Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 162 Looted

The sun is blinding.

Return to Luohan with tears streaming down his face.

Border soldiers continued to appear in an endless stream, and everywhere one could see were those border warriors riding tall horses and with fierce faces.

These people held lances in their hands and carried short bows on their backs. Those who were closest to them were almost face to face with Hui Luo's knights. Their eyes were unruly and cruel. When these people stared at Hui Luo's men, these veteran soldiers who were raised by the powerful and experienced many battles also retreated one after another, and chaos broke out in the formation.

Several deputy generals stared at Hui Luo, and although they did not say it explicitly, their eyes were full of urging.

My king, please speak!
What should I do in this situation?
Hui Luo pursed his lips and clenched his fists. Although he was not panicked, he was extremely upset.

As a veteran general, he knew too well the character of these border soldiers. It was because these people were too vicious that the government chose a special way of governance. They did not appoint a chief officer or a high-ranking official position, but separated local management from border management. This dispersed them, prevented them from being self-sufficient, and made it impossible for them to unite.

Because the united border soldiers are almost invincible in this border land.

Hui Luo's personal soldiers, together with the private armed forces of the nobles in Shuo, Heng and other places, and the county soldiers, were simply unable to fight a single round with the gathered border soldiers.

This group of people are a bunch of savages who only care about money and food and not official titles.

He knew that he must never come into conflict with these people. Once a fight really broke out, he would undoubtedly be defeated and his head would be chopped off. In order to appease the border soldiers, the government might even pin all the crimes on his head, making him unable to rest in peace even after his death.

But if you avoid it.

Not only did they lose face, but these people used to only rob unworthy civilians. But since the bastard Heba Cheng took the lead, these people will no longer be satisfied with robbing civilians. The nobles and officials in Shuo and Heng will all become their targets.

Looking at the silent Hui Luo, Liu Taozi rode forward. With such a sudden charge, Hui Luo, who was in a daze, was frightened. The horse raised its front hooves high, and Hui Luo was almost knocked over. The knights behind him hurried forward to protect him.

Hui Luo looked at Liu Taozi in astonishment.

Liu Taozi ignored him. He picked up a big bag from the horse's back, stabbed it hard with a dagger, then swung the bag up and waved it hard above his head.

For a moment, corn was flying all over the sky.

The border soldiers in the distance all stared in amazement.

"Brothers!! The food that Khan gave us was withheld in the state government!! There is still a lot of food!! Come with me into the city to get food!!!"

Liu Taozi roared with all his might.

At this moment, the knights he brought with him shouted along with him.

The roar echoed all around.

Hui Luo's face changed drastically, and he immediately shouted to those around him, "Get out of the way!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the knights from the border town behind them were like chickens with their blood pumped up. They didn't care about the royal flag in front of them and started charging with roars.

Hui Luo led his left and right men to flee to the left.

But the personal soldiers behind him were not so lucky.

The knights of the border town launched a direct charge and collided heavily with the personal soldiers of Prince Shunyang in front of them. The soldiers fell down with screams, and their horses collided.

"Don't block the road!!"

Liu Datou roared and chopped down the knight in front of him with one sword.

Hui Luo listened to the shouts and cries that rose to the sky, and he lowered his head and fled madly to the left, trying to escape from the border soldiers' charge route. However, there were too many border soldiers, and after rushing for a long time, he was finally hit from the side by the charging knights.

His men raised their swords and shouted angrily, fighting with these people, but were overwhelmed in a moment.

Seeing that something was not right, Hui Luo quickly turned his horse around and fled in the direction of Liu Taozi.

At this moment, Liu Taozi and others had turned around, and Heba Cheng raised his sword and pointed at Zhaoyuan County opposite.

"rush!!!"

The knights led by Liu Taozi launched another charge towards Zhaoyuan.

The nobles who had chased out earlier were now shouting in fear and hiding. It was easier for them to hide than to return to Luo, as long as they didn't block the city gate.

The knights rushed towards the city again, but this time, no one dared to get angry.

The officials in the city screamed and fled in all directions. The private soldiers who were so aggressive just now were now galloping on their horses, not daring to stay.

Hui Luo was thus surrounded by the border soldiers and ran all the way towards the city gate. He did not dare to slow down, as he would be overwhelmed by the knights behind him. So he mixed in with the border soldiers and rushed into his own city.

After entering the city, a personal soldier shouted, "Left! Your Majesty, left!!"

Hui Luo did not dare to delay. He turned his horse around and rushed directly into the alley on the left. After rushing into the alley, he could no longer hold on and fell off the horse's back, landing straight on the ground. The surviving soldiers hurriedly dismounted and helped him up.

At this moment, Liu Taozi led everyone back into the city again.

The galloping of tens of thousands of cavalrymen caused the entire Zhaoyuan City to shake.

The entire county was shaking violently. The people hid in their houses in fear, the livestock screamed in panic, and the nobles fled in all directions.

The black torrent swept in, flooded the road, and rushed all the way towards the provincial government.

The officials on the road fled in all directions at this moment. If they were too late, they would be directly submerged by the flood and turned into meat paste.

In this way, they rushed into the provincial government again.

Just now, because they could not be blocked in the city, Liu Taozi and others fought quickly and failed to take away everything.

Today, there are still mountains of supplies here.

Liu Taozi reined in his horse and stood up. "Order all the troops! Collect the goods in an orderly manner! Do not loot! Do not disturb the people!!"

"Whoever dares to fight, I will kill him!!"

At this time, many garrison commanders played a corresponding organizational role.

They had a clear division of labor, cooperated in an orderly manner, and plundered together.

Someone rushed into the inner room and shouted, "There is still gold here!!"

Liu Taozi looked at Potala Ku who was standing aside, "Take your men and conduct a thorough investigation around here!"

"only!!"

The knights, who were extremely hot and excited just now and almost out of control, were exceptionally calm at this moment. Some people took the food in the front and delivered it all the way back, and the last few people were responsible for putting the food on the horses' backs.

Someone got a cart from somewhere and loaded piles of food onto it.

There were knights on guard on both sides of the road, and all the way to the city gate to prevent the food from being robbed.

The whole city was bustling with activity, yet there was an eerie calmness to it.

At this moment, the prefect was hiding in the mansion, and the soldiers under his command were constantly blocking the door with things, fearing that their next target would be them.

The prefect was a tall and strong man, a rough and tough guy, but at this moment, there was unspeakable fear in his eyes.

He was not sure what was happening in the city at the moment!

If the border soldiers had rebelled, they would not have come in to kill people, nor would they have made any move to take control of the city.

If they did not rebel, they directly broke into the provincial government and were looting wantonly.

As old people who had witnessed the Six Prefectures Uprising, these people absolutely did not want to see it again.

The Six Prefectures Uprising pushed these people to the forefront, making them the "powerful and wealthy" they are today.

And another uprising in the border towns could also pull them down from their current position.

The officials gathered around the prefect, most of them were in a state of panic, with no trace of their usual arrogance.

"Envoy, was the king killed just now?"

Someone asked tremblingly.

"do not know!"

"The life or death of the king is not important at the moment. What matters is what these people want to do!"

"Don't just stand there, go move the things and guard the door! We can't let anyone in!"

Those officials were driven out by the prefect and blocked the door. Some soldiers lay on the wall, looking outside and reporting the situation to the prefect.

The road was full of alert knights. One of them looked up and saw the peeping soldier, and smiled very kindly. The soldier was so scared that he fell off the wall.

The knights laughed.

There were slaves leading horses, with packages of all sizes hanging on their backs. The slaves were so excited that their bodies were shaking. They had never seen so much money and food in their lives! !
The knights looked at the food being led out and became more and more excited. Some of them simply picked up arrows, ready to kill the enemy at any time.

Today, they will kill anyone who dares to stop them from asking for food.

To put it bluntly, the border soldiers have to rely on the food today, and even if the Khan comes, he can’t protect it!!!
The governor asked anxiously, "What happened? What happened?"

The soldier reported: "They are still transporting. There are so many. The horses are not enough. They are using carts to push them." "A large number of people are coming out! They are looking here!"

There was chaos in the office. The prefect drew his sword and paced back and forth anxiously.

The prefect just stood in the front yard.

The soldiers reported the situation to him again and again.

Fortunately, the border soldiers did not rush into his mansion, but many roads outside the door had already been occupied by those border soldiers, and no one dared to go out easily.

At this moment, both the prefect and other officials were praying silently in their hearts, hoping that these border soldiers would just rob and leave, and not kill people indiscriminately, oh, especially not come to kill them.

The sky gradually became gloomy, dark clouds gathered in the air, slowly coiled up, and kept pressing down. The sky seemed to become very low, and those dark clouds were within reach. The noise outside finally stopped.

The soldier said hurriedly: "They are gone! They are gone! They are all out!"

The voices of those soldiers were hoarse. They had been giving reports for several hours. Smoke seemed to come out of their throats and they looked haggard.

The prefect took a deep breath, but still did not dare to go out and continued to wait here.

Normally, reports were always received from various places about border soldiers looting villages in the suburbs, but officials always thought that this was no big deal. Until today, they finally realized how desperate and painful those people who were shivering in their homes were.

This is pure torture.

The prefect had not come out yet, but several people appeared outside the provincial government office.

He was supported by several personal soldiers and returned to Luo, staring blankly at the provincial government office in front of him.

It took a whole day to get back to Luoyuan without rest, and then they encountered the war drums in the middle of the night, without resting yet. Then they forced their way here and encountered the same disaster again.

Although he came from the military, Hui Luo was over fifty years old after all. How could he withstand such a ordeal?

At this moment, he had to be supported by two personal soldiers before he could barely stand up.

His back seemed to be broken, and his face no longer had the coldness he had a few hours ago. His face was pale, and he drooped his head. He raised his head with difficulty and looked at the provincial government in front of him.

The border soldiers had already fled Zhaoyuan, leaving him with a dilapidated provincial government.

These border soldiers were like a swarm of locusts, emptying the entire provincial government office.

They even tore down the gate of the provincial government.

The provincial government office in front of him was like a tiger with broken teeth, opening its mouth to outsiders, and the scene inside was in full view.

All the space was empty, fortunately they had not taken away the rubble on the ground.

Hui Luo didn't know where he got the strength from, he pushed away the people around him roughly, staggered a few steps, and walked into the provincial government office. Everyone followed him. There were several corpses on the ground. The corpses were naked, their clothes were snatched away, and their heads were cut off as military merits, just like the formal frontier soldiers.

The passing of bandits is like a comb, and the passing of soldiers is like a grate.

And the border soldiers walked over and shaved.

Hui Luo came to his own South Courtyard.

The South Courtyard is now empty. In order to facilitate transportation, they even drilled through the wall and demolished it.

The entire South Courtyard looked like this.

Hui Luo's expression finally became uneasy, and the corners of his mouth began to twitch.

"Beast!!!"

Hui Luo roared and fell down.

The guards shouted and rushed over again.

At the same time, the border troops, who had reaped a lot of rewards, were escorting supplies and walking towards the Wuchuan camp, talking and laughing.

Heba Cheng walked in front, looking indescribably relaxed.

"That old thief looks like a decent person, but he is actually a huge greedy person. I have never seen such supplies in my life. I am afraid that the granary of Youzhou camp does not even have so much. It is really exaggerated, exaggerated!!"

Heba Cheng was very happy, but also very angry.

"No wonder we are always given food but it is never enough and we have to raise money on our own. The root cause is here!!"

"What do you mean the Han clan is a bloodsucking clan? I think these old thieves are the real harm. They don't suck blood, they just gnaw on your spine!!!"

"Which big family dares to do this? This guy at least ate up half of the military rations allocated by the government!!"

"I really am."

Heba Cheng was cursing all the way.

He knew that these nobles with military merits were extremely greedy and had huge appetites. They took advantage of their military merits to eat lavishly. However, he did not expect that people could be so greedy. This was unimaginable greed.

The food collected from his mansion alone is enough to feed the border soldiers in various towns for half a year.

What is this concept?
Seeing the extremely excited Heba Cheng, Liu Taozi had a calm expression, "General, this is enough to prove that it is not the Khan who did not distribute the food, but the thieves who withheld it."

Heba Cheng was stunned for a moment, then looked at him, smiled and nodded, "Yes, that's right."

"This is just the one about that time when Luo the old villain was there. There are many people like him in the two states. I want to see if these people can sleep well tonight!!"

"I want to see if these people still support us in reorganizing the border troops!!"

"This time the border soldiers already know who has food. Even if they kill us, it will be useless. From now on, whenever there is a shortage of food, or the border soldiers themselves feel that there is a shortage of food, they will gather together to get it."

"Damn it, who else dares not take me, the town general, seriously?!"

Heba Cheng's eyes were full of ferocity.

When the army passed through the border, the birds and beasts fled, and the common people were so scared when they saw the noise from afar that they fled first. The knights all over the mountains and plains advanced all the way, and nothing dared to block their way.

When the army returned to Wuchuan, the people who stayed behind, who had already learned the news, cheered.

This is much better than robbing the Turks.

How could the Turks be so wealthy?

Don’t go north anymore from now on, go south instead!
Piles of food were brought into the city, and someone counted them, just as they would be distributed uniformly during a war.

The West University Parade Ground was unable to gather an army of this size, so many people had to be stationed outside the city.

Heba Cheng was surrounded by more than seventy people including the chief garrison commanders and guards from all over the country. There was not enough room for them in the office.

Heba Cheng sat in the upper seat and said solemnly: "These were originally the grains distributed by the Prime Minister, but they were withheld by the traitors. This is just one of the thieves, and we don't know what the rest of the thieves are like!"

"Today, I will distribute this food first. Remember, this food was sent by the Prime Minister!!"

"Tell the soldiers what I just said truthfully!"

"only!!"

Everyone bowed their heads.

At this moment, they all seemed to understand something and no longer had any worries.

Even though they were not afraid of attacking a prince, they were still a little uneasy, fearing that the other party would take revenge on them later.

However, if they also have a big flag to support them, then there is no need to worry. In this world, is there anything stronger than the flag of the prime minister? !

Liu Taozi ordered all military officials to be fair and not to embezzle money privately. He also ordered them to reward the troops, let them celebrate the victory and go to Ye to thank the prime minister.

However, Liu Taozi felt quite uncomfortable without Tian Zili and others around.

Although these military officers are capable of doing their jobs, they cannot replace Tian Zili and Cui Gang.

At this moment, Tian Zilie and Cui Gang were running all the way. Their destination was Jiuyuan County, the seat of Sizhou, not far from the border.

This is a very important transportation artery, which can serve as a core gateway whether going north or south.

The governor here was none other than Gao Changgong, a member of the royal family who had been newly named King of Lanling.

After showing the pass, an official immediately sent someone to report, and then led Tian Zili and others to the provincial government.

Although Jiuyuan is not a well-developed city, it is extremely lively once you enter the city.

Common people were coming and going, merchants were in groups, and the two markets were extremely noisy. When they saw the knights, the common people were not frightened and lost control, but calmly made way.

They made their way all the way to the provincial government office.

Zhang Laoli, who had not been seen for a long time, heard the news. He was standing at the door, followed by a group of people on both sides, looking energetic. When he saw Tian Zili and others, he hurriedly shouted.

"Tian Jun!!!"

(End of this chapter)