(TL Note: The original form of the title is from a poem by Du Fu, which writes that the man failed to complete his quest before his death. The author changed it to meeting Yama King to better suit the context.)
Lu River, An State.
A group of thousands of Imperial Court officials was marching along the main road. Their spears and halberds formed a steel forest, and their flags were like clouds.
Commander Liu rode on his war horse and walked at the front of the army, occasionally turning to look at the advancing troops.
“It’s not easy for me to lead the troops into battle. This time, I have to show my skills and fight for military merits…”
His eyes flickered.
He was the leader of the Lu River’s An Zhou Prefecture. After receiving the order of the magistrate, he led thousands of An Zhou troops to meet up with the troops of the other states in order to attack the Red Cloud Mountain.
In the past few years, the Imperial Court had not had much war. Only the border army would occasionally fight against the foreign races, or the northern troops would occasionally slay the bandits.
The current Emperor did not like the military. Many places had not mobilized weapons for many years, and a large number of Imperial Court military officials had nowhere to obtain military merits. Especially in a southern area like the Lu River, there was even less chance to fight. The soldiers rarely trained, and many of them had turned into farmers. Moreover, most of their armies no longer had a complete organization, instead only existing in name to claim wages for empty headcounts. The silver obtained from the empty headcounts then flowed into the pockets of the generals at all levels.
The magistrate of An Zhou Prefecture had given him 6,000 troops on paper, but only about 3,000 of them were here in person. The other states were in the same situation. Everyone was earning money like this.
Commander Liu knew this very well, but he would not expose them. After all, he was also someone who benefited from the empty headcount wages.
The soldiers gathered in the four prefectures of Lu River this time had a headcount of 30,000. However, in Commander Liu’s opinion, it was already not bad if they could break through 10,000 people.
However, he did not care too much.
It was just suppressing bandits. Tens of thousands of soldiers were enough. He even felt that it was too much.
The total number of Red Cloud, Tiger Head, and Huang Dang bandits was 20,000 to 30,000. It sounded scary, but they might not possess more soldiers than their current army.
Moreover, it was still unknown if he wanted to eliminate this hideout completely…
When they heard that the Emperor was about to go south for an autumn patrol, the magistrates of the Lu River Prefectures might really want to eliminate the bandits, but the military officials also had their own thoughts.
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Commander Liu planned to meet the other prefectures’ commanders first. If the situation was feasible, it was fine to raise the bandits like cattle. Otherwise, if he really killed all the bandits, how would he have the chance to send troops in the future?
They did not lack the courage to suppress the bandits, but they had even more of such courage to use the name of suppressing the bandits to earn money.
However, they did not dare to affect the Emperor’s autumn patrol, so they still had to fight. They had to win, at least trapping this group of bandits on the mountain for a few months.
Just as Commander Liu was deep in thought, a scout rode back to report.
“Report! In front of us is the territory of Yellow Creek County. This subordinate visited and discovered that something had happened here. The county magistrate was assassinated yesterday, but the murderer did not hide his name and spread a “Writ of Purging Evil” all over the city. He called himself Chen Feng and even plundered the county magistrate’s money to spread it to the people.”
Hearing this, Commander Liu immediately widened his eyes and said in surprise, “Chen Feng?!”
This was the first time he had heard this news.
Among the four states of the Lu River, An Zhou Prefecture was the closest to Jiangchun, and the prefecture capital was even closer to Jiangchun.
After Zhou Jing committed the crime in Wenshui County, he did not hide. Instead, he committed the same crime as before. Now, he had already committed a crime in three county cities, with the last crime in Yellow Creek County.
Coincidentally, Commander Liu had just set off from the state capital and missed the news. His direction of march happened to be the opposite of Zhou Jing’s. Thus, his information gap remained until he passed by this place and bumped into this matter.
“Sir, please take a look. This is the document written by that villain Chen Feng…”
The scout presented a ragged looking piece of paper.
Commander Liu hurriedly took it and looked down. He realized that the evil deeds of the county magistrate and the others were written on it in charcoal. Finally, there was Chen Feng’s “Declaration of Purging Evil”.
“Swear to kill all the corrupt officials and tyrants in the world? Hmph, young man, you don’t know the immensity of heaven and earth!”
Commander Liu snorted coldly, his face full of disgust.
As the leader of a prefecture, he had always looked down on grass. Now that he saw Chen Feng boasting, he subconsciously felt even more disgusted.
“You’re just a commoner. So what if your martial arts are strong? How can you change this world?”
“Chen Feng is wanted by the Lu River states. Not only did he not hide his identity, but he also dared to show off and kill people everywhere. How arrogant!”
He thought that Chen Feng would temporarily disappear after leaving Red Cloud Mountain, but he did not expect to discover this person’s whereabouts here.
Commander Liu rolled his eyes in thought and immediately had an idea.
Although the goal of the expedition was to attack Red Cloud Mountain, Chen Feng’s crime of killing an official was a serious crime in the eyes of the Imperial Court. In fact, this person was related to this expedition to suppress the bandits. Capturing him would be a great merit.
Although he still had to bring the troops, since he had discovered this person’s traces, how could he sit back and watch his credit slip away?
Commander Liu was secretly a little excited. He even felt that he was lucky.
“This thief Chen Feng committed a crime yesterday, so he shouldn’t have gone far… Release all the scout teams and search for this person along the way. Once you discover the bandit, bite down and send someone to report. I’ll temporarily camp near Yellow Creek County.”
Without thinking much, he immediately made arrangements.
This trip was only to meet up, so he was not worried about delaying the military. It was not a big problem to delay here for two to three days.
If he could not find Chen Feng’s whereabouts in a few days, this person would most likely have gone far away and would be difficult to catch. At that time, it would not be too late to turn around and march. He naturally knew what to choose.
…
On the other side.
Zhou Jing and the others passed by a village teahouse. Seeing that the sun was fierce, they temporarily took a rest.
There were no other customers in the teahouse. Everyone took their seats and asked for tea and soup before chatting casually.
“After following Brother around to uphold justice for the heavens these past few days, I feel like I’ve lived in vain in the past.”
Hong Dingxian spoke softly, but his tone was quite excited.
Ever since Zhou Jing helped him get rid of his enemies, his respect for Zhou Jing had risen to a new level.
Moreover, in the past few days, his horizons had been broadened. Chen Feng’s violent personality had made his heart surge. He felt that this was how a man should be. When one saw injustice, one should pull out his saber to eliminate it. Regardless of what kind of noble the villain was, one should still kill him without hesitation.