Dingjiangshan

At [-] o'clock in the morning, a figure came out of the alley of the Dongcheng residential area unsteadily. His body was filled with a strong smell of blood. The armor on his body was still intact, but the cloth on his arm had been scratched and torn. Rotten.

With a pale complexion, he was clutching a tear in his left upper arm. He turned to the main road with difficulty, and was bumped into by a group of people who were about to go to support the West City.

"Ouch—you." Someone in the team happened to know him, and when he saw this, he rushed out to help him, looked her up and down, and said in a rough voice: "Erba, you How did it happen?"

The young man known as "Second Baby" leaned on his arm and panted heavily, turning his head slightly.The messy temple hair was stained with blood, and it fell down along with the movement of his head, blocking most of his face.

"The offensive in the west city has slowed down, and the enemy has already turned to the north city—their offensive is too strong, and the brothers can't stop it." He said: "The commander asked me to come back and report to the general."

"Beicheng?" The man was taken aback for a moment, and said, "Why did you go to Beicheng all of a sudden?"

"Not sure." The young man panted with difficulty, and said, "Maybe it's because it's dark, and the east city is too open...there is woodland behind the north city, which may be more convenient for them to retreat."

The man frowned and thought for a while, but he didn't notice the slight omission in what the young man said—or the tragedy of the young man itself was really convincing, so the man believed it without much hesitation.

"I was ordered to support the city gate, so I can't tell you more." The man seemed to be the leader of the team, and he casually pointed out someone in the team to help the young man, and ordered: "In this case, I will go to the North City first, Hurry up and go back to what General Feng said."

The young man nodded, his slightly sharp eyebrows and eyes protruding from the blood-stained gap.He glanced at the direction in which the man was leaving without any trace, and then confidently handed over half of his body weight to the hands of the people around him.

"Ouch." The person who supported him only felt his hand sink, and subconsciously complained: "Erba, what did you eat, it looks like a weight."

The footsteps behind him gradually receded, and the moon that had just disappeared into the clouds reappeared. The young man called "Er Baby" fell silent on the opponent's hand for a while, as if he had confirmed that there were no other people around. Only then did he stretch out his hand to hold down the opponent's wrist, exerting strength slowly, and propped himself up.

"Second baby?" the man asked suspiciously.

But immediately after, he showed a look of surprise under the action of the young man pulling up his temples, and subconsciously took half a step back.

——This is definitely not the look that the thin and timid colleague he is familiar with can show.

Those eyes were sharp and bright, a bit cooler than the moonlight in late autumn, and the fine moonlight fell on his eyes, like a sharp dagger.

The man subconsciously wanted to yell, but it was a pity that he took half a step back and before he had even landed, he suddenly felt a chill in his chest, and he couldn't say anything anymore.

He could feel the vitality draining out rapidly with something, the man subconsciously touched his face, but only touched a warm liquid.

He couldn't tell whether it was his own blood or just got it from "Er Baby". He opened his eyes in vain, and looked at the man in front of him with hatred, as if he wanted to engrave his appearance on his face. fundus.

Qin Liu stuffed the dagger back into his sleeve expressionlessly, caught the lifeless man with one hand, dragged him casually into the alley next to him, and tore off the badge on his waist.

He looked at the waist card in his hand by the moonlight, then put it in his arms, tore off a piece of clean clothes and covered his face, turned over lightly on the spot, stepped on the narrow brick wall, He quickly headed towards the east city.

——His target is the granary in Dongcheng.

Ning Huaijin had previously sent someone to deliver news to him, so that he would take the opportunity to cause trouble in the city, and then find a way to open the gates on both sides of the southwestern city - if that didn't work, he could just open the east city.

Apart from the first time, Ning Huaijin didn't know why, but she also found someone to bring him a message, saying that no matter what, Feng Yuan must be saved.

As a shadow guard, Qin Liu is best at assassination and stealth, but since Ning Huaijin has ordered him, he is not good at killing people in troubled waters, so he can only settle for the next best thing and give up the guards around Feng Yuan Long identities, looking for new opportunities.

The shadow guards are no better than those generals from aristocratic families who know what is the overall situation and what is overall planning on the battlefield. They are good at nothing more than simple things like murder and arson, and Qin Liu is naturally the same.

There were too many guards near the granary, and the guards were tight. Qin Liu gave up his plan to attack the granary after only a few glances.

—— Ning Huaijin and the others were still attacking the city outside the city, so he didn't have much time to waste inside the city.

What's more, in Tongbai County in the past few days, Qin Liu has already grasped the situation in the city very thoroughly.The military rations stored in Tongbai County are actually not much. Except for the rations in the local county government, they can only be delivered by Xinyang once every ten days, and it will not hurt if they are burned.

Qin Liumai watched in the dark for a while, then simply turned around, tied the belt badge he just got around his waist, and turned to go towards the barracks.

Outside the east city, the siege had lasted for almost nine hours. Not to mention the soldiers fighting on the front line, even Ning Huaijin was beginning to feel overwhelmed.

The feather arrows in his arrow basket were empty twice, and he filled another basket from the lieutenant general, and now it is almost bottomed out.

As soon as it gets dark, the visibility during the siege will be greatly reduced. As long as the enemy army extinguishes the torches and hides behind the walls and shoots cold arrows, casualties can be easily caused.

Before half a stick of incense, even Ning Huaijin accidentally scratched his left arm by Liu Ya, and the warm blood dripped down the saddle along the cracks in his nails, mixing with the smell of kerosene and cold iron on the battlefield. Together.

Persisting for another half hour, Ning Huaijin gritted her teeth and thought in her heart, if there is no news from the city after half an hour, then temporarily withdraw the troops.

He would rather go around Tongbai to recover Xie Jue than to fill this bottomless pit with more lives.

But I don't know if God really heard his heart, just when Ning Huaijin shot the last arrow, he suddenly heard the lieutenant not far away calling him.

"My lord!"

The voice was both startled and happy, quite different from the worried and anxious tone just now, Ning Huaijin thought about it, and subconsciously looked towards him, only to see his lieutenant pointing at the city from afar, excitedly said: "Look!"

In the direction of the lieutenant general's finger, a raging fire inexplicably ignited in the east city of Tongbai County, and it didn't take a moment for it to stretch.

The fire was so powerful that it didn't look like an ordinary fire. In just a few breaths, a huge wave like flying into the sky was ignited, dyeing half of the sky red.

"Xicheng!" Ning Huaijin yelled at the top of his voice: "The camp shrinks! Concentrate on entering the city from Xicheng!"

The back was on fire, and the defenders on the city wall were also panicked. Ning Huaijin caught some opportunities while swinging from side to side, and put up the ladder again.

The originally stalemate battle started to gain momentum because of such a sudden change. The battle was raging outside, and Ning Huaijin couldn't catch up with Qin Liu, but he could tell that it must be the work of the shadow guard.

Either don't do it, if he really gets the chance, he will kill the weeds and root them out.

——It's just that there are still some people in Dongcheng, Ning Huaijin thought, and wondered if such a big fire would affect them.

But things have come to this point, and it is obviously superfluous to think about it again. Ning Huaijin clenched her teeth tightly, shook her numb and sore arm, kicked the empty quiver back, and pulled a piece from the horse's back. A shiny saber.

His arm was already sore and swollen, and he could hardly feel the pain from the wound. He held the saber back in his hand and said loudly.

"Break the door!"

Ning Yan, who was more than two hundred miles away, seemed to be aware of it. The hand holding the pen paused, and a full grain of ink faltered from the tip of the pen twice, dripping onto the snow-white rice paper.

Ning Yan: "..."

What he has under hand is a painting that is a little less than half done, and it has just been drafted, and the lines are still a little scattered.

Ning Yan put down the pen silently, stared at the ink dot for a while, and then gradually eased the flash of uneasiness in his heart.

"What's wrong, Your Majesty?" Linglong stopped grinding the ink and handed the teacup to Ning Yan.

Ning Yan took the teacup, took two small sips, shook his head, and said, "It's okay."

After speaking for a while, most of the panic that had just flashed in his heart had subsided. Ning Yan put down the teacup, took a palm-sized cloth towel from the table, and carefully wiped the ink on the paper. Suck most of it.

It's just that the heavy ink stained some hard-to-remove marks on the paper. Ning Yan stared at the ink stain for a while, then picked up the pen again, and traced the stain into a moss-covered stone.

"Is there any news ahead?" Ning Yan asked.

"General Zheng Xiao is inexperienced, and it is a bit difficult to fight - this matter has already been reported when the military newspaper came back in the afternoon." Linglong picked up the ink stick again, and said while grinding the ink: "Except for this, there is no new one for the time being." The military report came back."

Ning Yan hummed.

Ning Yan didn't know what he was worried about. The flustered moment just now was sudden and inexplicable, but it wasn't serious. It took two sips of tea to heal.

He recalled the feeling just now, and found that he no longer felt the panic, and he was more or less at ease.

——Ning Huaijin has the shadow guards he left behind, so nothing will happen.

Just as he was thinking about Ning Huaijin, Shili suddenly swung down from the eaves of the door, entered the door in two steps, and put a letter box by Ning Yan's hand.

"Replying to Your Majesty is a letter from the National Teacher." Shili said.

Only then did Ning Yan recall that when Ning Zheng came up with that "auspicious omen", he sent a letter to Jing Zhan, and asked modestly and studiously, "Where is the child born at the right time?" Fate is not allowed."

Ning Yan originally thought that this was somehow related to destiny, so it was always right to ask one more question.However, when he unfolded the note, he discovered that Jing Zhan, the dignified "National Teacher", was even more open-minded than him.

On the two-finger-wide letter, there were only four characters written in a fluttering style.

"Listen to him fart."