Harue Kagetsu

On the banks of Bailuzhou, the spring in Taicheng is deep.

Another year in the south of the Yangtze River with apricot rain and pear clouds, bees and butterflies love fragrance.

Gao Luoshen sat quietly in the Taoist quiet room where he had lived alone for ten years.

"You go. Run as far as you can."

She said to several Taoist nuns who had not left in front of her.

Before she finished speaking, a guard rushed in from outside the threshold with the sound of hurried footsteps.

"Madam! The Jie people have broken through the city gate! Rumor has it that Her Majesty the Queen Mother was captured on the way to the south! Rong Kang is leading the Jie soldiers towards this side, I am afraid it will be unfavorable to Madam! If Madam doesn't leave, it will be too late!"

Everyone knows that the Jieren army is tyrannical, and every time they break through a city in the Southern Dynasty, they will burn, kill, rape, and commit all kinds of evil. Today's Emperor Jieren is even more inhumane. It is said that he once boiled the female prisoners of the Southern Dynasty and venison in the same pot, and ordered the diners on the seat to distinguish their tastes for fun.

The Taoist nuns were already panicked, and when they heard the words, they were even more pale and cried bitterly. A few timid, almost unable to stand, the whole person is shivering.

Gao Luoshen closed his eyes.

A candle flickered, throwing her slender figure in a Taoist uniform on the wall, making it even more desolate.

Shenzhou Lu Shen. The iron hoofs of alien races trampled the splendid and creamy old land of Liangjing in turn.

Under the high expectations of the elders in the north, the southerners have made northern expeditions time and time again, but in the end, they either came back without success, or they fell halfway, and they failed.

When the dream of recovering the rivers and mountains of the motherland was completely shattered, all the people in the South could do was to rely on the Yangtze River to be on the left side of the Anjiang River. , reminiscent of the remnants of the glory of the past.

Today, however, even that is impossible.

The natural moat, which was once thought to be impregnable, could not stop the southern invasion of the Jie people.

That Rongkang, who used to be a local vassal town in Badong, lost his wife a few years ago. In the name of the Luoshen of the Mugao clan, he relied on his military strength and strong horses, and the court relied on him so much that he proposed to her.

With the noble family of the Gao family, how could they marry a Fang Bo military general like Rongkang?

What's more, Gao Luoshen has entered Taoism ten years ago and vowed never to marry again in this life.

Her cousin, the Empress Dowager Gao, knew she was indebted to her because of the incident ten years ago, and did not dare to force it.

Rongkang failed to propose marriage, consciously lost face, from then on, he held a grudge in his heart. He started a rebellion the following year. After being suppressed, he fled to the north to join the Jieren and was reused.

This time, the Jie people invaded the south, and Rong Kang was the forward, leading the Jie soldiers to break the city south, showing off their power and doing all kinds of evil.

"I'm not going. You go."

Gao Luoshen slowly opened his eyes and said again.

Her expression was calm.

"Madam, take care..."

The Taoist nuns knelt down and kowtowed to her one after another, stood up, supported each other, turned around and hurried away while crying.

Gao Luoshen was the only one left in the huge Ziyun Temple.

Gao Luoshen stepped out of the back door of the Taoist temple, walked alone to the riverside, stood on a towering rock, and looked at the vast river that divided Kyushu from north to south.

The silver moon is hanging in the air, the river wind is hunting, and her clothes are dancing wildly, as if going by the wind.

This late spring night, above Jiangzhu, the spring river tide in the distance, like a silver line, is coming in conjunction with the moon.

She was all too familiar with the tide of the spring river under the moon outside Taicheng.

Countless late nights of waking up from nightmares, when she could no longer fall asleep, the only thing that accompanied her by her ear was the sound of the river tide that night, night after night, year after year.

However, tonight, the sound of the river tide also sounded like the sound of a drum like the earth moving southward.

Gao Luoshen seemed to hear the terrified cries of the Taoist nuns who had no time to escape and the mad laughter and roars of Jie soldiers.

Everything is over.

The romance of the Southern Dynasty, the glory of the family, and everything related to her will come to an end tonight.

The Jie soldier behind him was getting closer and closer, and his voice came with the wind, which was already clearly identifiable.

Gao Luoshen did not look back.

The river water swelled her skirt, which was gradually floating, like a flower that spread out, and her body as thin as bamboo was pushed by the waves and swayed in the river wind.

She raised her eyes and stared at the tide of the river that was rushing towards her. Step by step, she walked forward and trudged towards Jiang Xin.

Ever since Gao Luoshen had a memory, her father often took her to the Stone Town by the river.

Between the towering green hills, stands a towering city wall. Stone City is located in the west of the Imperial City, on the banks of the Yangtze River, where heavy troops are stationed all year round to protect the capital.

Her father always held her little hand and looked at the north across the river for a long time.

Recovering lost territory from the Northern Expedition and restoring the homeland of the Han family was my father's greatest wish in his life.

It is said that before the mother gave birth to her, her father dreamed of returning to Luoyang, the eastern capital. In the dream, he took the illusion as reality, wandering on both sides of the Luo River, singing indulgently, waking up in ecstasy, but it was doubly melancholy.

Luoshen had guessed that her father named her like this, and it may be that there is no meaning of cherishing the past and thinking about the future.

It's just that my father probably wouldn't have thought that the last moment of her life would die like this.

Just like its name. In the dark, this may not be a kind of prophecy.

The river tide in the middle of the night, like a giant dragon, under the moonlight, uttered a soul-stirring roar.

It growled, getting closer and closer to her, as if it was about to devour her.

She didn't have the slightest fear.

In this life, too many people she loves have left before her.

In the fifteenth year of Xingping, when she was sixteen, she first knew what it was like to die. That year, her fifteen-year-old cousin Gao Huan, who was in love with her, was killed in the battle to quell the rebellion of the clan King Linchuan.

Then, in the second year of Taikang, when she was eighteen years old, she lost her newly married husband Lu Jianzhi.

Taikang for three years, when she was newly widowed and still immersed in the grief of losing her lover, God mercilessly took away her father and mother. That year, the land of Sanwu was in turmoil, the troops besieged the city, and the mother was trapped.

Today, more than ten years later, not long ago, her uncle and brother, who last supported Dayu Jiangshan and Gao's gate, also died in the Jiangbei Xiangyang City, which was facing the southward Jie army.

In front of Gao Luoshen's eyes, these many pictures flashed like a gleam of light.

At the end, another face suddenly appeared in her mind.

It was the face of a man, and his valiant face was stained with blood.

Fresh blood continued to drip from his eyes.

Drop by drop, splashed on her denomination, splashing her beautiful face.

At that moment, she was thrown to the ground by him. The faces of the two were so close that they could feel each other's breath.

His eyes were dripping with blood, and he stared at her, his eyes filled with incomparable anger and deep hatred.

He was like a raging beast that was seriously injured and was about to die. The next moment, he would tear her apart and devour her alive.

However, in the end, she still survived and survived to this day.

And he died on her in the end.

For a long time, Gao Luoshen wanted to erase the face of the man with blood dripping from his eyes from his memory.

Best to forget, clean up.

However, in the past ten years, in countless late nights awakened by nightmares, when tossing and turning with the faint sound of Jiang Chao in the distance, Gao Luoshen could not control himself, thinking over and over again. That scene back then.

That bridal night full of intrigue and blood.

Many years later, to this day, she still can't figure it out.

At the last moment before he died, the reason why he didn't break her neck was because he was powerless, or did he let her go?

She also asked herself over and over again, if time turned back and everything could be repeated, would she still accept such an arrangement?

She even thought that if the man named Li Mu had not died ten years ago, and he is still alive now, what situation would Jiang Zuo be like today?

Do these northern Jie people still have a chance to defeat Jiankang like today and capture the Empress Dowager and Emperor of Dayu?

"Catch her back, there will be a lot of rewards—"

A harsh sound, accompanied by the sound of footsteps, came from behind.

Jie Bing had chased the riverside, shouting loudly, someone wading in the water to chase her.

A wave of rivers came head-on, she closed her eyes and jumped up to meet it.

Her whole body, from head to toe, was instantly engulfed by Jiang Chao and disappeared.

Jiang Chao lost his rage a moment ago, and rolled out layers of white foam, completely surrounding her.

She floated in the meantime, swaying leisurely, as if she had received the tenderest care from her mother's womb.

In her breath, the last thing she smelled was the faint fishy smell unique to the tide of the Spring River.

This smell reminded her of the last breath left by the man who died on her back then.

It was the breath of blood.

The memory, for the last time, recalled her back to the late spring in Jiangnan ten years ago.

That year, she was twenty-five years old, when she was in the age of Huaxin, but she had been a widow for seven years.

The Gao clan is the top clan of Jiangzuo, and the nobles are of high standard.

Gao Qiao, the father of Gao Luoshen, was known for his elegance and elegance in the Qing Dynasty.

Mother Xiao Yongjia, the eldest sister of Emperor Xingping, Princess Qinghe.

Aside from his family background, Gao Luo Shenren lived up to his name, and his talent and appearance moved Jiankang. In the past seven years, there has been an endless stream of suitors, almost all of whom are the sons and daughters of the nobles who match the Gao clan.

But Gao Luoshen's heart was as calm as water, and he lived in seclusion.

Until one day, she was summoned to the palace.

The peaceful life was shattered.