Legend of the Demon Emperor of Kyushu

Chapter 152 Memorial (1)

"Be cautious in the end and pursue the distant future, and the people's morality will be thick."

——The Analects of Confucius "Xue Er"

After leaving the village, within two hours, Ye Ziqi and the other three arrived at Hanshi Town.

Before going north, Baichengshuang took away all the defenders from here, so he was somewhat concerned about the current situation in the town, so he wanted to drop by to have a look.

The sand and soil were flying on the road, and refugees with their families appeared one after another.

Near the entrance of the town, there was a particularly ear-piercing cry, which attracted the attention of the three of them.

Looking closely, it was a woman in a shabby cloth jacket, kneeling at the entrance of Hanshi Town, surrounded by four or five soldiers, crying and kowtowing.

Next to the woman was an old man, guarding a bullock cart full of luggage, with a distressed expression on his face, and two children were crowded on the cart.

"My lord, we are really not businessmen! Let us go, huh? Let us go, my lord!" The woman tugged at the hem of a soldier, kowtowed and shouted at the soldier.

The soldiers ignored her and blocked the bullock cart with a wooden fence.Picked up the cloth bag on the car with a gun, then groped and grabbed it from inside.The old man ducked to get out of the way, obediently, not daring to speak.

Seeing this, Baichengshuang frowned and rode his horse closer.A sharp-eyed soldier saw the figures of the three people, and immediately pulled away the people around him, removed the fence, stabbed the cow's butt with the point of his gun, and shouted, "Go!"

The woman was overjoyed when she saw this: "Thank you, sir! Thank you, sir! I will never forget your kindness in my next life!"

Before she finished speaking, the woman drove her husband into the bullock cart, and whipped the cow's buttocks hard with a whip. Unfortunately, before the bull's hooves had taken twenty steps, another figure stopped in front of the bullock cart——

Gu Feng.

Seeing this, the woman became angry and cursed: "Where is the bastard coming from? Block the way of the old woman, and a good dog will not block the way!"

Because Gu Feng's clothes were dirty and torn, he was far from the officers and soldiers who blocked the way just now, so the woman didn't recognize that Gu Feng was also a soldier.

But the woman was scolding furiously, and the officers and soldiers behind who set up the bar suddenly ran in front of her ox cart, and towards Bai Chengshuang next to Gu Feng, they threw themselves on their knees and saluted: "See General !"

The woman pointed directly at Gu Feng, the finger that seemed to want to cut him was still there, trembling like a chicken paw, and tears started to burst out of her eyes.

The old man next to her pushed her violently, and said angrily: "It's all you bastard! The bastard! Let me cause trouble!" After shouting, he rolled over and kowtowed to Gu Feng and others: "My lord, spare me! My lord, forgive me!"

The woman was stunned, then threw herself on the ground, kowtowed and shouted, "Forgive me! Forgive me!"

The two children in the car were frightened and burst into tears. The loudest cry lingered in the sky outside Hanshi Town.

"Don't shout anymore." Baichengshuang finally said, and said to the woman and her husband, "Stand up."

The two stood up obediently, Bai Chengshuang said in a calm tone, "Don't be alarmed, this general came here for the first time, and he didn't intend to disturb the people. You just had a dispute with these soldiers, what is the reason, let's talk slowly."

Seeing that Bai Chengshuang was a general but a woman, the woman felt relieved a little and felt wronged in every way, so she took the opportunity to cry:

"My lord, our family is going out of the city. These masters said that when we go out to do business, we have to pay [-]% of the customs duty, but we are not businessmen, and I am fleeing. Fortunately, this master is kind, and finally put Let's let it out..."

Ye Ziqi was slightly startled by the sound: In the past, I only heard that there was a "city gate tax" in Hanye City, but these days even a town has to set up a card to collect taxes?

Baichengshuang looked at the soldiers: "Who ordered this tax to be collected?"

A high-ranking soldier stood up and said, "Return to General, it is Centurion Wen Hua."

Baichengshuang said: "Let Wenhua come here to see this general."

The soldier agreed and hurried back to the town. After a while, a stout officer led a group of people running over.

"See the general!" The officer took the lead and half knelt down.

Baichengshuang asked: "Mr. Wen, how many troops are there in Hanshi Town now, and who is leading them?"

"Return to the general, the town is now under the control of the subordinates, leading 200 people to garrison."

"It's your order to set up a card here and collect tariffs?"

Wen Hua looked troubled, and said hesitantly, "Return to General, yes. This is an order from the lord of the country. All merchants will be charged [-]% of the tax when they enter and exit."

"Twenty percent?" Baichengshuang's voice was cold, and he turned to Gu Feng and said, "Search."

Hearing the order, Gu Feng stepped forward and searched the officers and soldiers who set up the bar one by one.After a while, hundreds of taels of silver and thousands of copper coins were found.

Baichengshuang sneered: "This general didn't know that there are so many merchants in Hanshi Town!"

Several officers and soldiers suddenly turned pale, and kowtowed together: "Forgive me, General!"

Wen Hua's expression also changed drastically, and he said in a painful voice: "This subordinate is not strict in supervision, please punish the general!"

"Since you are convicted, you should be punished." Bai Chengshuang rode into the city, and the recruits brought by Wen Hua immediately detained the officers and soldiers who had set up a trap, clasped their shoulders, and followed Bai Chengshuang, After Gu Feng and Ye Zi got on their horses, they entered the town together.The soldiers who were punished had ashes on their faces, but they dared not complain a little.

Walking to the middle of the town, Baichengshuang reined in his horse and said, "I heard, sir, whoever distorts the law and collects money to harm the people, what should be done according to the law?"

Wen Hua hurriedly replied: "You should be punished with the cane, your salary will be removed, and you will be fined with hard labor."

Baichengshuang nodded: "In that case, where are the instruments of torture?"

Wen Hua was stunned for a moment, looking left and right: "But here..." Before he finished speaking, his throat was already chilled, because even though Bai Chengshuang was a woman, she was more attractive than ordinary people with her cold skills.Sensing that Baicheng's frost and cold power leaked out, Wen Hua didn't dare to say much, and hurriedly replied: "...Yes!" He sent people to the barracks to fetch torture tools.

Not long after, the benches and twigs were brought over and placed on the street. Seeing the momentum, Baichengshuang was going to whip the soldiers on the street.

It was so lively, it naturally attracted the attention of the townspeople, and Bai Chengshuang ordered the soldiers not to drive the people away, so after a while, the townspeople spread the word one after another, and ran to the street, men, women and children , with yellow hair hanging down, surrounded the temporary execution ground tightly, and squeezed together to join in the fun.

The five soldiers were escorted to the bench, took off their shirts, and lay down.

Wen Hua stepped forward, stood in the sight of more than a hundred townspeople, clasped his hands in all directions, and said, "I didn't notice, so I ordered these pawns to increase tariffs privately, enrich their own pockets, and treat all the villagers badly! In front of everyone, let these lads who have touched their hearts with lard, teach them a lesson, so as to make a warning to everyone else!"

Hearing this speech, the people onlookers looked at each other, and they all showed joy after being surprised, and applauded one after another.

Only the five soldiers who were lying on the bench and waiting to be punished listened and complained in their hearts: How can they dare to make their own decisions and raise the tariff by [-]% with just a few small soldiers?No matter who, as long as they go out of the city, they are forced to collect taxes from the merchants?After all, isn't the bulk of the money collected going to be handed over to Centurion Wenhua?

But after all, Baichengshuang didn't show any intention of blaming Wenhua, so they didn't dare to speak out if they complained.In order to show that he and these subordinates are not on the same side, Wen Hua will draw a clear line of boundaries, and naturally he will not be merciful, and shouted:
"beat!"

With the attention of many people, Wu Bo, who was performing the caning, also became interested, raised the whip made of raw cowhide, and slapped it hard——

"Snapped!"

A foot-long red mark appeared on the backs of the five soldiers!
The onlookers shouted hello.

"Snapped!"

The shadows of the whip overlap without stopping, this is exactly——

With one whip, the flesh is bruised, with two whips, the soul trembles, with the whip, the King of Hades is summoned, and greed is scattered!

After a full fifty lashes, the skin of the five soldiers was already cracked and bleeding, even Ye Ziqi was terrified at this moment.He looked at Baichengshuang, who still had a frosty face, no wonder many people said that she had a cold nature.

Especially now, the three of them are still burdened with the mission of rushing back to the capital as soon as possible and reporting the military situation, and they seem to have been let go by her.Ye Ziqi was amazed that Baichengshuang had the patience to finish reading the fifty whips.

He sighed secretly again, as if he had said that he would serve this woman as a soldier for the rest of his life?

After the whipping was over, soldiers came up and dragged away the five people who were being punished.The common people enjoyed watching it for a long time, and they refused to leave for a long time. They were still excitedly discussing Wu Bo's whipping method, Hanshi Town's tariff, etc. Afterwards, they all praised the majestic female general. Not only was she good-looking, Still doing things for the people.

Baichengshuang led Ye Ziqi and Gu Feng out of the crowd, and the centurion Wen Hua dispersed most of the soldiers, only bringing a few cronies to follow.On the way, Baichengshuang didn't say a word, and Wen Hua was always worried.

As soon as we walked, we came to the exit of the town facing south. The soldiers guarding here had heard that the brother on the opposite side was taken to the town to be whipped by the guard, so when they saw Bai Chengshuang approaching, they immediately knelt down and shouted. : "See General!"

Only then did Baichengshuang say to Wen Hua: "This town only has a hundred people for defense, and it doesn't seem to be enough to deal with the barbarian intrusion."

Hearing the words, Wen Hua thought to himself: There were originally 2000 people stationed there, but you took them away?But of course he didn't dare to say that, he just replied: "Back to the general, last month, 500 people were garrisoned in this town, but a few days ago, General Baichengyan transferred them all back to the capital. , and then the subordinates came to guard."

Baichengshuang frowned slightly when he heard the words, but he didn't make any further fuss about this matter, he changed the subject and said: "Mr. Wen, you are not effective in supervising the army, and you should be punished for such things under your rule."

Wen Hua said: "This subordinate is guilty!"

"But because of your old meritorious service, you will stay in the military for a while, and your salary will be fined for half a year. There are still battles to be fought, and if you fail to make meritorious service, you will be punished."

Wen Hua felt his body temperature plummet, and he broke out in a cold sweat, and replied loudly, "Yes!"

Baichengshuang stopped looking at him and led Ye and Gu to continue towards Hanye City.

Of course she knew that Wen Hua's problem was not just "ineffective military governor", but she didn't have time to stay in Cold Stone Town, if she dismissed the officer rashly, the public security in the town would be thrown into chaos.

Therefore, there is only "killing chickens to scare monkeys".

Wen Hua watched Baichengshuang go away, and also straightened up to return.The chief confidant guarding the town's entrance immediately came over, offered a bag of money he had collected, and said flatteringly:

"Centurion, Chief Guard is a bit unreasonable. When Yiwei was here, he not only paid [-]% of the tax revenue, but also heard that some people went to the rich family's house to extort money. Sir, you are from a scholarly family. With a kind heart, he also specially reduced the tax by [-]%—”

"Shut up!" Wen Hua pushed the money bag, threateningly said: "Find some time when there is no one else, take it to the brothers who were beaten, and tell them that I killed them, and the tax increase is done by myself. Yes, don't drink too much one day and complain! Also, you people, whoever dares to take an extra penny of dirty money in the future, without the chief guard coming over, I will break your tendons!"

Shi Chang hurriedly responded, took the money bag and ran away.

"call out--"

In the sky above the field, a cry of beasts suddenly resounded.

The three of Ye Ziqi, who were galloping on horseback in the field, raised their heads on horseback, and saw a big eagle with snow-white feathers flying from the direction of Hanye City.

"Baihe!"

Baichengshuang showed joy on his face, and galloped his horse to meet him. The snow sculpture also screamed excitedly, and flew to the sky above the heads of the three of them.

Ye Ziqi's eyes followed the movement of this strange beast, Xue Yu blue sky, and unconsciously relaxed a little, but suddenly his eyes focused.

He saw, on the vast field, a gray figure walking towards them——

old chess!
(End of this chapter)