Pick all the cold branches

When Zhen Xian woke up, he just felt that he was thrown into the frying pan after death, and that he would fall apart if he moved casually.The arms that were tied behind the back for a long time were so sore that they were completely unconscious, and they couldn't feel their existence at all. Even if they had to get rid of the shackles, they still couldn't move freely.Batu Mengke was still lying on his side, but he was sleeping very soundly. He pressed his hands and feet on his body, hugging him tightly.Zhen Xian struggled for a while, but failed to get up, but woke up Batu Mengke.

"From now on, you stay in my tent, don't go back to 'shepherd'." Batu Mengke opened his eyes half-opened and immediately brought his face closer, the tip of his nose and lips rubbed back and forth on Zhen Xian's cheek and neck.

Zhen Xian didn't say a word, just struggled to get up, pulled the incomplete clothes to wrap around his body, and picked up the book that was thrown on the ground.He carefully flattened the pages of the book that had been crumpled and out of shape one by one, then silently pressed it to his heart, and then did not move again.

"Forget about that irrelevant guy. You are mine, and from now on you can only be mine." Batumengke leaned closer again, wrapped his arms around his waist talking to himself, and commanded quite capriciously.

Zhen Xian still should not.Batu Mengke rubbed him back and forth incessantly, but he also seemed ignorant and didn't respond at all.

"Is this the third thing you want me to do? Then you should fulfill your promise and send His Highness Seventh back." After a long time, he uttered this sentence expressionlessly.

For a moment, Batu Mengke froze, and then jumped violently. "Okay, if you promise to stay by my side forever like this, I'll send him back, otherwise I'll throw him to the dogs." He glared at Zhen Xian gloomily, gritted his teeth and swore, if he didn't believe it, it would be with his skin People who are on a blind date can turn their faces and say such things.

This little prince who is like a wild beast does not yet know what it means to long for him or what it means to be in love with each other, he only knows how to hunt and possess.

Zhen Xian didn't even look at him, and asked coldly: "I used to think that you were at least a man who speaks out loudly and honestly."

"What I said, I can always do it - I also said that no matter what, I will make you mine, no matter what." Batu Mengke hugged Zhen Xian, tightened his arms and strangled him tightly. In his arms, he gnawed on his neck and ears restlessly, breathing hotly and rapidly.

The little prince who wanted to kill was irritable and irritable, even if he knew he was being threatened, he still didn't dare to disobey.He can really do such a thing as throwing a living person to feed the dogs.

"Until His Royal Highness returns home safely, I will take care of him personally." Zhen Xian was silent for a long time, taking a deep breath.

In this sentence, Batu Mengke defaulted to a bargaining transaction. "Then tell me, Zhen Xian, your second prince, who is better between me and him?" He smiled like a victorious hunter, his hands restlessly wandering around his prey, Sticky begging for approval.

To be shameless is tantamount to humiliation.Zhen Xian pushed the little prince away who was still panting with all his strength, struggled to stand up and fully dressed, shook a bit before he could walk.

He glanced at Batu Mengke.

That look clearly said: You will never try to compare with him.

Then he threw down the curtain as the little prince roared angrily.

That was not the most painful time in Zhen Xian's life, but it was the first time he experienced real humiliation and helplessness.

Batu Mengke, who finally took hold of his weakness, forced him to eat mutton, forced goat milk tea into his mouth, and continued to violate him.He had been a vegetarian for many years, and suddenly he couldn't stand the fat and greasy food, and was so tortured that Batu Mengke refused to let him go.There is no sympathy and love, and no sweetness and joy. It is just a violent occupation, the most primitive venting and indulgence, as if in this way, he can strip off the flesh and blood of the southerner and completely turn him into his own.

When Batu Mengke went hunting or fell asleep, Zhen Xian would guard outside the sheepfold where the Seventh Prince was imprisoned, keeping those boring Mongolian nobles and their dogs away, and try to find something suitable for Middle-earth food. Habitual food.

But he himself would not come close, and it was Su Gebala who helped him.

The only time it was the Seventh Prince who called him first.

"Sir... are you outside?"

The voice of the boy with curly hair is still immature, trembling in the fear of being in a foreign land, arousing infinite sourness in the bottom of my heart.

"I receive taxes and tribute from my subjects. Instead of protecting them, I want them to suffer for me. I am really ashamed of my ancestors. But... I don't have the courage to really die... I am afraid of death..."

The boy who had been loved and loved since he was a child once suffered a disaster. With a crying voice, he repeatedly complained about his shame, and even swore angrily and said some cruel words, "One day... I will return today's shame to these Tartar dogs!" She doesn't look like a child at all, but she looks like nothing more.

Instead, Zhen Xian couldn't help smiling.

"Your Highness Seventh, please don't think so. If you are down and humiliated today, you will humiliate others when you get rich in the future. What is the difference from those who bully you? If Your Highness has true ambitions, everyone in this world should have dignity."

The boy's sobbing stopped abruptly, and he was silent for a long time. He replied with confusion, "Everyone has dignity. Can such a world really be realized?"

Zhen Xian was speechless for a long time.

There is no answer.

Who knows, maybe, it's not possible at all.

Once upon a time, he also lost all hope, thinking that all expectations would eventually be despaired, and all light would be annihilated in the shadow of power and profit.But even if this is the case, there is only one way to go in that direction, every step, even if there is only one step is good.

Beyond that, he has nowhere to go.

On that day, Zhen Xian said to Su Ge Bala: "Your elder brother will not let His Royal Highness Seven go back. He harassed the border town every year. The emperor must have had the intention to expel the Tartars and calm the border. He only had to mediate with those courtiers who were conservative and anti-war. He Not letting the Seventh Highness go back, on the contrary, gave His Majesty the opportunity to launch the Northern Expedition. He may have long wanted to fight this battle, and had dreams of becoming the master of China's revival. But today's pilgrimage is not a weak lamb, and the flames of war are burning. In the end, it will only be his Golden Horde Banner that will be burned to ashes. He will definitely not win."

"Brother Zhen, you have treated my brother—" Brother Su's face was full of worry, and he couldn't find a suitable expression in the middle of the sentence.

The pain in the body will soon be numb, but the mind will become more and more terribly clear.

At this moment, it was already difficult for Zhen Xian to distinguish the so-called feelings carefully, and he only had one thought - no matter what, he must send His Highness Seven back.

"Prince, you are the clouds and flowers on the grassland, you are the holy white deer, Zhen Xian is grateful for your benevolence and kindness."

There are many slaves captured from the border town of Yulin on the grassland, most of them are young and strong men, and there are also many children who were captured when they were young and now they have grown into young men.

I have been here for four years, and every time I see them, Zhen Xian can't help but sigh.

People are so weak, and they are just trying to survive by bowing their knees and slavishly flattering them... If there is no one who raises his arms and takes the lead, he will always be just a mess.

But Zhen Xian doesn't want to be the one who "takes the lead" unless he has to.

Forced to do so.

He knew that he was not the material.There are too many squares and corners in his personality and too many shortcomings. Since he was a child, people have been telling him that this terrible temperament will kill him one day, including his grandfather, father, and mother.But he just can't change it.

He asked Suge Bala to find an excuse to gather the captive border residents together.

Standing in front of those young faces, there was no passion in his voice, only a calm statement, "The Seventh Prince must go back safely. You can't be slaves here forever."

Immediately, someone sneered and asked back: "We were captured by the tartars and no one cared about it, why should we care about this kid?"

Some people also sneered: "If there is no war, we will all be robbed and killed by the Tartars."

In the face of such doubts, Zhen Xian can't say those high-sounding righteousness, let alone encourage the living beings in front of them to give up their lives and forget their lives.

He knew what they said was true.

It's not that the court doesn't know about Batu Mengke's raids on border towns every year, but they just don't want to take care of them.At least not for the time being.Pretending to be deaf and dumb like this, maybe the superiors have their own considerations, but these border residents have suffered.

Some people are born to call the wind and rain, while others are unable to make decisions for themselves from birth.

So Zhen Xian could only quietly draw out the rusty Wenjian from his waist.

"I don't think I'm doing something noble and righteous, and I don't want to persuade you to take care of the overall situation and benefit the world. I can't guarantee that this move will bring everyone victory and pass the customs, but I must do it. If you want to go back, no Whoever is willing to be enslaved here all his life, come to me."

Su Ge Baba stood guard not far away, watching him from outside the fence, pursing his lips and frowning, and clutching his clothes tightly with both hands.

At first everyone looked at him hesitantly, and no one was willing to move forward.

Then someone stood up.

"Brothers, we are all seven-foot men with hands and feet, and we are also bloody! Do we really want to be dogs for the Tartars for the rest of our lives?"

That's what's really incendiary.

Finally, the crowd gradually echoed.

In the end, everyone passed.After all, no one is really willing to be a slave in a foreign land, and everyone wants to go back.

Everyone gathered in one place, Zhen Xian simply divided into three groups, set a time, and taught one group to intentionally provoke troubles, one group to take advantage of the opportunity to set fire to the Mongols' food and grass to create chaos, and one group to take advantage of the chaos to break up the horses so that the Mongols could not go smoothly Chasing him, he himself and Suge Bala are responsible for rescuing the Seventh Prince.After the three groups of people echoed each other and broke out, they went to Yansui to rendezvous and, as the Seventh Prince, asked for help from the Holy Dynasty garrison stationed in Yansui.

Those frontier residents had heard of Zhen Xian's name as "Tan Hua Lang" bit by bit, and heard from the Mongolian people that he had been a "military adviser" for Shuozhou Bai Zongbing for several years. It seemed that the big event had come to an end, and the joy was beyond words, no matter how much Ren Zhenxian told them to be careful not to miss the tricks in advance, they would not listen to them.

Only the first person who stood up and raised his arms and shouted, kept looking at him in a muffled voice.

"Why didn't Mr. Zhen do this earlier?"

The man came to Zhen Xian's side after everyone dispersed, and asked in a deep voice.

And Zhen Xian had noticed him long ago.

This man was about thirty years old, tall and tall, standing like a pine and cypress, always standing upright with his hands behind his back, he didn't look like a captured Yulin commoner, but a well-trained soldier.And not an ordinary pawn.Ordinary pawns don't have the courage to respond to everything.There are more than [-] of these frontier residents, and this person is very familiar with orders, at least he is a lieutenant.So is this person the Yulin garrison lurking in, or is he from Yingzhou...?But listening to his accent, it looks like a person from the capital, at least he has been in the capital for many years...

"You are--"

Zhen Xian's heart skipped a beat, and he retreated subconsciously.

The man had already cupped his fists and approached, controlling all retreats within one step.

"Captain Wei Zuo of Prince Jing's Mansion, Tong Qian."

For a moment, Zhen Xian's mind was completely blank.

It's still here.

That person, the person he thought he knew from childhood, the person he swore to spend his whole life following and assisting, is the second son of the present, King Jing Jiafei.

Zhen Xian tried to describe countless times in his heart and dreams the possible scenarios when Jiafei found him again, but none of them could make him more embarrassing and desperate than this situation.

"I don't want to see him." Zhen Xian subconsciously clenched his fists.

"Then what do you want?" Tong Qian raised his eyebrows, "Stay here and be that savage Tartar—" He seemed to realize the thorn in the words after blurting out, and quickly swallowed the second half of the sentence.

Zhen Xian's face was pale.

He knew what drama was going on at the moment.

This Captain Tong must not have come voluntarily, but he still came reluctantly because His Highness Prince Jing insisted.

However, His Royal Highness Prince Jing is probably the only one who insists on finding him back.

Tong Qian must have hated him from the bottom of his heart, because he was the one who made His Royal Highness Prince Jing make one wrong decision after another, and he was the one who made His Royal Highness deviate from the right path and fell deep into such a ridiculous farce.

Seven years.It's been so long, why doesn't that person give up?Still wanting to catch him like this...

And he himself should be terrified by this, and he should retreat quickly, why... In the bottom of his heart, in the abyss that no one can touch, there is still a trace of joy that has never died, like rain after a long drought Like a plant, stretching its thirsty branches happily?

The mood is so delicate and complicated, and the stormy waves are surging, but the face has to remain as calm as a flat lake.

Zhen Xian felt that he really couldn't lie to himself.But he cannot indulge.

"I... can't see him."

He secretly clenched the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"You don't have the right to decide this kind of thing." Tong Qian twitched his lips mockingly, "Why don't you just follow the prince obediently? Why bother."

Zhen Xian lowered his eyes, "Zhen Xian is not suitable to stay with His Highness."

Tong Qian was stunned for a moment, then sneered, "A normal person would understand this kind of thing. But so what? The prince has been looking for you for seven years. He wants you to go back."

Zhen Xian frowned tightly, "He shouldn't be looking for me. He and I shouldn't have lived in the same world."

"Since this is the case, you shouldn't have provoked His Highness from the very beginning." Tong Qian retorted, "Why did you return to the capital from Lingnan in the first place? You obviously provoked people's hearts, and you left so willfully. It's okay. Let you take it?"

Zhen Xian was startled suddenly.

Back then when he returned to Beijing all the way from Lingnan, his heart was full of high-spirited joy. He thought that since then, nothing could hinder him from spreading his wings and soaring to the sky with that person Ling Feng, but he never thought that the biggest obstacle in the world was actually is himself.

Perhaps, the emperor didn't kill him back then, but he had already seen through him.

"Yeah, just take it as I'm sorry for him..." He took a deep breath and suppressed the trembling in his shoulders.

But Captain Tong obviously didn't buy it.

"You don't have the qualifications! Zhen Xian, from the moment you recruit His Highness, you have no choice." Tong Qian glanced at him contemptuously, and whispered coldly: "There will be an incident tomorrow night, and I will take advantage of the chaos." Go. Don't do unnecessary things."

Zhen Xian couldn't help frowning.

Tong Qian was planning to treat those frontier residents as abandoned children and throw them away when they are used up.Indeed, from the standpoint of Tong Qian, using those frontier residents to hide the truth is a shortcut.But what about the border residents who were coerced here?And who ever really thought of them?

Once they abandon the border residents and run away on their own, those poor people who have never been trained or experienced major events will definitely be in chaos. Maybe they can't escape Yansui at all, and it will be over. Even if someone gets to Yansui by luck, there is no such thing as the Seventh Prince Even if they don't have a life-saving talisman, they can't knock on the gate of the garrison.

Human life, it turns out, is really worthless.

"...Did you make any plans when you stood up?" Zhen Xian asked in a deep voice.

"I came to rescue you with the order of the prince, and I cannot let you die here with them." Tong Qian grinned coldly, and thought for a while, "At most, I can bring the Seventh Highness with me."

Zhen Xian originally wanted to refute something, but he heard Su Geba's cry in a low voice.

"Brother Zhen! My brother and the others are back on horseback!"

Tong Qian glanced at the Mongolian girl who was trotting towards him, bowed his head, turned around and left, like a black raccoon at night.

Zhen Xian was silent for a moment, then slowly closed his eyes, and then opened them again, his eyes were like fire.