Chapter 401
Coincidentally, Han Yingxue's father, Han Gu, is such a temperamental reader. He is different from other former court officials in Zhangye County, others either rely on the accumulation of hundreds of generations in their own families, or rely on money and wealth to get to this point. Han Gu is an out-and-out poor scholar, and ten years of cold windows have almost exhausted all the family's savings. If Han Gu hadn't been lifted that year, then he might really have to help the old and the young and his family jump the moat of Zhangye County. Thanks to the fact that the power of the gate lords in Zhangye County was not as prosperous as in the Guanzhong area, so with the help of the chief examiner at that time, that is, the county guard of Zhangye County at that time, Han Gu, who should have been the champion of the gold list, was lowered eight places in a row, ranking behind those candidates who took money and relationships, and was connected to the county guard of Zhangye County with the eighth place in Zhangye County, as a supplementary official of the financial officer. On weekdays, the Zhangye County Guard takes good care of Han Gu, and often does his best to cultivate and promote Han Gu. In his opinion, although Han Gu was a little wooden in dealing with people in the officialdom, he was better than being honest and upright, and he unconsciously carried a heroic righteousness between heaven and earth, which made people think of the bad things they had done and panic all day long.
Later, Li Liang's army retreated to Zhangye County, and demanded wealth and food from the county guards of Zhangye County for military expenses, and even repeatedly tried to directly plunder the innocent people in Zhangye County. At that time, the county guard of Zhangye County could not bear the suffering of the people, and stopped it with his own strength. But after all, it is a troubled time, and the soldiers are the biggest. At the beginning, Li Rail's army also talked to the county guard of Zhangye County about some etiquette, but later, Li Rail was forced by Li Wenyuan in Zhangye County to be restless day and night, for fear that he would be surrounded by Li Wenyuan's large army when he was asleep one day. Therefore, although Li Liang knew that the terrain of this Zhangye County was dangerous and difficult to defend and attack, he couldn't suppress the panic in his heart, feeling that this place could not be used as a stronghold for his life, so he came up with the idea of continuing to retreat to the west.
The reason why I talked to the Zhangye County Keeper about some etiquette and shame was just to win over the hearts of the people and the officials of Zhangye County with less resistance in Zhangye County. After all, with their cooperation, Li Liang could more smoothly get enough money and food in Zhangye County to support the normal operation of his army. With money and food, it is equivalent to having an army in hand. With the army in hand, he has the capital to live in this troubled world. This is a famous saying that Li Liang has always regarded as a treasure in his heart.
But now it's different. In Li Liang's heart, he has given up on subduing Zhangye County, so whether the people and officials here are convinced or unconvinced, whether they like or dislike him, all have nothing to do with him. Thinking of this, Li Liang no longer hesitated, nor did he act as coy as before, and did things in a secretive way, for fear of being known by others. He directly issued a clear order to his subordinates: from today onwards, the army will plunder the city for three days, and immediately after three days, go west to Dunhuang County.
The things that Li Liang did to his soldiers before, although he turned a blind eye, could be regarded as restrictive. He warned his generals not to be too presumptuous, so the people under him still knew how to be more restrained and not to make too much trouble. In order to avoid that it is difficult for the top to investigate and explain, and I dare not do too much. However, this time, with Li Liang's order, these soldiers and officers were no longer polite. Under the leadership of his commander, the soldiers of each team rampaged through the city of Zhangye County, and climbed through the window as soon as they entered the door. He turned a blind eye to the owner of the house, and the gold and silver treasures in the house were all included in his own pocket. Sometimes it's okay to say that the owner of the house is weak, just grab something and leave with a swagger. But the Northwest Land has been a fierce place since ancient times, not only an excellent place to recruit soldiers, but also a place with the most headaches to govern, how can these people just let the soldiers under Li Rail's own homes loot? Therefore, the soldiers of Li Liangjun who entered the house inevitably had to have a physical conflict with some strong house owners, if a whole group of soldiers acted together, they were not afraid of what storms those house owners would stir up, but if the number of soldiers who acted was small, even if there were three people who took care of each other, there were also cases where the house owner fiercely resisted, and finally the whole army was wiped out.
At first, Li Liang thought that the decrease in the number of troops was due to the escape of soldiers on the way to the raid, but soon Li Liang realized that things were not as simple as he imagined. Because the army was relatively concentrated on the second scraping of the ground, there was no longer any more cases of soldiers being killed by the owner of the house. Moreover, when the army began to conduct a second organized and disciplined raid on the surplus wealth of the people, it was discovered that those soldiers who did not return on time were gradually discovered at this time. The hundreds of people who were still alive before had now completely turned into cold and stiff corpses on the ground.
Li Liang was furious when he saw this, and ordered his soldiers to arrest the owner of the house where the body was found. All the men were taken to the street to be beheaded, while the women were all roped around their wrists and dragged by the rangers on horseback, parading the streets of the city. All of a sudden, the entire Zhangye County was like a hell on earth, and people were everywhere shouting horses, chickens, flying dogs, and jumping.
Regarding the soldiers' behavior of grabbing food and money among the people, the people of Zhangye County naturally dared not speak out, so they could only grit their teeth and endure it silently. But the people can bear it, but these officials in Zhangye County can't bear Li Liang's power on their heads. Now that the world is in turmoil, how can the imperial court still care about this remote Zhangye County, these officials have not received the money issued by the imperial court for a long time. Over the years, the source of income for these officials of Zhangye County has been the tax revenue in Zhangye County. They collected taxes from the people, from the common people, from the peasants, and from the merchants, and the rest of the money was used to recruit soldiers and horses, in addition to their usual income. Although he didn't expect his men to expand externally, at least there was no problem in protecting themselves. In the turbulent times when the emperor's order could not get out of the capital, this was like a paradise far away from the emperor, and the officials of the original county guard were like a small court.