Yi Song

Chapter 14 The Great Secret

Liu Guozhang quickly stepped forward and helped Fengcheng's upper body up.

"Scholar, scholar!"

Fengcheng tried hard to open his eyes, but couldn't. His lips trembled, as if he wanted to speak.

Liu Guozhang put his ear up, waited for a while, and finally heard four words as light as gossamer: "loyalty, letter, book."

No more sound.

Liu Guozhang touched Fengcheng's neck, but there was no pulse at all.

He pulled out the lancet, rubbed the blade with his sleeve until it was as bright as a mirror, turned the back of the knife and leaned it against Fengcheng's nostril. After waiting for a while, there was no change in the blade, not even a trace of heat.

This time it was really dead.

Liu Guozhang put the knife back into the scabbard and thought to himself.

Zhongxin Bookstore?

A bookstore in Tokyo city?
  What did the scholar hide there?

What kind of shocking secrets are hidden in these two scholars? They actually let people risk the disapproval of the world and use the elite of the Western Army to commit crimes at the feet of the emperor.

Being a killer is completely different from being an honor guard.

If this was accidentally leaked, it would also be a death penalty for the emperor to gain favor from him.

I stepped on the emperor's prostate!
  Today you dare to mobilize the Western Army to kill people outside the city, and tomorrow you dare to mobilize the Imperial Army to attack the inner palace.

High risk must be high reward!
  There must be some big secret in the scholar's body that made them willing to take such a big risk.

Manjintang, Manjintang, it seems that I am following God’s will by destroying you.

If I don’t destroy you, these masked men will destroy you sooner or later.

Wang Yan turned back and said to Liu Guozhang: "There are two pits over there. They should be traps dug by hunters. They have been abandoned for a long time, which saved us a lot of trouble."

"Just right. One to bury Xiucai and Zhang Weng, and the other to bury those masked men."

"Buried those masked men?"

"Such elites of the Western Army cannot be trained without fighting to the death several times on the battlefield. No matter what, they have guarded the border for our Song Dynasty and shed blood. We cannot let them die in the wilderness."

Wang Yan sighed, "Erlang Gaoyi!"

At Zhang Sheng's place, Zhang Meng said that his eldest father had left a message a long time ago. If he died, he would burn it, wrap a bag of ashes, and take them to the foot of Zhending Huangzan Mountain to bury him with his deceased relatives.

Zhang Meng and Chen Guang gathered a pile of dry firewood, cut a pile of dry autumn grass, built a high pile, and placed Zhang Sheng's body on top.

He found a fire stick on a masked man and ignited dry firewood and dry grass. A raging fire instantly burst into flames and swallowed up Zhang Sheng's body in the blink of an eye.

Zhang Meng stared at Li Huo, clenching his fists, and his big eyes were red and without tears.

Liu Guozhang and Wang Yan took two curled plain knives, spent some effort, dug the two abandoned pits deeper, and dug out the bodies of Fengcheng and Tian Cong, as well as the bodies of the seven masked men. The corpses were put in separately, filled with soil, and piled high.

Two more wooden plaques were cut, one was engraved with "Tomb of Fengcheng Tian Cong" and the other was engraved with "Tomb of Unknown Person", and they were erected in front of the tombs respectively.

After finishing my work, I came back here and the fire was still burning.

Looking at the flames soaring into the sky, Wang Yan asked quietly: "Erlang, we stayed at the deserted temple at night, why were we caught up with us?"

"There are two possibilities. One is that the masked man has an expert who can track him down; the other is that we have a traitor who left a letter for them."

"Our Yongjiexiao Zuo Army goes to the border for three or four months every year. There are many spies coming and going, and every day we are tracking and hunting for spies.

Zhang Weng was an expert in tracking down people. Back then, his family went south to beg for work. It was he who led the family to clear up the traces and successfully entered the Song Dynasty. The big eyes are more blue than blue. "

Liu Guozhang understood what Wang Yan meant, "Zhang Weng was always behind the scenes with his big eyes, just to sweep away the traces in the dark. So it is not that easy for the masked man to find the traces. From this we can infer that we have a traitor. Brother Wang, Who do you think it could be?"

"Erlang, Yuan Tianbao and Wang Buddhao escaped from the back door together with the scholar. Now the scholar is dead, but Yuan and Wang are nowhere to be seen."

Before Wang Yan finished speaking, a voice came from the other side, "You are here! Are you all okay?"

Yuan Tianbao’s voice!

Liu Guozhang and Wang Yan quickly turned around and saw him and Wang Buddha turning around from the col.

His round face was covered with sweat, his clothes were soaked from the front and back, his steps were slow, and his breathing sounded like bellows.

"Dong Yuan's family, Wang Zhuangshi, where have you been?" Liu Guozhang asked.

"The scholar and I got into the woods, not expecting there to be an ambush there. We were so frightened that we turned around and ran away. We didn't want to get lost and run around in the mountains. Brother Wang was also confused and didn't know where he was.

I still saw fire and smoke rising into the sky, so I turned around and found that we had made a huge circle, and we were exhausted. "

Yuan Tianbao sat down on the ground, breathing heavily.

"Burn the corpses, we have another great victory! Damn it, even the elite of the Western Army are defeated. I will be able to brag about it in the future. Well, where is Zhang Weng? There are two more scholars, you haven't gone to find them The two of them."

"Zhang Weng, Fengcheng and Tian Cong are all dead."

"What!" Yuan Tianbao stood up suddenly, spinning around in circles, muttering, "Dead, why is he dead? How is it possible?"

He stopped suddenly, stared at Liu Guozhang and Wang Yan, and asked word for word: "The scholars are dead, but we are still alive, so we may be spies! Right!"

Wang Yan didn't dare to look into his eyes, but Liu Guozhang asked directly.

"Are you spies then?"

"Spies, if we were spies, we would never come back!" Yuan Tianbao replied without hesitation.

"You didn't find what you wanted in the scholar. You suspected that the scholar secretly gave it to us yesterday, so you discussed it and came back. You continued to be a spy to find out the truth."

Yuan Tianbao was speechless. He stared at Liu Guozhang and said viciously: "Liu Erlang, if we are spies, you will stab us to death with this iron spear."

Liu Guozhang looked directly into Yuan Tianbao's eyes, then suddenly turned to Wang Buddha and asked, "Brother Buddha, was he a utility soldier on Shaanxi Road?"

"Why did Erlang say that?"

"In the early hours of the morning, we were attacked in the deserted temple. Arrows were shot into the temple. Brother Buddha's eyes lit up. Brother Wang blurted out "God's Arm Bow", and Buddha followed Brother Chen and Zhang Weng and shouted "God of the Western Army" "Armbow", he shouted it without thinking, which shows that Brother Buddha is very familiar with this thing.

Brother Chen and Zhang Weng are familiar with the divine arm bow. They must have heard Brother Wang mention it. "

Wang Yan and Chen Guang echoed from the side: "Yes, Erlang is right."

Liu Guozhang continued to ask: "Then why is Wang Zhuang familiar with the divine arm bow?"

Buddha Wang pursed his lips and said nothing.

"I think Wang Zhuangshi may have served as a soldier in the northwest.

According to the rules of our dynasty, all imperial troops and Xiang soldiers are tattooed, but Xiang soldiers and Xiao soldiers are not required to be tattooed. Brother Buddha has extraordinary skills, so naturally he will not be a local soldier. "

Buddha Wang applauded and praised: "Wonderful! Liu Erlang is brave and extraordinary, but also as careful as hair. This inference is very logical and reasonable.

Yes, I served as a utility soldier in the Western Army, under the command of Gao Gong (Gao Yongnian), the commander of the two armies of Xi and Qin.

During the Chongning period, Duke Gao was trapped in Xuanwei City and his tribe was scattered. I went through hardships and escaped back to Lanzhou. Later, I heard that Duke Gao was killed by the Tibetan chief Doropa, and his heart and liver were eaten. He was so ashamed that he resigned and returned to his hometown. "

Liu Guozhang asked again: "Brother Buddha is from the southeast. Why did he go all the way to the northwest to serve as a soldier?"

(End of this chapter)