Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 114 Plunder
Li Chengdong sat at the tea table with a calm expression on his face. The shouting and killing in front of the city gate had gradually subsided.

"Bring...Brother, bring the people here."

Du Yonghe led the squad leader Zhang to the table, shook off the blood on the knife in his hand, and looked casual.
Zhang Bantou knelt on the ground, looking pale, and the fierceness on his face was gone.
He looked at the nearly one hundred swordsmen holding long swords in front of the city gate, and his face was filled with fear.
It's not like he hasn't killed anyone before. He can dominate the grain business in the county. This leader is definitely not a good person.

But what was happening was not a killing, but a massacre. Forty or fifty people had died in just a short moment.

However, none of these people in front of him changed their expressions, as if they were used to it. He was sure that these people were not officials, but either roaming bandits or fleeing bandits from the north.

Li Chengdong looked at the short and strong man kneeling in front of him, trembling all over, with a calm expression on his face, and spoke softly

"Master Zhang?"

"No, no, no, you are the master, you are the master, please spare my life..."

The short and strong man quickly spoke in a trembling voice, and kept bowing, but he was only halfway through his words when Li Chengdong above him spoke directly.

"Which hand did he use just now?"

"Right hand, right? Shouldn't we all use the right hand?" Du Yonghe said casually.
As soon as Du Yonghe finished speaking, there was a flash of knife light and the short and strong man's right arm flew up.
Red blood flew out, instantly staining the ground in front of the tea table red.
Zhang Bantou screamed immediately, his whole body twitched, and his forehead was instantly covered with cold sweat.
But he quickly restrained himself, banged his head on the ground, and shouted:
"I have offended you, Grandpa, by not recognizing you as a great man. Please spare me, Grandpa, please spare me."

"I have a small business in the city, and I would like to give it all to you grandfathers. All I ask is..."

Zhang Bantou kept howling for mercy and knocking his head to the ground. But the moment he raised his head, a flash of knife light appeared, and then a head flew up.
In front of the tea table, the begging for mercy stopped abruptly, and a headless corpse suddenly fell forward to the ground.

Li Chengdong slightly moved away, and the blood gushing out immediately soaked the soil in front of the tea table.

"I will take whatever I want, why do I need you to offer it to me?"

Li Chengdong put the sword back into the scabbard, his face calm, and whispered to himself

Li Chengdong looked around and saw that nearly a hundred soldiers had occupied various places in front of the city gate, and the ground was littered with dead bodies.

Du Yonghe stood aside, Yan Keyi squatted on the ground and wiped the blood off the long knife with the clothes of the people on the ground.
Ma Bao led a few soldiers to stand by the doorway, and some soldiers bent down from time to time to search the people's belongings on the ground.

Li Chengdong called the three people over and said in a cold voice

"Don't waste time. Du Yong and you, find someone alive and go to that Risheng Grain Ship to transport grain."

"If we go beyond Heyuan, we will enter Guangzhou Prefecture. We will not be able to get food this way in Guangzhou Prefecture. This time we must prepare the food and money needed to get to Guangzhou City."

"Ma Bao and Yan Keyi, follow me to the county government office."

All the horses that were originally harnessed to the carts were brought over. Li Chengdong gave an order, then jumped on his horse and galloped towards the city with dozens of soldiers.
Du Yonghe, Ma Bao and other generals looked at each other, then they all got on their horses, led their soldiers and followed Li Chengdong into the city.
Heyuan County Government Office, as Li Chengdong and his group broke in, the government office was in chaos

Li Chengdong sat on the main seat in the county government hall, playing with a warrant in his hand. There were screams of fear coming from all over the hall.
Li Chengdong sat in the hall for about two quarters of an hour, and the screams outside the hall began to gradually fade away.

There was a sound of footsteps, and Ma Bao walked into the hall, holding a bloodstained long knife in his hand, and pushed a middle-aged man to the front of the steps.

The middle-aged man was wearing a green official robe, and he was obviously the county magistrate. However, at this moment, the county magistrate's robe was disheveled and his face was pale.
"Are you the magistrate of Heyuan County?"

Li Chengdong looked at the frightened middle-aged man in front of him.

The county magistrate fell to the ground, and when he saw the red military uniform of Li Chengdong in front of him, a glimmer of hope suddenly appeared in his eyes.

He recognized the clothes Li Chengdong was wearing; this style was exactly the uniform of the Ming army.
The county magistrate forced himself to remain calm and said

"Where on earth are you soldiers from? Looting the county is a serious crime of treason. You should leave immediately and I will leave..."

The county magistrate was halfway through his words when a flash of knife light suddenly appeared, and then a head with a shocked look on its face rolled down the stairs.

"If you don't understand what people are saying, then there's no need to listen."

Li Chengdong put the long knife on the table and whispered to himself
He looked at Ma Bao standing at the bottom of the stairs and asked again

"Have you found it?"

"Found it. The official seals of the county magistrate and the various departments of the county government are all here."

Ma Bao untied the cloth bag from his waist and threw it on the table. The bag opened and several brass seals rolled out.

"Let's do it the same way as before. Write a letter to report safety, seal it, and send it off to report safety to Guangzhou City."

"General Yan arrested a clerk from the county government and sent him out after he finished writing the letter," Ma Bao responded. With the help of the Gu family, they captured Chaozhou without bloodshed.

After taking Chaozhou and confirming the surrender of Li Shilian of Huizhou, Li Chengdong and his entourage disguised themselves as a team escorting the autumn tax from Chaozhou Prefecture and rushed all the way to prepare for a surprise attack on Guangzhou.

They traveled light and had a small group of people. When they ran out of food and money, they entered the city to rob. After attacking the county government, they forged a letter from the county government to report safety and had someone send it to Guangzhou to prevent the Guangzhou government from noticing anything unusual.

They traveled quickly all the way, and in just a few days, they had already crossed most of Huizhou Prefecture and arrived at Heyuan County on the border between Guangzhou and Huizhou. From there, they would enter Guangzhou Prefecture.

Li Chengdong looked at the sky outside and asked

"How is the copying of the county government going?"

"Almost. There are more than 3,000 taels of silver in the county government treasury, and 500 dan of rice have been seized from the granary. The grain in the county government is enough for us," Ma Bao replied.
"Is Du Yonghe back?"

"No, they went to search the store, there must be a lot of money inside, I guess they are robbing Qixing now, how can they come back so soon?"

A trace of envy flashed in Ma Bao's eyes. Although they were destined not to take away too many things this time, it would be fun to grab a handful.
"Since there is enough food, let's not waste time"

"Tell Yan Keyi to call Du Yonghe back, and only take the horses and carts back to the county government to load up the grain. Throw away everything else."

"Everyone must gather at the county government office in two quarters of an hour, and everyone must evacuate the city before dark."

"Tell Du Yonghe that no one can be left behind. If one is missing, the entire team will be implicated."

Li Chengdong's face looked grim.

Seeing Li Chengdong's stern expression, Ma Bao also became serious and immediately took the order and left.

Two quarters of an hour later, several carts pulled up by draft horses stopped in front of the county government gate, loaded with bags of dried meat and food.

All the more than one hundred soldiers who entered the city gathered in front of the county government office, without missing a single one.

“Are you all here?”

Li Chengdong looked at Du Yonghe, who walked into the hall and smelled of blood, and asked softly

"All sixty-three soldiers under my command have returned, not one less," Du Yonghe replied with a bow.

Li Chengdong waved his hand gently after hearing this, Du Yonghe bowed and bowed, then left the hall.

Li Chengdong walked out of the county hall. It was completely silent. There was no sound. The bodies of clerks and servants were everywhere. The air was filled with a strong smell of blood.
There were several black wooden boxes outside the county government hall. Li Chengdong walked out of the hall and kicked the boxes down.

A crash

The silver coins of all sizes scattered all over the yard.
Li Chengdong was about to leave, but he suddenly thought of something and walked back to the hall, picked up a brush and

He casually smeared some blood from the headless county magistrate's body, picked up a brush and began to write on the white wall in front of the hall. Two lines of bloody handwriting were quickly completed.
After Li Chengdong finished writing, he threw away the blood-stained brush and walked out of the mansion.
Soon, the sound of wheels rolling was heard outside the county government office. The sound of wheels gradually faded away, and Li Chengdong and others left.

After the convoy left, a horse-trading caravan suddenly appeared and followed the grain and salary escort team towards Guangzhou.
There was silence in the county government office.

A headless corpse in an official robe was kneeling in the hall, and on the ground in front of the hall, a head with a shocked look on its face was rolling on the ground, staring blankly at the two lines of writing on the wall.

"Corrupt officials can be killed by anyone"

"You can take whatever you want from the people's blood and sweat"

Red blood flowed down the writing, leaving streaks of blood on the white wall.
After an unknown amount of time, as it was getting dark, a few strong men finally plucked up the courage to approach the gate of the county government.
Several men hid behind the stone lions outside the county government office. When they heard the silence inside the government office, their expressions relaxed, and then they walked into the government office cautiously.

Just as they entered the county government office, several people's faces suddenly turned pale.

The county government office was filled with dead bodies, and the dried blood had dyed the ground dark red. The two men immediately leaned against the doorpost and began to retch. Then they ran out of the county government office in panic, not daring to go back in.
The remaining few people looked pale and continued to explore. They groped their way forward and soon arrived at the main hall.

In the dim hall, there was a headless corpse in an official robe kneeling down.
When they saw the official robes being lost, they immediately became flustered. But then they saw the blood-stained silver light in the hall.
Several men stood there for a moment, and finally, no one knew who started the fight first, but they all fell to the ground, with red eyes, and desperately stuffed the blood-stained silver on the ground into their arms.

As more and more people arrived at the county government office, shouts of killing suddenly rang out from inside.

In the night, the county government office, which had just calmed down, was once again in chaos.

However, Li Chengdong and others had already left Heyuan County and were heading towards Guangzhou.
(End of this chapter)