Chapter 166 What do you want?

The city of Youzhou was surrounded on all sides, and the campfires of the Yan army were everywhere, forcing the defenders in the city to dare not close their eyes all night long, for fear that they would be beheaded before dawn.

However, the hundreds of thousands of Yan troops of various types outside the city were just partying all night long, with a deafening noise that disturbed people's sleep.

When the Yan army was rising, of course no one could have imagined that they could actually besiege Youzhou. Ninety-nine percent of the people who took refuge in Danzhou at that time just wanted to survive.

Who would have thought that in just over two months, this Yan army would actually become a force to be reckoned with, not only approaching the city of Youzhou, but also looking at the whole of Hebei, as long as the reinforcements from the Central Plains had not arrived, it seemed that the Yan army had almost no rivals. Now the situation has finally been determined, and all that is left is to choose a day to attack the city.

It is rumored that there are millions of gold and silver shipped from Bianliang to reward the army in Youzhou City, enough to hundreds of thousands of strings. In addition, the current King of Yan once minted coins out of clay, and the money hoarded for more than ten years is also in Youzhou City. How can it be more than tens of millions?

This news had been secretly circulated in the Yan army for a long time, and almost everyone was just talking about it with details. In addition, Liu Shouwen had said in person in Danzhou at that time that the two angels from Bianliang brought countless gold and silver, so how could it be false?
For a time, Youzhou City was regarded as a treasure trove by the various Yan troops. Even though the combat power of each unit was almost the same as that of refugees, and Youzhou City was flanked by Dingbadu and Yichang armies, the Yan army was still ready to take the city and share wealth with the King of Yan and the Crown Prince.

How can the Yan people allow the Liang people to interfere in Hebei?

…………

The Yan army was very powerful and they surrounded Youzhou, and there were countless rebel troops looting in all directions. Not to mention those heading west and east, these rebel troops knew that the north of Yan had been in chaos for a year and there was almost nothing to gain. Only by heading south could they feel a little more prosperous.

Although Yuan Xingqin had already issued strict orders not to cross the Gaoliang River to the south, many rebel troops still took advantage of the situation to plunder to the south. They were not stupid and knew that even if Youzhou City was broken, the benefits they would get would be pitifully small. So why did they join the rebel army? To survive was one thing, and to seek war profit was another.

Where did the war money come from? It came from the people of Hebei, or from some small forts and small tribes that had no ability to protect themselves. They were all good targets for the rebel army to plunder.

Yanbei has been almost completely ravaged, so naturally it has to sweep into Yannan, which is richer than Yanbei.

For this part of the chaotic army, naturally they would not think about the saying that they were all from Yan. This was all bullshit. What was the meaning of the chaotic world? If you can't fill your own stomach, everything else is bullshit!
However, the strange thing is that as long as the rebel army crossed the Gaoliang River and advanced southward, no news would be reported back, and when they asked for instructions from the Yan army’s central camp, they simply ignored it.

……

"Ta Tata..."

More than 20 miles southwest of Gaoliang River, in Zhuozhou, there was flickering fire on the bank of Liuli River. Several riders were fleeing northward in panic. Their fur hats had long fallen off, revealing their long hair that was greasy, dirty and smelly.

But in this deep winter season, the riders were sweating all over, with cold sweat streaming down their foreheads, and they couldn't stop it.

Some people cursed loudly.

"Didn't they say that the people of Mobei are in the same group with us? Why did they suddenly attack us?"

"Fuck! There's something weird, definitely something very weird!"

The leader at the head of the group galloped along in the light of the torches, looking back and panting, "I've noticed that something is wrong with the Yan army of the Liu family. When they started the rebellion, they had no people and no food, but they stopped us from looting the countryside. When have the father and son of the Liu family ever been so kind to us? If you insist that they have changed their nature, I'll admit it! But this time there are no troops stationed in Zhuozhou, and the people from Mobei are so obedient and have not harmed anyone when they came south? What kind of people are the people from Mobei? We don't know it yet."

He suddenly spat out a mouthful of saliva and said viciously: "There is definitely something strange about the Liu family! This damn Mobei Army is also weird!"

Someone casually said, "Could it be that someone forced the Liu family father and son to start a rebellion..."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone shuddered uncontrollably. Their backs felt cold and their scalps felt numb. An inexplicable fear arose in their hearts.

The person who spoke first retorted in disbelief: "Who can be so capable? This is not just forcing the Liu family father and son, but also for more than 200,000 Yan people! Now Youzhou is surrounded, who has the ability to control more than 200,000 people?"

The riders were silent for a moment. Yes, who has this ability?
Now that Youzhou is under siege, huge wealth is right in front of them. Even if there is some conspiracy or trick behind it, the Yan army's attack on Youzhou is a foregone conclusion. More than 200,000 people are working hard every day, and they are not here to play around with the Liu father and son. Even if Liu Shouwen suddenly says that he will not attack Youzhou anymore, I am afraid that the first to rebel will be the marshals and generals under him!
Even if Youzhou City is a fire pit, Liu Shouwen can only jump down with his eyes closed. Otherwise, there will be more than one knife on his neck.

After all, these are not just a few hundred thousand pigs, but more than 200 thousand hungry, desperate, greedy and violent rioters. They are more than 200 thousand insurgents struggling on the line between life and death, full of resentment but holding knives!

Now the situation has come to the current state. If the resentment of more than 200,000 people is not released, the people who try to stop them will probably be the first to suffer. No matter if it is the Liu father and son, or any other powerful figure, they will be torn to pieces.

The current situation has no choice but to push these 200,000 people forward. There is no way to strangle them again, let alone being controlled by someone.

The leader running in the front just sneered and said, "No matter what, almost all the people we brought with us died. There is nothing we can do if we go back. Not to mention that we will be punished by military law, at worst we will be annexed. Why go back? But after this incident, no matter how I look at the Yan army, I feel cold all over. I can't stay in the Yan army anymore. I don't know if we will die inexplicably one day like today. How about going back to my hometown in Liaodong?"

"We are just a few people, what good can we expect from returning to Liaodong?" Someone said dissatisfiedly, "Not to mention the deaths, we didn't even get a single piece of property! We left all our belongings in the camp, and we're just leaving like this?"

The leader sneered viciously: "Who said I'm going to go back like this? There's something strange about the Liu family. I have to make some money before I leave! We'll spread the news here when we go back, and maybe we can take some people away. We won't care about Youzhou anymore, we'll just fight our way back to Liaodong. Humph, Liu Rengong is the King of Yan, can't we just be a self-made king?"

Everyone around was shocked by his clear train of thought and sighed, "It must be the boss. I was just wondering why you were the first one to escape. It turns out you had a plan in advance."

The chief laughed triumphantly, turned his head to look back, and was about to open his mouth.

But at the moment of looking back, his body suddenly fell forward, and the horse under him neighed miserably, lowered its front hooves, and both he and the horse fell forward together.

The torch in his hand also rolled in the snow and suddenly went out.

When the sound of the ground hitting was heard suddenly, there was also a chaos in the rear. Several riders reined in their horses. Due to inertia, their mounts were suddenly stopped and they all just neighed loudly.

The leader's cry of grief suddenly rang out, but the riders behind him had no intention of paying attention to him. They only saw a flash of cold light in the dark night, and a figure wearing a bamboo hat half-kneeling in the snow, holding a Tang sword horizontally in his right hand, motionless.

At this moment, a drop of blood fell from the blade, and then fell drop by drop on the snow. The sound was particularly clear in the dark night.

The riders then realized that it was this man who suddenly appeared just now and cut off the front leg of their mount when their leader was caught off guard.

Several people couldn't help but feel cold. They had fled northward at the beginning of the battle. They had obviously thrown off the pursuers long ago. When did these people catch up with them? When did they block their way?
Could it be that he accompanied them all the way?
"He's just one person, you're not afraid of him, kill him and save me!"

In the snowy field in the distance, the leader howled and cursed in pain: "My leg is broken, kill him and help me push this dead horse away!"

As soon as the riders looked at each other, they all tightly grasped their swords.

At this time, the figure in the bamboo hat who was half-kneeling on the ground finally raised his head and let out a wicked laugh.

"Fuck! Pretending to be a god..." A rider shouted and was about to charge forward.

But almost at the same time, a cold light suddenly flashed in the distance, and then the others heard a sudden sound of footsteps on the ground, and saw a residual shadow falling from the sky, landing on the back of the horse behind the rider.

"Click."

Before the rider could increase his speed, he felt two hands as hard as iron suddenly grab his neck and twist it violently.

The next moment, his head turned backwards 180 degrees at a strange angle, with one eye still retaining some consciousness, just enough to see the person falling on his horse.

In the dim firelight, the old mask, the faded bamboo hat, the mottled temples...

Before the knight could see clearly, his eyes went dark as his entire head was suddenly pulled out by the person behind him with great force. Flesh and blood were ripped off like a piece of lotus root, and wisps of blood were scattered along with the head on the snow.

When the riders behind him saw this scene, their pupils suddenly shrank.

However, they did not remain afraid for long, because behind them, several figures suddenly fell at the same time, and at the same time, a crisp sound of bones breaking could be heard. "Crack..."

The leader, who was pinned down by his dying mount in the distance, felt his scalp tingling. Even though he considered himself a ruthless man, his teeth could not help but chatter.

In the sight, the heads of several riders were pulled up in unison, in an orderly manner, like a visual feast.

But the leader's heart and liver were already broken with fear, his teeth were chattering, but he stopped wailing now, and with his hands he pushed desperately against the mount that was pressing on him, his mind was almost blank, and he only wanted to retreat.

He had been wreaking havoc from north to south, robbing and killing many people, but he had never seen such a sight before. How could these be human beings? They were clearly a group of killers that had fallen from the sky!
"Kill them all, well done."

On the ground, the man in the bamboo hat with a wicked laugh didn't even look at the headless corpses on the ground. He gave a thumbs up to the people on horseback and said, "You old guys are the best. You even saved the effort to finish them off."

His voice was hoarse, but the voices of the men on horseback were older and colder than his.

"Stop talking nonsense, deal with it quickly, and let's go see if there are any fish that have slipped through the net."

Several riders rode away, leaving this man alone. He rubbed a handful of snow, wiped the blood off the knife, and slowly walked towards the leader.

The leader finally got out, but his broken leg prevented him from running away. He could only shrink back and said urgently, "Don't kill me, I'm useful, I still have a lot of money, spare my life, I'll do anything for you!"

"You are a very quick-witted kid." The man in the bamboo hat laughed. He squatted in front of the leader, poked his chin with the tip of his knife, and asked, "There is something strange about Liu's father and son. Did you notice it yourself, or did someone tell you?"

"It's me, it's me." The leader swallowed his saliva and said dryly, "In fact, I have long seen that the Liu family father and son are not behaving the same as before. Liu Shouwen rarely shows up in the camp, and most of the time it is Yuan Xingqin and that Li Mang who do it for him."

After that, he rolled his eyes and added, "But I told a few people before, don't kill me, I will take you to find them."

The man in the bamboo hat smiled with interest: "You are indeed smart, boy."

The leader's face lit up with joy.

But the man in the bamboo hat laughed again and said, "But no need, we can check it ourselves."

"Don't! Don't!" The leader saw him suddenly stand up, his face was terrified, he crawled back a few steps, and said urgently: "From your accent, you can tell you are from Hebei. I am also from Hebei. Why did you help that Mobei man to kill me? Yan people don't kill Yan..."

"puff."

Before he could finish his words, the Tang sword suddenly stabbed into his throat and twisted it rudely.

Blood kept gushing out of the chief's mouth and he couldn't stop it. His eyes were wide open in disbelief at first, but suddenly became lifeless and dim.

"In my life, I have killed very few Yan people, including you."

Gong Yangzuo took off his mask and spoke in a nonchalant tone, as if he felt like he had killed a dog.

He looked at the dead horse with regret and secretly sighed that he shouldn't have tried to show off just now.

Then he looked up to the north and silently wiped the Tang sword.

"It's chaos, it's chaos...

I've had enough of Hebei."

------

More than ten miles south of Liuli River, a camp stood silently in the night.

Around the camp, the torches on the walls of the camp were twinkling, illuminating the snowy night and the series of captives in the vast silence. Mobei cavalrymen came and went, and the sound of horse hooves was clearly audible in the night.

"I am really a Yanren. Why are you helping the Mobei people to kill me? It's just some looting...ah!"

In the camp, the screams of the beheaded people continued to be heard, and at first there were also curses, but in the end, all the captives were almost silent, and dared not make any sound. After the main culprit was beheaded, the remaining captives were finally imprisoned together, and the heads piled on the ground were finally taken away.

However, unlike inside the camp, the four sides of a corner tower in the camp were unusually quiet. Even if there were occasional Mobei generals passing by, they would just walk by quietly without daring to make a sound.

Xiao Yan was wearing a cloak and just held the hilt of his sword to look north. The fields were dotted with stars, but he did not hear any noise. He just looked quietly to the north.

Since his soul entered this world, he has been pursuing forward, never stopping. Authority, strength, power... But now that the lives of hundreds of thousands of people are in his hands, he doesn't know what he wants anymore.

When he first woke up in Caozhou, he had vowed in his heart that in this new life, he would put an end to all unrest in his own hands. He did not want to live like in his previous life, relying on others for his livelihood. He wanted to take control of the world and put an end to this chaotic world, so that he would live up to this new life.

But now, what he said about not living up to this new life sounded more like he was willing to sacrifice everything for power, even the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

Maybe this is not what he wants.

But the screams and curses of those who were beheaded before they died seemed to tell him that this was what he wanted.

In this chaotic world, looting has become commonplace, and killing is just a matter of taking a blade of grass. Is it the world that is in chaos? Not entirely, it is the human heart that is in chaos.

However, this human nature is not formed overnight, but is the result of decades or even hundreds of years of accumulated problems.

When indiscriminate killing becomes the norm and order becomes empty talk, people's hearts are no longer united and the world is in turmoil.

If we do not move forward with this great cause and the troubled times continue for a few more decades, we will truly have wasted our lives.

"..."

Xiao Yan stopped thinking about it, pressed the hilt of the knife at his waist, and finally turned around.

If this world advocates killing and abandons order.

He wanted to let the world see clearly what is tyranny and what is the way of heaven.

He just wants to end it all.

"Tell Yuan Xingqin, Li Mang, and Yu Zhong that the situation is irreversible and we can close the net now."

Behind him, You Yi, who had been waiting for a long time, bowed and came down.

"I have received your order."

(End of this chapter)