Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 212 Let's pull off a big heist (2)

Poor Guo Fei forgot Song Yan's personality. She's a ruthless person who'll act without hesitation and won't give you a chance to speak.

Song Yan's words were an order; the moment Guo Fei asked the question, death was inevitable.

As a scholar, one always has to think more than others, but unfortunately, thinking too much can cost one one their life.

Blood spurted far from the severed neck. After a few more breaths, Guo Fei's body could no longer support him and he fell straight into a pool of blood. Some blood splattered onto the people around him, but no one dared to utter a sound. Even Qu Yang, who had been howling, stopped abruptly, staring incredulously at the blood-soaked corpse before him, his scalp tingling with disbelief.

This is the second person to die.

From then on, no one doubted Song Yan's methods anymore.

Without even glancing at Guo Fei, Zhang Long took the paper and walked up to the other person.

The man, trembling, tried to write his name, but after looking left and right, he could only cry out, "Sir, we don't have a brush."

Zhang Long slapped the man on the back of the head: "If you don't have a calligraphy brush, can't you write with your finger?"

The man turned pale, then gritted his teeth, put a finger in his mouth, bit it hard, and wrote his name on the paper with the blood.

This went much more smoothly. Before long, the indictment was filled with densely packed names, and some who couldn't write simply pressed down their fingerprints.

After glancing at it casually, Song Yan nodded with satisfaction and waved to another person: "Send this to the county government office and give it to Clerk Liu. Let Clerk Liu see if there is anything else to add. After it is done, send it to Ningping County as quickly as possible and give it to the Princess."

"Then, have him write another memorial and send it up according to the proper procedures."

Qian Yaozu must die.

However, there must at least be a plausible reason on the surface.

Governor.

After all, he was a high-ranking official; he couldn't just disappear without a trace, could he?
We still have to give Emperor Ninghe face... Speaking of which, we don't know how Emperor Ninghe is doing now, or whether the medicines I sent were effective.

Having done all this, Song Yan did not immediately behead all of these dozens of people. Although they deserved to die dozens of times over for the crimes they had committed, they were still somewhat useful for now.

Song Yan had an idea in his mind... an idea that was a bit risky, but if it succeeded, the effect would be extraordinary.

Thinking this, he tried his best to force a gentle smile. But paired with a corpse with its head crushed and another with its head chopped off, the smile became somewhat eerie.

"Alright everyone, congratulations, your lives are temporarily saved," Song Yan said.

However, this group of adults showed no sign of relaxing; on the contrary, they became even more tense.

"Now can you tell me what exactly the process of this wedding procession is like?"

Hearing this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Seemingly wanting to show off in front of Song Yan, many people stepped forward and started talking all at once, creating a somewhat chaotic scene, but Song Yan understood what they were saying.

In short, they carried a map.

The map shows the planned routes.

After leaving Xinhou County, they will proceed according to the route on the map, passing through about three tribes along the way, and finally arriving at the royal court!
At this time, the Jurchens had not yet built cities.

Their dwellings were mostly tents made of animal hides.

Tents of all sizes gathered together formed a tribe.

Although the Jurchens lived by fishing and hunting, they also herded livestock, and in some ways they were similar to the Xiongnu on the grasslands.

Therefore, maps are highly time-sensitive; there may be significant differences between maps from this year and next year.

As for the so-called royal court, it was the tribe of the Jurchen king, Dajilie Khan.

The three tribes they passed through along the way were the Heshilie tribe, the Wugulun tribe, and the Wendihen tribe.

Compared to the Haoshi tribe, these three tribes were much larger. Even the Wugulun tribe, which had the smallest population, had more than 20,000 people and more than 5,000 soldiers. After deducting women, children, the elderly, and children, this was an extremely exaggerated proportion. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the whole nation was engaged in war.

The most powerful tribe, Heshilie, had a population of over 50,000.

It can be considered the strongest tribe below the seven major tribes.

Song Yan pondered in his mind, and the originally simple plan gradually matured: "Will it go smoothly through these three tribes?"

"How could it go smoothly? These Jurchen barbarians are a bunch of insatiable beasts. Even if they know that our goods are to be sent to the royal court, they will still keep about 10% of them."

"Especially alcoholic beverages, they won't let them go."

Song Yan's smile deepened. He left the map behind and waved his hand, at which point a group of black-armored soldiers surged in: "Kill them."

The tone was very calm, as casual as asking if someone had eaten.

The expressions of the forty or fifty people all changed drastically. They thought they had a chance to live after seeing Song Yan smile, but who would have thought that this smile would bring them unpredictable fortune or misfortune.

Immediately, some cursed, some pleaded, some tried to break through the window and escape, and some rushed towards Song Yan, wanting to take someone down with them. However, all of this paled in comparison to the black-armored warrior's frenzied swinging of his steel blade.

As Qu Yang lay dying, he desperately howled that he wanted to offer his sister to Song Yan in exchange for his life. However, Song Yan was not Cao Cao and had little interest in other people's women.

Having obtained what they wanted to know and their signatures and fingerprints, the lives of these people are no longer so important.

Song Yan didn't think these people would be very obedient. Keeping them around would only cause trouble sooner or later. Besides, food was extremely precious in Liaodong. How could they be wasted on such scum?

As for the imperial court sending people to investigate, it wouldn't be a problem to randomly select a few dozen heavily armored soldiers to impersonate them.

Soldiers in other places were also beheaded.

The screams continued for a long time before gradually subsiding.

The blood pooled together, like a stream flowing slowly down the hall entrance into the street, turning the white snow crimson.

……

The bright moon shone brilliantly in the sky.

The silvery moonlight blended with the snow on the ground, making it night, yet the whole world was as bright as day. Walking on the streets of Xinhou County, the snow crunched underfoot.

Occasionally a cold wind blows by, but it doesn't feel cold at all; in fact, it's quite refreshing.

"How many soldiers are currently available for combat in Xinhou County?" Song Yan asked slowly as they approached the county government office.

After a moment's thought, Lei Yi gave his answer: "Apart from the brothers who arrived today, the other three thousand heavily armored soldiers are all ready to fight."

"How many soldiers will be needed to defend the new queen?"

"The heavily armored soldiers are well-equipped, and the new county town is easy to defend and difficult to attack. In this weather, even the Jurchens cannot launch a large-scale attack. One thousand men at each of the front and rear city gates is enough."

Song Yan smiled and nodded.

Although he had a lot of military books in his mind, when it comes to fighting, military books alone are not enough.

Just like Zhao Kuo, although he was well-versed in military strategy, he was still utterly defeated when facing Bai Qi, and he left behind the idiom "armchair strategist". Of course, considering that his opponent was Bai Qi, Zhao Kuo was able to hold out for so long and finally organize a team to fight to the death, so he was quite capable.

In conclusion, combat experience is very important.

In this respect, he is far inferior to Lei Yi.

Lei Yi didn't know what Song Yan was going to do, so he just quietly followed beside Song Yan. Along the way, they occasionally encountered some common people who would rush up to greet Song Yan and Lei Yi, and some would even kneel down and kowtow.

They probably saw the two of them as saviors.

Song Yan and Lei Yi quickly helped the person up and comforted them before they could leave.

"If Qian Yaozu brings people over, how many men would it take to defend Xinhou County?" Song Yan asked again.

"Qian Yaozu?" Lei Yi was taken aback. "He would attack Xinhou County because of his brother-in-law, Qu Yang?"

Song Yan shook his head. Although Lei Yi was a bit smarter, he still considered many things too simply: "Qian Yaozu won't care about his brother-in-law Qu Yang, but he will care about the grain in Xinhou County."

"I already knew when I came that because of the large amount of food to be provided to the Jurchens, there was a shortage of food in Pingyang City, and people were starving to death every day."

"Jun Zhen is insatiable. When Pingyang City has run out of resources to exploit, what do you think Qian Yaozu will do?"

Lei Yi exclaimed, "Qian Yaozu knows that we once transported a large amount of grain into Xinhou County, so he will come to Xinhou County to... borrow... no, to rob grain!" Then his expression turned disdainful: "If it is Qian Yaozu, five hundred men would be enough to guard the city gate."

They probably didn't take Qian Yaozu seriously. In terms of scheming and trickery, ten Lei Yis wouldn't be a match for Qian Yaozu, but when it comes to military strategy, a hundred Qian Yaozus couldn't compare to Lei Yi.

"That's excellent." Song Yan nodded, kicking the ground with his toes to kick up some snowflakes. "Thanks to this snow, many things have become much easier. Have Qu Yang and the others unloaded their cargo yet?"

"Unloading is in progress..."

"Leave the wine in the carriage."

Lei Yi nodded, his curiosity growing.

"Also, could you arrange for some people to prepare a batch of dry rations in the next two days, mainly consisting of dried meat and fried noodles? Is that possible?"

"It's a bit difficult, but I should be able to do it." Lei Yi thought for a moment and then agreed.

"Then, select two thousand soldiers. Don't assign them any tasks for the next two days. Let them rest well and conserve their energy. They will accompany me on a trip in a couple of days," Song Yan said, stretching his arms.

Lei Yi finally couldn't hold back any longer: "General, what do you want to do?"

Song Yan smiled and said, "I'm planning to pull off something big."

He paused for a moment, then looked at Lei Yi with a slightly crazed gaze: "Captain Lei, do you want to build a mound of skulls using the heads of the Jurchens?"

(End of this chapter)