Longzang

Chapter 455 Conflict (Thanks to Alliance Leader sanyo007)

At this moment, two groups of men were facing off at the gate of the Wengcheng military camp. One side was Wei Yuan's troops, each soldier clad in bright armor and well-equipped. The other side consisted of soldiers in greyish-white uniforms; though fewer in number, each exuded a fierce and murderous aura.

At this moment, dozens of people on both sides had bruises and swelling on their faces. They had just fought a battle that seemed to be evenly matched.

The soldiers in their grey and white uniforms were making a fuss, shouting, "We are all under the command of the military governor, and we all came to the front lines stepping over the corpses of foreign tribes! Why should you take over all the good military camps while we, the military governor of Anbei, have to sleep in tents in the snow?"

Some people stubbornly retorted, "Come on, chop this way! I'll give you my head! Even the Liao barbarians couldn't cut off my head, let's see if you can!"

Many of Wei Yuan's troops had already gripped their sword hilts, their faces filled with murderous intent, but a lieutenant general in the army shouted loudly: "Everyone, restrain yourselves! This is the capital city, the greater good is at stake!"

This adjutant was quite old; there were seven or eight adjutants of the same rank present, and he was the oldest. Previously, Wei Yuan had taken all the generals to the post station, so when he stepped forward, the other adjutants remained mostly silent.

Seeing this, the soldiers in their grey uniforms became even more arrogant. One of the lieutenants, who was in charge, said, "We don't ask for much. Just give us a barracks for a thousand men, and we'll call it even! We have three thousand men, so asking for a thousand barracks isn't unreasonable. My injuries and military achievements are more than enough to warrant this treatment!"

The adjutant hesitated for a moment and said, "I cannot make this decision myself; I need to report to the lord."

Before he finished speaking, the sound of hooves thundered, and Wei Yuan and his generals and entourage had arrived!
Upon arriving, Wei Yuan glanced around and took in the entire scene.

Cui Yu and several generals from aristocratic families all had livid faces and stared at the adjutant with hostility.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan arrive, the adjutant hurriedly bowed and said, "Sir, it's like this... Later, a conflict broke out. I thought that this was the capital, so for the sake of the overall situation, I asked the brothers to restrain themselves."

Wei Yuan said expressionlessly, "Oh, you got into a fight, and you lost?"

The adjutant was startled and hurriedly said, "Each side had about a hundred men fighting, but it was a draw."

With a flick of his finger, Wei Yuan unleashed an invisible whip of magical power that lashed fiercely at the captain!
With a snap, the general's armor shattered, and even someone with late-stage Dao Foundation cultivation would collapse from the pain, but he managed to hold back his cry.

Wei Yuan said coldly, "We've already fought, why only send a hundred men? Are the remaining ten thousand or so men in the camp all dead?! So many men fought to a draw with a thousand useless trash, what use are you to me!"

The Anbei army was immediately displeased and started making a fuss again. The old soldier from before stepped forward again, tilting his head and pointing to his own neck, saying, "Hey! Who are you calling trash? What are you anyway? Come on, if you've got the guts, chop off this piece of trash's head..."

Wei Yuan stood on his horse, extended a finger, and gently drew a line in the air!
The old soldier from Anbei's head flew high into the air! His face was still filled with disbelief, he never expected that Wei Yuan would act so suddenly.

Wei Yuan then pointed at the more than a thousand Anbei soldiers and shouted, "Take them all down! Execute any who resist!"

Wei Yuan's heavily armored warriors had been enduring this for a long time, especially the Longxiang Army, which had been invincible since its establishment and considered itself unbeatable in land battles. They had never been treated with such humiliation. Even without firearms, they did not believe that they could defeat the Anbei Army.

As soon as Wei Yuan opened his mouth, a torrent of steel surged forward, then flanked the enemy, encircling and brutally attacking the Anbei army! In the blink of an eye, over a thousand Anbei soldiers were captured, leaving a dozen or so corpses on the ground. Wei Yuan's men, all heavily armored, suffered only two minor injuries.

Wei Yuan's expression softened somewhat.

Only then did the adjutant get up and explain, "Sir, I was just thinking about the bigger picture..."

Wei Yuan shouted sternly, "The big picture? Who are you to worry about the big picture? If anything goes wrong, I'll clean up the mess. What you need to do is win! If you can't win, everything else is meaningless! From now on, you're stripped of all your official rank and sent to the vanguard battalion as an ordinary soldier to start accumulating merits again!"

The man lowered his head, not daring to say anything more, and returned to his group on his own.

Wei Yuan took a deep breath and spoke loudly to the more than ten thousand armored warriors: "I'll handle everything else. All you have to do is win! No matter who the enemy is!"

In an instant, thousands of soldiers were filled with fervor, shouting in unison like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing.

At this moment, a powerful voice came from afar: "Lord Wei, you have quite the spirit! But do you think I'm easy to bully, daring to kill someone from Anbei in the royal city?"

Hundreds of iron cavalry arrived like the wind and confronted Wei Yuan.

In the center stood a burly man with a scar on his face. He looked at Wei Yuan with murderous intent in his eyes. This man was Xu Tongshou, the military governor of Anbei.

Wei Yuan sneered: "Lord Xu's soldiers came to my camp to cause trouble and even tried to occupy my barracks. They probably think I'm easy to bully!"

Xu Tongshou frowned, his gaze falling on his men who were bound hand and foot. Suddenly, he drew his sword and slashed through the air! The ropes binding the deputy general were severed.

Wei Yuan, seeing from the side that the attack was not aimed at his own soldiers, did not intervene.

Xu Tongshou grabbed the deputy general in mid-air and pulled him in front of him, demanding, "What's going on?"

The lieutenant still reeked of alcohol, but he had sobered up by the shock. He said, "The weather is bitterly cold, and the brothers can only stay in their tents outside the city. They couldn't stand it, so they thought of coming into the city to drink and warm up. Then, while drinking, they heard that all the prepared barracks had been occupied by the Western Army, and no one else was allowed to stay there. I acted impulsively and thought I'd come and see who was so arrogant, and then... a fight broke out." Xu Tongshou frowned, glanced at the corpse on the ground, and said coldly, "Lord Wei, we are all ministers in the same court. If it's just a little squabble between subordinates, it's a minor matter. How did someone die?"

Wei Yuan said without any politeness, "You had a lowly soldier under your command who dared to stick his neck out for me to cut, so I granted his wish. As for those who died later, they were all accidental. Lord Xu, you don't think that because even a lowly soldier from your Anbei Army can be so disrespectful to me, I have to give you face, do you?"

Xu Tongshou narrowed his eyes, staring at Wei Yuan, his murderous aura gradually becoming apparent.

Wei Yuan sat calmly on his horse, showing no fear whatsoever.

At this moment, a lieutenant general behind Xu Tongshou suddenly said, "Wei Yuan! Didn't you say that all the Dharma Masters of the Xu family are trash?!"

Wei Yuan said calmly, "That's right, I said it."

Xu Tongshou suddenly lashed out with his whip, striking the adjutant on the head so hard that his skin was torn open and his face was covered in blood.

Xu Tongshou then ignored the adjutant and said to Wei Yuan, "My men have offended Lord Wei, and some have died. Can you release them now?"

"Release them!" Wei Yuan waved his hand, and the soldiers cut the ropes binding the Anbei soldiers and pushed them out.

These Anbei soldiers were all wounded. Although they were at a significant disadvantage in the initial fight, they fought with their lives on the line, displaying extraordinary ferocity. However, the Qingming Iron Cavalry were also veterans who had crawled out of piles of corpses; if they encountered anyone who dared to defy them, they would beat them until they submitted.

Xu Tongshou waved his hand again, and the soldiers lifted up the corpses. Wei Yuan then ordered the captured weapons to be returned. Xu Tongshou bowed to Wei Yuan and said coldly, "Lord Wei, take care of yourself!"

After saying this, he led his men away without saying another word.

Now that there were no outsiders around, Cui Yu said, "This matter must have been instigated by someone!"

Wei Yuan said calmly, "Of course. I knew it when this entire military camp was given to us. I also roughly knew who was behind it."

Cui Yu said, "Since we know it's a conspiracy, why don't we release some barracks? This military camp can accommodate 20,000 people."

"Give way? Why should we give way?" Wei Yuan retorted, then sneered, "They dare to give us what we want, it's not like we can't accept it. If we don't accept it, wouldn't it make us look scared? Besides, an old fox like Xu Tongshou isn't someone to be trifled with. He'll figure it out after a little thought. He can't gain any advantage from us, so he'll naturally take his anger out on the instigator."

Wei Yuan added, "This kind of conflict is better than other methods."

Xu Tongshou had his own property in the capital. Now, he returned to his residence and stormed into his study, smashing things around in a chaotic mess. The servants were so frightened that they fell silent and dared not approach.

Once it had quieted down a bit, a scholar strode into the study and then closed the door tightly.

Xu Tongshou, who was in the room, was slowly sipping his tea, showing no sign of anger whatsoever. Upon seeing the scholar arrive, he immediately smiled and said, "Mr. Qi has arrived, please have a seat."

This scholar possessed an extraordinary air about him. After settling down, he said, "I've heard that Lord Xu has had a conflict with the people of the Dingxi Military Governor?"

Xu Tongshou snorted and said slowly, "It was all a scheme by Lu Zhongzhi, the commander of the Nine Gates. He gave the entire military camp to Wei Yuan and then incited my men to cause trouble! Hmph, I was just playing along. If I don't cause a few deaths with Wei Yuan, those Lu fellows probably won't be able to sleep."

The scholar smiled slightly and said, "It seems there is no need for me to worry at all. You, sir, can see everything clearly and have everything under control."

Xu Tongshou said, "There's nothing major happening in the capital, but there's an important matter at the family that requires your assistance. I really don't trust anyone else with it."

Mr. Qi said, "Please speak, sir."

“I own 80,000 mu of mulberry groves and 150,000 mu of farmland over there. Recently, the price of silk has soared while the price of grain has fallen. I heard that Wei Yuan has taken all the silk. I’m thinking of converting tens of thousands of mu of farmland into mulberry groves, but I’m a little uneasy. I feel like there’s some kind of conspiracy involved. But if I don’t convert them, I’ll lose 200,000 taels of silver a year. I’m not willing to accept that.”

Therefore, I would like to ask you to go back and see if we should convert the farmland into mulberry groves, and if so, by how much.

Mr. Qi's expression turned serious, and he said solemnly, "I'm afraid we'll have to go to Qingming to find out about this. While Wei Yuan is still in the capital and Qingming is unprepared, I'll set off tomorrow."

"Then I'll leave it to you, sir."

Before the scholar left, Xu Tongshou suddenly said, "If I were to ask Wei Yuan directly about this matter, what would you think, sir?"

"That would be best, but it must be done after leaving the capital, otherwise those lives will have been wasted."

(End of this chapter)