirred up the wind and got tangled with the dust in the sky. He threw the heavy iron bow on the ground, and his waist The quiver was empty, and twelve arrows penetrated deeply into the ground, exploding rubble all over the place. Next to a pile of corpses, Zhou Xu found his wife, who had retreated from nowhere.
A short distance away, the flames had spread to the street.
All this happened in just a moment.
Zhou Xu gasped for breath and looked at the lady who was sitting on the ground with one hand on the ground and a hairpin in the other. She raised her head, with tears still on her face, looking at him blankly. Zhou Xu's whole body was filled with tears. He knelt on the ground, and then hugged his wife tightly in his arms. He hugged her very tightly. There was no gap between the two of them. He wished that she could be integrated into his body. Just a little bit, just a little bit, he would be forever. Lost her.
Xiao Luolan blinked slowly. Her whole body was pinned in the darkness, and the cold armor touched her face. It was cold and hot at the same time. Through the armor, the man's violent heartbeat rang in her ears like thunder. By the side, the sound of screaming, crying and fleeing that had been lingering in her ears was dispersed. Xiao Luolan wrapped his arms around Zongzhu Zhou's waist little by little. She closed her eyes, hot tears burst out, and she choked with sobs.
"It's okay, it's okay." Zhou Xu's generous palm caressed the lady's trembling back, and his voice was low and hoarse: "I'm here." He took out the hairpin in the lady's hand.
Xiao Luolan couldn't stop crying.
Zhou Xu's heart was about to break. He wiped his wife's tears with his rough fingertips, kissed them away, and kept comforting her: "It's okay, everything will be fine, and so will Luoyang."
At the end.
The lady leaned on his shoulder and passed out.
Her mind was scarred and exhausted. Zhou Xu held his wife and sat among the corpses in the ruins for a while. No one dared to come forward to disturb her, so no one knew. His eyes were always scarlet and moist.
Chapter 326 (Warmth Part 1)
Xiao Luolan didn't sleep for long. She suddenly woke up. The light in front of her eyes was a little dim. The curtains at the four corners of the bed were all drooped, forming a quiet corner. The air was filled with aromatherapy to help her sleep. She woke up too quickly and nodded. She was dizzy, and the memories before fainting also woke up. Her whole body was agitated and panicked for no reason.
Then he eagerly pulled open the dark pattern curtain, with an expectation and eagerness that he couldn't detect.
Outside is a completely unfamiliar interior, empty.
Xiao Luolan's eyes widened, and her right arm suddenly tightened. Xiao Luolan later realized that there was a warm source of heat pressing against her, and the girl's dreamy voice sounded beside her.
"A'Niang, you're awake." Xiao Qingxue's eyes were red and swollen. When she saw A Niang waking up, she wanted to cry again. After finding A Niang, she didn't sleep last night and looked at her for a long time, saying that she didn't want to be with A Niang. After they were separated, she slept next to her mother-in-law, always looking at her and leaning against her. Even when she slept next to her, she would hug her mother-in-law's arm tightly.
Xiao Luolan turned her head sharply, and what caught her eyes was her daughter's face. She stared at her blankly, and touched her daughter's face with trembling fingertips.
"A'Niang?" Xiao Qingxue tilted her head and rubbed her hand in A Niang's slightly cold palm. Seeing the injury on A Niang's neck, she started to cry again. She sniffed, and the next moment she was held tightly by A Niang. Hug.
"Qingxue." Xiao Luolan hugged her daughter tightly and kept touching her hair. She suspected that she was still in a dream, her heart throbbed and her happiness came too suddenly. If this was a dream, she would rather not wake up.
Xiao Qingxue couldn't bear it anymore. She hugged her mother back and said, "It's me, I'm here to find you."
Xiao Qingxue couldn't control her crying, she wiped away her tears, lowered the corners of her mouth, tears welling up in her eyes: "You don't know how worried I am about you, if anything happens to you, I won't be alive. "
Xiao Luolan barely held back her tears. When she heard this, her heart was twisted together by what her daughter said, and she was so bitter: "Don't say that."
She wiped her daughter's tears, but there were tears in her own eyes: "You have to be well."
"I'll be fine if mom is fine." Xiao Qingxue said. She looked at the pale grandma and said quickly: "Grandma, please lie down and rest. Are you hungry? I'll have someone bring you food."
Xiao Luolan leaned on the bed, looking at her daughter, holding her hand and saying, "I'm not hungry, let me see you first." She hadn't seen her baby daughter for a long time, and Xiao Luolan just found her Lost a lot of weight.
"Does your wound hurt?" Xiao Qingxue pointed at her neck, not daring to touch it. She felt panicked when she recalled the blood stains on her white clothes yesterday.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." Xiao Luolan touched her neck wrapped with gauze. She didn't want her daughter to worry too much. Xiao Qingxue got into her other side's arms and hugged her waist. Xiao Luolan suddenly remembered Suddenly, he hurriedly sat up again: "Where are Dongxue and Qingwu, how are they?"
"Auntie, don't get excited." Xiao Qingxue said: "Dongxue and Miss Xie's carriage was at the back. When Amu led people to catch up, Dongxue had already taken the opportunity to jump out of the carriage with Xie Qingwu. The two of them suffered He suffered some injuries and is recuperating elsewhere."
Xiao Luolan breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this: "Well, Luoyang..."
"Fortunately, the fire did not burn for long. In addition, the city gate was opened in time, so there were some casualties. But my father has ordered relief, so don't worry." Xiao Qingxue had already learned the whole story from He Jin. , she picked some good places to tell to her grandma, and also told about Master Cunzhen’s stealing of Governor Shi’s token. If it weren’t for Cunzhen, it would have been in danger last night. He Jin recommended Master Cunzhen in front of his father. , Xiao Qingxue was also very grateful to Cunzhen.
"My father wanted to grant Master Cunzhen an official title, but he didn't ask for it." Xiao Qingxue said, "I made a request to save the life of Governor Shi."
"My father has been taking care of things since then. I'm occupying my mother. I don't know if my father will agree to it or not."
Xiao Luolan listened and slowly leaned on the bedside. She looked down and saw her daughter resting her head on her body, relying on and attached to her, whispering about what happened after she left.
Xiao Qingxue talked about the Zhou family's unwillingness to save A Niang last year. She couldn't let go of it. It was like a thorn in her heart.
She was like a hedgehog. When she talked about this, all the thorns on her body spread out. She rested on A Niang's body, leaving only the back of A Niang's head. No matter how she concealed it, her tone was still full of hatred.
