Walking the Path of a Workaholic in Cliché Novels (QT) Chapter 79

A red pony galloped all the way from the county government office to the garrison camp. The soldiers at the gate all drew their weapons and asked, “Who is coming?”

The young man on the horse pulled the reins: “Whoa!”

He took out a golden scroll with his right hand and said, “I am the magistrate of Dingsha County. I am here to look for General He in accordance with the order of Her Majesty. Where is the general?”

The soldiers at the door were shocked and ran to the main tent to invite the general. Soon the general and several lieutenants arrived.

An Yinong stepped off the horse, holding the golden scroll in his hand. The general knelt down and shouted “Long live the empress”, waiting to receive the imperial edict.

Empress Qi’s order was very simple. First, the garrison was to cooperate with the magistrate of Dingsha County to suppress bandits outside and capture thieves inside. Half of the gold and silver found by the two parties would be given to the garrison as military pay.

Second, during the clearance process, follow the arrangements of the Dingsha County Magistrate and refrain from any illegal or disorderly conduct that disrupted the lives of the people.

“I heard that the head of the Jin family came to your place?” An Yinong asked.

“Don’t worry, County Magistrate. I will immediately send someone to arrest the father and son.” Although his rank was higher than An Yinong, the general did not look down at him. Instead, he was very friendly. Yes, it was because of money.

Half of the seized gold and silver would be used as military pay. Not to mention that the father and son were guilty, even if they were not guilty, he would still want to find evidence of their guilt. Moreover, the imperial edict stated that this matter was to be under the command of the County Magistrate, so the priorities of this activity were determined. They only needed to assist from the side. Within two minutes, the deputy general reported that the father and son of the Jin family, along with their cronies, had been captured and were awaiting punishment.

“That’s great.” An Yinong was particularly curious about the face of the current head of the Jin family. He came to the military camp to ask for help and wanted to deal with him, but now he has become a prisoner. He couldn’t help but look up at the sky: it was so blue.

“County Magistrate, why don’t we work quickly and make a quick decision to avoid leaking the news?” The general couldn’t wait to receive his military pay. It was not easy to get some decent military equipment in this broken place, and the horses were almost down.

“Okay, then close the city gates and catch the turtle in the jar?”

“Very good, very good.”

An Yinong and the general both laughed.

One of them was old and the other was young, one has a weathered face and the other was in the prime of youth, but when they smiled at this moment, they looked somewhat similar – rubbing their hands together, unable to wait to eat the meat.

After the troops were ready, they set out, with the cavalry going first and the infantry in the middle. Several thousand men quickly reached Dingsha County, shocking the soldiers guarding the city. However, county magistrate An Yinong stepped forward and ordered people to close the city gates. At the same time, he waved his hand and a piece of paper came out.

“General, please take a look, these are the properties and residences of the children of the Jin and Bai families, as well as their mistresses. These places must be carefully checked. But one thing is, do not destroy property, and do not bully women and children.

“Let me be frank with you. The rest of the people in Dingsha County are my responsibility. If anyone touches them, they are bothering me.”

The general was a little unhappy, but didn’t say anything. After all, this was the emperor’s request. So, thousands of soldiers split up and most of them went to the base camp of the Jin and Bai families, while the others dispersed to other places. An Yinong glanced at a certain place, and the invisible creatures from another world received the signal and followed.

Following the map, the members of the Jin and Bai families were quickly controlled. The mistress of the Jin family, who was staying at home and calculating how much the rent would increase next year, was brought out by the soldiers with a knife.

She knelt on the ground and watched the soldiers rush in and rummage through the boxes and cabinets looking for something. Soon a small box was turned out, which contained, besides the indenture, a note for loan sharking.

The Jin family often robbed herders and then lent the money to them. The interest was compounded and the money could not be repaid, so they had to sell their land and houses. If they had neither land nor houses, they would pawn their children.

“Bah! These are all blood debts.” A soldier looked through the list and saw that the prints on it were not hand prints, but blood marks.

Afterwards, gold, silver, pearls, jade, fine silk, precious spices, and the best tea were found in her room. The master of the Jin family had even more things in his room, many of which were valuables that money couldn’t buy, and there were also many aged medicinal materials.

They even found a secret door in Jin family head’s room based on the drawings provided by the magistrate. Inside, there was an altar piled up in the shape of a tower, filled with baby skulls, as if for praying for wealth.

Looking at the pile of baby skulls blackened by smoke, even the soldiers who had rolled around on the battlefield could not help but turn their heads away: “Continue to search for gold, be careful.”

The drawing recorded that there were many gold bars in this secret room. Finally they broke the bricks under the altar and found the gold nuggets inside.

“They are all mine! They are all my family’s stuff!” Looking at the gold bars being transported out, the mistress of the Jin family cried out. The next second, someone took away the gold hairpin on her head, the gold bracelet on her wrist, and other miscellaneous jewellery.

Finally, the greed in the Jin family mistress’s heart overcame her rationality, and she pushed the soldier away: “Do you know who my son is? He is an official under General He!”

The soldier who was pushed away stood up, patted his clothes and sneered: “I know, we are the He family army, and your two families are doomed.”

“What?” She couldn’t catch her breath, her eyes rolled back as she fainted, and the other concubines and servants screamed.

But the search work was not always so smooth, and the soldiers encountered many obstacles. The Jin family looked like an ordinary merchant, but they actually hid a lot of weapons in their home. If the soldiers had not arrived and taken the initiative, there would have been heavy casualties.

At the same time, the Bai family’s house was experiencing the same thing. The head of the Bai family was taking a bath with several beauties at the time, but was caught by the soldiers. He came out wet and naked, facing the surprised eyes of the onlookers, trembling in the wind.

“We can’t even afford drinking water, but he still built such a big bathing pool to take a bath?!” The people of Dingsha County, whose lips were dry and chapped, could not believe their eyes.

The small flames of anger that the people of Dingsha County had developed due to long-term oppression grew bigger and they were about to burn away their rationality. They picked up clods of earth and stones on the ground and threw them at the trembling Bai family head. Some even picked up cow and horse dung and threw them.

Later, when the general and An Yinong came over, they saw the head of the Bai family covered in mud and animal feces.

“…The people in our county are kind-hearted. They are worried that he will be cold, so the soil can keep him warm.” An Yinong said.

General: …

Afterwards, the more than a thousand ferocious thugs were also arrested. They were as weak as little girls in front of the real soldiers.

“We have the manpower to open up the new land.” An Yinong felt happy when he saw these tall and strong thugs.

However, some unpleasant things happened during this period.

Those soldiers who took the opportunity to rob property were caught, and if they returned the property, they would be beaten with 20 sticks, and there would be other punishments after they returned to the barracks. As for the soldier who intended to rape a woman, An Yinong rushed over and killed him directly, and the general didn’t even have time to stop him.

The bright red blood splattered on that young and handsome face, adding a hint of murderous atmosphere to him. The general was very unhappy, and felt that the magistrate of Dingsha County had bypassed him to deal with his people. However, this unhappiness was soon offset by the gold and silver that were confiscated.

These two families actually found more than 100,000 taels of gold and silver. Even if they were divided in half, there would be tens of thousands of taels, which is a considerable income.

“General, do you want to do something big again?”

“What do you want to do?” The general no longer looked at An Yinong as a weak scholar. This young and handsome magistrate had a ruthless spirit. Anyone who treated him as a harmless scholar would suffer a great loss.

“General, come closer to my ear.”

An Yinong said this: “What do you think, General?”

As he spoke, he casually wiped his face with a handkerchief handed to him by someone else. There was still red blood on his fair face. Wei, the guard who rushed over, could hardly recognize him.

Wei Menfang guessed that he was going to make a big move, but he didn’t expect it to be so big. He actually brought in the garrison to raid the Jin and Bai families. These two big mountains that had oppressed Dingsha County for a long time were actually moved away in the blink of an eye?

When a warrior killed someone, blood splattered every five steps; when a scholar killed someone, blood flowed all over the house.

“Do you really have the address of their lair?” The general was excited. If this could be accomplished, it would be another great achievement.

“Why should I lie to the general? Yes, I will go with you.” An Yinong said, “I am not bad at archery, but do you have a bow and arrow that I can use?”

“You?” The general hesitated. When two armies were facing each other, arrows and knives had no eyes.

“I am the only one who knows that place.” An Yinong said again.

In order to gain credit for suppressing the bandits, the general agreed to take An Yinong with him. However, he asked his subordinates to find a set of silver armor and a helmet for the young general, so that they could protect the key parts, such as the heart and head. An Yinong, wearing silver armor, rode on his horse with a heroic look. He held a long sword in his hand and carried a bow and arrows on his back. He looked more like a general than a scholar.

The fully equipped garrison set out again, this time they were going outside the Great Wall to raid the horse thieves’ lair. Although there was flying sand outside, An Yinong quickly found the correct route. He led his men galloping across the wasteland and arrived near the thieves’ base camp in less than half a day.

It was beginning to get dark.

“The bandits haven’t noticed yet, let’s attack them by surprise!” Between staying in place to rest and continuing to advance, the general chose to continue. The army continued to advance, and a few minutes later they arrived outside the bandit base camp. They saw strangely shaped steep cliffs, and a tower fortress built between them.

The bandits had already discovered them. They beat drums and sounded the alarm. In addition, many archers surrounded the wall and arrows flew like rain. The shield soldiers in the front row raised their thick shields, and the general in the back row had also come up with an idea.

“Fire attack.” The experienced general saw at a glance that the tower was made of flammable wood, so two things like catapults were pushed forward, and stones tied with hemp ropes were lit and placed on top. The hemp rope was coated with thick grease and produced billowing black smoke when it burned.

“Shoot!”

Two big fireballs were thrown out. One missed and hit the nearby observation deck, while the other hit the gate right on the ground. A big hole was created in the wooden gate.

“Come again!”

After five or six consecutive hurling of stones, the wooden gate was completely smashed. The general waved his hand, the soldiers formed a formation and rushed forward. The horse bandits were powerless to resist. The remaining red in the west looked like blood, the sound of fighting continued in everyone’s ears, and the cold wind blew in their faces with the smell of blood.

An Yinong also entered the fray. But he hadn’t watched for long when the ground shook slightly. It turned out that a group of horse thieves came from the opposite side, riding horses and waving swords. The general was not afraid at all. He led his cavalry and charged forward, with An Yinong mixed in among them.

“Kill!”

An Yinong held the long sword in both hands, and his hands quickly waved left and right, and the long sword also turned like a fan blade. The arrows shot from a distance could hardly get close to him. He used a very effective cavalry sword technique, but it was mostly used for self-defense.

“Sir!” Wei Menfang rushed forward, leading the way. He raised his hand and slashed with two swords, killing one enemy cavalryman with each sword. Tsk, this was a powerful fighting force.

With Wei Menfang, An Yinong had some free time. He took out the bow and arrow he had asked for before and said, “Sir, please help me with the last arrow.”

Gu Zhengzhong did not show up, but his voice was heard in the air: “Okay.”

An Yinong suddenly felt at ease, as if he had an absolute defensive armor. He drew out an arrow, pulled the bow, and aimed it at the bandit leader holding a bow and arrow in the enemy army.

This archer was the leader of the bandits, their brain, and the person who liaised and cooperated with the Jin and Bai families. He was accompanied by a huge golden eagle, and it was said that this eagle liked to peck out people’s eyes.

The horse was always running and the target was always moving, so it was difficult to aim. But An Yinong’s talent should be in vision, so even if he was always moving, he could see the opponent clearly.

An arrow shot out from his hand and pierced directly into the horse thief’s chest. The bandit slipped off his horse. At the same time, the enemy leader also discovered An Yinong holding the bow and arrow.

“When did a young general in a silver robe with such good aim appear in the garrison?” The bandit leader secretly wondered, and he shouted, “The pretty boy in front, you still want to shoot me with such little strength? You might as well go back and suckle your mother!” As he spoke, he drew his own arrow and shot at An Yinong.

When conditions permit, kill those who can attack from a distance first. This was probably a consensus from ancient times to the present. The bandit leader also wanted to kill him. He shot an arrow as fast as the wind, flying straight towards An Yinong’s forehead.

An Yinong had been staring at him, and he narrowly avoided it while drawing the bowstring.

The horse thief next to him had just been beheaded by Wei Menfang, and blood splattered on An Yinong’s forehead. The bright red liquid streaked across his blade-like eyebrows, and his peach blossom eyes were shining with bright water, like a touch of cinnabar at the corner of his eyes.

He didn’t blink, and even though the horse was running, his hands were remarkably steady. With a “swoosh”, he fired an arrow in response, and this arrow took away another minion.

Because the two men were not far enough apart, the arrow shot by the bandit leader had slowed down by the time it reached An Yinong, making it easier to avoid. The same was true for the arrow shot by An Yinong. The two of them shot several arrows at each other on horseback, predicting each other’s movements and constantly testing each other.

Seeing that he couldn’t kill the young general no matter what he did, the leader of the horse thieves became a little impatient. He blew a whistle, and the golden eagle standing on a metal rack flew up when it heard the sound.

The leader of the bandits pointed his finger at the young general in the silver robe who was shining brightly in the crowd and said, “Go!”

An Yinong was stunned for a moment, but soon calmed down. He immediately drew his bow and aimed at the golden eagle that flew up and swooped down. Unexpectedly, the golden eagle stopped halfway through its swoop, slowed down, and flew around An Yinong twice.

“What’s going on?” Not only was the horse thief leader dumbfounded, but An Yinong himself was also confused.

“I’ve encountered it before.” Gu Zhengzhong’s voice sounded beside him, “Don’t pay any attention to it.”

As he spoke, Gu Zhengzhong’s fingers gently brushed across An Yinong’s bloody cheek, and the spread of blood looked like broken bright red petals. He looked down at the blood on his fingers, then looked at An Yinong, who was like a dragon on the battlefield, and his eyes slowly turned blood red.

An Yinong seemed to understand, but also seemed not to understand. However, he could not care about these things. The most important thing now was to capture the leader of the bandits and completely eliminate the hidden dangers.

Finally, the bandit leader came into An Yinong’s best shooting range, but there was only one arrow left in his quiver.

“Sir, please help me.”

A ball of pale golden light enveloped An Yinong. One hand reached out and held his hand holding the bow, and the other hand pressed down his hand holding the arrow. Their shadows overlapped, and the bow was pulled to its full length, forming a full moon shape.

An Yinong kept his eyes on the bandit leader: “Now!”

With a “swoosh” sound, a cold light condensed on the tip of the arrow, and the feathers on the tail of the arrow swayed in the air.

Countless people were looking at the arrow that was shot out, only Gu Zhengzhong looked down at the heroic young general in his arms, and with a wave of his long sleeves, he grasped the slender waist wrapped in leather armour with one arm.

“If Yinong doesn’t want to be a civil servant, he can be a young general.” The spring breeze whispered in his ear. An Yinong raised his head slightly, his breath paused.