Chapter 22: The Spoils of War
When the three brothers came to the place where the Japanese had landed, the two sea ships were gone, and Su Qingping called out to Su Zhe loudly, and it took a while to get a response from a long distance to the south.
"Thirteenth brother, you are fast enough, how long has it been, two ships have made you come almost two miles, where is your horse?" Su Ming saw Su Zhe tethering the two boats together and slowly docking the shore, and said to him with a smile.
"Am I not afraid that the Japanese will come back and find the ship? If there is no boat far, they will not be able to escape even if they come back, and I am hiding in the woods. Big brother, have all the widows been solved? Su Zhe looked at Su Ren and asked.
"Twelve widows, all dead!" Su Ren couldn't help but smile at the corner of his mouth as he spoke, it was not a small credit to be able to kill so many widows, and their Wei Zhuang was going to be famous in Jinshanwei Town this time.
When the two boats docked, Su Ming, his eldest brother and others got on the boat, and when they saw the materials piled up on the boat, Su Ren asked them to count them.
"This time, our losses are basically negligible, but we can get so much loot, I have never seen it so big." Su Qingping saw the soldiers carrying bags of supplies off the boat, and said happily.
"Thanks to Lao Ba, otherwise even if we can take down these widows this time, we will definitely suffer heavy losses, tomorrow I will send these widow corpses to the town, and see who dares to say that I dare not kill the widows." Su Ren said with a smile.
"Big brother, are you going to send these corpses of the Japanese to Lord Qianhu, or directly to Lord Commander?" Su Ming asked.
"According to the rules, if there is a war, it must be reported at the first level, and we must hand over the corpses of these Japanese robbers to the Lord of the Thousand Households, and then let the Lord of the Thousand Households report to the command so that the adults can do it.
But if we report it to Lord Qianhu Yao, who has not been waiting to see me recently, it is likely that our military exploits will be deducted! Su Ren thought for a moment and said.
"Those cloth bags are green salt, which means that this gang of robbers is only robbing along the coast, and Zha Yanbao has already been robbed by him.
If we let Zha Yanbao spread the news to the town, these green salt and materials will not be returned to Zha Yanbao, and these military exploits may not really fall into our hands. Su Ming said.
"What then?" Su Qingping couldn't help but be anxious when he heard this, Lord Qianhu preferred Qiyan Castle, everyone knew this, if they couldn't keep their battle exploits, it would be a morale blow to everyone in Erwei Castle.
"Now there are nearly 2 hours before dark, and you can rush to Jinshanwei Town before it gets dark. The news of our killing of the Japanese Kou will not be hidden for long, so instead of letting Lord Qianhu Yao come by himself, it is better for us to send it to the Lord's Mansion with great fanfare. Su Ming said.
Su Ren nodded when he heard this, they must have the eyes left by the adults of a thousand households, and even the eyeliner of Zha Yanbao, if they want to grasp the military merits in their hands, it seems that they must leave for Jinshanwei Town now.
"Okay, I'll send the corpse of the widow to Jinshanwei Town with Master Cao Qi later, and you can watch the fifth and eighth children in the family." Su Ren said that he was going to let Cao Chunrui choose the people who went to Jinshanwei Town.
"Big brother, I think we have to make the scene bigger this time, and let the fifth brother go with full arms! It is enough to have me and my thirteenth brother at home.
When you get to the town, you must make a big fanfare and let everyone know that we have killed 13 widows in Erweibao, and the corpses have been sent to the Thousand Households. Su Ming said.
"I know what you mean, but this might offend Senho-sama!" Su Ren hesitated.
"Big brother, even if you don't want to offend Yao Qianhu and give him half of the credit this time, he will definitely not let us go, but will continue to suppress us.
And our Erweibao can now kill 13 Japanese robbers, and the importance of the commander will inevitably rise, even if he is surnamed Yao, he has to suppress it even if he doesn't like us, this is an opportunity for our Erweibao. Su Ming said.
"Alright, I got it! Later, I will take 50 soldiers to Jinshanwei Town, there are not many troops left at home, you must be careful, if there is any accident, go back to Erweibao first, no matter how late it is today, we will come back. Su Ren said that he was going to ask the guards to collect the corpses of the would-be robbers, but Su Ming pulled them aside.
"Big brother, the wound I shot is obvious, and this can't be found in the town. Bullet casings had to be taken out of the corpses of the would-be robbers and some wounds had to be faked. Su Ming said quietly.
"I see! You transport all the supplies back to the fort as soon as possible, and I have taken all the carriages and war horses with me, since it has reached this point, it is also a last resort to completely break with the surname Yao, let the people of the salt field live in the fort first! Tomorrow we will continue to boil salt. Su Ren asked himself to transfer his soldiers away, and if there were another pirates or pirates, the workers in the salt factory would become very dangerous.
"Big brother, don't worry! I'm at home! Su Ming said.
Su Ren left with two banner owners and nine small flags, and he personally examined each pirate wound, and all the bullet casings were dug up to disguise the wounds of a fake.
Su Ming asked people to move all the supplies on the two ships into Erweibao, but the disposal of the woman on the ship made Su Ming a little embarrassed.
This kind of woman is an unclean existence for every village fort, even if she is sent back to her original village fort, most of them will not be accepted, and many suggestions are directly executed and thrown into the sea.
Su Mingli ignored the crowd, took the girl back to the fort, arranged with the homeless people who arrived this afternoon, and told a few homeless people that if anyone bullied her, he would settle accounts with them.
In the evening, Su Zhe reported today's post-war statistics.
In this battle, Wei Zhuang killed 13 pirates who landed at the cost of minor injuries to one of his soldiers, and seized 219 taels of silver, more than 430 copper coins, 73 stones of grain, and more than 220 catties of green salt.
In addition, there are 13 scimitars used by pirates, a pair of leather armor, 6 pairs of cloth armor, 4 pairs of short bows, a large sword, more than 10 pieces of various cloths, clothes, jewelry, and porcelain, with a total value of more than 1,000 taels of silver.
It is said that the gold belt of murder and arson, these 13 widows drove two broken ships and robbed so many things in a few days, but in the end, it was cheaper than Erweibao. Su Ming sorted out all the loot and waited at home until the evening, but he still didn't wait for news from his eldest brother.
Coming to the castle wall, Su Zhe saw Su Ming coming over.
"Starling, this is almost over, if the eldest brother doesn't come back, will he be detained by the surname Yao?" Su Zhe asked with some concern.
"He, Yao Zonghan, wants to do it in Jinshanwei Town, but it's not so easy, besides, the eldest brother took the fifth brother and Brother Chunrui together.
It may be that he has been in Qianhu Mansion for too long, and he can't get out of the gate of Jinshanwei Town! In the recent past, the town will definitely be very careful because of the Japanese robbers. Su Ming said.
The two brothers waited on the castle wall all night, but they didn't see the eldest brother and others come back, and waited until the next morning, when a group of soldiers slowly walked from the west road, Su Ming saw that the number of people was more than double that the eldest brother brought yesterday, there were more than forty carriages alone, and the materials pulled on them were heavy.
When the team approached, Su Ming saw the eldest brother and the two of them riding in the front, and in the middle, a military general in his forties wearing iron armor turned out to be Yao Zonghan of the Thousand Households of the Salt Factory. Su Ming is on Yao Zonghan's left, and on the right is a young general, and his status is not low.
"Thirteenth brother, it's the eldest brother who is back! He also brought back the surname Yao.
I can't let anyone know I'm back yet, so I'll leave it to you, and I'll take refuge after the fort. Su Ming saw Yao Qianhu coming, got off the fort wall and went to the training ground behind the fort.
It wasn't until the afternoon that Su Ming saw the thirteenth brother come over and call him home.
When he entered the house and saw the smile on his eldest brother's face, Su Ming knew that he had gained a lot this time.
"Eighth brother, sit down, this time we have made a lot of money!" Su Ren said to Su Ming with a smile.
"I saw you coming back with the surname Yao, many of the carriages are from the town's barracks, but the commander sent us grain and grass?" Su Ming asked with a smile.
"It's still the eighth brother, you have a flexible brain. Yesterday afternoon, I listened to your instructions, and when I arrived at Jinshanwei Town, I did not enter through the east gate, but entered Jinshanwei Town through the north gate of the main road.
Before arriving at the gate of Lord Yao's mansion, the entire Jinshanwei Town already knew that our Wei Zhuang had killed the Japanese Kou, and there were thirteen of them.
As soon as we arrived at Lord Yao's mansion, Lord Yao and I were summoned by the commander. In order not to be suspicious of the commander, I overreported our casualties, saying that 23 people were killed and more than 30 were wounded.
After learning that the Weizhuang Institute had run out of grain and grass since March last year, and the equipment had not been updated for two years, Lord Yao was reprimanded by the commander Duan and asked to make up the arrears as soon as possible.
This time we really made a lot of money, the thousand households gave us a total of 473 stones of food for half a year, and 340 taels of silver for half a year, 2 pairs of cowhide armor, 6 pairs of cloth armor, 8 pairs of longbows, 15 broadswords, and 45 fine spear heads, and this time the income was enough to more than double the strength of our two Weibao. Su Ren looked at his younger brother and said happily.
The grain and silver were enough for Wei Zhuang for half a year, but the most valuable of them was 2 pairs of cowhide armor. You must know that the armor made by the imperial court is made in accordance with the standards, and the cowhide armor can only be worn by the elite in the army, and the average soldier can only wear cloth armor at most.
Cowhide armor is generally made in five layers, the outermost layer of concocted cowhide can resist most of the arrow damage, the inner layer is tightly made of multiple layers of coarse linen, and then the inner layer is made of soft cowhide, and then the inner two layers are wear-resistant multi-layer muslin to reduce blunt damage, and several layers of soft silk protect the body from being worn by the armor and can also breathe to ensure the temperature inside the leather armor. Such a suit of leather armor would take a craftsman more than three months to make.
The price of a cowhide armor on the black market is at least 45 taels of silver, and the three-layer cloth armor is also more than 10 taels of silver, and the value of these armors alone is more than 150 taels of silver.