Liu Hu immediately drew his long sword. To avoid a fight, neither of them had brought bows and arrows or spears, and they hadn't planned on a conflict. However, they hadn't expected the other party to be so aggressive.
"Who dares to trespass on our village?" At this moment, a group of more than a dozen people came out of the village. The leader was a burly man with a bushy beard. He wore a green cloth hat and held a long spear.
Even with arrows pointed at him, Lü Tu laughed loudly without fear, "Your style is quite unique. Didn't I tell you that not everyone can wear a green hat? It's neither fish nor fowl."
Seeing Lü Tu's arrogance, the people opposite him immediately shouted, "How dare you! You don't even kneel down in front of our squad leader? We order you to dismount immediately!"
Lu Tu pointed to the Zhou family flagpole not far away: "Even if Zhou Taishan came, he wouldn't be qualified to make me kneel down."
Upon hearing this, the group, including the burly man with the bushy beard, were all taken aback.
"Who are you? State your name!"
At this moment, it would be too beneath Lu Tu to say it himself, as that would be too undignified. Fortunately, Liu Hu reacted at this time and loudly proclaimed, "My elder brother is Lu Tu, the Commandant of the Imperial Guard, personally appointed by the Commandant!"
The shadow of the tree cast a long shadow on the man's face. The burly man with the thick beard narrowed his eyes slightly, a hint of disgust flashing across his face almost imperceptibly: "Are you really Lu Tu?"
Lu Tu took out the token of the Imperial Guard Commandant from his bosom. Upon seeing this, the burly man with a bushy beard clasped his hands in salute: "Mo Shaowu, a squad leader under Zhou Taishan, the Imperial Guard Commandant, greets Commandant Lu!"
When did Zhou Taishan get promoted to captain? In the Wuchuan border army, notices are posted whenever someone makes a military achievement.
So, Zhou Taishan was still promoted by Yun Tian despite not having earned any military merits. Although he was only the lowest-ranking military officer, any officer could govern a territory.
Why not kneel?
"Hmm?" Upon hearing this, the group of more than ten people couldn't help but look up at Lü Tu.
"Captain Lü, do you expect us to kneel down and pay our respects to you?"
Lu Tu's expression was cold and stern: "Shouldn't you be? Since you are under Zhou Taishan's command, you are still part of the Wuchuan Border Army. What gives you the right to talk back to me? Punish yourself with 10 slaps!"
"You dare?" Upon hearing this, the soldiers around Mo Shaowu immediately glared angrily at Lü Tu, drawing their long swords as if ready to fight at the slightest provocation.
At this moment, Liu Hu's heart was in his throat. He did not expect that Lü Tu would be so fierce. Even when he was on the other side's territory and had arrows pointed at him, he refused to suffer any loss and even wanted to regain the face he had lost earlier.
Mo Shaowu reached out and stopped the surrounding soldiers, signaling them with his eyes not to make any rash moves.
"Sergeant, no! This is utterly insulting!"
"Shut up!"
Mo Shaowu threw the long spear in his hand aside, then swung his arm and slapped himself ten times across the face, until blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.
After slapping the fan ten times, he clasped his hands in a fist and knelt on one knee before Lü Tu, saying, "Please forgive my poor eyesight for not recognizing Commandant Lü! Please forgive me, Commandant!"
He was flexible and adaptable, and he could slap his subordinates without hesitation in front of them, which surprised Lü Tu.
The Zhou family is a bunch of good-for-nothings, so why does they have such a brave and resourceful person under their command? This is very strange.
Thinking about the related events, Lü Tu secretly guessed that perhaps because of Xu Jing's defeat, there was no one in the Wuchuan border army who could restrain Lü Tu. Perhaps Zhou Taishan was a new pawn he promoted to restrain Lü Tu.
After all, Zhou Taishan and Lü Tu had a deep-seated feud before. If Yun Tian promotes him now, Zhou Taishan will be grateful and easier to manage.
Having figured this out, Lü Tu nodded: "Get up. Where is your Commandant Zhou?"
"Lieutenant Lü, you may not know this, but our village of Mamenai was robbed by the Wuhuan people the other day, so Lieutenant Zhou took his men to train."
Lu Tu asked curiously, "The day before yesterday? Why didn't I see any smoke signals?"
Mo Shaowu cupped his hands in greeting: "There aren't many people. Captain Zhou said we can handle it ourselves, so there's no need to trouble Captain Yun and Captain Lü."
During the conversation, Lü Tu kept observing the situation in the village. In just a short while, no fewer than 200 people passed by in his field of vision, indicating that the village had a population of at least 2,000, or even more than Lü Tu.
The rank of the military officer in charge of the army is only ninth grade, yet he has more people under his jurisdiction. Yun Tian is really biased.
"You won't welcome me to come into the village and sit down? I'm an old acquaintance of your Commandant Zhou."
A soldier beside Mo Shaowu reminded him, "Squad leader, you can't..."
Mo Shaowu laughed loudly, "Commander Lü has come from afar, of course we welcome you, but our village is not as prosperous as Kuishan Village, so we can only offer Commander Lü a cup of plain water."
Lu Tu spurred his warhorse forward, waving his hand dismissively and saying, "It's alright."
Mo Shaowu led the way, guiding Lü Tu to a clean room, and instructed the people around him: "Go and prepare some good fodder for Captain Lü's warhorse."
Lu Tu waved his hand: "No need for that trouble, I'll just take a look and leave."
"Sir, won't you sit down for a while? Is there something you need?"
Lu Tu laughed and said, "To be honest, my village is short of food and has too many people. I want to move some of them, but I don't know where to send them, so I came to take a look..."
Mo Shaowu grinned and said, "I can understand. After all, there have been a lot of refugees lately, which is really annoying."
"Do you have any extra land to cultivate? I'll have them move here to your place."
Mo Shaowu waved his hands repeatedly: "No, sir, most of our land here is saline-alkali land, and we have very little grain. We have no surplus grain or land left."
Lu Tu shook his head regretfully: "What a pity. By the way, when will your Commandant Zhou be back?"
"I don't know, perhaps it's getting dark. If you're willing to wait, why don't you stay in the village until the next day?"
As the two were talking, an oxcart passed by Lü Tu. The ground in Mamenai Village was uneven and very bumpy. Just then, the oxcart went over a deep pit, and the cart shook and several fine iron long knives fell out.
Mo Shaowu immediately shouted sternly, "He can't even drive a car! He's been so disrespectful to the Captain! Guards, take him away and flog him ten times!"
The old farmer driving the oxcart turned pale with fright and kowtowed repeatedly, pleading, "Sergeant, spare my life! Captain, spare my life! My old body can't take ten strokes of the cane!"
Lu Tu looked at Mo Shaowu and pleaded for the old farmer, "Squad Leader Mo, we are all soldiers, this is nothing out of the ordinary. I think we should skip the caning. I'll be leaving now. When your Captain Zhou returns, please give him my regards."
"Respectfully seeing off Commandant Lü!"
After Lü Tu left Mamenai Village, Mo Shaowu whispered to the soldiers around him, "Go and kill that old farmer. That good-for-nothing actually revealed the existence of the fine iron knife in front of Lü Tu. Also, go and tell Zhou Taishan not to come back for a while!"
"clear!"
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