Chapter 157 The Truth About Food and Grass
The bandits in the Heizi Mountain in Qichang Prefecture are not well-known. Unlike the Thirty-Six Strongholds of Tiedong, they are independent of the mountains and are considered half a martial arts sect, with a scale that can compete with the provincial government.
Perhaps this is the reason why we have been living in peace all these years.
Qi Shan walked up the mountain along the familiar path. After nearly twenty years, he finally returned here.
He was still a teenager when he left home, but was almost forty when he returned.
Perhaps because he was homesick, Qishan stopped halfway up the mountain and looked at the mountaintop in the distance.
Rustle——
A tiny sound, like the wind blowing through the treetops.
Qi Shan's eyes suddenly moved, there was an ambush.
His right foot drew a semi-arc on the ground, which was the starting point of the Gui family's three unique kicks.
The leader in the forest raised his hand to stop the others from taking action. He stared at Qi Shan's face for a moment, and suddenly shouted, "It's Gui Shan!"
Qi Shan sat in the village, and several children at the door poked their heads out and looked around curiously.
"It's all rough tea." Gui Si brought the tea in and put it on the table, saying bluntly, "You are used to living in the golden nest of Lu's family. I'm afraid you are not used to a place like ours."
Qi Shan ignored his sour words and asked, "Where's Dad?"
Gui Si raised one foot and put it on the chair. "I called him. It's his business whether he comes to see you or not."
Qi Shan glanced at the sky and said anxiously, "I must see my father today."
"Tell me what you are here for first." Ghost Four said, "You can see that the bandit-suppression troops have already arrived. They may attack us at any time. How come you were unwilling to join us before, but now you are willing to live and die with us?"
Qi Shan said: "I don't have time to argue with you. I'm here to save people. If it's too late, there will be no chance."
"You?" Ghost Four looked him up and down. "It seems that you are doing well out there. Have you mastered some unique skills that allow you to fight ten thousand people alone?"
"Ghost Four!" Qi Shan shouted angrily, "The man who brought you to the capital to file a complaint is already dead! If you don't go and call dad out, we will all die here tomorrow."
Gui Si stood up from his chair in a flash. "What did you say? How did you know?"
His eyes moved, "You wait!" and then he strode away.
The sun gradually rose above the head. Ten miles east of the Hezi Mountain, under a lonely roadside tree, Chen Yu sat on a chair under the shade of the tree, drinking tea leisurely.
She was followed by only two people, who were the guards assigned to her by Xie Tingzhou.
Originally prepared to be alone
When he came forward, the two guards would not let him go, saying only one thing: "Your Highness has given orders."
This is a flat area and ambushes cannot be set up around it, which is why Chen Yu chose this place.
If she had already won five points by leading the troops to Qichang, then she would be eight points sure of climbing Qishan Mountain.
The sound of horse hooves was getting closer, but Shen Yu did not stand up.
Qi Shan and his father Gui Xiong rode their horses and came running over, then dismounted.
After being told by Shen Yu, Qi Shan did not reveal her true identity, but only said that she was originally a member of Shen Zhongan's army.
Gui Xiong looked around and asked directly: "You said you can save us, how do you save us?"
Chen Yu asked back, "Where are the food and grass?"
Guixiong is nearly sixty years old, with gray hair on his temples, but he has a strong build and a straight back.
He looked at the boy in front of him warily. He looked no more than a teenager, but his actions and words were steady and dignified, which made people sigh that heroes emerge from youth.
Gui Xiong sneered, "Where do the food and grass come from?"
Chen Yu looked at him coldly, "There was a fierce battle at Yanliang Pass, and the food and grass were delayed in arriving. They were robbed at Hezi Mountain. This is known to the whole world."
"What you know is not necessarily the truth." Gui Xiong said righteously, "If you haven't taken something, you haven't taken it. No matter how much you ask, you haven't taken it."
Gui Xiong became more and more indignant as he spoke. "Although I, Gui Xiong, have become a bandit due to bad luck, I am not so cruel as to steal food in the rear while the soldiers are fighting on the front line. If you called me here today to humiliate me, then I will go back to the mountain and wait for you to come and suppress the bandits!"
After saying this, he turned and was about to leave.
"I believe you." Chen Yu put down the teacup, "But you have to tell me, if there is no food and grass, where did it go? The baggage train entered Qichang and was lost at Hezi Mountain."
"There is no food at all!" Gui Xiong said indignantly, "The granaries in the southwest have been empty for a long time. All the carts entering Qichang are empty and weighed down by rocks!"
Chen Yu's eyes narrowed suddenly, she stood up from her chair, and asked in a trembling voice, "No food?"
"No!" Guixiong said affirmatively.
Shen Yu's legs softened and she took a step back.
There is no food and fodder. How can there be no food and fodder?
Therefore, when the army set out, it meant that there was no backup baggage for this battle.
She suddenly remembered what Ge Liangji said to her in prison: "Maybe you were going in the wrong direction from the beginning? Maybe the reason for killing Shen Zhongan in the beginning was not something else, but that some people wanted to save their own lives."
Gui Xiong repeated the words slowly: "There is no food at all. The granaries in the southwest have long been empty. All of them were taken away by corrupt officials and resold."
"At first, the grain in the granary began to mold. The southwest is very humid, so this is unavoidable. We reported it to the higher-ups, but they didn't investigate. Then the people below found a way and started shipping out small batches for resale. This happened every year."
Guixiong sighed and squatted on the ground.
"Dad." Qi Shan shouted.
Gui Xiong waved his hand and continued, "At first, they were just reselling in small quantities, but later they became more and more daring, and the granary was emptied out just like that."
Chen Yu said nothing. As she walked along, she saw the scars of the Great Zhou Dynasty, but she had never expected it to have rotted to such an extent.
"You want to know why I know so much, right?" Gui Xiong raised his head and smiled, his dark face full of wrinkles.
"Because..." His voice began to tremble, "Because I am also guilty!"
Chen Yu looked at him suddenly, and Gui Xiong's face was covered with tears.
"We helped transport the food they brought out to various places and handed it over to Cui's shop for resale. At first we didn't know what they were transporting. I only knew that transporting these things would allow the people in the mountains to have food to eat."
"I found out later, but it's too late. Once I got on this pirate ship, I couldn't get off. Those people were too high up. The Minister of Revenue, the prefect of Qichang, and the prince. What could I do to fight them?"
"I have been able to support more than 500 people on the mountain by colluding with them. Now there are 1,326 people on the mountain. We have all drunk the blood of civilians and soldiers, but we just want to stay alive."
Gui Xiong's eyes were red. "I am guilty, but the old, weak, women and children on the mountain, as well as those who did not participate in this incident, are innocent. If you want this life, take it."
"Please spare the elderly, weak, women and children on my mountain."
Guixiong knelt on his knees and knocked his forehead heavily on the barren land.
Chen Yu looked at the floating clouds in the sky. She felt like a fallen leaf caught in the whirlpool of fate, floating and sinking, but getting farther and farther away from the shore.
The world is so desolate, and she has come to this day with the help of her perseverance. But she can no longer tell the difference between good and evil.
A long time passed, but it seemed like only a moment.
Chen Yu said slowly: "I don't want your life, I want you to go to Beijing with me."
"What are you going to do?"
"To peel off the last layer of skin of this chaotic world."
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