Chapter 172 Encountering Bandits on the Road (1/2)

Li Yan and his party of more than thirty people spent five days traveling from Xuanfeng King City to the Yellow Sand Road.

Half of these thirty people are from the Kong family, and the remaining half are from the Su family and the Mu family.

Their role is to transport goods and take care of supplies.

Li Yan brought a large amount of elixirs and medicinal foods from the Su family. The elixirs were all ordinary elixirs and there were very few magical elixirs.

After all, this time I came here to recruit soldiers. The soldiers' cultivation level was generally not high, so low-level pills were the best choice.

In the Su family, these low-level elixirs are refined daily by the Su family members, and the output is huge.

Therefore, the Su family directly asked Li Yan to bring two carts of these low-grade elixirs and medicinal foods, with a market price of at least five to six hundred thousand taels.

Two carts of elixir supplies were escorted by the Su family. There were four people in each cart, making a total of eight people.

Among the eight people, five are the guards of the Su family. They are in charge of affairs and have cultivation levels in the Yunzang realm. They are all in their forties and above. They are in the prime of life and have rich experience, so they were sent to assist Li Yan in recruiting soldiers. .

The remaining three are all direct descendants of the Su family. Their cultivation is in the blood exchange realm. They are all about the same age as Li Yan. One of them was given to Li Yan by the second elder Su Zhe and is a member of the Su family from his line. The other two are members of the Su family who are clones of Su Han.

Because the clone Su Han is already an innate warrior, the lineage of the clone Su Han has changed from a collateral line of the Su family to a direct line of the Su family.

On the day when the clone Su Han left, the clan members of his line had already begun to discuss the celebration of being promoted from a collateral line to a direct line.

Li Yan brought elixir materials, and the Mu family, as a second-rate weapon-refining family in the royal city, brought various sophisticated weapons.

There were four carts of supplies loaded by the Mu family, including one cart of knives, one cart of shields, one cart of armor, and one cart of bows.

These weapons are not prepared for soldiers, but for captains.

A Thousand Household Regiment must have at least hundreds of captains. These captains can be said to be the skeleton of a Thousand Household Regiment.

As long as we can gain the loyalty of these people, we are not afraid that the soldiers at the bottom will rebel.

Each of the Mu family's four cars was equipped with two people, so the Mu family also sent eight people.

According to Li Yan's understanding, these eight people either exchanged blood or cultivated internal organs, and their strength was pretty good.

Finally, there is the Kong family. The Kong family sent eighteen people to follow Kong Tianyang, one of whom was an innate worshiper of the Kong family.

In addition, the Kong family also sent twelve vehicles, which contained a large amount of gold and silver, some elixirs, weapons, and even various living supplies.

Obviously, this is the starting capital given to Kong Tianyang by the Kong family.

After arriving from Xuanfeng Road to Huangsha Road, the pace of everyone's progress slowed down significantly.

First, due to road reasons, the official road of Xuanfeng Road is smooth, and the imperial court allocates funds for maintenance and repair every year.

As for Huangsha Road, bandits are everywhere, and Huangsha Road owners will not use their own money to improve the road. This results in a good official road that is muddy and even overgrown with weeds.

This is the result of the endless stream of caravans rushing to Xuanfeng King City.

The relatively remote official roads like Huangsha Road, which were not passed by caravans, have long been covered with weeds and trees again, and no trace of the former trade roads can be seen.

Secondly, the overall formation of the team has changed from the original one-line shape to the current pin-shaped formation.

This is so that after encountering thieves, you can protect the supplies immediately and launch a counterattack.

At the front of the team, six people, including Li Yan, Kong Tianyang, and Mu Yingmei, were riding [Scaleed Wildebeest], sizing up the surrounding environment while discussing their future plans.

I saw Kong Tianyang, with a map on the horse's head in front of him, with the map of Huangsha Road written on it.

Kong Tianyang moved his fingers on the map and said at the same time: "There are seven states and sixty-five counties in Huangsha Road. Our current location is Rufeng County, which is adjacent to Xuanfeng Road."

"Rufeng County belongs to Xiasha Prefecture of the Seven Huangsha Prefectures. The number of bandits in this state can be said to be the first among the seven prefectures. There are countless dens of various thieves. They are our primary target for this recruitment."

"We strive to recruit a sufficient number of qualified soldiers in this state."

As soon as Kong Tianyang finished speaking, Mu Yingmei immediately asked: "Kong Qianhu, must we recruit soldiers from these bandits? Can't we recruit soldiers from major towns?"

It was Yu Wenkui's suggestion that everyone call Kong Tianyang Kong Qianhu.

He suggested that in front of outsiders, everyone should call each other by their military rank, because this is how they are called in the army, and everyone should get used to it.

As for how to call each other in private, that's up to you.

When Kong Tianyang heard this, he moved his eyes away from the map and fell on Mu Yingmei's face, and then explained patiently: "There are many reasons why we recruit soldiers from bandits. The most important ones are two. One It’s the issue of combat effectiveness that I mentioned before. The fact that these bandits can survive shows that they are quite strong.”

"Second, regarding the issue of war taxes collected by various provinces, Huangsha Dao has already begun to collect war taxes. Since there is no trouble from the [Red Blood Overturning Zhou Army], Huangsha Dao is currently sending new troops to the court in an orderly manner. Levying Soldiers.”

"If we recruit troops in those towns at this time, it will undoubtedly affect the recruitment of Huangsha Road."

"After all, if we recruit soldiers, we must give the soldiers a certain amount of remuneration, and give the soldiers' families a certain amount of settling-in allowance. However, the recruitment method of each army is to pay people without paying taxes."

"With this comparison, who else would willingly pay war taxes and send their family members to the battlefield?"

"Moreover, when I came here, I heard that the court now seems to be interested in recruiting more soldiers from relatively stable regions such as Huangsha Dao."

After Kong Tianyang said this, Mu Yingmei naturally understood the reason, and it was precisely because of the truth that she frowned.

Before, she had only read in books that war tax was a very effective way to recruit soldiers. Since the invention of war tax, Da Zhou no longer worried about not being able to recruit new soldiers.

In this regard, the book also praised the person who invented the war tax, saying that she was a meritorious official and hero of Da Zhou. Under the influence of the book, Mu Yingmei naturally respected and yearned for that person.

Now, after further understanding the nature of the war tax, Mu Yingmei began to hate this person.

It can be imagined that over the years, because of this war tax, how many people have been harmed, their families have been broken up, and their wives and children have been separated.

As for other people, they did not react like Mu Yingmei.

Otherwise, how can we say that women are always emotional.

After answering Mu Yingmei's question, Kong Tianyang continued: "In order to recruit soldiers efficiently, I decided to settle down in a base first and gather some locals to help us build a military camp."

"Then, I'll trouble you to search for any thieves' dens or villages around that we can attack."

"After determining the target, we can go out together to eliminate the thieves' dens and villages, and recruit those bandits to become our soldiers."

When Li Yan heard this, he couldn't help but ask: "Then Captain Kong, have you determined the location of the base?"

Hearing this question, Kong Tianyang smiled and said: "Of course, that location is here."

As he said, Kong Tianyang pointed his finger at a place on the map.

Others looked over, and Li Yan was no exception. He saw that there was no name for that place, only the terrain of the place was shown.

Kong Tianyang introduced: "This is a place that our Kong family caravan accidentally discovered. It is a barren mountain, but deep in the barren mountain, there is a dense forest and a stream."

"The key is that this place is less than 300 miles away from the nearest county town, which is very conducive to our replenishment of various living supplies."

Just as Kong Tianyang was telling everyone about his future plans, the scouts sent out by the team came galloping on horses.

The entire team has only two scouts, both of whom are elite scouts from the army. After retirement, they were recruited into the Kong family.

The one who came at this time was the scout who was sent to the right to investigate the situation.

He came to Kong Tianyang in a flash, dismounted quickly, saluted to everyone, and then said: "Captain, a group of bandits appeared ten miles to the right, with a number of between 200 and 300 people, all holding weapons, and the three leading people riding horses, looking quite powerful."

After this, everyone was not nervous or afraid at all, but became excited.

Especially Mu Yingmei, who became excited from her previous low mood.

"I have heard that Huangsha Road is full of bandits, and today I finally saw them."

"I just don't know how strong these bandits are, and whether they can satisfy me."

While talking, Mu Yingmei rubbed the spirit knife on her waist and looked in the direction of the scout.

Then, she remembered something and said to Li Yan and others: "If the other party does not have enough innate people, don't compete with me."

In response, everyone couldn't help laughing and quickly replied affirmatively: "No, we won't compete with you."

After a while, a cloud of dust rose, and a group of bandits came into view.

When Li Yan and others learned that bandits were coming, they had already ordered to form a defensive formation.

So, when this group of bandits appeared, everyone had already drawn their own weapons and was ready to face the enemy's attack at any time.

"Little ones, follow me, kill people, and rob treasures."

When the distance between the two sides was less than a hundred feet, the three bandit leaders in the front immediately rushed forward and galloped towards Li Yan and others.

Among the three people, only the weapon in the middle of the hand emitted a green true qi light, while the other two had a scene of blood and qi rising from behind.

Seeing this scene, Li Yan and others couldn't help but look at Mu Yingmei at the same time.

"Leave the innate to me, and you can handle the others."

After saying that, Mu Yingmei rode forward, and the sharp blade on her waist was unsheathed, with a touch of cold light, which was breathtaking.

Seeing the spiritual weapon in Mu Yingmei's hand like a pool of autumn water, Kong Tianyang couldn't help but sigh: "The second-grade spiritual weapon is indeed extraordinary."

On the other side, the three bandit leaders were shocked when they saw that only Mu Yingmei came forward, while the others remained motionless.

"Brother, we won't run into a tough guy, right?"

The elder brother mentioned by this person is the innate warrior who cultivated the wood attribute true qi among the three people, and the other is on the left hand side of the elder brother.

"Don't be afraid, maybe the other party is playing tricks?"

The elder brother comforted.

"Besides, we have no choice but to rush up and kill them all."

When the elder brother said this, he was less than ten feet away from Mu Yingmei.

The next second, the spiritual weapon in Mu Yingmei's hand emitted a dazzling red light, and the rich fire energy extended another three feet on the three-foot-long sword.

Mu Yingmei wielded a long sword that was already more than six feet long, and fiercely chopped at the opponent's long sword full of green true energy.

As soon as it came into contact, the long sword full of green true energy was directly pressed down fiercely.

"Bang", the huge force generated by the collision between the two made the horses under the two people unable to bear it and fell to the ground with a bang.

Mu Yingmei had already arrived in the air at the moment when the horse fell.

On the other hand, the bandit leader with wood true energy could only fall to the ground in embarrassment.

But it was this accident that gave this person a breath of air.

Otherwise, if he didn't have time to release the force in the collision just now, his true energy would probably be dispersed.

"Come again."

Mu Yingmei gave up the advantage in the air, and after landing on the ground, he began to fight with the opponent.

Or, it should be said that he used the opponent as a sparring partner.

Sometimes, Mu Yingmei could obviously defeat the opponent's true energy and kill the opponent with the next move, but he would suddenly slow down the attack to give the opponent a chance to recover.

When they saw the boss, they were at a disadvantage as soon as they met. They were beaten by a woman and had no chance to fight back.

They looked at each other and immediately rode away.

A woman was so powerful, and there were five people riding horses on the opposite side. If they didn't run away now, would they have a chance to escape later?

Thinking of this, they turned over and dismounted, and ran away one by one on the left and one by one on the right at a speed faster than a galloping horse.

The bandits behind them saw this and braked urgently and turned around and ran.

Kong Tianyang saw this scene, shook his head and smiled, and said to Li Yan and others: "Who of you will stop them?"

Li Yan volunteered and said: "I will go and catch the two bandit leaders."

As he said, he turned over and dismounted, chasing the two people at a very fast speed.

Then, a middle-aged man with a long beard, who was the innate worshiper of the Kong family named Xiang Qinghong, bowed to Kong Tianyang and said, "I will stop those escaping bandits."

Kong Tianyang nodded, and then seemed a little worried that he could stop so many people alone, so he ordered Kong Ge and Yuwen Kui, "You take our people with Xiang Qinghong, and bring all those people back together."

"Yes," the two accepted the order.

So, three innate masters, nearly twenty acquired masters of blood exchange and Yunzang realm, formed a circle to surround the bandits who wanted to escape.

A quarter of an hour later, three bandit leaders and hundreds of bandits knelt in front of Li Yan and others.

The bandits above the Bone Forging Realm were tied with special ropes, while the bandits of other cultivation levels were tied with ordinary ropes.

In addition, a piece of rag was stuffed in everyone's mouth.

It was really that their curses were too ugly, and Mu Yingmei was so angry that she couldn't help killing a few of the most poisonous ones.

In order to prevent Mu Yingmei from killing too many people, Li Yan suggested gag their mouths.

"Su Han, do you have the [Five Poison Pills] and [Erosion Pills] with you?"

Kong Tianyang stood in front of the Xiantian bandit leader, looking at the Xiantian bandit leader with his mouth gagged, and suddenly asked Li Yan next to him.

Li Yan hurriedly said: "Yes, Qianhu, do you want to try the effect?"

Li Yan's cleverness made Kong Tianyang very satisfied, and he said: "Yes, let's see if these two pills are as powerful as advertised."

After hearing Kong Tianyang's affirmative answer, Li Yan carefully took out two jade bottles from his arms.

This jade bottle is different from the ordinary white jade bottle, and the whole is dark green.

Li Yan poured out two colorful [Five Poison Pills], came to the other two bandit leaders in the Yunzang realm, tore off the rags in their mouths, and stuffed the pills into their mouths in their horrified eyes.

The pills melted in their mouths, and even if they kept coughing, it was useless.

Then, Li Yan repeated the previous operation and stuffed the [Erosion Pill] into the mouth of the Xiantian bandit leader.

Returning to Kong Tianyang, Li Yan smiled and said, "Everyone, see if you have achieved the results you want."

As he spoke, a golden bell and a silver bell were taken out from Li Yan's arms.

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