Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 72 Gentlemen and Villains

The fully armed soldiers rushed out from the parade ground quickly.

Liu Taozi rode a green lion, held a tiger talisman in his hand, and stood at the door, watching the soldiers gathering in front of him.

The Xianbei people were the first to gather together. Their armors clashed, and they were armed with sharp weapons. The moment the war drums sounded, they ran out of their tents and quickly formed up.

The knights led tall war horses, the archers held their weapons sideways, and the swordsmen placed their large shields on the ground.

The flags were flying and the soldiers were looking forward with murderous intent.

The Han soldiers gathered slower and were still running.

Liu Taozi put away the tiger talisman and said, "Let's go! Follow up!"

He turned his horse around and rushed out of here, and the soldiers quickly followed him.

Yao Xiong, Tian Zili and Kou Liu followed behind Liu Taozi. They looked at the soldiers running quickly behind them with different expressions.

Liu Taozi led the army to the gate of the county government office. Gao Changgong put on armor and was guarded by armored soldiers on both sides.

The soldiers saw the commander for the first time.

The next moment, there was some commotion among the soldiers, and even several officers seemed a little confused.

Gao Changgong was very tall, but he did not look like a military general.

The main problem is his appearance, which is too feminine, without any beard, let alone any majesty or domineering. He looks like a beautiful woman who is harmless to humans and animals.

This is also true even if you are wearing armor.

"Shh."

Liu Taozi suddenly drew out his sword. The sound made several officers around him shut up immediately. They turned around and began to examine the soldiers and asked them to return to normal.

Gao Changgong mounted his horse and was about to set off, but Lu Qubing appeared beside him without him noticing.

His clothes were disheveled and his hair was unkempt, looking messy. He hurriedly grabbed Gao Changgong's reins.

"County Lord! Don't be reckless! Don't be reckless!"

"Rong Zu, get out of my way!"

"County Lord! No! You are going to lead the county soldiers to attack the home of a county lord? If the court gets to know about this, there will be disaster!"

“It has to be done!”

Seeing Gao Changgong's determination, Lu Qubing asked Kou Liu for a horse and said with a determined look, "Then let me follow you."

At Gao Changgong's command, everyone rushed towards the direction of Murong's house.

Murong Mansion covers a large area and is located in the northeast corner of Cheng'an.

Almost half of the northeast corner belongs to their family. There are endless buildings and houses of various sizes. The outermost courtyard is where the big slaves live, and further in are some side branches. The innermost one is the house of Murong Yan and his son. However, since neither of them is at home, this courtyard is usually empty.

From the outside, Murong Mansion does not look luxurious. Its walls are not tall, but just ordinary walls. These walls are not connected. Everything is just an ordinary residence. It is called Murong Mansion, but in fact it would be more appropriate to call it Murongli or Murong Township.

Many mansions are built with the inner courtyard as the core, and those living here are all people related to the Murong family.

The Murong family's close and distant relatives, their families, servants, guests, their families, warriors and old soldiers, and their families were so large that there was probably nearly 10,000 people.

Therefore, when Gao Changgong led the county soldiers and approached the northeast corner, they were noticed by the locals.

Every household started to get busy.

On those narrow streets, you can see flickering figures of people.

The road was empty, but someone could be seen standing on a roof in the distance, looking at this side with ill intent.

In the front yard, Murong Zeng and Murong Guang were playing pitch pot.

Murong Zeng held the arrow and threw it with force. The arrow missed the target but landed quite far away.

Murong Guang laughed, "Zeng Bo's skills are getting worse than before."

"Yeah, I'm old now, not as good as before."

As the two were talking, a knight suddenly rushed in from outside, quickly jumped off his horse, walked to Murong Zeng's side, and whispered something.

Murong Zeng chuckled.

"Young people really can't keep their composure."

"This county magistrate is really good, but he is too young, simple-minded, and has simple ideas. If he were a few years older, I'm afraid I would have to send him my son's head to apologize."

Murong Guang listened to his words and was not angry, but just smiled foolishly.

"I will go out to greet our distinguished guests, and you can wait here for me, Gentleman."

Murong Zeng raised his belt, adjusted his crown, and then strode towards the door with a smile on his face.

The place where the two of them were was the guardhouse of the inner courtyard. The so-called guardhouse was like the city wall outside the imperial palace. This guardhouse wrapped around the inner courtyard to form a city wall, and there were the most warriors and veterans here.

Gao Changgong now arrived at the gate of the outer courtyard.

There are only two gates in the entire outer courtyard, one on the left and one on the right.

When the county soldiers approached, the two gates were quickly closed. The courtyard wall here was relatively tall and thick. Unlike those outside, there seemed to be a platform inside the courtyard wall. Liu Taozi saw many figures appearing outside the courtyard wall. Or they had bows and crossbows.

Gao Changgong looked up at the courtyard in front of him and was about to speak when the door was opened.

Murong Zeng ran out of the door, not forgetting to call out loudly, "Why are you closing the door?! Open the door, open it wide! Welcome the distinguished guests! Welcome the distinguished guests!"

He shouted all the way and ran to Gao Changgong, bowing deeply to him.

"Greetings to the County Lord!!"

Gao Changgong just looked at him coldly, "Why do you have to pretend to be so when you come to my county office to kill someone?"

Murong Zeng's eyes widened. "What are you talking about? How dare we kill people and rebel?"

"My Lord, I don't quite understand. Please explain."

Gao Changgong looked directly to the innermost part, "I want to search your mansion."

Murong Zeng smiled again, "You wanting to be our guest is something we've been waiting for! Come on, prepare some meat. Lord Gao has quite a few followers, so we need to entertain him seriously!"

Gao Changgong was filled with anger at the moment, making him a little irritable.

He rode his horse and led the way into the mansion, with the others following behind him.

There was no difference between inside the courtyard and outside the courtyard, except that some people could be seen standing in the distance, and their appearance and dress were similar to those brought by the eldest grandson.

Gao Changgong immediately gave the order, "Order everyone to search inside and outside."

"County! What are you searching for?"

"Search for the kidnapped women, the bodies of the tortured and killed, and the man-eating dogs!"

"only!!"

The soldiers immediately rushed to various places with ferocious looks in their eyes. These people didn't care about the Murong family. As long as someone gave the order, they dared to do anything, especially the Xianbei people. For them, this seemed to be another good opportunity to plunder.

Murong Zeng was not panicked at all. He continued to give orders, asking his men to entertain the entourage brought by Gao Changgong.

It did not seem that the county magistrate broke into the mansion to search for evidence, but that the county magistrate brought his people to visit.

A large number of slaves also appeared in Murong Mansion. These people were all strong and each of them followed a soldier and stared at them.

The scene became a little chaotic.

"County Lord! Found it!"

Then he saw Yao Xiong and another soldier pulling a cart in front of Gao Changgong. There was a sack in the cart, twisting its body wildly.

When Yao Xiong excitedly opened the sack, he saw the piglet hiding inside.

The piglet was tied up tightly, even his mouth was tied, and he was groaning at the moment.

Gao Changgong frowned.

"We have a big dog in our mansion for guarding. We feed it pork on weekdays. County Lord, is there anything wrong with that?"

Looking at Murong Zeng who was full of confidence in front of him, Gao Changgong frowned and said nothing.

Murong Zeng suddenly looked at Liu Taozi who was riding a warhorse.

"This is Liu Youjiao, right?"

"These past few days, I've been hearing about You Jiao's name a lot. You Jiao has become famous and I admire him very much."

He said with a smile, glanced around, and said earnestly: "But I hope that the patrol officers can remember that the patrol officers are responsible for catching bandits in the county."

"You must not get involved with thieves. You must not be a villain who uses street tricks to steal and eavesdrop everywhere!"

Kou Liu, who was standing aside, gritted his teeth, his eyes full of anger.

"what do you want to say?"

Gao Changgong interrupted him and questioned.

Murong Zeng still kept smiling, "County Lord, you suddenly brought people here, saying that you want to search this place. It's okay. The head of the family once told me to treat the guests well."

"only."

His face gradually became solemn. "This is the home of a county duke after all. You broke into the mansion without any evidence, searching everywhere and causing chaos in the courtyard. I don't quite understand what you want to do."

"Do you want to bring troops to massacre the Murong Mansion?"

"What crime have we committed? What is your basis?"

"Why are you doing this?"

At this moment, Tian Zili led his men and walked over quickly, "Report to the county magistrate, a large number of corpses were found in the side yard!"

Murong Zeng was stunned, then glanced at Liu Taozi.

He shook his head and smiled disdainfully.

"Villain trick."

(End of this chapter)