Chapter 96 Three Thousand Eagles and Dogs are Restless
In the early morning, the mist is floating, the river is leisurely, and the green water faces the east.
There is a village on the bank of the river. After someone in the village dies, they often choose to erect a grave in the wilderness near the river, insert willow sticks, and dozens of willow trees gradually grow.
Although the willow trees are not tall, they are quite old. The vicissitudes of the bark are like those of an old snake, but there is something new in the willow branches.
Some villagers came over with hatchets, selected those green and tender willow branches, chopped some off, and sent them to the new grave.
Relatives of the deceased were wailing beside the new grave, and some were wailing loudly. Their cries spread across the river, and seemed to disperse a lot of the fog.
On the other side of the river, in the woods, Su Hanshan was sitting cross-legged on the ground, holding a clay pot in both hands, and turned to look at the graves on the other side.
There were seven or eight new graves, and most of the villagers helped out near the graveyard. Some brought some paper money, and some brought linen and white cloth.
White rag strips are hung on the willow branches, like layers of soul-calling flags fluttering.
“The third uncle’s family is gone, and they didn’t make it through the morning?”
"Oh, Sanyao is only this age. What will he do in the future? His uncle will take care of him, right?" Well, let’s take care of him, make some porridge from which house, and ask him to come in and have a meal for a while.”
While helping with the burial, the villagers kept talking in low voices.
Su Hanshan has been listening for a long time and pieced together the whole story in his mind.
About six or seven days ago, a small gang that often walked around here got government documents from unknown sources, and under the pretext of conducting searches, they broke into the homes of these villagers and demanded their property. , catch the chicken and lead the goose.
If there was a family with a handsome daughter-in-law, those people would take action. Any villagers who dared to protest against them would be pushed down directly by them, and some would be beaten up by them, and they would swallow them up in a few days. gas.
"Those people are also under Kuang Gutang's command?"
Su Hanshan frowned, "Compared with the people who have been tracking us during this period, the difference seems too big?"< br>
During this period of time, the people who were chasing the three of them were mainly horsemen in black, each with a long sword at his waist and capable of action.
Su Hanshan tested a few and was basically certain that each of them could at least slash a sword energy nearly ten feet long. Their swordsmanship was ruthless and precise, they were alert and fearless, and they also wore an extremely powerful weapon. The sharp iron whistle blows frequently and is very difficult to deal with.
However, despite their arrogant and arrogant behavior, those people would not deliberately bully the people in small villages and towns.
Even the gangsters who later followed these black-clad riders, although their clothes were different, it could be seen from their demeanor that they all had the aura of orderly orders and focused goals.
"Those black riders should be from the Third Hall of the Kuanggu Hall. The men and horses of the Gujian Hall are all trained by the General Hall. They are the elites selected from thousands of people. Of course they look down on bullying the countryside. "
Li Chaoyang was grinding the medicinal powder, looking at the grave on the other side, and explained, "The ones who followed them later. They should be people from the seven sects of the Prime Minister's Mansion. They are said to be seven sects, but they are actually private soldiers trained by Shi Miyuan over the years. They will not be too distracted when the action is not completed."
"But. , No matter whether it is the Third Hall or the Seven Factions of the Prime Minister's Mansion, there are not too many people who can go out. I estimate that there are no more than 800 people."
"And recently we have encountered more and more signs of searches. I am afraid that it would take three to five thousand people to disperse in various places to achieve such a momentum. The extra manpower must be those peripheral gangs who are following the trend."
Although those small gangs really want to move closer to Kuang Gutang and Prime Minister Shi, they usually don't have much use for them. With their own strength, they don't dare to be too arrogant.
The recent actions of Kuang Gutang and Xiangfu have allowed them to see the great opportunity of pretending to be powerful. Of course, they must seize this opportunity and make a desperate effort to make a fortune.
“We, Fuyao Mountain, could have used it as a deterrent to wandering people, but recently because the old man’s news was leaked, those bastard sects that fish in troubled waters are moving closer to our innermost territory, forcing them to Win our people The hand is retracted, and it is of no use!"
When Li Chaoyang said the last word, his tone was full of anger, and he grinded the medicine with his hands a little harder, grinding the branch-like medicinal materials into fine residue. I just wanted to throw it into the clay pot over there at Su Hanshan.
Zhang Shuwei stopped him quickly: "This cannot be added directly."
When Su Hanshan was observing the situation on the other side of the river, he did not forget to boil the medicine in the clay pot.
Zhang Shuwei opened it and took a look. The medicine in the clay pot was as thick as ointment, making hot bubbles, but almost no medicinal smell came out. Knowing that it was already hot, he took the pot and Busy on the side.
He used this time to wash and dry the sheep intestines as a membrane, first put the medicinal powder, then added a little ointment with bamboo slices, and quickly tied it tightly to form a small pill.
In the blink of an eye, he had already made three or four meatballs the size of date pits and placed them on a piece of linen next to him.
Su Hanshan sat there, seemingly lost in thought.
“Recently, we have indeed encountered more and more raids. In the early days, we were in a hurry and did not notice it. Now it seems that they are using a distant method to unknowingly limit the number of searches. Our scope of action."
Su Hanshan whispered, "It is like an open pocket, tightening and tightening until finally, it completely blocks the way and surrounds us. Get up." Li Chaoyang took out a map that he had read many times recently and said, "I think they are probably going to make a final ambush at Feilai Peak. If they go further, they will soon touch the most densely populated area. We must try to break out of the encirclement today and penetrate horizontally until we can bypass their encirclement."
Zhang Shuwei also secretly nodded to this conclusion.
The sky is huge, the mountains are numerous, and there are many rivers. In many cases, it is difficult for the person being tracked to notice anything strange when he is in the middle of the situation.
But Zhang Shuwei is old in the world after all, and he noticed something strange earlier than the two young people. Although he didn't have a clear answer in his heart, he had already made preparations for that strange premonition.
For a while, every town they passed through on the road would purchase a lot of medicinal materials and accumulate them.
At the beginning, he still had the intention of treating Su Hanshan's injury. He did not expect that Su Hanshan's injury would heal so quickly, so he simply asked Su Hanshan to use the unique technique and hone his internal strength as mentioned above. , use internal strength to cook medicine and control the heat.
Li Chaoyang was responsible for grinding the medicine, and Zhang Shuwei mixed it himself.
Cooking, sifting, filtering and concentrating, repeating these similar but different steps, accumulating hundreds of kilograms of medicinal materials, and adding the elixirs Zhang Shuwei carried as a primer, finally came up with such an ointment in a clay pot.
When these ointments are made into pills, they are not used to treat people, but are used to break out!
The number of pills was piling up at a speed visible to the naked eye. While Zhang Shuwei was busy working, he suddenly heard Su Hanshan exhale a heavy breath.
“We avoided conflict with them in the early stage because they all carry iron and bamboo whistles and have many hounds. Once we fight, it is easy to fall into a long series of troubles.”
Su Hanshan said slowly, "Now that we have gone deep enough, if we want to break out, we are more likely to encounter a series of tracking attacks, and there will be more masters."
"If we get together to break out, I'm afraid that in this process, our inner strength and energy will be repeatedly wasted until we are all captured."
Li Chaoyang immediately understood and said solemnly: "You have to split up. ?"
Zhang Shuwei raised his head and stared at Su Hanshan. After a while, he said: "What you said makes sense, but if you want to deliberately draw attention away, let me Taking the opportunity to escape, not to mention how I feel, the pursuers may not be able to notice it."
Su Hanshan just smiled: "If I leave directly now, you two will not be able to stop me. , can’t change my mind.”
“But the fact that you are talking to us means that you also know that this idea may not be that good and the risk is high.”
Li Chaoyang said quickly, "Breakthrough together or separately, there will be trouble. At least we can work together and have someone to take care of us."
Su Hanshan said gently: "I am talking to you because I hope you can agree. It's better to cooperate like this."
Li Chaoyang was still persuading him, but Zhang Shuwei lowered his head and prepared the pills faster than before. The ointment will soon be used up, and the sheep intestines will also be used up, unexpectedly. Just right.
When the last bit of ointment was scraped off, Zhang Shuwei said: "Xiao Su, you said at the tea shed that the fortune teller would not run there until there was an opportunity for you to improve your martial arts."< br>
"I can feel that the purpose of your trip to the world seems to be just to explore spinal exercises. In this regard, I and the collection of books in Fuyao Mountain can indeed help you. But..."
Uncle Zhang's eyebrows were slightly thick, his white beard was slightly raised, and he said solemnly, "If you are robbed first in this storm, even if I succeed in going to Fuyao Mountain, you will not get the reward you deserve."< br>
Li Chaoyang fell silent when he heard this.
He never likes to say this kind of thing. It seems that everything we do, all our wisdom, persistence, and hard work can only be profit-oriented. People don’t look like people, but like some invisible things. The slave of things.
But he is Li Qiumian's disciple after all. He has seen too many things since he was a child, and he has to understand in his heart that words like this are often more convincing, because this is the reality.
Selfish people are only interested in self-interest and do not care about ideas. People with feelings have to worry more about reality. Therefore, the principles of reality are applicable to all kinds of people and things in all directions, and they are the most capable of making people surrender.
"When I was in my hometown, because of my worries, I wanted to do many things but couldn't do them. At most, I could only do part of them. I had to hide my head and look forward and backward."
Su Hanshan did not answer directly; Talking nonsense.
“At that time, even when facing inevitable risks, I had to think twice. I felt that just by putting myself in danger, I had let down the love of many people.”
“But now, there are many things It has gotten better. To put it bluntly, I also feel that I have repaid something, and I don’t have as many worries as before.”
“Although I still don’t want to let down the people who are good to me, I don’t want to let myself down either. .”
After Su Hanshan finished speaking, he smiled, stood up, and faced the running water. His gentle and smiling words revealed unshakable determination.
"Old man, your knowledge, acupuncture and Fuyao Mountain's collection of books have been prepared for me. I will definitely get the reward I deserve."
"But, In addition to doing things for reward, I also want to do things that don’t matter in return and are purely based on my pleasure!”
(End of this chapter)