Chapter 3 - The General Take The Initiative To Be Rob 3
Yan Jingze, who Su Moxiu evaluated as ‘first seen in his life’, at this moment, his face was wrapped with a cloth.
It’s so cold and the wind is also strong, if he doesn’t take care of his face, he will be blown into a rough man in minutes.
The original owner doesn’t care about his appearance but he cares.
His AXiu looked ten years younger than him, if he is too old, what will he do if he gets rejected in the future?
Well, it’s also good to be disliked, then he will have a reason to ‘punish’ Su Moxiu!
As for how to punish, don’t they all say it’s better to fight at the head of the bed to the end of the bed? If Su Moxiu dares to dislike him…He would definitely have to fight with Su Moxiu for several days on the bed to make peace.
While Yan Jingze was thinking about how to ‘fight’ in the future, he also reached out to touch Xiao Hua’s head: “Xiao Hua, you were bald at such a young age, surely you won’t find any lover but I’m different…”
The soldier walking in front of Yan Jingze frequently looked back at Yan Jingze speechless, his speed involuntarily slowed down.
Then……
Xiao Hua suddenly sprints forward, biting the man’s horse’s butt.
The horse neighed, fleeing hastily in a panic.
Yan Jingze looked at the horse, then he looked at Xiao Hua, who was proudly snorting “neigh neigh neigh” —— Is this really a horse he bought? Really not a dog?
And, even like this, the man in front still didn’t say a word…
These little soldiers don’t talk, he’s afraid that it’s not just because of strict military discipline, they probably…
Couldn’t speak the Rong language.
Just take a look, after the man in front had calmed his horse, one can see that his eyes are spitting out fire but because he was pretending to be a Rong and can’t speak the Rong language….it’s too miserable!
Don’t hold back, brother! Who told you not to talk!
Xiao Hua provokes other people’s horses along the way until they come to a camp.
It turns out…it’s really the bandits fortress!
Though this fortress is very old, its shape hasn’t changed. The furniture inside were also damaged to varying degrees. It looks like no one has lived here for a long time and was just tidy up recently.
In the mountain, there are many such abandoned fortress.
Mount Qiong topography is extremely complex but not all cannot be passed. Some places also have flat terrain which horses and carriage can pass.
Because the Rong have repeatedly assaulted the borders, the previous dynasty started to forbid the common people from trading with the Rong. In particular, salt and iron cannot be sold to the Rong tribes.
However, there are policies above and countermeasures below. Some merchants are reluctant to give up the huge profits brought by trading with the Rong, they organized a caravan to pass through Mount Qiong secretly to trade with the Rong.
After a long time, there are many trade routes in Mount Qiong, and also a lot of bandits.
What is interesting is that these bandits are raised by merchants.
Some big merchants who made a lot of money through trading with the Rong, for their own safety and monopolize the trade routes, they will pay to recruit people to be ‘bandits’.
These bandits protect the caravan formed by the big merchants who raised them, while also helping the big merchants to rob and kill some small merchants who want to get a share of the trade.
As local officials try to stop the illegal trade, bandits will also make trouble for local officials or even kill them directly, forcing the local officials to side with them.
Bandits ran amok, the area around Mount Qiong became more and more chaotic.
Over time, the people here not only have to prevent the Rong from looting but also have to prevent these from robbing —— although these bandits are raised by big merchants, if they are not satisfied, these bandits, who have seen blood, are even more difficult to restrain. They are happy to go out and rob in their spare time.
Mount Qiong once became a den of bandits. The people living nearby were miserable until the founding of DaQi. With the Zhenbei Army stationed near Mount Qiong, bandits became fewer.
But then someone in the Zhenbei Army colluded with the bandit, Mount Qiong was once again flooded with bandits.
Until Zhou Jingshan came to power.
Zhou Jingshan, who was born into a wealthy family, is naturally impossible to be bought by the bandits. He also wanted to build his career and left a name in the history book.
For someone like him who hasn’t lacked anything since he was a child, money is not that important, realizing his self-worth is his life goal.
In short, Zhou Jingshan fights the bandits, followed by the Rong. After more than ten years of fighting with the vermin in the Zhenbei Army, relying on his supporters and strength, he really won. Since then, Mount Qiong has had no bandits.
Zhou Jingshan is a very nice person but was betrayed and died in a foreign land. It’s really sad.
Especially the one who betrayed him was Zhou Zhenrong, who he raised as a son.
Zhou Jingshan came to the border at the age of 15. In order to cultivate confidants, he adopted many orphans one after another. Among them, the eldest is around 10 years old, the youngest one is about 3 or 4 years old.
Seventeen years have passed, Zhou Jingshan is already 32. Those children he adopted early have also started their own career on their own.
Some of them hold important positions in the Zhenbei Army, some work in other industries, among them, the one Zhou Jingshan trusted the most is Zhou Zhenrong.
Zhou Zhenrong is one of the children Zhou Jingshan first adopted, Zhou Jingshan even named him.
He was smart from a young age, Zhou Jingshan also had high hopes for him. He not only taught him personally, he also handed over his most elite guards to him.
Unfortunately, it’s Zhou Zhenrong. After collaborating with the Rong to deceive Zhou Jingshan to Mount Qiong, he wanted to kill Zhou Jingshan.
Fortunately, the other guards around Zhou Jingshan tried their best to protect Zhou Jingshan. Zhou Jingshan escaped but the way back to the Zhenbei Army was blocked by Zhou Zhenrong. Zhou Jingshan could only flee to the Rong tribes.
Even when he was about to die, Zhou Jingshan still didn’t understand why Zhou Zhenrong wanted to kill him.
When he gave his body to Yan Jingze, his only requirement was for Yan Jingze to kill Zhou Zhenrong.
For Zhou Jingshan, no matter why Zhou Zhenrong betrayed him, he just can’t forgive him.
Yan Jingze also felt that Zhou Zhenrong could not be forgiven, but he also knew that the one who killed Zhou Jingshan is not only Zhou Zhenrong.
Zhou Jingshan had offended too many people in the past 10 years or so. He had harmed the interests of too many people, and so this happened.
He’s afraid that those people are now waiting for him to throw himself into the net and easily kill him.
Especially now that he shaved his beard…even if the soldiers in the Zhenbei Army saw him, they had only seen him from a distance. If the general above told the soldiers he was fake then these little soldiers will surely do their bidding.
There is an open space at the entrance of the cottage. When Yan Jingze rode Xiao Hua past, Su Moxiu had already dismounted and stood on the ground looking at him.
It’s winter after all, Su Moxiu looked a little bloated, making his face seem smaller.
There are wisps of blood made by the wind blowing on both sides of his slightly dark handsome face. His black and white eyes stared straight at him…
Yan Jingze took off the cloth on his face. He raised the corner of his lips toward Su Moxiu.
The white mist that Su Moxiu exhaled when he breathed instantly became thicker.
Yan Jingze saw the situation and got off the horse with a smile.
Zhang Erque, who had settled the horse and headed towards Yan Jingze, stopped abruptly —— this annoying little white face was a fist taller than him!
He was often the tallest one in a crowd, but this man is even taller than him!
Taking a closer look at this man’s body and appearance, this man is indeed a handsome man, not worse than him.
Zhang Erque looked critically at Yan Jingze, wanting to say something but closed his mouth again and looked at Cai An —— Cai An told him not to worry about the person in front of him.
After all, he is a pig brain.
He really wants to eat pig brains…
Cai An also dismounted, because of the strong wind, he subconsciously shrank his neck but now in order to make himself a little more dignified, he straightened his neck.
With a long head on a long neck, his face looked longer.
Yan Jingze felt that the person in front of him…looked a little familiar.
Cai An squinted at Yan Jingze, he also felt that the person in front of him was a little familiar.
This young man who entered Mount Qiong alone seems to have many secret about him.
If nothing else, as a young person who was captured by the Rong, he must have suffered a lot, so when they decided to let him go, why did he choose to follow them instead?
“What’s your name?” Cai An asked in Rong language.
Yan Jingze answer in Han: “You are not Rong people, there’s no need to speak Rong to me all the time.” He didn’t want to cause trouble for these people.
“Who are you?” Cai An’s face changed. Zheng Erque and the others also clenched their weapons, surrounding Yan Jingze.
Yan Jingze quickly raised his hand: “I have no ill will towards you. What I said before is true. I am a Han. I was captured by the Rong before and took a lot of effort to escape…it’s just that when you let me go, I have to follow you because I know that you are not Rong people but Han people.”
“How did you know?” Cai An no longer pretends and asks sharply in Han.
“I have lived in the Rong tribes for a long time, and you are not like the Rong people at all. If you are really Rong bandits, as soon as you surround me, you will laugh at me and just pull me off my horse and even chop me off, they will never just look at me with malice…But at that time I wasn’t sure yet. So I later cried in Han, then you decided to let me go, and so I am sure that you are Han.” Yan Jingze said.
Yan Jingze said it very sincerely, making one want to believe. Upon seeing this, Zhang Erque turned to look at Cai An: “Old Cai, is what he said true?”
Cai An did not relax and asked Yan Jingze: “What evidence do you have that you are a Han? With how you look, it doesn’t seem like you have suffered from the Rong people!”
Yan Jingze stretched out his hand: “Look at my hands, you’ll know how much I’ve suffered, and also……”
Yan Jingze untied his sash and took off his sheepskin robe, then tore off his collar, exposing his shoulders and half of his chest.
Not only did he have a stab wound on his shoulder, there’s also arrow wounds, whiplash, new and old wounds all stacked together. His hands were also very different from his face. It’s covered with calluses with many small wounds.
Although Cai An was a scholar, he has also been wounded in the battlefield. When he was helping the military doctor, he had also seen many warrior bodies.
The wounds of those warriors don’t seem to be as much as those injuries on Yan Jingze’s body.
This person…is indeed as he said, he has suffered a lot.
Yan Jingze added: “My name is Yan Jingze. I live in Shangmo Village, thirty miles west of Qiongnan city. I had read some books when I was a kid, not only could I speak in Qiongnan dialect but also in mandarin. Are you also a scholar too? We can have a few talks in mandarin.”
Yan Jingze said the latter words in mandarin.
There are many Rong people who can speak Qiongnan dialect but there are very few Rong people who can speak mandarin. There are even fewer people who can speak both but their status is definitely not low.
Such a Rong, it’s impossible to go to DaQi alone with all those injuries.
Not to mention…..There is indeed a place called Shangmo Village. The facial features of the man in front of them is also different from the Rong people.
He should be like what he said, DaQi people.
Cai An saw that this person had a good face and subconsciously believed this person. Now that the misunderstanding is resolved, he’s a little embarrassed: “I’m sorry, I misunderstood you.”
“It’s alright! This is the territory of Rong, you should be careful.” Yan Jingze said.
Cai An confirmed Yan Jingze’s identity and just wanted to have a good chat with Yan Jingze, but before he could speak, Su Moxiu took a step forward and stood in front of Yan Jingze, not letting him look at Yan Jingze.
Su Moxiu is also very tall, similar to Zhang Erque, only a little shorter than Yan Jingze.
He looked at Yan Jingze distressedly, and said to Yan Jingze: “It’s cold, pull up your clothes.”
“Okay.” Yan Jingze slowly sorted out his clothes, on the other hand, Su Moxiu saw more.
Su Moxiu’s already red face turns even redder, but with his tan skinned, it’s not so obvious.
“You are from DaQi, we will surely take you back but we still have something to do so it will take a few days before we go back.” Su Moxiu said.
“I will listen to you.” Yan Jingze smiled softly.
Su Moxiu looked at Yan Jingze deeply then looked at his own men again: “Get ready to cook now!”
“Eat now? It’s a little early…” said Zhang Erque. Although he was hungry, they only had so much food left…didn’t he say before that they would eat before dark?
Su Moxiu said: “Eat early then look around, see if there’s any prey to catch!”
“Second young master, I will go with you!” Zhang Erque said immediately, excited.
Su Moxiu nodded, agreeing.
The crowd got busy right away.
This cottage is not big but it’s a very solid stone house.
After deciding to cook, whether it’s men or horses, they all entered the cottage. Then someone went to mix the hay for the horse while some people cooked on the fire.
Because the shell was not removed, the yellowed rice was poured into the pot creating a thin layer on the bottom of the pot, then two buckets of snow and bark grass roots were added…
Yan Jingze looked at the pot of ‘rice’, then looked at the hay for the horses.
There are many beans in the hay for the horses. What the horses eat is even better than what the humans eat.
They…seem to be poor?
Yan Jingze sympathized with them.
When he saw that the horse feeder had just put the hay in the manger, Xiao Hua suddenly rushed over and buried its head to eat…He sympathized with them even more.
Xiao Hua occupied the manger, if the other horses wanted to eat from the manger, it would bite the others. Very domineering!
A few young soldiers who didn’t speak no matter how much trouble Xiao Hua made before finally couldn’t bear it anymore: “What’s the matter with your horse? Why is it so fierce!”
“It was obviously so thin but so strong!”
“I’ve never seen a horse like this!”
After they can talk in Han, more start to speak up.
In general, they all said to guard their horses, lest their horses be bullied by Xiao Hua.
The Zhenbei Army is short of horses. Horses are very precious to the Zhenbei Army’s soldiers.
“I’m sorry, it was just too hungry…” Yan Jingze was a little embarrassed.
“Never mind……It looks miserable.” A Zhenbei Army soldier said helplessly.
Yan Jingze added: “I’m hungry too…”
These Zhenbei Army’s soldiers looked at Xiao Hua, who was snatching food, then looked at the particularly tall Yan Jingze.
They are already very poor, so poor, but this person in front of them…they’re afraid he will make them, who were already poor, even poorer.