Chapter 291

The barbarians, having suffered a loss in the sneak attack, were finally ready to formally confront the Yanzhou army.

It was also exactly what Xu Ran and the rest wanted because it would affect their morale if it was delayed too much.

In the past, it was Vice General Luo who led the army, but now they suspected that he was a spy, so naturally it couldn’t be him. Lu Qi finally decided to lead the troops to the war personally, and then he would leave other things to Xu Ran, while Vice General Luo’s task was to watch Tangtang who was thought to be abnormal.

Tangtang didn’t care at all about someone following him, and he would still do what he wanted. He was going to the war, but Xu Ran left him behindd. “Tangtang, not everyone is cut out to charge from the front. Command from the rear is also important. Take you and Guoguo, he belongs to the former, but you are the latter. Do you understand what I mean?”

How could Tangtang not understand what Xu Ran said? He didn’t really want to go to the battlefield, he was just angry and upset because of Guoguo’s incident,  and he wanted to kill a few barbarians.

Tangtang saw Vice General Luo, who had been staring at him, and thought for a moment and agreed to Xu Ran’s request. He accompanied him to watch from behind. He was worried that Vice General Luo would do something after he went to the battlefield, so he would wait until Vice General Luo was disposed of.

Vice General Luo did not participate in the deployment of the operation, so he did not know what the situation was. It was only when Lu Qi said that he was going to go to the battlefield personally that he became anxious. He had talked to Lu Qi for a long time butt he could not make Lu Qi change his mind.

He knew Lu Qi well, and he knew that Lu Qi was not only good at kung fu, but also very smart and his medical skill was excellent. The most importantly, he was also very good with poison.

Therefore, Vice General Luo had been uneasy after the war was started. Xu Ran and Tangtang understood the reason, but they pretended not to see his performance and went about their business.

Though the barbarians were said to have an army of fifty thousand, it was absolutely not so many. Similarly, Lu Qi brought only 20,000 troops with him.

Standing on top, one could see the unspeakable scene below. There were roars, the sounds of knives and swords colliding, and the sounds of drums.

Xu Ran remembered that there were a lot of drums in the military camp. He would definitely not want his own people to lose.

The battle below was intense. Xu Ran suddenly thought of an idea, and he asked his men to move out all the big drums in the military camp and started to beat them.

The drums rang and became louder and more regularly. One after another, it was transmitted from the high slope to the battlefield below.

The sound of the drums buoyed the morale. Lu Qi shouted again and rushed into the crowd.

With the leader, the rest would naturally be influenced, and then followed up. With morale came fighting power. What happened in come very naturally was that this battle would be unusually intense.

In addition to paying attention to the battlefield below, Xu Ran also had to pay attention to whether there were any sneak attacks. More importantly, he had to be wary of spies collaborating from within with forces from outside to fight them back.

At this point, Xu Ran felt that he had to worry about a lot of things. Also, seeing such a real battlefield for the first time, he found it hard to accept. After all, he was a person who liked peace in heart.

However, he couldn’t delay other important things for this small matter.

The war was over after Xu Ran sent twenty thousand soldiers out for the second time. The damage was very severe. Out of twenty thousand, only ten thousand people were still alive. Three thousand of them were seriously wounded, six thousand were slightly wounded, and only one thousand were left intact. It was a terrible battle.

However, relatively speaking, the barbarians were even more miserable. Out of every three corpses lying on the ground, two were barbarians.

The only word that could be used to sum up this battle was that it is so destructive. This was true on both sides.

But it didn’t end there, and the big show was yet to come. This was just the beginning. Xu Ran mobilized more soldiers to patrol, demanding that they could not let go of any corner. The rest had to be on the lookout for a sneak attack.

After discussing with Lu Qi, Xu Ran decided to dispose of Vice General Luo and his subordinates as soon as possible, so as not to cause trouble. However, there was no conclusive evidence. So Xu Ran decided that they would deliberately perform a sneak attack.

But just as they were preparing, Tangtang caught Vice General Luo on the wrong foot, a letter addressed to the barbarians.

The contents of the letter stated the previous deployment of the Yanzhou government army, the current strength, and the lossed in this war. It also mentioned Xu Ran and Tangtang, and he asked the barbariansto be watch out for them.

Xu Ran smiled after reading it. Watch out for them? Tangtang could be the one who they should be watch out for, but he was just a weak scholar who did not look strong at all. Why should they watch out for him?

However, none of these were important. The most important thing was that the letter had stopped before it had even been sent out. Not only did they have a reason to dispose of Vice General Luo, but they could also send a false message and played a trick on the barbarians.

Xu Ran handed the Vice General Luo to Lu Qi to deal with him. He started writing the letter and posted it in the same way Vice General Luo had done before.

Vice General Luo did not expect that he would be discovered. After all, he had already reached the position of vice general. Without Lu Qi, he would have the most authority here.

Therefore, what he wanted to do would not be discovered by others. He blamed Lu Qi for appearing halfway. Not to mention Xu Ran, who suddenly appeared and disrupted his whole plan.

Vice General Luo hate Xu Ran and Lu Qi so much that they couldn’t get anything out of him.

Lu Qi was worried that something would happen if he stayed alive, so he simply gave him a poison and put him to rest. As for King Yan, he could explain to him after he came back.

After Vice General Luo had been disposed of, they would have no fear of attacks from behind. Even if there were some spies in the people below, their influence was certainly not as great as Vice General Luo and they would not be able to get any useful news.

Xu Ran called Tangtang over and said to him, “You will be in command of the next war and revenge for Guoguo. In addition, I will ask Lu Qi to take some people to give them a sneak attack on their stationed place and try to get it done at once. If the fighting goes on like this, the people will know it by then.”

Tangtang was a little hesitant when he heard Xu Ran ask him to command, “Dad, do you really want me to command? I’ve never done it before.”

Xu Ran waved his hand and said to him, “Everything came from the first time. Besides, I have taught you a lot, some of which must could be used. You have to trust yourself.”

Looking at Xu Ran’s determined eyes, Tangtang nodded subconsciously.

Xu Ran nodded with satisfaction and went to find Lu Qi.

After arriving at the main tent, Xu Ran didn’t have time to speak when someone rushed in from outside and said. “Military counsellor, abnormality was found in the meadow.”

Lu Qi’s face was cold and he asked, “What’s abnormal?”

The man knelt on the ground and said to Lu Qi in a low voice, “To my military counsellor, the soldiers guarding the grass said that they have found more than a hundred dead bodies, dressed in barbarian clothes, and now their bodies are starting to rot.”

Lu Qi glanced at Xu Ran and thought back to what Tangtang had told him at that time. The people he and Guoguo met at the time were about a hundred people too. There was no difference with the place and number of people. Lu Qi suspected that they were probably the group of people at that time.

It was just that he didn’t know if Guoguo was in this group.

Lu Qi said to the person kneeling on the ground, “Get up first! Wait outside the tent. I’ll go and take a look with you later.”

“Yes!” After the man said this, he got up and left the tent.

Xu Ran asked Lu Qi, “What did you think of?”

Lu Qi said, “I suspect that these people are the ones who intercepted Tangtang and Guoguo at the time. Because they disappeared too quickly, I have always had doubts. It would made sense now if their bodies were found. Yuo call Tangtang, let’s go and see what’s going on.”

Xu Ran nodded, but he didn’t feel anything wrong. He thought Guoguo should not be among these bodies.

Xu Ran called Tangtang over and followed Lu Qi to the grass.

From afar, they could smell a huge stench, and it was the smell of the corpse. It’s normal to smell in such hot weather.

The person who came to report wasn’t wrong. The bodies were indeed rotten and there were even maggots squirming above it. It was sickening to watch. It seemed like they had been dead for quite a while.

It had been quite a while since the day of Guoguo’s accident. If they died that day, everything would make sense.

Although the bodies were rotting, thir appearance and clothes could still be told. Xu Ran asked Tangtang to see it.

Tangtang made several circles around the rows of dead bodies, then he nodded and said, “Dad, Uncle Lu, these are the barbarians Guoguo and I met the other day. But how did they die?”

Lu Qi turned to ask the person beside him, “Where were these bodies found, and by whom?

The person was supposed to be a little captain or something. He pointed to the direction of the grass for Lu Qi, and said, “To military counsellor, they were found in a pit in the middle of the grass. The smell has been spreading to the cows and sheep lately. We didn’t care it because the taste was not too strong at first, but it was getting stronger and stronger. We felt that something was wrong so we looked around. We didn’t expect to find so many bodies in a pit, so we took all the bodies out.”

A pit? Tangtang thought of the pit he saw at the time. He was still wondering why there was a pit in the grass, but the pit was very deep and he didn’t look carefully. So he didn’t know what was in there.

Tangtang looked at all the bodies and confirmed that there was no Guoguo. Then he sighed. He didn’t know if he should be glad or disappointed. He couldn’t find Guoguo, not even his body.