Chapter 4: Bloodshed

It's been almost two years since the last time the Northern Captives entered the Kou.

Although the Beiyu fought all the way to Jingshi and returned from plundering, it was because Lu Yong "took the blame for being greedy for merit and provocation". In the final analysis, it was more or less "because" the Son of Heaven first rewarded Lu Yong, he had the audacity to break into such a big disaster, so the imperial court did not embarrass the lords of the Xuanfu. The Xuanfu, which had been fully prepared, not only did not lose, but reported a great victory to the imperial court. Even if there is no beheading, but if you don't lose it, you don't lose it, and the saint always wants to give it a condolence and reward. So the rise of the rise, the award of the award. Officials at all levels expressed gratitudely that the Shengshang's thunderous anger against the culprit and the evil and the rain and dew of the loyal civil and military are really rewarded and punished, and the Shengming of the Son of Heaven is simply unique in three generations......

So far, a vivid drama with the border generals as the core audience has achieved far more than expected performance results, so at the end of the final reunion: some of the other generals because of "bloody battles do not retreat", some because of "hearing the alarm and helping", and some because of "tail-end pursuit"...... They have also gained tangible benefits: some have been promoted, and some have been expanded - the establishment of Lu Yong's three battalions has been reported, and now everyone is dead, and everyone has divided the quota. Although there is no head, on the one hand, there are civil officials at all levels who swear to endorse the merits, on the other hand, the imperial court wants to appease the military morale of the border towns, and the tacit understanding of the senior members of the DPRK and the Central Committee, the disobedient Lu Yong broke his family and died, and the obedient military leaders all got their own piles of candy, large or small.

The civil servants have the most to gain. Recruit brave people to defend the city must be given money, the defenders of the city must eat, the killed and wounded thieves must be rewarded heavily, the sacrifice of life for the country must be compensated, the war must consume astronomical military reserves, and the thieves must reduce taxes after looting...... The cabinet has no objection to the Ministry of Officials and the Ministry of War, the inspection is correct, the Ministry of Household Accounts pays money, the Ministry of Food and Industry allocates materials, and the Ministry of Rites and Rites are arguing, the Holy Lord should be a suburban sacrifice, we will preside over it, hurry up and pay the silver, otherwise the next time God may not bless us, the Criminal Department said that we have no credit, everyone said that there should be, and there must be, and in the end, the words of the Manchu Dynasty are said to be inseparable, and the eunuchs have taken precautions, and once mentioned that they should treat the soldiers well...... Everybody was happy. Except for a few thorns in the Metropolitan Procuratorate who scolded a few words without a headache - anyway, that's what they do, who would be as knowledgeable as a mad dog.

Earn over.

The actors, critics and audiences all earned it, and the ticket money was paid for by Daming. Of course, what the court has is money, and this money is naturally nothing. However, the dead ...... Well, Da Ming also has ants.

At this time, Deng Changjiang also became a guerrilla general under the guidance of Ma Xing, the deputy marshal of the crowned general soldier who "stood at the head of the city, was wounded all over his body, and the blood flowed like an infusion, and he still shouted that the thieves were not only loyal and brave", and the commander ordered the garrison of Zhangjiakou Fort.

One day, I got a report that a gang of bandits slaughtered the Tuiguan's Manmen last night, and then went to the prefect's yamen, killing and injuring many of the prefect's family - if he didn't happen to go out, the prefect's life would definitely be difficult to protect - and then set a fire, and ran out of the city gate.

Deng Changjiang pondered in his heart, in the border town, a large group of guys of unknown origin entered in a gang, and they would definitely be stopped by the soldiers guarding the door, so these bandits should have been in the capital city that they had entered separately a few days ago - this shows that this gang of bandits obviously not only has an organization, but also a clear plan. However, this incident reveals something strange: ordinary thieves should never have such courage!

Most of the coffers in the border towns are full of military salaries, and their garrison strength is by no means capable of being attacked by dozens of bandits. If you want to make money, you should go to the rich families in the surrounding villages. Although it is certainly not ordinary people who can accumulate wealth in this place, it is easier to deal with the heavily guarded capital city anyway. Moreover, it's strange, it doesn't look like it's for robbery, there is nothing going on in the silver vault, but it slaughters the family of the court officials and then goes straight to the next one, with a strong purpose - how do you look at it, how to ask for your life! Thinking that Lord Gao Sheng was a state judge before, Deng Changjiang couldn't help but have a string in his heart suddenly twitched, and he faintly felt something, but he couldn't say it for a while.

Zhangjiakou Fort was the closest to the capital city, and Deng Changjiang knew that most of the responsibility for suppressing the thieves would fall on his head, so he called all his soldiers to wait in the camp tent. Sure enough, it wasn't long before the order came down.

The soldiers in Deng Changjiang's battalion were divided into four infantry teams: A, B, C and D. After the last time Naiqian Khan's broken border, the preparation of the border army is more or less like before, not to mention that the two infantry teams A and B can really show their hands in the field, and the two teams of Bing and D are enough to deal with the camp for a while. Although I don't know the exact number of the bandits, according to the analysis of various circumstances, there will not be more than twenty or thirty people. To deal with these unarmored bandits, a half-armored hundred-man team is enough. Because there was a ban on field troops not being allowed to enter the city without an explicit order from the local civilian officials, Deng Changjiang ordered Team B to prepare for battle, wait at the gate of the camp, and bring a few personal soldiers into the city to see if they could find some clues at the scene.

The house of the magistrate is neater than expected, and there are not many bandits after looting. Deng Changjiang himself was originally a bandit who was in the army on the side of the stream, and after a few glances, he knew in his heart: this gang of bandits must have stepped on it a little in advance, pinched the time of patrolling, and waited for the husband to pass, and took a ladder from the front and back yards to cross the wall at the same time. And the division of labor is clear, the front yard goes straight to the lower room, and the back wall goes straight to the bedroom-everyone died in the house and did not run out.

The doorman who was worth the watch was probably dozing off, and he was sitting on the floor of the gatehouse neatly dressed, his chest was red - he was stabbed through the heart in his sleep.

Lord Tuiguan, oh, well, to be exact, it should be Lord Tuiguan-because the corpse has no head--naked, naked, leaning on the bed, the wall at the head of the bed is full of blood, it should be the head and throat cut directly after being picked up in his sleep, and a step or two by the bed, and a naked female corpse is shriveled, probably an adult's wife, maybe a maidservant. The same headless corpse, with a visible smear on the blood stain on its chest, appeared to have been rubbed by some bandit after death - apparently, it was prevented from further assault by others. The suitcase at the foot of the bed and the drawer next to the bed were all turned over, but there were still two or three grains of loose silver in the corner, indicating that they were sloppy.

The headless child corpse in the wing room is undoubtedly a little boy. The little boy's nanny died aside, and the head was still there. Nearly twenty lives were taken from the servants to the head of the house, and the mortal wounds were either in the chest or in the abdomen and back, and the heads of the people below were there!

The murder of the door is related to the official of the imperial court, and the servants of Fucheng have already checked the corpses: they are all sword wounds, and there is nothing to analyze and judge. However, the same scene is very different in Deng Changjiang's eyes! Seeing the broken neck, Deng Changjiang immediately came to the conclusion in his heart: This was done by a professional soldier!

The job of cutting the head is much more difficult than imagined - if it is a raw hand, there is a high probability that it will cut the neck bone, so you have to change the place to cut the knife, and the fracture will be a mess. Even if it is a heavy thick-backed ghost-headed knife in the court, the veteran executioner will cut it close to the bone crack, otherwise even if it is not embedded in the bone, it will often collapse. These heads were not cut off but cut, and the three cuts were neatly cut along the bone seams, and the wielders were clearly veterans. What's more, the stump neck of the pusher is very short, and the other two are longer - the head of the adult male is cut with the Adam's apple, which is the subconscious habit of the murderer!

A habit that only professional military personnel have!

The family was destroyed, there was time to cut off the head but did not carefully collect the property, after the murder was rushed to escape, the head had to be taken with him, the bitter master was a grain officer, the murderer was a professional soldier, and then transferred to slaughter another family...... There are all kinds of indications that this is a revenge hunt, and it is a blood feud.

Deng Changjiang's heart once again felt something strongly, as if the truth was right in front of him, but through a thick fog, he couldn't grasp it.

The situation was similar at the prefect's residence. The son and his companion disappeared in the backyard, and it is estimated that the murderer couldn't tell who they were, so they simply cut them all off - the same goes for several ladies. Fortunately, there was someone in the official hall in front of him who was waiting for the prefect to return to his house and didn't sleep, and when he heard the movement, he shouted. The government was next to the treasury, and the bandits were afraid that the guards would hear the police coming, so they cut down this unlucky ghost with a knife and set it on fire, pinning down the treasury soldiers in place, opening the main gate and rushing all the way to the city gate......

Most of the soldiers guarding the door were sleeping in the house, and they were locked outside, and they couldn't get out for a while. Five or six of them were not armoured, so they were no match for the outlaws, but none of them were seriously injured - the gate officer had only broken his forearm from the back of his sword—this was a bit strange. The people said that under the pressure of bloody steel knives, they were driven down the city wall by putting long ropes on the battlements, and the bandits roped down...... There was also a connection outside the city: a long ladder was placed on the opposite bank at one end, and the other end was leaning into the moat. Apparently, it was taken out casually by the thief after he passed.

The soldiers who rushed to the city were on the wall and watched dozens of bandits raise fires and swagger and disappear into the night......

At this point, a question suddenly popped up in Deng Changjiang's heart: Why did this group of outlaws who destroyed the door without blinking an eye let go of the gatekeepers who posed the greatest threat - each of them directly overturned with a knife, or rushed all into the room and locked it outside and then set it on fire, why was it just disarmed and driven away?

Deng Changjiang summoned the city gate officials who were resting and recuperating from their injuries.

The city gate officer was an old soldier, and although he couldn't name him, he looked familiar. From his flickering words, Deng Changjiang found some clues.

Of course, the city gate officer knew Deng Guerrilla, and even more knew his experience, and under the pressure of General Deng, who had rich experience in both the profession of a soldier and a thief, he gave the latter an imperceptible look.

Seeing that Deng Changjiang used the order of herald Team B to set off for ten miles outside the city, the city gate official no longer grinned and pretended to hum, plopped down and said in a low voice: "General Deng forgives the sin, the villain is really self-harmed!" Before the words fell, tears welled up in his eyes, and two mud marks broke out on his dirty face.

Deng Changjiang stared at this guy quietly, and listened to him continue to chatter: "My lord, the villain used to beg for food in General Lu's camp, and the sky is pitiful, when the Tartar broke the border, he escaped with a dog's life and injured his leg, and then he was thrown here to be a city gatekeeper. My lord, please spare the small ones in the face of the late General Lu...... That group of heroes, the leader is Lu Siye! ”

A bolt from the blue!

The fog that had been covering Deng Changjiang's eyes suddenly dispersed.