Qin Official

Nearly a hundred miles east of Anlu County, it has left the Jianghan Plain and entered the remnants of the Dabie Mountains and Tongbai Mountains. Countless elm, pine and birch trees are scattered among this rugged hilly area. They stand quietly like silent sentinels. The bark of the trees is like old and rough armor, covered with green moss like patina.

Shrubs and flowers grow chaotically on the ground. Some unknown small flowers grow everywhere, exuding a faint fragrance, attracting swarms of insects. Little squirrels squat on the branches, holding plump pine nuts and gnawing non-stop. The afterglow of the sunset falls in the sky. , and from time to time, there is a crisp bird song...

Everything was so peaceful and quiet until a thin man appeared!

He jumped out from behind a huge fallen dead tree, stepped heavily on the fallen leaves and branches, and made a crackling sound, breaking the peace!

Birds flew away in fright, insects scattered in all directions, and even the little squirrels threw away their pine cones and shrank back into the tree holes.

After the thin man ran past, everything seemed to be calm again. Just when the squirrel was trying to poke its head out, another person rushed over!

That was the chief of the pavilion in red turban holding a crossbow, it was Hei Fu!

There was no close fight, and there was no dialogue. Heifu abandoned his horse and went up the mountain, chasing Ao all the way through the woods, engaging in a game of hunting and escaping.

He stared straight ahead, and Ao's figure was just twenty or thirty steps in front of him. Sometimes he disappeared, sometimes he suddenly appeared again, sometimes disappearing and sometimes disappearing. This man was very good at running away. He kept hiding behind tree trunks, so that the crossbow in Heifu's hand could never hit him.

Heifu was initially worried about Ao's counterattack, but although he was carrying a concealed bow, he didn't seem to be carrying any arrows...

They went up a gentle slope and went down the other side. Heifu's legs slowed down and accelerated according to the terrain. The ground was covered with tree roots and stones. The cloth was too thin and the soles of the feet were painful. He heard that some local Puyue people in Nan County could walk barefoot in the mountains as if they were walking on flat ground. How did they do it?

The woods ahead were getting denser and denser, and there were more and more obstacles. Hei Fu could only let the branches slap his cheeks. One branch hooked the red skirt and left it on it, like a conspicuous flag. Hei Fu didn't care. Go up and get it.

The pursuit of the two lasted for nearly a moment. Just when Heifu was accidentally blocked by a fleeing elk, he paused for a moment, thinking that he had lost the trace of Ao again. After turning a corner, he suddenly I found it, and I was dragging Ao, who was trying to climb up a big banyan tree...

Did he want to hide in the banyan tree and let Hei Fu continue to run forward stupidly? It's a pity that the action is a little slow.

Heifu was overjoyed and immediately drew his sword and pressed forward - during the chase, he had already fired all the crossbow bolts...

The banyan tree grew on the top of this mound, and behind it was a deep ditch. If it fell, at least one of his legs would be broken. Ao seemed to find that he had no way to retreat, so he had to turn his head, take off the short knife in his mouth, and lay it across his chest, calmly He watched Heifu's every move.

There were no tentative words. Both sides knew what kind of opponent they were facing and must not be distracted.

After a few breaths, Heifu stepped forward with his sword first and collided with Ao's sword!

Zheng!

The sound of gold and iron scared away more small animals, and Hei Fu discovered that Ao was not very strong, but his movements were extremely flexible. His sword was short and he did not have an advantage in close combat, so he did not seek to actively attack when fighting Heifu, but kept dodging and retreating.

Heifu took advantage of the length of his two-foot sword and swung it left and right, sealing off any possibility of Ao escaping and forcing him to retreat under the banyan tree...

Ao seemed to be outmatched, and he quickly leaned against the banyan tree, panting. Heifu immediately raised his sword and stabbed hard!

Unexpectedly, at the critical moment, Ao blocked Heifu's sword with his sword, and fell suddenly to the side, grabbing an inconspicuous banyan tree vine root with his hand! Just a sharp pull!

Heifu only felt that something was being strangled on his leg, and then a strong force came, pulling him up and falling to the ground!

Just when Hei Fu was knocked unconscious, Ao continued to pull on the tough vine root. Although he was not tall, he was not weak in strength, but Hei Fu was hanging upside down with his feet tied like this! Hanging on the banyan tree branch!

…

"I've been hunting geese all day long, but today I let the geese catch my eye!"

At this moment, Heifu could only think of this sentence to describe his situation appropriately.

He is now two feet off the ground, with a noose made of the aerial roots of a banyan tree tied around his head, feet, and right ankle, but it is now tied into a tight knot.

For those who are familiar with the mountains and forests, it doesn't take a moment to lay such a small trap. Heifu suddenly realized that Ao had chosen this place to fight in order to deceive himself into a trap?

Heifu turned around and saw that his sword had fallen to the side, out of reach. But don't panic, he still has a sharp knife, which is stuck in the leg bandage. That is the black man's last hope to escape...

"Chief Heifu Pavilion, don't move."

But Ao was also approaching Heifu cautiously. The bow had already been drawn, and it was equipped with a crossbow arrow that Heifu shot at him, which Ao picked up from the ground.

Heifu had no choice but to give up touching the knife for the time being, spread his hands, looked at Ao and said: "You want to kill me?"

Ao has a thin face and a small beard under his chin. He is about twenty years old. Hei Fu had not expected that he was so young.

He carefully kept a distance of five steps: "To be honest with the pavilion commander, if I don't kill you, I'm afraid you will continue to hunt me after you escape. By then, I may not be so lucky."

Hei Fu didn't want to beg for mercy, so he sighed and said, "Then let's do it."

He also didn't expect that his time-travel career would end so quickly. Being a police officer is indeed a high-risk profession. I should have given up just now. This person just ran away. The worst he could do was get punished, so why pursue him so closely?

Ao Que smiled again: "But even I admire the reputation of Pavilion Chief Heifu. If he were to be killed, there would be one less strong man in the world. Wouldn't it be a pity?"

"So without hiding it from the pavilion chief, I am still hesitating whether to kill or not to kill."

"You are a strange person."

Heifu looked at Ao: "Whether you kill me or not, can you answer my three questions first?"

Ao seemed to know Heifu's plan very well, but he still nodded and said, "It doesn't hurt to ask."

"First of all, who are you?"

"I am just a young scholar who escaped from Chu State, and a mediocre farmer who made a living in Qin State."

"Hahaha, Ao, it's time to stop pretending."

Hei Fu found it funny: "I heard a saying that a talented person in the world is like an iron cone in a bag, with sharp insights! With your ability, how could you become a fugitive? How could you enter the Qin Dynasty? Have you been in obscurity for more than a year?”

It is true that a "dragon-slaying knife" like Han Xin's, which can only be used to slaughter the world, may end up in decline in daily life.

But Ao was different. He was extremely quick in strategy, martial arts, and adaptability. If an average person had such talent, he would be able to do well in both the Chu and Qin countries. There must be some special reason why Ao hid himself among the mediocre cultivators and did not attract the attention of others. He did not reveal himself until necessary, and the whole county was shocked by the commotion.

"Starting from the murder case, you planned carefully, and you were able to stay ahead of the government every step of the way. The strategies you used had hidden military skills, and you actually led half of the Qin officials in Anlu County by the nose. In the end, you did not hesitate to use your body as bait. Tempting us to chase you, how can such a wise and brave man be a mediocre farmer with no food or clothing?"

Hei Fu stared at the toughest opponent he had ever seen since he came to this era and said:

"If I guess correctly, Ao, you are probably a trained spy with a mission!"

…

The bowstring in Ao's hand tightened suddenly, then relaxed again.

He praised: "The chief of the pavilion is worthy of being an official who has repeatedly solved major cases since he took office. Not only did he get closer and track me down, but he was also able to guess my identity. I really admire him! Yes, I was ordered to sneak into Anlu County. The Chu spy has hidden his identity for more than a year, and now that the matter he wanted to investigate has been found out, he will naturally return to his country to resume his duties!"

"it is as expected!"

Heifu felt blood pouring into his head and clenched his fists tightly.

"The second question is, with your ability, you can escape silently at any time. Why do you still have to take a few other mediocre farmers with you until now? You even use your body as bait for those who can't ride a horse. Six people are fighting for time, who are they? Are they also from the Chu Kingdom?"

When mentioning this matter, Ao's expression turned gloomy: "The pavilion chief guessed wrong. They are just ordinary people who can't survive in Chu State."

"At the beginning, I crossed the river among the refugees from Chu State, hiding my identity. After coming to Qin State, everyone discovered that there was no good life as rumored. There was not much difference between Qin and Chu. As a person who has perished, It was so difficult to be treated equally in a foreign country, so everyone regretted it and wanted to escape back to Chu State. Although it was not much better there, at least it was their hometown and they still had relatives."

"It's not difficult for me to leave alone, but if I leave them alone and are discovered later, everyone will have to serve their sentences together. I don't want others to suffer for me, so I want to bribe the prison gate to forge a test for us. , who would have expected that he would regret it midway..."

This is the origin of the whole case.

"It's because I didn't handle it carefully enough. I didn't expect that Pavilion Chief Heifu would participate in the investigation. After the incident was exposed, it not only affected everyone, but also hurt Mr. Shi who trusted me. I knew that I couldn't save Mr. Shi, so I could only rely on myself. It will give the Chu people who are traveling with me more chances to escape, and also make me feel less guilty. There was a man who could ride a horse who insisted on coming with me, but unfortunately he died. I only hope that the other six people can reach Yunmengze smoothly."

At this time, Hei Fu was even more puzzled: "Ao, you are really a weirdo. You were ruthless when you killed the prison gatekeeper and Orion's wife, but when you burned the stables, you spared the lives of the stable officials and others and didn't even burn them. The plowing cattle appear to be soft-hearted..."

"Furthermore, as a Chu spy, you should have completed your mission first and ignored everything else, but you left together to save the Chu people and repeatedly committed dangers. If you ask me, you are really a Chu spy who is always superfluous. Puzzled."

"The pavilion chief also knows the allusion of Chu State's superfluity."

Hei Fu pointed out his weakness, but Ao was a little proud: "Chu Shi always behaves like this, do something and don't do something."

"Chief Heifu Pavilion, you should be able to understand this. I heard people say that you once cruelly brought more than a hundred people in Blind Mountain to justice, but in order to help an innocent public servant, you gave him four thousand yuan in vain , isn’t this also a soft-hearted person? It seems that you are also a superfluous person!”

Hei Fu was stunned and laughed at himself: "That's right, I have also done a lot of contradictory things."

At this time, Ao seemed to have figured something out, and his expression relaxed: "Heifu Pavilion Chief, I have thought clearly, so I won't kill you. First, my maternal clan is a descendant of the Ruo Ao family who migrated eastward. You They caught the tomb robbers who robbed Dou Xin's tomb. If the Ao family owes you a favor, I will repay it for them. Furthermore, there are not many real scholars in this world. Without you, wouldn't it be even more boring? Thirdly, Although I am a Chu spy, I live in my own country with you and each is his master, but it is not my mission to kill you."

"Are you still related to the Ruo'ao family?" Hei Fu never thought that there was such a relationship, but he said stiffly: "You don't want to avenge Shi who was caught?"

"The chief of the pavilion was just fulfilling his duties as a Qin official. I was sorry for Shi Jun and caused him trouble. If I want to take revenge, I should kill myself to apologize." Ao made the distinction very clearly.

Heifu laughed: "Then I really want to thank you for not killing me. It's just that, Ao, you did another superfluous thing. You are really not a qualified spy..."

"The director of the pavilion is right in reprimanding me. I am not qualified to be a spy."

He deliberately said something useful to Ao, and Heifu was not idle either. He kept adjusting his body, turning it sideways to Ao's eyes, so that he could not see the movements of his other hand, and grabbed Ao's loose hand. Taking the opportunity, I quietly touched the knife on the foot tie...

Because he never puts his life on the mercy of his enemies!

Two inches, one inch, the fingertips touched the iron ring of the knife handle, touched it!

Heifu was overjoyed. However, just when he finally grasped the handle of the knife and slowly pulled it out, the bowstring suddenly rang!

"Boom!"

Ao, who just now was smiling and talking about his reasons for not killing Hei Fu, shot the arrow without hesitation.

"It's over!"

Heifu's pupils suddenly shrank due to fear, and immediately, there was a sharp pain in his left calf!

Ao's shooting skills are much better than Heifu's. An arrow penetrated into the leg flesh!

Heifu was in pain, and the knife in his hand fell off again and fell into the pile of leaves. He struggled and cursed: "Ao, Master Chu, are you going to break your promise?"

Ao had no more arrows in his hand. He drew back his bow and said with a smile: "Chief Heifu Pavilion, I don't intend to break my promise. I just want to use up one of your legs. You are injured now. When you come down, cover the wound to stop the bleeding. Don't continue to chase me." .”

He raised his head and looked at the setting sun: "I also know your plan, deliberately delaying time so that your companions can arrive. This is not a good place for small talk. Qin and Chu will fight soon. You and I are on the battlefield. Come on, maybe we can meet again! At that time, let’s greet each other with fighting, and say goodbye and say goodbye!”

With that said, Ao slowly backed away, and when he was more than ten steps away, he turned around and started running.

"Hello!"

Heifu didn't care that his leg was bleeding. He shouted to Ao: "Is your name really Ao? Tell me your real name. When we meet on the battlefield in the future, I don't want to call you by the wrong name!"

"That's right, Ao, it's just my pseudonym."

Without looking back, he ran and roared wildly among the trees reflected in the setting sun.

"Please remember, Pavilion Chief, the one who spared your life today is Zhongli Mei from Chu!"