Chapter 520 I will break your legs
Hearing Cui Lang's urging, the tribesmen began to talk in low voices.
The elder said uncertainly: "The whole clan moving away from Qinghe has never happened in hundreds of years. It is really a serious matter... Ordinarily, we should consult the head of the family before making a decision..."
Many tribesmen agreed with mixed emotions.
"Where do we have time to ask for instructions from grandfather now! It will take at least half a month to send a letter to the capital and back!" Cui Lang rolled his eyes and said, "By then, I'm afraid we will have all fallen into the hands of King Fanyang! If we are less lucky and act faster, the time it takes to send the letter may be enough for me to be reborn!"
"Liu Lang, you..."
Cui Lang's outspoken words made many tribesmen shake their heads, but upon closer thought, they realized that these words were not without reason.
While they were talking, the rain outside the hall had stopped at some point.
The noise of rain was gone, but it made people more anxious. To everyone, it seemed that the last barrier was visibly disappearing.
"Elder..." Some tribesmen looked hesitantly at the old man at the top, hoping that he could make a decision.
The old man looked at Cui Lang and finally said, "Liu Lang, let me see the letter."
Cui Lang immediately handed the letter over with both hands, and had his servant present it to the clan elders.
After reading it, the clan elder confirmed that it was undoubtedly from the Chief of Bingzhou. Thinking of the outstanding young man who was expelled from the Cui family, he sighed deeply in his heart.
"Uncle, I am willing to take responsibility for this matter!" Cui Lang said, "If grandpa blames me for this matter later, I will stand up and take full responsibility! If it really doesn't work, when grandpa asks about it, I will say that I knocked you out and took you away!"
Anyway, he is capable of doing such a thing.
The elder was speechless when he heard this. What kind of unrighteous ideas were these? Why did he need a junior to lie to preserve his "character"? "My uncles, please listen to me!" Cui Lang looked at everyone and bowed deeply.
Everyone looked at the young man, feeling mixed emotions.
When the young man bent his back to beg, it seemed that most of his immaturity and unruliness had faded away. Although his body was bent, it was more paradoxically straight than usual.
There was a moment of silence in the hall, and everyone vaguely realized that after this silence, a real decision would be made.
"Liu Lang..." In silence, the elder looked at the young man who was still bowing and asked, "You might as well ask yourself, are you really determined to lead the people of the tribe away from Qinghe? Are you really capable of taking on this responsibility?"
This question contained a sense of responsibility that was being pressed directly upon Cui Lang, as well as a silent transfer of power. It was an attempt to give trust, as well as a test and expectation.
Leading the tribe to move away from the clan’s origin place has enormous significance.
All possible accidents and mistakes along the way will depend on the person who makes the decision.
This heavy responsibility, like a mountain, did not scare the pink-dressed youth away. He raised his head and said without hesitation: "Cui Lang promises that he will send my Cui clan members to Taiyuan safely! Please trust Cui Lang this time!"
"Okay." The elder stood up, leaning on the side of the chair. His old body was slightly hunched, but his voice was clear: "Inform the clan immediately and prepare to move the whole clan to Taiyuan!"
These words spread quickly among the clan through the dissipating rain and fog outside the hall. For a time, the Manchu Cui family was shocked and in an uproar.
Most of them never thought that one day they would leave Qinghe with their families, leaving the most stable place in their eyes.
Some were puzzled, some were panicked, and some were still not convinced after hearing the explanation and decided to stay and guard here.
As for these stubborn people, Cui Lang told everyone not to pay any attention to them for the time being, and not to waste any more words with them. They should just pack up their things, and when the tribe was empty, those people would follow. If they still didn't want to follow, he would knock them out and take them away.
The migration of tribesmen is different from the migration of soldiers' camp, where they can mount their horses and set off immediately.
Apart from the clan members who were in the capital and serving as officials and celebrities in various places, there were still more than a thousand Cui clan members left in Qinghe at this time, more than half of whom were women, children and the elderly, so their movements were inevitably slow.
It takes time to inform everyone of the news, and each family has to pack up their things. However, they have no experience in migration at all. Even if they have prepared overnight, by the next morning, everyone has only prepared less than half of it in the chaos.
Just at this time, news came that the Fanyang army was attacking the city again.
As soon as the rain stopped, the Fanyang army attacked impatiently, and this time the attack became more fierce, and the morale of the Xingzhou army was almost broken.
Cui Lang became anxious and repeatedly urged his tribesmen to take only enough food and leave the rest behind.
However, this statement is not recognized by most of the clan members. To them, even if they can throw away money, they must take all the books with them. This is the Cui family's legacy and they must not be abandoned!
As the sky was about to get dark, another piece of news came back. Yihu, whose legs were covered in mud and water, was horrified: "My dear, it's bad! The city has been breached! The governor of Xingzhou has committed suicide to apologize!"
Cui Lang's face turned pale, and he hurriedly looked for the clan elder, only to see the clan elder leading people to a library with a key in his hand.
"Uncle, Xingzhou City has been breached, and the Fanyang Army will probably arrive soon! We must set off immediately!"
The elder was shocked, but he said without hesitation: "No, there is the only copy of my Cui family in this library!"
As he was about to run over, Cui Lang grabbed his arm and said, "Uncle, I have already copied down those rare books! Let's go! Every moment of delay will put your life in danger!"
The clan elder looked at Cui Lang with a look of disbelief.
"I swear I didn't lie to you! Otherwise, what do you think I have been doing in this library for more than a year?"
The elder asked anxiously, "Where is the manuscript?"
Cui Lang: "I have sent them to Jiangdu a long time ago. I think they have been copied into more than ten copies. I will get another copy for you later! Don't worry!"
The elder's body shook, and he almost spit out a mouthful of blood - he was relieved... He was so relieved! He was so relieved that he could go to heaven!
The dude he thought of was actually a rat. Right under his nose, he was about to empty the house! He wanted to take back his newly formed approval of this dude!
The elder who was dragged back by Cui Lang trembled as he spoke without any embellishment: "You brat... If the head of the family knew about this, he would definitely break your legs!"
"That's right!" Cui Lang said as he pulled people to run, "So in order to give grandfather another chance to break my legs, let's go faster!"
The clan elder had no time to scold him. He turned around to look at the library behind him and the house hidden in the dimness. He wanted to say, "Burn them all down," but when the words came to his lips, his eyes turned red and he couldn't easily bring himself to do it.
This is the Cui family’s foundation for hundreds of years.
“Uncle, please leave them here.” Cui Lang did not look back, but he could sense the struggle of the old man beside him. He said, “Now that Jiangdu Wueryuan is here, we should no longer regard the gains of the world as the loss of the Cui family.”
The world has changed, and some obsessions should have been let go long ago.
When the new system comes, those who still cling to the old ideas are destined to be crushed by their inextricable greed.
Tears rolled down the elder's eyes, but he did not give the order to set fire. He was supported by Cui Lang and left the place.
Nearing midnight, thousands of Cui clan members finally left Qinghe in a mighty procession.
There were occasional cries from the procession, some people lamented dejectedly, some looked back with tears in their eyes, and there were also children who didn't know what was going on and just tugged at the clothes of their elders anxiously.
Cui Lang ordered two thousand private soldiers to lead the way, protecting the women, children, the elderly and the weak in the middle. He and some young men followed behind, and behind them were ordinary servants and mule carts carrying goods.
The remaining private soldiers were distributed on both sides of the team, always paying attention to the movements around them and responsible for maintaining order in the team.
Cui Lang learned this arrangement from Chang Suining when they were playing polo in the Jiju Club.
At that time, he didn't know that one day he would use the formation skills he learned on the polo field in the migration of his tribe.
Cui Lang sat on the shaft of the cart and looked back at the gradually receding Qinghe County. For the first time, he had a concrete understanding of the four ordinary-sounding words "the world is unpredictable."
At the beginning of this summer, he received a letter from "Xi Zhiyuan", in which his old friend confessed his identity... It turned out that the new king of Dong Luo was actually his former classmate who played polo with him.
After they were actually on the road, the Cui clan members gradually accepted the fact that they had to move away from Qinghe. No one cared to be sentimental anymore. They only hoped to reach Taiyuan as soon as possible to end this unprecedented and embarrassing escape.
However, the road was muddy and difficult to walk on after the rain, and the team moved forward slowly, which made people even more anxious.
Even though they had not slept for nearly two days and two nights since they started preparing to set off, most of the Cui family members, except for some children, still had no desire to sleep. Their hearts were filled with worries about the unknown future and vigilance against the Fan Yang army behind them.
A young man beside Cui Lang was also extremely uneasy. He tried to say something to dispel his uneasiness and asked Cui Lang casually, "Liu Lang, you didn't bring anything with you?"
Liu Lang had no baggage, nor did his servant have any, and there was no trace of Liu Lang's suitcases in the carriage.
“I didn’t have time to take my personal belongings with me.” As Cui Lang spoke, he raised his hand to his collar and lowered his eyes, saying, “But I took all the important things with me.”
The young man looked and saw a corner of something sticking out from the collar of the shirt. It looked like a letter, and there were more than one.
Cui Lang put the exposed letter back into his lapel and put it away properly.
At this moment, there was a sudden noise of restlessness from the team behind him, coming from far away.
Cui Lang immediately looked back vigilantly. The restless sound soon became panicky. Then, a private soldier approached on horseback, shouting, "The Fanyang army has arrived!"
What?!
The Fanyang Army had caught up with them! They were so fast, obviously they had just broken through Xingzhou City and were heading straight for Qinghe! At this moment, the sky was already bright, and amid the panic, a tribesman immediately asked, "How many troops do they have!"
"...Just looking at the team, there are at least tens of thousands of people!"
There was an uproar in the team, and the elders who insisted on staying behind with the young men looked solemn - the Fanyang army was chasing them in such a formation, which meant they were determined to keep them! "Liu Lang, you guys go to the front immediately, don't stop, the faster the better!" The elders made a quick decision: "Hurry!"
This place is only sixty or seventy miles away from Qinghe, and is far from the rendezvous point. It is obviously impossible to get away if they walk together. It would be better to let the young men of the tribe lead the women and children in front, while he and his men follow behind and try to delay the enemy as much as possible.
“No!” Cui Lang immediately rejected the elder’s proposal: “The Fanyang army is coming with great force and it is not so easy to stop them. We should not engage in a head-on conflict with them…”
Cui Lang looked at his two uncles and said, "Uncle Thirteen, Uncle Nineteen, please escort my uncle to the front to wait for news."
"But……"
Cui Lang interrupted them: "I am here."
The elder shook his head: "Liu Lang, you are from the clan..."
"Uncle." Cui Lang smiled at him, "I said that I would ensure that our people arrived in Taiyuan safely. This is the first time I have made such a big decision. Can you bear to see me break my promise and be embarrassed?"
"Besides, I'm not going to die." Cui Lang patted his chest and assured: "I will act according to the circumstances."
Although he was a loser, when it came to dealing with people and being very agile, he dared to say that few people in the tribe could compare to him.
Moreover, when negotiating with others, you need to bring out someone with enough weight to speak in order to gain the opportunity to delay the negotiations. Although my uncle has prestige, he is old. To put it bluntly, he doesn't even have many days left to live, so he can't be sold at a high price.
He knew that his uncle must have the will to die, but how could the Fanyang army not notice his uncle's intention? He was afraid that they would not buy into it.
On the contrary, his identity as the eldest son of the Cui family can still be used to scare people.
Seeing that Cui Lang was determined, the tribesmen took the elders to the front.
Cui Lang ordered his men to speed up their journey, and they managed to advance for more than ten miles, but were finally caught up by the Fanyang army behind them.
The Fanyang troops rode on sturdy northern war horses through the mud, with bloody murderous aura still lingering on their iron armor, and the swords on their waists glowing with a chilling light in this autumn morning.
As soon as they got close, they chased forward in a domineering manner, trying to surround the entire Cui team.
The guards of the Cui family were forced to rein in their horses. As the atmosphere between the two sides became tense, Cui Lang led his men down from the carriage. Soon, the leader of the Fanyang army approached on horseback, and a stern-looking man appeared in the sight of Cui Lang and the others.
The man reined in his horse, raised his hand holding the reins, bowed in a not-very-respectful manner, and said, "I am Duan Shiang, and I am ordered by King Fanyang to go to Qinghe to pay a visit to the famous scholars of the Cui family. However, I didn't expect that there was no trace of the famous scholars in Qinghe, and I almost missed the opportunity to pay a visit."
These mocking words made all the clansmen behind Cui Lang change color. The person who led the troops to chase was actually Duan Shiang! Duan Shiang personally led a large number of troops to come. King Fanyang really "valued" their Cui family! It would be difficult to get away safely today...
At this time, Cui Lang stepped forward, raised his hand and saluted with a friendly expression, and said with a smile: "It turns out that it is General Duan who has come in person. I am sorry for the disrespect."
Good night, everyone!
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