Chapter 160:
"The King!"
An older entourage who had just been pushed back by Murong Xi couldn't help but hurried forward and called out to Murong Xi.
This person was born in the Xianbei noble family He Lou. In the past, the disciples He, Wei and others were persuaded by Murong to betray Murong Xi, and after they supported Murong, they slaughtered Murong Xi's cronies. The Helou clan and Murongxi were close. Although they stayed in Longcheng for many years, they were also purged. After hearing the news, they took the clan and fled overnight, thus avoiding the disaster of murder. Later, although he reunited with Murong Xi, who escaped from death, he had nowhere to stand. In the past few years, I have been thinking about retaking the old place all the time.
Now the opportunity is coming.
After Luoyang's defeat, Murong Ti has already hurt his vitality. Although he is now uniting with Xiliang, it is obviously unlikely that he wants to take Li Mu lightly. And once the war begins, Li Mu will go all out.
What they are waiting for is a fierce battle between the two sides, waiting for the opportunity to take action. Don't dare to say anything else, taking advantage of Murong Wei's unpreparedness to retake Longcheng, and even taking advantage of his unpreparedness, to take down Yan County, which is empty of defenses, is just around the corner. Due to the importance of the matter, Murongxi himself had been lurking in the Yanmen area since a month ago, spying on the news. A few days ago, according to the plan, the group was going to retreat, but He Lou learned that Murongxi intended to rob Xiao Yongjia as well.
Murongxi's original words were naturally to hold Xiao Yongjia hostage to prevent Li Mu's actions against the Xianbei people in the future.
This plan is certainly good. But trying to rob an important hostage from the Huns' camp was as difficult as one can imagine.
Out of prudence, He Lou didn't want to do much, and at first did not agree with Murongxi's apparently impromptu plan. But Murong Xi insisted on his own way and insisted on his own opinion, and He Lou could only obey him.
Tonight, everything went according to plan. I have a great chance of winning against Gao Qiao on my side. As long as you take the person and leave quietly as soon as possible, you will be done. I didn't expect that things would suddenly change like this. Seeing that the king was recognized by the princess of the Southern Dynasty, after a few words, things deviated from the plan. Seeing that his emotions seemed to be out of control, he was going to confront Gao Qiao. He rushed up and whispered to persuade: "The important thing is the most important! Please don't fight for this moment's anger, so as not to cause troubles outside the festival."
Murong Xi didn't seem to hear it.
The King of Heaven is brave and unparalleled in the world, and is known to be prestige among the Xianbei people. It's a pity that he has a stubborn personality and is often indecisive and ruthless at a critical juncture. If he could have listened to Zhang Ji and his own words back then, he would have taken action as soon as he realized that Murong Wei had dissent, and there would have been no catastrophic changes later on.
Seeing his gloomy expression, He Lou drew his knife, passed by him without turning his head, and greeted Gao Qiao, who was facing him. He knew that he still refused to listen, so he could only sigh secretly.
Fortunately, when it comes to duels, Gao Qiao doesn't seem to be an opponent of the Heavenly King in any case. The matter has come to an end, so I just hope that he can make a quick decision so that he can leave this place as soon as possible.
He Lou had no choice but to retreat.
Many years ago, although Gao Qiao and Murong Xi had fought several times on the battlefield, they each commanded the troops and horses to fight. As the coaches of the two sides, there is no chance for the two to really end the game and fight meleely.
Gao Qiao caught the first knife that Murong Xi swung at him.
The swords intersected, and in the harsh clanging sound, he felt the overwhelming force from the opponent, and even the tiger's mouth was shocked. He was afraid that the Hundred Refinements Sword, which had been with him for half his life, would be broken on the spot.
Murong Xi looked at Gao Qiao, who was forced to retreat as soon as he shot, a sneer flashed across his face, not giving him any chance to react, and the second knife slashed again.
Gao Qiao resisted Murong Xi's continuous offensive and retreated step by step.
The blade and the blade collided continuously, and even the rolling blade, in the night, splashed little sparks.
In the blink of an eye, the two have fought for more than ten rounds. Gao Qiao has always been at the disadvantage of defense, and the situation is worrying. And Murong Xi's sword was like a tiger, approaching step by step, several times, if Gao Qiao evaded in time, he would have splattered blood on the spot.
Xiao Yongjia was very anxious.
The weather in the late autumn and early winter is already chilling at night. A layer of cold sweat quickly broke out from her back, and her clothes were tightly pressed.
With a "huh", a cold light flashed, and the blade slashed towards Gao Qiao's throat again.
He took another step back, and his body quickly fell back, only to avoid the blade that was only a few inches away from his throat.
At this point, there is not much room for him to retreat behind him. After three or two steps, they will step into the air, where there is a cliff overgrown with weeds.
Xiao Yongjia was so nervous that he was almost breathless.
She hugged Xiao Qi tightly, turned his head around, and pressed her face to her, not wanting him to look again.
Xiao Qi broke free from her mother's suppression. His two small hands clenched tightly into fists, turned his head hard, opened his eyes wide, and stared at the figure of the man named father in the shadow of the sword, light and sword.
Although Murong Xi seemed to have the upper hand, he went out with dozens of knives one after another, and the knives seemed to hit the opponent. After a wisp of murderous intent, he shouted violently and raised his knife again.
This knife condensed his very ten strengths, and it penetrated the back of the knife. Under the moonlight, the blade was like a snowfall, falling towards Gao Qiao.
Gao Qiao did not evade, and raised his sword to meet him.
The sword was wrong again.
The Qingfeng in his hand was unable to withstand the force of the knife, and was twisted into two pieces.
With a sound of "zheng", sparks splashed all over the place, and a severing sword bounced high in the air, and then fell to the ground.
In Gao Qiao's hand, there was a broken sword that was no more than a foot long, and the distance between the two was also close at hand.
Murong Xi shouted "Death", and the blade continued to fall towards Gao Qiao.
He expected that Gao Qiao would repeat the old trick, as before, trying to resolve it by maneuvering.
So this knife is just a false move.
Before taking out the knife, he had already thought about the next ultimate move, and he must see blood, and he would not be given any chance to dodge.
In Gao Qiao's pair of pupils, two white lights from the opposite side were clearly reflected.
It was the shadow of the blade under the moonlight, thrown into his pupils, and turned into two white dots.
The shadow of the white dot is getting bigger and bigger, and it is near in a blink of an eye.
Murong Xi suddenly backhanded, wanting to change the split into a thorn.
An unexpected scene happened.
Just when everyone thought that Gao Qiao would do the same trick again and rely on Tengmo to avoid this killer move again, instead of retreating, he backhanded at Murongxi and wanted to change the path of the sword to cut him off. With his body towards the knife, he greeted him.
"Pfft", the blade went up.
In an instant, his clothes were torn apart by a sharp blade.
A long knife blade that was more than an inch deep was pulled from his chest to one shoulder, and a large amount of blood gushed out from the wound.
Xiao Qi struggled, got down from her mother's arms, spread her legs to run over, and was hugged by Xiao Yongjia from behind.
Murong Xi never imagined that in the face of his own killing move, not only did Gao Qiao not avoid it, but he even deceived him and fed the knife with his body.
He didn't have time to react for a while, holding the knife in his hand, he paused slightly.
Before he could make the next effective response, Gao Qiao, who had been in a defensive position before, finally shot.
It was also his only shot, which was as fast as electricity, and did not leave a half-point chance for the enemy.
Murong Xi felt a sword flash in front of him, and his neck became cold.
The blade of the broken sword was pressed in front of his throat.
A strand of his beard was cut off by the sword energy, and it fell lightly to the ground from one side of his cheek.
Murongxi's body froze, the blood all over his body suddenly became hot, his eyes were wide open, the arm holding the knife moved slightly, and he felt a stinging pain in his throat.
Blood flowed out unrestrictedly from under the torn skin.
"Although the sword is broken, the blade remains."
"Murongxi, you lost."
Gao Qiao's voice rang in his ears.
The blood that was still hot just a moment ago suddenly cooled down with the sound of these words.
Murong Xi felt his throat loosen, and the tingling sensation disappeared.
He stood frozen in place, maintaining his original posture, unable to move.
The blood slowly condensed along the blade of the knife that he was still holding tightly in his hand, and finally turned into blood droplets, dripping from the tip of the knife to the ground.
"Depth of Field!"
"Aye!"
A voice came from his ear.
He turned his stiff neck, turned his head slowly, and watched Gao Qiao throw away the broken sword and walked towards Xiao Yongjia and the child who were running.
At first, his footsteps were steady, and after taking a few steps, his steps became slow, stopped for a while, then straightened up and continued to move forward.
"Depth of field, how are you?"
Xiao Yongjia almost ran over, supported Gao Qiao and led him to sit on the ground.
Blood kept pouring out of his wound, and his clothes had already been stained with blood.
Xiao Yongjia knelt beside him, shaking hands, biting with his teeth, tore the skirt and wrapped it around the wound on her husband's body.
"Don't worry, it's just a flesh wound, I'm fine."
The pain and blood loss made Gao Qiao's face pale, but his expression was very relaxed. He had comforted his wife. He even lowered his head and gently instructed Xiao Yongjia how to collapse the wound to stop the bleeding as quickly as possible.
With tears in his eyes, Xiao Yongjia wrapped the wound for him according to her husband's instructions. After finishing, Gao Qiao shook his wife's cold blood-stained hands in a soothing way, then looked at Xiao Qi who had been looking at him, and whispered, "Aye is useless. Qilang is right. Is Aye disappointed?"
Xiao Qi bit her lip tightly, looked at her father with admiration, and shook her head desperately.
"Aye bleeds so much, and he says it doesn't hurt. Aye is a great hero."
Gao Qiao laughed, raised the uninjured arm, put his son in his arms, put his lips to his ear, and whispered, "When you go back in the future, how about Aye teach you to read and write?"
Xiao Qi nodded vigorously.
Murong Xi stared at it, suddenly turned around, raised the knife, and walked step by step.
After Xiao Yongjia wrapped her husband's wound, he kept paying attention to the movements of Murongxi's group not far behind him. When he saw him walking towards this side with a knife, the moonlight reflected a slightly distorted face. She couldn't help being startled, she immediately stood up from the ground, and said sternly: "I'm willing to admit defeat! Murong Xi, if my husband hadn't reached the point just now, you would have died of anger! If you don't leave, do you want to break your promise?"
Murong Xi stopped and stared at Xiao Yongjia in the moonlight.
This eldest princess of the Southern Dynasty was infatuated with her from the moment he first saw her. Later, if it wasn't because of her, that night, he would not have completely lost his vigilance, so that he was easily murdered by his nephew.
His nephew, Murong Ti, was scheming and terrifying, but he didn't know that before he was born, when he was a teenager, he took poison by mistake. In order to detoxify, strange prescriptions are used all the time, and many of them are prescriptions that fight poison with poison.
During that period of more than a year of medical treatment, he seemed to be in purgatory. Fortunately, his physique was stronger than ordinary people, and he finally recovered from the disease. Later, he slowly discovered that his body had also changed. It was like a blessing in disguise, and his tolerance to poison was far better than ordinary people.
That night, after he fell to the ground with the knife, almost out of an instinctive reaction, he immediately held his breath and suspended animation, and then passed out.
It is also that God wants to give him a way to live. First, Murong Ti was too confident in the poisoned dagger, so he threw his "corpse" away without checking it carefully. Then there was his niece, Murong Zhe, who finally remembered the last bit of blood kinship, and arrived in time to stop the rebels' abuse of his "corpse" and arranged for someone to transport him back to Longcheng for burial.
The next day, he was swept up in the seat and was sent back to Longcheng in a carriage, and he woke up.
The few Xianbei soldiers who transported him saw him come back to life.
That's how he survived, awaiting revenge.
In these long days like a living dead without the light of day, in addition to planning revenge all the time, every time he thinks of Xiao Yongjia, it is even more love and hate, and it is difficult to control himself.
I used to have a deep love for her, and after many years, I paid such a painful price because of her. I hoped that she would respond. What was wrong?
"Gao Qiao just used a trick to win me! Back then, he was blocked by me, so he failed and returned! He has always been my defeated general! I am Murong Xi, except that he is not a Han Chinese, his literary talent is not as good as him. Besides, where can't you compare to Gao Qiao?"
Murong Xi replied resentfully.
Xiao Yongjia said angrily: "Murongxi, you are far worse than him! It's only the incompetence of the Dayu court that gave you barbarians a chance to go south. I won't discuss the numerous animal deeds you have committed today with you. I'll just say one thing. When you captured Gao Liang that day, you indulged your subordinates, plundered the unarmed people, killed innocent people, and what was the difference between such actions and beasts, and your nephew Murong Ti? You suffered such retribution It is also your own fault. You were lucky enough to survive that day, and it was already a blessing from God. At that time, you also claimed to have read a collection of classics and history. In terms of mind, tolerance, and the way of being a human being, you and him are as different as clouds and mud! Today, you still have How dare you ask such a question?"
She sneered: "I'm begging you again. From now on, don't mention how you treat me! I, Xiao Yongjia, can't afford your love!"
"Could it be that you really think you have such intentions for me? You are just unwilling to deceive yourself!"
Murong Xi fixed his eyes on Xiao Yongjia. The arm that carried the knife seemed to be drained by something invisible.
The cluster of knife tips with residual blood drooped down slowly, and finally landed weakly on the ground beside his feet.
After Xiao Yongjia finished speaking, he stopped looking at him, turned to support Gao Qiao, who had been silent, and held Xiao Qi with the other hand, and said in a low voice, "Let's go."
Gao Qiao's eyes were slightly sore, and he quietly clenched the hand that his wife held out to him, and stood up from the ground.
night has passed.
In the distance, the sky is dawning, and the morning is hazy.
A family of three, supporting each other, moved towards the end of the trail and continued onward.
He Lou took the people back to Murongxi's side, glanced at the backs of the three, hesitated, and asked in a low voice.
Murong Xi's expression was extremely stiff, staring at the backs of the few people in front of him, and slowly shook his head.
He Lou was silent for a moment, then said, "It is not advisable to stay here for a long time. That being the case, please get on the road quickly."
"Xianggong, eldest princess, this slave is late!"
At this moment, more than a dozen figures rushed up from the opposite side, and soon approached, it was Gao Qi and others who could not wait for Gao Qiao and followed the road.
When the two sides met, Gao Qi saw Xiao Yongjia and Xiao Qi at first sight. He was very excited and burst into tears. He brought someone to kneel to greet him, but Xiao Yongjia stopped him.
Gao Qi wiped away his tears and stepped forward with joy. He was about to pick up the little master and continue on the road. Suddenly, on the road in the direction of the barracks, there was another sound of galloping horses' hooves, mixed with the sound of footsteps.
It seems that there is a large group of people chasing up from the direction of the Xiongnu barracks.
Gao Qi's face changed slightly, he turned his head and glanced at it, picked up the little master, ordered someone to protect the master to retreat quickly, but heard Xiao Yongjia say: "Wait!"
On the opposite path, there was a blaze of fire, and a group of people, at least hundreds of them, holding fire sticks, entered the line of sight.
Through the dim morning light and the reflection of the fire stick, Yingyingchaochuo can already see the appearance of the person in front, not the clothes of the Xiongnu soldiers. The leader of the team looked like a young Han Chinese general. The young man had excellent eyesight, glanced ahead, and shouted loudly, "I'm Gao Huan! Are you uncle and aunt in front of you?"
Xiao Yongjia, who had been stretched all night, finally relaxed completely, his legs softened, his body swayed, and he was supported by Gao Qiao next to him.
Gao Qi also breathed a sigh of relief, and with joy, he answered loudly, "Lord Liulang! It's the husband and the eldest princess!"
Gao Huan led the men and horses to the front, with a happy smile on his face. Seeing the nervous expressions on the faces of Murongxi's group nearby, they drew their swords one after another. He rushed to the front of Gao Qiao and Xiao Yongjia, greeted them, but saw a large bloodstain on Gao Qiao's chest, he was surprised and asked what was going on.
Gao Qiao said: "I'm fine. How is your brother-in-law?"
In fact, when Gao Huan appeared here, he had already guessed the situation of the battle.
Sure enough, I heard Gao Huan say: "Uncle and aunt don't worry, my brother-in-law has just conquered the city gate, so I can come to meet my uncle and aunt."
As he spoke, he turned to look at Murongxi and his group who were surrounded by soldiers, and asked the identities of those people. He learned that the leader was actually Murongxi, who had been the emperor of Beiyan. After being surprised, his expression suddenly changed. Turning to gloomy, with an order, hundreds of sergeants immediately put their bows and arrows at Murongxi and the others in the encirclement.
He Lou's face changed greatly.
Hundreds of iron bows, if they were fired at the same time, how they would end up, one could imagine how they would end up.
He looked at Murong Xi. However, he seemed to be out of the way, still standing, motionless, in a hurry, he couldn't care about anything else, and hurriedly said: "General Gao, the Heavenly King just spared Gao Xianggong and the eldest princess, if you don't return it, treat it like this. I'm waiting, what's the point?"
Gao Huan sneered: "None of the Murong Clan is a good thing! You people are all worthless! You bumped into my hand today, if you want to blame it, you should blame it!"
"Listen to all orders, and don't let one go!" He suddenly raised the volume.
The soldiers tensed their bowstrings.
He Lou was shocked when he saw the young general's face full of murderous intent, and hurried towards Gao Qiao and Xiao Yongjia, but was forced to stop by the array of arrows in front of him, and said loudly: "Gong Xianggong, Mr. Princess! If it wasn't for the release of the Heavenly King, you—"
His voice was interrupted by a burst of laughter from behind him.
Murong Xi laughed wildly in the sky, turned slowly to Gao Huan, raised his finger and pointed at He Lou and the dozen or so followers behind him.
"These individuals are all from the Helou Department, and their children have been responsible for sacrificing and guarding for generations. They have been guarding the Dragon City and have never entered the Central Plains for slaughter. Loyal to me, and even more unacceptable by Murong, I hope you can let them go..."
"Heavenly King, I want to live and die with the Heavenly King!"
He Lou and the entourage next to him rushed towards Murong Xi, looking excited, knelt down and kowtowed.
As if he had never heard of it, Murong Xi continued: "I swear by the gods of the Xianbei people that they will bring the tribe back to the outside of the customs and never set foot in the Central Plains again. If the oath is violated, they will curse their descendants and bring misfortune from generation to generation!"
"As for me-"
He paused,
"Little General Gao, if you want to take my life, my Murongxi life is here. You don't need to do anything, you can end it yourself. I have killed countless people in my life. When I die, it's not a loss, so what's the harm in death!"
He looked up to the sky and laughed wildly again, as if this was not enough to vent his emotions at the moment, and then let out a long howl.
The whistling sound is deafening, a bit resentful, a bit desolate, and a bit self-deprecating.
"I, Murong Xi, roamed the chaotic world for half my life. I was a famous general, I was a slave, I was a dead man, and I was also an emperor. I planted here today.
In the whistling sound, he suddenly raised the knife in his hand, closed his eyes and raised his neck, and the blade of the knife was drawn towards his throat.
"The King!"
He Lou turned pale in shock and rushed to stop it, but he was a step too late. Before the others came to him, the knife had already reached Murongxi's neck.
Seeing blood splattered three feet. All of a sudden, a feathered arrow shot straight at Murong Xi with a squeaking sound like tearing the air, as fast as thunder and lightning, as fast as a meteor, and flew to the front in the blink of an eye.
"Ding" sound.
Accompanied by the sound of the collision of gold and iron, a cluster of arrows and iron heads hit the back of the knife, and it knocked the knife away.
Murong Xi opened his eyes and looked in the direction of the arrow.
Gao Qiao stood there.
The morning light is whiter. He may have affected the wound because of his strength, and his complexion looked pale as paper in the morning light, but his expression was very calm, and the thin figure stood upright.
"Murong Xi, you are also a man of temperament. I will let you go today."
"Listen carefully, whether it's the Central Plains or what you call the capital of Beiyan today, every inch under your feet is not your race! Remember what you said just now, bring your people back to where you should be. Places to go!"
Gao Qiao said, word by word, sonorously.
Under Xiao Qi's adoring gaze, he slowly put down the iron bow in his hand and looked at his wife beside him.
Xiao Yongjia and her husband looked at each other and smiled at him.
How much love and affection, all turned into this smile, all in silence.
Murong Xi stared at his couple for a moment, closed his eyes, opened them, and suddenly raised his hand, holding the handle of the knife in one hand, the head of the knife in the other, and exerting force with his ten fingers.
With a sound of "Zheng", the knife was broken into two pieces by him.
"When the revenge is over, I will return to the tribe and return to Longcheng, and I will not enter the gate again in this life! If I violate this statement, I will have such a sword, and I will not end in a good life!"
The broken knife was thrown to the ground. Murong Xi turned around and strode away.
He Lou breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly thanked Gao Qiao, then took the rest to catch up with Murong Xi and hurried away.
The back of the group quickly disappeared at the end of the road in the morning light.
Since my uncle let Murong Xi go, Gao Huan had no choice but to give up. Seeing that the front of his clothes was stained with blood, although the wound was wrapped, the bloodshot continued to seep out of his clothes, and he hurriedly called someone to fetch the wound medicine and deliver it. Taking advantage of Xiao Yongjia's efforts to apply medicine for Gao Qiao, he stepped forward and picked up Xiao Qi, who tilted his head and looked at him curiously, and said with a smile, "You are Xiao Qi Lang of my Gao family? I am your brother. My six brothers!"
Xiao Qi is not afraid of life at all. Immediately he broke free from his arms, stood on his feet, and then greeted Gao Huan according to the etiquette that A-Niang had taught him before, and called him "sixth brother" respectfully.
Among the peers of the Gao family, Gao Huan was the youngest in the past, and was regarded as a brother.
Xiao Qi said again, "Auntie said that I still have my sister and brother-in-law. Sixth brother, when can I see them?"
Gao Huan was about to answer when suddenly, a messenger came galloping from the road in the direction of Chengguan. When the man saw Gao Huan, he shouted loudly, "Lord Liulang! General Gao has an urgent letter to hand over to you. If you see Da Sima, be sure to hand it over. One hundred thousand in a hurry—"
This messenger was sent by Gao Yin. He was originally a member of the Gao family. At first, he didn't see Gao Qiao and Xiao Yongjia. When he got closer, he recognized the two of them. See you.
The atmosphere became tense.
"What happened?" Gao Qiao asked.
"Jiankang was occupied by Rongkang! Rongkang took the Queen Mother and Her Majesty hostage, promiscuous in the harem, bullied officials, raided the people, and committed all kinds of evil. General Gao has learned the news and is on his way back to the army, please let the big Sima also know!"
The messenger said loudly while presenting Gao Yin's letter.