For those soldiers of the Forbidden Army, it was not scary to see people being killed at close range, and many of them had even killed people before. However, when the person who was killed turned into Gao Qiu, the impact was enough to make them extremely frightened, especially when he was forcibly stripped of his clothes and killed in front of everyone while still alive. This was worse than him being stabbed by someone. Stabbing to death is even more horrific, making people tremble and sweat profusely until this moment.
And when Sun Tu's eyes suddenly fell on them, the last bit of backbone of these people was gone, and they no longer dared to have any other thought except kneeling down and begging for mercy. Sun Tu looked at them and said in a calm voice: "Everyone, what happened today is unexpected. I didn't expect that Captain Gao died of a serious illness due to the severe cold weather, old age and frailty. This is indeed our responsibility. We should report to the court to investigate. It’s the responsibility.”
When these soldiers heard what he said, they were all a little confused, and they couldn't keep up with his rhythm at all. Fortunately, he continued: "However, after all, we have the responsibility to go north to support the army, and we cannot delay the military plane because of the death of one person. Therefore, in my opinion, what we should do now is to take the high-ranking troops with us first. The corpse of the Taiwei was rushed to the north. Until then, it was not too late to report the matter to the court.
"Of course, since Lieutenant Gao died of an illness, in order to prevent the disease from spreading in the army, we should cremate him first and take only his ashes with us. What do you think of my idea?"
Most people were still a little confused and didn't even hear what Sun Tu said. However, there were still a few smart people who understood the meaning of his words and immediately said loudly: "Hou What I said is true. We should put the overall situation first. It would be safer and more convenient to burn his body and then take it with him on the road... "
These few words finally awoke the frightened Forbidden Army and Gao Qiu's guards. In a moment, hundreds of people nodded crazily like chickens pecking at rice, and agreed repeatedly: "What the Marquis is thinking about is , we shall obey your orders and never dare to disobey in the slightest."
"That's good." Sun Tu smiled with satisfaction: "In that case, I ask you to take action and cremate him." He waved his hand to indicate that they could take action.
At this time, Gao Qiu had been furious for a while, and his body was frozen solid. Only his eyes were still staring ahead with great reluctance and resentment, seeming to accuse Sun Tu, and also seeming to blame his subordinates. Waiting and refusing to die for protection. When several people on the side wanted to take action, Lieutenant Gao shuddered when he looked at his eyes. However, after looking around, he found that the people of the Tiger Army were still surrounding him, staring at him eagerly. He gritted his teeth and stepped forward to move the body.
These soldiers already understood in their hearts that Sun Tu did not intend to kill them all, but just in case, they needed to hand over their surrender certificates. Burning Gao Qiu's corpse was the surrender they had to submit. As long as they did this, they would never be able to stay out of it. Once the court knew the truth and investigated it, none of these people would be able to escape guilt. .
Hundreds of people worked very quickly. In a short time, enough firewood was piled up, and Gao Qiu's body was placed on top of it. A Forbidden Army military attache held a torch. After a slight hesitation, he finally bit his teeth and threw it on the dry wood.
In just the blink of an eye, the flame
It had spread, igniting all the surrounding firewood, and began to devour Gao Qiu's cold and stiff corpse... It was only then that Sun Tu, who was watching from the side, waved his hand, and the surrounding Tiger Ben army officers put down their weapons, leaving only Some people were watching from the side, while others returned to their respective camps.
It is said that although they did not participate in the battle that night, they stayed up all night and were already exhausted. Although the matter was over and it was already dawn, it was obvious that we couldn't leave today, so we might as well go back and have a good sleep first to recuperate our spirits and wait until dawn tomorrow before hitting the road again.
Sun Tu, on the other hand, remained energetic until he saw Gao Qiu completely turn into ashes. After he asked someone to find a box and put a handful of it in, he then ordered people to spread all the other ashes around - truly fulfilling that sentence. Kill you and scatter your ashes.
And his act of killing people and raising ashes made people even more afraid, especially those of Gao Qiu's personal guards, who were all like quails, staying in place without even daring to move. Seeing this, Sun Tu just smiled: "You don't have to be nervous. The death of Captain Gao was just an accident. I will explain it to the court when the time comes, and you will not be held responsible. But now I have something else I want you to cooperate with. Where are the assassins we captured yesterday? Bring him to the tent to talk to me." With that said, he stepped into the luxurious tent that belonged to Gao Qiu and sat at the top of the tent without any hesitation.
At this time, how dare these people disobey Sun Tu's order? Someone immediately ran to the nearby camp and brought over the captured assassins. The faces of these people were full of surprise and relief at the same time. Although they were imprisoned in a small tent, they also had a basic understanding of what was happening outside through listening. Especially when Gao Qiu died, the sound was like cuckoo cries of blood and the screams of fierce ghosts made them convinced that this was not a show. The big enemy they wanted to kill at all costs was really killed in front of them. The young general was eliminated.
Seeing them looking at him with surprise and suspicion on their faces, Sun Tu didn't get angry. Instead, he smiled and introduced himself: "I, Sun Tu, do you know what your identities are?"
Hearing his name, several people were obviously shocked, and then a man raised his head and replied: "It turns out to be General Sun. I have heard your name for many years over the years. I know that you are now a member of the Song Dynasty's official army." A rare good official, a famous general... We dare not hide it from you. More than ten years ago, our brothers were all members of the Tokyo Forbidden Army and soldiers in the Longyuan Army. But later, they escaped because they were killed by Gao Qiu. The capital has become a group of hunters in Daming Mansion..."
Sun Tu nodded: "I see, it seems that the hatred between you and Gao Qiu is also very deep."
"The hatred is as deep as the sea!" Another man gritted his teeth and said: "I still remember clearly to this day. At that time, Gao Qiu had just been appointed as the prefect of the palace. In order to establish his authority, he actually framed General Xiang, the commander of the Longyuan Army. We were thrown into death row. And when we wanted to redress General Xiang's grievances, he blocked us in every possible way. In the end, he even confused right and wrong, and accused us and three hundred brothers in the first battalion of having evil intentions, and tried to kill all of us. Executed to death.”
Having said this, the man glanced at the man who spoke at the beginning: "If General Fan hadn't rescued us in time and led us out of the camp, I'm afraid we would have died more than ten years ago.
A bunch of lonely souls who died unjustly. It's a pity that our family members didn't have time to leave Tokyo, and in the end they were all accused and killed by Gao Qiu. Poor, my wife just got pregnant, one dead and two dead..." When mentioning these past events, the muscles on this man's face were distorted, his eyes were red, and he even shed tears that he had never seen before when he was seriously injured and was about to die. It flowed down unconsciously.
Everyone else also showed hatred on their faces. Although they didn't say anything, they obviously remembered the hatred from back then. Finally, the man who spoke at the beginning spoke: "General Sun, this is the reason why our brothers risked their lives to assassinate Gao Qiu. Now that he has been executed, we are willing to die. You just call If someone takes action, we will never have any dissatisfaction."
Sun Tu smiled and shook his head: "Since you already know that Gao Qiu was killed by me, why do you have such an idea? What reason do I have to kill you? Come and loosen their bonds."
Several assassins were greatly surprised. They thought that they would inevitably die, but they did not expect that the other party had such an attitude. After being untied, several people stood up straight with difficulty, but looked at Sun Tu with more confusion: "General Sun, don't you plan to put the blame for killing Gao Qiu on me and others?" Come on?" In their opinion, this is the most logical thing to do. Once this happens, 90% of Sun Tu's responsibility will be removed.
"Haha, although I, Sun Tu, am not talented, I can't do such a thing to frame others. Since I dare to kill him, I will naturally have a way to deal with the aftermath. Why should you bear the blame? So I asked you to come here. The purpose of this is to ask about your relationship with Gao Qiu, and secondly, so that I can give you an explanation."
After several people listened, there was another period of silence, and they had a little more respect for Sun Tu. Sun Tu took the opportunity to ask: "By the way, I haven't asked for your names yet."
"I'm Fan Qi, these are all my brothers, Zhao Huang, Cen Bohu, Guan Dingwu..."
"You are the leader of all of them, right?" Sun Tu glanced at Fan Qi and asked.
The other party nodded: "Exactly, I was their chief general in the Longyuan Army before, so they have always regarded me as their leader."
"What about the dozens of people who escaped before?"
"They are just like ordinary people. They are all brothers of our Long Yuan Army, and a few of them are my nephews who escaped from the capital by chance."
"So you have been relying on hunting for a living these years?" After the other party nodded, Sun Tucai said: "Now that your great revenge has been avenged, have you ever thought about how to go in the future?"
"What does General Sun mean?"
"I think you have two choices now. One is to go back and continue to be your hunter. Without enemies like Gao Qiu, I believe that with your ability, you will be able to live well in Daming Mansion."
Several people said nothing because they had already heard that Sun Tu's focus was not on this. Sure enough, I heard him continue: "But in this way, you have wasted all your skills. I can see that you are all rare masters in the Forbidden Army. Whether it is archery or martial arts, you are all top-notch. It is too wasteful to only use it for hunting. So this second way is to use it as a useful body and serve the country again, so as to gain another fame. What do you think?"