Chapter 293: Each Doing His Own Business

"How many casualties did we have?"

"Seven people were injured, one of them was seriously injured, but he didn't die." The soldier said, "The bandits are a mob, but the village is well built and difficult to attack." These bandits' men are not very good at fighting, and they have no energy to use. If they meet their regular army, won't they just lie down and wait for death?

Fu Xin said with a puff: "But there are still people injured? There are villages everywhere, why not just occupy one? There is food and drink, which is better than this poor mountain area."

It is always easier to attack good people than to attack mountain bandits.

"It's more hidden here." Hong Chenglue walked out of the row house and answered the question casually, "There is also food and drink."

When he lived in Bailu Town, he knew that this bandit nest was the largest one within a hundred miles, with more than three hundred people. So many mouths need to eat every day, it is impossible to rely solely on robbing down the mountain. There are rumors that these bandits will collude with merchants down the mountain and exchange the loot for food.

Even if Hong Chenglue led his troops to attack, it took four or five hours to take it down. When they opened the warehouse, they found that there was no shortage of food and various supplies, and everyone was delighted.

In fact, farmers knew that when the harvest was poor and they could not steal food from their neighbors, they might as well go to the fields to look for field mice. There might be surprises in the mouse holes, at least they could have several meals.

Apparently, the "field mice" they killed this time were thrifty and had surpluses even in years of famine.

"Mr. Hong!" As soon as he saw him, Fu Xin's eyes turned red, and he rushed up to grab his collar, "Leaving us in the mine to die, what do you mean!"

The guards behind him wanted to pull him forward, but Hong Chenglue waved his hand.

"I asked everyone to evacuate, but you refused." Hong Chenglue said calmly, "Is it my fault that the whole army was annihilated due to disobeying military orders?"

"You didn't go down the mountain to intercept the soldiers, why?"

"We went down the mountain and didn't find any traces of soldiers. We can't return empty-handed. We went to carry out the general task assigned by Marshal Nian, which is to attack and burn food and grass behind enemy lines. What's the problem?"

Fu Xin looked around and didn't get angry after all. He still found that the number of people was wrong: "Then did you burn it successfully? Huh? Did you use us as bait to kill the governor and burn the food and grass?"

He shouted louder and louder, and finally turned into a roar, and the soldiers in the row house came out.

Hong Chenglue grabbed his wrist and turned it outward, and punched Fu Xin in the chest again, knocking him back five steps and almost falling to the ground.

Fu Xin's guards behind him rushed up.

Hong Chenglue asked with his hands behind his back: "Where is General Baili? At worst, you can always evacuate from the back mountain through the mine tunnel, right?"

The road he left for Baili Qing and others was not a dead end.

As long as he saw the opportunity quickly, Baili Qing still had a chance to escape.

Fu Xin was angry and said nothing, and it was his personal guard who answered: "Xiazhou officers and soldiers went around the back mountain, blew up the exit of the mine tunnel, and set off smoke to drive them away. General Baili... was captured. We ambushed on the top of the mountain and saw that the leading Xiazhou general killed everyone."

There was an uproar in the village, and even Hong Chenglue's forehead was throbbing.

The officers and soldiers killed Baili Qing and the surrendered soldiers in the mine pit? How cruel.

However, when you think about it, there is no better way to deal with prisoners when marching and transporting food, it is indeed the simplest to kill them all.

He stared at Fu Xin: "Then how did you survive? Are you afraid of death?"

Fu Xin was furious, but the coldness in his eyes made his back stiff. He said with his neck stiff: "We will take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness and fight our way out!"

"Abandoning the commander and running away is a crime that should be executed." Hong Chenglue's words made him feel cold in his heart.

"But we are short of manpower. I will give you a chance to make up for your crime." Hong Chenglue suddenly drew his sword, and Fu Xin felt a chill on the back of his hand, followed by pain.

A piece of his little finger fell to the ground.

He screamed "Ah" and covered his left hand, bleeding profusely.

After he stopped screaming, Hong Chenglue continued: "If you dare to cause trouble again, or speak nonsense, or instigate conflicts, or be afraid of death, you will lose your head."

Fu Xin lowered his head and stopped looking at him, but his back teeth were clattering.

Hong Chenglue glanced around, and everyone lowered their heads.

Bai Liqing was dead, and this army had to obey Hong Chenglue's command. They had nowhere to go, as Xiazhou was the enemy's rear base.

Hong Chenglue said again: "Take off your clothes."

Fu Xin looked up in disbelief: "What?"

"Take off your clothes for inspection, so as not to be cast under a tracking spell."

Being stared at by hundreds of eyes, Fu Xin's face flushed red: "No, I, I..." It would be more painful than death to strip naked in front of so many soldiers.

Deputy General Xu Yingxian quickly came up to smooth things over: "It's also possible to take him to the row house for inspection! General, this is also possible."

Hong Chenglue nodded.

Then several guards came forward and took Fu Xin to the small house next to him.

Hong Chenglue turned and left, his face as gloomy as ice.

Wu Qing had been standing in the row house watching, and then he came out and asked him: "General Hong, what are your plans next?"

"Hide your strength and bide your time. He Chunhua's nearly 10,000 dan of grain will definitely be transported to the front line, and we have no way to intercept it. We can only wait for the next operation behind enemy lines."

"Send some people to three or four counties and towns in the middle and north to move around and get more information." Hong Chenglue had already made a plan, "Also, ask General Nian for another 300 cavalrymen."

The two entered the row house, and seeing that there was no one else here, Wu Qing whispered: "General Baili died, and Fu Xin escaped back. This is not an accident, right?"

"Of course not." Hong Cheng slightly snorted, "The Xiazhou people put them back specifically to cause trouble for me. Fu Xin has more than a dozen of them anyway. Our sneak attack on the Xinhuang military camp was unsuccessful and morale is low. This is not the time. Move him."

He also lowered his voice: "When does the superior want me to return to Bejia?"

"Shuangye Guoshi said that you can hold on as long as you can behind enemy lines. You should pay more attention to the situation on the Hanhe front line."

The situation on the Hanhe front line? In other words, when can he return to Bejia? It depends on his performance in Hanhe? Hong Chenglue pondered: "I have been away for too long. Which national teacher is leading our country now?"

"Currently, Imperial Master Mian Bing is in charge of the palm seal." The palm seal has the power to make decisions, and the four Imperial Masters have always taken turns holding the seal.

Hong Chenglue's pupils shrank slightly, but then returned to normal: "What a coincidence, it was also her palm prints when I left." No wonder Master Shuangye doesn't have the confidence to speak now.

Wu Qing smiled and said, "Yes, yes." But in his mind, he had heard that there was a rift between General Hong and Imperial Master Mian Bing, and it seemed to be true.

The two discussed supplies again, and soon a personal guard came to report:

"Fu Xin's self-examination has been completed, and no tracking magical powers or objects were found."

"I know." Hong Chenglue waved him away. After knowing this search, Fu Xin hated him even more.

And many soldiers in this village criticized him. After all, Hong Chenglue was from Bejia, and these were Xunzhou rangers. "General Bejia doesn't take the lives of the people of Xunzhou seriously." Hong Chenglue heard this with his own ears during his inspection.

If it's not your own soldier, it won't be easy to use.

He asked Wu Qing again: "How is Ah Jin's place? Can she get used to it?"

Wu Qing smiled and said: "Don't worry, the village is very hidden. My wife has two attentive women to wash and eat, and there are people to chat with her. She is much more comfortable than you."

Hong Chenglue was still a little worried: "I was thinking, should I take her over?"

"It's best not." Wu Qing said truthfully, "We don't have a fixed place, and we don't know when we will move. It's too hard for a... weak woman to follow the tour." The main reason is that it is inconvenient.

Hong Chenglue took a breath and nodded, rationally knowing that this should be the case.

Wu Qing continued: "In the past few days, various towns and villages have been arresting bandits and spies, and strictly interrogating strangers and strangers. I heard that the jails in Haotian Township were full, and dozens of people were pushed out to beheaded. In public, there was a lot of noise and unprecedented tension.”

"Mr. Wu, you won't be implicated, right?"

"It's okay. My team has official credentials and they can't catch me. The more famine the years go, the more important businessmen like us are." Wu Qing sighed, "The township officials also spent great efforts to send people to travel to various mountain villages to dig in the ground. Sanchi wants to find the people of Xunzhou. General Hong is really far-sighted. If you just occupy a mountain village, you will have to retreat in embarrassment."

"This should be an order from a state official, and officials from all over the country have to follow it. I burned tens of thousands of stones of military rations for He Chunhua, and he went crazy."

Wu Qing smiled and said: "Yes, the reward for you will soon be posted all over the central and northern parts of Xiazhou."

Hong Chenglue was not worried about himself: "Is there a reward for Ah Jin?"

"I didn't see that."

After the discussion, the two went to do their own things.

￥￥￥￥￥

Benlei Village.

The spring water is rising and the stream is gurgling.

Two peasant women were washing their clothes by the stream. They looked up at the sky and said, "Why does it look like it's going to rain? It was sunny just now!"

A large group of dark clouds came from nowhere and blocked half of the sky. The sun was shining brightly above their heads, but the sky to the east was dark.

"Hurry up and wash up. Come back as soon as you're done."

"It's spring, and it rains all the time. The sun finally comes out, and it's only been a few hours." The peasant woman complained, "The firewood is damp, and it's hard to light a fire, and it can choke people to death."

"Aunt Liu, I want to ask you something." Another peasant woman said, "Aren't you helping in the kitchen of Village Chief Chen's house? I heard that the village chief has several relatives here?"

"Ah, yes." Aunt Liu grabbed her clothes and beat them hard. "It seems that the female relatives of a wealthy family in the south got sick and were sent to the countryside to rest."

"How come I heard there are many people?"

"There are quite a few people. There are only three or four women. There are also a few men who seem to be guards...or are they guards? One is thin and the other is strong. They look at everyone as if they are glaring at them. Their faces are very fierce." Aunt Liu said, "These people are here to serve the female family members."

The peasant woman asked curiously: "What kind of disease do you have to be sent to the countryside instead of being treated in the city?" Who doesn't know that the conditions in the city are better, and even one or two doctors in the countryside are barefoot immortals. How can medical skills be compared with those in the big city?

"I don't understand either. I just know that the village chief gave away all the big houses for people to live in. The lady doesn't leave the house all day long, and almost no one has seen her."