Originally, according to Meng Xiuyuan's plan, he was going to take a boat all the way south along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal to Yuhang County.

By showing traces along the canal in this way, it is better to have a sense of presence under the eyes of Yu Wenhua and even the entire Sui court, and to create space for Shi Long, Gao Zhong, and Xu Ziling.

But after two battles on the river and on the river bank, Meng Xiuyuan felt that the shameless and frightened General Yuwen had already made a strong impression on him, and there was no need to emphasize it any more.

In this way, Meng Xiuyuan simply changed his plan.

When the boat happened to be lost, he did not think about finding another boat, but took the land route instead.

Starting from the south bank of the Yangtze River, Meng Xiuyuan walked at a leisurely pace regardless of the direction. He was alert for incoming enemies and deliberately hurried on.

Unexpectedly, after so many days, he still did not encounter the Sui army's pursuit and interception, and the journey was uneventful.

Obviously, Na Yu Wenhuaji must have known how powerful Meng Xiuyuan was, and did not dare to come to the door alone without strong support around him.

After thinking about this, Meng Xiu couldn't help but relax a lot. He just regarded this as an ordinary trip and devoted more energy to martial arts training.

Sometimes he would hide in the mountains and fields for ten days and a half, and sometimes he would go to nearby villages and towns to rest and recuperate, making some traces of himself.

Several months passed like this, still without incident.

Until this day, Meng Xiuyuan had just completed a period of spiritual practice. He went to a small county town to find a hotel, wash up, change clothes, and rest peacefully.

Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, I suddenly heard the noise on the street gradually getting noisier, from weak to loud, until finally it was almost a roar of people.

Meng Xiuyuan knew something was wrong, so he quickly stopped to collect his energy, jumped out from the second floor window of the hotel, stepped straight to the roof, and took stock of the situation on the main street of the town.

Taking a closer look, I saw people and vehicles fighting for the road, rushing to escape to the south of the town. Along the way, they were calling their children and mothers, and their cries were loud.

Each of these townspeople dragged their families and families, vying for the first place, and crowded among each other. Many of the salutes they carried fell to the ground, but no one bothered to pick them up.

In just a moment, the road was covered with discarded clothes, furniture, utensils, shoes and other debris. Accompanied by the screams of the surging crowds, it was almost a scene of an approaching doomsday.

At this moment, a white-haired old man in the crowd accidentally fell to the ground because he was walking too fast, and was about to be trampled by the crowd coming up from behind.

Meng Xiuyuan frowned slightly, and immediately fell to his side. He stretched out his hand and pulled him to a quiet place on the street.

"Old sir, are you okay?

Can you tell me what happened to make everyone so panicked?"

The old man was out of breath from walking and was still in shock. When he heard Meng Xiuyuan's question, he opened and closed his mouth for a moment, but was speechless.

Meng Xiuyuan didn't rush him due to the situation, he just held his arm, injected a little bit of Qi into his body, and circulated it in his meridians a few times, which calmed the old man down a little.

"Little brother, thank you, thank you for saving me..."

The old man finally took a breath. In a daze, he subconsciously thanked Meng Xiuyuan for a few words. Then he trembled and said urgently:

"There's going to be a war here, there's going to be a war soon!

I heard from them that Du Fuwei defeated the Sui army in Dongling and occupied Liyang. His army and horses were already approaching.

Little brother, you should run away quickly, it will be too late..."

At this point, the old man shook off Meng Xiuyuan's arm in panic, carried a small baggage behind him, and hurriedly chased the fleeing crowd.

Fortunately, with a few rays of Qi injected by Meng Xiuyuan, the old man's legs and feet became much more convenient than before. In a moment of desperation, he actually started to jog, and soon he was gone with the crowd.

Meng Xiuyuan stood by the roadside, silently looking at the townspeople fleeing south. After a moment, his figure suddenly flashed and disappeared.

…

In the dim night, Meng Xiuyuan turned into a blue shadow, drifting silently across the vast land, running straight to the north.

He wanted to see with his own eyes what was going on there.

At dawn, Meng Xiuyuan saw a small village in the mountains and forests in the distance, so he slowed down and wanted to go into the village to inquire about nearby news.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, there was a sudden loud sound of hooves, and a group of people and horses ran out from behind the east hillside, rushing ahead of Meng Xiuyuan and entering the village first.

There are about sixty or seventy people in this cavalry, all dressed in various colors and in disarray. The only thing they have is a green scarf hanging on their right arm as a common symbol of identity.

At a glance, one can tell that they are not regular Sui troops, but rebels or bandits.

The behavior of these people was also quite arrogant. As soon as they entered the village, they raised their hands and shot several domestic dogs that were barking to protect the courtyard. Then they broke into every house and killed more than a hundred villagers, men, women, old and children in the village.

The people were all driven out.

All of a sudden, there was a lot of chaos, calling for children and mothers, and crying loudly. It was shocking.

Immediately, these green scarf troops separated the men and women in the village into two groups and arranged them separately, and their more than 60 cavalry were scattered around to prevent anyone from escaping.

Meng Xiuyuan frowned slightly when he saw such behavior, and finally understood why the townspeople were so eager to escape to the south at night.

The village in front of us obviously suffered a great loss and suffered today's disaster because of the lack of information.

Meng Xiuyuan restrained his aura and steps and sneaked closer to the village, but did not take action immediately.

He wanted to see how these so-called "rebels" behaved on a daily basis.

"Dear fellow villagers, we, the Jianghuai Army, are here today to give a warning to some soldiers.

The able-bodied men in the village should stand up on their own, rather than burdening us brothers with picking.

It is a rare blessing for you to be able to join my Jianghuai Army today.

When General Manager Du conquers the world in the future, you will also be able to succeed..."

A leader jumped out from among the cavalry. Under the protection of four personal followers, he rode his horse in front of the villagers and said loudly.

When the men in the village heard this, they were all very resistant. Only a few men with sallow complexions and ragged clothes took the initiative to stand up. It was obvious that they had no land assets in the village and were short of food, so they were thinking of joining the army to earn a living.

.

When the leader of the Jianghuai Army saw this scene, his expression suddenly changed. He immediately snorted angrily and cursed at the villagers:

"Humph, if you don't know what's good and what's good, then you don't blame me..."

As he spoke, the man waved his long whip in his hand, and more than ten cavalrymen around him immediately dismounted and rushed into the villagers, picking out all the slender men and tying them into a string with ropes.

When the women in the village who were mothers and wives saw their sons and husbands being dragged away to work as slave labor, they immediately burst into tears and looked very miserable.

But when the so-called rebels saw this scene, except for a few whose expressions changed slightly, the rest had no expression at all, as if they didn't have any compassion at all.

At this moment, the leader rode past the crowd of women and children, suddenly reined in his horse, pointed his riding whip at one of the beautiful village girls, and shouted:

"Come here, bring me this too..."

As soon as he said this, his subordinates should have helped him immediately, but the cavalryman closest to the village girl was stunned when he heard the words. He froze on his horse and did not move for a long time.

"Zhang Yong, are you dreaming? Didn't you hear what I said?!"

The leader was furious when he saw this and immediately shouted and cursed at his subordinates.

Hearing the sound, the cavalryman quickly got off his horse, ran to the leader, took off his leather helmet, revealing a dark and honest face, and said carefully:

"Boss Qi, I'm afraid it's against the rules for you to do this.

If you don't want to be patient, I will invite you to the brothel when we enter the city..."

Before the cavalryman finished speaking, he suddenly heard the sound of a whip, and then a burning pain came over his face, and he fell to the side involuntarily.

"I've always said that, who do you think you are, how dare you stop me?!"

Boss Qi shouted angrily, which frightened the cavalryman so much that he shrank his neck and dared not speak any more.

Seeing this scene, the remaining soldiers around him did not dare to ask Boss Qi to speak anymore. They quickly dismounted their horses and rushed into the group of women and children, and pulled the village girl out.

Upon closer inspection, the woman was indeed quite pretty and plump, very different from ordinary village women.

Boss Qi turned over and dismounted, looked at the woman and laughed lustfully. Just when he was about to reach out, another young rebel suddenly stopped in front of him and said coldly:

"Boss Qi, Mr. Du is ordered not to rape women. If you rein in your horse now, it's still too late."

Boss Qi was furious when he saw this. He immediately hung the riding whip on his waist, pulled out the scimitar from his back, put it directly on Li Jing's neck, and shouted angrily:

"Li Jing, are you impatient with life too?

These are all my own brothers. If you two new guys don’t talk nonsense, how could Mr. Du know?!

Huh, don't think that you can ignore me because of your skill.

I have decided to play this woman today, and I will kill anyone who tries to stop me.

It’s the same thing when I, the King of Heaven, come!”

While speaking, Boss Qi turned his sword and wanted to slap Li Jing aside with the back of the sword. Because he was afraid of Li Jing's martial arts, he used all his strength in this move.

And Li Jing's eyes flashed with murderous intent, and he reached for the weapon on his waist.

Unexpectedly, just when a battle was about to begin, Boss Qi suddenly lost his hands and the long knife disappeared. Then an indifferent voice came from behind:

"Oh, really?"

The next moment, Boss Qi felt a chill coming from his crotch.

…

Compared with the previous two generations, martial arts practice is obviously more popular in this Tang Dynasty world.

The soldiers in the army, both in terms of average strength and number of experts, are naturally much higher.

Just speaking of these sixty or seventy cavalry, there are more than ten who have internal strength and have entered the threshold of internal martial arts. Such a proportion was completely unimaginable in the two worlds of Yitian and Tianlong.
To be continued...