The sound of horse hooves caused the Central Plains to tremble.
The Beiliang cavalry left the Beiliang Road and entered the Lianghuai Road. They went down south around Yan City, which bordered the River Province and Ji Province, and crashed into the north of Gangnam-do. They drove straight down like a hot knife through butter.
Just like the burly man from the northwest who knocked the Jiangnan beauty to the brink of collapse.
Everywhere they passed, the Liyang officials and local soldiers all kept quiet out of fear, not daring to make any provocative moves. The night curfew was extremely early, and even during the day, no merchants were allowed to enter or leave. The soldiers of the Wu Garrison were not allowed to take even half a step out of the camp.
The memorials were like a flurry of snowflakes. They were passed through the county yamen, the provincial yamen, the provincial governor's mansion, and the official residence of the Administrator one by one. In the end, they were passed to the elite cavalry and sent to Great An City at the fastest speed of 500 kilometers.
Along with the barbaric advance of the 10,000 cavalry, more than a dozen families appeared one after another along the way. Not only were the leaders of the local government and army drenched in sweat, even Zhao Gou, who had been responsible for spying on Liyang for many years, was terrified. These families, which could be said to be famous in the various provinces and counties, all had countless fertile fields and abundant grain reserves. Four of the families could even be said to be "local lords" in the provinces and counties. These dozen or so families, who were all commented on in Zhao Gou's secret files as having "clean backgrounds," were actually bold thieves who had openly colluded with the enemy of Beiliang. They had sent countless amounts of grain to the Beiliang cavalry. This was a disaster that was laid out on the table. Once the court came to settle the score, the dozen or so families with deep roots were destined to suffer the consequences. The people in charge of the various provinces and counties, as well as the civil and military officials, would also be ruthlessly skinned.
Among them, the first family to reward Beiliang in Hezhou did not immediately flee to Beiliang. Therefore, the local government joined forces with the garrisoned army to send 400 elite soldiers after the Beiliang cavalry crossed the border, intending to search and confiscate the family's property and punish them for their crimes. The old family head of this family moved a chair and sat on the steps of the door, basking in the warm early spring sun. There were two cold sabers on his knees. The old one was the war saber he had used when he followed the old Prince Liang, Xu Xiao, to conquer West Chu. For so many years, even the most favored grandson of the family did not know that his grandfather had collected this saber. The brighter scabbard was the saber of the sixth generation of the Xu family. It was the newest cold saber, which was personally gifted by the new Prince Liang not long ago. The old man faced the four hundred young and strong martial artists of the county. He smiled and raised his new cold blade. He only said one sentence, and then everyone came and went in a hurry. In the end, they didn't even dare to say a word of threat.
The old man in his twilight years said, "His Highness wants me to pass on a message to you. For every person who dies in the Song residence today, ten thousand soldiers in the county will die. If you cannot gather ten thousand heads, then the Beiliang cavalry will go to other counties and provinces to borrow heads."
After saying this, the old man with a head full of white hair bent down and picked up a jug of wine by his feet. He looked at the retreating figures and drank mouthful after mouthful of wine, muttering to himself indistinctly.
The old man was like an old dog without teeth. Even though he could no longer howl, he still gave off a unique aura. This was probably what scholars read about in books — the aura of a tiger that could swallow ten thousand miles.
— —
After Cai Nan, the Jiedushi of Lianghuai Road stepped forward, the second person who dared to block the road was not a warrior who led the army to war, nor was he a civil official who was in charge of a region. He was a scholar who had retired and returned to his hometown for many years. He took out the sixth-rank official uniform from the bottom of the box and put it on. He stood alone on the road. His trembling family could not stop this crazy old man. Half of the family moved overnight to the remote ancestral home in the countryside, and half of the family hid at home and did not go out. Only the most useless second son of the old man, a poor scholar who had never been able to pass the Juren examination in his life, had no courage and only filial piety. Therefore, he stood on the road with a face full of fear, waiting to collect his father's body and carry it home.
After that, when the cavalry surged past, only the father and son who sat dejectedly on the side of the road crying bitterly were left.
Among the cavalry of Wu family, Nalan Huaiyu was following behind them. She could not resist her strong curiosity and quickly rode to the side of the young Vassal Lord. This grandmaster of the sword who had won the Beauty Award consecutively asked with a smile, "Your Highness, what's going on?"
Hsu Fengnian hesitated for a moment, but still shook his head. He did not have the desire to chat. He had just received a secret report from the gyrfalcon that had accompanied him for many years. In addition to Yuan Tingshan leading the elite cavalry of Ji Bei through Jizikou to stop them, Shu had also transferred twenty thousand soldiers and horses to Guangling Road. The Commander-in-chief was Wu Qi, who had left the Xu family in a fit of anger after the Battle of West Wall. His deputy was one of the few generals who had chosen to leave Beiliang with Chen Zhibao. He was a young valiant general who had once stood out in the frontier army, and his name was Che Ye. Whether it was Ning Emei, who had once dealt with this young man, or Han Laoshan, the General of Lingzhou who was now in charge of guarding the southern gate of Beiliang, they all had a high opinion of this young man. They all thought that Che Ye was not inferior to Kou Jianghuai and Yu Luandao.
The valiant swordswoman did not want to give up and wanted to get to the bottom of it.
Hsu Fengnian was in a daze, as if he did not hear Nalan Huaiyu's nagging.
Wu Liuding said helplessly, "Auntie, can we be a little more reserved?"
Nalan Huaiyu rolled her eyes and said, "Oh, now you know how to be reserved. When we were young, who was the one who rubbed against my chest with all his might, saying things like 'I'm so scared of thunder and rain, I need to find a place to hide, the winter weather is so cold, my face is so cold' …"
Wu Liuding carefully glanced at Cuihua beside him, and then quickly smiled apologetically at Nalan Huaiyu and begged for mercy, "Auntie, I'm afraid of you. About what happened just now, when we got married, Grandpa Jian and Grandpa Xu were always together. I think he must know the inside story. You can ask him."
The old man who was discussing swordsmanship with Zhang Luantai and Liu Jianzhi laughed and said, "There's nothing strange about it. His Highness just asked him if he wanted to fight for the reputation of the scholarly community and send him off before his death. Then Hong Shuwen pulled out his saber and acted as if he was going to spur his horse to kill."
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