Chapter 664
Dai Yun furrowed his brows and followed his men out. He saw that there was something wrong. There was a frightening amount of people outside though none of them wore armor. The only sole comfort is that these people weren’t Jiangdong’s troops.
“What happened?” Dai Yun asked one of the 1000-men commanders.
“General, I too, do not know. These people came all of a sudden and spoke angrily. They may not have swords but they are still armed. They also wanted to force their way into our barracks. So I ordered the soldiers to ready the arrows and push them back.” The 1000-men commander replied.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
“Arrows?” Dai Yun’s eyes grew wide and anxiously asked. “How many casualties are there?” The reason they were here was so that they do not harm the common people and gain the popular sentiment of Jiangdong. If they lose that then not only would they need to expand a lot of effort to gain Jiangdong but Jiangdong itself would be worthless.
“None yet.” The 1000-men commander shook his head. He was not an idiot. They only readied the arrows as a warning.
“How are they here?” Dai Yun asked. The barracks was inside Jianye city. This meant that the common people had to first get pass the walls. Was there no one defending the city? Dai Yun could not help but look at Huang Gai skeptically. However, it was not time to think about this. It was more important to deal with the mob.
“Good. Let’s go talk to them.” Dai Yun nodded. The 1000-men commander also nodded.
“For justice!”
“Murderer!”
“Bring the Yangzhou Army out!”The people shouted.
“Everyone, calm down!” The 1000-men commander shouted towards the mob but his voice was drowned out by sheer numbers.
“Pass down my orders! Raise your bow!” Dai Yun ordered.
“Yes!” The 1000-men generals all gave the order.
“Shoot twenty paces in front of the common people! Fire!” Dai Yun gave the order and the Yangzhou New Army quickly implemented it like elites. The archers followed the sounds of the drums and fired the arrows right in front of the common people. This surprised the mob enough to silence them.
“Everyone. I am sure you all still remember me. I was looked at highly by His Highness which is why I managed to become a 10,000-men commander of the Yangzhou New Army.” Dai Yun said to the people.
“We recognize you. You are Yangzhou’s General Dai Yun.” One person said. Dai Yun had thanked each and every one of the people that sent their livestock over, so they all recognized him as a warm and cordial person.
“Aren’t you from the Patriarch of the Qiao Family? Why are you here? Are you here to cause trouble?” Dai Yun asked. One of the people that gave food to the Yangzhou Army was from the Qiao Family. He thought that this old man was sensible so he never expected to see this old man with the rebels.
“General Dai. I am not sure to look for trouble. I am here to seek justice.” The old man may be aged but his heart was definitely not old enough yet. He was even holding a rolling pin.
“We are seeking justice!” The group of people behind shouted in unison.
“Seeking justice?” Dai Yun asked while furrowing his brows.
“Did my subordinate agitate the common people?” Dai Yun’s expression darkened and he turned to one of the 1000-men commanders. “Zhang De. Did your men agitate the people?” Dai Yun gave the order that none of the soldiers were allowed out of the barracks without any orders. So most of the stayed inside and trained. Only Zhang De and his men could leave the barracks. Ṛ𝖆𐌽ǒ𝖇ÈⱾ
“General! I am accused wrongly! Other than my five hundred men that are on guard duty, the remaining five hundred were either training or resting. We did not leave the barracks at all. How could we have agitated the people?” Zhang De replied. The number of rebels were almost like the ones outside of Xinye in the past. If Zhang De had agitated the people, he would really need to suffer the consequences. Fortunately, he was not at fault.
“It is not your people? Then who?” Dai Yun asked. “Was there anyone else that left the barracks?” If anyone wanted to leave the barracks, they would have to get past Zhang De’s men. So Zhang De would know if anybody had left.
“That’s right. General Chen did go out saying he accepted your orders.” Zhang De replied.
Dai Yun then remembered. He had given Chen an order. “Is it from the time we returned the livestock to the people?” Dai Yun furrowed his brows.
“General! We do not dare take back those livestock! You were all there to kill people!” Old man Qiao said emotionally after hearing Dai Yun’s words.
“Our villages were massacred by the people returning those livestock! There is nothing left!” He added.
“Massacred? Impossible!” Dai Yun could not believe that his subordinates would do such a thing.
“What do you mean impossible? If you don’t want those gifts, so be it! Why did you have to attack us? Other than my son, the rest of my family… Everyone is gone!” The man said emotionally. Other than his son Xiao Yi, the rest of his family were killed.
Xiao Yi saw his father cry and started crying as well.
“Murderer! You must pay with your life!” The others shouted as well.
“Hm?” Dai Yun immediately become angry. “Zhang De. Bring Chen…, no. Arrest Chen and bring him here!”