Damn it, I'm in the garbage book I wrote

Chapter 739 Useless thing!
The magistrate, also known as the Marquis of Baili, wielded far more power than his official rank. Even in the Gyeonggi Province, where the magistrate's authority was significantly reduced, his power was terrifyingly vast. Apart from the death penalty requiring review by the Ministry of Justice, punishments such as exile and facial tattooing were entirely at his discretion.

Now, a group of people who appeared out of nowhere are inexplicably suppressing bandits under his rule. Whose face is this slapping? If this gets out, wouldn't it mean that he is incompetent in governing?
So he definitely had to come and see today, firstly to avoid punishment, and secondly to try and gain some credit for the bandit suppression.

He led the soldiers of the county camp straight over, but as soon as he approached the town, he saw the soldiers resting on the spot, and he vaguely sensed that something was wrong.

"Your Excellency, this is not right..."

The advisor also nervously stepped forward and said, "Although these people are old, their military discipline is so strict. They are probably not soldiers that ordinary people can lead. Why don't we send a letter to Ningbo Prefecture to ask if General Du sent troops to suppress the bandits?"

"Don't panic. The Ningbo Prefecture camp always sends a letter in advance to notify the troops before they are dispatched. They have never been so unruly. Moreover, look at their armor. They are obviously not from the main camp. Let me go and ask them first."

He didn't even dismount, heading straight into the town, but before he'd taken two steps, a spear was already placed in front of him.

"Dismount and register!" The guards were from the reserve brigade. Their current task was to prevent Japanese pirates from launching sneak attacks and to carry out their garrison duties while the brothers rested.

The magistrate felt somewhat humiliated by being stopped like that. He turned around, looked at his advisor, chuckled, and then turned back to say, "Do you know who I am?"

At this moment, the clerk also stepped forward hurriedly: "How dare you! This is Magistrate Yang Qi of this county! Let him pass at once! Otherwise, can you bear the consequences?"

The two guards at the gate merely rolled their eyes, and one of them said, "Even if you were the Heavenly King himself, you would have to dismount and register!"

As soon as he said this, he didn't take the county magistrate seriously at all. He saw that these soldiers were all quite old and did not have any obvious insignia. Based on his knowledge, he figured they must be someone's private army.

Lord Yang found this absurd; how dare a mere private army act so arrogantly on his own little territory?
"Do you know that occupying this territory and refusing entry to the local officials is tantamount to treason? Bring your master out!" The magistrate's horse seemed to sense its master's anger, pacing back and forth incessantly: "Otherwise, don't blame me for treating you like bandits and wiping you out!"

After he finished speaking, the soldiers who followed him drew their blades and prepared to "suppress the bandits," but the two soldiers just spat on the ground and sneered, "Go tell my comrades."

As soon as he finished speaking, the captain of the reserve squad, clad in armor and wielding two maces, cracked his knuckles and said, "Zhou Shiqi, born in the year of Dingchou, is thirty-six years old this year. He was recruited in the fourteenth year of Hongbao, followed the commander-in-chief to quell three rebellions, protected His Majesty on his ascension to the throne, and accompanied the army to conquer the Western Regions. He was promoted to Colonel Archer and has accumulated numerous military merits. Today, you, a mere blind county magistrate, dare to be so arrogant in front of my gate?!"

The captains of the 10th Inner Guard Squad are all capable of training elite soldiers. Among his contemporaries are the current Deputy General of the Imperial Guard and the Left Vanguard General of the Turkic Protectorate, all of whom were defeated by him. If it weren't for the death of his father and illness of his mother back then, he would surely be a fierce general now. But yesterday, upon hearing that more than two hundred of his brothers had died at the front, he felt guilty for not being able to help. And now, this wretched county magistrate dares to bully his own brothers?
Although the reserve team consisted of only two hundred men, the aura of those emerging from all directions was completely different. The soldiers brought by the magistrate, though in their prime, felt as if a group of tigers had sprung up from the mountains when they saw the men's demeanor; the oppressive feeling was as strong as a mountain.

"Get down here!"

Zhou Shiqi picked up the mace and slammed it into Magistrate Yang's thigh. He had held back his strength, and the flesh on his thigh was thick, so the injury might not be serious, but the pain came so suddenly.

He was pulled off his horse, and the soldiers behind him were about to step forward, but a veteran from the reserve team fired an arrow that accurately struck the ground in front of the soldier.

"Anyone who moves again will face no mercy on the battlefield!"

Zhou Shiqi wiped his nose and pointed to the soldiers behind the magistrate: "Go, disarm them."

The difference in the strength of the army was obvious at a glance. The soldiers who came with Magistrate Yang did not even have the courage to resist. They were disarmed by these ragtag troops, tied up back to back, and sat on the spot, not daring to move.

Some people recognized the way the prisoners were bound; it was clearly the style of the New Army, because only the New Army would treat prisoners this way.

Magistrate Yang was still shouting, "This is treason! You have injured an official of the imperial court, this is treason! Wait for the army of Ningbo Prefecture to annihilate you all!"

At this moment, the political commissar from Ningbo Prefecture lowered his eyelids and remained expressionless, while Zhou Shiqi did not waste any words and went straight up to tie up the county magistrate, carrying him into the city gate like a pig.

He struggled on the pole, and the surrounding people gathered around to watch. When they saw that it was actually the county magistrate, some people couldn't help but laugh. The county magistrate was full of shame and could only close his eyes with his face red. He had originally come over to show off his power and prestige, but who knew that he would be tied up like a pig as soon as he came up.

At this moment, all he could think about was getting the situation out of there as quickly as possible, so that they could come to his rescue before they slaughtered him like a pig.

Soon, the county magistrate was carried into the house. Several people inside were looking at a map. Emperor Jingtai didn't even glance at the magistrate placed at the door. Xia Lin, however, only looked at him briefly before continuing to plan the route. Magistrate Zhou couldn't clearly see the people inside. After being placed on the ground, he shouted, "You thieves, release me! Do you know who I am?! I am the head of a county, an official appointed by the imperial court! Your abduction of an imperial official is tantamount to treason! When the Ningbo Prefecture camp arrives, you will only have one path left: execution! If you release me, I might put in a good word for you thieves!"

Xia Lin got up, went forward and closed the door, effectively shutting the magistrate out. The magistrate wriggled around on the ground like a maggot until he reached a maid who was refilling tea.

"Girl, I am the magistrate of this county. Please release me. I will remember your kindness after I escape."

The maid glanced at him with her eyes down, but instead of moving her hands, she left directly. Magistrate Yang did not notice that the girl had a travel badge from the Investigation Department hanging from her waist.

Inside the house, Xia Lin circled several points on the map: "This should be the area of ​​their main camp. I estimate that the number of these bandits is between five thousand and ten thousand."

"so much!?"

After a moment of silence, Xia Lin said, "It's very possible. According to the information we received from our conversation with the Japanese envoy last time, the Japanese are currently very divided. Some of them do not advocate making peace with the Great Wei and want to take advantage of the current chaos in the Central Plains to seize some of the Central Plains Empire's land."

"wishful thinking!"

Emperor Jingtai and Emperor Taizong of Tang both roared at the same time. After exchanging a glance, Emperor Taizong of Tang said angrily, "How can my Chinese Empire tolerate the covetousness of this tiny little country?! Whether it is Tuoba Jingna or me who is the rightful heir, we can still prove ourselves on the battlefield. I would never say that I would dig up the ancestral graves of the Tuoba family and let those people take over the world. How could that be? I would have no face to face my ancestors after I die!"

"You damn Li Shimin, you barbarian, how dare you talk to me about legitimacy?"

"What? You're not a Hu person? If you're not a Hu person, your surname is Tuoba? Do Han people have that surname?"

"My surname is Tian! I'm a pure-blooded Han Chinese!"

“The key is that they not only coveted it, but have been coveting it for two thousand years.” Xia Lin took a deep breath and said, “And these people are probably nobles and warriors who were separated from their own country. You saw it yesterday. Their fighting strength is actually not weak. This is definitely not something that ordinary civilians and soldiers can achieve.”

"Send word to the Jiujiang Shipyard immediately!" Emperor Jingtai slammed his hand on the table. "Bring out that warship!"

"What are you going to do with it? Sink it at sea? The hull isn't even laid yet. Do you know how much one of those things costs?"

Emperor Jingtai shrank back: "Damn it, what should we do? We can't bring out cannons for naval battles, and ordinary guns can't be used effectively either."

At this moment, Li Shimin spoke up: "Yesterday I studied naval warfare in detail. Naval warfare is indeed very different from land warfare. The sea is rough and the ships are far apart. It's either close combat or cannon fire. But can land cannons be mounted on ships? Wouldn't they capsize as soon as they're fired?"

"It's unlikely to capsize, but the awkward thing about naval warfare is that distance is hard to control. Guns can't penetrate the hull of a ship, and incendiary bombs only go twenty or thirty paces away. That's not enough to cover the distance between two ships, so unless we have large warships, we basically still have to rely on boarding. Otherwise, we wouldn't have lost so many men yesterday." Xia Lin sighed. "We do have large cargo ships, but they're too clumsy to catch up with their fast boats."

"Where did these Japanese get their technology? I went aboard the ship we brought back and saw it; it's actually quite good."

Xia Lin turned to look at Li Shimin, who was taken aback: "Why are you looking at me?"

"It's because someone is collaborating with them privately."

"What does this have to do with me? If Chang'an had this technology, I wouldn't have come to the South."

Xia Lin shook his head and said, "It wasn't you, it was someone else. It's probably a problem in Quanzhou, Leizhou, or the Bohai Bay area, where the technology was leaked."

"Oh...I understand." Li Shimin crossed his arms: "Damn it, they're using the tactic of instigating internal strife with foreign tribes again."

Xia Lin shook his head helplessly: "Let's go outside and see that county magistrate first."

(End of this chapter)