son-in-law

Chapter 1298 Thunderstorm (1)

Chapter 1298 Thunderstorm (I)

On May 23, the third year of Wu Zhenxing, heavy rain fell on the road from Caizhou to Xiangyang.

A team of horse-drawn carriages was struggling to move forward in the mud due to the heavy rain.

There was only one carriage in the middle of the team, and more than ten people wearing straw raincoats were guarding it. Most of these people were martial artists, and although they were of different heights, many of them walked steadily in the muddy rain, and even faster than the carriage in the middle of the team. From time to time, the wheels slipped in the mud, and people around came to help push it.

The wind and rain howled, and the wheels sank again. Someone in the carriage opened the curtain and stuck his head out: "Master Jin, Brother Jin..." He said to a person beside the car, "It's too slow, should we just abandon the car and move forward?"

The man surnamed Jin looked around in the heavy rain and said, "The enemy hasn't caught up with us yet. Maybe they haven't even noticed what's happening here. If we keep the carriage, it will be easier to travel when we get to dry land. Besides, in this nasty weather... even if we abandon the carriage, I'm afraid we won't be able to travel fast."

Before he abandoned the carriage and could no longer walk fast, he looked inside the carriage and saw the vague figures of a woman and a child in the carriage.

"Brother Jin, if something really happens..." The man in the car whispered this sentence. Before he finished speaking, the man surnamed Jin beside the car waved his hand and said, "It's okay. Since I, surnamed Jin, and Master Ba have made a promise together, I will send you to the place where you are even if I die."

When he mentioned "Eighth Master", he looked towards the shadow in front of him. It was a man walking at the front of the team. He was wearing a straw raincoat and was always vigilantly observing his surroundings in the heavy rain.

The man in the car said: "It's not a pity for me to die, but..." Perhaps because it involved a secret, he did not say the follow-up words.

Next to the carriage curtain, another person leaned out. It was a woman wearing a straw raincoat. She asked the man surnamed Jin, "How long has Xiao Sun been gone? Has he not come back yet?"

"It's been a quarter of an hour. Fortunately, he said he would be back in half an hour. Brother Sun is reliable, you don't have to worry."

"Yeah." The woman nodded and shrank back.

The rainstorm was dark and heavy, like a hole in the sky. Occasionally, lightning flashed by, illuminating the shadows of the trees on the side of the road. Only the oil lamp in the carriage was still on. Thunder roared across the land. In such rain, people walking didn't want to talk much. After a while, a group of people gradually appeared in the rain ahead.

It was impossible to gallop in such heavy rain. The team that appeared in the field of vision also consisted of more than ten people, and they also looked very embarrassed. Just looking at their clothes, it was obviously the official style. Some of them carried swords, and some were equipped with other strange weapons.

The two sides met and stopped when they were close.

Someone from the government came out and said, "Who are you and where are you going in this weather?"

The man surnamed Jin walked forward and said, "My lords, our boss is Su Jing, a member of the Caizhou family. His hometown is near Fenglingdu. It has been raining heavily recently, and we received news from home that the old lady disappeared with Shuijuan. That's why our boss took us back overnight."

"Is there any document?"

"some."

"Okay! I want to check!"

The leading official led a few people and walked forward. He said, "How dare you rush forward in this kind of weather? Are you trying to save your lives?"

The man surnamed Jin said, "I was a little anxious at first. Now that I have come this far, I can't turn back. I have no choice but to walk a little further and find a place to rest."

"Well, we have to go five miles further to find human habitation."

The two sides were chatting so casually when suddenly, lightning flashed under the heavy rain.

All the officials had their hands on the hilts of their knives. One of them turned his head and exchanged glances with the man in the straw raincoat. In the light of lightning, it was the man who was previously called "Eighth Master", with two hideous scars on his face.

The next moment, the light dimmed again, and the blades were pulled up with a clang, cutting through the heavy rain. Some of them made the sound of metal clashing, and there was also blood spurting out. Some bodies were intertwined, and some rolled on the ground.

The roar of thunder swept across the earth.

More clinking sounds of swords being drawn could be heard. Someone shouted in the rain: "Fuck you..." Someone else shouted: "Die!" The leader of the soldiers moved and appeared in the darkness two meters away. There was blood mixed with raindrops on the blade. He laughed: "Scarface, Lao Jin, I'm going to do great things when I meet you today!"

The man surnamed Jin also laughed: "Humph, as soon as I saw you, I knew you were the lackeys of the Danchen Guard! You surrendered to the government, but you still risked your lives overnight. It seems like you are not having an easy time either—"

"If it weren't for you bastards, why would we have to crawl out of the land of comfort at night? If you know what's good for you, surrender quickly and you can still save your life!"

At the front of the team, Scarface yelled, "Kill them—"

The figures on both sides tore through the rain curtain and collided with each other.

In the heavy rain, several people fell in a pool of blood in a blink of an eye. In the darkness, two figures went around the woods on the side and rushed out to the carriage in the middle. One person stepped onto the carriage, and the curtain was lifted. He chopped down with a knife, but the blade did not cut the person. After the curtain flew out, the sharp short sword swept through the rain curtain and shaved the man's throat. This sword was fast, accurate, and fierce. It was the Tan Gong sword that was once famous in the martial arts world.

The man who rushed forward a step later was holding two strange weapons, the mandarin duck axes, and fought with the sword-wielding girl who rushed out of the carriage.

Most of those who came from Caizhou and guarded the carriage were veterans who had seen the battlefield. Among them, Scarface and Jin Chenghu had planned several assassination attempts on Dai Mengwei. Although they were unsuccessful, the fact that they were still alive today was enough to prove their superb martial arts and rich experience.

On the other side, the dozen or so people who came to kill were not ordinary soldiers or yamen runners.

At the end of last year, after Dai Mengwei and Zou Xu killed Liu Guangshi and usurped power, they began to actively fulfill the idea of ​​"Chinese Martial Arts Association" promised in Jiangning. At the beginning of this year, after the snow melted, a large number of warriors gathered in Bianliang to participate in the event. Dai Mengwei, in the name of justice, recruited talents from all walks of life in Bianliang and formed a team called "Danchen Guard".

The "Danchen Guard" is divided into two branches, one is "Danxin" and the other is "Gongchen", each of which is divided into four teams, known as the Eight Pillars of the State, and above them is the "Supreme Master" Lin Zongwu as the chief instructor. The Green Foresters are the best at face-saving gimmicks, and Dai Mengwei used newspapers to promote it for several months, which made the atmosphere in the Central Plains very lively for a while.

The people coming over now were a small group of Danxin Guards. There were some unskilled people among the more than ten people, but including the captain of this team, there were also three or four experts who could put some pressure on the others. During the fight, both sides suffered injuries. The captain, holding a big knife, fought with Jin Chenghu for a while, but he felt a little annoyed. After joining Danxin Guards, they received guidance from the instructors from the southwest, and had a lot of experience in attacking by dividing and attacking, fishing nets, crossbows and even gunpowder. However, in such a heavy rain, all kinds of external objects were useless, so they had to rely on their own skills and ferocity to fight.

Seeing that he was at a disadvantage, he felt suffocated for a moment, then he dragged his sword and ran away, shouting: "Kill the traitor in the car first!" Jin Chenghu shouted: "Despicable!" Although they were good at martial arts and had long since put life and death aside, the people in the car were indeed their weakness.

After hearing the captain's reminder, the other players in the team were very confident and approached the carriage together. The girl in a straw raincoat at the entrance of the carriage was using the Tan Gong sword to resist the attack of the man with the mandarin duck axe. The man was ordered to attack the carriage with a loud shout. A man in the carriage threw a wooden box at him, but it didn't hit him. He made a feint, and the girl fought back and was almost injured.

Tan Gong Sword is a sword technique used by assassins. It is swift and light for attack, but it is a bit difficult to use for defense.

The two sides fought twice more, and the man with the Yuanyang Yue made a gesture to throw the weapon again. The girl stepped forward to block it. The man made a feint and attacked the girl's weak spot with a "ha". At this moment, several footsteps were suddenly heard in the darkness, and the wind whistled in the ears!

In the heavy rain, the figure rushed out of the woods and leaped into the air, a whistle stick cut through the rain curtain, and slashed over. The man with the mandarin duck axe seemed to be forced to knock open the air next to him, and the whole person fell several feet away, and raindrops exploded all over the sky.

The figure smashed the man wielding the Mandarin Duck Axe and appeared on the shaft of the cart the next moment, poking the stick in his hand forward.

A master who was killing nearby suddenly saw the shadow in front of him enlarged and pierced his throat. He turned around hastily to avoid it, but was then slashed by the outlaw next to him and rolled in pain in the mud.

"Xiao Sun!"

"Young Master Sun!"

People in the team made different greetings.

The man called Xiao Sun is not tall. Although he is a teenager, he is agile and has great martial arts skills. Although the stick in his hand is made of wood, it has brass corners on both sides. Being hit or poked by this stick will cause broken bones and tendons.

He thrust out with his stick, and then jumped off the car. He then moved a few times and knocked over a Danxin Guard's hawk dog. The team leader saw that the situation was not good and immediately retreated: "This is a tricky thing, let's go——"

Jin Chenghu shouted: "We can't let them escape!"

Scarface said: "Kill them all——"

But the team leader shouted, "Separate and go!" Some of the hawks and dogs jumped down the slope, some ran into the woods, and the crowd chopped down a few of them, but in the end, not all of them could be killed.

The area where the fighting took place was already full of mud. Everyone gathered together to pick up the wounded. Several figures wearing straw raincoats came out of the carriage. The man who had talked to Jin Chenghu earlier said, "It seems that we have been discovered. The Danchen Guards may catch up with us. We can't delay."

Another person came up and said, "In this weather, it's hard to see the road. Should we continue to walk? If we stop and become exhausted, what will we do if they catch up with us?"

Jin Chenghu said: "We have been discovered. We can't stay here for long. We must leave."

The girl who wielded the Tan Gong Sword was also nearby. She wiped the water off her face and said, "We have to go. The rain can cover our tracks. The Danxin Guards can find this place, but they may not be able to track the next direction. It's just that we can't go to Fenglingdu anymore. We have to find a new way. In addition... Xiao Sun, Young Master Sun, you tell me..."

He turned around and called the young man named Sun who was using the stick, only to see the other party looking up in the rain, frowning and saying, "Yes, the Danxin Guards have received training from donor Zou Xu, and now they know many weapons. With this heavy rain, if we put in some effort, we may be able to get away. When the weather is clear and they surround us, we may not be able to defeat them... Alas--" When he said this, he suddenly turned around and stabbed out with the stick.

With a bang, the end of the stick collided with the scarred man's long knife in the air.

After cleaning up the wounded, they also captured four wounded members of the Danxin Guards. Now they were gathered together. Scarface was about to kill them with a knife, but when he saw the young man coming to stop him, he turned his head and chopped at him with a cry of "Ah——": "You traitor!"

There were two more bangs, and the sticks and long knives collided. The young man shouted: "Calm down, they are already injured, and the others have already escaped. There is no point in killing more people--"

Jin Chenghu also came over: "Eighth Master, he is right, Eighth Master, stop it——"

"They are wrong, this trip is a fraud--" Scarface shouted, "Several years ago, it was the same situation, and my brothers all died. Brother Jin, I tell you, these scholars cannot be trusted, they are a fraud--"

"This time is different! This time is different!" Jin Chenghu stopped him, "They are from the Chinese Army! They are from the Chinese Army!"

"The same goes for the Chinese army and Ning Yi—"

Scarface waved his knife and shouted in the rain, but he finally still had his wits about him. After a while, he was subdued and calmed down by everyone.

"Please don't be offended." Jin Chenghu said to everyone, "Eighth Master has also... suffered."

"I've heard about Master Ba." said the man who was said to be in the Chinese Army.

This man was not tall and had a rather literary air. He was a middle-aged scholar in his early forties, but his face showed a lot of vicissitudes of life. He came from the Chinese army, and everyone knew that his name was Yu Hezhong.

There was another scholar in the rear named Ding Shu, who was an official in Caizhou. He was a good friend of Yu Hezhong. This time he was instigated by Yu Hezhong to rebel and learned a big secret in Zou and Dai's army, so he risked his life to escape with Yu Hezhong.

Beside the two men, there were two women and two children. One of the women was Yu Hezhong's first wife, and the two children were also his. After the fall of the Central Plains, Yu Hezhong wandered around for several years, and later fled to Ezhou with his family. After a while, he and Yan Daolun went to the southwest to develop diplomatic affairs for Liu Guangshi, leaving his wife and children here.

After Liu Guangshi's death, many forces south of the Yellow River and north of the Yangtze River re-positioned themselves and fought against each other. His good friend Ding Shu took his wife and children to Caizhou. This time, he and his wife were picked up by Yu Hezhong and fled south.

The slow-moving carriage could not be used, so after some discussion, they decided to break the tibias of the four injured Danxinwei soldiers who were left here so that they could no longer do evil. They also left the injured on their side and asked them to drive in the direction they were going back. Then they chose a destination and continued on their way.

Among the more than ten people, there were also local tyrants near Caizhou. They connected with each other and supported each other. They crossed the main road and walked along a long path before they found a dilapidated temple in the mountains and started a fire.

Although exhausted, they still arranged the order for the night surveillance. The men and women leaned against two fires. Someone sighed, "In this heavy rain, we can avoid the various tricks of the Danchen Guards, but it is really difficult to travel like this."

Yu Hezhong was sitting by the fire, throwing less wet branches into it, still tearing up from the smoke. He said, "If...if we really can't escape, I'm afraid we can only let Young Master Sun go south alone and send a message to the Chinese Army."

Sitting by the fire, the young hero named Sun Wukong clasped his hands together and said nothing.

He was holding a stick horizontally and had a small bald head. Naturally, he was the little monk Ping An, who still goes by the alias Sun Wukong.

As for the girl who had taken off her straw raincoat and was slowly wiping her short sword beside the fire on the other side, she was Yan Yunzhi, who was skilled in Tan Gong swordplay and even had some relationship with Yan Daolun.

After the chaos in Jiangning last year, Ping An originally wanted to return to Jin to look for his parents. However, after arriving near Bianliang, he found that the place was first in the midst of war, and then under the manipulation of Dai Mengwei and Zou Xu, it became a chaotic and bustling place. He walked around, doing whatever he wanted, and did a lot of chivalrous things. On the way, he met Yan Yunzhi again. Because of a few chivalrous things, he was able to clear up Jiangning's misunderstanding and let go of the hatred.

Yan Yunzhi failed to find the villain Long Aotian in Bianliang, but she also broadened her horizons during her participation in the Bianliang Martial Arts Conference. Just as the saying goes, reading ten thousand books is not as good as traveling ten thousand miles, her martial arts skills gradually improved, and her horizons gradually expanded. After listening to Ping An's story about Long Aotian, she gradually became confused about whether to seek revenge, and for a while she was not even in a hurry to go to the southwest.

After many twists and turns, the two met again during the chivalrous event of escorting the Chinese military envoys.

The people sitting by the fire tried their best to dry their clothes. Some people talked about Danchen Guard and Zou Xu, and said, "Zou Xu is a traitor of the Southwest Huaxia Army. The skills he learned were originally passed down from the Huaxia Army. Sir Yu, you are an envoy of the Huaxia Army, so can't you crack it?"

Yu Hezhong could only sigh and force himself to explain.

Someone asked the young monk who obviously had a family background and the best martial arts skills. The young monk talked about the power of firearms, and then said: "These are what my eldest brother told me... Alas, if my eldest brother was here, maybe he could crack it better..."

Someone among the crowd asked, "Isn't your elder brother Long Aotian? Some people in the green forest say that his nickname is... the five-foot demon..."

Someone interrupted him: "What are you talking about! Look at Young Master Sun's righteousness and chivalry, how could he be... a four-foot-tall demon? Young Master Sun, do you think he is..."

"There must be a misunderstanding!"

Everyone agreed.

Yan Yunzhi, who was sitting by the fire, had a shy and complicated smile on her face. She now understood the reason for all this, but she had nothing to say. The monk here was not very good at speaking, so he put his hands together and said, "Ami tofu." He was a chivalrous man and a righteous man. In the more than half a year he had been here, he had almost cleared himself of the stigma of a four-foot-tall demon.

The firelight flickered, and Scarface kept talking about how they had escorted two loyal children to escape, but ended up killing all their brothers...

……

Everyone rested for a while.

As daybreak approached, the rain lightened.

Ping An opened his eyes from his meditation posture.

somebody is coming.