Human dimension reduction

The people in Dingzhou City, which was trampled by the Beiman, were few and far between, so almost all the residents of Dingzhou saw the embarrassment of General Zhao in the future.

Mrs. Zhao held a wooden stick with the thickness of the child's wrist, and slammed on her grandson one after another, hitting him on the head and face, and knocked him from the inner courtyard all the way to the outside. Zhao Wuque has been living under the protection of his family. Having suffered such severe beatings, Zhao Hu's stick was not just for show. In order to drive her grandson out, she used all her strength every time.

After so many years, until now, when mentioning that day, Zhao Wuque still has bursts of fiery stinging pain on his body like a dream, the feeling of being hit by his relatives with deadly hands on the flesh and bones, no matter how long it has passed. He couldn't forget it, even if he experienced the killing battle with swords, guns, swords and halberds later, he couldn't use more pain to kill this feeling.

Zhao Wuque cried in embarrassment, and was driven out of the mansion by Zhao Hushi like a cow and a horse. He fell down the steps in a panic and rolled onto the dirty and muddy road. Hundreds of soldiers guarding the door watched him Clearly.

Each of them was wounded, their armor was cracked, their swords were gaped, and they carried the murderous and bloody aura crawling out of the battlefield.

They are General Zhao's personal guards. They were originally responsible for following the general to protect him, but General Zhao, who was in the middle of the death battle, gave them an order to break through the siege and bring the flag and palm prints of the Dingzhou Army back to Dingzhou. State, find the surviving Zhao family, regroup the army and organize the defense line.

Zhao Wuque was the last living Zhao family member they could find.

It will also be General Zhao who they will protect and follow in the future.

Pairs of eyes silently stared at the child who was beaten out of the house by his grandmother like a wild dog—even though he had the appearance and figure of an adult, his behavior at the moment was undoubtedly that of a poor and bewildered child.

They rushed hundreds of miles, throwing down the lives of many comrades-in-arms and comrades, even the general, and came here to present a blood-stained military flag on the most precious place, but what they waited for was such a child who escaped from reality.

The soldiers lined up in the formation were silent, like solidified sculptures. Hundreds of pairs of eyes looked at Zhao Wuque who was rolling down the steps and crying. from the whole of Dingzhou.

Mrs. Zhao Hu appeared on the steps, holding a stick in one hand and a military flag in the other. He looked at the grandson who had no demeanor at the bottom of the steps. He didn't know what he was thinking. After a long time, he walked down slowly and bent over to pull Zhao Wuque. .

Zhao Wuque, who was hurt by the beating, thought that she was going to beat him, so he subconsciously dodged and avoided his grandmother's thug. Zhao Hushi paused, retracted his hand and straightened his body, and said softly: "A few days ago, I taught you to How to live, now, I want to tell you how to die."

"It's good that you love the people and want to live and die with them, but for you, this is the courage of a man, you can die, I can die, your father, father, uncle, cousins, everyone Anyone can die, but only those who die have value.”

"Your elder father prevented Beiman from dying on the front line, but bought half a day for the people of Dingzhou to retreat; your father died on the back road and saved thousands of people in Dingzhou; Tens of thousands of northern barbarian cavalry were dragged by the force; your cousins ​​went on and on, and they are all good men from my Zhao family. They can all die, and they all deserve to die, die well, and die like heroes!"

"But you, you want to save people and sacrifice your life for it. Do you think you are a hero? No, on the contrary, you are a cowardly and incompetent coward! You only see the suffering of one person in front of you, why can't you see the whole Dingzhou? How many people will die for this in Mobei? If you are dead, what will happen to the Dingzhou army? What will happen to Dingzhou? You are complacent about saving one person, but surrendered tens of thousands of people to the northern barbarians for slaughter. This is a hero Why?"

Zhao Hushi approached Zhao Wuque and stared into his eyes: "Wuque, even if my aunt is ten years younger and can carry a gun on a horse, she would not be willing to persecute you like this, but since you were born into the Zhao family, even if you die, you will die. Under this flag."

"If you really don't want to, well, today I will open the ancestral hall and remove your name from the genealogy. In the future, you will be an ordinary citizen. You can be a hero whoever you want, but you can no longer say whose family you are." Heir, so as not to be ridiculed."

"Or, you stand up, take this flag, go to meet your soldiers, and die with them."

I don't know how long it took, the hand that was swollen and red from being beaten by the stick tremblingly lifted up, rubbed against Zhao Hu's hand little by little, touched the black and heavy flagpole, then curled up his fingers, and tightly grasped it In the palm of the hand.

Standing up from the mud with both hands leaning on a flagpole, General Zhao was covered in ragged clothes, his hair was disheveled, and bloody muddy water was still dripping from his sleeves, like a little beggar crawling out of a garbage heap. His face was dirty with snot and tears, and the broken hair was stuck to his cheeks. His eyes were blank and timid. He held the flagpole with both hands, and his eyes slowly walked around the soldiers in front of him. He didn't know what he was thinking about. What.

But when he took over the military flag and stood up, hundreds of soldiers knelt down, lowered their heads, and shouted loudly: "See you, general!"

Zhao Wuque twitched the corner of his mouth, revealing an expression that seemed to be crying or smiling.

--------

Xie Zhuo rubbed his hands, the exhaled breath formed clouds of white mist in the air, Zhao Wuque sat on the bare grass in winter, slightly bowed his back, Xie Zhuo bent over, and pressed the silk paper on Zhao Wuque. Written seriously on Wu Que's back, General Zhao, who was being used as a desk, twisted his head with great effort, squinted down hard, trying to read what was written on the paper, but was slapped on the neck by Xie Zhuo, not lightly He severely reprimanded: "Don't move! The writing is crooked!"

Zhao Wuque turned his head resentfully, like a big dog criticized by his master, drooping his head, slowly pulling up the grass roots on the ground: "Have you finished writing? How long will it take?"

The winter in Mobei is bitterly cold, the dripping water turns into ice, and the ink can’t be ground at all. Xie Zhuo originally used a bamboo knife to carve characters, but after the cold weather, his fingers became inflexible, and the sharp bamboo knife cut his hand several times. Zhao Wuque saw that the ink on his hand After the large and small wounds, Xie Zhuo was not allowed to use the bamboo slips anymore, and instead found a special kind of grass juice from Mobei for him, squeezed out the juice and used it as ink to write, and the effect turned out to be pretty good.

However, the paper is soft, no better than a piece of bamboo that can be held and written on the go. Zhao Wuque became the only tool in the simple environment.

Sitting down is a desk, the inkstone can be placed by reaching out, and the height can be adjusted. It is a must-have tool for home travel.

After writing the last line on the paper, Xie Zhuo carefully picked up the paper by the corner and blew it, rolled the paper with dried ink into a straight tube and stuffed it into the bamboo tube that Zhao Wuque handed over. He got into the bag, patted the grass clippings on his clothes, and led Xie Zhuo to continue walking along the dirt road.

They had been walking outside the city intermittently for more than two days. Zhao Wuque didn't bring any clothes or quilts, but he could always find a place to live before the sun went down, whether it was a dilapidated residential house, or some abandoned posthouse. There are even flat caves.

Facing Xie Zhuo's hard-to-conceal surprise, Zhao Wuque blinked with a smile: "This is a place where the army scouts horses and rests. They will carve marks on the trees along the road. Those who can understand are the same robes in the army. Just stay there." That's it."

A flash of understanding flashed in Xie Zhuo's eyes: "You took me on the military path?"

This time, what Zhao Wuque took him to find was a low stone house, with the fire flickering, the flickering light reflected on the man's face, making the scar even more hideous.

"This road was opened by my uncle." Zhao Wuque carefully filled up the sweet potatoes, making sure that every sweet potato was buried tightly with dust. "When the people retreated, they took this road."

His tone was very calm, but Xie Zhuo suddenly thought of something else.

Zhao Wuque's father died on the road that was cut off for the fleeing people, and his uncle died fighting to lure the enemy away from the people's ranks, so theoretically...they both died somewhere along the road.

Zhao Wuque obviously knew this very well, but he had a calm demeanor, and even had the mood to point out and introduce the surrounding landforms to Xie Zhuo.

He didn't say anything, and Xie Zhuo didn't ask. After the two of them ate sweet potatoes hastily, Zhao Wuque skillfully buried the fire, filled it with charcoal and let it simmer, dragged the mat over to cover it, and patted Xie Zhuo expectantly. Pat on the hot ground.

After a night without dreams, when Xie Zhuo woke up the next morning, he found that there was no one beside him. He sat up and woke up. Zhao Wuque came in from the outside, with the smell of burnt paper ash on his body, and he was patting himself with his head down. Seeing that he had woken up, he immediately leaned over: "Drink water?"

Xie Zhuo rubbed his temples, answered vaguely, and was immediately handed a water bag in front of him, still steaming.

Xie Zhuo glanced at Zhao Wuque, and took it silently.

These few days Zhao Wuque treated him like a dog, and it seemed that he wanted to confess him. Although both of them knew that this was a deal, they still acted harmoniously and friendly.

And in the capital thousands of miles away, Wang Yuanzhi covered Tingyu on his knee with his big sleeve, turned his face to look at the respectful young man sitting beside him: "Why did Zhenzhi come to me today?"

The young man called "Zhenzhi" raised his eyes. He had a pair of gentle eyes, and his slight smile made people feel like a spring breeze, but the expression in his eyes contained a well-hidden cold indifference.

"Does Fengzi want Yinyu to come back?"

As his words fell, Tingyu made a short sharp sound.

Wang Yuanzhi suddenly raised his eyes with a frightening cold sharp light, and for a quarter of an hour, he was really thinking seriously about whether he could shut up this friend he hadn't seen for a long time.

In the eyes of the world, Wang Yuanzhi and Xie Zhuo must and can only be incompatible with each other, but now there is one person who expresses his thoughts so easily.