nycdaug Chapter 183 Today's Gift to the General
Chapter 183 Today's Gift to the General
"Soldiers in the army?" The girl was obviously frightened. She looked at Zong Yanli and others with a bit of confusion, and there was still some fear in her eyes.
"Miss, do you recognize this token?" Zong Yanli thought for a moment and took out the token from his waist, which he had just found when he searched the body of a guard on the trade route.
"He's my bodyguard. Where did you get it?" The girl was overjoyed when she saw it. She quickly reached out to take it, holding it carefully against her heart, and asked Zong Yanli with tears in her eyes.
Zong Yanli thought that his guess was right. He looked at the girl's expression and said reluctantly, "I'm sorry, we didn't find any survivors. I guess all the guards in your family must have died."
As Zong Yanli finished speaking, the girl's face turned even paler. She was filled with grief and covered her face with tears.
Long Feiguang and his companions killed or tied up all the insignificant minions in the village, and seized countless amounts of silk and satin from them. It turned out that such a small mountain village was more profitable than the ones they had taken by storm.
If we can capture a few more villages, won’t we get military pay?
Meng Qi and the others were very excited, but before they could even finish their excitement, Zong Yanli said, "Keep 30% and take 70% away. They will be escorted to the government to await trial along with these bandits."
"It would be a good thing if the owner of these goods could be found. If not, they will be confiscated. How could they go into your pockets?" Zong Yanli sneered at Monkie. If they seized the goods so easily, wouldn't they be no different from bandits?
However, Zong Yanli thought that she was not a very upright person, otherwise she would not have deducted 30%.
Most of the people who go there are just trying to preserve their reputation.
She always acted in an orderly manner, and it was precisely because of this that the generals under her command always obeyed Zong Yanli's military orders without reservation. No one was dissatisfied with Zong Yanli's decision, and they simply distributed about 30% of the things, loaded them onto the truck and took them away.
Gongsun Pu and his companions were also asking about the girl's background. After some inquiries, they learned that she was the daughter of a merchant named Lu Xialan. This time, she moved to the capital with her family to live with her aunt, but who knew that they would encounter such a disaster.
Even the guards were killed, and Miss Lu's parents...
Gongsun Pu and others could not bear to ask any more questions. Lu Xialan did beg Zong Yanli that she would find her father and mother regardless of life or death.
If they really met with an accident, how could she bear to see the bodies of her relatives die in the mountains?
Then Zong Yanli had the village burned down, and then turned around to interrogate the bandits about where the Lu family members had gone. At first, no one said anything, but finally, under Zong Yanli's coercion, they stumbled over what was said.
That Lu was protected by guards and escaped to the cliff of Mule Slope before they were caught up by them.
Needless to say, Lu Xialan's parents probably have no chance of survival. This girl is not giving up and is determined to go there to see it with her own eyes.
While Zong Yanli sent people to escort the bandits to the government office, he took Lu Xialan to find her parents. The mountain road was not easy to walk on, and the little girl followed him step by step, so stubbornly that she refused to retreat. Finally, they saw several familiar corpses behind the cliff.
It turned out to be the robe of the family guard, but unfortunately the body had been eaten by wild beasts and was beyond recognition.
Zong Yanli stretched out his hand to stop Lu Xialan and said, "Young lady, please don't come any closer. Tell me the characteristics of your parents and I will find them for you."
Lu Xialan's lips trembled and her eyes were filled with tears as she spoke a few words. Zong Yanli listened and nodded, then greeted Wen Nian and walked towards the back of the cliff.
After walking a short distance forward, we saw more corpses. It can be roughly seen that these were the guards of the Lu family. They escorted the head of the family all the way to this place. Behind them was a cliff with nowhere else to go. It was a dead end. Traces of fighting could be seen here, and they died here with hatred in their hearts.
Zong Yanli looked over one by one and found the bodies of the servants, guards and maids. Finally, he found the body of Lu Xialan's father on the edge of the cliff, one of whose legs had been almost eaten.
But he did not see his mother. At this moment, Zong Yanli heard Wen Nian calling: "General, she is at the bottom of the cliff!"
Zong Yanli's eyes trembled slightly, he walked over quickly, and when he looked inside, he really saw a body that had fallen off the cliff and was hung in the middle by a tree branch. The branch almost pierced through its abdomen, so the possibility of survival was very slim.
Lu Xialan is so beautiful, so her mother must be still charming, and was forced to this place...
I would rather die.
"Bring the people up and find a good place to bury them." Zong Yanli really couldn't bear to let Lu Xialan see her parents die in such a state, so he used a rope to lower her mother's body and brought it up, further confirming that no one survived.
Zong Yanli took off the jade bracelet on Lu's mother's hand, then turned around and took off the jade ring on Lu's father's hand, and asked Wen Nian to dig a hole and bury the two together.
Then he called on Monkie and others to collect and bury the bodies of those loyal servants and guards. By the time they were all busy, it was already dusk.
Zong Yanli handed the jade bracelet and jade ring to Lu Xialan and said, "My condolences, young lady."
"Father...Mother..." Lu Xialan looked at the familiar things in Zong Yanli's hands and couldn't help but kneel down and burst into tears.
The woman's sorrowful cry was so loud that Gongsun Pu and the others could not help but turn their heads away. The situation in this world really made people feel powerless.
After listening to her crying, Zong Yanli said, "I have collected the remains of your deceased relatives and buried them under the green pine tree. Do you want to come and write the inscription on the tombstone yourself?"
Lv Xialan cried until her voice was hoarse. She raised her red and swollen eyes and nodded slowly as she listened to Zong Yanli's words. She knelt on the ground and kowtowed to Zong Yanli, saying, "Thank you for your kindness, sir. I will never forget it."
Zong Yanli stepped forward and helped her up, then led her to the brand new grave mound. Lu Xialan burst into tears again, and finally took the dagger given by Zong Yanli, and while shedding tears, she carved words on a wooden board to erect a tombstone for her parents.
"Girl, please don't cry and hurt yourself." Many men stood behind and stared, no one knew how to comfort her. Zong Yanli was even more at a loss, and said in a low voice with a headache: "I thought my sister was a crybaby..."
"General, please stop talking." Gongsun Pu hurriedly stopped Zong Yanli. The little girl became an orphan in the blink of an eye and almost fell into the clutches of the devil. How could he not shed tears?
Finally, Gongsun Pu stepped forward to comfort them gently. Seeing that it was getting dark and wild beasts were roaming around, it was not a good idea to stay here any longer.
Lu Xialan cried and kowtowed in front of the grave, then stood up and left with Zong Yanli and others. However, she fainted after taking only two steps.
How could one endure such hardships and excessive sadness?
"General Long, please help me." Zong Yanli sighed, and finally let Long Feiguang carry the person down the mountain.
"Our general really doesn't like women..." Meng Qi looked at Long Feiguang carrying the girl on his back, then looked at Zong Yanli and couldn't help muttering, "He has done all the good things, who knows, the girl might repay him with her body right away."
"General, you're trying to avoid it." Monkie was impressed.
It was already dark when we returned to Zhang Zhu's hilltop after going down the mountain. After having a simple meal, we went back to our tents to rest.
The next day, officers and soldiers from Nankou area rushed to meet Zong Yanli upon hearing the news. They also took the bandits from Mulipo into jail and took them away. They expressed their gratitude to Zong Yanli for coming to suppress the bandits.
After a night's rest, although Lu Xialan still looked a little listless today, at least she did not faint again. Zong Yanli had just started to suppress the bandits and had no time to take care of Lu Xialan's safety, so he asked the Nankou County Magistrate to take Lu Xialan away.
"Miss, since you are going to Beijing to seek refuge with your relatives, you can stay in the government office for the time being." Zong Yanli said to Lu Xialan, "We will also return to Beijing after we have wiped out the bandits, and you can come with us to Beijing then."
"Thank you, General." Zong Yanli had already changed back into his military armor. When Lu Xialan woke up, she saw many heavily guarded military camps. Her originally panicked mood finally settled down. Looking up at the many soldiers in military armor, she had never felt so safe.
Zong Yanli looked stern. He nodded slightly and let Lu Xialan leave.
Lu Xialan kept looking back, biting her lip as she stared at Zong Yanli and couldn't help but ask, "The general will definitely come to pick me up, right?"
Zong Yanli nodded, and Lu Xialan followed the soldiers and left the mountain with peace of mind.
The road to suppressing bandits after that was much the same, chasing them from one hill to another. Naturally, some of them fled upon hearing the news. Perhaps because of the disaster that happened to the Lu family before, Zong Yanli was unwilling to let go of a bandit who was causing trouble, so he kept chasing them relentlessly.
We even chased him from Nankou to Gamagori to capture him.
Zong Yanli did not have any rules in his actions, and he would even often charge into a bandit's lair alone for the sake of convenience. The soldiers under his command all followed his example. Today, we heard that someone was arresting bandits in Nankou, and they had already reached Pu County at night. His men also actually charged into a bandit's lair alone.
In just half a month, they had completely wiped out the thieves' dens on the hills in the surrounding area, and every now and then a team of soldiers could be seen escorting supplies down the mountain.
The prisons everywhere were no longer able to hold prisoners, so the county magistrates urgently dealt with the few people who had killed people. They chopped off heads one after another, and only in this way could they catch up with Zong Yanli's speed!
In a short time, Zong Yanli's name became famous far and wide. Because Zong Yanli was wearing black iron armor, the people affectionately called him the Black Armor Army.
The bandit problem was thus resolved. Except for this place, bandits from other places also disbanded and fled on the spot upon hearing the news. When he was about to return to Beijing, Zong Yanli did not forget to go back to pick up Lu Xialan. The Nankou County magistrate took good care of Lu Xialan, just waiting for this day.
"Thank you for your care, sir." Zong Yanli sat high on his warhorse, staring at the Nankou County Magistrate through his visor and said, "Sir, you have made such a huge contribution to the elimination of the mountain bandits and the aftermath. This general will commend you."
"This is all my humble duty." Upon hearing this, the Nankou County Magistrate was filled with joy, but he bowed with great respect and humility.
"All the supplies seized from the bandits have been recorded in the book. I hope you will handle them properly." After Zong Yanli said this for the last time, he asked someone to bring a horse and asked Lu Xialan to get on it.
Unexpectedly, the girl had never ridden a horse before, so she had to trouble the Nankou County magistrate to find a carriage before she could leave.
Zhang Zhu was not responsible for any murder, but he had robbed a lot of things. Seeing that he had made meritorious contributions while serving his sentence, Zong Yanli did not pursue the matter and handed him over to the magistrate of Nankou County to be dealt with according to the law. Daxiong was a brave man, and seeing the opportunity right in front of him, he knelt down and begged to join the army.
"This general does not accept useless people. If you want to join the army, take my order and go to Pingnan Camp to join the army." Zong Yanli narrowed his eyes and looked at Daxiong and said, "If you have the ability to walk out of Pingnan Camp, I will keep you."
Daxiong's eyes were burning with blood and he responded loudly. Looking at Zong Yanli's back as he led the troops away, his desire to join the army was ignited.
In the end, Zong Yanli only arrested Song Yingda's sworn brother Dashan and took him away.
The truth is that this person is very capable, but unfortunately he has an intellectual disability. When talking to him, he is like a seven or eight-year-old child.
Zong Yanli killed his "brother", causing him to become manic due to the stimulation. Zong Yanli was worried that if he escaped from his control, he would hurt others, so after discussion, he decided to take the man away personally.
"Where are the girl's relatives?" Zong Yanli asked about the location of the relatives that Lu Xialan wanted to seek refuge with, and asked Long Feiguang to send them there personally.
"General, you are so kind to me. I will never forget it." Lv Xialan looked at Zong Yanli with tears in her eyes, took a step forward, knelt down in front of Zong Yanli and said, "If the general does not mind, I am willing to serve the general as a slave."
Zong Yanli was shocked and quickly helped her up and said, "Miss Lu, please don't degrade yourself like this. I have no need for slaves when I am leading troops outside, let alone your service."
She let go of his hand, stepped back and said, "Just go and visit your relatives with peace of mind."
Lu Xialan looked at her with slightly red eyes. She felt a little relieved when she heard Zong Yanli's excuse, but also a little sour and inferior. When she was in the government office, she already knew Zong Yanli's identity completely, and she felt that with her background, she could not say the words of pledge of love to him.
"Thank you, General." Lu Xialan thought for a long time, and finally took out her father's jade ring with great care. With tears in her eyes, she handed it to Zong Yanli and said, "I can't give you anything to thank you, General."
"My father has always loved me the most. This is my father's legacy, and I am giving it to you now." Lu Xialan tried to smile and looked at Zong Yanli and said, "I hope my father's spirit in heaven can protect you and keep you safe and sound throughout your life."
She stared at Zong Yanli and placed the jade ring into his hand very solemnly, as if she was presenting it to him along with her own expectations and wishes, so sincere and precious.
Zong Yanli lowered his eyes and looked at the jade ring in his hand. At this moment, nothing could compare to such a generous reward.
She clenched her hands and looked at Lu Xialan, with a hint of tenderness in her eyes: "Thank you, young lady."
Lu Xialan pursed her lips and smiled slightly. Finally, she knelt slightly to thank Zong Yanli, then turned around and got back on the carriage. Under the escort of Long Feiguang, she went to her aunt's house.
The aunt had lost contact with him, and after searching for him for a long time, she learned the tragic news that her brother's family had been killed. Just when she was extremely sad, she saw Lu Xialan coming. The aunt and niece hugged each other and cried bitterly. Meanwhile, Zong Yanli had already gone to the palace to report.