On the evening of the 21st of the first lunar month, in Hefei County, the capital of Luzhou.
The waning moon hangs high in the sky, shining on the thousands of houses outside the city.
Like Tongcheng, Hefei has many residential buildings built along official roads outside the city, which are no less prosperous than inside the city, just like the new urban areas of later generations.
At this time, the new district was quiet, except for the occasional barking of dogs.
There were many cattle carriages and carts parked along the street. The owners of those carriages and horses did not dare to leave for a moment for fear of being robbed.
There are also many people who fled on foot and have not found a place to live, so they sleep under the eaves.
After a sound of gongs, several balls of fire appeared at the street corner. A group of people holding long and short weapons came swaggeringly. The people sleeping on the street got up to get out of the way.
Jiang Fan quietly poked his head out of the stable of an inn next to the official road.
He arrived in Luzhou on the 18th. After reporting the news, he continued walking on the 19th. When he arrived at Dianbu Town, there were already groups of people fleeing on the road.
Ma Kuai, who was traveling with them, refused to move forward, and Jiang Fan was also unsure. He was afraid that other bandits would attack Fengyang from the direction of Shouzhou or Liu'an Prefecture, which would cut off their retreat, so the two of them followed the fleeing group.
The crowd returned to Hefei.
At this time, the weather is cold, and most ordinary people do not have the ability to escape long distances. They usually travel short distances, either away from official roads and into remote countryside, or into county towns. These places are protected by city walls, and materials and populations are very concentrated. The official
The strength is also relatively strong, and the defense is much higher than that of villages and market towns.
Many people living in the city of Hefei have already entered the city. The shopkeeper of this inn also fled into the city. The door of the inn was opened, but it was broken open and robbed in the evening. The people who fled here were unable to enter the city, so they rushed in one after another.
When you move in, there is a livestock shed next to it, which is perfect for tethering horses.
Jiang Fan and the others were afraid that their horses would be snatched away, so they did not dare to sleep in the house. They grabbed two quilts and wrapped them in them. They ignored the excrement and smell everywhere and spent the night in the animal shed.
Jiang Fan raised his eyes and saw the Luzhou City Wall not far away. It was brightly lit. How many lanterns were lit? There were many people on the city wall. There were also this group of people patrolling outside. They seemed to be well prepared.
The group of people with weapons on the street walked along the street and asked the people on the roadside one by one, asking them to speak loudly to determine whether they had a local accent.
Jiang Fan took a look, sighed and cursed, "It's those rabble-rousers again."
The horse that was following him quickly came to the side and said cautiously, "Captain, Yang Bing looks like a member of the public at first glance, so he is naturally unreliable. Let's run away early in the morning. We have already found out all the information."
"It's almost the same. I haven't seen a single bandit yet. Fengyang Mansion, Chuzhou, and Yangzhou are all good places, and bandits may not necessarily come here.
Gou Mazi didn’t know what to say when he got back, he would probably say that the bandits would arrive in Luzhou on the 18th, but it turns out your mother is on the 21st today, and she didn’t even see the bandits.”
Jiang Fan thought about it and then cursed, "If our inquiry is not accurate, Tongcheng Bai will prepare a fight. If the team leader is scolded by the county magistrate, he will have to deal with us. Do you think he chopped off more than twenty heads at Yunji Temple alone?"
Do you want to try it?"
Nama Kuai said with a mournful face, "Those who came from the north in the afternoon said that the bandits entered Zhili from Henan on the seventh day of the lunar month and defeated Yingzhou on the eighth day of the lunar month. There was not even one out of ten left in the city.
Others said they arrived in Fengyang again on the 15th and fought hundreds of miles within a few days. If they really come to Luzhou, we will be doomed."
"It doesn't matter if we have to fight hundreds of miles away, we also have horses."
"That horse is very fast, and we have three children. They all point to me to earn money alone. I can't die."
"You are just a fucking coward. Thanks to your old horse, you are fast. Relax your mind. If something happens, I will protect you first. This is the duty of comrades."
Jiang Fan swallowed his saliva after cursing and glanced at the refugees outside.
The refugees who fled to Hefei not only came from Fengyang, but also from Shouzhou and Lu'an Prefecture. In the past two days, after asking the fleeing people, various rumors emerged. Based on the information, Jiang Fan roughly estimated that there were at least two groups of bandits.
, around the seventh day of the first lunar month, they branched off from Henan and entered South Zhili, attacking Huoqiu and Yingzhou along the way.
The news about Huo Qiu is unclear, but people everywhere are unanimous in their opinions about the situation in Yingzhou. The bandits massacred Yingzhou, and not even a tenth person was left alive in the city.
Around the twelfth day of the first lunar month, a group of rogue bandits arrived in Shouzhou. It was not known whether they had conquered Shouzhou, so they attacked Fengyang on the 15th.
In the next few days, there was no news.
But no one can tell clearly what kind of bandits they are. They say Chuang Wang, Chuang Jiang, Sweeping King, Shooting Sky and so on. Most of them are hundreds of thousands. As for whether there will be more bandits from Shouzhou and Liu'an Prefecture.
No one knows the direction coming.
Jiang Fan naturally had no idea. The entire northern part of South Zhili was in chaos, news north of Luzhou was cut off, and people everywhere were panicked.
Except for going south from Luzhou, it seems that rogue bandits may attack from the other three directions.
The group of Yang soldiers had already inspected the location of the inn. Jiang Fan and the two stopped talking and sat back in the stable to avoid causing trouble.
Just after sitting down for a moment, he heard some noise outside. Jiang Fan couldn't help but poke his head out again, and saw people in the street standing up, looking east, and pointing in that direction.
Jiang Fan looked eastward and saw a patch of light on the sky.
"There's a fire somewhere."
A soldier in the street said loudly.
"It seems to be over there in Dianbu Town. It looks like the fever is quite severe."
"The fever is getting worse again, look."
People in the street were talking a lot, the light in the sky kept flashing, and the halo continued to expand.
The horse quickly whispered, "It's in the direction of Dianbu Town. I just went there two days ago. How could I be careless?" Jiang Fan looked at it for a while and suddenly said, "Put your luggage on the horse."
"What's wrong?"
"The fire expanded very quickly. It was definitely not a fire. Only arson would cause it. I'm afraid the bandits are really coming to Luzhou."
Before he finished speaking, there was a clicking sound in the distance, coming from afar in the quiet night, getting closer and closer along the official road to the east.
Everyone heard the sound of horseshoes hitting the stone slabs of the official road. They didn't know who was coming. They looked at each other for a while, not knowing what to do.
"Pull the horse out. There is moonlight tonight. Let's walk all night."
Jiang Fan looked up at the waning moon in the sky and shouted to the horse in a low voice.
"The luggage is missing. It was clearly left here..." The horse quickly groped around in the dark, and the more anxious it became, the less it could be found.
"No, leave now!"
"After Jiang Fan said this, he stepped out and opened the wooden fence. The sound of horse hooves from the east was approaching quickly.
Ma Kuai said anxiously, "Wait a minute, I'll look for it again, there are some I just bought this year..." "Stop fucking looking, pull the horse away!"
There was a sudden scream in front of him, and then more than a dozen black shadows suddenly jumped out from the nearby streets. The blades rolled up traces of light under the moonlight and slashed towards Yang Bing and the people. The screams were endless in the street.
The soldiers were caught off guard and shouted, discarding their weapons and fleeing for their lives. The people were like headless flies. The animals on the street were frightened and ran wildly in the market. They bumped into the carts and trailers with a loud bang, and the city was in a blink of an eye.
There was great chaos, and the sound of drums and gongs on the top of Luzhou City was heard.
In a moment, a group of riders had arrived. Seeing the chaos in the street, they dismounted one after another and rushed towards the street with swords in hand. There was an endless stream.
Jiang Fan grabbed the horse's reins and dragged him out. Unexpectedly, the horse raised its head and swayed wildly, refusing to go out.
Ma Kuai stopped looking for his luggage and went to pull his own horse, but he was so panicked in the darkness that he couldn't even pull the reins.
Several people screamed and ran past the livestock shed. A dark figure quickly caught up and stabbed the last person with a knife. The person was stabbed through and threw himself on the wooden fence with his hands open and screaming.
Jiang Fan dragged the horse and quickly threw it to the ground, hiding in the forage.
The man who fell on the wooden fence stood up stiffly, and the black shadow behind him suddenly pulled out a knife. Under the moonlight, a blood mist sprayed into the air, which was extremely clear.
A stream of blood spurted out from the man's chest and sprayed into the stable. Jiang Fan could feel tiny droplets of water falling on his forehead.
The two of them were lying on the ground in the darkness, not daring to move at all. Jiang Fan pressed his hand on the horse's body and felt that the other person was shaking violently. It was obvious that he was extremely frightened.
The horses in the shed neighed grayly, and the murderous black shadow glanced inside, and then howled, "The horses in the shed belong to me, please come and guard them."
After that, the black shadow continued to chase the people in front. This was the only chance. As soon as the black shadow disappeared, Jiang Fan immediately jumped up, pulled the horse quickly over the fence, and ran towards the inn.
Someone yelled from behind, "Two of the people guarding this stable have escaped! Go and kill them!"
Then there were footsteps chasing after him. Jiang Fan had seen the topography of the inn and the roads in front and back during the day. He had some impression that the path he was looking for was the woodshed behind the kitchen. There was an alley leading out of the woodshed, and beyond the alley there was a pond.
As long as you bypass Tanghu and enter the fields, these bandits are not familiar with country roads and should not pursue them at night.
The footsteps behind him were chasing closely. At this time, he turned from the corridor in the direction of the horse stable to the lobby. Jiang Fan could not adapt to the darkness in the room for a moment. In his panic, he looked in the wrong direction and turned into the alleyway of the guest room. It was a dead end.
"Turn around!"
He quickly turned back and found the direction of the kitchen, but after such a delay, the black shadow chasing behind him had already arrived.
Jiang Fan shouted, "Old Guo, stop it, I'll open the door!"
The horse-fast Lao Guo stopped when he heard the words, and struggled to lift a bench from the ground and threw it into the corridor. He heard the pain and roar from the other side, and the bench hit and fell to the floor with a clang.
The black figure was quite brave. He just stood on two benches, and with only a slight delay, he rushed into the lobby and slashed at Lao Guo with a knife.
Lao Guo screamed, pulled out his waist knife and fought while retreating. Two more black figures rushed out from behind, and Lao Guo retreated continuously for a while.
Jiang Fan had already unlatched the kitchen door and opened the door inward, ready to tell Lao Guo to run away. When he looked back, he saw that Lao Guo had quickly retreated behind him. Three black figures were approaching with knives waving, and there were footsteps approaching from behind.
Lao Guo was in a hurry and shouted anxiously, "Captain, come up and help! We can't stop him!"
Jiang Fan moved his hand and stopped before he touched the handle of the knife. There was only a moment's pause, and he suddenly turned around and stepped out of the kitchen threshold. He quickly brought back the door leaf with both hands. Lao Guo's back just came back and pressed against the door leaf.
.
"Ah! Captain, come up and help, open the door! Ah! Jiang Fan, there are three more in my house, we can't..." Lao Guo's panicked shouts and screams came from inside, mixed with the muffled sound of a knife hitting the door panel, and the door leaf snapped.
It hit the door frame.
Under the light of the waning moon, Jiang Fan stopped in front of the door and took a rough breath, then turned and hurried towards the alley outside the woodshed.