【Leian】Prison bird

No matter how all things go round and round, live and die, the long river of time will never stop, they just rush forward without turning back to meet the so-called future.

Whether people have expectations or fears, the night will eventually come as scheduled.In the camp where the Hundred Flowers Knights were stationed, there was a heavy and depressing atmosphere. Several cavalrymen on duty sat quietly around the bonfire, the burning firewood crackling, and the shaking firelight concealed a few slightly dejected faces.

In the barracks not far behind them, the dull sound of the horsewhip hitting the flesh continued to be heard, which was especially clear in this silent night.As the cavalry listened, their expressions gradually became complicated.

The person who was punished was their knight commander, who was detained by the deputy head for letting go of the former Knight of Hundred Flowers earlier, and was tortured.The deputy group... No, it should be called the acting head now--until the appointment is issued, he cannot be officially titled, and only has temporary command over the Knights of Hundred Flowers.He seemed to be deeply abhorred by An Mixiu's betrayal, and since the Knight Commander was captured, he has continued to punish the accomplice in the form of corporal punishment.

A cavalryman crossed himself and prayed silently for his superior, while the others sighed and looked worried.They also pleaded for the knight commander, but they were all blocked by the pure rules and regulations read out by the other party in a just and awe-inspiring tone.People who regard the rules as the code of conduct will never be able to defy the constraints imposed by themselves. This constraint is invisible and qualityless. It binds the mind, binds the soul, and reduces the body to a common body.

Just like they don't want to believe that the Knight of Hundred Flowers in their hearts will fall from the altar, they also have a strong kind of pity for the knight commander, which is close to sympathy, but they have to lose in the face of reality.After all, loyalty is a word that runs through their lives. Now that belief has become a part of themselves, it is impossible for them to betray themselves from the root.

The night is as cool as water, and a gust of wind blows, rolling a few fallen leaves across the feet.

In the cool air, a voice suddenly sounded: "Who is the current regiment leader, take me to see him."

Startled, the cavalry immediately stood up and looked towards the source of the sound.A young man stepped out of the shadows, took off his hood, and revealed a gentle and upright face.

It's... An Mixiu!

The cavalry were stunned at the same time, and then looked at each other with hesitation.

The young man didn't realize it, as if he couldn't understand the suffering and struggle in their eyes, he still greeted politely: "Good evening."

Hearing this, one of the cavalrymen almost blurted out a sentence.Several other people turned their faces sideways and said nothing.An Mixiu took out the document written by Lei Shi himself, and said calmly: "I come here according to His Majesty's order, and lead the way."

Several cavalrymen were really stunned.They couldn't contain their ecstasy. Since the head of the regiment was ordered to come, it meant that he still had His Majesty's trust. The king would not favor a traitor. There must be some misunderstanding!

They looked at the young man with hopeful eyes, and asked tremblingly, "Leader, can we, can we trust you?"

An Mixiu smiled and nodded: "If you still want to."

For a moment, the cavalry felt relieved.Great, their leader is not wrong, the judgment of the knight commander is not wrong, what they think... is not wrong!

An Mixiu's heart couldn't help softening. He looked at these wandering souls who had been wandering in turmoil with pity, and gently urged: "Time is limited, take me to see him first."

"Yes!"

The young man followed the cavalry into the barracks, and whispered to the excited knight commander, "I'm back."

At this moment, the knight commander knelt down on the ground, his hands were tightly tied behind his back, and the criss-cross whip marks were engraved on his bare|exposed skin, which looked particularly shocking.An Mixiu stepped forward and patted him on the shoulder reassuringly, turned around and looked at the deputy head solemnly: "Kneel down."

The shocked deputy head quickly came to his senses, "An Mixiu, you are not qualified..."

The young man will unfold the official document and stretch it out in front of him: "I will make you kneel down."

The moment the deputy head saw the inscription clearly, his heart sank involuntarily.He knelt down slowly on the ground, looking unwilling like a cornered beast.A sword was resting on his neck, and a young voice sounded above his head: "As His Majesty's Zhili knight, but he secretly conspired with the eldest prince to commit treason, disregarding the commandments of the knight order, and now follow His Majesty's order, and arrest him for treason." you."

He forced himself to calm down and defended himself loudly: "No, you can't condemn me. It is true that the Hundred Flowers Knights should be loyal to His Majesty, but at that time who knows which His Highness will become our Majesty, An Mixiu, we are just Made a different choice, in essence, you are no different from me."

"His Highness the First Prince poisoned his own father, blamed His Majesty, and started a war, but you turned a blind eye and worked for the tiger." An Mixiu flipped the tip of his sword, picked off his helmet, and announced angrily: "You are no longer a knight. .”

Seeing that the situation was over, the deputy head angrily reprimanded the cavalry who came up to hold his arms: "Let go of me, you guys!" He turned to look at An Mixiu: "You damn commoner, dirty bug!"

The young man's eyes were calm: "Only God can determine my sin, and I will obey no one who decides that I should die."

The sound of cursing gradually faded away, An Mixiu cut off the rope on the knight commander with a sword, and the latter stared blankly at the sword in his hand, "Your saber...?"

The sword that An Mixiu was given by his adoptive father when he was 15 years old was untied and confiscated by the eldest prince when he was captured. The subsequent escape was even more time-consuming, and it was impossible to find it again. .

"When I was a child, my father once said this sentence: the noble spirit lasts forever, and the fire in the heart never goes out." He lowered his head, his eyes softened, and stroked his new saber: "I didn't quite understand it at the time, but now I understand it a little bit." .”

No matter how beautiful the carvings are and how lofty the meaning is endowed, dead things are still dead after all, and the human heart is always beating.Every minute someone dies on the earth, and someone gets a new life. This is not a reincarnation, but the belief that embodies the soul and spirit of the past generations will be passed down along with the endless river of time to welcome the future.

An Mixiu recalled what he had seen and heard in the past few days: the vast plain was devastated, the once fertile land was becoming desolate, and the shock on people's faces was still undecided.He helped the knight commander out of the barracks, raised his voice, and said to the members of the knights who had heard the news: "Come on, my comrade, my brother, let us end this!"

If this is his mission.

Suburban woods.

A considerable number of people and horses hid among the lush vegetation. The eldest prince rode forward, walked to the edge of the woods, and looked at the quiet royal city not far away.An uneasiness lingered in his heart all the time. Although he had sent someone to send a warning letter to Wangcheng earlier, the content of the letter sent from Wangcheng—as seen from the previous situation reports, both sides obviously happened to miss it.But even so, after receiving your own letter, you should take action as soon as possible. After all, this is not a trivial matter.

But no, during his journey all the way, he didn't see any messenger from Wangcheng.

An Mixiu was an accident.

The eldest prince frowned, and said: "Come here." No, he was writing a letter, telling them to strengthen their vigilance and pay attention to suspicious people in the city.

The letter was quickly sent to the Duke's Palace. The Duke of York, who was originally relaxed, was taken aback after reading it, and immediately called Margaret and Daniel to discuss countermeasures.In the middle of the night, several people sat around the study room, silent to the letter paper.

Daniel and Margaret thought of the morning at the same time, and believed that the knight must be An Mixiu.This meant that Leishi knew everything, and they lost a powerful threat to restrain him.Fortunately, Lei Shi's life is not long, and the seals and other status symbols are in their hands, so the current situation is not too passive.

Now we can only act first.The three thought at the same time.Just when they were about to forge the letter and start the plan to seize the city ahead of schedule, the Duke's mansion was surrounded.

A group of members of the cavalry walked in, guarding Leishi majestically, and started arresting people without saying a word.Look at Leishi again, standing high and mighty, he doesn't look like he is dying.

The few people here are not ignorant people, so they immediately figured out the key points.This is all calculated by Lei Shi, in order to get the stolen goods.I'm afraid that even this letter could flow in because he deliberately arranged it to be waterproof.

The Duke of York is in his twilight years and has enjoyed a good life for most of his life. Now he is being played by a brat who is only eighteen years old in the applause. He can't help but feel angry in his chest. He stands up and wants to make a final struggle, "Come here, come here, hurry up... "Before he finished speaking, he fell to the ground with a plop, and the blood gushing from his neck immediately smeared on the carpet.

A cavalryman withdrew his sword, took a step back and stood back.The scene fell into silence.

Margaret, with the sword on her shoulder, did not change her face, she sat motionless on the chair, and said for a long while, "You have won, Your Majesty."

Lei Shi raised his eyebrows: "You have good guts."

Margaret's tone has changed to a calmness that sees through everything. She quickly accepted the reality and prepared to die calmly. "Everyone pays the price for their choices, I don't think you'll forgive me, I don't think there's anything wrong with what you do when you stand on the sidelines, I'm sure you understand, so let me be a stupid, Unlikable loser."

"No, I appreciate a woman like you." Lei Shi gestured, and the servant came over with a glass of poisoned wine and placed it on the table in front of Margaret.

"As a reward for pleasing me—" the young king raised his chin slightly, "I will grant you a decent death."

Compared with being read out in public and hanged, this can indeed be counted as a gift.Margaret looked at the glass of wine, which she handed to Leishi at the ball.The girl picked up the cup and drank it down, then leaned back in the chair, welcoming the imminent death.

In an instant, only Daniel was left in the study.

The cardinal still maintained a decent smile, and said unhurriedly in the tense atmosphere: "Your Majesty, I believe you should be clear that I have immunity."

Lei Shi snorted, and suddenly pulled out the sword of the knight beside him, and placed it next to Daniel's neck. The cold blade directly touched the human skin, leaving a bloodstain. "Do you really think I dare not kill you?" His eyes showed disdain, "Your Holy See meddles in internal affairs without authorization, and I also have a debt to settle with you."

Behind Daniel's seemingly inexplicable behavior is the embodiment of the Holy See's ambition.In order to return to the peak period, manipulate and even take away the glory of the throne of a country's monarch, the Holy See selectively ignores the conspiracy of the eldest prince and adopts checks and balances to vacillate between the two crown princes, but it is increasing its bargaining chips for itself.

Everyone knows that the Holy See is a third-party force and can be wooed. The more intense the struggle between them, the more weight they need to tilt the scale, and the status of the Holy See will rise accordingly.Regardless of the eldest prince or Leishi, the more they demand, the deeper the Holy See will penetrate into the dynasty's internal affairs, which means that they will become more and more puppets in the future.

It's a pity that Leishi didn't cooperate—at that time, Daniel visited with the news of An Mixiu's disappearance, not only to test Leishi's attitude, but also to cooperate.He vaguely pointed out the current situation, waiting for the little king to let go, but he didn't. The latter blocked all the roads to cooperation with an extremely tough attitude and expelled him from the country.Because of this, Daniel, who was in charge of this task, chose to help the eldest prince who was in need.

Leishi's desire to control has always been strong, he will not tolerate people running wild in his territory, but religion | theocracy has always been rooted in this land, no matter how the regime changes, they will always survive.Therefore, in order to weaken the influence of these ambitious god-cloaked people in the realm, he needs the opportunity.

And Daniel's "mistake" this time will undoubtedly become the best tool for Leishi to put pressure on the Holy See.Regardless of the outcome, under Leishi's rule in the future, theocracy will be weakened to the weakest within the kingdom.

The knight who was hiding under his bed in the morning hurried over and saluted and reported: "Your Majesty, His Majesty Camille is ready!"

Daniel sighed: "It seems that the eldest prince's plan is about to fail."

Lei Shi cast a slanted glance, "Just wait." After speaking, he stuffed the hilt of the sword to the person beside him, waved his hand and said, "Press it down."

The night is getting darker.

The eldest prince's face sank after waiting for a reply for a long time, and the bad premonition in his heart became stronger and stronger.With the passage of time, the physical exhaustion and the wonderful excitement caused by nervous tension tore his reason, and just before dawn when the deepest darkness fell and everyone began to feel tired, Lin Nai suddenly rang Hooves!

The sound came from all directions, and the earth trembled accordingly.The eldest prince, who was already thinking about retreating, was instantly alert: No, it's an ambush!

Arrows with flames flew towards them like raindrops, igniting everything they touched.The screams and the neighing of war horses resounded through the forest. Through the burning flames, the First Prince could clearly see the shadows in the distance. Among them, there was a military flag fluttering in the wind——the blue pattern on a white background was the color of a lily. shape.

Knights of Hundred Flowers.

The First Prince glared fiercely at the brown-haired young man below the military flag: "It's you."

An Mixiu, who was far away in the woods, could not hear his gnashing of teeth, but commanded the knights in an orderly manner, launching round after round of attacks.

It is impossible to retreat, it is better to fight to the death.The eldest prince grabbed the people beside him and roared: "Let the heavy cavalry regiment deal with them, hurry up!"

The man was pushed hard, and suddenly staggered, tightened the reins to stabilize his body, quickly answered yes, turned the horse's head, and ran towards the rear under the rain of arrows.

The heavy cavalry has always been the most threatening unit in the plain battle. They have inherent advantages in offense and defense. They are powerful in destructive power, and the armor armed to the horseshoe is extremely difficult to break through. , is undoubtedly very tricky.

The purpose of the eldest prince is to use the heavy cavalry to break up and escape. The advantage in equipment can also pull the Hundred Flowers Knights led by An Mixiu into a disadvantage, thus turning the tide of battle.He had a good plan in his heart, but he was no match for the mockery of fate.

Dawn is always short and fleeting. With the first ray of dawn lighting up the distant horizon, the night officially ends.And at the end of the light, there are mighty people coming to this line.

An Mixiu recognized Lei Shi in the crowd at a glance, and the other party also found him as if he had sensed it.

In an instant, all swords, swords, and fighting shouts were far away from them, and the whole world seemed to freeze, falling into a static tense.

An Mixiu raised his sword above his head, under the golden light of dawn, looked into Lei Shi's eyes and said word by word:

"In front of a strong enemy, be fearless.

Courageous and loyal, worthy of God.

Geng Zheng said bluntly, he would rather die than lie.

Protecting the weak is no wonder. "

The iron hooves of the heavy cavalry moved from far to near, and the ground vibrated when they stepped on it, making a dull and heavy sound.An Mixiu swung his sword downwards, pointing directly at the powerful enemy: "Knights of Hundred Flowers, attack!"

The echoing voices merged into waves and resounded across the battlefield.

The wind sent the oath-like words to Lei Shi's ears, just like the new morning light, gently kissing his face.The young king couldn't help but chuckled, and then rode up to the eldest prince, and said lazily, "Brother Wang, I haven't seen you for a long time, are you all right?"

At this moment, the First Prince was no longer as calm as before, he stared at Lei Shi in front of him with cold eyes, the other's complacent look was undoubtedly a kind of irony to him.He looked at his younger brother as if he was looking at an irrelevant stranger who could be sacrificed at any time.

Camille had led the cavalry to take over An Mixiu's vacancy, and met the First Prince's light cavalry regiment. The First Prince glanced at the slump beside him and said, "When did you find out?"

Leishi: "At first."

The First Prince frowned: "What do you mean?"

Lei Shi: "Start from the negotiation. Every step you take is too confident, and people who are at the end of the road will not be so strong." At the end of the day, he kindly added: "Of course, it was just suspicion at the beginning, until you plan to Start with An Mixiu."

The eldest prince sneered suddenly: "Hmph, you actually believe him."

"I know what he is like." Lei Shi raised one corner of his mouth, and said domineeringly: "I want the kingship and people."

The eldest prince was so angry that his chest heaved violently, and after a while, he suddenly said: "I'm afraid there are some things you can't control." He took a saber from his waist and showed it to Lei Shi on purpose.The latter stared, and gradually put away his smile.

The eldest prince slowly drew out the blade of his sword: "If you were killed by the sword of your own knight, you don't have any regrets."

"You moved something that shouldn't be moved." Lei Shi said blankly, "You will regret it."

This is the first time Leishi has drawn his sword since the peace talks.It was only at this moment that the eldest prince realized firsthand the horror of Leishi that was rumored by other people on the battlefield.The results of the strict education of the royal family are vividly reflected in him. Once Leishi enters the killing field, he is like a fish in water, and no one can stop his progress.

Even though the First Prince's swordsmanship was inherited from An Mixiu's adoptive father, no matter how superb his skills were, after several confrontations, he was still irreversibly defeated.When the sword blades intersected again and was picked to the ground, Lei Shi patted the eldest prince's cheek with his sword, and said with a smile: "My brother Wang, do you think that's all I can do?"

He snatched back An Mixiu's saber, "wait for the gallows."

When the sun rose, the anti-annihilation war finally came to an end.

The Knights of Hundred Flowers, who had flowed through Changhong all the way, miraculously defeated the prestigious heavy cavalry regiment, and all the important principals, including the eldest prince, were arrested and taken into custody by Camille.

Lei Shi walked towards An Mixiu step by step, and returned the sword to him.An Mixiu took it with trembling hands, and embraced it in his arms, as if holding a lost and found beloved.His heart was ups and downs, and he couldn't help but soften his gaze when he looked at Lei Shi.

Lei Shi turned his face away unnaturally, and asked, "What?"

An Mixiu said softly: "I was just thinking, in the future, I should..."

Lei Shi interrupted him: "Then do you accept it?"

True, their actions rebelled against God.An Mixiu thought so and closed his eyes.

In a trance, Lei Shi smelled the fragrance of flowers in his memory.

The scent of flowers floated along with the gentle voice of the knight, as if whispering in his ear:

The penny faced me and sang:

"Nobody is so clever,

to see its mysteries,

He who is caught in the trap of curly hair,

I have to search for love for a long time,

Until the time coil is no longer wound. "*

The image of the maid is already blurred, but the second half of the poem is still vivid.

Lei Shi leaned over and kissed the ray of sunshine.

End.

*Note: Same as Yeats' poem "BrownPenny".It is in context with the paragraphs mentioned above, please take it together.