Soon, Gao Qiao found Shao Fengzhi's body just before a short hill not far away.

He was killed by someone's throat slit, and the blood from the big pool was flowing from the ground, and he had been very angry for a long time.

Gao Qiao and others searched around, but there was no whereabouts of Xiao Yongjia.

It got dark and the search continued. In the middle of the night, Li Xie also rushed over after hearing the news, brought a lot of people, and joined the search ranks.

The next day, there were dozens of miles nearby, but there was still no news about her.

The search scope continues to expand.

Three days passed, Gao Qiao stayed asleep and his eyes were almost bleeding.

But Xiao Yongjia was like a drop of water, completely disappeared under the sun, without a trace.

...

The situation became increasingly serious.

The battle situation in Wangjiang County on the western front was in a hurry. The rebels in Jingzhou were unstoppable. In just a few days, the defenders kept asking for reinforcements, but Jiankang could no longer distribute the excess force.

Previously, all the useful army in Gao Qiao's hands had been forced to be divided into four branches. One branch in Wangjiang County, one branch in Jiankang, one branch in guarding Jurong, Qu'a, and Piling, and one branch in the triangular defense line, and one branch in the hinterland.

Almost all counties in the southeast of Yangzhou fell into the hands of the Tianshi Sect. This army was originally moved in the central area to stop the Tianshi Sect from continuing to expand into the central part of Dayu like a plague. However, now, due to another severe threat from Xuancheng, Gao Qiao could only temporarily give up this plan and ordered Poyang, Yuzhang, Linchuan, Jian'an and other central counties adjacent to the southeast to organize county soldiers to resist on their own. Yesterday, he transferred the army back.

The army was not sent to the Western Front. Even if we rushed over at this moment, there would not be much change in the overall situation.

Although the Jingzhou rebels returned in the previous Northern Expedition and were injured, their foundation was still there. Gao Qiao could not understand the strength of this army. Without enough troops to fight, the reason why he had previously deployed defenses to Wangjiang County was originally just to delay the rebels' downstream along the river so as to gain more time for Jiankang.

This time, the transferred army was incorporated into the Jiankang and Triangle Line of Defense. After the defense line, the emperor, empress, hundreds of thousands of people evacuated from Jiankang, and countless refugees who had previously escaped due to the Tianshi Sect. They must not be lost.

Gao Yin is the highest commander of this line of defense.

Qu'a where the emperor and empress are located is located at the innermost position of the triangular defense line, and there are strong city defenses to support. Gao Yin entrusts it to the 6 Kanzhi who came to hear the news during the filial piety. These days, he has been running between Jurong and Piling.

On the evening of the day, he had just formed an army of about a thousand people. He went to Piling overnight from Jurong. When he passed by a village where only half of the villagers were left, he saw a horse-riding soldier holding a giggling reed chicken and a bag that was obviously not his. He turned over and ran away. Afterwards, he chased a white old woman.

Although the soldier had already gone to the robe, he could still recognize his clothes at a glance, which was from Guangling Army. The old woman's legs were lame, so how could she catch up with such a young cavalry? Seeing that she was thrown farther and farther away, she fell to the ground, and cried sadly. The soldier didn't look back and whipped his horse and fled towards the depths of the wilderness.

Although the Guangling Army of Gao's family has made great achievements over the years, its military discipline is much stricter than other foreign troops in the Southern Dynasty. However, Gao Yin also knew that many middle and senior generals in the army who followed the lower-class gentry of Gao's family, although they fought bravely, they had some common problems that the gentry could not avoid. The upward and downward effect was not possible, and not every army could follow the military rules.

It was his uncle Gao Yun, who was brave and good at fighting, worked hard and made great contributions, but he had a bad temper, liked to listen to flattery and was proud of his nature. Even if Gao Qiao often reminded him, he would sometimes indulge his subordinates in disturbing the people.

My uncle Gao Qiao was not unaware of these. In the past, he also tried to purify military discipline. However, the intertwined relationships between the gentry and the gentry had long been deeply rooted, like a stubborn disease. It was not easy to plunder it? It was often Gao Qiao who was pursuing it, and everyone obeyed the constraints. After the pursuing, the old ways gradually became more and more popular and continued.

My uncle was helpless about this.

Gao Yin has long seen these things. But even his uncle can't cure them, so what can he do? What he can do on weekdays is just to restrain his subordinates.

At this national crisis, there were even soldiers from Guangling Army who were so ruthless. Needless to say, they were just deserters at first glance.

Gao Yin was furious and immediately stopped his journey, ordered people to chase after him, surrounded the escaped soldier, and grabbed him back. The old hen and the bag were returned to the old woman. When the old woman stopped crying, she wiped her tears, and left with great gratitude. She turned around and whipped the soldier's head. She was so angry that she ordered the deserter to cut off the head on the spot.

The soldier rolled on the ground, and gold-chuang medicine fell out of his arms. He cried and begged for mercy, deciding that he was a messenger and did not intend to escape the camp, but that there was a reason for the matter.

He said that he had never had a woman who had returned from a letter the day before yesterday. In order to take a shortcut, he walked into the wilderness. He happened to meet a seriously injured woman who was dying. The woman promised him to help him. He was confused for a moment and ran away and hid the woman. Today he came out and found a golden medicine for her. He just passed by and saw that there seemed to be someone else in it. He had evil thoughts for a while, and then he went in and snatched things.

The soldier cried bitterly and kept kowtowing and begging for mercy. He repeatedly promised that as long as he spared his life, he would immediately return to the barracks and no longer be a deserter.

The war was about to come, and Gao Yin had no time to hear what he said, and ordered him to be pulled and chopped. Suddenly, he remembered something, his expression moved slightly, and he stopped. He asked about the injured woman's age, appearance, injuries, and the location she encountered. He felt that she had met someone in his heart, and immediately ordered someone to follow the soldier and capture the woman.

This place is only half a day away from Jiankang. Gao Yin had seen it and immediately sent someone back to send a message.

The next morning, the morning light was dim, and the road that stretched to Jiankang was accompanied by a clearer and clearer sound of horse hooves, Gao Qiao arrived overnight.

Gao Yin also went to Jiankang yesterday. When he met Gao Qiao, he learned that his aunt was attacked and disappeared a few days ago. At that time, his uncle searched for several days, but there was no news. The war was urged to force him to keep looking for him and return first.

Yesterday, I saw my uncle and saw that he was in good spirits, but in just a few days, he lost weight suddenly. He was so haggard that Gao Yin could hardly believe his eyes. Knowing that he knew that his heart was extremely sad and the war was coming, he could only let go of things temporarily and deal with the enemy with all his strength. At that time, he was extremely sad.

Before leaving, Gao Qiao privately told him about Shao's appearance and body shape, saying that this woman should know the whereabouts of the eldest princess. He was ordering people to search everywhere and reminded him to pay more attention if he had time.

Yesterday, when he heard the deserter's description, he thought of Shaw Brothers, and then he notified Gao Qiao overnight. When he saw someone arrive, he hurriedly came up.

"Uncle, my nephew suspected that the woman should be Shaw Brothers. But no matter how my nephew asked, she would not answer. I wanted to send her to Jiankang, but I was afraid that she would be seriously injured. If I died along the way, I called my uncle..."

Gao Yin took Gao Qiao to a broken house at the entrance of the village and pointed: "It's inside, uncle can go and see it."

Gao Qiao stared at the door, strode forward, and pushed open it.

A woman curled up in the dark corner against the wall. Her neck was leaning against the wall, her clothes were scratched and torn, and her chest was covered with dry blood. Her face and hands were covered with scratches everywhere, her face was as paper as she looked dull, her eyes were slightly closed, and she was half dead, without any energy.

Hearing the sound of the door being pushed open, the woman slowly opened her eyes, her eyes fell on the person's face, and her eyes suddenly shone brightly, and she seemed to have come alive in an instant.

She sat up quickly, raised her hand to stroke her temples so that she could look neat.

“High…”

"Evil woman! Where is the eldest princess? What did you do to her?"

Gao Qiao's eyes fixed on her face, and he stepped inside and asked.

The veins on both sides of his forehead were erect, and his voice was hoarse like a torn drum.

In the eyes that came, the forbearing and profound disgust and hatred were unprecedented.

Shao Yuniang knew that she had lost the excellent opportunity of that year. With Gao Qiao's status and her own humility, she would never have the chance to serve him in her life.

It is precisely because of this that she hates Xiao Yongjia even more.

But she still refused to give up. She still had a little expectation.

It was at this moment that she suddenly understood and was completely desperate.

...

That day, when Shao Yuniang saw Xiao Yongjia running away, she climbed up and chased after him for a few steps, and scolded Shao Fengzhi because she had no way out.

Shao Fengzhi was forced by her and went to chase Xiao Yongjia again.

Before chasing the Gangpo, just when she thought Xiao Yongjia would be captured, she saw a young woman suddenly appearing from the Gangtop and blocking Shao Fengzhi.

But when she raised her hand, she had not seen clearly how the woman took action, and Shao Fengzhi fell down.

She only saw a thread of blood, which followed the woman's raised her hand and splashed out from her brother's throat, splashing several feet high.

Shao Yuniang didn't know this young woman who suddenly appeared.

But in the first time in her life, she saw a man who was still a woman, killing people so neatly and skillfully.

She saw the woman turning around and looking in her direction. She no longer cared about anything else. Driven by a strong desire to survive, she struggled and fled. Just near the cliff surrounded by thorns, she jumped down desperately, enduring the pain of being thorned by thorns, and rolled to the bottom of the slope.

The woman chased after her and stood on her head. She didn't see her for a while. She was probably more worried about Xiao Yongjia than killing her. She didn't thorns to find her. She turned around and Shao Yuniang finally escaped from death again.

Looking back on that day, after escaping from the prison lady, she returned to Jiankang, took advantage of the chaos in the city to sneak near Gao's house, hiding in the dark, and then followed Gao Qiao to send Xiao Yongjia here. After that, for the next seven or eight days, she kept wandering around, touching the terrain, looking for opportunities.

After discovering that there was a small village nearby, she finally came up with a solution. She set fire to the mountain late that night, and then rushed to the vicinity of the small village to hide. Sure enough, when Xiao Yongjia and his group arrived, they secretly threw medicine into the well water at dawn when they were drinking and fetching water.

For a long time, she endured, planned, and even scheming her body for revenge. She was about to get what she wanted, but when she was about to fail, all her previous efforts were wasted.

When she thought about the future, there would probably be no chance that would make her as close to the success of revenge as this time. In the past few days, she has always been full of resentment and grief, and hated God for being unfair.

But no kind of blow could compare to this moment. In Gao Qiao's eyes, she could no longer see the kind of pity he had when he looked at him before.

She was very sure that not only twenty years ago, but even not long ago, even after knowing that she killed someone and set fire, he still felt a little unbearable in his eyes when he looked at her.

And now, nothing is gone, completely gone!

Only deep disgust and hatred remained.

...

The hand that touched his head slowly put it down.

Shao Yuniang stared at Gao Qiao's twisted face.

"She was naturally dead, and she died with the baby who was about to give birth in her belly! My body was crushed and ashes and poured into the river. You will never think of seeing her again in your life, in the next life."

Gao Qiao's blood vessels were cold and his whole body was instantly stiff.

In the past few days, he dispatched a large number of people to search for all the places near the accident where her foot might have reached, and expanded the scope, and she never had her whereabouts.

As time goes by, she is like a rock sinking into the sea.

Everyone around her has determined that she is gone.

He has always been reluctant to believe it, and he cannot accept the result.

In his heart, there was still a thought that she was not dead, but she was still in a place he had never found.

This is why he was eager to find the woman in front of him.

And at this moment, hope was shattered.

He stared at her, his eyes slowly flushed: "Shaw Brothers, tell me again?"

"She's dead!"

Shao Yuniang laughed loudly, her laughter was a bit cunning.

"She deserves her sins and dies! If I hadn't saved her husband back then, she would have become a widow! She was not grateful to me, did not fulfill me, and she would have revenge her grudges and made me look like today. It was all her own fault!"

"This bitch Xiao Yongjia tried to lie to me that day, saying that you said I was shameless in front of her..."

"puff"!
To be continued...