"Do you know how much half a sheep is?" Pei Guoliang's face was full of shock, and his eyeballs protruded from his sockets.

"That's tens of thousands! Isn't it the same as taking their lives if you let them kill? ”

Zhao Chongxuan said coldly with an expressionless face: "If you don't kill these tens of thousands, all their cattle and sheep will be lost." Didn't you do this kind of thing before? ”

Zhao Chongxuan said that it is indeed true, whenever there are too many livestock in Shule Town to bear the pasture, the Governor's Office will urge the herdsmen to kill some surplus sheep or cubs in winter, so as to ensure that the herdsmen's sheep survive the cold winter and wait until the spring of the following year.

"How many of those? They can digest it completely, and even if they can't, they can afford it! Pei Guoliang's eyelids jumped, and he stretched out his hand and pointed out the door: "But now it's different, these animals we have to slaughter have to dig a deep trench to fill them!" ”

Zhao Chongxuan faced Pei Guoliang, crossed his hands and bowed and said: "This requires you to tell the truth, and these herdsmen also know that they can't survive." Tell them that only by killing half of the sheep will the other half survive. This matter requires us to mobilize soldiers and horses in the city to deal with it forcibly, and it is convenient to suppress it when someone resists. ”

He solemnly reiterated: "This is the only way to work at the moment." These herders who have suffered heavy losses are uncontrollable dangers, and instead of waiting for their emotions to slowly accumulate and other chaos occur, it is better to directly stab them face to face and solve them. If they can't bear it, we will take people to do it themselves, and give up some of them and keep some of them, which is a choice that everyone must make. ”

Zhao Chongxuan used cold logic to talk about the problem, but humans are not only logical, and the determination to break their wrists and stop losses is not something that anyone can make.

The cold fog of the early morning swirled over the houses, the barracks gates slammed open, and several columns of Tang troops rushed out and headed down the streets and alleys towards the south of the city.

The people had not yet noticed the anomaly, and the Tang army would put on their armor every day for a morning run, but today was not a training camp, and when their armor made a clattering sound and approached the sheepfold in the open space southeast of the city, they quickly dispersed into several queues. The team leader and the team deputies pointed out the direction and ordered them to pounce and make a decisive move.

"You guys go over there!"

"You guys go over there!"

The Tang army quickly threw himself into the sheepfold, or jumped over the wall or cut the wooden bolt on the door, and drove the sheep out, and the sheep were terrified, and they huddled together and bleated and waited for their masters to come to their rescue.

The soldiers looked at the sheep huddled together and worried, and the team was standing next to them and urged: "Hurry up and work, wait for the fart to eat!" ”

He took out his knife and stabbed the sheep in the neck, and the blood vessels ruptured everywhere, and the rest of the soldiers followed suit and stabbed the sheep's neck, but the sheep seemed dead and silent, huddled into a pile and waited for slaughter.

The soldiers kept cutting the throats of the sheep with short knives, and the herdsmen could not bear such a result, and they ran over to stop them crying and shouting, but there were already soldiers around the slaughterhouse with long guns, blocking them from entering.

"You ...... Why do you kill my sheep? Let me in! ”

"Don't kill my sheep, Master Jun, please!"

"These are the belongings I've been saving for three years!"

Governor Pei Guoliang and Shule Army Deputy Envoy Zhao Chongxuan appeared at the scene of the slaughter, the two rode side by side and dragged the reins of their horses, their expressions looked colder than anyone else, like judges in the shadows.

"Yesterday, the government has posted a notice inside and outside the city, in order to stop the loss in time, the herdsmen who have burned the grass must slaughter half of the sheep, and the remaining half will be jointly raised by the governor's office and the Tang army to help you survive this winter!"

The herdsmen hurriedly turned around, broke through several Tang troops with spears, and knelt down in front of the governor and the general: "Governor! Be very gracious! I have been accumulating for three years to amass such a flock of sheep, and I am counting on them to give my son a wife! ”

"Governor, open grace!"

Pei Guoliang's face turned white anxiously, raised his horsewhip and pointed at them and scolded angrily: "You Diao people, how can you be so ignorant, the Governor's Mansion has promised to supply you with half of the remaining forage, and you dare to quibble and threaten here!" ”

Zhao Chongxuan didn't look down at these herdsmen, looked indifferently at the mountains of sheep corpses piled up in the distance, and ordered loudly: "Speed up and slaughter!" ”

He is not concerned about the lives of the herdsmen, but about what to do with so many sheep carcasses. Although it is a cold winter, even if all the mutton is peeled off and distributed to the residents of the city, I am afraid that it will not be eaten for a while and a half, and tens of thousands of sheep will be piled up together, and they will rot and deteriorate.

The herdsmen, who had not yet been affected by the slaughter, tried to hide their sheep, they drove the sheep into the flat-roofed houses and covered them with sheep felt and straw mats, but this only saved a small part, and the rest of the sheep were soon found and slaughtered by the Tang army.

……

Li Siye rubbed his frozen stiff hands, shook the reins of his horse and slowly entered the city, isolating the thin mist outside the city. This winter is a bit unusual, and in a place like Shule, where the climate is dry and cold, morning fog in winter is rare.

The fog outside the city smelled a little damp and itchy in the nose, but the fog inside the city smelled a strong smell of blood.

Li Siye muttered to himself, as if he was asking Yan Xiaosi behind him: "Is this who in the city is going to have a happy event again, the sheep is really angry." ”

Yan Xiaosi also straightened his nose and sniffed: "Indeed, the bloody smell of this raw mutton is really strong." ”

While they were talking, the cries of men and the urgent cries of sheep were heard not far away, and then the sound poured out of the alley, but a flock of sheep jumped and ran towards the city gate. Behind them were five or six Tang soldiers, with short-pointed knives in their hands, and they stabbed the sheep through the throat and neck, and threw them down with only one stab, and then pounced on the other...... Already killed so skillfully.

A Sogdian woman cried and chased after her, reaching out to pull the killers, but not slowing them down. Instead, they kill faster, and they have to go back to drinking when they finish their work sooner.

There was a large sheep that ran the fastest, but there was a man in scaly armor who was as nimble as a leopard, and pounced on the fat sheep from one side and pushed the fat sheep to the ground, and with a knife he slashed in, and the blood splashed half of his face.

The soldier raised his sleeve and wiped his face, but his movements suddenly froze, and he raised his neck to see Li Siye sitting safely on his horse.

"Envoy? Checkmate. ”

Several slaughtering soldiers stopped what they were doing, and hurriedly knelt on the ground and crossed their hands.

Li Siye didn't necessarily feel angry, but slightly raised his chin and brushed his beard and asked slowly, "What's going on?" ”

A moment later, several soldiers led the way, Li Siye straddled his horse and followed, his body was steady and his eyes were looking around, even if he encountered a large-scale slaughter, he just waved his hand and said, "Stop first, wait for my subsequent military order." ”

Li Siye's voice was not loud, but everyone could hear it clearly, and they all stood aside with their hands tied in fear. The herdsmen wept bitterly and blocked in front of his war horse, and they fell to their knees and kowtowed like pounding garlic:

"Envoy Lee! You're going to call the shots for us! Our sheep are going to be slaughtered! I beg Li Zhen to give justice to us who are working hard! ”

He could probably guess what was going on, but he still immediately clasped his fists to appease everyone: "A certain person has just returned from a tour of Khotan Town, and he has not yet understood the specific situation, so I will discuss it with Pei Dudu......"

His voice was drowned out by a wave of crying and pleading, and when the voices of the crowd were a little quieter, he said again: "After I discuss with Pei Dudu, I will make a decision, and you will retreat first." ”

After the herdsmen were dispersed by the Tang army, Li Siye rode to the opposite side of Pei Guoliang and said, "Pei Dudu, after leaving Shule Town for a month, there are many tricky things. ”

Pei Guoliang was already anxious, and said: "It's really a headache, fortunately, General Li, you're back, and I ask you to think of a way." ”

Zhao Chongxuan looked at Li Siye and had the idea of guessing the other party - about killing sheep, he pondered for a long time, and there was no better solution. I don't know how Li Siye will deal with this matter, if he is helpless, doesn't it mean that Li Siye's personal ability is not as good as his own. Even if the method that Li Siye came up with was slaughter, then the ability of the two of them was the same, which means that he is also qualified to be the guard of the Shule Army.

As long as he has this qualification, he can find another direction to struggle. After suffering a tragic failure in his marriage, he needs to find another way to regain his self-confidence.