Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 6: First Hundred Coins (Thanks to the two leaders)

Several people were arranging in low voices.

There are several steep slopes ahead.

The old horse walked with difficulty. After passing the slope, he saw a man standing by the side of the road.

The long floral skirt drags on the ground, with large fluttering sleeves, and a mixture of red and green, a standard women's outfit.

Inside the women's clothing was a dirty, dark face with tangled hair and beard. There was no expression on his face. He was holding a black dagger and looking at the group of people.

Zhang Cheng's humming stopped for a moment.

The two guards clenched their sticks.

A group of people walked past him, and the man's head moved with their movement, his eyes always fixed on them.

"Go faster, go faster."

Zhang Cheng's face turned pale as he gave instructions to the guards on both sides.

There is another slope ahead.

Just as Zhang Cheng was about to swing the whip in his hand, another man appeared on the slope.

Another one popped up from the left.

There was no expression on the faces of these three people, but they walked towards Zhang Cheng and others at the same time and stood in three directions.

They didn't speak, and Zhang Cheng didn't speak either.

The silence lasted for a long time, and Zhang Cheng shuddered.

"I have some food here. There are many of us."

The three men seemed to have heard nothing. They slowly surrounded them and stared at Zhang Cheng and the two guards. No, they were just staring at Zhang Cheng and the two guards' round bellies.

Their throats moved and swallowing sounds were made.

The two guards were frightened. They froze in place, pursed their lips, their teeth stuck together, and fear flashed in their eyes.

They really wanted to do something, even just shout, but at this moment their whole bodies were sore and they instantly lost all their strength and could not move.

Liu Taozi also saw them swallowing their saliva.

The corner of his left eye twitched, and a hint of ferocity flashed in his eyes.

"Whoosh~~~"

A fishing fork flew out of the air and hit the man in women's clothing right on the neck.

The man's throat was torn open by the harpoon and blood spurted out. The harpoon continued to fly and fell to the ground. The man's head drooped to the side, with only flesh connecting his head to his body.

The man standing in front had just heard the noise when he heard his accomplice fall to the ground.

A gust of wind blew.

A man appeared in the air, with severe pain on his face.

Zhang Cheng saw Liu Taozi running towards him, so he jumped up and kneed the thief in the face.

The thief's face exploded, red, black, and yellow, and he fell to the ground screaming.

Liu Taozi grabbed the knife and took a step forward.

"Puch!"

The third thief stood behind Liu Taozi and swung the knife hard. Liu Taozi's clothes were torn, leaving a light red mark on her back.

Liu Taozi turned around and swung the knife in his hand from bottom to top.

The knife pierced the thief's abdomen vertically.

The intestines and internal organs squeezed out of the wound, and juice poured out.

The thief lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground.

Liu Taozi held the knife in both hands, stood in front of the bandit who was knocked to the ground by the knee, and stabbed down.

The thief's chest was stabbed.

He didn't move either.

Liu Taozi held a knife and breathed heavily as he looked at the third bandit whose stomach had been ripped open.

Only when the bandit stopped moving did Liu Taozi step forward and stab him in the heart again.

In the carriage, Zhang Cheng did not move at all, and the two guards were even more so, like three clay sculptures.

"Ugh~~~"

Zhang Cheng finally started to dry heave.

He struggled to get off the carriage, stood aside and began to vomit, but nothing came out except some water.

Liu Taozi took out cloth to wrap the wound on her back.

When Liu Taozi finished his work, the two guards didn't dare to go forward to check.

Zhang Cheng stood in front of Liu Taozi and looked at the corpses.

"peach."

His voice was a little weak, but there was cunning again in his eyes.

"Look, can you give me these heads?"

"These are habitual thieves. It's obvious that they have harmed many people. I will take them to the government and hang them on the city wall to deter other thieves!"

"Hundred coins."

"One hundred coins each."

Zhang Cheng put away his smile and hesitated to speak.

His hands began to grope over his body.

After groping for a long time, he gritted his teeth and handed three strings of money to Liu Taozi.

The guards stood there, motionless. Zhang Cheng shouted angrily, "What are you still standing there for? Behead them!"

"Whose head?"

"Cut mine! Come, come!"

Zhang Cheng stuck his head out and cursed angrily.

The two guards trembled as they chopped off the three heads. Zhang Cheng was busy and the group was on the road again. After passing a few more high slopes, the guards' fear disappeared.

They puffed out their chests again, occasionally shaking the heads in their hands, and the roars behind them were deafening again.

"Hurry up!! Hurry up!!"

Liu Taozi still walked at the end without saying a word.

The tall city wall of Cheng'an County appeared in the distance, and the gray-white city wall was daunting.

There were more than twenty people standing at the city gate, neatly lined up on both sides.

These men were fully armed, fat and strong. Before the carriage got close to them, several powerful crossbows were aimed at them.

Zhang Cheng got out of the car with a smile and walked forward.

"prrgn!"

He bowed and greeted, then took out the pass from his sleeve. He pointed at the guards, tenants, and Liu Taozi around him one by one and explained to the man.

He pointed at the heads again, looking quite proud, and the two guards puffed out their chests.

Liu Taozi saw Zhang Cheng stuffing something into the soldier's hand.

The soldier checked and examined each person one by one, comparing them. Finally, he looked at the harpoon in Liu Taozi's hand.

"bar!"

Liu Taozi handed the harpoon to the other party. The soldier took the harpoon, stepped back a few steps, and blew towards the city gate. The soldiers at the gate made way.

Zhang Cheng walked in front, bowing and nodding to the left and right with a smile.

The group passed through the city gate.

Inside the city gate is a barbican, and you have to go through another inspection at the second city gate before you can be considered to have entered the city.

A road leads to the distance, with various buildings on both sides of the road.

However, there was no one on this road leading to the distance.

The buildings on both sides were dead silent, and not a single sound could be heard coming from inside.

A group of people walked in the city like this, and it seemed that they were the only ones in this huge city.

When he reached a fork in the road, Zhang Cheng stopped.

"Just wait here while I go to the county government office."

"Don't run around. You know the rules. If you have no rules, I will take care of you. If you are caught, you will die!"

Zhang Cheng's eyes lingered on Liu Taozi in particular.

In this land, Peach without a harpoon in hand is not enough to scare him.

He rode in a car with two guards and headed north.

Liu Taozi carried his luggage and was about to leave.

"Brother Tao!"

One person shouted.

The tenants put down their sacks and finally their faces could be seen.

A wrinkled black face.

"Don't wander around. There are few people here, so it's the safest."

"It's dangerous in the city. Let's wait here for the master to come back. The people in the city dare to kill people."

The old tenant began to persuade them, and the other two nodded in agreement.

"I have things to do."

"This is your first time in the city. Even if you have something to do, you don't know the way. How dare I let you go out alone? Wait for the master to come back and ask for clarification. It won't be too late for you to go again. The city is dangerous."

"Brother Tao, just listen to our advice and wait for a while. We still have to go to the West Market, and the head of the family dare not delay us."

Their attitude was firm, and the skinny old man even grabbed Liu Taozi's arm.

"Thanks to your family for taking care of you on weekdays, we have to keep an eye on you. Listen to us and don't run around. There is no limit to what you can do. If you are stopped by the soldiers, you will die."

Liu Taozi stopped talking.

In the silent city, tall buildings were distributed on the left and right. At the fork in the road, there were only four people standing quietly in the middle of the fork, motionless.

The sun was so busy moving that it didn't know when it broke into the dark clouds, and the gloomy world became even colder.

"Click."

Liu Taozi held the dry biscuit, chewed it and swallowed it.

The crumbs of the biscuit stuck to his lips. He squeezed the crumbs into his mouth with his fingers and finished the dry biscuit in a few bites.

He picked up the water bag again and drank from it.

In a moment, the water bag was half empty.

Liu Taozi wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and put away the water bag.

At the fork in the road in Cheng'an County, four people were still standing alone.

It has been a long time since Zhang Cheng left. The shadows of the people kept moving, and in the end, the shadows finally disappeared.

The sky was gloomy, and looking into the distance the view was both clear and desolate.

The three farmers' faces had become extremely frightened.

An unspeakable fear kept surging from my heart.

"The market is about to close, the market is about to close."

They were trembling all over. "It's curfew, he hasn't come back, he hasn't come back, it's getting dark, it's getting dark, we're going to die!"

"Oh my god."

The old man sobbed and cried.

Besides the crying, there seemed to be the sound of light horse hooves in the distance, and the hooves played a gradual death song on the road. The three people almost collapsed, and a foul smell emanated from their bodies.

ps: Jiang Huaming, a native of Yunyang County, Jingzhao Prefecture, worked as a porter for Dun Yuanliang, traveling from Liangzhou to Beiting. He accidentally lost his way and was arrested and sent to the court. He was handed over to Gongcaosi for interrogation. ——"The fragment of the case file of the Xizhou Military Governor's Office inquiring Jiang Huaming about his loss of his rights in January and February of the 21st year of Kaiyuan"

ps: Thank you very much to the leader who is addicted to Auto Chess and Guan Guan Gong Zi, thank you for your support! As for updates, I also want to update more, especially want to take out all the exciting parts of the follow-up, but the new book needs to be recommended, if the update is too fast, there will be many problems, so I can only bear it, but don’t worry, once it is on the shelves, I will immediately return to the explosive update wolf form! ! ! Thank you everyone!

(End of this chapter)