"Mountain climbing?"
"Just treat it as an outing, to see the snow scene or something like that." Xi Heng said casually, "Are you willing?"
"Of course I do."
……
Three more days later.
Xi Heng and his senior sister rode two brown and black horses, walking slowly on the road to Jianchang.
The horse's hooves stepped deeply into the thick snow, leaving a long hoof print on the ground. White air came out of its nose from time to time, and the mane on its neck fluttered in the cold wind.
These two horses were not what Xi Heng originally wanted. They were purchased from the post station or the stables in the small town.
But when they were walking on the official road, four or five cavalrymen suddenly chased them, surrounded them and interrogated them, then pulled out a wanted poster with their faces engraved on it and showed it to them, then shouted to the surrounding soldiers to surround them.
Xi Heng and Senior Sister Hong Miao were both dark energy warriors, so they were naturally not afraid. They killed several cavalrymen in one fell swoop, snatched the horses and fled together, leaving the infantry behind them for a long time before the already panting horses slowed down.
"I didn't expect that I would be hunted down even outside the city... There is even a wanted warrant." Xi Heng recalled the days when he had to worry about being hunted down by soldiers and constables every day when he went to the capital, and felt distressed and helpless.
"It seems that the assassination attempt made the leader of Tianliang quite angry." Hong Miao looked as natural as ever.
"If I had known this earlier, I would have killed them all." Xi Heng sighed.
Hong Miao thought the other party was joking. She looked around the snowy scenery and said, "It will take another four or five days to reach Jianchang. If we take the official road again, we may be attacked by the Tianliang people. Why don't we take a smaller road?"
"There are also some scattered villages along the way, most of which have inns where you can stay overnight."
"Okay." Xi Heng followed his senior sister's instructions and followed her to leave the official road and turn to a narrow path on the side.
The snow was drifting all over the place, and there were few people on the road.
As for the Ganoderma lucidum, there were few pharmacies along the way. Even if there were one or two small pharmacies in the village that had not been looted, no one could afford to buy the hundreds of years old Ganoderma lucidum. In the end, they were eaten as big mushrooms in soup on the road.
……
In a blink of an eye, five days later.
The gate of Jianchang City stands before our eyes, connected to the thick city wall that stretches outward.
Even the thick snow could not completely cover the many arrows and broken javelins on the city walls and the ground, and some faded blood could be faintly seen falling above.
There were some pieces of meat and body parts scattered on the ground, but in the bitterly cold weather, there was no strange smell or flies.
An arm stretched out from under the snow, and its ferocious five fingers looked extremely stiff.
Two warriors riding brown horses, wearing conical hats and black robes stopped at the far end of the city wall. After a pause, they circled the towering city wall and stealthily moved to an unmanned area on the side.
This Jianchang City is not far from the Jinshi City that Tianliang had just captured. The wanted order should have been sent here, so Xi Heng did not go directly to the city gate.
In the past few days, they bought bamboo hats and black robes in the surrounding villages to cover their bodies and faces - many wandering knights would dress like this, so that at first glance they would not be mistaken for the two people on the wanted list.
Xi Heng and his senior sister stopped their horses in a woods outside the city wall, made some marks, and prepared to return here immediately after seizing the Hua Jin martial arts secrets from the city and escape on their horses.
"Try not to cause too much trouble this time, and fight quickly and decisively. There are still Tianliang soldiers left in Jianchang City, and we don't know how many there are. If they come together, it will be quite troublesome to deal with them." The senior sister reminded.
"Yeah." Xi Heng pretended to be obedient.
However, what actually happens depends on the situation.
After bridle-tying the horses, they ran towards the city wall together.
However, with just a few steps, they had stepped on the less than six-meter-high city wall.
Xi Heng glanced around and saw that there were no guards around, so he continued walking forward.
Looking down from the city wall, I saw that the roads were empty and there were no patrols or guards. The entire city seemed to be completely undefended.
After a moment, Senior Sister Hong Miao also approached:
"It seems that there are not many soldiers left..."
"Go down."
Xi Heng stepped onto the city wall fence, then stepped towards the empty space in front and fell down like a free fall.
His two feet landed on the snow, making only a slight plop sound.
Whether above or below, the scene is deserted.
It seemed that except for the dozen or so soldiers guarding the city gate, the entire Jianchang was a dead city.
The doors of shops visible on the street were either closed or smashed to pieces, with blood splattered on the walls and doors. The houses were dark and deserted.
“……”Xi Heng walked over slowly.
She leaned against the side of the empty tile-roofed house, quietly looking at the faded blood of the human figure and a stab wound on the wall, imagining how this person probably died.
"The whole body was nailed directly to the wall?" Xi Heng said to himself: "It seems that there are many people who do this... How many people have been killed in this city?"
As she was walking, she stepped on something hard in the snow.
He lowered his head and kicked, and half of his head, which had been frozen and stiff, was kicked out of the snow.
"Don't they burn the body? Or did they miss it?"
Xi Heng kicked the half head back and covered it with snow, which could be regarded as a small grave.
"A lot of people died here. I wonder if Jinshi City will be like this place at this moment."
At the side, Senior Sister Hong Miao's expression gradually became more serious.
"Maybe..." Senior Sister Hong Miao said as she walked, "If Junior Sister can sit on the throne in the future, will everything be better?"
"Me?" Xi Heng thought for a moment:
"It should be difficult. The emperor's power is not that great. Even if he controls the entire court and holds many powers, it is difficult to suppress the chaos in the Great Zhao Kingdom immediately..."
"That's right. The emperor is not a god."
Hong Miao shook her head: "Perhaps no one can save the suffering in this world."
"Immortal..." Xi Heng muttered these two words silently and stopped.
"Junior sister?" Hong Miao saw her junior sister standing there in a daze, so she stretched out her finger and poked her face.
As for why he didn’t poke the shoulder, it was naturally because the junior sister’s shoulder was injured.
Xi Heng came back to his senses and shook his head: "It's okay, let's keep going. Where is the so-called family?"
"I don't know." The senior sister spread her hands, looking innocent.
"..."
……
Chapter 58: Kusanagi Bird Hunt
A quarter of an hour after entering the city, Xi Heng walked from the outskirts of Jianchang City to the inner city. He passed by a former commercial street and saw many high-rise buildings that were burned to ashes or collapsed into ruins. He also didn't see many people on the street.
It is freezing cold at this time of year, so people naturally prefer to stay indoors, and the city is deserted and quiet.
Most of the figures Xi Heng saw leaning against the wall were covered by thick snow.
After pushing away the snow that had fallen on their bodies, all they saw were corpses with skin frozen to a blue-gray color, bodies extremely stiff, and blood frozen in their bodies.
It is impossible to ask for directions when looking for a corpse like this.
The senior sister only knew that the family that possessed the Hua Jin martial arts was the Liang family of Jianchang City, but she had no idea where exactly in the city they were located.
"The patriarch of the Liang family was General Tianliang during his lifetime... They should live in those tall courtyards in the center of the city, right?" Xi Heng said to himself.
While he was guessing, the senior sister who was following him knocked on the door that was lit with fire.
But the door knocked several times and no one responded from inside.
Xi Heng also approached the wooden door and kicked it.
The damp wooden door and the iron lock at the back could not withstand the blow. It cracked open with a bang and then opened with a loud noise.
The snow that was more than ten centimeters thick outside the city also poured inward as the wooden door opened wide. The iron chain that tied the door fell to the ground, and suddenly a burst of hurried footsteps was heard inside.
Xi Heng, wearing a bamboo hat and black clothes, stepped inside, raised his hat brim and looked up. In this messy tile house, he saw an old man wearing faded, coarse clothes and rags huddled in the corner of the room, holding a kitchen knife in his hand. There was panic and tension in his eyes, but there was also a hint of madness.
"Where is the Liang family in Jianchang City?" Xi Heng asked coldly, ignoring the weak man's knife-raising protest.
Dressed in a straw raincoat and black robe, he does look a bit oppressive.
"Liang, Liang family?" The old man's heart slowly settled down when he saw that the person coming was not a group of Tianliang soldiers, but a warrior with a sword on his waist.
"The clan of Liang Mangchen, the left wing general of the Tianliang Army." Xi Heng said again.
"Left...what, General?" The old man's eyes turned from panic to dullness: "I don't know, I don't know..."
Just by hearing the three words "Tianliang Army", this man began to tremble all over, with his knees bent as if he was about to kneel down, as if all the people in the Tianliang Army were terrifying evil spirits.
Seeing that the other person looked crazy, Xi Heng said nothing more and turned to leave the shabby little tile house.
How could these poor people know the news about General Tianliang’s family... She planned to go to the inner city to ask someone.
The girl led her senior sister and walked slowly along the road. When she saw a house with a fire on, she would knock on the door and greet them. If the door was not opened, she would force her way in like she did just now.
After entering the room, the people I saw were either covered in scars, or lying on the bed with broken arms and legs waiting to die, and were being taken care of by family members with less serious injuries.
When they saw the two warriors come in, almost everyone in the room was surprised and panicked at first. When they heard the word "Tianliang", they went from panic to fear. They shook their heads one after another and dared not say much to the Tianliang Army. Even if they knew, they said they didn't know.
It was not until Xi Heng drew out his sword to threaten him that he finally got the answer from a young patient who had a broken arm and was trembling in pain all over.
"The Liang family is building a building in the city... Going south along this road, you can see tenant farmers wearing thin clothes building high buildings, baking bricks, laying walls and tiles, doing iron and wood work, and transporting materials. That big yard is the Liang family."
The man gritted his teeth and said, "My father was conscripted by the Liang family to work for free. He had to lay bricks and tiles outdoors in the cold winter. He only had a meal of porridge and half a coarse steamed bun a day. If he didn't bring his own dry food, he would freeze to death in a few days. There were also evil slaves supervising him with whips. If he stopped for a while, he would be whipped and beaten. My father said yesterday that there were dozens of people freezing to death or starving to death in that place every day. If my family hadn't hidden food and pickled vegetables to fill their stomachs, I'm afraid my father would have frozen to death or died of exhaustion long ago..."
As he spoke, tears streamed from his red eyes, and the grief and anger in his heart were uncontrollable.
"After the city was looted by the Tianliang bandits, anyone who could still move was conscripted by these wealthy families to do hard labor. I only escaped this disaster because my arm was chopped off by the bandits... The Tianliang people said they were rising for the people, but now they are not letting the people live." He smashed his severed arm on the sickbed and burst into tears.
"..."
After Xi Heng heard this, he said calmly after a moment: "I will help you kill those people."
The other party was stunned after hearing this, wiped the tears from his eyes, and gave up hope: "Kill? How to kill? There are soldiers in the city."
"Take the sword and kill him." After saying that, Xi Heng turned and left.
No wonder most of the houses on the street are deserted; it turns out most of them have been confiscated.
After hearing what the child said, the senior sister was thoughtful. She looked at the empty snowy streets and said softly, "In this world, the imperial court is unreliable, and neither are the rebels. What can the common people rely on?"
Xi Heng didn't answer. He took a deep breath, put his right hand on the hilt of the sword at his waist, and walked south.
The long sword at her waist was no longer the broken Qingfeng long sword, but a broadsword made of fine steel seized from the Tianliang cavalry.
The cold wind blew some snowflakes from the ground and hit his clothes. Xi Heng's footsteps crushed the loose snow and he walked away step by step with murderous intent.
Before long, a chaotic construction site gradually emerged from the snow scene.
Many men wearing thick clothes worked in groups of four, using their hands and shoulders to carry a square beam. Dozens of other people were nearby, cutting wood, digging soil, or pushing wood carts for transportation.
Bamboo poles were used to build scaffolding that looked not very strong, and people tried their best to transport the processed wood to the erected beams.
The wind and snow froze the cheeks and hands of most of the workers stiff. One man's legs went weak while climbing a ladder, and he fell directly from a height of seven or eight meters. He lay on the ground and couldn't get up, but no one paid any attention to him, as if everyone had become numb and used to it.
On the side, there were a few young men wearing cotton-padded clothes and brocade, who looked like the sons of wealthy families, leading a few playmates. In this cold winter day, they held a folding fan in their hands, and disdained the casualties of the civilians in front of them. They just pointed at the thirty or forty towers being built in front and said:
"Brother Cao, Brother Gao, as the saying goes - tall buildings soar into the sky, jade towers fight against the wind, and they overlook the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth, showing their grandeur. These twenty-eight tall towers of our Liang family, connected to eight small towers in the eight directions, correspond to the thirty-six celestial constellations, and help our Liang family avoid disasters. Can this be considered a blessing?"
As he spoke, he smiled and said, "For example, the Guanyuan built by Brother Gao's family and the blessings dug in Brother Cao's courtyard are still not as good as the thirty-sixth floor of our Liang family."
"Hey, Master Liang, what you said is a bit extravagant. For example, my courtyard garden required the efforts of tens of thousands of workers, hundreds of oxen and horses, and we invited great craftsmen from the south to divide and design it. It was a waste of time, effort, heart and money. Even if it doesn't surpass Brother Liang's family building, it still looks elegant." Another young man nearby retorted.
"Since Brother Gao is so confident, why don't we make a small bet and then decide which one is more beautiful?"
"A little gambling can make you happy. How would you like to place a bet, Brother Liang? Who would like to comment?"
"We are all sons of generals, and the matter of judging should naturally be handled by the son of the Lord Wang family."
"Brother Liang, are you talking about the brother from the Fang family?"
"That's right." As they spoke, these young masters looked at each other and burst into laughter.
When Xi Heng came here, he didn't understand what the three of them were laughing at, nor did he need to understand.
She slightly lowered her hat and slowly drew out the long sword from her waist.
