On the border between Taichu and Xinhan, there is a stretch of mountains to the north. The peaks rise and fall like the waves of the sea, and the mountains are covered by dense jungle.
At this time, the climate has turned from cold to warm, everything begins to recover, trees grow new branches, flowers and plants emerge, and small animals that have survived the harsh winter begin to look for food everywhere.
A figure cautiously emerged from the dense forest. This man was probably in his twenties. He looked around in a panic, looking very miserable.
His shoulders were wrapped in torn strips of cloth, and blood was still seeping out of the strips. The clothes all over his body were in tatters, and with his unkempt appearance, he looked like a savage.
This man is a secret agent sent to Xinhan by the Seven Kills Battalion, named Yu Jingtian.
When Yu Jingtian saw that no one was catching up behind him, his panic calmed down a bit. He sighed heavily and then continued walking down the mountain. The scenes of the past few days flashed before his eyes.
After Taichu's victory in the Eastern Xia campaign, the Xinhan army originally stationed in Guangxuan City to confront Xiyao suddenly withdrew and rushed towards the Taichu border. Xiyao's army did not pursue it, but returned to Xiyao's territory.
At this time, the Seven Killing Battalion spies dormant in Xinhan had suffered heavy losses and were almost wiped out.
Yu Jingtian and others were naturally aware of the movements of the Xinhan army. This matter was of great importance. It was difficult for the news to be transmitted back to the Xinghe Sect when Xinhan was closed to the country. The Seven Kills Battalion decided after meeting with the only eight secret agents remaining in Xinhan. Return to Yingzhou from the mountains in the north.
To be on the safe side, the eight spies went into the mountain in groups of two, all disguised as hunters or mountain people. Grouping with Yu Jingtian was a middle-aged uncle who was over 40 years old. He did not tell Yu Jingtian his name, but asked him to call him Lao Zheng. The two pretended to be father and son and walked together.
What they didn't know was that before Xinhan began to mobilize troops, the Xinhan military and Mole Hall had already deployed a large number of back-up agents in the mountains, waiting for their spies to fall into their traps.
Lao Zheng is a senior spy of the Seven Kills Battalion. Although his strength is only at the early stage of advancement, he has rich experience and clever methods. Being able to go into the mountains with him made Yu Jingtian feel a lot more relaxed.
The farther he walked after entering the mountain, the harder his face became and his walking speed became slower and slower. The direction Lao Zheng moved was not straight, but constantly changing directions. He would stop every time he walked out. After some investigation, Yu Jingtian saw Lao Zheng's cautious look and couldn't help feeling that Lao Zheng was really worried.
It wasn't until Lao Zheng explored and dismantled seven or eight traps in an area that Yu Jingtian realized that he had been careless, and he began to follow Lao Zheng cautiously.
After walking for two days, Lao Zheng, who was walking in front, suddenly pointed to the sky in the distance towards Yu Jingtian. There was a large smoke there. The smoke was exactly the same as the smoke used to block letters at the border. Yu Jingtian I was shocked, this meant that there must be new Koreans ahead!
After warning Yu Jingtian, Lao Zheng sat on the ground to rest. He took out a small cloth bag from his arms. He opened the bag and took out a piece of pastry that looked dry. He bit off a small piece of it with force. piece, and unscrewed the gourd he carried with him. He sipped water while eating, and soon a piece of pastry was finished.
Lao Zheng picked up another piece and handed it to Yu Jingtian. Yu Jingtian looked at the appearance of the pastry and found it hard to accept, so he waved his hand and refused. Lao Zheng was not angry and said: "Don't look at the ugly appearance of this thing. There are good things in the deep mountains and old forests. This may be our last meal, so let’s eat it.”
Yu Jingtian was shocked. Although he still didn't know the meaning of Lao Zheng's words, he also knew that the danger was coming. This time he took the dry pastry from Lao Zheng and ate it like Lao Zheng.
Although this thing didn't look good, it tasted good. It was fragrant and sweet, and the more you chewed it, the more fragrant it became. Yu Jingtian quickly devoured the pastry.
Yu Jingtian was about to praise a few words, but saw Lao Zheng raising his hand to signal him to stop making any sound.
Under the leadership of Lao Zheng, the two continued on the road. Yu Jingtian followed Lao Zheng closely. He held a short blade in his sleeve firmly in his hand because Lao Zheng specially whispered in his ear when he set off. He said: "Ready to fight at any time..."
More than a dozen figures were hiding behind the two of them, but their traces had long been noticed by Lao Zheng, a senior spy.
Just as the Xinhan people following the two were about to take action, Lao Zheng suddenly shouted to Jingtian: "I'll stop them, you run!"
Seeing that the situation had changed, the Xinhan people rushed forward to fight.
Yu Jingtian naturally knew what would happen if he stayed to stop the New Han people. He said anxiously: "You and I will advance and retreat together, live and die together!"
Old Zheng said angrily: "Get out of here. If you stay, you will die together. If the news this time cannot be spread, all people in Taichu will be in ruins."
At this point, Lao Zheng's tone softened, he took out a piece of paper from his arms and handed it to Yu Jingtian's hand, and then said: "If you feel you owe me something, just remember the content on it, and you can help me if you have the opportunity." Set up a cenotaph in the sect’s cemetery! Let’s go!”
Yu Jingtian knew that this was not the time to act impulsively, and he began to run forward desperately.
Eleven Xinhan spies and soldiers surrounded them. Lao Zheng tried his best to block the eight masters. Only a general in his thirties and two men broke through and continued to chase Yu Jingtian. Then The famous general was wearing bright silver armor. He was holding a sword, and had a long bow and quiver behind his back. He looked like he was highly skilled in martial arts.
Under the siege of eight masters, Lao Zheng, who had never entered the ranks of top masters, was beheaded in a short time. Even his head was chopped off by the opponent and taken as a trophy.
The Xinhan general behind Yu Jingtian sheathed his sword and took off his longbow and arrows. As he moved forward, he bent his bow and nocked an arrow. Arrows kept shooting out, but they only hit not far from Yu Jingtian's side. He didn't know it was him. The level of bow and arrow is not high, but he still deliberately plays tricks on Yu Jingtian.
Yu Jingtian was worried all the way, for fear of being shot by an arrow. In a panic, he came to a cliff where there was a waterfall and a small lake below the waterfall.
The Dongxia general holding a bow and arrow mocked: "Boy, aren't you pretty good at running? Why don't you continue~"
Yu Jingtian faced the pursuer with a determined expression. A piece of paper appeared in his hand. After a quick glance, he jumped back and jumped towards the cliff.
At this time, it was too late to stop him. The Xinhan general who took the lead had no choice but to shoot an arrow with all his strength to kill Yu Jingxun directly.
The arrow broke through the air and went straight to Jingtian's chest. Yu Jingtian, who was in mid-air, could not avoid it. He could only twist his body with all his strength to avoid the vital point. The arrow was finally inserted into his shoulder. At the same time, he also fell down and fell into the small lake below the cliff.
The Xinhan people hesitated on the edge of the cliff for a long time, but finally did not choose to jump off the cliff. After the eight people from behind caught up, they took a detour to the bottom of the cliff together, but after searching for a long time, they found no trace of Yu Jingtian, not even blood stains. None of them found it, and they all thought that Yu Jingtian had drowned at the bottom of the lake.
These new Koreans didn't know that there was a very secret small cave behind the waterfall, which was small enough to accommodate only one person. Yu Jingtian was very lucky. After falling into the lake, he was brought to the bottom of the waterfall by the current, just in time to see When he arrived at the cave, he managed to get in regardless of the pain and survived.
The search was fruitless, and after searching near the small lake for half a day, these New Koreans finally left with peace of mind.
Yu Jingtian was extremely happy that he could survive, but he was also very sad because he knew that Lao Zheng must have been brutally murdered. The note that Lao Zheng gave to Yu Jingtian was Lao Zheng's own message: Disciple of Xinghe Sect Tianji Pavilion Zheng Xun. Yu Jingtian had this name deeply imprinted in his heart.
Yu Jingtian found some herbs to stop bleeding nearby. He endured the severe pain and pulled out the arrowhead. After applying the herbs, he bandaged the wound with a strip of cloth torn from his clothes.
Fortunately, the Xinhan general's arrows were not smeared with poison, otherwise it would be very troublesome if he could not find the antidote.
After taking care of his injuries, Yu Jingtian did not dare to stop and continued walking towards Yingzhou with all his strength. He never met any Xinhan people along the way.
Three days later, Yu Jingtian finally reached the boundary of Yingzhou after going through all kinds of hardships in the dense forest.
After going down the mountain, Yu Jingtian avoided the many outposts of the Taichu court and came to a small village.
He found some gauze and clean clothes in the village, bandaged the wound again, put on clean clothes, and hid his tattered clothes. After a simple wash, my overall condition improved a lot. Unfortunately, he found no wound medicine in the cottage.
He found a hidden corner to rest for a while. After regaining some strength, he was about to leave when the conversation between two villagers attracted his attention.
A villager panicked and said to another villager who was coming towards him: "Old Zhang, have you heard that something big has happened? There is a war!"
The villager known as Lao Zhang became much calmer and said: "Wang Laoshuan, your news is too backward. Isn't it just that you are going to war against Dongxia? It's all about Lao Huang, so why are you making such a fuss? "
Wang Laoshuan waved his hands quickly and said: "No, it's not about the war between Dongxia and Xia, it's about Xinhan!"
Lao Zhang was also panicked this time and said hurriedly: "What? Isn't Xinhan at war with Xiyao? Why did the war come to Taichu again? Haven't our two dynasties been on good terms for several years?"
Wang Laoshuan said with a sad face: "Who knows, the things above are beyond the control of ordinary people. I heard that Xinhan has broken through the Taichu border and invaded."
Lao Zhang's eyes almost popped out when he heard this, and he trembled: "This...this...is coming...so quickly? We are so close to the border, won't we suffer?"
Wang Laoshuan sighed and said: "Hey, let's see. Originally, we were forced by the government all day long and couldn't survive. Now we have to fight again. We, the people of Taichu, are really miserable."
Lao Zhang looked extremely ugly and snorted coldly: "If you ask me, Taichu should die as soon as possible. It's rotten to the core. As ordinary people, we don't care who the emperor is. As long as we can live a good life!"
Hearing this, Wang Laoshuan looked around and frowned and said seriously to Lao Zhang: "Stop talking nonsense, be careful if someone reports you. It will be great fun if the government arrests us if the war doesn't affect us."
Lao Zhang stared and said, "Let's see who dares!" Upon seeing this, Wang Laoshuan quickly pulled Lao Zhang aside and whispered something to persuade him.
All their words fell into the ears of Yu Jingtian who was hiding aside. At this time, Yu Jingtian clenched his fists and dug his nails into his palms. There was blood seeping out from the gaps between his fists. He closed his eyes tightly in pain. The body trembled slightly.
He came back late. Xinhan had already launched an attack on Taichu. Zheng Xun and the other seven sacrificed their lives in vain, but he failed to complete his mission.
Although he did not directly see the other six people being killed, judging from what happened to him and Zheng Xun, there was almost no chance that the others would survive.
Yu Jingtian's body functions were already on the verge of collapse, and he was driven forward by his belief in completing his mission. At this moment, he learned that the mission could no longer be completed. Under the extreme collapse, he fainted.
When Yu Jingtian woke up again, it was already late at night, and he finally calmed down. The first thing he had to do now was to find the Dark Star branch in a nearby city.
He dragged his painful body towards the nearby small town. His speed was not fast. When the town opened its gate the next day, Yu Jingtian, who had just arrived, entered the small town.
When he first entered the small town and was still looking for the Dark Star branch, Yu Jingtian was stunned by another sudden news: Qinghe rebelled, the palace fell, and the emperor was captured!
