novelAbuy Chapter 47 Green Dragon Crescent Blade
Chapter 47 Green Dragon Crescent Blade
The iconic Green Dragon Crescent Blade, accompanied by a whistling sound, was slashing towards his neck.
"My life is over!"
Zang Ba closed his eyes in despair.
However, the expected pain did not come.
At the last moment, Guan Yu changed his slashing motion to a slapping motion, striking Zang Ba hard on the back with the back of his blade.
"puff!"
Zang Ba spat out a mouthful of blood, was knocked off his horse, and fell dazed and confused.
Several guards rushed forward and tied him up tightly.
The battle ended quickly.
Of the ten thousand bandits from Mount Tai, most of them, except for those who died in battle, became prisoners.
……
Evening, Qingzhou military camp.
Zang Ba was escorted to an ordinary-looking tent.
He had expected to be taken to see the legendary Lord Li, then humiliated, and finally beheaded as a warning to others.
After all, the victor is king and the loser is villain; he accepted that.
However, the guards brought him here.
"Go in." The soldier untied his ropes and pushed him into the tent.
Zang Ba was stunned.
There was no imposing prime minister or a menacing general in the main tent.
There was only a large pot steaming hot, and dozens of ordinary soldiers eating around it.
The soldiers, seeing him enter, showed no hostility; instead, they greeted him warmly.
"Hey? A new brother has arrived? Come quick, come quick! Just in time for lunch!"
"Are you starving? Sit down and eat!"
An old soldier handed him a large, rough porcelain bowl and a pair of chopsticks.
Zang Ba was somewhat bewildered.
He looked down at the bowl.
The white, finely cooked rice was topped with a thick layer of salted meat and several pieces of oily tofu.
The aroma of meat and rice wafted into his nose.
He couldn't help but swallow.
"This...this is for me?" Zang Ba asked incredulously.
"Of course!" the old soldier laughed. "Once you're in the Qingzhou Army, you're family. The magistrate said that no matter what you did before, once you're here, you won't go hungry."
"Eat it quickly! It won't taste good when it gets cold!"
Zang Ba held the bowl, his hands trembling slightly.
How long has it been since he's had such a good meal?
Being the head of the gang in Mount Tai, although you can eat meat, it's all stolen, and you don't always get to eat it.
Moreover, most of the time they eat brown rice and whole grains.
He only eats this kind of refined white rice a few times a year.
And here, this is actually the daily ration of an ordinary soldier?
He picked up a piece of salted meat and put it in his mouth.
It has a savory and rich flavor, and is fatty but not greasy.
He shoveled another big mouthful of rice into his mouth.
Soft, sweet, and delicious, with an unforgettable aftertaste.
Delicious! So good!
Zang Ba wolfed down his food.
He ate very quickly and urgently, as if he wanted to eat back all the food he had eaten in his life.
As he ate, tears began to stream down his face.
Tears mingled with rice, and I swallowed them down.
He suddenly felt that he had wasted half his life.
Why did he risk his life to become a bandit?
Isn't it all just so we can have a full meal?
But now he realized that in Qingzhou, even an ordinary soldier lived a better life than he, the leader!
"Waaaaah..."
Zang Ba finally couldn't hold back any longer, put down his chopsticks and burst into tears.
A man of iron, eight feet tall, cried like a child.
The soldiers around him did not laugh at him; instead, they all showed expressions of understanding and sympathy.
Many of them cried like that back then.
"Cry, cry, it'll make you feel better." The veteran patted him on the shoulder.
"We all know how tough life used to be. But things are better now. Thanks to Lord Li, we're living a good life."
Just then, the curtain was lifted.
Li Zhao walked in.
He wasn't wearing official robes, just a plain casual robe.
He walked up to Zang Ba, squatted down, and handed him a handkerchief.
"Brave warrior Xuan Gao, is the food to your liking?"
Zang Ba raised his head and looked at the excessively young prime minister before him.
His eyes held no arrogant condescension, only genuine concern.
Zang Ba suddenly understood why the people and soldiers of Qingzhou were willing to risk their lives for this man.
He knelt down with a thud and kowtowed heavily.
"My lord!"
"Zang Ba...I'm convinced!"
"If I'd known there was meat to eat every meal here, who the hell would have gone up the mountain to be a thief!"
Li Zhao helped Zang Ba up and smiled.
……
Late at night.
The Qingzhou Army Camp, the newly established Taishan Military Camp Area.
The sounds of snoring rose and fell.
Zang Ba lay on the communal bed, unable to sleep.
Beneath him were neither the cold, damp stone slabs of a cave nor the hard earthen bed covered with moldy straw.
The quilt was stuffed with new cotton; it was soft and warm.
The kang (heated brick bed) beneath him was also warm.
The old soldier who assigned him the bunk said that these were called "fire wall" and "earth dragon".
Outside, the wind was chilly in early winter, but inside it was so warm that all you needed was a thin blanket.
Zang Ba rolled over.
He reached out and touched his round belly.
Inside, it was filled to the brim with white rice and salted meat.
That long-lost feeling of fullness gave him a dizzying, unreal sensation.
He recalled his days on Mount Tai.
Back then, I felt like a king, living in a stronghold, sleeping on a tiger skin, all majestic and awe-inspiring.
Now compare it to this.
He felt that he had been living like a savage before.
What is a good day?
It's not about eating large chunks of meat and drinking large bowls of wine; that's something only desperate people who don't care about tomorrow would do.
A truly good life is sleeping in a warm bed and waking up with a full stomach.
There's no need to worry about where to grab food tomorrow, or when the government troops will launch a raid.
Zang Ba listened to the snoring of his brothers around him.
He knew that these brothers' hearts were no longer with Mount Tai.
They were all drawn away by that bowl of braised pork.
His heart, Zang Ba's, had also left.
Li Shijun is truly a divine man.
……
The next morning.
The sky was just beginning to lighten.
A loud reveille broke the tranquility of the camp.
The soldiers from Mount Tai groggily got up.
They haven't gotten used to this kind of life yet.
On the mountain, everyone sleeps until they naturally wake up.
Several minor leaders of the Taishan soldiers grumbled and refused to get up.
"What's all the noise about! I'm going to sleep a little longer!"
A burly leader with a face full of scars pulled the blanket over his head.
"This is the rule of the Qingzhou Army."
A cold voice rang out from the doorway.
Everyone looked up.
It was the same old soldier who served Zang Ba the meal yesterday.
Behind him followed a squad of Qingzhou military police, fully armored and wielding gleaming swords.
The leader was startled and quickly got to his feet.
"Assemble! Time for morning exercises!"
The veteran shouted expressionlessly.
"As the magistrate said, Qingzhou does not support idlers."
"If you want to eat meat, you have to follow the rules and put in the effort."
The soldiers from Taishan dared not delay, quickly dressed, and ran noisily toward the drill ground.
Zang Ba also mingled in the crowd.
His current status is just an ordinary Taishan soldier commander.
This was Li Zhao's arrangement.
He said that Zang Baxian should stay at the grassroots level for a period of time to get rid of his bandit-like demeanor.
On the drill ground, 20,000 Qingzhou veterans had already lined up.
They stood ramrod straight.
The chilling atmosphere made even the soldiers of Mount Tai dare not breathe loudly.
Opposite them, the Taishan soldiers' ranks appeared sparse and crooked.
Li Zhao stood on the reviewing stand.