With Lu Tu's loud shout, the 400 border soldiers of Huai Shuo Town on the other side were stunned and dared not move!
Lu Tu had long harbored deep resentment towards the people of Huai Shuo Town. This Lord Zhao of Huai Shuo had already begun to make moves against him, and later he discovered that Huai Shuo was colluding with the Wuhuan people to illegally trade salt and iron. The iron ore that Hu Delu was refining was seized from them.
The two sides had already clashed many times in secret, and now they dared to take advantage of the situation and deliberately come to cause trouble. If Lü Tu showed any weakness, Huai Shuo Town would probably only think he was an easy target, and thus become even more audacious.
"A single punch can prevent a hundred more," this is a truth that Lü Tu always practiced.
"Lu Tu, as a military officer of the Wuchuan border army, are you planning a rebellion?" a burly, dark-faced man shouted from the crowd opposite him.
Lu Tu glanced disdainfully at the crowd, his gaze landing on the burly, dark-faced man: "Who do you think you are? You think you can label me a rebel based on just one sentence? Guards, seize him and give him 300 strokes of the cane!"
The people of Huai Shuo felt a chill run down their spines. This Lu Tu was indeed infamous. Others were already at their limit with twenty or thirty strokes of the cane, but this guy wanted to give people 300 strokes? Even the God of Longevity would be beaten into mincemeat by him!
At this moment, the burly, dark-faced man among the border troops muttered to himself. He had wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to show off in front of everyone, but Lu Tu didn't give him a chance to show off at all. With just one sentence, he threw all his face on the ground and ruthlessly trampled it!
"You...you've gone too far! Do you really think I, Huai Shuo, am all helpless?"
Upon hearing this, Lü Tu spurred his horse and strode alone into the Huai Shuo army formation with a righteous air. Liu Yang, Liu Hong, and the others called out from behind, "Sir, be careful!"
Just as he was about to follow, Lü Tu stopped him with a gesture. As the saying goes, a cowardly soldier is cowardly, and a cowardly general makes a whole army cowardly. Their captains are all spineless cowards; how can they expect their men to have any courage?
As Lü Tu closed in to within a zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) of Huai Shuo's men, the mere presence of one man exerted an immense sense of oppression on the 400 men. The border soldiers, especially those positioned at the front, looked up at Lü Tu and felt an involuntary surge of fear.
"Don't come any closer, or we'll have to take action!" the burly, dark-faced man roared again.
Lu Tu stared at him coldly: "Come out."
"Why should I come out? If you've got the guts, then come in and fight your way in!"
"Good!" Without saying a word, Lü Tu rode his horse and charged into the Huai Shuo army formation. Even though the Huai Shuo border soldiers had weapons in their hands, they dared not overstep their bounds. After all, their captain was still in Lü Tu's hands, so they had no choice but to make way for him.
When he arrived in front of the dark-faced man, the burly man was genuinely flustered. He saw that his comrades-in-arms were all stepping aside, showing no intention of helping him whatsoever.
He decided to go all out and said to Lü Tu, "Lü Tu, quickly release our captain, otherwise we won't be able to go back and report."
The dark-faced man said this intentionally to the other border troops, reminding them to act quickly. If they allowed Lü Tu to run rampant, they wouldn't be able to explain themselves when they returned.
The Huai Shuo border troops naturally understood this principle as well. The men on either side exchanged glances and nodded secretly, preparing to take action.
But the next second, with a soft splatter, a flash of light appeared before everyone's eyes, and the dark-faced man who had just been urging everyone to attack was now a headless corpse, with hot blood gushing from his neck.
The instigator of all this, Lü Tu, held his knife at his sides and said coldly, "You dare to slander me for rebellion. According to the law, I should kill your whole family. But I'm in a good mood today, so I'll just kill you."
The black-faced head that had fallen to the ground was still blinking, its mouth opening and closing.
Lu Tu knew this was a normal human reflex. In his previous life, he had seen a scientific case where a scientist in a Western country made an agreement with the executioner beforehand on the guillotine that he would blink once per second after his head fell to the ground, so that the executioner could record it.
He sacrificed his life to contribute to science, proving that a person retains consciousness for about 8 seconds after their head is severed.
Lu Tu then swept his cold gaze across the crowd: "What? Do you all want to frame me for rebellion?"
After hearing this, everyone felt a chill run down their spines. What kind of demon was this? He would kill without warning without a word, and such a person was truly terrifying.
Even though they knew they would have a hard time explaining themselves when they returned to Huai Shuo, no one dared to stand up and oppose Lü Tu. After all, people are selfish, and the example of the nail that sticks out gets hammered down is still fresh in everyone's mind. Who would be so stupid?
After a moment of silence, one of the Huai Shuo border soldiers cautiously cupped his hands and said, "Lord Lü, we were ordered to take over the coal mine. Since it belongs to Lord Lü, we should go back to report. Please forgive us and return our captain to us, Lord Lü."
Lu Tu looked in the direction of the voice and saw a handsome man staring at him with neither arrogance nor servility. Lu Tu nodded approvingly: "Finally, someone with guts. But what makes you think you can reason with me? Just because you stabbed me in the back and apologized, does that mean I have to forgive you?"
"But sir, we didn't lay a hand on you at all. You were the one who ordered your men to break our Captain Yuan's leg first, and then you killed someone. Of course, that kid deserved to die, but we didn't do anything to you."
Lu Tu said sternly, "Hate words can wound like a chill in June. The words you just hurled at me and my brothers are like knives piercing our hearts. You still dare to say you didn't do anything to us? Do you believe I'll kill you right now with the knife in my hand?"
Hearing Lu Tu's unreasonable words, everyone felt as if they were scholars encountering soldiers. The key point is that they had all been soldiers before, and today they had finally met a tough opponent.
This was the first time Liu Hong and the other members of the Southern Army had seen Lü Tu's style of doing things. They only knew that he was very capable, but they did not expect his style to be so domineering and unparalleled. It gave them a vague feeling of familiarity, as if they were still serving under the Great General.
The Huai Shuo border soldiers remained silent, only keeping their heads down, letting Yuan Xu, who was being trampled under Nie Yun's feet, groan in pain.
Lu Tu said loudly, "We are all border soldiers, and it is a great taboo for us to fight among ourselves. But Yuan Xu made a mistake first, so I will punish him as a warning. How about this, you can take him away."
A hint of joy flickered in the eyes of the border soldiers. The handsome man asked, "Then, sir, what is the price?"
Lu Tu nodded: "You know your stuff, kid. There will be a price to pay. You can't just come here and hurt us without saying a word, and then walk away, can you? Where will I, Lu Tu, put my face if word gets out? Where will the faces of my more than 30,000 villagers be?"
Upon hearing this, everyone's eyelids twitched violently!
Even their own people were secretly cursing Lu Tu for being so shameless. They only had about a thousand people on their side, but he claimed there were thirty thousand villagers. And he said it without batting an eye, acting all righteous as if there really were thirty thousand.
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