In the dense forest.
Countless bandits were lurking in secret, staring coldly at the prison car below.
Woo - chirp -
The rather rhythmic chirping of birds sounded, and the bandits' eyes flashed with bloodthirsty light, and they sprang out from behind rocks, grass, trees and other places.
"Brother, lend me some clothes."
A voice sounded behind a certain bandit, and before he could look back, there was no sound at all.
Zhou Yi changed his clothes, used his magic power to perform Yi Gu Gong, and then used the disguise technique after changing his face shape, which made him look 70-80% similar to the dead bandit.
at this time.
The Imperial Guards on the mountain road have noticed something strange.
Yang Shou, the commander of the imperial army, saw the birds flying in the mountains. He waved to stop the march and ordered the scouts to go to the mountains to investigate.
After waiting for the scout to return for a long time, he had concluded that there was an ambush in the mountains.
"Line up to meet the enemy!"
Yang Shou, who led the elite imperial army, quickly gathered the prison cars and formed a circular formation to stand by.
"Hahaha! Heaven is above! I am the protector of the Heavenly King. Today I will kill all the Tufu Li clan members to sacrifice for the Heavenly King!"
Deafening laughter came, and then dozens of boulders flew from the mountain, hitting the military formation like raindrops.
"Catapult!"
Yang Shou exclaimed. Before he could evacuate the military formation, the boulder had already fallen on his head.
The huge boulders thrown from the mountain were so powerful that humans could not withstand them. They hit the crowd, and screams could not be heard.
Three or four consecutive rounds of boulders broke up the formation of the Forbidden Army.
"Kill! Kill..."
There were sounds of charging and killing from the mountains on both sides, and there were at least thousands of people hearing the sound.
Yang Shou shouted loudly: "Array, array!"
The Imperial Guards reluctantly reorganized their formation, but were met with a hail of arrows and heavy casualties.
"Defend the enemy!"
Despair flashed in Yang Shou's eyes, not because he was afraid of the number of enemies, but because he had other speculations in his mind.
There were at least a dozen catapults and organized archers that no bandit or rebel could afford. The other party's deliberate shouting of their origin was obviously to borrow a name.
As soon as the Imperial Guards and bandits came into contact, they noticed something strange.
The elite of the imperial army trained every day to strengthen their muscles and bones, but in the end their strength was no match for the tyranny of the bandits.
Yang Shou used Zhang Er's spear to kill several bandits. He saw more clearly from the horse that the imperial army was retreating steadily.
"I can't die like this!"
The commander had already thought of retreating. How could his soldiers fight to the death? He didn't know whether it was intentional or forgotten. There were no bandits blocking the mountain road.
Therefore, after Yang Shou took the lead in escaping on horseback, the imperial troops fled forward and back.
The bandits' target was the prison car, instead of chasing the imperial troops, they brandished weapons to massacre the prisoners.
The Li family members in the prison car were shackled on their hands and feet. They were unable to resist and could only stand helplessly and were slaughtered.
In the mountains and forests.
Zhou Yi carried young Li Hong and stood on the branch.
"It's time to go. We'll check the bones later and we might find something strange."
During the melee between the imperial army and bandits, Zhou Yi took advantage of the chaos to rescue Li Hong, leaving a bandit with a similar shape and broken face in the prison car.
"Senior, wait a moment, I want to watch my clan members die with my own eyes so that I can remember this hatred even more deeply!"
Li Hong didn't cry or feel sad at all. He listened to his mother, brother, and relatives wailing and screaming, and they died one by one at the hands of bandits.
After a while.
All members of the Li clan died. The bandits opened the prison van and displayed the corpses one by one.
A few men in long robes came out from among the bandits. After counting their numbers, they found that there were several corpses with mangled faces, and they carefully identified their body shapes and clothing.
"The one who took action was the Jiangnan Family."
Zhou Yi clearly heard the conversation between several people in long gowns and said, "They didn't doubt you. They just thought it was a scuffle and their faces were severely injured."
"Those are my uncle Li Chi, my cousin Li Yi, and my cousin Li Liang. They are only one or two years apart from me, and we are about the same size. The eldest brother is very thoughtful and sent people to disfigure their faces for fear that I would be hunted down by the Jinyi Guards. "
Li Hong's voice was calm, but his eyes were red and bloodshot.
"To be honest, I'm more optimistic about your brother. Whoever disfigured or did it probably doesn't know the purpose of your brother doing this!"
Zhou Yi picked up Li Hong's clothes and disappeared into the forest in a few leaps.
…
Northern Xinjiang.
Deserted city.
As you can tell from the name, it is a bitter cold place.
Fengyang Kingdom's exiled prisoners were all here. There was an iron mine nearby, and they were dug until they died or were granted amnesty.
The sound of horse hooves awakened the soldiers on duty.
"Stop!"
The soldiers drew their swords one after another and stopped the two riding horses roaring towards them: "What are you doing in the deserted city?"
"Visiting an old friend."
Zhou Yi fell from his horse and Gululu lost two coins: "Eh? Brother, you lost your coins!"
"ah?"
It seems that the city gate official has never encountered such a shameless briber. Even if he is a shameless official, he will hand over the money and collect the money in secret.
Disgusting, even if you cover your face?
The city gate officer felt contempt in his heart, but he moved very quickly. He stepped forward to pick up the silver, wiped it, and stuffed it into his arms: "Who is this gentleman looking for?"
Zhou Yi said: "I only know that his surname is Wei, from Yuzhou, about thirty-six years after Chongming."
The city gate officer drawled: "I've been young for thirty years, who knows if I'm still alive? It's not easy!"
Zhou Yi shook his sleeves and dropped two more coins.
The city gate official said helplessly: "Go to the city to find Liu San. He is in charge of the miners from Yuzhou. As long as he is still alive, you will definitely find him."
Zhou Yi took out two ingots of silver from his arms: "Is there any way to meet and arrange some easy work?"
The city gate official only felt that his hand was hot: "Then you have to go to the Yamen to find a housekeeper and a grandson, and you can spend money to work as a handyman in the Yamen."
Zhou Yi continued to hand over the money: "Is there anything else that needs attention?"
"Master, it's grand!"
The city gate officer patted his chest: "I'll take you to do something. Let alone find someone, I can even take someone out of the deserted city."
Zhou Yi was surprised and said: "Can you still take it away?"
"You don't understand this. If you can't take them away, how can those people die every year in the mine?"
The city gate officer ordered his soldiers to stand guard and not let the thieves enter the city, so he led Zhou Yi and two people into the city.
The city's walls were in ruins, the streets were overgrown with weeds, and not even a single person could be seen. The shops on both sides were empty, with broken windows and doors that creaked like ghosts when the wind blew.
"Our place was originally the base of the border army, and it was quite prosperous back then. Now that the border army has gone to Yizhou, there is only an empty city left..."
The city gate official seemed to feel that the money was being collected at a loss, so he took the initiative to act as a tour guide and narrate the historical changes of the deserted city.
"Look at the general gathering platform. The Duke of Zhen once played drums here..."
"This tavern has Shenjing's fine wine. Every time the Duke of Zhen comes back after a victory, he will come here to drink..."
"..."
In all likelihood, what the city gate official said was related to the Duke of Zhen Guo. Only when we arrived in the northern Xinjiang did we know the great fame and far-reaching influence of Li Wu.
Li Hong followed what the city gate official said and seemed to see his father commanding troops at the general gathering platform and drinking in the tavern.
Zhou Yi patted Li Hong on the shoulder and said through a message: "Remember your elder brother's instructions!"
Li Hong nodded slightly, restraining his emotions.
"Don't worry, sir. Before I was promoted to Xiantian, I will change my surname to Zhou."
The role of silver in Huangcheng was greater than Zhou Yi expected.
After being introduced by the city gate official, the steward Sun of Hufang was very reasonable and made a price directly.
"One thousand taels for a living person, and an additional 200 taels for household registration, so you can be a good boy!"
