end song

Chapter 30 Outpost
There is a sentry station on the official road not far from the north of Huaihe River, and there are 21 sentries among them.

They are different from the garrison army in Xiacai City, they are just miscellaneous soldiers. They are usually responsible for guarding the road and this section of the Huaihe River, and they are also responsible for station errands, taking care of some vehicles and horses, and delivering some urgent letters.

The leader of the outpost was named Ma Youli, and Tian Ma Youli led people to stop a caravan on the official road. After questioning, it turned out that it was from the Yingzhou Mansion's family, so he had to let it go.

But this time it was not without gains, the other party gave him a lot of money.

Ma Youli shared the money with his brothers, and arranged for people to go to Liuji in the west to buy a lot of wine and meat.

It was dark when they bought the wine and meat. They spread out in the house, and were about to drink and eat meat, when they heard the hissing of people and horses outside.

Soon someone shouted in the front yard: "Where is the person?!"

Ma Youli took people out to have a look, and saw more than a dozen serious soldiers dismounting from their horses in the outpost, one of them shouted: "I was ordered to search for Song people, have you seen them today?!"

Ma Youli is a leader, even if he is a lowly official, he shouldn't be afraid of this kind of ordinary soldier.

But when he heard this, he panicked a little, and replied: "I saw a group of people in the daytime, about 30 people, and they went north, but...but they have a pass..."

As he spoke, he secretly raised his eyes and saw that these soldiers were all holding knives, and they were still escorting an old man and two young ladies. The old man was the leader of the caravan he had seen during the day, and he called himself Han.

Ma Youli couldn't help thinking: "Okay, I was taken when I just crossed the border, I don't know if I will be implicated if I take his money."

But the soldier yelled again: "You are so bold to let the Song Dynasty's fine work enter the country privately. Come here, put all of them in custody for me, and search!"

"Yes!"

"Report, there is wine and meat in the house, they must have accepted bribes."

"Take them all to the courtyard, and I will try them one by one!"

"Yes……"

Ma Youli and others didn't dare to resist, they squatted obediently in the yard, and were pointed at by those soldiers with knives.

First of all, he was searched and taken into the house for interrogation.

After entering the room, he took a look, and suddenly felt in the candlelight...why do these soldiers look familiar?Where have you seen it?

Where have you seen it?

what!Isn't this the one from the Song people's caravan in the afternoon...

Suddenly, behind Ma Youli, a tall and strong soldier rushed forward and pressed his mouth.

This man was terribly strong, his arms were so thick that they seemed to tear the tight clothes, he pinched the horse's powerful jaw with his hand, so that the horse was so powerful that it couldn't make a sound.

Another soldier also quickly stepped forward, stretched out his hand and strangled the horse's powerful neck.

"Uh……"

Ma Lili widened his eyes angrily.

He had already seen that this was the Song team from the afternoon.

He wanted to shout, but what he was greeted with was only terrible suffocation, and darkness...

~~
"Dead." Nie Zhongyou said softly.

Only then did Liu Jinsuo remove his hand from Ma Youli's mouth.

He was worried, and turned his head again, and wrung the neck with a "click".

Lin Zi quickly brought two people over and dragged the corpse to the backyard.

Nie Zhongyou turned to Li Xia and said, "You come to pretend to be the leader, you are smarter than me, and you can speak Mongolian."

"It doesn't count as knowing, it's just getting started."

Li Xia said this, but did not refuse, and followed Lin Zi to the back to change clothes.

In the front yard, Gao Changshou brought another sentry into the house for interrogation.

Soon, all 21 sentinels 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 to Ruyin County for more than two hundred miles, we will definitely be caught up by the Zhang family. Moreover, even if we escape safely to Ruyin, our future travel arrangements will be leaked."

"why?"

"Today, only our team of horses and horses passed by. When the other party checked, they knew that we were in the name of the Di family."

"What should I do?"

"Go back and kill that outpost on the road..."

Among the remaining 16 of them, Han Chengxu was too old, Gao Mingyue and Han Qiaoer were women, and a prisoner from the Zhang family was detained in the firewood room. In the end, only 12 people were able to pretend to be sentries, and some of them were lightly wounded.

Fortunately, now they have won a breathing space.

"What about the corpse?"

"Should I hide it?"

"No." Li Xia shook his head.

He changed into a shirt with a collar, and on the surface he seemed to be the leader of the team, 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."

As Li Xia said, he turned his head and looked out, and vaguely saw that the night was already noisy...

~~
"They are pretending to be our people." Qiao Ju said suddenly.

He turned his horse's head and said loudly: "They didn't go north, they hid among us, let me carefully identify and search carefully."

Hong Deyi was still in a daze, and asked back: "Our people?"

"That's right, they're pretending to be soldiers in your hundred households." Qiao Ju raised his hand and pointed to the fire not far away, and said, "Why did they spend time burning the corpses? Because they stripped off the clothes of these people gone."

"Yes, I understand."

"Surround this place for me, and search every forest, house, cave, and any place where people can hide."

"But... manpower..."

Qiao Ju said: "I have dispatched another team from the Qianhu Office, and they will arrive soon. Let your people cooperate with the identification, and 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 assembled."

"Yes." Hong Deyi responded, and said again: "This secret operation is so cunning, fortunately, you are here, they don't want to escape."

"Stop talking nonsense, go catch people quickly."

Qiao Ju frowned, he was still dissatisfied with Hong Deyi in his heart, if it wasn't for his subordinate Shichang to startle the snake, how could the matter come to this point?
But Qiao Ju didn't want to blame others at this time, he still had to do things properly.

So he tugged at the reins and went to see the Mongolian governor of the Qianhusuo whom he had contacted without stopping...

~~
outpost.

"Do you have a mirror?"

Gao Mingyue was sitting huddled in a corner, when she saw Li Xia approaching and asked her a question, she quickly lowered her head and did not speak, 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, not like a pick-up from an outpost, without the gruff air of a veteran.

He was going to act old-fashioned, but after thinking about it, he stopped thinking. Instead, he rolled up his sleeves, undid his belt, opened his collar, and tied up his hem.

Then, he took off his hat, unfurled his bun, and recruited Han Qiaoer.

"Can Qiaoer help me braid these two locks of hair?"

"Okay, what kind of braid does Brother Li want?"

"These two bands around the ears, the rest can be tied up casually..."

"Okay." Han Qiaoer sat next to him obediently and weaved it carefully.

"Brother Li, this doesn't look like a Mongolian, nor like a Han."

"Frivolous?"

"It's not frivolous, it's beautiful."

"No." Li Xia said: "I must be frivolous, and then tie me some decorations."

Han Qiaoer rested her fingers on her chin and began to think.

Then it was Gao Mingyue who came over and slowly handed a silver chain to them with some hesitation.

"It's used up...remember to return it to me." She whispered.

Li Xia nodded and said with a smile, "Thank you."

"You must pay me back."

After Gao Mingyue finished speaking, she ran back to sit in the corner.

Over there, Liu Jinsuo ate the meat on the table and said to Nie Zhongyou, "Brother, there is wine here."

"Don't drink." 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 too drunk."

Liu Jinsuo then turned his head and glanced at Nie Zhongyou. Seeing Nie Zhongyou nodding, he was overjoyed, picked up the jug on the table and poured it.

Nie Zhongyou thought for a while, picked up a bowl of wine and drank it, turned to Li Xia, and asked, "They went to throw the corpse and haven't come back yet, are they all right?"

Li Xia was quite rude and didn't answer, but turned to look at the outer courtyard with worried eyes.

But he didn't let people see this worry, with a slight smile on his mouth, he said: "It's okay."

After a while, Bai Mao, who was lying on the top of the wall and looking out, turned around and gestured with some horror.

"coming!"

Han Qiaoer just finished braiding Li Xia's hair, and immediately panicked.

Li Xia stood up and said, "You and Sister Gao hide in the back room?"

"it is good."

After arranging them, Li Xia stood up, picked up a bowl of wine on the table and drank a couple of sips, took another sip, swished it in his mouth, and finally sprayed it into the sky.

The mist of wine sprinkled all over him, and he laughed out loud twice.

But the voice was a little dry, not at all the cheerfulness he wanted.

"Hahaha……"

And there was a knock on the door outside.

"Open the door! Open the door!"

(End of this chapter)