Zhao Lin glanced at Xiong Hongzhe coldly and said, "Kill him."
"put!"
Chen Qifeng said simply.
"etc."
Xiong Hongzhe quickly said, "I admit defeat. If you let us go, I'll tell you how your family treated you."
Zhao Lin raised his hand to stop the crossbowmen from shooting and said, "Speak first."
Xiong Hongzhe said: "You have to promise me first."
Zhao Lin said calmly, "You have no room for bargaining."
Xiong Hongzhe sighed, "Forget it. My family sent the two of us here to threaten you with your family and have you die unexpectedly, so that everyone knows that my Xiong family is not to be messed with. If we die, my family will send others to assassinate you directly. Then it will not only target you, but also your wife's family and your wife's family. They will all be included in the assassination target."
Zhao Lin sneered: "My wife's father is the Minister of Rites, let them assassinate him."
To assassinate a Shangshu, the Xiong family must be crazy.
If this were to happen, no matter how important the Xiong family's status was or how much they feared them, it would not be so easy to get rid of them.
Xiong Hongzhe's expression froze. "They definitely wouldn't dare, but it's hard to say for others. Take your concubine Yun Zhiyi, for example. Her parents were both fifth-rank officials. If they're dead, they're dead. No one would hold it against us because of them."
Zhao Lin nodded: "This is the best way. It will intimidate and frighten everyone so that they won't dare to go against you."
Xiong Hongzhe said sincerely: "I can tell you anything you want to ask, just spare our lives."
Zhao Lin asked, "How many soldiers does your Xiong family have?"
Xiong Hongzhe was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "Our Northwest Border Army has a total of 200,000 soldiers..."
Zhao Lin interrupted Xiong Hongzhe and said, "I'm asking about your private soldiers."
"No, don't say it." Xiong Hongyi said anxiously.
"Brother, if you don't tell us, we will die."
Xiong Hongzhe said helplessly: "Half of the Northwest Border Army's vacancies are empty. All the unused salaries we receive are used to support our own private soldiers, about 100,000 in total."
hiss……
Su Di, Gao Junliang and Chen Qifeng all gasped.
Gao Junliang couldn't help but ask, "You're actually eating half of the salary without doing anything? Didn't the Sanbian Governor investigate you?"
Xiong Hongzhe sneered: "He takes the lion's share, why would he investigate us?"
Chen Qifeng angrily said, "Even if someone took the salary without paying it, it was only one-tenth or one-twelfth of it. You actually took half. You are so audacious and deserve death. No wonder the Northwest Frontier Army was defeated. How could they not be defeated if they did that?"
Xiong Hongzhe objected, "Even in that poor place of the Northwest, if they don't collect empty salaries, how can they support so many people? Do you think every place is like Jiangnan, rich, with money and food, and can use them however you want? If it weren't for the empty salaries, the Northwest Frontier Army would have collapsed long ago."
"Ridiculous! Absurd!" Gao Junliang was so angry that his beard trembled. "Eating a salary without working is actually justified. I will report this to the court and have an imperial envoy investigate."
Xiong Hongzhe said disdainfully, "Send them. It's not like there haven't been imperial envoys to investigate before. Don't you know what happened afterwards?"
"You, you are so bold!"
Gao Junliang was so angry that he pointed at Xiong Hongzhe and trembled.
The Northwest Frontier Army was seriously embezzling unpaid wages, so the imperial court sent imperial envoys to investigate three times in a row.
The first two imperial envoys died unexpectedly, but the third one returned safely. He said that although there were cases of ghost soldiers in the Northwest Frontier Army, it was not serious, so the court did not pursue it.
Later, this imperial envoy became the governor-general of the three border areas.
Zhao Lin didn't bother to pay attention to these things and said, "In other words, you now have 100,000 Northwest Army soldiers and 100,000 private soldiers?"
Xiong Hongzhe said, "Yes. This is just the surface. If anything happens, as long as our Xiong family raises a call, there will be a huge response. It will be easy to mobilize an army of 200,000 or 300,000."
Zhao Lin asked, "What do you mean by 'something' is a rebellion?"
Xiong Hongzhe quickly said, "Master Zhao, there's no need to trap me. I've answered all your questions. Can you please let us go?"
Zhao Lin nodded and said, "Yes, go ahead."
"grown ups?"
Gao Junliang and Chen Qifeng looked at Zhao Lin in shock.
Can this be let go?
Only Sudi seemed to be lost in thought.
Zhao Lin said, "One must keep one's word. Since you said you would let them go, then let them go. Move aside and let them go."
The sword and shield soldiers and crossbowmen immediately made way for a passage.
But there was still a layer of sword and shield soldiers between this passage and Zhao Lin and his men.
"Thank you, sir. Thank you, sir."
Xiong Hongzhe was filled with gratitude and left quickly holding Xiong Hongyi.
When he passed through the passage of Qingzhou soldiers and passed by Zhao Lin, he suddenly threw Xiong Hongyi in his arms to the sword and shield soldier on the side, snatched a single sword from him by surprise, then shouted and rushed towards Zhao Lin.
"Zhao Lin, die!"
Xiong Hongzhe is full of confidence.
He is the Xiong family's martial arts coach and also the coach of the Northwest Frontier Army.
He is very skilled in martial arts.
Moreover, Xiong Hongzhe is extremely strong, twice as strong as an ordinary person.
In addition, they were so close to Zhao Lin, so if they attacked suddenly, they were absolutely sure to catch Zhao Lin.
Even if Zhao Lin cannot be caught, anyone around him can be taken as a hostage.
The sudden action caused confusion among the Qingzhou soldiers.
The crossbowman wanted to shoot arrows, but was afraid of hurting Zhao Lin and the others.
The sword and shield soldiers didn't react for a moment, and by the time they reacted, Xiong Hongzhe had already rushed past them.
Xiong Hongzhe was getting closer and closer to Zhao Lin.
It was close enough that I could clearly see the expression on Zhao Lin’s face.
"die!"
Xiong Hongzhe chopped down on the head with a long knife.
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