Chapter 231 Qi Bei
As soon as the front row of troops became chaotic, the large force behind them stopped immediately.
While they were checking the situation in chaos, Su Qingqing, Rong Que and Jixiang had already quickly retreated to the ambush point they had chosen previously.
These bandits appeared suddenly, were well-equipped, well-prepared, and had large numbers, but their fighting effectiveness was average.
The identities of these people are really strange.
If you don't know the identities of these people, you can only rely on sneak attacks like this for three to five times at most. After too many times, even a wooden opponent will know to be on guard.
Moreover, the place where they were stationed was not convenient for a sneak attack.
Hiding in the dark, Su Qingqing held a piece of ginseng in her mouth and tried to stay awake, staring straight ahead with her eyes fixed.
"What's going on!"
In the crowd, a tall and strong man in silk clothes rode his horse from the back to the front. Sitting on the horse, he looked at the half-disbanded crowd on the ground and asked loudly.
At that time, the rope of the fishing net tripped a person and he fell to the ground. However, Jixiang had already pulled out the rope from the other end where the thread end had been buried in advance.
Now a group of people got up from the ground and searched around, but they couldn't find what had tripped them.
"Marshal, so many of us tripped at the same time. Someone must have blocked the rope here."
The man called the Marshal kicked the man in the face and said, "Bullshit, you stopped the rope, but where is the rope? Did you eat it?"
The man was kicked and smiled awkwardly: "Maybe someone took it away during the chaos just now."
The Marshal stared at him and waved his hand, "Search! Search! If someone really managed to pull the rope away while you were all falling over, then this bastard wouldn't be able to get far. Search!"
Leaving about a hundred people to search the mountains nearby, the Marshal led the rest of the troops straight back to his lair.
There was such a big commotion in the old nest just now, and we don’t know what kind of trouble has happened.
As soon as the main force left, Su Qingqing used the tip of her tongue to push the ginseng slice in her mouth against her back teeth and winked at Jixiang.
Auspicious meaning.
The three of them couldn't take down a large army, but for the hundred or so people who were scattered around, especially those with average kung fu skills, a sneak attack by the three of them would be a piece of cake.
Holding the dagger in his hand, the sharp blade of the dagger slashed across the throat of the person in front of him without any pause.
He knocked the man down, dragged him away, and stuffed him directly into the dry grass in the forest.
More than a hundred people were investigating in the mountains and forests, and every now and then one of them was missing.
It took Mo Xiao half an hour to knock them all down. Finally, Rong Que captured one alive and carried him out of the forest.
Rong Que threw the man onto a huge rock at the foot of the mountain. "Who are you?"
The man captured alive by Rong Que stared at Rong Que with horror, trembling and almost losing control of his bladder, "Please spare my life, my good man, please spare my life."
Rong Que pinched his neck and lifted his feet up in the air, "Who are you!"
He asked word by word.
The man didn't even struggle, and said directly: "We came from Qibei."
Qibei?
Su Qingqing and Rong Que were immediately shocked.
If I remember correctly, Qibei is the hometown of Rong'an Hou.
"You came from Qibei? Why?"
The man said, "Qibei was recruiting soldiers, and we were all recruited. No one wanted to go to the battlefield, so we found an opportunity and escaped with the grain we had just collected.
We are a group of newly recruited soldiers. Our superiors asked us to go to the county to collect grain. Our commander decided to collect the grain and then run away. "
"Your commander? Who is he?" Rong Que asked.
The man said, "Our Marshal is the leader of our group. When we went to the county to collect grain, we new recruits were led by more than a hundred veterans. The Marshal was a cavalry lieutenant at the time."
"Why is Qibei recruiting soldiers?" Su Qingqing asked.
The man stared with horrified eyes, "Of course the court wants to go to war."
Rong Que and Su Qingqing looked at each other and asked, "Why did you come to Datong?"
"There was another group of people escaping with us at the time, but we were afraid that if we escaped together we would be too conspicuous, so we fled separately.
According to our escape route at that time, Datong was the most suitable place. "
"Then why are you robbing the county towns here?"
"Our commander-in-chief said that since a group of us suddenly appeared somewhere, we would be too conspicuous to be recognized, so it would make sense for us to pretend to be bandits.
Moreover, although we had a lot of food, we had no money.
When you go out, you must have money with you. "
Su Qingqing: ...
You robbed and you felt so righteous about it.
"What about the other group? When will they arrive? How many people are there?"
"They have the same number of people as us, with one thousand men. We have one cavalry lieutenant for one hundred veterans, and one hundred veterans for one thousand recruits. Logically, they should be closer than us, but I don't know why they haven't arrived yet."
"When did Qi Bei start recruiting new soldiers?" Rong Que asked.
The man thought for a moment and said, "It seems to have started in November. I'm not sure exactly, but it was winter now. There was no sign at all. Suddenly they started arresting people all over the street. Anyone who was not disabled and could lift a hoe was arrested."
"Who organized the conscription?"
"The government posted a notice saying that the court was going to recruit soldiers, and those who didn't want to serve had to pay a fee to buy themselves out. The fees varied. Those over 60 had to pay 10 taels each, those between 60 and 30 had to pay 50 taels each, and those between 30 and 15 had to pay 100 taels each. If you could afford it, you didn't have to serve, but if you couldn't, you had to serve.
Who can afford this? Anyway, we have been arrested."
"The whole Qibei ?"
"The whole Qibei."
The entire Qibei includes three offices and sixteen institutes, and its territory is very vast.
The sudden conscription was carried out when the imperial court had no intention of doing so at all.
"How to arrange the newly recruited soldiers?" Rong Que asked.
The man said, "We were recruited and had to train for eight hours every day. Sometimes we practiced with spears and swords, sometimes we practiced running. Some of those who were good at riding horses also practiced riding horses. Anyway, the training was very hard, otherwise we wouldn't have wanted to run. The food in the barracks was very good, with meat for every meal."
"New soldiers are training, where are the veterans?" Su Qingqing asked.
"The veterans accompany the training and give guidance. It's almost like one veteran leads two new recruits."
Despite such a large population base, we can still provide them with meat for every meal.
The intensive training means that these newly recruited people are very likely to go to the battlefield right away.
Such intensive training is required in order to improve combat effectiveness and victory rate.
In addition, having meat for every meal is probably also intended to replenish these people's physical energy so that their bodies can reach the state required for combat in a short period of time.
Once such a large group of people emerges, it will be a force that cannot be underestimated.
