295: Chapter 295 Barbarians

Meanwhile, inside a small courtyard within Baoqing Prefecture City.

A middle-aged scholar was reading a book.

Just then.

A young girl in a cloth skirt arrived carrying a food tray, placed it on the stone table in front of the middle-aged scholar, and said gently, "Father, it is time to eat."

The middle-aged scholar was named Kong Jing. Five years ago, he had been demoted and exiled to Baoqing Prefecture.

Kong Jing put down the book in his hand and looked at his daughter, Secretary Kong Wanwan, who was setting out the meal, and asked, "How is the situation outside?"

"Father, let us chat while we eat,"

said Secretary Kong Wanwan.

"Very well!"

The next moment, the two picked up their bowls and chopsticks and began to eat.

Secretary Kong Wanwan began, "Father, I have discovered that this rebel army called the Fierce Tiger Army is somewhat different from other rebel armies."

"Oh? How are they different?"

Kong Jing was not a pedantic scholar; he would not judge something or someone without understanding them.

After eating a small piece of pork rib, Secretary Kong Wanwan continued, "Whenever other rebel armies capture a city, they inevitably engage in all sorts of burning, killing, and looting. But this Fierce Tiger Army is different; after entering the city, they have not committed a single crime against the common people!"

A look of surprise flashed in Kong Jing's eyes. "It seems this rebel army has grand ambitions."

After all, among the rebel armies he knew of, very few did not burn, kill, and loot the common people.

Secretary Kong Wanwan took another small bite of rice and continued, "What is even more interesting is that this rebel army brought out a lot of grain and sold it to the common people in the city at a low price. Currently, many commoners have been able to buy grain!"

"How low?" Kong Jing's expression became more serious.

"They are selling rice for one tael of silver per shi. The rice we are eating today was also bought by people I arranged!" said Secretary Kong Wanwan.

"That low?"

Kong Jing was also taken aback. Due to the terrain and the lack of arable land, there were very few paddy fields in Baoqing Prefecture, so the production of rice was naturally even scarcer.

Therefore, rice was already a luxury item for the common people.

The market price for ordinary grain was two taels of silver per shi, while rice cost at least three taels of silver per shi.

The Fierce Tiger Army selling rice at one tael of silver per shi was definitely a loss-making endeavor.

Suddenly,

a question occurred to him.

How did this Fierce Tiger Army transport so much grain into Baoqing Prefecture?

Those three thousand men alone would not be enough.

Moreover, those three thousand cavalrymen did not seem to bring any grain when they entered the city, did they?

Where did the grain come from?

He reasoned that it was very likely the leader of the Fierce Tiger Army possessed a large-capacity storage item.

His grain was all stored inside a storage item.

Consequently, he became interested in this Fierce Tiger Army. "Wanwan, is there anything else you know?"

Seeing that her father was interested, Secretary Kong Wanwan said, "That is all I know. After all, they have only been in the city for half a day. If we want to learn more information, we can only inquire slowly!"

"That is true!"

Kong Jing nodded and asked with some confusion, "However, your father finds it strange. This Baoqing Prefecture is not a place to start an uprising at all; it lacks grain and people. Why would this Fierce Tiger Army come to Baoqing Prefecture to start an uprising?"

"Perhaps they think the mountains and waters here are beautiful!" Secretary Kong Wanwan joked.

Time flew by until it was past three in the afternoon.

With the continuous sale of grain, almost all the common people in Baoqing Prefecture City had been won over.

At the same time, Chen Hu also learned about the situation of the other two commandery cities in Baoqing Prefecture.

One of the two commandery cities was named Yunshui Commandery, with a pitiful population of only 500,000.

The other commandery city was named Shanshui Commandery, with an even smaller population of merely 460,000.

It is worth mentioning that

there were no Bone Refining families within Baoqing Prefecture.

Clearly, these Bone Refining families did not look upon this place favorably at all.

Since they could take root and develop in more prosperous places, why bother coming to this miserable place to seize territory?

However, there were still some small noble families.

But there were not many; in such a large Prefecture City, there were only a mere three Tendon Refining families.

Furthermore, these Tendon Refining families were not wealthy.

Their assets at most amounted to one million taels of silver.

"Should I capture Yunshui Commandery and Shanshui Commandery?" Chen Hu pondered to himself.

After thinking about it, he decided to capture them.

After all, since he was already here.

Even a mosquito is meat, no matter how small.

Thus, Chen Hu used Near and Far to arrive outside Yunshui Commandery.

He summoned two thousand Tier 5 Black Armor Cavalry and began the siege.

After easily capturing Yunshui Commandery, Chen Hu sold grain at a low price in the name of the Fierce Tiger Army.

Next, he headed to Shanshui Commandery and likewise easily took down this commandery city.

When evening arrived.

The common people of both commanderies had almost all been won over.

After all, if the common people in the Prefecture City lived such difficult lives, the common people in the commandery cities lived even more miserably.

Furthermore, Chen Hu learned through documents that

there were not many county towns in Baoqing Prefecture, only a mere dozen or so.

Moreover, the populations of these county towns were very small; the larger ones had thirty or forty thousand, while the smaller ones had only a few thousand people.

Even more absurdly, among the dozen or so county towns, only three had county magistrates.

The positions of county magistrates in the other county towns had long been vacant.

After capturing the two commanderies,

Chen Hu returned to Baoqing Prefecture.

He had not expected that after drinking tea for a while,

he would receive a report from his subordinate generals stating that a Barbarian army was attacking.

Chen Hu was still somewhat curious about these Barbarians.

With a flash, he arrived on the city wall.

The Barbarians coming to attack Baoqing Prefecture had already arrived five li outside the North City Gate.

The number was not large, only about five thousand people, and it was a mix of men, women, the old, and the young.

Each of these Barbarians was over two meters tall, with the tallest ones approaching two point seven or eight meters.

Moreover, in terms of physique, they were exceptionally robust.

He summoned an official from Baoqing Prefecture.

The other party told Chen Hu

that this Barbarian army should be the Barbarians of the Stone Tribe.

There were nearly one hundred thousand Barbarians within the territory of Baoqing Prefecture.

These Barbarians were scattered into dozens of tribes.

The strongest tribe had seven or eight thousand people.

The small tribes had only a few hundred people.

The number of people in the Stone Tribe was around six or seven thousand.

These five thousand people were likely all the adults of the Stone Tribe.

Adulthood meant reaching the Flesh Refining Realm.

Barbarians who had succeeded in their Cultivation could even reach the Tendon Refining Realm or Bone Refining Realm.

"How did you deal with Barbarian sieges in the past?" Chen Hu asked the official.

The official replied, "Generally speaking, we would scrape together some grain and give it to them, and they would leave. But sometimes, we would fight them, and then give them grain!"

Chen Hu used his Spiritual Sense to scan this group of Barbarians; there were a total of four in the Bone Refining Realm and over thirty in the Tendon Refining Realm.

"Wasn't your previous commandant in the Marrow Refining Realm? Could he not handle these Barbarians?" Chen Hu asked again.

The official smiled bitterly and said, "These Barbarians are stubborn and simply do not fear death. The more you kill, the more it incites their bloodlust. Furthermore, no matter how strong Chen Xuance was, he was only one person. It would only take a few hundred Barbarians to hold him back, and the rest of the Barbarians would be enough to slaughter more than half of the people in the entire city!"

Soon,

the Barbarian army approached the city wall.

A Barbarian shouted in a strange syllable, "Chen Xuance, hurry up and send out the grain, and we will not attack you!"

At this moment,

the city gate suddenly opened.

One thousand Black Armor Cavalry charged straight toward the Barbarian army.

Because the Black Armor Cavalry was very fast, they charged into the Barbarian army within a few breaths.

The iron spears in their hands struck continuously,

killing one tall and sturdy Barbarian after another.

Soon, the Black Armor Cavalry had charged straight through the Barbarian army.

The five-thousand-strong Barbarian army lost more than 1,500 men directly.

Then, the Barbarian army, terrified, scattered and fled.

"Is this what you meant by the Barbarians not fearing death?" Chen Hu asked the official beside him with a chuckle.