Chapter 426 The best way to deal with enemies is to completely erase them, both physically and mentally.
(Thanks to Lan Yu Qing Ge for casting a monthly vote.)
More than a year ago, after Chen Yong followed Li Shiyue on his mission to the Turks, when Li Shiyue was promoted to the fifth-rank Ningyuan General and entered the garrison, Chen Yong was directly assigned to Li Shiyue's command along with Wang Datou, Gao Jin and others.
This can be considered Liu Tan's thoughtful reward for the hundred warhorses that Li Shiyue brought back for free.
To put it simply, saying that Chen Yong and his men were Li Shiyue's soldiers is not an exaggeration in today's context.
Having worked under Li Shiyue for over a year, Chen Yong had long since come to understand Li Shiyue's methods.
In the words of the talkative Sun Xiaoliu, "General, she must be one of our Xuanjia Army!"
Why do I say that?
Because Li Shiyue's approach to dealing with enemies is exactly the same as that of the Xuanjia Army's Grand General, who is also the current Prince of Zhenbei, Liu Tan.
If you say you'll behead someone, you mean you'll behead someone; if you say you'll kill them all, you mean you'll kill them all.
Li Shiyue and Liu Tan held the same attitude towards the enemy: the best way to deal with the enemy is to completely eliminate them, both physically and mentally.
So, when Chen Yong came to the door with his knife, he randomly pointed at a bandit and asked him a question. Before the bandit could even speak, Chen Yong stepped forward and slit the bandit's throat with his knife!
Then Chen Yong pointed at Hei Zi, who was standing aside watching, and told Hei Zi to take a machete and chop off the bandit's head.
Yes, there aren't many people in the army who have the strength to chop off a person's head with a single stroke like Li Shiyue.
At least, Chen Yong, as a scout, couldn't do that.
However, it doesn't matter if you can't cut someone's head off with one blow.
Slitting someone's throat can also kill.
Chopping off one's head after death can reduce the pain.
So, when Hei Zi was chopping off the heads of the bandits lying on the ground with his machete in the drizzle, apart from the Xuanjia Army's own men, there were only bandits kneeling on the ground.
And Qin Fen was standing at the door;
And the surviving women and maids of Zhao You's family who were peering out the window—no one could have imagined that they would actually kill people just like that.
After killing this one, Chen Yong and Sun Xiaoliu, along with the other Xuanjia soldiers, stuffed strips of cloth into the mouths of the twenty-odd bandits kneeling in the rain at the door of the wooden house.
Then, Chen Yong casually pointed to another bandit, and watched as the Xuanjia soldiers dragged the bandit Chen Yong had chosen to the door of the wooden house where Li Shiyue was.
"I'm asking you, so if you know the answer, just tell me."
If you don't know, just say you don't know.
Do you understand now?
The thief made "ah ah" sounds from his gagged throat, and then realized that he couldn't speak, so he quickly nodded up and down at Chen Yong.
After Chen Yong removed the gag from the bandit's mouth, before Chen Yong could even ask him a question, the man tilted his head back and answered Chen Yong directly.
"We escaped from Jian'an!"
Once one of them spoke, the rest of the bandits, who were desperate to survive, eagerly tried to answer even though their mouths were gagged, just like baby birds in a nest waiting for their parents to feed them, making "Aba aba" sounds as if they wanted to open their mouths to eat.
After questioning only three people, Chen Yong had already learned all the details about this group of bandits.
This gang of bandits all came from several villages under the jurisdiction of Qingshiling Town in Jian'an Prefecture. Their leader, the one whose genitals were cut off by Li Shiyue, came from Xihai Village.
The village's name contains the character "sea," indicating that it is located by the sea, and the villagers are mostly fishermen who make their living from the sea.
"Why did you, instead of fishing properly, wander into our Ruzhou and become bandits!"
"Sir, we've really been forced into this situation!"
God isn't giving us a way to survive!
It hasn't rained for months, and all the seedlings we planted in the spring have withered and died!
We wanted to go out to sea to fish and survive, but who knew that the Japanese pirates had their eyes on our village and would kill anyone they saw!
While we were out fishing during the day, they kidnapped our wife and daughter and stole all our food!
We barely escaped from under the noses of the Japanese pirates thanks to our leader!
As the bandit spoke, he was probably thinking of his family, and his voice began to tremble with sobs. In the end, he started to wail and cry.
Sitting at the square table inside the house, Li Shiyue frowned as she listened to the words of the bandits outside the door.
Chen Yong stepped into the room. "General, this..."
Li Shiyue whispered a few words to Chen Yong, who leaned close to her ear. Chen Yong listened and nodded, then left the room.
Then he randomly picked a thief whose mouth was gagged and brought him to his side.
“Jian’an Prefecture is not small, and it has an important port called Jian’an Port. If Japanese pirates land, why don’t you escaped people report it to the authorities?”
There are troops stationed in Jian'an Port!
If you report this to the authorities, how can the local officials and soldiers ignore it?
When Chen Yong mentioned reporting to the authorities, the bandit who was brought to the forefront got really excited.
Why didn't we report it to the authorities?
We searched from the town to the county, but when we arrived in the county seat, we didn't even get to see the county magistrate before we were driven out of the government office.
When we went back to look for them a second time, we almost got arrested and thrown in jail!
If it weren't for the leader's quick thinking, noticing something was wrong beforehand and leading us to escape, we might all be in the underworld and reincarnating by now.
Li Shiyue wasn't very familiar with the other prefectures in Andong besides Ruzhou, and she didn't know what the situation was like in Jian'an Prefecture.
However, just by listening to what these bandits said, one can deduce that the local government, at least the county government, must have had connections with the Japanese pirates.
Such a connection could only be considered a crime of treason.
The interrogation lasted until dawn, and they finally questioned all twenty-odd bandits kneeling on the ground outside the wooden house.
Li Shiyue came out of the house, stood outside, and looked up at the sky.
The rain had stopped, but the sky remained overcast.
Li Shiyue predicted that the rain would probably continue.
"You've written it all down?"
Sun Xiaoliu sat inside the room, blowing on the ink stains on the paper in front of him while answering Li Shiyue's questions, who was standing outside.
"General, I've written it all down."
"Make them sign."
"yes."
The bandits, still bound hand and foot and kneeling on the ground, were pressed down one by one by the Xuanjia Army. They bit their own fingers and pressed their blood fingerprints onto the confession that Sun Xiaoliu had been recording all night.
Seeing that all the bandits had pressed their bloody fingerprints, Sun Xiaoliu sorted out the stack of confessions and handed them to Li Shiyue.
Upon receiving the report, Li Shiyue first saw the group of bandits, including the bandit leader who was still unconscious and naked in the house. The report listed the origins and names of nearly seventy people, both alive and dead, in this simple village.
After quickly flipping through the papers, Li Shiyue returned them to Sun Xiaoliu.
Then she looked at Hei Zi, who was standing to the side, and instructed him: "When it's dawn, search the place thoroughly. Don't miss any grain, gold, silver, or other valuables."
"Have the brothers bring over all the dead bandits."
"Yes, General!"
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