Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 87 County Magistrate and Officials
Bare earth slopes stand on both sides of the road.

Two young men stood on the slope, both wearing short clothes, wearing military caps on their heads, with leather belts around their waists and jade ornaments. Both of them held large bows and were aiming.

There were four men dressed as servants standing behind them, with quivers on their backs and smiles on their faces.

"Whoosh~~"

"Whoosh~~"

The two arrows were shot almost at the same time.

"bingo!"

One of them shouted in surprise and quickly put away his bow, but the other one denied it and said, "I shot it!"

"Brother, how can you cheat? It was clearly me who shot him!"

"Oh, just based on your archery skills? If you hit the target, I will carry you back to the city. If not, your Qingli Shuang horse will be mine. How about that?"

"No, if I had shot it, my brother's big dog would have belonged to me!"

Neither of them gave in to the other.

The shorter young man muttered, "Grandpa just told you yesterday to read the Book of Filial Piety more and learn the principles of harmony. Why don't you give in to me a little?"

"Hey, are you just letting me read? Why don't you give in to your brother?"

His elder brother pointed at the servant beside him and said, "Ading, bring the prey here. Don't do anything. I must take this boy's precious horse!"

The younger brother also snorted coldly, "Ading, go quickly and come back quickly, I must take his big dog away!"

Looking at the two brothers who were fighting with each other, the servant shook his head and smiled bitterly.

"As commanded."

The servant quickly mounted his horse and rushed down the slope.

The sun is shining brightly, and even though it is autumn, it has not reduced much of its light and heat.

Waves of heat were rolling on the grayish-white ground, and faint shadows were appearing.

Two people were supporting each other and walking weakly on the road.

Their clothes were very tattered with several holes in them, and they were barefoot. They just stepped on the scorching ground, and the piercing pain came from the soles of their feet, but they couldn't show any expression.

They just stared into the distance and moved their bodies little by little.

The two men were not very old and didn't even have beards. One of them was still relatively sober, but the other was in a daze and almost relied on the other to move forward.

"Brother, if you hold on a little longer, Cheng Anfa and the food will arrive soon."

"Um"

The other person spoke softly as a response to him.

"Don't fall asleep. We are only a few steps away. There is food over there, and there will be land and houses for you to enjoy. We are almost there."

"We have even survived the winter. What else can't we survive? Brother, just hold on a little longer."

The man who spoke had pale and cracked lips, but he was still chattering.

"Whizzing."

Two voices sounded.

"Pfft."

The arrow went straight through the back of the person being supported, and the other arrow was stuck in the ground.

The man screamed and fell down with his brother.

The two men fell to the ground. The younger brother quickly stood up and looked at the arrow behind his brother. His whole body trembled, "Brother!! Brother!!"

Just as he was terrified, the sound of horse hooves came from the side.

He looked up and saw a horse galloping towards him from the slope. The man was a very strong man. He swung the whip and hit his brother hard, knocking him to the ground with his skin torn.

The man jumped off his horse, picked up the person on the ground, put him on the horse, then searched around and found the arrow.

He smiled bitterly, "The Second Young Master will cry again this time."

He shook his head and stabbed the man with the arrow. The man uttered a cry of pain. The servant mounted the horse and quickly galloped towards the high slope.

Only the younger brother was left lying on the ground, screaming and crying in pain, hysterical.

The servant rode his horse in a circle, rushed up the slope, and then dropped the man in front of the two brothers.

"They both hit at the same time."

The older man snorted coldly, "You old dog, have you done something again? How can he hit the target from such a distance?"

"How dare I think that the Second Young Master has made progress?"

The younger one raised his head proudly, "Well said! Do you think you can always beat me?"

He stretched out his hand, and the servant beside him immediately handed him a new arrow.

He raised his eyebrows, "How about it? Do you dare to compete again?"

"Bye, there's another prey. Let's see who can shoot it."

At this moment, a servant suddenly spoke.

"Young Master, someone seems to be coming."

The two stopped arguing and looked towards the intersection. They saw a group of people and horses appearing in the distance. Several knights were following a carriage and were moving slowly on the road.

The younger brother was very unhappy. "There are so many roads to take, but he chose to take the small road, disturbing my fun. I will shoot him with an arrow!"

The elder brother was extremely displeased, "How dare you!"

"My family is based on morality and poetry and literature. How can we act rashly? Stop talking nonsense!"

"Let's just wait for them to leave."

The carriage came all the way to the prey and then stopped.

"Mr. Lu, he is a refugee, and he seems to be injured."

The knight said to the carriage.

A man walked out of the carriage. He was about forty years old, had a beautiful beard, a dignified demeanor, clear eyes, and was gentle and elegant.

He raised his head and looked at the boy who was crying loudly not far away. He paused and said, "Ask him what happened."

The knight hurried forward and asked something, then returned to the man's side, "Mr. Lu, he said he brought his brother to Cheng'an to surrender, but just as he got here, he was shot and killed by someone on the high slope, who also rode down and robbed his brother."

"what?"

Lu Yao was a little surprised. He looked towards the slope in the direction the knight pointed and indeed saw a few people.

He frowned immediately and said, "Go and call those people down."

The knights rode their horses and soon, those people appeared in front of Lu Yao and bowed to him.

Lu Yao looked at the two young men in front of him, "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

The older young man quickly replied, "Sir, we are descendants of the Linzhang He family. We are on leave today and came here to eliminate harm to the people and shoot the dead bandits."

Lu Yao frowned. "He Shi? Is he a relative of He An, the governor of Yizhou?"

"exactly!"

"He is a wise and diligent governor. How could he have people like you? Eliminating harm for the people? What harm are these two people? They are going to surrender to Cheng'an. How can you treat human lives as nothing?!"

"I see that you two are brothers. How can you bear to separate other people's brothers and shoot their elder brother in front of his younger brother?"

"I must write a letter to ask how your elders teach their children."

Fear finally appeared on the faces of the two men. They looked at each other and quickly knelt in front of Lu Yao.

"Please forgive us, sir! We will never dare to do it again!"

"We didn't know they were the dead who were going to surrender to the county government. We just thought they were shooting bandits and getting rid of harm to the people. Please forgive us this time, we will never do it again."

The two of them kept begging for mercy.

Lu Yao looked at the deceased who had already fainted in the distance, and then looked at the two bastards in front of him. He clenched his hands and wanted to say something. His hands trembled for a long time. In the end, he reluctantly let go and sighed, "Okay, you guys get up first."

At this moment, loud horse hoof sounds suddenly came from the distance.

Then they saw an extremely huge warhorse galloping towards them. The horse was green in color and extremely large in size. The man riding the horse was equally tall, but was dressed like a police official, and there was a group of people following him.

When the war horse appeared, the two brothers could not take their eyes off it and stared at it.

The police officer rushed all the way to their side, turned over and jumped off his horse. With smooth movements, he walked in front of everyone in a few steps. The knights hurriedly raised their weapons. He suddenly stretched out his hand and snatched the quiver from the servant's arms before he could react.

He pulled out the arrow and examined it carefully.

The two brothers were very angry at the rude police officer, but their eyes could not leave the Green Lion.

The sturdy man looked at the man in front of him, "Is this your arrow?"

"its mine."

The young man answered, pointing to the warhorse beside him, "This is..."

At this moment, Lu Yao subconsciously felt something was wrong. He saw the burly man in front of him's left eye twitch and his eyes became extremely fierce. The next moment, a knife flashed.

A human head flew out and fell directly into Lu Yao's arms.

Lu Yao lowered his head, looked at the head in his arms, shuddered, and dropped the head down.

"what!!"

As soon as the brother shouted, the strong man stabbed him again.

The other servants hurriedly drew their weapons, but the men behind the burly man pounced on them, their swords flashed, and several servants fell to the ground instantly.

The knights around Lu Yao were all stunned. Their hands holding their weapons were shaking, and they cautiously took a few steps back.

Lu Yao took a deep breath.

"Who are you?"

"You know these people?"

"I didn't know them, I just watched them killing indiscriminately and called them over to reprimand them."

"Then go your way, these guys are all wanted criminals!"

Lu Yao licked his lips and looked around, his voice trembling.

"let's go"

ps: In the middle of Wuping, (Lu Yao) was besieged by bandits. After more than a hundred days, there were many plagues in the city, and more than half of the people died. No one had any dissent, but he died of illness. When the city fell, Chen general Wu Mingche reported to the Chen lord that Yao had good governance and was respected by the officials. He returned his body and did not take away his family property. ———"Northern History·Biography 16"

(End of this chapter)