noffsinger Chapter 382 Blocking the City Gate
Chapter 382 Blocking the City Gate
The city gate of Changnan Prefecture.
"Uu——"
Yu Jiusi reined in his horse at the front of the team, followed by three thousand soldiers and an endless stream of grain transport convoys.
Waves of yellow dust were kicked up by horse hooves, blinding everyone's vision.
The city guard saw Yu Jiusi's face froze, and he turned his head to talk to his companion. While the two were talking, he looked at Yu Jiusi frequently, as if he wanted to remember his appearance.
One of them took a last deep look at Yu Jiusi and the team behind him, untied the horse tied at the gate of the mansion, and walked away into the mansion.
The guards at the door stood still, waiting for Yu Jiusi to step forward.
Yu Jiusi grinned at him and raised his hand to gesture.
He saw the elite soldiers he brought with him dispersed in an orderly manner, and each team leader gave orders in a deep voice.
"Teams A, B, and C, stay here and guard the main gate!"
"Ding, Wu, Ji, spread out to guard the side gates! Geng, Xin, Ren, stand by, and don't let any suspicious people out!"
The people at the city gate knew something was happening. They were terrified, and they could neither enter the city nor leave it.
The leader of Team A rode forward and shouted to the people at the gate: "Hurry into the city and wait. Don't stay here!"
Out of sight of Captain A, the soldier winked at someone in the crowd.
Then, someone in the crowd shouted in panic: "We won't go in! You are here to kill us! If we go in, we will be hacked to death! You are evil ghosts from hell, evil ghosts!"
Team Leader A was stunned and immediately scolded: "Nonsense! You are misleading us! We are just..."
"But what!"
Someone did not let him finish his words and shouted at the top of his voice:
"This isn't the first time this has happened! Have you forgotten that during the years of famine, the imperial court had a precedent of killing people to save food! Every time you kill a person, you can save some food every day! Killing ten people can save several kilograms of food!"
The people were horrified when they heard this. They did not even think about when the court had done this before. Instead, they followed the crowd and shouted in fear along with the man.
"It must be like that. If not, why did these people surround the city gate as soon as they arrived? Let's squeeze out together. If we get out, we still have a chance of survival. If we stay in the city, we will be lambs to be slaughtered!"
"No! We can't let them in. If we let them in, we will all die in the city! Sir! Sir! Close the city gates quickly!"
"Yes! Yes! Close the city gates and don't let these evil spirits in!"
Suddenly, there was chaos at the city gate, but the people obviously failed to coordinate well. Some wanted to close the city gate, and some wanted to squeeze out of the city, causing everyone to be stuck there, unable to go up or down.
Xue Mai, who was outside the city, was stunned. He walked to Yu Jiusi's side and pointed at the door and said:
"Are they crazy? They are so hungry that they are pale and skinny like ribs. How can they have such loud voices and such strength?"
Yu Jiusi looked at the city gate, a trace of sadness flashing in his eyes.
He asked Xue Mai: "Don't you think that what they said...may be true?"
Xue Mai was so shocked by his words that he forgot about hierarchy and turned around to ask, "Are you crazy too? Bullshit! The current emperor loves his people like his own children and would never do such a thing!"
Yu Jiusi looked at him steadily and suddenly laughed.
"you're right."
He turned around and hailed a carriage. The driver immediately took the order and drove to his side to wait for orders.
"Let's go." Yu Jiusi called out to Xue Mai, "Please protect me well and keep an eye on the palace soldiers. Don't let me be shot to death in the chaos."
Xue Mai drew his sword from his back and said through gritted teeth, "How dare they? I won my position as a lieutenant with real swords and guns. They are just government soldiers, stinky minions!"
Yu Jiusi walked in front, and Xue Mai followed him towards the city gate.
Team Leader A glanced at the city gate, his face dark, and stepped forward to ask Yu Jiusi:
"General, what should we do? We can still hold them back now since there aren't many people there. But if the people in the city get wind of this and come over, we and Captain Xue won't be able to stop them unless we shed blood..."
He gritted his teeth, hardened his heart and tried to test: "How about we arrest a few civilians..."
"What nonsense are you talking about!" Before he could finish his words, Yu Jiusi kicked him and said, "Go back to Beijing and receive the Ten Military Strike Sticks yourself."
Team Leader A is the same as the other nine team leaders. He was a soldier under Yu Jiusi when he was still a centurion in the army. When they came to Changnan Prefecture to provide disaster relief this time, Yu Jiusi deliberately selected them with the intention of giving them a hand.
He was very convinced by Yu Jiusi, and had no resentment for being punished. He just explained in a low voice:
"General, I don't intend to kill the civilians. I just want to capture these two people... to establish our authority."
Xue Mai looked at him with disdain and said, "What a bullshit for showing off your power. If you dare to make a move, we will be accused of entering the city to kill people. How did you get along with Lang Jiang if you are so stupid?"
Only then did Team Leader A realize how naive his thoughts were and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Please forgive me, General. I was inconsiderate! I will return to the capital voluntarily to receive twenty military sticks."
Yu Jiusi motioned him to move aside, turned around, picked up a stone of grain, and walked to the people.
The people were still making a fuss, and when they saw Yu Jiusi coming, they became even more excited: "Who are you? You will be punished by God for doing this!"
Yu Jiusi stepped forward, picked his ears, and asked, "What's the matter?"
He drew his sword and stabbed the sack of grain.
The sack was already bulging, and now that he had poked a big hole in it, the grains in the sack fell to the ground in strings like golden rain, and in a few moments had piled up into a small hill.
Yu Jiusi let the food fall, and even complained that the food was pouring too slowly. From time to time, he shook his shoulders and raised his hands to make the food pour faster.
What the people saw was the golden grain being ruthlessly dumped on the ground by him, which was heartbreaking.
They gradually stopped making noise and instead looked at the food on the ground, swallowing their saliva frequently.
It looks like this year’s new rice... I wonder how delicious the white new rice will taste after being peeled!
While everyone's attention was on the food, Yu Jiusi turned his head and said to Xue Mai, "Will remember the first person who started to disturb the people later."
For a moment, the only sound at the gate of the city was the people swallowing their throats. The soldiers saw that the situation was not good and knew they could not stay still any longer. They pretended to step forward and asked:
"Who are you, soldier? Why did you surround the gate of Changnan City?"
Yu Jiusi glanced at him and looked at the people.
"You said I did this kind of thing. I want to ask you, what else can I do besides delivering food to you?"
"Send food?!"
The people exclaimed and looked behind them.
Yu Jiusi turned sideways and raised an eyebrow, introducing them: "Food - free."
The people looked at the horse-drawn carriages carrying grain with disbelief on their faces, but the endless number of carriages made them begin to consider the truthfulness of Yu Jiusi's words.
At this moment, a discordant voice rang out from the crowd: "Impossible, if he wants to send us food, then why doesn't he let us leave the city?! If he wants to send us food, why not just do it openly!"
Xue Mai locked onto the target and quickly stepped forward.
But the person he was walking towards was not the people who had just spoken, but...
Palace soldiers.