Wang Juan also looked towards the west. Like Zhang Xiaobao, what she cared about the most was not the attack on Duoshi, but the rescue and revenge. The revenge against Zhen La and the rescue of the people in the west.
This was because this kind of thing was more direct to the citizens of the country. The citizens only supported the large army in battle to show the strength of the country. However, the citizens were more concerned about when the imperial court would come to save them if they were in a dangerous situation one day. If they were bullied, how would the imperial court take revenge?
Wang Juan understood. Once all of this was done, there would not be a situation where the people were easily bought over by other countries. It was fine if one was weak, as long as there was a strong and powerful country behind them.
For example, when the Princess of Jincheng was married to Tubo, she had a hard time for a period of time, but now she had the final say in the entire region. She was still the same person, but what changed was the country behind her. Therefore, when her status rose, she would use her own efforts to protect her country.
Now, she had to focus on that.
"Old immortal, the meat is ready." Huang Yaoben did not know what was in the west, but when he saw the change in the color and size of the meat, he quickly reminded him.
Zhang Xiaobao looked at the meat, nodded, and began to sprinkle seasonings. He put a little salt for his portion, but it was just enough to have a taste. For Wang Juan, he put pepper. He did not know why she liked to eat this.
As for Huang Yaoben, he put cumin, pepper, salt, and mustard. He also took out a bag with many small pockets. He pinched out some chili powder from one of the pockets and carefully sprinkled it on the meat. He tried not to waste it, because there were many people who could not eat it.
"Chili? Old immortal, you, you actually have chili. Last year, the uncle in the capital sent a jin back. After eating it, my whole body felt comfortable. "
Huang Yaoben rubbed his hands and said happily. He did not say that because of his low status in the family, he could only eat a little. Although he had a lot of pocket money, he could not enjoy the good things in the family.
When Zhang Xiaobao passed the meat skewers that belonged to Huang Yao Ben to him, Huang Yao Ben used his fastest speed to peel off two pieces of meat and chewed vigorously in his mouth. It was so spicy that tears were about to flow out of his eyes, but he still didn't stop chewing.
After swallowing the two pieces of meat, Huang Yaoben let out a long breath and stuck out his tongue. "Delicious. This is the greatest happiness in life."
*****
Another person who felt happy was a merchant who had come from the border between the Great Tang and India.
The merchant's surname was Lu, and his first name was Bo. Lu Bo was here to trade with the locals.
Don't look down on the border area. It was a remote location, and the locals didn't have a good life. But the merchants liked to come here. They brought very ordinary things from the Great Tang, like salt, sugar, vinegar, cloth, and so on.
They could trade for a lot of furs and medicinal herbs with the locals and sell them back at home. The price would be more than a hundred times higher, and there was no danger. It was unlike before, where they were afraid of encountering bandits or bandits who could change their identities at any time. When they were robbing people, they were bandits, but on normal days, they were civilians.
Ever since the Great Tang's imperial court sent troops to clean up the place a few times, the road was stable.
Lu Bo relied on this road to make a living, and he knew very well what had happened in the past. There was a bandit gang of about two hundred people who lived on this road. They stole half of the goods, and everyone tacitly agreed to it. Sometimes, they would take the initiative to visit the mountain and deliver the goods first. This way, they could pay less money.
Later on, the leader of the bandit gang died of old age, and the new leader changed the original rules. Not only did he rob, but he also killed. The merchants who relied on this road to make a living had no chance of survival.
At that time, the imperial court directly mobilized the army. The bandit gang lived in the area and had a better understanding of the terrain. After losing half of their members, the remaining members changed greatly, and the army couldn't do anything for a while.
In the end, just when the bandit gang thought that they were invincible and were the local tyrants, the strong protection team of the Zhang Family and Wang Family appeared.
Lu Bo experienced it personally. He brought the goods here, hoping that he was lucky and could avoid it. Because the imperial court's army was also here, he stayed beside the military camp and found a safe place.
He heard the helpless conversation of the soldiers in the army and saw more than twenty people coming from the east. They had the pattern of rice seedlings embroidered on their clothes.
At dusk every day, more than twenty people left the camp. Each of them carried a big bag and went into the mountain area in three groups. At midnight, the army sent some people out. After dawn, the people who went out came back. Every two people dragged a corpse.
Lu Bo saw clearly that they were not members of the protection team. From their clothes, he could tell that they were all members of the bandit gang. At noon, another group of soldiers went out. When the sky turned dark, they still dragged the corpses.
At dawn, the people of the protection team appeared in the camp. Six people were beaten and covered in blood, kneeling there like dead dogs.
From then on, the journey was unimpeded, and there was not a single case of robbery on the road again.
It was also at that time that Lu Bo deeply understood how powerful the protection team was. In the past two months, there were rumors that the group of more than twenty people were the original guards of the Zhang Family and Wang Family, the strong protection team No. 0. It was said that there were two similar teams in the Tang Dynasty. One was to protect the Emperor, and the other was to carry out missions for the Zhang Family and Wang Family.
Now, Lu Bo saw people wearing the same clothes and the same symbol looking in this direction from afar.
Lu Bo suddenly felt that life was so beautiful. He was about to give up hope of returning home alive.
He originally came here to exchange things with the locals, but he was caught by the Duo Cannibals when they hired the locals to carry wood. They did not say that he was caught, but that he was invited and paid.
He did not want to come. He did not want to be a bookkeeper for the Duo Cannibals. He wanted to go home after exchanging goods and use part of the money he earned to buy a set of pearl jewelry for his wife. He also wanted to test his youngest son's mathematics.
But the Duo Cannibals did not agree. They forced him into the team, and so did the people who followed him. Including him, there were a total of twenty-five people, plus the one hundred and sixty-six local people who carried wood.
He had been worried. Sure enough, six days ago, the Duo Cannibals tore off their hypocritical mask and revealed their ferocious teeth. Good words turned into knives and sticks. Two locals were killed, and more people were beaten.
As for him, he was more clear about the situation, so he warned the twenty-four people who followed him to be obedient and not to make unnecessary resistance to avoid casualties. There were still relatives waiting at home.
Then, like a spy who had betrayed the motherland, he tried to please the Duo Cannibals and worked hard to manage the people who came from the exchange place. With his management skills, he arranged the one hundred and eighty-nine people in an orderly manner. Unfortunately, two people died. Otherwise, there would be one hundred and ninety-one people.
Yesterday, just yesterday, he overheard the Duo Cannibals' conversation. He knew that they would meet the regular army of his country in about four days' journey. He also knew that the Duo Cannibals' plan to use them as meat shields.
He was sad and worried, but more than that, he was sad and angry. This morning, he found an opportunity to discuss with the twenty-four people who followed him. Everyone unanimously decided that when the Duo Cannibals confronted the national army, they would turn around and fight the Duo Cannibals. They could not drag the country down.
So, the twenty-five people who made the decision to sacrifice had a smile on their faces. It was a smile of facing death with equanimity.
Lu Bo thought of death. He wanted to die as heroically as possible. He believed that the imperial court would take good care of his family. But some people did not want him to die, so he saw the strong protection team. These people used binoculars to observe the entire camp from outside the range of the bows and arrows. They were brazen.
He also felt the tension of the Duo Cannibals. They tied the arms of the people who carried the wood and tied ropes between their legs so that they could not take big steps. They pushed them to the front and shouted to the protection team, saying that if they did not put down their weapons and come over, they would kill them.
Lu Bo felt his heart beat faster. He took a deep breath and planned to shout to the protection team to shoot.
However, before he could shout, the people from the Seedling Protection Team had already fired. The gunshots broke the silence of the confrontation. One by one, the maneaters fell to the ground. However, the person carrying the log, Lu Bo, and the rest were fine. After firing, the people from the Seedling Protection Team retreated very quickly. They disappeared into the jungle in the blink of an eye.
Lu Bo was dumbfounded. Seeing that he and others were still alive, he was very excited.
The Duo Cannibals were dumbfounded. Did they really dare to attack? Did they not care about their own people?
The Duo Cannibals shouted and scolded one by one. They vented their anger on the people carrying the wood and punched and kicked.
Lu Bo rolled his eyes and suddenly thought of an idea. He quickly went to find the leader of the Duo Cannibals, a man named Sangqi Feng Dong Na Lu Gu.
It sounded like a very awkward name, but when people called him that, it sounded like this. He did not know who was whose father and who was whose son. He reckoned that one of the names had his father in it.
Lu Bo disdained the other party's name in his heart and felt much happier. Relying on the trust he gained from his usual good behavior, he found Sangqi Feng Dong Na Lu Gu's location.
Sangqi was angry. When he saw Lu Bo coming over, he stood up and wanted to beat him up. Just as he was about to walk up to Lu Bo, Lu Bo shook his head and said directly, "I have a good idea."
Sangqi stopped. "What do you mean?"
"I know you want to use us to scare the other party. It's a good idea, but you're wrong. In fact, there's a better way."
Lu Bo did not want to be beaten up for nothing. Even if he killed the other party in the end, he would still feel the pain. He thought in his heart, 'Just wait for the protection team to find a way to save us. See if I don't teach you a lesson.' However, he had a lackey smile on his face and continued, "Have you noticed a problem?"
"Hurry up and say it." Sangqi did not like this way of speaking and revealed a fierce expression.
"Say it, say it. It's that. Just now, when they opened fire, they only hit your people and did not hit anyone else. This means that the other party did not want to hurt their own people, so the one who fired was the sniper. Those who stood behind the people you tied up were not hit because the sniper was afraid of missing.
I thought about it. They care about the lives of their people, but they will not be threatened by you to put down their weapons. Do you think you can threaten them all the way to the capital by killing their people if they don't surrender? Obviously, it's impossible. If it were you, what would you do?
"As for me, I'm just thinking that since they won't compromise to surrender, can we use their people to block the front while we launch an attack from behind? "Let's try using a small group of people first and keep probing to see where their bottom line is.
How about this? Next time, you guys push 25 of us up. We have their country's census register. You guys charge and see if they will fight. How about it? "
Lu Bo shared his idea. In fact, he was thinking that if they were to encounter each other next time, all twenty-five of them would suddenly lie down and the Seedling Protection Team would be able to shoot them with their machine guns. Then, they would be able to rush over and be safe.
Lu Bo believed that the protection team would definitely be able to seize this opportunity. They were the best of the best and had first-class reaction speed.
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