Three Kingdoms

Chapter 3548: Chi Xiao Ying Gu

Li Laosi still couldn't resist the urge to go home, so he followed him.

One step deep, one step shallow.

Just like my own life path.

Dirty, smelly and difficult to walk on.

From the Zhongping years to now, everyone I know has died one by one, and my fellow villagers have died in a foreign land. What have I gained except the scars all over my body?

How many days of full meals?

Live one day at a time?

Every time Li Laosi thought of this, he felt a knot in his heart. He didn't know if he was wrong, or if the world was wrong, or if something else was wrong. He just instinctively felt that it shouldn't be like this.

This big man shouldn't be like this.

But when asked to say what a great man should be like, he couldn't say it, and in the end he could only let out a long sigh.

A few days ago, many soldiers who went to Yique to dig the tomb were killed or injured. It is said that they were cursed by the tomb owner...

But it was obvious that Man Chong did not believe in any curse and still sent people to continue digging.

Li Laosi is on the list. If he doesn't escape now, it means he will never have a chance to escape again.

Live, die.

It seems that in today's world, the gap is not so obvious.

It’s not that Li Laosi didn’t try hard to live…

But his efforts did not yield any good results.

In the fifth year of Zhongping, when Li Laosi was fighting against the Yellow Turbans in Julu, the arrow wound in his left arm could have allowed him to retire from the army. But when he dragged his injured arm to find the military judge, the military judge slapped him on the forehead with a bamboo ruler, "A vagrant is also worthy of requesting merit and retiring? Duh! Stop making noise!"

He still remembered a battle in the first year of Taixing in the Han Dynasty. It was a rainy night.

When he rushed out of the encirclement carrying a Xiahou clan general who was shot by an arrow, the young man from the noble family with blood on his face grabbed his collar and promised, "As long as you can return to Xu County, I will definitely guarantee you the position of garrison commander!"

But at the military celebration banquet after Cao Cao's offering at the Imperial Ancestral Temple, he knelt down on the steps to accept the "reward" that was "promised" to him...

Two pieces of burlap.

And the lieutenant general who had made such a solemn vow was awarding his cousin a new armor as the captain of the garrison.

He also remembered the military clerk saying, "Can you read the characters? Why are you reading so seriously?"

Li Laosi looked at the words written by the clerk on the wooden slip, but he didn't know what he was writing. He only knew that those ink-like marks were the achievements of him and those illiterate soldiers like him.

However, the heads he captured were either substandard in one place or had problems in another.

He also wanted to learn to read, at least to know how many merits he had, but when he finally found some wooden and bamboo slips, thinking of the words "education for all" that he had heard from the sons of the noble families in the county, he took the broken slips he had picked up to ask the secretary in the camp to interpret them, but the scholar from Yingchuan covered his nose with a sweat towel and said, "Stay away from me! Are you a filthy person worthy of listening to the words of the saint?"

His heart was cold, just like the first month of the third year of Taixing, which was also cold and chilly.

On the coldest day of the first month of that year, Li Laosi's fellow villager Zhao Dayan was hanged on a grain cart. This man who could draw two crossbows was hung up and beaten to death just because he stole a handful of soybean meal to feed the horses.

The Xun family members who solemnly reiterated the importance of food in front of the army and forbade anyone to steal, roasted venison in the tent and joked, "If you don't punish a thief, he won't learn his lesson."

However, for some reason, the military rations distributed later were not only old, but also had a lot of sand and gravel, and could not be washed clean no matter how hard they were washed. Li Laosi felt that it was like the bone residue of Zhao Dayan.

What disappointed Li Laosi the most was the previous siege of Tongguan.

Three hundred warriors were forced to carry ladders and rush towards the city wall of Tongguan, among them was Li Laosi.

When they were about to set off, Li Laosi saw with his own eyes the Cao Jun military school supervising the battle ticking the names on the roster...

Afterwards, Li Laosi found out that anyone without a clan would be included in the vanguard.

When ordinary soldiers like Li Laosi were blown to pieces by artillery fire in front of the Tongguan battlefield, those Cao army military officers with "Qiao County Cao", "Yingchuan Zhong" or other surnames embroidered on the corners of their clothes were safe and sound behind the battlefield, and they could even point fingers and say that Li Laosi and others were not brave enough, not strong enough, and not working hard enough.

On the night he decided to flee, Li Laosi saw his own reflection by the Luo River.

The tattoo of the word "bing" on his forehead has become blurred, and his face is full of wrinkles, as if he is an old man in his seventies or eighties.

How old is he?

Forty, or fifty?

Li Laosi had forgotten. He just vaguely remembered that the boy who rolled around in the fields and climbed trees to rob bird nests never returned to his hometown after he was arrested and shackled.

He missed his hometown so much that he couldn't resist the urge to go home and followed.

What if it was just a false alarm?

He didn't want to continue fighting. He just wanted to go back to the small village in his hometown to see if his sister, who was forced to remarry as a concubine of the military commander, was still alive, and to touch the pottery xun with his mother's surname engraved on it that he had hidden on the beam of his ancestral house. Was it still there?

Over the years, he was like a whipped ox, pulling a broken carriage called "Da Han", struggling in the quagmire of time. The red-robed nobles on the carriage kept changing, using jade-studded whips to try to maintain the dignity of the dynasty, whipping Li Laosi and others to move forward desperately, and using their blood to depict the peeling red railings on the canopy carriage of the Da Han...

However, when the sound of the copper bell rang in the dark, Li Laosi knew that something was wrong!

He suddenly realized why this section of the water gate had not been repaired for so long!

This is actually a trap!

Must escape from here!

Li Laosi violently pulled off the cowhide rope that bound the broken bronze goblet. He had stolen it from the shaft of a baggage cart half a month ago. After being soaked in tung oil, it became very tough.

He did not care about the food hidden in the bronze cup spilling out, and just threw the bronze cup with all his strength towards the stone pillars above the canal, hoping to use the force to climb up and escape from danger. However, he forgot that the pillars had not been repaired at all. Even if they had been repaired, the adhesive slurry mixed with ash but not much glutinous rice was not enough to bear his weight.

The stone pillar that should have stood firm was pulled loose and shook by him, and then fell into the canal, almost hitting his head.

"Run back!"

Failed to climb over the canal, could only go back.

It's a pity it's too late.

Man Chong slowly stretched out his hand and then chopped down.

The sound of the armor plates rubbing against each other was as subtle as the flapping of a cricket's wings, but it carried a chilling murderous intent.

Suddenly, some Cao army soldiers appeared above the canal, and they attacked Li Laosi and others with swords and spears, arrows and crossbows, or simply threw down fishing nets, capturing and killing Li Laosi and others like prey.

"Leave two or three alive."

Man Chong glanced at them and gave indifferent instructions. It was not that Man Chong was kind-hearted, but he hoped that there would be spies from the Hussars among these people. In this way, he would have more opportunities...

Li Laosi and his men were unarmed and had no way to resist or escape. They were soon killed or captured.

Man Chong waved behind him, and two men wearing snake-patterned masks walked out of the shadows. The shoulders of their armor also had snake patterns, with snake heads climbing on their shoulders, as if they would jump up and bite people in the next moment.

These were torture officers specially used for interrogation. When the two men approached, the smell of blood on their bodies was even stronger than the blood flowing from the canal.

"Who ordered you to come here? Tell the truth and you will be spared physical pain." The official walked up to Li Laosi, grabbed his head, and pushed aside the messy hair covering his forehead. His voice was as calm as if he was asking what to eat today.

"The mark is old..." An older official stretched out his hand and rubbed the tattoo on Li Laosi's forehead twice, "Write it down, it's ten to fifteen years old..."

The younger official nodded, took out a pen and paper and started recording.

Li Laosi had been stabbed in the leg and was bleeding, but when the thief rubbed his forehead, Li Laosi still felt a sense of fear coming, as if a poisonous snake was crawling across his forehead, cold and wet.

Li Laosi raised his head with great effort and looked at the leading official.

Perhaps it was the physical pain, or perhaps it was the mental stimulation, but Li Laosi's usually slow brain quickly started to work, and he combined the one-eyed old official in front of him with a person in his memory...

"You, you! I remember you!" Li Laosi suddenly shouted, "Guan Du, Guan Du! We were together! We scooped porridge from the same pot... Ah!! It hurts, it hurts..."

The one-eyed old clerk slowly stood up and took the paper and pen from the young clerk, "According to the law, since he recognizes me, you will be the presiding judge."

The older official's voice was flat and without any fluctuations.

The young official lowered his head slightly, then took a cloth bag from the side and threw it on the ground with a dull sound.

"This bronze cup... is it yours?"

The young official asked, and then began to slowly pry up Li Laosi's fingernails with the broken pieces of the bronze goblet.

This is one of the torture techniques. Using the victim's own objects to execute the torturer is the most effective way to break his mind.

“Ahhh…”

Even though he was tied up tightly, the severe pain still made Li Laosi twitch, twist and scream like a dehydrated fish.

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The hand of a young soldier holding a torch to illuminate the area suddenly trembled. He recognized the tortured Li Laosi. It was Li Laosi who taught him how to tie leggings when he went to war. He still remembered the gray hair and the warm, rough hands of Li Laosi when he lowered his head. He helped him tie his leggings and backpack and taught him how to live in the army...

At that moment, Li Laosi was like his uncle.

But now...

When the young official burned Li Laosi's eyelids with the red-hot arrow, the young soldier subconsciously turned his head away and his hands began to tremble.

"Do you know him?" At some point, the older official approached the young soldier holding the torch, and his voice was like a poisonous snake spitting out its tongue.

"No! No no no!" the young soldier shouted, denying it in panic.

The older officer stared at the young soldier with his one eye, "Why are your hands shaking?"

The young soldier took a deep breath and held the torch tightly with both hands. "No, it won't shake anymore, it won't shake anymore..."

The one-eyed official continued to stare at the young soldier, and only looked away after a moment, "It's better that you don't know him."

Pain spread amid the screams, along with the darkness before dawn, and soaked in the sticky mist, as if trying to drill into the gaps in the armor of the surrounding soldiers.

Man Chong stood on a high place, looking down at everything like a god, or like a shepherd watching his sheep and cattle. He did not order the torture officers to avoid other soldiers, and he even took this opportunity to observe the expressions and actions of other soldiers.

This is also normal. After all, no butcher would think of avoiding the sight of cattle and sheep when slaughtering cattle and sheep and dismembering them. Some even think that slaughtering cattle and sheep in front of them can better demonstrate their authority to completely control them.

If you let him live, he will live; if you let him die, he will die.

As for what the cattle and sheep think, it doesn’t matter.

The interrogation lasted from night to dawn. When a ray of light appeared in the sky, the official came forward to report to Man Chong. These people were just deserters, not spies of the cavalry. The origins of each person and the team they originally belonged to were recorded and presented to Man Chong.

Man Chong took the interrogation record, checked it carefully, then went down the stairs, reviewed it one by one, and finally walked in front of Li Laosi.

Li Laosi was still breathing his last breath, and he received "special" care.

Not only were the nails on his fingers and toes gone, but his bones were also broken. One of his eyes was blinded and pierced by a branding iron, and dirty blood flowed down every wrinkle on his face.

"Since you are an old soldier, you should know that military discipline is strict. How can I allow you to blaspheme?" Man Chong waved his hand, "Hang him in front of the camp gate as a warning to the public! "

"This shouldn't be... like this..."

Li Laosi's final sigh mixed with blood foam sprayed on the tip of Man Chong's boots.

A small piece of the bronze jug slid from the broken bones in his palm.

The inscription "Eternal Life" on the fragment happened to face the rising sun in the east, like a prophecy that came a hundred years late.

Man Chong looked around.

The soldiers around him all lowered their heads and did not dare to look at Man Chong.

It's like a group of cattle and sheep. Although they have horns on their heads, they are still used to burying their horns in the soil and sticking their butts up towards the butcher. Perhaps as long as they can't see the butcher, the butcher can't see them either.

To be honest, Man Chong was a little disappointed. He hoped that there were some spies among the Hussars, even just one, so that he could use this spy to send some wrong information to the Hussars and make them fall into a trap...

Unfortunately, no.

Man Chong left with his guards, feeling regretful.

The one-eyed official quietly began to pack up the instruments of torture and put them back into the cloth bag. He suddenly saw the broken pieces of the bronze jug next to Li Laosi's corpse, so he picked them up and stuffed them into the leather bag filled with similar objects.

The leather bag was bulging, and inside it was half a jade pendant engraved with "Yingchuan Guo Family" and a severed finger tied with a wooden plaque with "Peiguo Li Family" on it.

These will serve as teaching aids for the next reiteration of the law, reminding the new recruits what the "law" is.

The sun rose again, and the canal returned to peace. Only the remaining bloodstains and broken bones seemed to indicate something, but they would soon be buried under the mud. Even if there were a few ripples on the surface of the dirty blood in the canal, the blurred faces reflected in the reflections could no longer be distinguished, whether it was the perpetrator or the next victim.

…

…

Jizhou, Qinghe.

It was a chilly spring day. Cui Yan, the head of the Cui family, stood in front of the library in his own manor, tightly holding a volume of "Cui Family Genealogy" in his hand. The blue veins on the back of his hand were exposed and he was trembling slightly.

He looked at the century-old cypress in the courtyard.

The cypress leaves rustled in the wind, welcoming new green after experiencing the harsh winter.

It is said that this cypress tree was already there when the Cui family built the ancestral hall in Qinghe. When Cui Yan was a child, he climbed this tree and was severely punished by his elders when he was caught.

In the minds of Cui's elders, this cypress tree may represent or foreshadow the Cui family's honor, disgrace, rise and fall.

"Old trees... should also sprout new buds..."

Cui Yan looked at the tender green on the branches of the cypress and muttered to himself.

From a certain perspective, he had reached the end of his career under Cao Cao's political group. Although he was a provincial governor, what could he do? In the early years, provincial governors were really powerful, with money, food, people and soldiers in their hands. They would serve the king if they wanted to, and oppose Dong if they wanted to. But what about now?

He was a provincial governor, yet he had to flee all the way back and almost died at the hands of an ordinary jailer!

If the provincial governors and governors before were of high gold content, then the provincial governors and governors now are like gold-plated bronze objects. Although they also have some weight, their value is worlds apart.

If Cui Yan wanted to go further, even if the emperor allowed it, Cao Cao would not allow it, otherwise he would not have fallen to this point today...

"Master! Master! If we do this, how can we do it again?" The elder of the Cui family was trembling under the eaves, with his white hair fluttering in the wind. "We, the Cui family of Qinghe, have gone through dozens of hardships for generations to build our current foundation. Master... you should think twice before you act!"

Cui Yan closed his eyes and sighed.

After a moment, Cui Yan did not turn around, but asked slowly, "Is this what Uncle San thought, or is this a rumor from others?"

"Huh?" Uncle Cui was stunned for a moment, then said, "Why do we need to spread rumors about this? Everyone in the clan is talking about it."

Cui Yan raised his head and looked at the cypress tree in front of him again. "Everyone saw that the Cui family had a strong foundation, just like this cypress, solid and strong, and not afraid of severe cold. But who knew that once the war broke out, it might be destroyed in an instant."

"Cao Mengde has marched into Jizhou and plundered the area. Although his troops have temporarily stopped, they have not yet reached Qinghe..." Cui Yan turned around and said to the old man, "But if Cao's army attacks..."

The worry on Cui Yan's face gradually turned into fierceness, "How are you going to eliminate the disaster?"