There is a sentry station along the official road not far from the north of the Huaihe River, with twenty-one sentries in it.
They are different from the garrison of Xia Caicheng. They are just miscellaneous soldiers. Their usual responsibility is to guard the roads and this section of the Huaihe River. They are also responsible for the station's errands, taking care of some carriages and horses, and delivering urgent messages.
The leader of the outpost was named Ma Lili. On this day, Ma Lili and his men stopped a caravan on the official road. After questioning, it turned out that it was from the Yingzhou Di family, so they had to let it go.
But this time it was not without gain. The other party gave him a large amount of money.
Ma Lili divided the money with his brothers and arranged for people to go to Liuji to the west to buy a lot of wine and meat.
It was already dark when they bought the wine and meat. They were setting up in the house and were about to drink and eat meat when they suddenly heard the sound of people and horses neighing outside.
Soon someone in the front yard shouted: "Where are the people?!"
Ma Lili took people out to take a look, and saw more than a dozen serious soldiers dismounting from their horses at the outpost. One of them shouted: "We were ordered to search for Song people, have you seen them today?!"
Ma Lili is a leader. Even a lowly official should not be afraid of ordinary soldiers like this.
But when he heard this, he panicked a little, and responded: "I saw a group of people, about thirty people, going north during the day, but...but they have the pass life cards..."
As he spoke, he looked up secretly and saw that these soldiers were holding knives and were holding an old man and two young ladies in custody. The old man was the leader of the caravan he had met during the day, and he called himself Han.
Ma Lili couldn't help but think to himself: "Well, he was taken away just after crossing the border. I don't know if I will be implicated if I accepted his money."
But I heard the soldier yell again: "You are so brave, let the Song people go privately to enter the country carefully, come here, lock them all up and search them!"
"yes!"
"Report, there is wine and meat in the house, they must have accepted bribes."
"Take them all to the courtyard, I want to interrogate them one by one!"
"yes……"
Ma Lili and others did not dare to resist. They squatted down in the courtyard and were pointed at by the soldiers with knives.
First, he was searched and then taken into the house for interrogation.
After entering the room, he looked around and suddenly felt in the candlelight... Why did these soldiers look familiar? Where had they seen them before?
Where have you seen it?
Hey! Isn’t this the one from the Song caravan in the afternoon...
Suddenly, a tall and strong soldier behind Ma Lili quickly rushed up and pressed his mouth.
This man was terrifyingly strong, and his arms were so thick that they seemed to burst the tight clothes. He pinched the horse's powerful jaw with his hands, so that the horse was so strong that it couldn't make any sound.
Another soldier quickly stepped forward and stretched out his hand to strangle the horse's strong neck.
"Well……"
Ma Lili opened his eyes angrily.
He had already figured out that this was the Song Dynasty team that afternoon.
He wanted to shout, but all he received was terrible suffocation and darkness...
~~
"Dead." Nie Zhongyou said softly.
Liu Jinsuo then took his hand away from Ma Lili's mouth.
He was worried, so he pressed the person's head and turned it around, then he broke his neck with a "click" sound.
Lin Zi quickly brought two people over and dragged the body to the backyard.
Nie Zhongyou turned to Li Xia and said, "You come to play the role of leader. You are smarter than me and you can speak Mongolian."
"It doesn't count as a master, it's just an introduction."
Li Xia said this, but did not refuse, and directly followed Lin Zi to the back to change clothes.
In the yard in front, Gao Changshou brought another sentry into the house for interrogation.
Soon, all twenty-one sentries had their necks broken by Liu Jinsuo, and all their clothes were stripped off.
This is Li Xia's plan.
When they had just defeated Liao Sheng and Nie Zhongyou and Gao Changshou wanted to escape as soon as possible, Li Xia put forward different opinions.
"We can't escape. If we go more than two hundred miles to Ruyin County, we will be overtaken by the Zhang family. Moreover, even if we escape safely to Ruyin, our future travel history will be revealed."
"Why?"
"Our team of carriages and horses was the only one that passed by today. Once the other party checked, they knew we were under the name of the Di family."
"What should we do?"
"Go back and kill the outpost on the road..."
Among the sixteen remaining people, Han Chengxu is an old man, Gao Mingyue is a woman, Han Qiaoer is a woman, and there is also a prisoner of the Zhang family who is being held in the woodshed. In the end, only twelve people can play the role of sentinels, including some who are slightly injured.
.
Fortunately, now they have gained some breathing time.
"What to do with the body?"
"How about hiding it?"
"No." Li Xia shook his head.
He changed into clothes with a collar, and on the surface he seemed to be the leader of the group, but in fact he was just Nie Zhongyou's think tank.
"The Zhang family will definitely send people to search. We have to throw these corpses into the Huaihe River."
Li Xia said, turned his head and looked outside, vaguely seeing that the night had become noisy...
~~
"They are pretending to be our people." Qiao Ju said suddenly.
He turned his horse's head and said loudly: "They did not go north, so they hid among us. Let me identify them carefully and search them carefully."
Hong Deyi was still confused and asked: "Our people?"
"Yes, they are pretending to be soldiers from your home." Qiao Ju raised his hand and pointed at the fire not far away, and said: "Why did they spend time burning the corpses? Because they took off these people's clothes.
Already."
"Yes, I understand."
"Surround this place for me. Search every forest, house, cave, and all places where people can hide."
"But... manpower..."
Qiao Ju said: "I have transferred another person from Qianhusuo. They will arrive soon. Let your people cooperate with the identification. Don't let them escape pretending to be our people. Then give me the people on the bank of the Huaihe River.
The ships are all gathered together."
"Yes." Hong Deyi responded, and added: "This trick is so cunning. Fortunately, you are here, Qiao Duji, so they can't even think of escaping."
"Stop talking nonsense and go catch someone."
Qiao Ju frowned, still dissatisfied with Hong Deyi in his heart. If his subordinates hadn't alerted the enemy, how could things have come to this point?
But Qiao Ju didn't want to blame others at this time, and still wanted to get things done properly.
So he pulled the reins and went non-stop to see the Mongolian governor of Qianhu Institute whom he had contacted...
~~
Outpost.
"Do you have a mirror?"
Gao Mingyue was sitting huddled in the corner. When she saw Li Xia coming over to ask her, she quickly lowered her head without saying a word, but took out a small bronze mirror from her sleeve and handed it over.
"Thanks."
Li Xia took the bronze mirror and walked away, looked at herself in the bronze mirror, and frowned.
Too young and handsome, he doesn't look like a leader at an outpost, and he doesn't have the scornful air of a veteran.
He planned to act old-fashioned, but after thinking about it, he stopped thinking. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, took off his belt, pulled open his collar, and tied the hem, which made him look a little more naughty.
Then, he took off his hat, opened his bun, and asked Han Qiaoer.
"Qiao'er, can you help me braid these two locks of hair?"
"Okay, what kind of braids does Brother Li want?"
"These two knots on the ears, the other ones can be pricked casually..."
"Okay." Han Qiaoer sat next to him obediently and knitted it carefully.
"Brother Li, this doesn't look like Mongolians or Han people."
"Frivolous?"
"It's not frivolous, it's very pretty."
"No." Li Xia said, "I must be frivolous, and tie me something else to decorate it."
Han Qiaoer then put her fingers on her chin and started thinking.
Then Gao Mingyue came over and slowly handed a silver chain to them with some hesitation.
"When you're done with it...remember to return it to me." She whispered.
Li Xia nodded and said with a smile, "Thank you."
"You must return it to me."
After Gao Mingyue finished speaking, she ran back to sit in the corner.
Over there, Liu Jinsuo gnawed the meat on the table and said to Nie Zhongyou: "Brother, there is wine here."
"No drinking." Nie Zhongyou said lightly, "Now is not the time to drink."
"Let him drink." Li Xia said: "Everyone drinks. It's okay to get drunk, but don't get drunk too much."
Liu Jinsuo then turned his head and glanced at Nie Zhongyou. When he saw Nie Zhongyou nodding, he was overjoyed and picked up the wine bottle on the table and started drinking.
Nie Zhongyou thought for a while, then picked up a bowl of wine and drank it. He turned to Li Xia and asked, "They went to dump the body and haven't come back yet. Is everything going to be okay?"
Li Xia was quite rude and did not reply. Instead, he turned to look at the outer courtyard with worried eyes.
But he didn't let anyone see this worry, and said with a slight smile: "It's okay."
After a while, Bai Mao, who was lying on the wall and leaning out, turned around and made a gesture with some horror.
"coming!"
Han Qiaoer had just finished making up the argument for Li Xia, and immediately became panicked.
Li Xia stood up and said, "Why don't you and Sister Gao hide in the back room?"
"good."
Li Xia arranged for them, stood up, picked up a bowl of wine on the table and drank two sips, then took another sip and gargled it in his mouth, and finally sprayed it into the sky.
The wine mist sprinkled all over him, and he laughed twice.
But the voice was a little dry, and it didn't have the cheerfulness he wanted at all.