Chapter 296 Do things separately

  Chapter 296 Do things separately

   “How many casualties did we have?”

“Seven people were injured, one was quite serious, but he didn’t die.” The soldier said, “The bandits are a mob, but the stockade is well built, so it’s not easy to fight.” Joining their regular army, isn’t that the end of lying down and waiting to die?

  Fu Xin snorted: “Isn’t that still someone was injured? There are villages everywhere, why not just occupy one? It’s better to have food and drink than this remote mountain.”

  It is easier to attack good people than bandits.

   “It’s more hidden here.” Hong Chenglue came out of the row house, and answered the question casually, “There are also food and drink.”

  When he lived in Bailu Town, he knew that this bandit den was the largest within a hundred miles, with more than three hundred people. With so many mouths to eat every day, it is impossible to rely solely on going down the mountain to rob. There are rumors that these bandits will collude with merchants down the mountain to exchange the looted proceeds for food.

  Even though Hong Cheng led his troops in a flash attack, it took four or five hours to defeat them. When I opened the warehouse later, I saw that there was no shortage of food and various supplies, and everyone was overjoyed.

  In fact, farmers know very well that when the harvest in the field is not good and they cannot go to neighbors to steal food, they might as well go to the fields to find voles. There may be surprises in the mouse holes, and at least they can manage several meals.

   Obviously, the “vole” they killed this time was diligent and thrifty, and even had savings in famine years.

   “The surname is Hong!” Seeing him, Fu Xin’s eyes turned red, and he rushed forward and grabbed his skirt, “Leave us in the mine pit to die, what do you mean!”

  The guards behind him wanted to step forward to pull, Hong Chenglue waved his hand.

   “I asked everyone to evacuate, but you refused.” Hong Cheng said lightly, “Is it my fault that the entire army was annihilated due to disobedience to the military order?”

   “You didn’t go down the mountain to intercept the officers and soldiers, why is that!”

   “We went down the mountain and found no trace of officers and soldiers. We couldn’t return empty-handed, so we went to carry out the general task assigned by Marshal Nian, which is to attack and burn food and grass behind the enemy. What’s the problem?”

  Fu Xin looked around, but he didn’t get dizzy after all, and still found that the number of people was wrong: “Then you succeeded in burning it? Huh? Take us as bait, kill the state officials, and burn the food and grass?”

  He shouted louder and louder, and finally turned into a roar, and all the soldiers in the row house came out.

  Hong Chenglue grabbed his wrist and turned it outward, and punched Fu Xin in the chest again, knocking him back five steps and almost sitting on the ground.

  The guards behind Fu Xin rushed up.

  Hong Chenglue asked with his hands behind his back: “Where is General Baili? At worst, you can always take the mine road and evacuate from the back mountain, right?”

   What he left for Bailiqing and the others was not a dead end.

   As long as he sees the opportunity quickly, Bai Liqing still has a chance to escape.

Fu Xin was angry and kept silent, and his personal guards answered on his behalf: “Xiazhou officers and soldiers went around to the back mountain, blew up the exit of the mine, and then set off with smoke. General Baili… was captured. We saw it in ambush on the top of the mountain. The Xiazhou general killed everyone.”

  There was an uproar in the village, and even Hong Chenglue’s forehead had a twitching vein.

  The officers and soldiers killed all the surrendered soldiers in Bailiqing and the mine? So ruthless.

  However, thinking about the fact that there is no better way to deal with the prisoners when marching and transporting food, it is indeed the easiest to kill them.

  He stared at Fu Xin: “Then how did you survive? Could it be that you are greedy for life and afraid of death?”

  Fu Xin was furious, but was stabbed by the coldness in his eyes, his back was stiff, and he said with a stiff neck, “We took advantage of the enemy’s unpreparedness and killed a **** road!”

   “Abandoning the master and fleeing, the crime should be executed.” Hong Chenglue’s words made him feel cold.

   “However, we are short of manpower. I will give you a chance to pay off your merits.” Hong Chenglue suddenly drew his sword, and Fu Xin felt a chill on the back of his hand, and the pain came later.

   A broken tail finger fell to the ground.

  He yelled “ah” and covered his left hand, bleeding profusely.

   After he stopped crying for a while, Hong Chenglue continued: “If you dare to make trouble again, or make false remarks, or provoke conflicts, or are greedy for life and fear death, you will lose your head.”

  Fu Xin bowed his head, no longer looking at him, but gritted his back molars.

  Hong Chenglue glanced away, and everyone lowered their heads.

  Bai Liqing is dead, and this army must obey Hong Chenglue’s command. They have nowhere to go, Xiazhou is the enemy’s rear area.

  Hong Chenglue said again: “Take off your clothes.”

  Fu Xin raised his head in disbelief: “What?”

   “Take off your clothes for inspection, lest someone cast a tracking spell.”

   Being stared at by hundreds of pairs of eyes, Fu Xin’s face was flushed red: “No, I, I…” Getting naked in front of so many soldiers would be worse than dying.

  Deputy General Xu Yingxian hurried up to smooth things over: “It’s okay to take it to the row house for inspection! General, that’s okay too.”

  Hong Cheng slightly nodded.

  So several personal guards stepped forward and took Fu Xin to the nearby hut.

  Hong Chenglue turned around and left, his face as dark as ice.

  Wu Qing had been standing in the row house for a long time to watch, and then he came out and asked him: “General Hong, what are your plans for the future?”

   “Hide your strengths and bide your time. He Chunhua’s nearly 10,000 shi of grain will definitely be transported to the front line. We have no way to intercept it. We can only wait for the next operation behind enemy lines.”

   “You send some people to go to the three or four counties and towns in the north and middle of the country to get more information.” Hong Chenglue had already made a plan, “Also, give me Xiang Nianshuai another three hundred rangers.”

  The two entered the row house, seeing that there was no one else here, Wu Qing said in a low voice: “General Baili died, and Fu Xin fled back. Isn’t this an accident?”

“Of course not.” Hong Chenglue snorted, “Xiazhou people put them back specially to cause trouble for me. Fu Xin has more than a dozen of them, and our sneak attack on the Xinhuang barracks failed, and morale is low. This is not the right time. Move him.”

  He also lowered his voice: “When does the superior want me to return to Beja?”

   “Shuangye Guoshi said, you can persist as long as you can in the enemy’s rear. The situation on the front line of Hanhe requires you to worry more.”

  The situation on the Hanhe front? In other words, when will he be able to return to Bega, it depends on his performance in Hanhe? Hong Chenglue pondered: “I’ve been away for too long, which national teacher is the head of our country now?”

   “At present, it is the rotating palm seal of the Mianbing State Teacher.” The palm seal has the right to make decisions, and the four national teachers have always held the seal in turn.

  Hong Chenglue’s pupils shrank slightly, but then returned to normal: “What a coincidence, it was her palm print when I left.” No wonder Guoshi Shuangye lacked confidence in speaking now.

  Wu Qing laughed: “Yes, yes.” But he thought in his heart that he had heard that there was a gap between General Hong and the Mianbing State Division, and it seemed to be true.

  The two discussed the supply again, and soon a personal guard came to report:

   “Fu Xin’s physical examination is completed, and no tracking-like supernatural powers and objects were found.”

   “Understood.” Hong Chenglue waved him back, knowing that after this body search, Fu Xin hated himself even more.

   Moreover, many soldiers in this village were quite critical of him. After all, Hong Chenglue was from Bega, and these were Xunzhou rangers. “General Beijia doesn’t take the lives of Xunzhou people seriously.” Hong Chenglue heard it with his own ears during his inspections.

   It is not my own soldier, so it is not easy to use.

  He asked Wu Qing again: “How is Ajin’s place, is she used to living there?”

  Wu Qing smiled and said: “Don’t worry, the village is very hidden. Madam has two careful women who wash and eat, and there are people to chat with her, which is much more comfortable than you.”

  Hong Chenglue was still a little worried: “I was thinking, should I take her over?”

   “It’s best not to.” Wu Qing said honestly, “We have no fixed place to live, and we don’t know when we will move. She is a… weak woman traveling with a parade, it is too hard.” The main reason is that it is inconvenient.

  Hong Chenglue let out a sigh of relief, nodded his head, and rationally knew that it should be so.

Wu Qing continued: “In the past few days, all the villages and towns have been arresting bandits and spies, and strictly interrogating the people and faces of foreigners. I heard that the prisons in Haotian Township are full, and dozens of people are forced to beheaded. It was shown to the public, and there was turmoil everywhere, and the tension was unprecedented.”

   “Mr. Wu, you won’t be implicated, right?”

“It’s okay, my team has official certificates, and I can’t be caught. The more famine the year is, the more important businessmen like us are.” Wu Qing sighed, “The township officials also made great efforts to send people to various mountain villages to dig the ground. Sanchi wants to find the Xunzhou people. General Hong really has the foresight, if you just occupy a mountain village and settle down, now you have to retreat in embarrassment.”

   “This should be ordered by the state officials, and officials from all over the country had to follow. I burned He Chunhua’s tens of thousands of shi of military rations, and he went crazy.”

  Wu Qing smiled and said: “Yes, the rewards for you will soon be posted all over the central and northern part of Xiazhou.”

  Hong Chenglue is not worried about himself: “Is there a reward for Ah Jin?”

   “I didn’t see it.”

  After the discussion, the two went to work separately.

  ￥￥￥￥￥￥

  Ben Lei Village.

  The spring water has just risen, and the stream is gurgling.

  Two peasant women were laundering clothes by the stream, looked up at the sky, and said, “Why does it seem to be raining soon? It was sunny just now!”

  A large group of dark clouds came from nowhere, blocking half of the sky. The sun was still shining above the two of them, but the sky in the east was dark.

   “Hurry up and wash, and go back after washing.”

   “If you say it’s spring, you know it’s raining all the time. The sun finally came out, and it’s only been a few hours.” The peasant woman complained, “The firewood is damp, and it takes a lot of effort to light the fire, and it chokes people to death.”

   “Aunt Liu, I have a question for you.” Another peasant woman said, “Aren’t you helping in the kitchen of Village Chief Chen’s house? I heard that the village chief has several relatives here?”

   “Ah, yes.” Aunt Liu grabbed her clothes and beat them vigorously, “It seems that a female family member from a big family in the south fell ill and was sent to the countryside to recuperate.”

   “How did I hear that there are many people?”

“There are a lot of people, only three or four of the women, and a few men who seem to be nurses…or guards? One is thin and the other is strong. They all look like they are staring at others, and their faces are fierce.” Aunt Liu said , “These people are all here to serve the female relative.”

  The peasant woman wondered: “What kind of illness is not treated in the city, but sent to the countryside?” Who doesn’t know that the conditions in the city are good, and even one or two doctors in the countryside are barefoot immortals. How can the medical skills compare with those in the big cities?

   “I don’t know either. I only know that the village chief gave up the big house for others to live in. The noble lady stays out of the house all day, and almost no one has seen her.”

  (end of this chapter)