In any case, being promoted several levels in the military is a good thing, as it saves a lot of years of gaining experience and military merit. The problem Shao Ge'er faces now is to establish his prestige and control his subordinates, and first secure his position as centurion.
At dusk, Guo Shao left the parade ground and went to the barracks to get a mule from Pontus so that he could go back to get his personal belongings for the march and battle. He planned to rush to the barracks that night to inquire about the status of Pontus' mules, horses, and food storage.
There were five or six soldiers accompanying him, all of whom were old subordinates of the Fourth Squadron when Guo Shao was the Ten Generals, and they also happened to live in the south of the city. These people were obviously more familiar and close to Guo Shao, and it was reasonable to turn the Fourth Squadron into his own personal soldiers on the spot. With military power and loyal followers, it would be easier to control the entire city army; but unfortunately, the Ten General of the Fourth Squadron was now Yang Biao, who had just been demoted from the head of the city to the Ten Generals, and there was no way to touch him for the time being. This situation was not pleasant for Guo Shao.
When they reached Zhuque Avenue, Guo Shao told his soldiers to go home and walked alone through the alley behind, leading the mule. As soon as he entered the alley, he heard the sound of clanging and smashing things, coming from Yulian's house.
As expected, when I walked to the door of Chen's house, I heard the sound of beating and scolding and the woman crying. Yu Lian choked up and said, "Let go of my hair and stop beating me. How can I face people when you ask me to do this?"
You slut, how dare you face people? The scolding was accompanied by slaps, and the woman's cries were very miserable.
Guo Shao was immediately furious. He threw away the reins of the mule and saw that the pile of firewood from last night was still outside. He picked up a piece of firewood and rushed to the door, kicking it sideways. The shabby door panel was not kicked open, but flew directly into the house with the rivets. The dust on the door was shaken down. Guo Shao, who was wearing more than 50 kilograms of armor, was as light as a swallow and jumped in with one step.
The room that looked like a hall was empty, with only a table, two round stools and a bamboo chair, and broken porcelain pieces on the ground. A man was sitting on the bamboo chair, holding Yu Lian's hair. The two were shocked by the scene just now, and they looked at the uninvited guest in iron armor with a ferocious look.
Let her go, Guo Shao pointed at the man with a wooden stick and shouted.
The Chen family man came back to his senses from his astonishment, and snorted angrily: The adulterer is here!
There was also a possibility that he had not yet realized the danger he was in. Without saying a word, Guo Shao struck the man on the head with a club. The man instinctively let go of his hand and raised his arm to protect his head. There was a loud bang, a faint sound of bones breaking, and the firewood broke into two pieces. A scream like a splitting lung resounded throughout the alley.
Guo Langyulian was also frightened. Her face turned pale and her shoulders were shaking.
Guo Shao ignored him, threw away the half-broken stick, stepped forward, grabbed the man's collar, and tore off a piece of gray cloth with a loud noise. He threw away the rag, grabbed the man's injured arm with his iron-like hands, and lifted him up from the chair. The man's crying and screaming were unbearable as he was grabbed by his injured and possibly broken arm.
Guo Shao twisted the man, who weighed at least 100 pounds, like a chicken and strode out of the door. He threw him outside, and the man rolled and crawled into the stinking gutter, struggling and unable to get up.
Stop it now, someone is going to die. Yu Lian followed out with a trembling voice.
Guo Shao had a murderous aura and a livid face. He stood there for a while before saying coldly: I have been promoted to the head of a hundred men, and my superior, Commander Wang, knows that the son-in-law of the emperor, Captain Zhang Yongde, has a relationship with me.
He spoke in a low voice, cold and emotionless, but it sounded inexplicably terrifying. He was not showing off, nor was he trying to take advantage of someone else's power. He was just stating a fact: the officials of the two counties in Tokyo would never dare to deal with a captain of the imperial guards without authorization, and the commander of the imperial guards, Wang Degong, would not really do anything to Captain Guo because of Zhang Yongde's face. Yang Biao crippled someone for no reason, and no one spoke up for him, so he was just demoted.
The Chen family man had not fainted yet, and he was crying and looking at Guo Shao in fear. For a while, the two frightened men and women seemed to be unable to comprehend what Guo Shao was saying.
Guo Shao slowly reached out and touched the dagger worn on his waist, and there was a cold sound as the metal rubbed against the scabbard.
What are you going to do? Yu Lian hurriedly grabbed Guo Shao's wrist, her eyes wide with fear. Guo Shao's voice: I helped you dig out the abscess from the wound.
The blade reflected the last ray of light coming in from outside the alley and slowly lifted up. The whole movement seemed to be extremely long. Yu Lian could have tried harder to stop Guo Shao, such as stepping forward to grab Guo Shao's arm; but she didn't do that. Even at the last moment, she didn't even try to persuade him. She seemed to be frightened and just stood there, watching the whole process.
The trajectory of the steel knife was not impatient, but it was unhesitating. A scream was heard, and blood splashed on the earthen wall next to it. The head of the Chen family man fell heavily on the stone in the ditch, and a stream of blood stained the debris and sewage in the ditch red.
With the chilling sound of the blade breaking through flesh and blood, and the air dyed red by the blood mist, everything seemed to be over.
Watching him being killed in the filth, Yu Lian felt very uncomfortable and pitiful for him. In fact, she never really hated this man. Even though he often beat and scolded her, she only felt pity and contempt in her heart.
But mere pity and sympathy could not sustain her in such a difficult struggle to survive. A woman had to endure rumors for years and take care of a disabled husband who was addicted to alcohol. She had long hoped to be free from the suffering one day. Although she didn't want to admit it, this cruel scene really made her feel relieved. It was just that Yu Lian felt guilty for letting a man from outside, a person who was already rumored, kill her husband in front of her.
She didn't even think about how to end the situation after someone died, and was stunned for a while with mixed emotions. Until Guo Shao called her: Go and call people, and ask the neighbors to go to the official shop on the street to file a complaint, saying that I killed your man.
Yu Lian's face turned pale. She turned around and looked at him blankly and said: I'll tell you that she found Guo Shaota wiping the blood off the knife with a piece of cloth slowly after he killed someone.
At this moment, a scream was heard from a house not far away: Murder, murder!
Yu Lian followed her instructions and quickly went to call the neighbors, saying that it was Shao Ge'er who killed someone and everything was true.
After a while of confusion, she gradually figured out what happened in the past two days. Last night, Guo Shao said that he was not sure about what he said, and just now he said that he was promoted by making friends with so-and-so. It was because until last night, he was still not sure whether he would be severely punished for killing someone, but today he finally believed that killing someone did not require a life sentence.
This person is very deliberate and will not act recklessly even when he is impulsive, but he is very cruel when he is sure of victory, and his killing methods are even more brutal. He is really a terrible person. However, Yulian realized that he is not the kind of person who will do anything to achieve his goal, because he does not kill for himself at all.
Even if killing someone doesn't mean you have to pay for it, there will always be trouble and a price to pay. Killing the man from the Chen family obviously won't do him any good. Moreover, he gave the land deed to Yulian for free this morning. Why would he be so nice to her? Yulian naturally thought that Shao Ge'er was interested in her. But after thinking about it, it still didn't make sense. Shao Ge'er was tall and strong at a young age. He had just been promoted to the head of a city. It was not difficult for him to marry a virgin girl. If he just wanted to cheat, there was no need to go through so much trouble. He had many opportunities in the blacksmith shop and didn't need to do so much. Even if he came by force, no one could punish him because there were rumors in the market that Yulian was not a good wife.
Not long after, the police arrived. The first to come were the officers from the government shop on the commercial street. The two officers saw that Guo Shao was armed to the teeth in armor and knew there was no way they could deal with him. Then the officials from the county government brought more people, and the coroner also went to the back alley.
Guo Shao was seen sitting in the shop, with the murder weapon on the anvil beside him, as if he was waiting to be caught. Outside, a group of officials in black clothes and countless onlookers gathered, but no one dared to enter the shop.
It was the first time that Yu Lian looked at him so carefully in the crowd. She was confused as to what kind of person he was.
At this time, the officials dispersed the people a little, and a coroner clasped his fists and said: The victim has died, his left arm is broken, his shoulder is dislocated, and his face was chopped by a sharp knife, causing a fatal injury.
A man wearing a wooden lacquered gauze hat and a blue cloth round-necked wide robe pointed at Guo Shao and asked: You killed the person, why did you kill him
I killed him. That Chen was rude and irritated me, so I wanted to beat him up to vent my anger, but I accidentally killed him. Guo Shao sat there without moving, looking very rude. But looking at the color of the official's clothes and the style of his hat, I knew he was a low-ranking official, maybe not as high-ranking as Guo Shao, the head of the imperial guards.
A man wearing a tall hat next to him wanted to step forward to arrest the man, but suddenly he saw Guo Shao reaching out to pick up the knife next to him. The officer was startled and stepped back two steps, blurting out: You are committing murder, and you dare to resist!
Unexpectedly, he stood up, picked up the barrier knife and just threw the knife out to show that he would not resist, and took the initiative to explain: I am Guo Shao, the head of the small army under the Palace Front Division, commanding the north of Fengqiu Gate, and the commander is Wang Degong.
After hearing this, the official quickly stretched out his hand to stop the chief of the police and whispered: Send someone to the north of the city immediately to inform the general of this matter.
The person next to him asked: What should we do with the criminal
The official pondered for a moment and said, "Take the body in the back alley back to the government office for autopsy and collect the murder weapon. After the case is investigated, report it to the judge first and then make a decision. Do not act rashly. Leave a few people here to watch, go in and ask Guo Dutou to go to the back first. It would be better if he can write a confession."
Seeing that Guo Shao was fine, Yu Lian outside quietly went to the back alley and returned to her home to wait.