Out of the city from the east gate, in front of it is just a most ordinary official road, not at all luxury, there are no trees and flowers planted on both sides, but fortunately it is spacious enough, can accommodate six horses in parallel, and it seems that the maintenance of the government on weekdays is also good, riding a horse on it, it is the most regular flat land, and there is no pothole, and here, the temperature is also cool and pleasant a lot, compared to the hot desert, it is really a good place to stop and rest.

The soldiers who accompanied Lan Yunxuan to stay in the city to loot supplies gathered a few more horses and came out, so that the officials of the county government in the city could ride them, and together with the men and horses led by Gu Xuan, they went towards the village outside, after all, this is in the territory of Weiguo, and the quicksand has only been established for a few months, and the background, manpower, and funds are seriously insufficient, and the hand can not reach in, and the map depiction of this place is very rough, so naturally these locals are needed to lead the way.

Gu Xuan, as the coach, naturally rode a horse and walked in front, slightly behind half a body, and the one who followed him all the time was the local county magistrate Zhou Maoming.

At the beginning, Gu Xuan considered that these people who came with him were all civil officials, so the speed was not very fast, almost like a walk after a meal, and then saw that Maoming had been following closely this week, so he slowly increased his speed, and so far, it was the most normal marching speed on weekdays without affecting combat effectiveness, but the other party still looked a little relaxed when he followed behind, and he couldn't help but be a little surprised.

Gu Xuan couldn't help but turn his head sideways, glanced at him, and asked casually, "Has Lord Zhou also been in the army?"

"Huh?"

Zhou Maoming had been thinking silently with his head down, so these instinctive things were completely unconsciously exposed, and when Gu Xuan asked suddenly, he raised his head, reacted slightly, and knew why he asked this question, but he didn't dare to lie, so he could only answer honestly: "Yes, Xia Guan has been in the army for a few years, but later by chance, he became a parent official here." ”

This person did not lie and deceive, and Gu Xuan also bowed slightly with satisfaction, but immediately opened his mouth and sneered: "Since you are a soldier, why don't you dare to resist, since you are a parent official, why do you take the initiative to lead thieves into the house and kill your children?"

As a prince, he did not hesitate to compare himself as a "thief" and surrender his identity, in fact, it was all to ridicule and ridicule the other party, how could he take the initiative and take these foreign enemies to sweep away the rural people under his own hands.

Zhou Maoming knew that if this question was not answered well, it might be the consequence of losing his head, and he didn't dare to think too much, even if he showed a helpless look, he bowed his hand pitifully and said: "Please Lord Mingjian, if the lower official leads people to resist for the sake of his reputation behind him, then how can there be a living in this city today? Everyone is afraid of death to life, and the lower officials are no exception, the lower officials dare to say again, the prince, you know at a glance that he is a principled person, not those who kill indiscriminately, since the lower officials can't stop the prince from entering the house, it is better to open the door obediently, and do things for the prince seriously, then I think that the prince can still put down the official and others in the future, and the parents can lower their heads, so they can save their children's lives, just ask the parents of the whole world, who will not bow their heads?"

After hearing this, Gu Xuan suddenly laughed, then turned half of his body, pointed at the other party with one hand, and teased: "Lord Zhou, you are really good at talking, but you actually have selfish intentions, thinking that if you let this king wantonly loot the materials and treasures in the city, if you are safe later, those big clans will inevitably unite to impeach you, and the common people are always the best to bully, they survive, and they will not find trouble with you Lord Zhou, and those who can't survive will become a powerful ghost, right?"

Zhou Maoming was actually not surprised that the other party saw through his own careful thinking, and besides, isn't this the truth of being an official, the world is so big, where are there exceptions, he has been trapped here for more than ten years, and it is not that he has not learned anything, but after hesitating again and again, he still couldn't help but muster up his courage and asked tentatively: "The prince is discerning, insightful, where can the lower official's careful thinking be hidden in front of you, the prince, but the lower official wants to dare to ask the prince a word again, the front line, is it really defeated?"

Gu Xuan opened his mouth, and subconsciously wanted to say directly, "This king is a noble man of heaven and gold, if it weren't for the big victory on the front line, if he wanted to fight for the first breakthrough of the city, how could he risk his life and come to you", but after a turn of thought, he secretly said that this person really has some doorways, and then said: "How is the matter, you will know it yourself in a few days, why bother to ask this king?"

Zhou Maoming hurriedly lowered his head and arched his hand, not daring to say anything more.

The cavalry came and went very fast, if not to gallop with all their might for the sake of hurrying, but it did not take long, and they were soon at the gate of a village outside the city as they followed the official road eastward.

What is a little strange is that when I saw the foreign army pressing down on the territory and being overpowered, there were still people standing in the field at this time, and they did not leave and went back to the village to hide.

Gu Xuan looked around and found that they were all old women, not even a young woman.

They all stood barefoot in the mud in the field, because they had been dealing with rice all their lives, their backs were already hunched, and after hearing such a big movement, they raised their heads in turn, but they still couldn't stand up straight, like a turtle standing upright, and the eyes of the team were full of numbness and emotionlessness.

There was no fear, no disgust, no hatred, and no escape, just a sense of numbness that was stunned, as if he had seen the most ordinary things, but it was this simple numbness that made Gu Xuan's heart slam suddenly, as if it was blocked, and he couldn't change his breath for a long time.

He asked in a low voice, "Why didn't you see the man?"

It seemed to be just a knowingly question, but Zhou Maoming still replied very honestly: "The imperial court has recruited soldiers twice before, and the full-year-old men in the vicinity have either gone to the battlefield or been arrested and escorted to the baggage, and those who remain are all women and children who can't go the same way. ”

He didn't say a word, the reason why there were still many men in the city was actually because he paid a large ransom to the imperial court, so he was able to stay and not have to go to the front line to die.

After the men were arrested, the field affairs in the township are now all handled by the women in the village, not to mention that there are not many of them, women are inferior to men in terms of physical strength alone, and as soon as the people leave, they have to take care of the children, and they have to plant seedlings and plough the fields, where can they take care of it, after all, in order to escort the grain and grass, the court even forcibly requisitioned the cattle used to cultivate the land, and in the past for such a long time, many fields have been deserted, and weeds have grown, and they can only barely irrigate by relying on the canal on weekdays.

"Stop!"

Gu Xuan waved his hand violently, and the teams behind them all stopped one after another when they saw this.

He turned his head, one eye with a sense of scrutiny, staring at Zhou Maoming who was following behind, the latter saw this, frightened his heart, hurriedly dismounted, regardless of the dust and dirt on the ground, directly bowed to the ground, the upper body was all lying on the ground, and shouted loudly: "Lord Mingjian, the villages outside the city, are all like this!"

Gu Xuan stared at him, his face was silent and cold, if this person dared to be clever and felt that he was kind and easy to deceive, so he deliberately brought him to this kind of place, wanting to arouse his sympathy, then Gu Xuan definitely didn't mind letting him know what it meant to be "ruthless".

Again, this king only takes half of it. ”

Gu Xuan stretched out his hand and instructed the others in Rakshasa for a while, threatening them to restrain themselves and not to deliberately disturb these people, then jumped off the horse, grabbed Zhou Maoming, and sneered: "If you really want to do something because of this skin, then go and tell them, don't play tricks with this king." ”

After speaking, he didn't care about anything else, Gu Xuan waited directly at the gate of the village, under a banyan tree that had turned yellow, and naturally it was his turn to do these miscellaneous things for moving things.

The others took the order and walked to the village together, Gu Xuan's ears were extraordinary, and he could vaguely hear some curses such as "thief", "damned", "damned", "damned", etc., but he could only sigh and ignore it, anyway, the Rakshasa clan didn't understand it very well, and even if Zhou Maoming and other officials understood the Rakshasa language, it was impossible to take the initiative to translate, plus their own advice, at least there would be no conflict.

The army came in and searched their last reserves from house to house, and the village was suddenly full of chickens and dogs, but seeing a group of fierce and vicious black-faced ghosts standing aside with knives and staring, who dared to say a word at this time?

Not to mention the numbness of these people, in fact, it mostly comes from the word "resignation", since they have accepted their fate, it is impossible to resist fate.

It didn't take long for Zhou Maoming, who was sweating profusely and looking miserable, to lead people out of it, as a local parent official, but he took the initiative to bring the enemy here to loot the people's things, and it was normal to be poked in the backbone and scolded.

And the soldiers didn't care about this, they all walked out of it with all kinds of utensils containing food, and the smile on their faces couldn't be stopped, it seemed that they had diluted a lot of that vicious feeling, all of them showed their big white teeth, and they thought that they could have a good meal at night, and even someone caught all the dogs in the village, and dragged them all the way over with their hind legs, and there was a blood mark on the dog's head, either dead, but also fainted.

Seeing this, Gu Xuan wanted to say something, but in the end he reluctantly shut up, without him, because he was not qualified to be that kind of rotten good person for the time being.

He looked at Zhou Maoming and other patriotic officials, his voice was low, and he couldn't hear joy or anger.

"Alright, let's go to the next place. ”