The meat is fragrant.
A fatal temptation for every hungry person.
The same is true for Mr. Dongfang. His hungry stomach has already made him unable to restrain his thirst for food.
The refugee soldiers who had returned with their loads mingled with them.
The leader was a talker and kept talking to Mr. Dongfang along the way.
"When will I be able to join the team? It won't be too long, I guess!"
"How does brother know?"
Chatterbox pointed at the few people behind Old Dongfang and said:
"Look at you, you look like an old pawn, and then look at your brothers, all of them are like lambs. They really can't let go. How can they fight with others on the battlefield? Well, it was the same when I first came here. I'll kill you when I see blood. I’m afraid, it will be fine if you wait for a long time.”
Dongfang Lao looked back at the brothers who were following him. Each of them looked timid and their expressions were a little nervous.
"Just kill a few people." Chatterbox added,
"I just killed an old man last time."
One person echoed, his voice a little loud.
Dongfang Lao found that one of his brothers had tears hanging from the corners of his eyes.
Dongfang Lao couldn't blame them. These people were originally a group of honest farmers.
They went south with Dongfang Lao just because they had no chance of survival. Robbery was not what these farmers had in mind. If they were not forced to do so by having nothing to eat, who would be willing to take the risk.
Essentially, he and his brothers are not bad people.
But these guys in front of him are murderous demons. How can his brothers not be afraid of walking with these people?
Old Dongfang's brain works quickly and he speaks quickly.
"Hahaha... Brother has a good eye and can tell a new soldier at a glance. I wonder what brother's name is and what position he got in the army?"
The man glanced at Dongfang Lao: "Brother, he speaks in an eloquent manner. It seems that he has some knowledge of writing. I am just a rough guy and can't understand that. There is a lame Meng in our army, and he speaks like a man. You, sometimes you still speak the words of saints, and you still imitate saints when you don’t have enough to eat, you are all a bit of a sour scholar."
Dongfang Lao blinked and smiled ingratiatingly.
The chatterbox continued: "My name is Shi DaDa. Don't look at me like this now. I heard from the previous generation that my ancestors were related to the later Emperor Zhao. Did you know that the later Emperor Zhao loved to eat fragrant meat? I love to eat too!”
What exactly is "fragrant meat"? Old Dongfang kept wondering in his heart.
But the aroma of meat floating in the dilapidated streets was indeed something he had never smelled before. It was different from pork and mutton. Could it be muntjac or deer?
Mr. Dongfang didn't dare to ask directly, fearing that he would be suspicious if he said something wrong.
The talkative Shi Bingdao asked again: "You already know my name, but you don't know how to call you. When did you come, and who is the handsome commander above?"
The other party's inadvertent question made Dongfang Xinsheng think of killing. His right hand rubbed the handle of the ring-shou knife at his waist.
The other party was waiting for Dongfang Lao to answer.
At this moment, a half-naked woman suddenly rushed out of the diagonal stab and ran towards the alley next to them.
Behind the woman were two refugee soldiers holding up their pants, chasing after her.
Dongfang Lao and his party all stopped and froze in the middle of the road.
I saw an old soldier holding up his trousers shouting at Mr. Dongfang: "What are you doing in a daze? Go and catch that little lady with the gentlemen!"
Dongfang Lao blinked and grinned ingratiatingly at Shi DaDa.
Na Shi boldly snorted coldly. He seemed to have seen this kind of thing too many times. He was too rich to bother with such trivial matters.
But Dongfang Lao was eager to get away. He shouted to several of his brothers and then followed the two refugee soldiers holding up their trousers to surround the woman.
Na Shi boldly scolded from behind: "A sharp-mouthed thief, you don't care about your hunger when you see a beautiful lady? If you go late, can you still eat delicious meat?"
After Shi Daring scolded them, he no longer cared about Dongfang Lao and the others, and they walked forward talking and laughing.
Dongfang Lao followed the two refugee soldiers, but when it came to robbing a civilian girl, he had never done it in his life. Naturally, the subsequent robbing of Qingxue was another matter.
Dongfang Lao is an old pawn. He has killed countless people on the battlefield and killed with peace of mind. The enemy is Suolu, the foreign invader who has invaded our land of China.
Moreover, Prince Jiangxia has strict military orders. Anyone who disobeys orders and robs property or robs women will be put to death regardless of their previous military exploits, so no one dares to do such dirty things.
But what happened today was that he really couldn't handle it. He just followed the two homeless soldiers who hadn't tied up their waist ropes yet and didn't know what to do.
The brothers who followed him were honest farmers, and two of them were still bachelors.
These honest people think about women all night long, but they don't dare to release their animalistic nature when they see a woman.
The half-naked woman naturally didn't know what they were thinking. In her eyes, these ragged bandits all looked the same.
She stepped on the slippery pool of blood with her bare feet and ran away along the narrow alley in terror.
As she was running, she encountered a refugee army in front of her who was killing people and setting fires. She had no choice but to change lanes and keep running. Finally, she got stuck in a dead end.
A refugee soldier waved his hand to Dongfang Lao and the others: "Okay! You go and do your work! You are not needed here!"
But these people stood there, motionless.
Seeing that they refused to leave, another soldier said: "That's okay. We'll finish enjoying it first and then leave it to you to wait. Let's have fun together!"
The woman was even more frightened when she heard what these refugees said. She cried and shrank her body under the wall, covering her exposed parts with her torn and ragged clothes.
Old Dongfang felt compassion, but he understood that now was not the time for compassion to overflow. Once someone inadvertently exposed his identity, it would not be a matter of his own life or death.
He said in a deep voice: "Let's go!"
Several brothers hesitated for a moment, and although they all showed sympathy, they turned back one after another and followed Xiao Yu.
My ears were filled with all kinds of unbearable sounds, including people screaming for mercy, men's animalistic laughter, and fighting, stamping, and tearing of cloth...
Dongfang Lao gritted his teeth and tried his best to restrain his inner anger.
But an older brother next to him suddenly stopped there and looked steadily ahead.
The others looked at him in confusion. He was an old bachelor and still didn't know what it was like to be a woman.
Everyone thought he was going back to vent all his fantasies about women on that unknown woman.
But the man said calmly: "My... my second sister is probably about that age. When I see her, I think of my second sister. My second sister died of hunger. If... if my second sister is still alive, let that If two beasts mess up..."
The iron fork in the man's hand rattled.
The anger in Old Dongfang's heart could no longer be suppressed. Without waiting for anyone else to react, he picked up the knife and walked toward the depths of the alley alone.
Not long after, there were two screams from a man and a pitiful cry from a woman.
Everyone hurried back and saw that two half-naked refugee soldiers had been killed one by one by Dongfang Lao's sword, and their blood was flowing all over the floor.
The woman's eyes were dull and she was still sobbing. Her clothes had been torn and half of her body was huddled in the hay.
I saw Dongfang Lao throwing a piece of clothing that the refugee soldiers had taken off to the woman and looking away.
"Don't be too dirty, put on your clothes and leave quickly. If you can survive, it depends on your luck!"
The woman did not accept the clothes. Her dull eyes moved to the dead body. She did not cry anymore, but became nervous.
She has gone crazy.
Dongfang Lao sighed and walked out the door.
That's all he can do, just buy some peace of mind.
"Let's go! Let's go find food!"
The group of people followed the original road back to the intersection where they separated from Shi DaDa and the others.
Follow the tangy meat aroma to find the source of the aroma.
But everything along the way was ruined, the houses were burned by flames, and all kinds of dead bodies were lying on the roadside, whether they were refugees or Wubao soldiers, or the innocent old, young, women and children affected by the war.
Several refugee soldiers were chatting and laughing on the roadside, collecting corpses, taking off their clothes, and throwing them all into a cart.
At the turn of spring and summer, the temperature has risen. Although the corpses will not stink if they are piled up for a day or two, if left unchecked, it will easily breed plague.
Dongfang Lao thought that these people collected the corpses to bury or burn them. It was not until later that he realized that he was wrong.
They walked further along the road and finally saw a large square.
Many people gathered in the square, and they gathered around a huge cauldron from which the aroma of meat wafted.
What made people feel chilling was that just behind the cauldron, naked corpses were piled up so casually.
This is really weird. Seeing this scene, a veteran like Dongfang Lao would feel frightened.
At the same time, an exciting discovery for these people was also in front of them.
Just behind the square are buildings with pointed columns, which are barns for storing grain.
Dongfang Lao suppressed the ecstasy in his heart, and he couldn't wait to lead everyone towards the barn.
When they were about to approach, they heard someone behind them scolding: "Wait a minute, what are you doing?"
They looked back involuntarily.
They saw a group of refugee soldiers wearing leather armor walking towards them and looking them up and down.
"Who are you? What are you doing here? Why are you so unfamiliar?"
Mr. Dongfang has a philistine look on his face and talks about him indifferently.
"I'm waiting... I'm waiting for hunger..."
"Hungry?" The leader of the refugee army looked confused.
At this moment, a voice came from not far away.
"Sharp-tongued thief, why are you taking so long to arrive? If you're a moment later, you'll have to wait for the next pot!"
That was Shi DaDa. He and his men were still dressed in a nondescript manner, and they looked particularly strange holding broken bowls in their hands.
The wariness on the faces of the few refugees who came forward to check dropped a bit when they saw that they were acquainted with Shi DaDa.
Watching Old Dongfang and the others walking towards the cauldron where the meat was cooked.
As I walked closer, the aroma hit my nostrils.
Dongfang Lao had a look of enjoyment on his face and sniffed it with his nose.
"It smells so good..."
"That's natural. Is this fragrant meat?"
Shi DaDa asked the brother next to him for a broken bowl and handed it to the cook who was responsible for cooking.
"Hey, get some meat for my brother, and some for those guys too."
The cook was also dressed in rags, and he didn't seem to be anything special among the refugee army. He was just a bit older, about forty or fifty years old.
He glanced at Shi DaDa and said displeasedly: "No more, wait for the next pot."
"What? No more?" Shi DaDa was obviously dissatisfied and was about to get up and argue with the man.
Dongfang Lao grabbed him and looked like a peacemaker: "Forget it, brother, forget it, wait for the next pot. Aren't you afraid of being late for a good meal?"
Dongfang Lao looked at the hungry homeless soldiers around him and asked, "Brother, do we only eat meat and not grain? I see that no one has touched the granary. Could it be that his family also No food?"
Shi Dadan asked curiously: "Eat food? Why should we eat food when there is fragrant meat to eat?"
"Oh... I just joined the team, so maybe... I don't know the rules very well. Please give me some advice, brother."
Shi DaDang smiled mysteriously and hugged Dongfang Lao: "In our team, we keep the food first, and the livestock eat grass. When the grass is gone, we will give them food. We only eat livestock, and there is really no livestock to eat. Let’s eat more food…”
Old Dongfang frowned. This going around made him a little confused. What kind of livestock does "livestock" refer to?
"That fragrant meat...well, what is that livestock?"
Shi Dadan pointed at Dongfang Lao with a look of disdain: "Fragrant meat, Emperor Zhao Shihu called them two-legged sheep after we passed!"
Only then did Mr. Dongfang react, and he was suddenly shocked.
He once heard people say something about Emperor Shi Hu of the Later Zhao Dynasty. They said that Shi Hu was cruel and murderous. Every time he plundered a land, he killed all the men and kept the women in captivity for sexual pleasure. Military rations are called "two-legged sheep".
Thinking of this, his scalp couldn't help but start to tingle, as if it were being scratched by millions of ants.
But the brothers he brought with him were still ignorant, waiting with joy for the next pot of "fragrant meat" to come out.
He looked around again. The corpses stacked in the distance were missing their limbs. The scattered bones on the ground were all human bones. Some people were actually playing around with something that looked like a leg bone.
When Dongfang Laozheng saw this, he suddenly felt that the surroundings suddenly became quiet.
He looked up and saw four or five refugee army leaders riding tall horses approaching with more than a hundred refugee soldiers in bright armor.
Behind them followed more than ten captured men and women, old and young. Judging from their clothes, they should be the family members of the owner of Wubao.
Suddenly, Dongfang Lao saw a person.
That is really Wugang.
He was riding a tall horse, talking and laughing with another one-eyed man beside him with a proud look on his face.
At the same time, he also noticed that the family members of the dozen or so dock owners were driven here by the bandits under Wugang, and it seemed that a few of them were his subordinates who had been following him from Qingzhou.
Dongfang Lao was stunned. He couldn't figure out what happened.
The refugees stood up one after another, raised their hands and shouted: "Welcome to the commander-in-chief!"
The one-eyed man nodded proudly and got off his horse in front of the square.
Wugang also dismounted and followed the one-eyed refugee commander. The two were still talking and laughing, and they were very close. I think they should have known each other before coming here.
This made Old Dongfang's mind go blank. He felt like he was being set up. In short, he couldn't stay here any longer and had to leave.
He turned around and winked at his brothers, but they were too busy looking at Wugang and the homeless man to notice him.
At this moment, Wugang's rude voice was suddenly heard.
"Brother Dongfang! Come quickly!"
Everyone present didn't know who Brother Dongfang was, and they all looked around blankly.
But when they saw the direction pointed by Wugang's thick finger, they looked at Dongfang Lao with surprise.
Even Shi DaDa, who was standing beside him, looked surprised. What was the background of the person who had just hooked up with him?
Dongfang Lao smiled awkwardly, or he was using laughter to cover up his uneasiness.
After all, the group of refugee soldiers in front of them are cannibals. They can't be regarded as humans, at most they can be regarded as a group of beasts.
Dongfang Lao bit it and walked out.
He walked slowly, but pretended to be calm.
When he walked up to Wugang and the one-eyed man, he saw that the one-eyed man looked at him warmly, as if with a kind of appreciation and admiration.
"Brother, this is Mr. Dongfang, Brother Dongfang, whom I just told you about." Wu Gang patted Mr. Dongfang on the shoulder and said.
Dongfang Lao felt that Wu Gang's force was a bit heavy, and his eyes kept rolling.
To be honest, he and Wu Gang were at odds behind their backs. The two of them were basically two types of people who couldn't even pee in a jar.
That person in Wugang is sinister and has no good intentions at all.
Just as Xiao Yu was thinking of this, he saw the one-eyed man solemnly bowing his hand to him.
"Brother Dongfang, I have admired my name for a long time. He is the commander-in-chief of this rebel army, and so is Hou Canghai."
