The three of them walked together, and as soon as they left the alley, they heard a cacophony of footsteps rushing toward the town.
The clatter of hooves made the ground tremble slightly, indicating that quite a few people were arriving.
Dong Bai pushed Yun Zhuo towards Ye Qingxue and said, "I'll go take a look!"
Before she could finish speaking, she had already leaped up to the rooftop and was looking in the direction from which the sound came.
"I estimate there are thirty to fifty people. They are carrying torches, and you can see that five of them are on horseback, while the rest are running alongside. They are dressed as bandits," Dongbai said.
Continuing to observe, she said after a while, "Those people have blocked all the exits from the town. If we want to leave the town now, we will definitely have to fight with them."
"Are you sure they're not just passing by? Or are they blocking all the exits?" Ye Qingxue asked.
Dong Bai said with certainty, "They're not just passing by. They've blocked all the exits. Could it be that they want to loot this town clean?"
Ye Qingxue had a bad feeling. The group of people dressed as bandits were not just going to rob the whole town. If they were going to rob the town, they shouldn't have only brought thirty or fifty people. That was too few, since the town was a big place, not a small village.
Ye Qingxue asked, "Are you sure there are only thirty or fifty people? Are there any others chasing after us?"
Dong Bai observed for a while longer, then shook his head and said, "There's no one else chasing us, just thirty or fifty people. Shall we leave now?"
Ye Qingxue pursed her lips. If she left now, she would definitely alert the enemy and be hunted down. The fact that she and Dongbai had entered Jingzhou territory tonight would be exposed prematurely, which would be detrimental to her subsequent plans.
Yun Zhuo, who was leaning against her, suddenly spoke up: "They're not just going to loot this town, they're going to massacre the whole town. If we don't leave now, we won't be able to leave later."
Ye Qingxue suddenly remembered that Princess Rongqing had been kidnapped by bandits.
The princess has been missing for a day, supposedly the work of bandits who wanted to vent their anger on behalf of the crown prince. The prince and princess are frantic with worry. From the imperial family and nobles to the common people, everyone is cursing the crown prince for his cruelty. When she and Dongbai left the capital, they still hadn't found the princess.
Perhaps the bandits who kidnapped the princess were not real bandits, but someone impersonating them, or perhaps someone colluded with bandits to tarnish the prince's reputation under the guise of "venting the prince's anger," repeatedly putting the already seriously injured and escaped prince to the brink of death, leaving him with no chance of ever getting back on his feet.
The bandits tonight intend to massacre the entire town, probably for the same reason...
After the town is massacred, as long as this group claims to be bandits working for the Crown Prince, and that they will remain loyal to him even if something happens to him, the Crown Prince will lose all his reputation and be hated by everyone.
Even if he were alive, he would not be able to return to the capital to clear his name.
What a ruthless tactic!
The other party is clearly doing this with the intention of "not being able to kill you, but making it impossible for you to survive."
Perhaps, this move also serves the purpose of forcing the crown prince, who is hiding in the shadows, to come out.
To this end, the person behind it didn't hesitate to drag the seven-year-old princess into it, and didn't hesitate to slaughter the entire town's inhabitants. Perhaps there were other people among them, but they just hadn't had time to kill them yet.
Based on the information provided by Dong Bai, Yun Zhuo instantly understood the other party's purpose and his own predicament.
Ye Qingxue put him down and made him sit against the wall, saying, "I'll go check the situation and then decide whether to run away or fight them."
Before Yun Zhuo could speak, Ye Qingxue leaped up and landed on the roof, leaving behind only a faint fragrance of tea that lingered in the air and reached Yun Zhuo's nostrils, almost imperceptible.
Along with the smell of blood and medicine, Yun Zhuo frowned slightly. She was injured, yet she was still walking.
Is it for this prince, whom everyone hates and who has fallen into the mud, with no tomorrow but only the present moment?
Yun Zhuo chewed on the ginseng in his mouth, wanting to strike the ground with his sword, but he grabbed at empty air, only then remembering that his precious sword had been taken away by Ye Qingxue.
He grabbed a bamboo pole, braced himself against the ground, and slowly stood up. He exchanged a glance with Qi Zai in the shadows, then followed the direction Ye Qingxue had left in.
The bandits set fire.
Flames began to emanate from every corner of the town, gradually shooting into the sky. The sounds of panic, fleeing, and crying from the people rose with the wind, only to be swallowed up by the fire.
There was no way to escape. The town had seven or eight exits, all guarded by people. Anyone who tried to flee would be killed on the spot.
The people then flocked to the center of the town, but the fire spread from all directions towards the center of the town, and the scorching flames and acrid smoke threatened their lives at every moment.
The town gate hadn't caught fire yet, but many corpses were already lying on the ground, their scalding blood splattering into the mud. The person wielding the knife didn't even blink, so the people behind dared not flee in this direction.
The largest number of people were guarding this spot. Besides the leaders on horseback, there were also ten henchmen following behind them.
The second son pulled Princess Rongqing off her horse and strode toward the house next door, with the third son following behind him.
Princess Rongqing kept crying and shouting for help, her voice hoarse and filled with fear.
But neither the second nor the third brother stopped.
Ye Qingxue and Dong Bai, hiding in the building, knew their intentions: they wanted to first rape and then kill Princess Rongqing here.
Princess Rongqing is only seven years old. She is truly heartless and insane. Dongbai gritted his teeth in disgust.
The eldest brother glanced at the second and third brothers but made no move. He didn't like this kind of thing; it was immature and awkward, but he wouldn't stop his men from doing it this way.
The more tragically Princess Rongqing and the people of this town died, the more the people in other places, as well as the court officials and many princes and nobles hated the Crown Prince.
Just then, the eldest brother noticed that someone rolled out from the corner of the building, seemingly on fire, rolling on the ground, revealing the skin under his clothes. The skin, illuminated by the firelight, was dazzlingly white.
The fire on her body went out, and the woman propped herself up on the ground, raised her head, and looked at them with pleading eyes: Please, sir, save me, I don't want to die!
Eyes filled with fear and tears, silently pleading, are most likely to draw out the beast within a person.
In an instant, the eldest brother's body tensed, and the second brother looked up immediately. He had been away on business for a while and hadn't eaten meat in a long time. He never expected that such a place would produce such a beautiful woman.
Want to try something new? Do it now!
He dismounted from his horse, strode towards the woman, lifted her off the ground, kicked open the door of the nearby house, and pounced on her, tearing at her clothes.
The woman hooked her arm around his leg and pulled him into the darkness. Suddenly, his nerves were attacked, and a cold dagger was pressed against his throat.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. After he came to his senses, all the man could do was slowly raise his hands, even his breathing became cautious.
"Tell your men that tonight's operation is canceled and they should retreat to a distance of ten miles." Ye Qingxue stood behind him, her icy voice ringing in his ear.
The man remained unmoved, but the dagger slashed through his skin, a sharp pain shooting through him, and the threat of death spreading throughout his body.
The man then shouted to the outside world, "Tonight's operation is completely canceled! All brothers, retreat ten miles away, immediately!"
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