Longzang

Chapter 71 Questioning
The Northern Liao light arrows are three feet long and weigh one jin (approximately 500 grams), with a conical arrowhead and shaft integrated into one piece. The heavy arrows are four feet long, with a three-edged tip and serrated edges, weighing ten jin (approximately 5 kilograms). There are also armor-piercing heavy arrows, similarly with a three-edged tip but without serrations, weighing fifteen jin (approximately 7.5 kilograms). Finally, there are the Swift Wind Arrows, the only magical arrows, with each scout possessing only one. Once fired, this arrow can travel five hundred zhang (approximately 250 meters), its power equivalent to that of an armor-piercing heavy arrow beyond that distance.

Ordinary Northern Liao cavalrymen only had enough magic power to activate a Gale Arrow once, so Gale Arrows were all pre-sealed with magic power within the arrow body and activated upon firing. Although by the standards of the Taichu Palace, the Gale Arrow was merely a crudely made, one-time-use magical artifact, having it was equivalent to every Liao knight having a magical artifact for one shot.

Wei Yuan finally picked up the bow and tried to draw it. The Liao bow was extremely heavy, weighing several dozen kilograms, and had two strings. Most of the strong archers of the human border army could not fully draw the Liao bow, and ordinary soldiers even struggled to draw it.

Even with Wei Yuan's physical strength, drawing the bow to its full extent required a bit of effort. A rough estimate would be that it would take about 1,200 jin of force to draw it to its full extent.

Having personally examined the Liao people's weaponry, Wei Yuan finally understood how difficult it was to resist a foreign tribe. If it weren't for Fang Hetong's command, just two or three Liao cavalrymen could have wiped out these three hundred farmers.

Wei Yuan suddenly turned around and saw several men carrying axes coming out and chopping off the heads of the Liao cavalry corpses one by one. The bones of the Liao people of the Hanhai were strong and thick, and even if these men swung their axes in a wide arc, it would take them about ten swings to chop open the neck bones and cut off the heads.

"What are you doing?" Wei Yuan asked.

A man next to him replied, "The heads of the Liao barbarians can be exchanged for bounties in the city; one head can be exchanged for one tael of silver!"

The documents issued by the Taichu Palace before the war clearly stated that killing one Liao soldier would earn one merit point, a captain twenty points, and a centurion two hundred points. One merit point could be exchanged for ten taels of immortal silver. Usually, one tael of immortal silver could be exchanged for one hundred taels of mortal silver, but this was only a rough estimate. In reality, it was easy to exchange immortal silver for mortal silver, but it was almost impossible to exchange mortal silver for immortal silver, so it was often possible to exchange for more silver.

Aside from Wei Yuan and his own disciples, anyone on the battlefield in the two prefectures could exchange the heads of Liao barbarians for Immortal Silver at the Taichu Palace or other sects. County magistrates, military officers, and colonels were naturally even more eligible. The men of Shayang Village handed over the heads to the county for one tael of silver each. The county magistrate could then exchange them for ten taels of Immortal Silver at the Taichu Palace or other sects, and then convert them back to ordinary silver. With each head, he could make a net profit of at least one thousand taels!

"Did you exchange them like this before?" Wei Yuan asked.

The man said, “Of course, barbarian heads are useless. Nobody takes them except the county magistrate. We're not barbarians, we don't eat the flesh of the Liao barbarians. Mr. Fang said that we shouldn't eat anything that looks like a human or has intelligence. Mr. Fang is definitely right. Fortunately, the county magistrate is merciful and willing to take these useless heads. We've already exchanged over ten taels of silver. If it weren't for that money to buy grain, we would have starved to death long ago. Mr. Fang is kind-hearted and sold his fields and houses, but he doesn't have much money either. The money from selling the fields was all spent in the first month.”

Wei Yuan then found Fang Hetong and asked, "In the past, all the heads of the Liao people were sold to the county government? Don't you know that a head can be exchanged for ten taels of immortal silver in my Taichu Palace? The captain can get two hundred taels."

"Ten taels! Immortal silver?!" Fang Hetong's eyes widened suddenly.

Over the past few months, he fought a bloody battle against the Northern Liao, sustaining injuries more than a dozen times, three of which were severe. One time, his injuries were so severe that he almost died. If it weren't for the last two life-saving pills given to him by the academy's headmaster, he would have been a skeleton a month ago.

At such a heavy price, Fang Hetong had only managed to kill a dozen Liao cavalrymen and wound dozens more. He then exchanged their heads for a dozen taels of silver, and with the money he made from selling weapons and equipment, he had barely managed to survive until now. It could be said that he and several hundred men were living hand to mouth by day and counting their rice at night. And now Wei Yuan was saying that a single head could be exchanged for ten taels of silver? That's a thousand taels of silver! In just three months, the officials in their positions had amassed nearly twenty thousand taels from Shayang Village alone, while those fighting on the front lines were still starving.

"I had no idea! If only I had known..." Fang Hetong was filled with grief and anger, unable to suppress it any longer.

He was merely stubborn like a scholar, not stupid. He understood immediately from Wei Yuan's words that the news had been blocked by the county government; they wanted to monopolize the Immortal Sect's rewards. But these officials were far too greedy and corrupt, not even leaving a scrap of meat. If they had given just a few extra taels for each head, those seven or eight old men wouldn't have starved to death.

Wei Yuan patted Fang Hetong on the shoulder and said, "I'll handle these heads. Don't worry, I won't skimp on a single penny. Do you want the immortal silver or something else?"

“Brother, you should… keep some for yourself, after all, you killed most of them. Everyone here was originally a farmer, just hoping to drive out the Liao barbarians and live a peaceful life. They will still farm after the war. After this war, I will find a way to redeem the land, and once we have some food to eat, we will go back to the academy to teach. We don’t need that much silver, just more compensation, but a few hundred taels will be enough!”

"We'll talk about the aftermath later. Tomorrow I'll go to the county government and ask about your provisions and pay." Having seen blood on his hands tonight, Wei Yuan's voice held a hint of murderous intent.

Taichu Palace, though high and mighty, claimed not to interfere in the affairs of the Western Jin Dynasty. However, border defense was a matter of life and death, and naturally, it couldn't allow local officials to act recklessly. If a core disciple like Wei Yuan had solid evidence, he could execute even low-ranking clerks without prior approval. In other words, aside from the registrar, the county magistrate, and a handful of other officials (six or seven in total), Wei Yuan could find a pretext to execute them all.

If the True Man has evidence, he can execute the county magistrate. The True Man is enraged, and the prefect's head falls to the ground.

The next morning, Wei Yuan looked out and could see for eighty li (approximately 40 kilometers). Beyond that, the sand dunes surged and obscured everything. Such a wide field of vision indicated that the Liao barbarians were not active nearby. Wei Yuan gave his signal arrow to Fang Hetong, instructing him to fire it in case of danger, and then set off for the county town. This was a specially made signal arrow from the Taichu Palace, capable of detecting attacks within a hundred li (approximately 50 kilometers) of its trajectory. If the Northern Liao attacked during his absence, Wei Yuan would be alerted simply by Fang Hetong firing the signal arrow.

Quyang County was desolate, with few people on the streets and only a few pedestrians hurrying by. Many houses in the county were deserted; the Northern Liao had launched a large-scale southward invasion, and anyone with connections had already fled this place of life and death.

Wei Yuan walked straight along the main road and soon arrived at the county government office. After announcing his identity, the yamen runners led Wei Yuan to a side room to wait. After waiting for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, an official finally arrived late.

PS: I'll try to add an extra chapter tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)