Chapter 192: Killing the Enemy

Chapter 191 of Dafeng Night Watchman Jingcha Fengyun Killing the Enemy According to the Dafeng Geography, Yunzhou is 60,000 miles long and wide, and is rich in products, including agriculture, porcelain, and herbs. Before Emperor Wuzong rose up, Yunzhou was ranked among the top five in terms of wealth among all the states in Dafeng.

The official road is long and winding to the horizon, with black soil fields on both sides and rolling mountains in the distance.

Not long after the sun rose, the air still had the low temperature of last night, and a team of more than a hundred people slowly moved forward on the official road.

The sound of horses' hooves was mixed with the rumbling of wheels.

"In the early years of Yuanjing, the total population of Yunzhou reached 5 million. After that, the Yellow Book was compiled every ten years, and the population gradually decreased. In the 30th year of Yuanjing, the population of Yunzhou was more than 3.5 million. Now it is the 36th year of Yuanjing, and there are four years until the Yellow Book is remade. I wonder how many people are left in Yunzhou?"

Governor Zhang lifted the curtain and said with emotion.

The population reduction of 1.5 million in 30 years is very scary, and the actual population reduction will be even greater than this. Because the land in Yunzhou is fertile, there is no need to worry about famine unless there is a natural disaster.

That is to say, if the population can grow steadily over 30 years of normal reproduction

From 5 million to 3.5 million, it is not a simple subtraction. The actual population reduction must at least double. Xu Qi'an cursed: "What a hell of a place."

Governor Zhang glanced at him and continued: "Half of the population loss is due to heavy taxes. They abandoned their fields and became refugees, or went to the city to find another way to make a living, or became bandits. These people are not recorded in the Yellow Book.

"Then there is the serious bandit problem, burning, killing and looting, which makes the situation worse. Sometimes, in order to supplement the labor force, the mountain bandits will take the initiative to go down the mountain to rob the people. Oh, of course, the mountain bandits are not included in the Yellow Book. "

Xu Qian'an looked into the distance silently, listening to what Governor Zhang said, while analyzing in his heart

There were still 5 million people in the early years of Yuan Jing. In the 10th year of Yuan Jing, the population was still shrinking. In the 30th year of Yuan Jing, there were 1.5 million people. The number of people was really much higher. Yunzhou took a sharp turn for the worse in the past 20 years. It was almost the beginning of Emperor Yuan Jing's cultivation of Taoism.

Because Emperor Dafeng was obsessed with cultivation of Taoism, the Wushen Cult felt that they had an opportunity? The Wushen Cult had been plotting for more than 20 years, and it would definitely not be a small fight. Dafeng and the countries led by the Wushen Cult must have a war.

As he thought about it, he tilted his head and almost fell asleep.

"You are not in a good mental state." Governor Zhang looked at him and frowned, "What's wrong? "

The governor remembered that Xu Qiyan had been law-abiding and had not lingered in the Jiaofangsi all the way, so he should not be so exhausted.

Xu Qiyan turned his head and smiled bitterly at the governor: "It's nothing, I just became a master of time management."

This was his eighth day of sleeplessness. His brain was throbbing with pain, and his blood vessels seemed to be bursting. When he was eating this morning, he even had a slight hallucination, thinking that Xu Lingyin was stealing his meat buns.

His eyeballs were bloodshot and his eye circles were dark blue, which reminded Xu Qiyan of living in a blessed society with a 996 schedule, and occasionally having to experience 007, which was also miserable.

"There are two more days. I should be able to advance to the realm of refining spirits after these two days. I can't let myself fall asleep, otherwise I will fail. Why do I feel my heart beating so hard?"

Xu Qian'an took a deep breath, took off the water bag and poured it on his head to stimulate his body and cheer up.

A caravan of 300 people was trudging on the official road. Flatbed carriages were pulling goods. Under the waterproof cloth were silk, tea, porcelain, and rouge powder, which were produced in Yunzhou.

There were also some special products of Yunzhou, such as snake saliva inkstones and yellow crystal stones.

The owner of the caravan was a man with a face full of flesh, named Zhao Long. In his early years, he was also a famous hero in Yunzhou Jianghu, and he was good at both black and white.

Tired of the days of licking blood on the edge of a knife, he relied on the reputation he had earned in his early years and his connections to do the caravan business.

He could always take care of the mountain strongholds along the way, leave Yunzhou steadily, and distribute the goods to various places, making a lot of money.

Over time, many merchants were willing to spend a lot of money to join Zhao Long's caravan in order to seek safety.

Zhao Long's caravan has evolved into a half-merchant and half-dart caravan.

Yang Yingying was one of the people who hid under this big tree to enjoy the coolness, but she left Yunzhou as a lone person and spent twenty taels of silver to ask for the caravan's protection.

After all, a weak woman like her could never leave Yunzhou independently. She might be kidnapped by bandits on the official road one day and become the wife of the leader.

With her beauty, she is more than qualified to be the wife of the leader.

Yang Yingying was originally a woman in the Yunzhou Jiaofang Division. When she was young, she was also a courtesan. Later, she was fortunate to meet a good man who redeemed her and kept her in the yard as a concubine.

This year, she is over 30 years old, but her appearance has not diminished. Instead, her figure has become more plump, adding to the charm of a mature woman. She has a pair of bright almond eyes, and her eyes are full when she looks at people.

Yang Yingying, who was riding on horseback, noticed the fiery gazes of the escorts around her, and could not help but tighten her cloak and bury her head lower.

At first glance, her hands were protecting her plump breasts to avoid being profaned by the gazes of some men, but in fact, she was protecting an object in her arms.

It was this object that forced her to leave Yunzhou.

An escort looked at Yang Yingying's back with greed. Riding on horseback, her skirt was close to her body, and the tight outline of her buttocks was really tempting.

The strong escort squeezed the horse's belly, caught up with Yang Yingying, and grinned, "Beauty, play with me tonight. All the money I earned on this trip belongs to you. Ten taels of silver. "

Yang Yingying turned a deaf ear to him, neither responding nor refusing, just pretending that he didn't exist.

The escort said a few more words, and seeing that the beauty ignored him, he left cursing.

Several escorts who were familiar with him laughed and ridiculed him. But there was disappointment in everyone's eyes. This woman was stubborn, and they had no chance either.

Several escorts who had lives on their hands had a fierce look in their eyes. If this beautiful woman who traveled alone hadn't met Boss Zhao, she would have been eaten to the bone.

Zhao Long, who was in front of the caravan, raised his hand and made a gesture, and the escorts immediately drew their weapons, as if they were facing a great enemy. But the knife was only half unsheathed, which was an unwritten rule of escorting.

Everyone is in the rivers and lakes for money, and they won't fight to the death unless the gap in strength between the two sides is huge. What's more, Boss Zhao has always had some face in the underworld, otherwise he wouldn't eat this bowl of rice.

Seventy or eighty people jumped out of the dense forest on both sides of the trail, with bright swords and spears. More than twenty riders rushed out on the fork road, all of them were strong and powerful.

Zhao Long was a little puzzled. He walked this road several times every year. He knew exactly which road section needed to be taken care of and which hilltop needed to be respected.

When did such a group of bandits appear in this forest? Zhao Long pressed his hand, signaled his escorts to be patient, rode forward a short distance, and said loudly:

"I am Zhao Long, what kind of gang did you do before?"

As he got closer, he suddenly realized that something was wrong. These bandits had crossbows hanging on their waists and standard long swords in their hands. These were all military equipment.

Zhao Long had heard that some large villages were not short of military supplies, with sabers, crossbows, and even muskets, but they were all top-level bandit villages and should not appear here.

"Ning Yan, you look like a sick man who was hollowed out by a woman. "Song Tingfeng and Xu Qian'an went hand in hand, taking the opportunity to tease and ridicule.

Xu Qian'an glanced at him and said lightly: "I have a friend who asked me if I have Sitianjian's aphrodisiac and kidney-tonifying pills."

Song Tingfeng's smile froze.

"My friend is Zhu Guangxiao. Guangxiao, you already have a fiancée, why do you work so hard?" Song Tingfeng threw the blame to Zhu Guangxiao.

Zhu Guangxiao looked at him silently, but felt unwilling and retorted: "I am kind to women. You eat too ugly. Every morning, the girl who sleeps with you can't get out of bed.

"You don't know how to restrain yourself, and you have depleted your body."

Warriors are strong and energetic, but even if they are Bull Demon Kings, they will be depleted of qi and blood after working from dusk to dawn every day.

"I'm awesome." Song Tingfeng was not convinced and smiled proudly: "Only the girls from the Jiaofangsi can cooperate with me to their heart's content, even though they are also exhausted from parrying."

"Tingfeng"

Song Tingfeng heard Xu Qian'an calling him and turned to look over: "What are you doing?"

"It's not that you are awesome, but that people can tolerate your insignificance."

"Get lost."

Amidst the laughter and scolding, the leader Jiang Luzhong said in a deep voice: "There is a smell of blood ahead, everyone get ready."

The sound of the blades coming out of the sheath was uniform, and the Tiger Guards and the night watchmen drew their sabers at the same time and took off their crossbows.

"Charge!" Jiang Luzhong squeezed his horse's belly and rushed out.

The governor's team instantly entered the marching state, with extremely fast speed and orderly.

After marching for ten minutes, a dense forest appeared in front of them, and the wind brought a strong smell of blood.

When they entered the dense forest, sharp arrows shot from both sides, attacking the night watchmen and the Tiger Guards who were running wildly.

Jiang Lvzhong raised his hand and pressed it down. The rain of arrows hit the invisible air wall and fell powerlessly.

He waved his hand and said, "Hu Ben Army, enter the forest and kill the enemy."

As he spoke, Jiang Lvzhong looked forward. Hundreds of corpses were lying on the official road, and the ground was stained with blood. The horses were killed and the goods transported by the caravan were scattered all over the ground.

He immediately analyzed the situation because he smelled the blood in advance and ordered the team to charge. When the bandits heard the sound of horse hooves, it was too late to retreat, so they ambushed in the forest.

Fierce fighting sounds came from the dense forest. The Hu Ben Guard was one of the five guards in the capital. Although they were not as brave and good at fighting as the imperial guards, they were far better than the local army.

The number of people on both sides was not much different. Arrows and blades crossed, and the fight was back and forth.

Jiang Luzhong was stunned for a moment, a little surprised, and turned to look at Xu Qi'an: "Ning Yan, have you killed anyone?"

"Killed one and seriously injured another." Xu Qi'an looked at the caravan with corpses on the ground and reported the battle record casually.

Jiang Luzhong sneered: "A kid who hasn't grown all his hair yet."

The night watchmen laughed.

Except for Xu Qi'an, a rookie who has joined the night watchmen for less than two months, the others are experienced warriors who kill without blinking an eye.

Jiang Luzhong pointed at the forest and said: "Go, practice your hands, and kill at least ten."

Xu Qi'an retracted his gaze and slowly exhaled: "Okay!"