"Get up." The first one to notice was Gong Shufeng. He sat up from the linen blanket and shook his sleeping brother.
"What happened?" the latter asked vaguely, covering his head, "Is anyone here?"
"I don't know, but it's better to be careful." Gongshu Feng replied in a low voice. The person riding a horse in the countryside at this time is definitely not an ordinary person.
If it were a thief, he would generally not attack a group of hundreds of refugees. First, you won't be able to grab anything valuable, and second, you'll easily lose your men. But this is just a general situation. Who knows if an accident will happen. Once the crowd runs away and stampedes, it will definitely not go wrong to be prepared first.
Gong Shufeng looked towards the dark north and with the help of the faint moonlight, he could vaguely see a group of people approaching here. Many of them were holding torches, and judging from the size, there were also hundreds of people.
By this time most people had woken up.
As wanderers, they had an instinctive reaction to this situation. The young and strong men picked up sticks and pitchforks that could be used to defend themselves and faced the direction of the intruder. The women, the elderly, and children gathered in a group, anxiously waiting for the danger to pass.
However, when these people approached to dozens of steps, Gong Shufeng took a breath of cold air. The opponent's weapons and equipment can be said to be all-inclusive. Not only is he wearing armor, he has a bronze helmet on his head, and he also has a hand crossbow hanging on his waist. The clothes under the armor are also neat and tidy, and they don't look like they are often worn when sleeping outdoors.
Robbers don't have such configurations!
"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Someone asked boldly.
"I am the steward of the farm," a horseman yelled over there, "I am very merciful and willing to take you in. Pack up now and follow us on the road immediately!"
Farmstead
Take in
These words made the crowd excited.
"Where is Zhuangzi?"
"Do you want hundreds of people?"
"Why don't they come during the day?"
While everyone was shouting, Gong Shufeng smelled a hint of uneasiness.
He noticed that the torches were spreading out in all directions, which was clearly a sign of encirclement. If they were just here to collect people, why did they bring so many well-armed servants? If it is to protect the management and maintain continuity, a dozen people will be enough.
At this moment, a slight sound of strumming strings reached Gong Shufeng's ears.
His expression suddenly changed, and he pushed his brother down under him, "Get down!"
That sound he was all too familiar with was the tremor of the machine's bowstring rebounding!
However, the arrow was not aimed at the young and strong men in the front row, but at the old, weak, sick and disabled in the middle. Only a series of whooshing sounds were heard, and screams and wails suddenly broke out from the crowd. In the blink of an eye, dozens of people fell to the ground, life or death unknown.
"Take it down," the steward ordered.
The cavalry swarmed up from all directions, driving their tall horses into the crowd, instantly cutting the refugee group into pieces. Facing well-equipped enemies, wooden sticks and pitchforks were simply unstoppable. In addition, their relatives were attacked, and everyone's fighting will was already at an extremely low level. They were completely shattered in one encounter.
The battle lasted less than twenty breaths before it came to an end.
Even because they were surrounded by the opponent in advance, few of the hundreds of refugees even escaped.
Everyone was forced to kneel on the roadside, waiting in horror for their fate.
It seemed that this was not the first time that these people who claimed to be from Tuntianzhuang had done this kind of thing. They skillfully separated the refugees, then picked out the young and strong men with intact hands and feet, and took them aside alone.
Seeing this, Gong Shufeng already knew exactly what the other party was going to do.
The people in the grange want to take these people as slaves!
This is absolutely illegal. No one, even a homeless person, can take it as personal property. This is not only to prevent local forces from becoming stronger, but also to prevent excessive acts of robbery and plunder from causing public dissatisfaction. If you want to obtain a slave, there is only one legal way, which is to sell it through a government authorized person. A contract of sale is required before it can be recognized.
"This man has a good frame and a pretty straight face. He might be able to fetch a good price in Gaoguo." A man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks commented after watching Gong Shufeng for a while, "First-class goods, take them away alone."
"Yes!" Two servants immediately grabbed his arms and pulled him out of the crowd.
Gong Shufeng was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead. He originally thought that the biggest risk of taking the land route was bandits and bandits, but he never expected that he would encounter such an unbelievable thing! If this kind of thing were done in the Xu State, it would definitely be a crime of confiscating the family and exterminating the clan. No matter how arrogant the local wealthy family was, they couldn't possibly risk the disapproval of the world, right
There should be Privy Council officials stationed in Huiyang City!
Aren't they afraid of being liquidated if the news is leaked
"What you are doing is illegal!" Gong Shufeng couldn't help but said.
He is not really worried that he will be sold into slavery. As a public loser organiser, he has many ways to prove his identity to those in power. What he is really worried about is that he will not be able to fulfill the old lady's instructions after being exposed, which will delay family affairs.
But the other party ignored him at all and looked directly at the next person.
"What's wrong with this man? Could it be that he has an epidemic?" The man looked at Gong Shujin a few times and said, "He's very sick. He's not a good guy. He's also young and can't do any hard work. Well, let's deal with it on the spot."
"Wait a minute, that's my brother, where are you taking him?" Gong Shufeng yelled, "Let him go!"
One of the servants raised his fist and punched him in the abdomen.
"Shut the hell up!"
Another person brought a hemp rope and said, "Tie him up, this guy is quite strong."
"Be careful, don't hurt the first-class goods." The man in charge of the appraisal frowned and said, "Just cover your mouth with the piece of cloth, don't do anything."
Seeing that Gong Shujin was about to be taken away, Gong Shufeng no longer cared about so much.
With a sudden movement of his luck, he pushed his shoulders from left to right and pushed the two servants away a few steps.
This is the power given to him by the Qi Senser.
"Stop," Gong Shufeng shouted.
"Be bold!"
"You still dare to resist!?"
Several servants following the man pulled out the long swords at their waists in unison.
"I am from the Privy Council, and so is that man." Gongshu Feng lowered his voice and stared at the other person and said, "Now I have something important to do and must act in secret. If you don't want to be ransacked and beheaded afterwards, you'd better not get in my way. The two actions. Let us go now, and we can pretend that this never happened."
"Privy Council House?" The sharp-mouthed man looked at Gong Shufeng with a straight eye for the first time.
"The name of the leader of Huiyang Mansion is Wu Qingping, fourth-grade Hundred Blades, right?" The latter said word by word, "If you don't believe it, you can contact the city and ask the Privy Council Office to send someone to confirm the identity."
This is absolutely information that refugees cannot access.
Of course, this fourth-grade Hundred Blades didn't know him, but as long as he was a Qi-sensing person, the Privy Council would not sit idly by.
Speaking of this, Gongshu Feng is also betting. He bet that the other party would not dare to really trouble a Privy Council member Bairen, but would let him and Gong Shujin go on the basis of the idea that one more thing would be better than one less thing. In that case, he still has the possibility of continuing to Jinxia, although this setback has greatly increased the possibility of exposure.
The sharp-mouthed man indeed showed a look of suspicion and fear for a moment. He stopped the servant who was about to take Gong Shujin away. After hesitating for a moment, he said to the two of them, "You guys wait here for a while, I will go ask the housekeeper for instructions."