bayedsolid Chapter 277 Jade Fall 14 Blood Feud
Chapter 277 Jade Fall 14 Blood Feud
After leaving the strange Wuzui Town, Qin Tao and a dozen of his personal soldiers traveled for less than a day and found the village where his father was looking for his relatives.
It is a remote mountain village, but I have seen many of them along the way. Even though there are some broken walls and ruins, they don’t seem to be anything special.
There were only a few original villagers in the village. At a glance, most of them were soldiers from the Qin family army walking around, helping the villagers clean up their damaged houses, or walking around and patrolling.
As soon as Qin Tao and his party arrived, they felt as comfortable as if they were back home.
The soldiers guarding the village entrance naturally stepped forward to lead the horses. More than a dozen tired soldiers were taken to a temporary residence to rest. Other soldiers would take over and be dispatched by the young general Qin Tao.
"Where's my dad?!"
Although he had been delayed on the road for almost a month, Qin Tao was still impatient, fearing that he would miss this crucial period. He was eager to mobilize the Qin family army immediately and get involved in this fierce battle!
"On the hill across from the pond, guarding the Qin family's cemetery... The general has been there for many days, refusing to leave regardless of wind or rain... Young General, you've arrived just in time. Go and persuade them!"
The deputy generals who arrived showed a worried look on their faces. Although they were there to protect the general from the wind and rain, the pain of his heart was something that no one else could share. Perhaps if General Qin's own sons went to persuade him, it would make a difference...
"What happened to father? Tell me what happened first?" Qin Tao also looked worried. He walked quickly and listened to the deputy general's fragmentary stories, which he didn't know the whole story...
But just as he reached the edge of the pond, a nearby villager looked at him with a look of surprise and asked, "Qin Lie?! Aren't you dead?!"
The Qin army had been living here for a few days and had become familiar with the villagers. Immediately, a soldier pulled a villager over and whispered, "This is General Qin's only... other son, also a prince who has been granted the title of Prince of Changtai. Although he is not particular about small matters, he should be careful with his words. Otherwise, if his disrespectful words and actions reach the ears of the princess, it will be a disaster..."
A noble figure like the prince was like a god in heaven to ordinary farmers; it was all just a story. The villagers hadn't digested the kind reminder for a while, but they did understand the universal ethical relationships. They suddenly said, "Another son of General Qin? That would be Qin Lie's biological brother. No wonder they look like they were cast in the same mold..."
"Very similar?" The soldier who whispered the reminder suddenly brightened up. All the soldiers in the Qin family army who had followed him these days were worried about General Qin's condition...
They saw the general sitting in front of Qin Lie's tombstone every day, and they knew that the hurdle the general couldn't get over was the death of his eldest son, whom he hadn't seen for many years...
This is common sense. Most people expect their parents to die before them, but most people never imagine that their children will leave first.
How can one heal the pain of losing a child? Probably not.
But emotions can be suppressed, entrusted, and transferred. Parents with multiple children have more energy than parents with only one child, and can hide their pain in their hearts and continue living.
This is common sense, but it's not an iron rule. It's only relative. The soldiers were initially uneasy. After all, looking at the general's expression, they knew how much his eldest son valued him. Even if another child came to persuade him, it wouldn't necessarily cheer the general up...
However, if he knew that they looked alike, the possibility might be greater. Perhaps General Qin could transfer his feelings for his eldest son to his second son?
They are both my own children, so having a little more affection for the other person doesn't seem to make any difference...
Qin Tao, who understood the whole story, thought so. He sincerely hoped that his father would feel better.
But he couldn't suppress the unhappiness in his heart... Why did he become a replacement for no reason? And when he saw his father Qin Shuangyu in person, he forgot everything!
"Dad! Your hair?! How come... it's so white..."
Qin Tao immediately recognized the figure sitting in front of a grave in the countryside, his shoulders as broad as ever, just like when he returned to Beijing every year to report on his work and then sat on horseback to leave...
But at this moment, his father's tall and majestic figure, which he admired and longed for, seemed weak and emaciated, and even hunched over...
It was as if a sturdy tree that had stood for who knows how many years finally broke in an unbearable storm, and it was unknown whether the remaining roots could survive.
The last time I saw him, his hair was still black, but now it was completely gray from the roots! Qin Tao was so exhausted that he even worried that his father would pass away at any moment!
"Father! Father!"
Qin Tao became anxious and just kept calling "Dad", forgetting what he was going to say. His actions were more real than his thoughts. He went forward and pulled, wanting to take his father away, not wanting his father to stay in this sad place!
Perhaps the heaviness in his heart spread to his body, and the middle-aged man sitting on the ground was not pulled up. However, the young man's strong pull was hard to ignore. His eyes, as if covered with dust, left the words "Qin Lie" on the tombstone and looked at the person who pulled him in a daze...
Qin Tao… Seeing who was coming, Qin Zhong fell silent. He then slowly turned his head and looked at the two words Qin Lie that were engraved with pain… When he named Qin Tao, he secretly hoped that the child he left thousands of miles away would live a long life…
From the moment he left home to the day after day when he endured the pain of missing his parents, it was the thought of being reunited with his parents and children one day that kept him going.
He even fantasized that when the existence that threatened his family disappeared, he could reunite with his family, and his family could enjoy the sweetness he had brewed with years of hard work.
But why... he is still alive, but his child is gone...
So what has he been living for all these years?
"father!"
Qin Tao continued to call out, pulling persistently, even putting in more effort, and finally managed to pull his father up from the ground! He was delighted that if he just used a little more strength, he could get his father out of this situation!
But Qin Zhong, who was deeply immersed in his sorrow, was enraged! The grief that had nowhere to go turned into anger, rushing towards the person who disturbed his thoughts!
The fist, as hard and heavy as an iron ball, landed heavily on the young man's face!
Qin Tao was caught off guard and was hit! He stumbled back and almost fell!
Fortunately, there were soldiers from the Qin family army nearby, who rushed forward. Some of them supported Qin Tao, and four or five others saw that the general was going to fight again, so they rushed forward to stop him!
Qin Tao, who was beaten, did not instinctively fight back as he usually does. This was natural, as the man who beat him was his father, whom he revered the most. He simply looked at his grief-stricken and furious father with red eyes.
Although a father beating his son was commonplace in Daxia, seeing Qin Tao's face suddenly turn red and blue, it was clear that this was not a measured lesson! If General Qin didn't hold back, he could kill someone with just a few punches!
Qin Shuangyu is extremely powerful, and the Qin family army knows it very well. Even if four or five people use all their strength, they can only stop him for a while!
A Qin soldier who knew about this hurriedly said, "General, your condolences! But since the eldest son passed away so young, you must cherish your remaining descendants! And I just heard from the villagers that the young general looks exactly like the eldest son! Isn't this the wish God left for you?"
The Qin Family Army was full of straightforward people, especially Qin Shuangyu, who had single-handedly built the Qin Family Army. Simple words touched him so deeply that his dreamy eyes lit up a little and fell on Qin Tao's face...
He stared intently and seriously, as if trying to see the young face clearly.
An unprecedented jealousy enveloped Qin Tao, bitter and depressed. He then realized that his father had never looked at him so seriously...
In the past, he felt that his father loved them very much. Although the reunion time every year was short, he was willing to play with him, teach him martial arts, and tell him about the Qin Family Army... Before today, he had never even said a harsh word to him and his sister, let alone hit him.
But then I discovered that my father's heart had always favored another child.
A rough and scarred hand touched the swelling on the young face. The middle-aged man who had lost his son was speechless and whispered in a suppressed voice: "I'm sorry Lie'er..."
"That year he cried and didn't want me to leave..."
"I told him I would be home before he was as tall as my shoulders..."
"Then I will always be with him, watching him get married and have children... waiting for him to take care of me in my old age..."
Qin Tao's mood had never been so complicated. He was filled with grievance and anger. He was the one his father hit, and he was the one who felt pain on his face! But his father was saying that he was sorry for others! His father treated his face as someone else's! Wasn't he also his father's son?
But he also felt his father's heartache, hoping that he could help ease it a little. Amidst mixed emotions, Qin Tao could only remain silent, his face stubbornly sullen...
"General, why don't you go down the mountain with the young general and get things sorted? Tomorrow... should be the seventh day since your grandson Qin Hao... was murdered. It's said that burning more yellow and white paper money on this day will help you be reborn into a good family..."
The soldiers stammered and tried to find excuses to persuade the general, but they choked up as they spoke. "The general's own grandson!" These days in Dongshan Village, whenever the surviving villagers mentioned Qin Hao, they would always say that he was a child prodigy with a photographic memory! It was a pity and a great loss!
Qin Zhong's heart sank even deeper, and he couldn't help but close his eyes. Lie'er's child... If only he had come back earlier...
But no, just like he left home at his father's request, was incited by Chu Wei to have ambitions, and cruelly cut off contact with his family for fear that Chu Tianming would find out... One thing after another, how could he not regret it?
Even though he had never seen the grandson named Qin Hao, Qin Zhong, who felt full of guilt but could not make up for it, wanted to do something, even if it was nonsense.
Lie Er must be hoping that his child will be born into a good family, right? He hopes so too...
Qin Zhong turned and walked down the mountain, while Qin Tao walked behind him. His father seemed to have cheered up a little, which made him happy...
But the jealousy, grievance, and anger in his heart had not completely disappeared... At the same time, he suddenly thought of the storyteller in Wuzui Town and the burned woman...
Turning around to look at the spotlessly clean tombstone, Qin Tao curled his lips with a complicated expression and followed him down the mountain.
After going down the mountain, the soldiers who had arrived earlier told Qin Tao more about what they had learned, including the Qin family in Dongshan Village.
When Qin Tao heard that it was Chu Shiqi's private soldiers disguised as a group of bandits who attacked and turned the Qin family in the small mountain village into a charred mess, he immediately glared in anger!
Even though his feelings towards his father's former home, the Qin family in this small mountain village, were too complicated to understand, it was still the Qin family after all! How could he allow it to be tormented and not react?!
Qin Tao immediately threw away the medicine bag he was using for his face!
The soldiers on duty outside the door of the simple house where they were temporarily staying would naturally not stop the young general when they saw that it was him who was coming.
Qin Tao walked straight into the room and saw that his father still hadn't rested, sitting by the bed, looking sad in silence. He became even more anxious and hated the culprit of all this, the people from Chu Shiqi's faction!
"Dad! The bandits who attacked the Qin family in Dongshan Village are actually Chu Shiqi's private soldiers! We should take revenge!"
Qin Zhong raised his tired and lifeless eyes and was slightly stunned when he saw the face in front of him.
One side of the young face was swollen, stained with yellow-brown medicine, but Qin Tao was so angry that he forgot about the injury on his face and didn't care about his father who caused it at all...
"Chu Shiqi is so immoral and incompetent that he created such brutal bandits! I came to you because I originally planned to mobilize the Qin family army to deal with him! With such a great grudge, I can't bear to see him sit on the throne!"
Qin Tao scolded bitterly, then suddenly thought of something and said with even more genuine indignation, "That's right! My third cousin was attacked near Jinyan City! The people who attacked and killed my third cousin might be the same group of people!"
Qin Zhong listened to the indignant words, and his expression finally changed a little. He murmured two words: "Great revenge..."
Qin Tao was somewhat confused by his father's reaction and asked doubtfully, "Isn't it a great vengeance for a blood relative to be killed? Didn't Dad think of wiping out those bandits and avenging his hatred?"
The vicissitudes of life finally turned to look at Qin Tao himself. Qin Zhong asked in a deep voice: "The Qin family and the Chu family have a deep blood feud. Qin Tao, whose side will you support?"
Qin Tao was even more confused now, and said aggrievedly, "My last name is Qin, I'm your child, I'm a member of the Qin family, why bother asking whose side I'm on?"
"Besides, my nephew's victimization was related to Chu Shiqi, and the other members of the Chu family were also victims, so it doesn't count as a feud with the Chu family..."
Qin Tao looked a little uneasy. He had a vague feeling that the boy he had met in Wuzui Town might be his nephew. Although they had never met, he felt a sense of familiarity the moment they saw him. Later, the soldiers accompanying him also said that he looked somewhat like him when he was a child...
However, he didn't want to let his father know for the time being... Firstly, he was afraid it was fake, giving his father hope and only making him more disappointed; secondly, he was afraid it was true, and that his father would only have that child in his heart from now on...
Qin Tao had an unnatural look on his face, and Qin Zhong, who was watching him, naturally noticed it, but he thought it was because Qin Tao was thinking of his mother, Chu Wei, who was also a member of the Chu family... Who could regard the mother who raised them as an enemy?
The conversation between father and son ended in silence. Although they had different thoughts and reasons, they reached a common goal, which was to mobilize the Qin family army.
Qin Tao only found out the next day that his father was determined to take revenge. He didn't need to remind him. Shortly after arriving in Dongshan Village, his father had already sent orders to the Qin Family Army in the Northwest.
As scheduled, the Qin army has already set out and is on its way to the capital! As soon as the funeral is complete, my father will ride north quickly to lead the Qin army in the eastern expedition!
Qin Tao naturally hurriedly informed his father of the agreement with Chu Shihuan so that the two parties could meet on the road.
Although Qin Tao felt a little uncomfortable with his father's indifferent look, he acquiesced. A prince avenging his mother's murder and attacking the tyrannical new emperor was a far more righteous cause than raising an army for no reason...
What surprised Qin Tao even more was that during their time in the southwest, his father had instructed the hundreds of soldiers accompanying him to recruit many local recruits! Most of them were righteous men dissatisfied with the atrocities of the new emperor's bandit army! Many even refused to accept military pay, willing to travel thousands of miles to hunt down the bandits just to have food!
In a short period of time, the Qin family had a new southwestern army of 20,000 people!
Originally, this new army was to be temporarily led by Deputy General Zhao Shu, but now it has been handed over to Qin Tao, assisted by Zhao Shu, to march eastward along the Yangtze River to hunt down the bandit army that has gone to the south of the Yangtze River!