"You are the one who beat up all these people on the ground?" The commandant came over. When he looked at the three Shatu people lying on the ground, an amazed look flashed across his eyes before he looked at Yan Liqiang. After sizing him up from top to bottom, the tone of his voice was somewhat uncertain.
Indeed it was him. No one would believe a delicate youth of about fourteen or fifteen years old like Yan Liqiang to be capable of knocking these three powerful-looking Shatu men off their rhinodrake steeds in just a flash if they didn’t see it with their own eyes. On top of that, those few Shatu men were armed with weapons.
Yan Liqiang was acting as innocent as a baby at this moment, putting up a harmless facade. He only nodded when he heard the commandant’s question. "That’s right. I did that!"
"Why did you do that?"
"I saw them bully my fellow Chinese here. Therefore, at the sight of such injustice, I came to their defense!" Yan Liqiang replied calmly.
"Just what is going on here?" The expression of that black-faced commandant turned even darker, even his voice also deepened.
"Reporting sir, right after that Shatu man passed through the town gate, he suddenly lashed a young man standing by the side to the ground with his whip without any warning. Despite seeing that the young man had been injured, that Shatu man still continued lashing him. That was when this young hero ran up to him and immediately pulled the Shatu man off his horse and got into a fight with him. When the other two Shatu men saw this, they surrounded him and attacked him with their weapons here. I only lost my head when I saw these Shatu men brandishing their weapons here…"
The elderly man who lined up beside Yan Liqiang just now stepped forward on his own accord and gave an account of the incident with a clear summary. After he finished speaking, he gave Yan Liqiang a look of approval.
"That’s right. That’s what happened. All of us can testify to that…"
Everyone in surroundings started talking all at once. The youth who had just been whipped by one of the Shatu men on his face also stepped forward and rained curses on those Shatu men who were lying on the ground. Speaking of the scene that had just happened earlier, everyone in the area was extremely indignant.
At this time, someone who was not too far from the town entrance among the band of Shatu people suddenly yelled in Mandarin. "Let me through, I’m the leader of this caravan. Just what are the Pingxi City’s sentries thinking? Are you thinking of robbing the goods of our caravan in broad daylight?"
The black-faced commandant threw a single glance in that direction with a slight frown. "Let that person through!"
The soldiers standing guard at the town entrance stepped aside. A Shatu man that was more than fifty years old was making his way over there in big strides. He had a huge aquiline nose, grizzled hair, and a pair of sharp eyes. He wore a gorgeous Shatu hat, and his appearance stood out from that of the other Shatu people. After he came over, he assessed the injuries of those Shatu men who were on the ground before the expression on his face became twisted. He lifted one of the Shatu men who was still groaning on the floor, the very same one who had lost half of his ear to Yan Liqiang’s whip, and loudly asked him a few questions. He then suddenly shifted his sullen gaze on Yan Liqiang’s face.
"Your Excellency, our men were injured by this person! I request you all to immediately seize him and let us punish him with the way of the Shatu people!" The leader of the Shatu people pointed at Yan Liqiang with his finger and loudly exclaimed this with an overbearingly arrogant tone of voice.
As soon as the black-faced commandant heard his words, he was instantly furious. "MOTHERF*CKER! Why didn’t you ask him why he had beaten the sh*t out of your people? It was your people who injured the commoner who was entering the town first! This youth only raised his hand because he couldn’t stand watching it any longer!"
"Our people whipped that person because he spat on us. This is an insult to us, the Shatu people!" That Shatu man continued to speak loudly.
"I... Puiii…" That black-faced commandant threw the Shatu leader a glance, inhaled through his nose, and then directly spat out concentrated phlegm that landed on the ground right before the Shatu man’s feet. "This is Pingxi City, Chinese territory. We will spit however we want to spit. What has it got to do with you as long as we didn’t spit on you? Your father, I just spat. So how is it going to be? You guys wanna whip me too?"
The Shatu man’s countenance instantly twisted before he spoke with a sinister voice. "Don’t think you can just simply bully us who are from the Shatu Seven Tribes. If anything happens to us here, the hundred thousand people from our town will not respond well to that. If something bad really happens, can a mere commandant like you take such responsibility?"
Shatu leader’s words allowed Yan Liqiang to once again experience the so-called logic of gangster. To a gangster, if he couldn’t bully you, then it meant that you had bullied him. What f*cking logic...
Shatu Seven Tribes was a somewhat unfamiliar name to Yan Liqiang. He vaguely recalled hearing Yan Dechang mention it once in the past. But he didn’t know anything about it in detail. In the past, his entire life was filled with nothing but cultivation. Therefore, he had very little knowledge of other miscellaneous information. So right now, nothing came up no matter how hard he racked his brain. He only recalled that they were probably part of the Shatu people who had taken up residence at the inner Great Han Empire.
"Your father, I, would really love to take that responsibility today!" That black-faced commandant glared at the Shatu man as he flew into a rage. "If you Shatu people don’t respond well to it then it is the same for me! According to the laws of our Great Han Empire, weapons are prohibited fifty meters within the radius of every town gate and mountain pass. Any violators will be considered to be inciting a revolt and will be punished accordingly as the most severe case. Brothers, round up all these Shatu people and lock them up in the military barracks. Kill anyone who dares to put up any resistance!"
"YES SIR!" The surrounding hundred soldiers responded loudly and thumped the ends of their long spears they were holding into the ground. When all of them closed in on those Shatu men, two of them seemed to be thinking about resisting. Just when they were about to move, a few long spears jabbed towards them, directly hitting their thighs. Both of them fell to the ground with blood-curdling screams. A few soldiers in the surroundings instantly swarmed around them and quickly tied both Shatu men up.
All the Shatu people were tied up in an instant, including their leader. Even their all rhinodrake steeds and camels were detained in custody at a military barrack near the gate tower.
At the same time, Yan Liqiang, the Chinese youth who was whipped, and a few witnesses were also brought inside the military barracks by these soldiers. Compared to the Shatu people, the soldiers who led them to the military barracks treated them a lot better.
After arriving at the military barracks, Yan Liqiang was inquired for his identity, name, reason for visiting Pingxi City, and also an account of the incident from someone else. Yan Liqiang’s statement was recorded on paper so he gave all the facts. At the end, after seeing that the statement had no problems, he also signed the paper and put a thumbprint on it.
After settling everything, he was locked up all alone in a small room by those soldiers.
...
"Damn it, those Shatu dogs are really asking for trouble!" The commandant scanned those Shatu men whose upper bodies had been bound with their arms tied behind their backs along with a rope looped around their necks for a while before he left the field with his other few subordinates, cussing. "We will settle this ourselves so that even when town governor inquires about this, we can stand our ground. Ensure that the statements of those commoners are properly recorded as witnesses, especially the one that had been bullied by the Shatu. Make him insist that all he did was simply spit on the ground when he was going into town before those Shatu people created trouble out of the blue and were the first to hit anyone."
"Captain, rest assured, I have already sent someone to settle this. There will definitely not be any slip-ups…" One of the low ranking military officers immediately assured him.
"Alright!"
The other low-ranking military officer exclaimed in anger, "These Shatu dogs actually dared to draw their weapons at the town gate. Are they not afraid that we would treat them all as enemies and kill them? I’m so angry when I think of it. It’s clear that they are ignoring our existence! If Captain gave us an order that time, I would definitely be the first to run up and kill those Shatu dogs!"
"Oh right, that youth named Yan Liqiang is quite good for his young age. He was able to fight three of them alone and even made a prompt decision to be ruthless to those Shatu people. In my opinion, I think he is an extraordinary youth. Have you gotten to the bottom of his identity?"
"I did just now! That Yan Liqiang was the first among the top three in the Qinghe’s Martial Arts County Trial this year. He happened to come to Pingxi City today to report to Pingxi City’s martial arts academy tomorrow!"
"No wonder!" Realization dawned upon the group of military officers in the surroundings.
"Don’t miss out on that Yan Liqiang. A capable youth with such valor is really a rare sight. If this youth joins the army in the future, he will definitely be a great fighter!"
"Yes, rest assured, Captain. We know what to do!"
While they were talking, a low ranking military officer hurriedly ran over. He even seemed to be slightly flustered. "Captain, we have just checked the goods that those Shatu people were transporting according to your orders. There are some problems with them…"
Commandant Su’s countenance slightly changed as soon as he heard the report before he hurriedly went to investigate, bringing the other officers with him.
At the military barracks, all the boxes, burlap sacks, and the like carried by the Shatu people’s camels had been removed. Among all the things, two of the boxes and burlap sacks had already been opened. Outside those two boxes were a few stacks of dried medicinal ingredients and beneath those medicinal ingredients was a bundle of blades and swords, wrapped with hay. The weapons were gleaming coldly, exuding a chilling, sharp aura.
Those two burlap sacks had also been cut open. There were some beast leathers outside the burlap sacks. However, wrapped within those beast leathers were bundles of arrows.
Just what were these Shatu people trying to do by secretly hiding these weapons among the medicinal ingredients and transporting them into town?
All the military officers on the scene were shocked. There was absolute silence.
The facial expression of that black-faced commandant really went dark this time. He stared at the arrows in the burlap sacks. Without saying a word, he walked in front of them and retrieved one of the arrows inside. He held it up and carefully studied it.
"Wang San, bring me one of your arrows from your quiver…"
That low ranking military officer hurriedly handed over an arrow from the quiver that he was carrying on his back. The two arrows were put together. Both of them were exactly the same, regardless of the workmanship or materials. However, there was only one difference between them.
The base of the metal arrowhead of the arrow from the military officer named Wang San had a special triangular symbol on it. Within that symbol was a Chinese character, ‘Gan’, that could be seen by the naked eye. Beside the ‘Gan’ character was a tiny number, ‘37’. This was an indicator that this arrow was a military weapon manufactured by Qigu Mountain Weaponsmiths Quarter of the Gan Province, specially supplied to the Gan Province army of the Great Han Empire. Its quality was definitely reliable. If anything were to happen to it on the battlefield, they could hold the blacksmith who had manufactured the arrows accountable.
On the other hand, the same spot on the tail section of the arrows’ metal arrowheads found within the burlap sacks of those Shatu people had been deliberately smoothened out with a file to cover up a symbol that was supposedly located there before…
The Shatu people had hidden too many arrows among the goods. Not every arrow could possibly look exactly the same on this same spot. So the commandant searched for a while with a sour face among the bundles of arrows before he finally found an arrow. The symbol on the base of that arrowhead had already been half-smoothed out. Even so, the character ‘Gan’ could still be vaguely seen...
The atmosphere around the commandant as well as everyone around him instantly turned coldly silent as a wave of anger that could hardly be concealed and dismay brought upon by disappointment washed over them...