Chapter 193: Killing the Enemy

According to the geographical records of the Great Feng, Yunzhou was 60,000 miles across and was rich in products, such as agriculture, mulberry, porcelain, herbs, and so on. Before Emperor Wu Zong rose up, Yunzhou’s affluence could be ranked in the top five among the states of Da Feng.

The official road was long and winding its way to the sky, with fields of black earth on either side and rolling hills in the distance.

The sun hadn’t long risen, and the air lingered with last night’s cold temperatures as the group of over a hundred men slowly marched down the official road.

The sound of horses’ hooves was accompanied by the clatter of wheels.

“In the first year of Yuanjing, the total population of Yunzhou amounted to five million. After that, the Yellow Book was compiled every ten years, and the population gradually plummeted; in the 30th year of Yuanjing, the population of Yunzhou was more than three and a half million. Now it’s Yuanjing 36, another four years will be the year of re-creating the Yellow Book, I wonder how much population is left in this Yunzhou?”

Inspector Zhang lifted the curtain and said with emotion.

The population shrinkage of 1.5 million in 30 years is very scary, and the real population shrinkage will only be more than that. Because of the fertile land in Yunzhou, there is no need to consider famine without natural disasters.

In other words, the population can grow steadily over 30 years of normal reproduction.

…. From 5 million to 3.5 million is not a simple subtraction, the actual downsizing of the population at least doubles again …. Xu Qi’an’s mouth soared with a national curse, “What the hell.”

Inspector Zhang glanced at him and continued, “Half of this lost population is due to the heavy taxes, abandoning their fields to become vagrants, or going to the city to find another way to make a living, or falling into the grass and becoming bandits, and all of these people are not recorded in the Yellow Book.

“Then there is the seriousness of the banditry, the burning and looting, which adds to the problem. Sometimes mountain bandits will take the initiative to come down to the mountains to loot the people in order to replenish their labor. Heh, mountain bandits are certainly not included in the Yellow Book.”

Xu Qi’an gazed wordlessly into the distance, his ears listening to Inspector Zhang’s words while his heart analyzed them.

…. Yuanjing early years there are still five million people, Yuanjing ten years, the population is still shrinking, to Yuanjing 30 years, no one and a half million people, really the number of people to be more …. Yunzhou is in this twenty years a sharp turn down, poor read is the beginning of Yuanjing emperor monasticism ….

Because the Emperor of Da Feng is obsessed with cultivation, thus allowing the Witch God Cult to feel that there is an opportunity to take advantage of it? The Witch God Cult has been scheming for more than twenty years, and will definitely not fight in a small way, and there will definitely be a battle between the Great Feng and the countries under the command of the Witch God Cult.

His head lolled at the thought and he almost fell asleep.

“You are not in good spirits.” Inspector Zhang scrutinized him and frowned, “What’s wrong?”

The governor remembers, Xu Qi’an this way, peacefully, did not hang around the teaching department, it should not be so short of exhaustion.

Xu Qi’an twisted his head and smiled bitterly at the governor, “Nothing much, just became a master of time management.”

This was the eighth day of his sleeplessness, his brain was in sudden pain, his veins seemed to be about to burst, and when he ate this morning, he even had a slight hallucination, thinking Xu Lingyin was robbing him of his meat buns.

The eyeballs were covered with bloodshot, and the circles under the eyes were black and blue, which reminded Xu Qi’an of his own miserable appearance when he lived in the blessed society of 996, and occasionally had to experience a 007.

“There are still two days left, after surviving these two days I should be able to advance to the God Refining Realm. I can’t let myself fall asleep, or else I’ll lose all my efforts…why does it feel like my heart is beating so hard ….”

Xu Qi’an took a deep breath and took off his water bladder and poured it over his head, using it to stimulate his body and revitalize his spirit.

….

A caravan of three hundred people trekked along the official highway, a flatbed wagon pulling goods, covered underneath the tarpaulin were the silks, teas, porcelains, and rouges and powders that were abundant in Yunzhou.

In are some of Yunzhou’s specialties, such as snake saliva inkstone and yellow crystal stone.

The proprietor of the merchant caravan was a man with a face full of cross-face meat called Zhao Long, who was also a renowned hero in the Yunzhou Jianghu in his early years, and was well known in both the black and white worlds.

Tired of the days of licking blood from the knife’s mouth, relying on the early years of breaking down the name, as well as human connections, did the caravan business.

He always managed to take care of the cottages along the way, and left Yunzhou in all directions, scattering his goods all over the place and earning a lot of money.

After a long time, many merchants were willing to pay a lot of money to join Zhao Long’s caravan for peace.

Zhao Long’s merchant caravan had evolved into a half merchant, half dart.

Yang Yingying was part of the group that hid under this big tree to take advantage of the coolness, but she had left Yunzhou as a dispersed person and spent twenty taels of silver to ask for the blessing of the merchant caravan.

After all, it was impossible for a weak woman like her to leave Yunzhou independently, and she might be robbed by the road blocking bandits on the official highway one day, and become a suppressive wife.

With her looks, she’s more than enough to be a suppressed lady.

Yang Yingying was originally a woman in Yunzhou’s teaching department, and was also a flower girl when she was young, and then she was fortunate enough to meet a good man who ransomed her, and then she was kept in the courtyard and became a foreign room.

And this year over thirty, the posture does not reduce, on the contrary, the body is more and more plump, more added to the charm of a mature woman. She has a pair of bright almond eyes, looking at people with eyes full of waves.

Yang Yingying, who was riding on the back of the horse, noticed the fiery gazes of the surrounding dart masters and couldn’t help but tighten her cloak and bury her head even lower.

Her hand at first glance appeared to be protecting her ample breasts from being desecrated by the gaze of some hanyou, but in fact she was protecting an object in her arms.

It was this object that forced her to leave Yunzhou.

A dart master salivated as he looked at Yang Yingying’s back, riding on the back of a horse, with his rompers clinging to his body, the tight outline of his buttocks could be so tantalizing.

The strong dart master clipped his horse’s belly, caught up with Yang Yingying, and grinned, “Beauty, play with Master at night. All the silver earned by my lord on this trip will go to you. Ten taels of silver it.”

Yang Yingying ignored it, not responding or rejecting it, treating it as if there was no such person as him.

The dart master said a few more words, and when he saw that the beauty ignored them, he cursed and walked away.

A few of the dartmasters who knew him well laughed and burst into taunts. But there was disappointment in everyone’s eyes. This woman was greasy, and they had just as little chance.

A few dart masters with human lives in their hands had ruthlessness flashing in their eyes, this kind of watery woman traveling alone, if it wasn’t for the fact that she ran into Boss Zhao, she would have long been eaten without even a bone left in her body.

Zhao Long at the front of the caravan raised his hand and made a gesture, and the dart masters immediately drew their weapons as if they were facing the enemy. But the knives are only half sheathed, this is the unwritten rule of dart walking.

We are all in the jianghu for money, unless the gap between the two sides of the strength of the gap, or will not be dead. What’s more, Boss Zhao has always had a few thin spots in the underworld, otherwise he wouldn’t be eating this bowl of rice.

On both sides of the trail, seventy to eighty people jumped out of the dense forest with bright swords and spears, and on the fork in the road, more than twenty riders were killed, all of them strong and sturdy.

Zhao Long is a bit puzzled, this road he has to walk several times a year, which section needs to be punched, which mountain needs to be filial, he knows exactly.

When did this forest appear such a group of trail cutting bandits …. Zhao Long pressed his hand, signaling his dart masters to be at ease, and steered his horse forward for a short distance, and said aloud:

“My name is Zhao Long, which path did my friends hang out in before…”

Leaning closer, he suddenly realized that something was wrong, this group of humongous bandits had military crossbows hanging from their waists, and were holding standard long knives in their hands, these were military equipment.

Zhao Long had heard that certain large strongholds were not lacking in military supplies, with military swords, crossbows and even cannons, all available, but those were top-tier bandit strongholds that shouldn’t be here.

….

“Ning Banquet, you look like a sick man whose body has been emptied by a woman.” Song Tingfeng and Xu Qi’an went head to head, taking the opportunity to snicker and taunt.

Xu Qi’an glanced at him and said indifferently, “I have a friend who asked me if I had any pills from Sitian Supervisor to strengthen the yang and tonify the kidneys.”

Song Tingfeng’s smile faltered.

“That friend of mine is Zhu Guangxiao, Guangxiao ah, you have a fiancée, why do you have to work so hard.” Song Tingfeng dumped the pot on Zhu Guangxiao.

Zhu Guangxiao sullenly glanced at him, then felt unwilling and retorted: ”I am compassionate, you eat too ugly, every morning, the girl who sleeps with you can’t get out of bed.

“You don’t know moderation yourself, and you’re losing your body.”

The martial artist is physically strong and energetic, but even if he is the King of Oxen, plowing from evening to morning every day, after a long day, he will be short of qi and blood.

“I’m awesome.” Song Tingfeng was unconvinced and laughed proudly, “Only the girls of the Church Department can cooperate with me to their heart’s content, even though they are also tired of fighting.”

“Tingfeng ah…”

Song Tingfeng heard Xu Qi’an call out to him and turned his head to look over, “What for?”

“It’s not that you’re great, it’s that people tolerate your smallness.”

“You roll.”

Between the jokes and curses, Jiang Ruizhong, who was leading the group, said in a deep voice, “There is a smell of blood ahead, all hands prepare.”

Clang …. The sound of blades coming out of their sheaths was neatly harmonized as the Huben guards and the beaters simultaneously drew their sabers and removed their military crossbows.

“Break through!” Jiang Lunzhong clipped the belly of his horse and charged out.

The cruisers were instantly on the march, extremely fast and organized.

Ten minutes into the march, a dense forest appeared ahead, and the wind brought with it the strong odor of blood.

The moment they entered the dense forest, sharp arrows shot from both sides, attacking the wildly running night watchmen and Huben guards.

Jiang Lunzhong raised his hand and pressed downward, and the rain of arrows crashed into the invisible air wall and fell powerlessly.

He waved his hand and said, “Huben Army, enter the forest to kill the enemy.”

As he spoke, Jiang Luzhong looked ahead, hundreds of corpses were lying on the official road, blood staining the ground. Horses were hard to escape the poisonous hands, and the goods carried by this caravan were scattered all over the place.

He immediately analyzed the situation …. Because he smelled the smell of blood in advance and ordered the team to run, this group of trail-cutting bandits heard the sound of hoofbeats when it was too late to retreat, so they ambushed in the forest.

The sound of fierce fighting came from the dense forest, Hubenwei was one of the five guards of the capital, although it was not as brave as the forbidden army, it was far better than the local army.

There was not much difference in numbers between the two sides, and arrows and blades intermingled in a back-and-forth fight.

Jiang Lizhong froze, somewhat surprised, and turned his head to look at Xu Qi’an, “Ning Yan, have you killed anyone yet?”

“Killed one, seriously injured one.” Xu Qi’an looked at the sprawling caravan and casually reported the battle results.

Jiang Ruizhong “snorted” and laughed: “Hairless boy.”

The beatniks laughed.

Aside from Xu Qi’an, a rookie who had joined the Shiftmaster for less than two months, the others were all battle-hardened martial artists who killed without blinking an eye.

Jiang Lunzhong pointed to the forest and said, “Go, practice, kill at least ten.”

Xu Qi’an withdrew his gaze and slowly exhaled, “Good!”

….

PS: The background seems to be a little crashed, I updated early and it didn’t refresh for half a day?