Chapter 17 0017

"That won't work!" Master Ye jumped up and shouted, "Who? Who led a team of guns to meet him? No matter what, we can't let Ba Ye have any danger." "I'll go!" said the little Gu Ye who had just come back from fighting the fire on the East Street, "I just got someone to pull back the gun team that had set up an ambush in the reeds in the north, just in time to lead them to chase the thieves." Young Master Gu led a group of Xiangyan Gang and Lao Erfang's gun team away, and what was left was enough for Master Ye and Master Zhen to split up.Niu En, the martial artist dispatched by Baye Guan, and Wan Liang, the treasurer of Wanjiapu, both died in the final scuffle. A total of 19 people were killed and injured in the gun teams of each house; The stables on the street and the granary of the old second room were all burned, three shops in the south of the street were broken into and looted, and the stone lion in front of Zhenye's house was dragged to the middle of the street by bandits; Countless, there are more than 20 dead bodies around Wanjialou Square alone.

The sky was brightened amidst the hustle and bustle of Wanjialou, the clouds were billowing, the cold wind gnawed at the bones, and it was still a gloomy sky; although Ye Ye was a calm person, facing this situation, his heart was in a mess.Bao Ye's body was parked in the ancestral hall, ready to be buried. After this robbery, the vitality of Wanjialou was devastated, and the food was not prepared enough, so he was unable to chase the retreating bandits. Gun went to meet Guan Baye, but he didn't come back after dawn, even if he felt a little empty in his heart, the truth still had to be taken care of.Cleaning up the fire, catching loose horses, searching for corpses and collecting corpses, I stayed up all night without closing my eyes; after dawn, the family members who recognized the corpses surrounded the ancestral hall and cried miserably.

The famous Wanjialou has been paying attention to black people since the iron head Li Shikun. If he escapes, he is afraid that he will be swept up by the bandits, just like Chaijiabao. Can it be said that Baoye is at fault?The fault can't be wronged by the shrewd Baoye; with the strength of Wanjialou's guns, it is not a big deal to deal with Judge Zhu Si. Ye Ye thought about this, but who knew Judge Zhu came so quickly , so accurate?If there is no inside line, Master Bao would never be here with straight legs and straight feet. It was dawn, and the gray morning light fell on the gray tile ridge of the ancestral hall. More than a dozen dead bodies were lying on the straw mats in the courtyard of the ancestral hall. Although their heads and faces were covered with white paper, the bloodstains could not be concealed. The family members of the family put on filial piety and wailed around the pile of corpses. Whoever heard that piercing cry would feel sore noses and tears in their eyes.

My little aunt, Wan Hanying, knelt at Baoye's feet, her eyes turned black from crying. Although she was a wild girl, she also had a deep affection; Her life was quite lonely, and no one in the clan dared to talk about anything in front of her because of the generation gap. Among her brothers of the same generation, she respected Bao Ye the most, and Bao Ye always loved this young sister very much; When her father was shot, she never cried. The sound of the gunshot and the shouts of killing pushed her into a nightmare. Now she was crying for Baoye, only then did she remember that she had endured a long night beside Baoye's corpse.

Aigu beside Wan Hanying was also crying for her husband Wan Liang; her heart was already broken, but Wan Liang sewed her up.She will never forget the days behind her, when her father risked his life to release Guan Baye, who had fallen into salt, and walked to Guandong with Guan Baye, and entrusted her to Bian San and Mao Liu before leaving. Sell ​​yourself.After several wanderings, she went to work as a prostitute in a brothel named "Fengyuetang" in Yanshi, Huaiheba, and her flower name was Xiaohehua.All the big salt merchants in the salt market, the wealthy masters of the lake, (referring to the salt merchants from Hongze Lake.) There is no one who does not know the little lotus, the red girl.

After three full years in Yanshi, God knows how many tears fell on the fragrant satin pillow. She doubted that one day, her father and the brave Guan Baye would rescue her from the fire pit.Years of ruthlessness have passed on the waves of the Salt River, and she has changed countless ruthless men in her arms, and finally she fell into Wan Liang's hands. Wan Liang is an honest and kind person, and he has never spoken sweet words to her. She saw him with her eyes that have been through the world; ;In this strange market, few people looked at her directly. Later, she realized that for so many generations, because of the strict family rules of Wan surname, no one has ever married a woman who has rolled in the wind and dust. However, even though Wan Liang had stated in front of several elders in the clan that she could not be regarded as a house-filler married by a Ming matchmaker, the clan members called her Xiaoniang.

Last night when I heard that Master Guan was coming, she was as happy as a shipwrecked person climbing a huge log. Master Guan knew her and her past. Falling in the wind and dust, it is as sad as the experience of many martyrs in ancient songs.But God is short-sighted, before she was allowed to see Guan Baye, Wan Liang was already dead, she was crying, half for Wan Liang, and half for her own fate. It was almost noon, and Guan Baye, who was chasing the thief at night, did not come home, but Xiaogu, who took care of Guan Baye, and the men from the Xiangyan Gang came back. "Where's Eighth Master?" Ye Ye said to Little Guy.

"I didn't see it." Little Guy said, "It's not that I'm just here to judge Ba Ye's merits. There is some truth in the common saying 'poor gangsters don't chase after'. Ma is alone, even if he can chase the four judges, what can he do with the bandits?... I led dozens of guns out of the south gate. Yin'er, we followed the hoof prints and chased them to the sand ditch. The hoof prints were divided into three paths. It can be seen that the bandits under the hands of the fourth judge have retreated. How can we know which way Guan Baye is chasing the thief? ?”

"I'd rather put the matter of holding the funeral on hold than let Ba Ye be in danger." Ye Ye said decisively: "Even if Bao Ye didn't die, he wouldn't criticize me with the word "no".—— If Guan Baye hadn't been here, these few people would have died in Wanjialou. If he could risk his life for Wanjialou, there is absolutely no reason for us to stand idly by. The four judges retreated in three ways, and we had to gather the gun team and divide them into three groups. Chasing three ways, there will always be a way to meet Guan Baye." Lord Ye was about to order the gun team, when someone reported: "Master Ye, don't worry, Baye Guan is back! He is riding Baoye's white horse, a piece of jade. There are six or seven human heads hanging on them!..."

From the day Baoye was buried, the sky above Huanglang'er was always gray and hazy without wind and sand.Guan Baye and his brothers rested the salt cart in Wanjialou, sent the patriarch Baoye to be buried, and set off early the next morning.Although Ye Ye and Zhen Ye of Wanjialou specially set up a thank-you banquet for them, Guan Baye refused to accept it. God's white horse. The salt trucks of the Liuhe gang pushed away, but left many impressions and legends in Wanjialou; men were in teahouses, talking about Baye Guan on the street, and women were thinking about Guan Baye when they burned incense and knelt in front of the incense table. Guan Baye; especially Guan Baye chasing the thief on a horse and bringing back seven bloody heads is even more a miracle in people's eyes. It's not like the heroic stories in general legends, but what everyone saw. In fact, when Baoye’s large red-lacquered coffin was buried in the black pine forest outside the south gate of Wanjialou, seven human heads were lined up in front of the grave as sacrifices.

"I don't like to start this killing ring," Guan Baye once said to the Baoye in the grave when he visited the grave: "For the kindness of Mr. Wan and Baoye to take care of the people in the world, I, Guandong Shan had no choice but to intervene in the affairs. What's more, I didn't want my brothers to be involved in the Jianghu grievances. I had to kill these greedy and unjust bandits. They were killed by my surname Guan. He was hated by Judge Zhu Si. Even if you come to me to settle accounts, one person does the work and the other is responsible, and it has nothing to do with my good brothers." The sincerity of Guan Baye's words, the heartfelt words, made people cry, and the kind of anger that swallowed the sun and the moon His awe-inspiring spirit is even more heartbreaking.Although the fourth judge Zhu was not included among the seven heads!But in the past few decades, apart from Baye Guan who was able to do such a dramatic thing, there was no other person in the world who dared to chase the bandit alone and take off seven heads in one go. Guan Baye left, but cast a kind of melancholy on his little aunt Wan Hanying.Speaking of which, it was all on Master Zhen's head, Master Zhen was so stubborn, and found out that Guan Baye was still single, so he wanted to betroth his younger sister to Guan Baye, and before he spoke, he discussed it with his sister face to face.According to Master Zhen, Baye Guan is a well-known hero in the Jianghu. Houguan Baye can no longer lead the salt truck of the Liuhe Gang, wandering from south to north, and can settle down in Wanjialou to spend his time in peace.If this marriage can be negotiated, it will be good for each other. Wan Hanying acquiesced. She is a girl with insight, and she also has calculations.The facts are before us, except for a man like Guan Baye, no one can be the young aunt of the Wan family.She fell in love with this handsome Guan Baye the first time she saw her. Since her brother brought up this matter, she always thought it was a bit hasty, but she couldn't easily let go of this rare opportunity because of the sorrow after the catastrophe. It's that kind of person--wandering in the rivers and lakes all year round, taking the road as his home, and every time he walks Yan, it takes a year and a half to pass Wanjialou. But when Lord Zhen spoke, Guan Baye refused the marriage.But Guan Baye spoke frankly and sincerely, which forced Master Zhen to respect him. "Master Zhen's kindness, I can only accept Guan Dongshan. It's not that I don't want to climb high, it's really difficult.... Just this time, I have to bear the hatred of Judge Zhu Si, and I don't know the end in the future How? I can’t be greedy for my family and throw away these brothers who are struggling to survive. I hide in Wanjialou by myself and let Judge Zhu Si go to clean them up. It's better to go out alone, no matter whether you live or die, you have nothing to worry about. In any case, Master Zhen, please forgive my intention..." Guan Baye left just like that.Wan Hanying, however, was in the compound of the deep house, chewing on this sadness over and over again.The weather is getting colder every day, and the thrushes kept in the golden silk cages in the corridor can't help the morning frost, and they are all covered with blue silk wind.Looking at the caged bird on the porch, the more one looks, the more one feels like a caged bird, locked in the house of Wanjialou, and covered with a deserted lake covered with reed grass, so that one cannot see the distant world.I am a person who died when I landed, and I was brought up by my elder brother. A nurse from the Northland, Mama Yuan, and a maidservant have been with me for nineteen years.At the age when I can remember things, I often listened to Lao Yuan's mother telling stories about the wars and famines that I had never seen before. Lao Yuan's mother also had two sons, one died at the muzzle of a gun, and the other died of starvation. On her back, her last daughter died of convulsions fourteen days after she was born, and she was hired to come to Wanjialou. Those wandering stories made the outer edge of my childhood world covered in a circle of inexplicable fog, making me have to care about the wandering refugees.Although the barrenness does not reach Wanjialou, and the drought does not reach Wanjialou, the refugees often drift across the street of Wanjialou to unknown places, and all they see are strange faces. Since she was a child, she loved to ride on the back of a lion, staring blankly at those people; the blind man begging, the lame man scratching a knife, wailed so loudly that the whole street trembled; Singing and crying about the autumn wind in the corridor... At that time, she had missed them and the bleak shadow of the distant world on their backs. ... Now she is convinced that Baye Guan jumped out of that kind of fog. He is not a hero, he is not a hero, he is just a person who cares about others, living a life wandering here and there.In a nightmarish night, she had witnessed Guan Baye killing the bandits; in the dark castle, the faint firelight traced his huge figure on the stone wall, and he moved like a fast leopard, with every stretch gun, and the screams of the horse-thrower sounded outside.He rolled over twenty-four stone steps in the rain of bullets, forcing the bandits back; he chased the bandits alone in the dark night, and brought back seven bloody heads; it seemed to have inexplicable bravery and magic in its life. After the catastrophe, the Wanjialou fell into silence. Ye Ye Ji Bao Ye became the patriarch, and handed over the gun team to the command of Xiao Gu Ye. After Ye Ye became the patriarch, he remembered the words that Guan Ba ​​Ye left behind when he left, It is said that if Judge Zhu Si had no undercover person, he would never have the courage to raid Wanjialou at night. "Remember the black mule with the white cross!"