Three Kingdoms: Jiangdong is no longer a rat

Chapter 7 Military Money

Although Yan Yi gained Fan Yan's initial approval with words, he was also quite nervous in his heart. After all, commanding an army was extremely complicated and it was far from being solved by just shouting a few slogans like talking about it on paper.

People in this era value trust over life, and advocate the moral standard of "keeping one's word and fulfilling one's actions".

Although Yan Yi was young, he held a high position in Wucheng, a bit like Zhu Biao to Zhu Yuanzhang, so his words naturally gained the trust of others. However, if he failed to match his words with his actions, his reputation would quickly decline.

After ordering someone to bring a set of clean and fitting clothes for Fan Yan to change into, this eye-catching cavalry team set out on the journey to Geqiting.

The pavilion was the grassroots administrative unit of the Han Empire. Generally, there was a pavilion every ten miles, with a pavilion chief, pavilion father, thief hunters, pavilion guards and other people in charge. They were responsible for maintaining public order in the pavilion and arresting thieves. At the same time, it also served as a post station, market and other functions.

Geqiting is located twenty miles west of Baihu City. Two years ago, a major epidemic broke out. Among the seventeen pavilions in Wucheng County, Geqiting was the hardest hit. Of the seventy or eight hundred households in the pavilion, nearly half died of the disease.

When the household registration was checked last year, there were only more than 400 households left in the pavilion. Although it cannot be said that nine out of ten houses are empty, the decline in population is the highest among all the pavilions in the county. The villages in the pavilion are full of empty houses and there is little smoke from cooking.

Now that a large number of refugees were pouring into Wucheng from Danyang, Geqiting became the main place to settle them. When Yan Yi wanted to recruit soldiers from the refugees, Geqiting was undoubtedly the first choice.

At noon, Yan Yi and others had entered the territory of Geqiting. They saw more and more refugees along the way, and the crying and wailing were incessant. Especially the confusion, panic and even numbness on the faces of the refugees were unbearable to watch.

Yan Yi was getting irritated and whipped his horse more vigorously, but along the way they encountered refugees on the road from time to time, and the horse team could not speed up and moved very slowly.

After walking another mile or two, there was suddenly a commotion ahead.

Twenty or thirty refugees were running along the official road like a frightened flock of sheep, with fear written all over their faces. They just happened to run into dozens of cavalrymen who had reined in their horses in the middle of the road.

In the chaos, a girl of six or seven years old was pushed to the ground and burst into tears.

Most of these refugees were carrying valuables, some were leading cattle and sheep, and some were pushing wheelbarrows. At this time, they were blocked in the middle of the road by the horse team. They were all at a loss and trembling.

Although the cavalry was barely passable, the refugees did not dare to get close and crowded on both sides of the official road, hoping to wait for the cavalry to pass first.

A few refugees who were alone were so frightened that they fled directly to the paths in the fields.

Yan Yi dismounted, walked to the girl, squatted down, and helped her up. Just as he reached out to brush the dust off the girl, a woman in rough clothes came running from a distance crying, hugged the girl in her arms, and lowered her head in fear.

Seeing the little girl snuggling in the woman's arms, Yan Yi turned his gaze towards her and asked, "What happened?"

The woman lowered her head and stammered, "There's a soldier killing people and robbing..."

Yan Yi understood instantly, his face darkening to the extreme. He whispered to Si Qing beside him, "Don't let these people leave yet."

Si Qing clasped his fists in response.

Yan Yi jumped on his horse, whipped it, and galloped forward, and the cavalrymen hurriedly followed.

Si Qing left behind a few cavalrymen and led the panicked refugees to follow.

The cavalry ran several hundred steps in a moment and turned down a small slope. They saw a small wheelbarrow overturned on the official road at the bottom of the slope, with the things on the cart scattered all over the ground. A man in a gray short coat was lying beside the cart, his chest stained with blood.

A woman in a cloth skirt sat next to the man, covering her face and crying, her cries filled with sadness and helplessness.

As the cavalry approached, the woman was startled by the sound of horse hooves and sobbed as she raised her pretty face with tears in her eyes.

Yan Yi took a good look at her and saw that she was very young. She had no hairpin in her hair, and her dark hair was scattered around her cheeks, making her look very charming. Her blouse was disheveled, and a corner was lifted, revealing a small piece of snow-white skin beside her collarbone.

At this time, Chen Gan rode forward and whispered, "Young Master." Yan Yi followed his gaze and saw three figures running away in a panic in the fields a hundred steps away.

"Capture him!" he said coldly.

Chen Gan responded, jumped off his horse, and reached out to the saddle with his big hand like a palm-leaf fan. He grabbed a three-foot-long jujube wood bow hanging on the saddle, and chased after him with four cavalrymen.

He had a sturdy and strong body. Although his steps were not very fast, his strides were very large. Two steps he took were equivalent to three steps of an ordinary person. In a blink of an eye, he had closed the gap by thirty or forty steps, leaving several cavalrymen behind.

"You three bastards, stop right there!"

Seeing that the three people in front were about to enter a small hill beside the field, Chen Gan shouted loudly, stood on the edge of the field, stretched out his arms, and pulled the 150-pound hard bow to a full moon.

With a whoosh, the arrow flew off the string and shot into a person's thigh like lightning.

The man cried out and fell to the ground, and the ring-handled sword in his hand fell to the side. The two people beside him were startled and before they could react, Chen Gan had already caught up with them.

The two men looked nervous, holding the spears tightly in their hands, as if they wanted to stab but didn't dare.

Chen Gan slapped the two men twice, making them see stars. He kicked them to the ground, made a "Puh" sound, spat, grabbed the collar of the man who was shot by the arrow, lifted him up in front of Yan Yi like a chicken, and threw him to the ground.

"Good archery skills and great strength."

Yan Yi watched the whole process of Chen Gan capturing people, and secretly made an evaluation in his heart, but he had no reference and didn't know how strong this person was compared with the generals he was familiar with.

The four cavalrymen also tied up the other two people.

Fan Yan looked at the three men's armor and said beside Yan Yi, "They are from the Xingwu Camp under the command of the deputy commander."

The deputy commander refers to Yan Yu.

Yan Yi glanced with disgust at the three Xingwu Camp soldiers, who were like lambs to the slaughter. He then looked at the woman who was glaring at them with resentment and asked, "What's your name?"

The woman bowed and timidly said, "My humble concubine's husband's surname is Sun."

Yan Yi pointed to the body beside the carriage and asked, "What is your relationship with this person?"

The woman looked sad and sobbed, "This is my husband."

Yan Yi stared at the three people kneeling on the ground, making them feel uneasy. "Who killed your husband? Tell me boldly, and I will make the decision for you."

Sun's wife looked at the dozens of cavalrymen around her with their cold iron armor, and then looked at Yan Yi who was heavily guarded by the cavalrymen. A sense of strength inexplicably emerged from her delicate body. Her eyes, which were a little red and swollen from crying, looked at the three soldiers for a few times, and pointed at the soldier who was shot in the leg.

The soldier was terrified and struggled to sit up sideways, shouting, "I am innocent. I was only ordered to collect military funds and did not kill anyone."

Most of the dozens of cavalrymen changed their expressions when they heard this.

"Military Money"

Yan Yi took in everyone's expressions, repeated these three words several times, and turned to look at Cao Qiu: "Mr. Cao, is this item included in the taxes collected by this county?"

(End of this chapter)