Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 360 The True King's Second Generation
After Liu Mazi finished speaking, he waved his hand and a thick pile of materials appeared on the table.

Ren Yuan thought, it seems that he has been planning this for a long time. He has collected so much black material and always carries it with him...

He picked it up calmly and flipped through it quickly.

During his time at the Gou Chen Division, Ren Yuan had honed his ability to read files, and soon he had extracted dozens of charges from the fragmentary information.

Such as embezzling military pay, killing colleagues, disobeying military orders, forming cliques, spying on the true king, and private transactions...

"It's really shocking." Ren Yuan sighed.

"Hehe, it's actually normal." Liu Mazi was honest and said with a smile: "We are bandits. Can we be called bandits if we do good things?"

"That's true." Ren Yuan nodded. He really didn't see any crimes like robbing women, robbing people's property, killing people for fun... Obviously, for the bandits, these are just basic operations.

“But these materials cannot all be handed over. If you try to handle everything at once, the effect will be counterproductive. Secondly, it will make the general appear to be too deliberate.” Ren Yuan gave his opinion after reading it.

"Indeed." Liu Mazi agreed. "That's why I've been holding back on this."

"You don't need to slash at someone randomly to kill them. A single blow that really kills them is enough." Ren Yuan picked out a piece of material and said, "Just hand this one over."

Liu Mazi took it and saw that it was a letter from Ge Rong to Feng Tietou. The content was naturally asking him not to follow Du Luozhou all the way to the end, and promised that if he left Du Luozhou, he would also make him a king and so on...

This is the basic operation for the boss to recover losses after the team split. In fact, Ge Rong did not hold much hope. He had to try his best, mostly to disgust Du Luozhou.

"Will this work?" Liu Mazi was a little unsure. "Feng Tietou didn't even see the letter, and I detained it."

Of course he wouldn't say that the reason he withheld the letter was actually more out of jealousy... Why should I write to him and not to me? Who am I looking down on?
"Just use this letter." Ren Yuan said confidently, "As long as the True King knows about it, just send this letter to him."

"I understand!" Liu Mazi was not stupid, but he was still a little insidious. He said immediately, "As long as Feng Tietou received the letter but kept silent and did not hand it over to the True King immediately, the True King would think that he had ulterior motives and was disloyal!"

"That's right." Ren Yuan nodded and said, "Loyalty is not absolute, but it is absolutely disloyal. Just wait and see."

"Haha, what a great trick! A little effort will achieve a great result!" Liu Mazi was overjoyed and immediately decided to go to Rencheng to file a complaint at dawn to see if the effect was as good as expected.

In fact, the main reason is that this trick has almost no side effects, and if it doesn't work it won't backfire on you, so why should you be polite to Feng Tietou?

~~
The next morning, Liu Mazi set out for Rencheng.

Ren Yuan disguised himself as his personal soldier and traveled with him.

Along the way, Liu Mazi deliberately used his magical powers to speed up, wanting to weigh Ren Yuan.

However, no matter how fast he went, Ren Yuan followed closely behind him, and his face was calm and composed, without showing any effort at all.

As a result, it took the two of them just over an hour to reach Rencheng, 240 miles away.

"You are quite capable, brother." Liu Mazi wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, "No wonder you hold a high position at such a young age."

Ren Yuan almost couldn't hold it in, the deputy chief of the Gou Chen Division was just a sixth-rank outer-class official with an annual salary of 800 stones, not even in the eighteen classes, so he could not be considered "in a high position" at all.

It can be seen that the gap between the Northern and Southern Dynasties was so deep that even the official system of the other side was not clear. However, at this time, he needed to flatter himself, so he did not point it out, and smiled as he looked at the top of Rencheng.

There was a large yellow flag with a banner on it, with the word "Du" written in large letters on it.

This is the "capital" of the Zhenwang military regime, but it looks no different from Yucheng in Xingyang, both of which look like they have just been looted.

Obviously, Du Luozhou had no intention of staying here for long.

Liu Mazi told Ren Yuan that Du Luozhou wanted to cross the border and go to Luoyang to end his days of wandering.

No wonder he urged Feng Tietou so hard.

~~
Ren Yuan followed Liu Mazi into the city smoothly.

It had just rained the day before yesterday. Maybe because of the frequent movement of people and horses and the lack of maintenance, the roads in the city were muddier than those outside the city, and everyone's shoes and legs were covered in mud.

The city was filled with a foul stench, and the streets were littered with human and animal feces. Blackened beams and broken window frames could be seen everywhere on the streets, and traces of smoke were everywhere. All the shops had their doors smashed open, and many of them were still stained with blood. Various household items were scattered on the ground, but there was nothing valuable left.

The soldiers of the True King's Army lived in the houses they had looted, using door panels as firewood and cooking the looted food in pots on the street.

Ren Yuan could still smell the aroma of cooked meat, but the Northern Dynasty had suffered from war for four consecutive years and people had little food to eat, so how could they afford to raise livestock?

It was not until he saw a skinned and deveined "two-legged sheep" hanging on a hook in a shop, with half skeleton and half meat left, that he understood.

Even though he was used to seeing bloody and violent scenes, he still felt his stomach churning.

"You haven't seen it in the south, have you?" Liu Mazi chuckled and whispered, "The Northern Dynasty has been eating it for three or four hundred years. If you don't eat it, others will eat it."

"..." Ren Yuan nodded. This world is indeed still a place where people compare the bad with the bad. Compared with this side, the originally hideous Southern Dynasty has become handsome.

It was not until we arrived at the county governor's office, which had been converted into a real royal palace, that the scene before us began to look more respectable.

The captain of the imperial guards, wearing a full set of armor, led a team of imperial guards and stood in front of the palace gate. When he saw Liu Mazi, he smiled and said, "What brings the general here?"

"I have something to report to the prince." Liu Mazi skillfully handed a small bag of pills to the captain of the personal guards. "I found it from a wealthy family. I'll leave a portion for you."

The captain of the guards smiled even more eagerly and said, "Your Majesty is free, come with me."

After all, the True King's Army was a makeshift team with almost no rules. No one asked Ren Yuan to wait outside, so he followed Liu Mazi straight in and met the famous 'True King' Du Luozhou.

Four years ago, the people of the Six Towns of the Northern Dynasty were angry that their generals did not provide them with food, so they jointly pushed the people of Woye Town, Po Liu Han Baling, to lead them, gathered together to kill the generals, and captured Woye Town, which marked the beginning of the uprising. This first generation leader of the Six Towns Uprising called himself the "True King".

Later, the Northern Wei Dynasty was defeated by the Six Garrisons and had to borrow 100,000 troops from the Rouran to suppress the Six Han Baling. The Northern Dynasty relocated the 200,000 surrendered volunteers to the three states of Hebei to seek food. As a result, there were heavy casualties during the migration, and when they arrived at the place, they were short of food and clothing, and 200,000 people faced the desperate situation of starving to death.

At this time, Du Luozhou, a soldier of Rouxuan Town, stood up and gathered refugees from the six towns to rebel again in Shanggu, still using the reign title of "Zhen Wang". He then led his army westward, besieged Yanzhou, defeated and surrendered Gaoche chief Hulujin. He broke through Juyongguan, went south to Youzhou, occupied Youyan, and claimed to have 200,000 soldiers, with an even greater momentum than before.

Du Luozhou's name also spread throughout the country. When Ren Yuan visited the fairyland, he often heard Scholar Feng and Master Liu talk about his deeds with relish.

(End of this chapter)