freenovelworld Chapter 1082 Are you Shu people so hospitable?
Chapter 1082 Are you Shu people so hospitable?
That night, Li Che did not stay overnight inside the pass, but instead camped outside the pass with his personal guards.
The polluted air in the city was secondary; it was the numb eyes of the Liao people and cooks he saw during the day that truly made him feel the danger.
Those were definitely not human eyes; Li Che would never sleep next to a pack of wild beasts.
The next day, Yang Tong sent several capable messengers to several large Shuliao tribes in the surrounding area.
The Ciyan tribe was considered a large clan in this mountainous area, but it was not among the most prominent in the entire Shu-Nan Liao region.
Even with Yang Tong's power, he could only reach this area of about a hundred miles in radius.
However, this is enough.
Li Che never intended to visit every salt well in southern Sichuan and personally oversee the salt administration.
He is the emperor, not a nanny.
Daqing's territory spans east, west, north, and south; his vision encompasses the entire empire's strategic landscape.
Ultimately, the affairs of Shu must be decided by the people of Shu themselves, and should be handled by people like Wei Xiang and Yang Tong.
What he needed to do now was to establish a rule and teach Yang Tong how to behave.
A few more days passed.
Early in the morning, Li Che was learning the art of guiding and nourishing life from Xu Jiezi in the open space outside the camp.
Qiu Bai strode closer and whispered, "Your Majesty, Yang Tong requests an audience, and he looks unwell."
Li Che finished his stance, his breathing calmed, and he nodded.
Soon, Yang Tong walked in with his head down, his face full of dejection: "Your Majesty... I am incompetent and have failed Your Majesty's expectations!"
"Get to the point." Li Che picked up a cloth and wiped his hands.
“Those letters were all sent in vain!” Yang Tong said with a mournful face. “Several large salt wells nearby, Heiyan Tribe, Baixi Tribe, and even further away Qing Teng Dong, either ignored my letters or returned them as is.”
"The messenger from the Black Rock tribe brought back a message saying that the Ciyan tribe had sided with the Shu people and were traitors to the Liao people. Their chieftain, Aguli, directly killed one of my messengers and threw his head at the border."
His voice trailed off as he spoke, and his head drooped lower and lower, clearly feeling extremely ashamed of how he had done the job.
Li Che showed no surprise upon hearing this.
In this dog-eat-dog world, even the best salt-making method is useless; in the end, it's all about fists.
"Yang Tong, from now on you will stay by my side and watch carefully. I will only teach you once."
Yang Tong looked up in astonishment, completely unable to understand the meaning behind the words.
Li Che, however, no longer looked at him, but instead turned to Qiu Bai and loudly ordered: "Beat the drums, gather the generals!"
"Yes, sir!" Qiu Bai answered the order sternly, turned around and strode out.
Before long, the powerful sound of war drums resounded throughout the camp.
Footsteps and the clanging of armor quickly converged, and a chilling atmosphere replaced the tranquility of the morning, spreading throughout the mountains.
Li Che straightened his sleeves, stopped looking at Yang Tong who was still stunned on the ground, and walked towards the central command tent.
Yang Tong snapped out of his daze, scrambled to his feet, and jogged to catch up.
Yes, Li Che's method was to fight.
First inflict pain on them, then try to save them!
. . . . . .
The mountain strongholds of Heiyandong are even more rugged and treacherous than those of Ciyan tribe.
Huge log fences formed a village wall along the steep cliffs, with sharpened bamboo spikes stuck on top of the wall and dried animal heads and mottled coarse cloth banners hanging there.
The chieftain Aguli's tent was a spacious cave half-embedded in the mountain wall, with a bearskin curtain hanging at the entrance.
At this moment, a bonfire blazed inside the cave, filling the air with the smoky aroma of roasted meat and the spicy scent of local liquor.
Aguli's upper body was bare, his muscles bulging, and his chest was tattooed with a ferocious mountain spirit totem in indigo dye.
He tilted his head back and gulped down a bamboo tube of wine, then casually tossed the empty tube aside and burst into laughter.
"That spineless coward Atuna, and that fat dog Yang Tong beside him." He glanced around at the several trusted leaders sitting around, spitting almost into the fire. "They actually dared to send a letter, saying they wanted to discuss salt affairs?"
"Hahahaha! What is Yang Tong anyway! A mere official who bought his position with salt, does he think he's worthy of my attention?"
A leader with a scar on his face sneered, "I heard that Yang Tong treats Atu Na like a clay idol, and he has all the power over the salt wells. The amount of salt handed over to Rongcheng is much more than before."
"Pah!" Aguli spat fiercely, "That's using the blood and sweat of us Liao people to curry favor with the Shu people!"
"The salt wells were a gift from our ancestral gods to us Liao people. The mountains are our mountains, the land is our land, and we should decide who gets the salt we produce!"
"He, the Salt Commissioner, has willingly degenerated into a dog of the Shu people, and now he wants us to wag our tails like them?"
As he spoke, the old wizard sat cross-legged on an animal skin, fiddling with a few pieces of greasy bone, his cloudy eyes fixed on the leaping flames.
Aguli boasted a few more times, and the others chimed in.
The old wizard looked at the animal bone in his hand and suddenly said, "Aguli, the messenger's head has been returned, and Yang Tong will not let this go."
“The Ciyan tribe is not a threat, but Yang Tong is from Shu, and he might come looking for reinforcements.”
Aguli waved his hand dismissively, the copper ring on his wrist ringing: "What's there to be afraid of? This isn't the first time the Shu troops have come!"
"These mountains are our impregnable fortress. Their horses can't get in, and their armor is too heavy to climb. In the past, they would always wander around for a few days, suffer enough, and then leave."
“Even if they dare to attack!” He grabbed the heavy iron sword leaning against the stone wall, “Without the need for other tribes, my more than a thousand warriors from Black Rock Cave can skin them alive in the mountains!”
He raised the wine jug again: "Come on! Let's drink! In a couple of days, maybe we can go visit the Ciyan tribe and see how much that fat dog from Shu has gotten from his master. We should share some with our Black Rock brothers..."
"drink!"
"The chieftain is right!"
"What are the people of Shu worth?!"
A chorus of agreement rose from inside the cave, and the smell of alcohol grew stronger.
Just as Aguli tilted his head back and gulped down the wine in the tube.
boom! ! !
A deep, muffled sound, like a summer thunderclap, exploded from the direction of the village gate!
The entire cave trembled, and pebbles and dust fell from the ceiling, landing in the fire and sparking a shower of embers.
The laughter stopped abruptly.
Aguli's hand, which was holding the wine bucket, froze in mid-air, and the wine spilled all over him.
Everyone inside the cave was stunned, exchanging bewildered glances.
"What's that sound?" the scarred leader asked hesitantly.
"Is it thunder?" someone asked uncertainly.
"No!" The old shaman suddenly looked up, his face contorted with wrinkles. "It's not thunder! It's the Shu people..."
He didn't finish his words.
boom!boom!boom!boom!
A series of rapid, crisp explosions rang out like a sudden storm, interspersed with sharp whistles.
"Enemy attack——"
From the direction of the stockade wall came the terrified screams of the Liao people, but they were quickly drowned out by more explosions.
Aguli threw down the wine jug, grabbed an iron knife, and his bloodshot eyes were filled with shock: "They're from Shu?! How dare they?"
He couldn't understand at all that he was the messenger who killed Yang Tong, but that person was also a Liao person, not a Shu person.
And so what if they are from Shu?
They control the salt mines themselves, and in the past, when such things happened, the Rongcheng government would turn a blind eye.
And that sound... it definitely couldn't be made by a bow and arrow... what kind of weapon was it?!
"Come with me! Kill all these Shu dogs!"
Aguli didn't have time to think about all that. He roared and led the charge towards the cave entrance, tearing open the bearskin curtain.
The sight outside the cave made his blood rush to his head, then suddenly turn cold.
Where the gate once stood, now only a gap belching black smoke and flames remained, with broken pieces of wood flying everywhere.
Near the breach in the stockade wall, dozens of Liao warriors lay on the ground in various contorted positions.
These people were not riddled with arrows, but instead had horrible holes from which blood gushed, and some even had missing limbs.
Outside the smoke-filled breach, squads of soldiers dressed in uniform dark uniforms, their ranks frighteningly orderly, were carrying long, thin, shiny black pipes, treading over the wreckage as they surged into the village.
"Fire arrows! Stop them!" Aguli roared, his eyes bloodshot, brandishing his iron sword.
The remaining Liao people began to carry out their leader's orders, and sporadic bamboo arrows were shot out from behind the wooden shed.
However, the invaders didn't even raise their shields.
After a series of 'click' sounds, like nails being struck, —
boom! boom! boom!
Flames continuously spewed from the front of those pipes, and white smoke rose in billows.
The Liao man screamed and fell from the height. The archer had just revealed himself when he clutched his chest and collapsed to the ground.
Their arrows bounced off the enemy without falling down a single one.
The power gap is too great.
The Qing army is now fully capable of avoiding close-quarters combat with the enemy.
Whether you're Jason Statham or Guo Da, no matter how tough your muscles are, wouldn't you feel pain if you got shot?
"Chief! Let's go! Let's go through the back mountain!" The scarred leader's face also lost its color. He pulled and dragged the stunned Aguli backward.
The old wizard had long since disappeared.
Aguli looked back one last time.
The indifferent soldiers had already taken control of the village gate. Instead of pursuing the fleeing Liao people, they charged straight towards the center of the village.
Behind those soldiers, a figure dressed in black military uniform was surrounded by a group of cavalrymen, slowly riding his horse across the ruins of the stockade gate.
. . . . . .
Horse hooves pounded across the ravaged stockade road. Surrounded by his guards, Li Che headed straight for the most conspicuous cave tent in the center of the stockade.
He didn't even glance at the occasional women and children shivering in the shadows of wooden sheds along the way, or the wounded Liao people lying limp on the ground.
At the cave entrance, the bearskin curtain had been torn.
Several Liao leaders cowered in a corner, while Aguli was pinned down on the ground in front of the campfire by two guards with his arms tied behind his back.
His face was covered in soot, and the veins on his forehead were bulging, yet he was still struggling desperately, letting out a roar like a trapped beast.
He ultimately couldn't escape.
Li Che stopped a few steps away from him and waved.
The guard loosened his grip slightly, allowing Aguli to lift his head.
Their eyes met.
Aguli's bloodshot eyes were filled with resentment. He glared at the young Shu chieftain before him and roared in broken Qing language, "How dare you, Shu dog, launch a sneak attack? If you have the guts, let me go, and we'll settle this with our swords!"
Li Che leaned forward slightly and calmly asked his first question:
"I sent word to invite you all to come and discuss salt affairs. Why haven't you come?"
Upon hearing this, Aguli was instantly stunned.
Was it not to seize the salt wells? Was it not to rob women and food? Was it not to wipe them out?
Just because... he didn't keep the appointment?
No... are you Sichuan people really that hospitable?