Zhong Niangzi Wanfu

Chapter 26
一
Seeing Shen Yan returning in a hurry before the patrolling soldiers, Jiang Liu was overjoyed: "Your Excellency is considered to be back, the eldest lady must have returned to the house, right?"

"Jiang Liu, order the troops." Shen Feng entered the tent, took off his cloak and put on his armor.

Jiang Liu thought for a moment that he heard wrong: "Sir, do you want to patrol immediately? I will go and prepare."

"I want to order soldiers." Shen Yan said while putting on the breastplate, "Order troops to go out."

"Going to war?!" Jiang Liu exclaimed, "Are you kidding me?"

"I'm not joking, I want to send troops to attack Luoxia Village." Shen Yan said seriously.

"But,"

"It's nothing," Shen Feng interrupted the flow of the river and put on his arm armor, "Luoxia Village is on the mountain between Tanlin and Fanshui counties. The owner of the village is cruel and arrogant, causing trouble in all directions, especially deep in Fanshui County. As a result of this, it has been unable to bring peace and nourishment to the people. It has always been a long-standing shortcoming in Danzhou, and the governor regards it as if it is a stick in his throat."

"The governor asked me to patrol the Danzhou Army stationed on the outskirts of Qinlin City this time to prepare for the encirclement and suppression of Luoxia Village in the future. Why can't I attack urgently at this time?" Shen Feng put on his combat boots and picked up the helmet.

"But, Sir, I am not completely sure..." Jiang Liu worriedly said, "If this matter happens in the future,"

"The eldest lady was kidnapped by Luoxia Village. They are forcing me to take action." Shen Feng patted Jiang Liu on the shoulder, "I will issue a military order. If this fails, I will die to apologize and will never drag down the family. "

two

After Chang Huan and the other three were let go, Zhong Lan was arrested without mercy.

Duyan ordered people to cover Zhong Lan's eyes, tie him to the horse and ride away quickly.

The road was bumpy, and as soon as he was put down at Luoxia Village, Zhong Lan couldn't help but vomited all over the floor, and then he coughed violently, causing everyone to laugh with contempt.

One Eye pulled off the cloth in front of Zhong Lan's eyes: "Isn't it uncomfortable for the little lady to ride on the horse?"

Zhong Yan's hands and feet were bound, so he could only breathe hard to calm his cough, but he didn't respond to One-Eyed's nasty words, and gouged him out.

"You have come to this point, and you are still glaring at me, which is a bit bloody. I admire you." One Eye sneered, bent down, picked up Zhong Lan and took him into the village.

Although the name of Luoxia Village sounds nice, the reality is quite different: bones can be seen everywhere, women are crying, the air is filled with the smell of blood and rancidity, cockroaches and rats, living or dead, can be seen everywhere on the ground, and there are scenes of people drinking blood everywhere.

One Eye brought Zhong Lan to a lobby.

Animal skins are hung everywhere in the lobby. There is a high seat in the middle of the hall with a bloody tiger head. One Eye lowers his bell and leans on the high seat with his legs crossed. He says in a despicable tone: "Welcome to our Luoxia Village, young lady. I am Luoxia." The leader of the village is the one-eyed eagle."

Zhong Lan stood up straight and tried his best to pretend to be calm and said: "You must have used people's money to kidnap me to take revenge on my family. I have long heard of the rule of Luoxia Village that recognizes money but not people. I will pay double the amount that person pays. , Boss Lao will put me back."

"Hey, you still know the rules of Luoxia Village? Not bad." One-eyed Eagle clapped his hands with an exaggerated expression, "But in addition to this rule, our Luoxia Village has this rule, that is, no one can leave our Luoxia Village intact. .”

The one-eyed eagle looked Zhong Lan up and down with great interest: "I wonder, little lady, what do you plan to leave behind?"

Zhong Lan endured the disgusting looks from the one-eyed eagle and the gangsters around him, and turned his head aside: "The sky has eyes, and you will surely die if you do too much unrighteousness."

The one-eyed eagle sneered: "I have a lot of lives on my hands. The imperial court did not take away my life during several sieges. I am just a ghost. Where can I get retribution!"

"To tell you the truth, someone spent money to buy your and Shen Ceng's lives this time. If he hadn't wanted you to die in front of Shen Ceng, I would have killed you long ago."

The one-eyed eagle picked up the raw meat next to him and gnawed: "Put this little girl in the woodshed and starve her for a few hours, and then send her to my room when she has no strength left."

"Yes."

Zhong Lan was untied and imprisoned in a woodshed surrounded by piles of wood.

She rubbed her red wrists and looked around, and suddenly found a movable wooden board on the ground in the northwest corner of the woodshed. She gently opened the wooden board and found a cellar filled with wine.

Zhong Lan stepped on the small window and looked out. Behind the woodshed was a field, and then the forest on the mountain behind.

Being innocently kidnapped, Zhong Lan felt aggrieved and angry, and he made a plan in his mind. He could not just sit back and wait to be humiliated, and finally died in front of Shen Feng.Taking advantage of the guard's tiredness, she quietly moved the firewood in front of the window, pushed the window open, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The one-eyed eagle was hungry and deliberately ordered people to set up pots and cook food at the door of the woodshed, both at noon and in the evening.

"Would you like to taste the taste of this meat, little lady?" The guard with a crooked mouth raised the leg of lamb in his hand.

The mutton smell of mutton mixed with a fishy smell that was hard to distinguish between raw and cooked wafted over and drifted into the woodshed.

Zhong Lan felt sick for a while and looked coldly at the guard who was enjoying the meal.

Her eyes fell on the burning charcoal under the pot, and she mustered up the courage to step forward and said: "Strong man, give me something to eat. I am really hungry, and now I can eat even the red charcoal." "

A guard with a crooked mouth laughed when he heard this: "I heard that you are a girl from a wealthy family. Why are you wagging your tail to us like a lost dog now?"

"Uncle, I'm in a good mood today, so I'll give you a piece of charcoal!" Another scarred-faced guard also laughed and kicked a small piece of red-hot charcoal to Zhong Lan's feet.

Zhong Lan picked up the charcoal through the firewood door, her palms hurting.

Regardless of the sneering faces of the two, she silently stepped aside.

Avoiding the guards, Zhong Lan picked out some dry, slender and flammable firewood. After careful comparison, she arranged them end to end in a long string until they reached the wine cellar. Finally, she opened the lid of the wine cellar and covered it with more firewood. Cover your eyes and ears.

Then she leaned against the wall with her back to the guard, blew on the red coals to rekindle them, and then carefully ignited them with two sticks of firewood.

Finally, at the moment when the red charcoal was finally extinguished, thin curls of white smoke emerged from the two firewood sticks.

Zhong Lan cried with joy, blew on the firewood, and saw rare sporadic firelight.

That fire is both hope and a dead end.

"I have no way out." Zhong Lan murmured, placing the igniting firewood at the front of the arranged firewood bars, watching the fire grow from small to large, igniting one firewood after another, slowly and steadily. Head firmly in the direction of the wine cellar.

The firewood she used was small and had little smoke. In addition, the guard was cooking, and the smoke from the charcoal was choking, covering up the smoke coming out of the woodshed.

She watched the advancing firelight carefully, a thin line of sweat broke out on her forehead, and her body began to tremble.

Seeing that the guard outside the door was full of wine and food, he started to feel sleepy, so Zhong Lan decisively opened the back window of the woodshed and climbed out.

It was just getting dark when Zhong Lan avoided people and ran westward into the fields.

It was April, and there were only spring wheat seedlings growing in the fields. We couldn't even cover our feet, and it was even more unreasonable to hide from people.

She became anxious and ran desperately through the wheat fields towards the mountains and forests.

"Someone is calling for formation in front of the stronghold. The boss asked me to bring the woman over." Not far away, a young man came to call the guard.

The two guards nodded and bowed, and entered the woodshed to arrest the person. They saw no one in the room, and the connection was not good. They also saw that the back window was not closed, and thought that Zhong Lai had escaped through the window.

"Trash!" The little guy slapped each of the two guards, "That's the person the boss wants, go find him quickly!"

Zhong Yan was small in stature, and his footsteps were not comparable to that of a big man in the mountains. Before reaching the woods, he was chased by someone. He was extremely anxious, grabbed the guard's hand and bit it, struggling desperately to escape.

"Still want to escape?" The guard couldn't let go of his resentment at being slapped, and he raised his hand to hit him.

"That's enough, don't break it." The young man stopped the two guards, stepped forward and rubbed Zhong Lan's hair with a smile, "Madam, you'd better save your energy. Even if Madam is lucky enough to escape, Master Shen will still ask for it." Where is the woman who was caught in the bandit camp?"

Zhong Lan was startled: Even if the Shen family is in decline, it is still an aristocratic family, and Shen Feng is an honest and upright person. Will he really be kidnapped into a village and have his reputation ruined?
Seeing that Zhong Lan was distracted and stopped struggling, the gangster sneered: "Tie her up, don't let her commit suicide."

The two guards tied up Zhong Lan again, gagged her mouth and took her out of the woodshed.

(End of this chapter)