The First Great Ancestor of the Five Dynasties

Chapter 68 Bloodshed in Yancang
To the west of the salt warehouse is a loess rock mountain. There are several cave dwellings on the mountainside. They used to be used by the people who built the salt warehouse. Later, when the cave dwellings collapsed and killed people, the official Cang Cao built houses at the foot of the mountain, and the cave dwellings were abandoned.

The mountain road has been in disrepair for a long time and is steep and difficult to navigate. Over time, this loess mountain has become a place that no one cares about.

Behind the Huangtu Mountain is a dense wild forest, covered with heavy snow and ice in winter, and bears and wolves are often seen in spring and summer. Except for hunters, there are few people in the wild forest.

There are several natural caves on the side of Huangtu Mountain close to the wild forest. One of the caves almost runs through the mountain. Above the depth of the cave is the Yancang cave dwelling.

Many of Bi Zhenhai's men were hunters. After discovering the secret, Bi Zhenhai came to check it out in person. More than a dozen people spent more than half a month to finally penetrate the cave and cave dwellings, set up ladders, and climb directly into the cave dwellings quietly. Sneak into the salt warehouse.

The Xue family recruited people to guard the salt warehouse, and Bi Zhenhai took the opportunity to arrange for fellow villagers to sneak in as internal agents.

Three months ago, Bi Zhenhai used this passage to steal twenty rock salt.

That afternoon, Bi Zhenhai led more than [-] people to the wild forest and spent half an hour clearing away the dead branches, dry grass, mud and snow covering the entrance of the cave.

"Following the old rules, the fourth, fifth and sixth elders will each take five people with me into the salt warehouse. The third and seventh elders will lead their people to meet me in the cave, and the others will stay in the cave to prepare to carry the salt bags."

Bi Zhenhai looked around at the brothers and said.

"Brother, let's get at least fifty dan before we leave this time!" the fourth child said with a smile.

"Let's pull it with a cart this time, get at least eighty or ninety dan, and ask the Xue family to do a bloodletting!"

"That's it, let's finally come here and don't make too many mistakes!"

All the brothers started shouting.

Bi Zhenhai laughed and scolded: "A bunch of ignorant bastards. One rock salt weighs 120 kilograms. How many bags of rock salt can you carry? If your waist is crushed, your mother-in-law is not allowed to slap me with a big ear scraper?"

"Haha~~"

"Brother is so powerful that one person can carry two pieces of rock salt!"

"Brother doesn't have a wife, so he's not afraid of breaking his waist!"

All the brothers were laughing and joking.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense, light the torch and follow me!" Bi Zhenhai raised the torch and prepared to enter the cave.

"Brother." Lao Liu suddenly called out.

Bi Zhenhai turned around and saw that Lao Liu's face was a little pale by the firelight, "Lao Liu, why do you look so bad? Are you sick?"

Lao Liu smiled unnaturally: "I ate two raw eggs last night, which made me feel a little upset."

"Sixth brother spent most of the night, occupying the latrine. I don't think there is any room to poop!"

"It's no wonder Lao Liu has been acting like a ghost all day long. It turns out that he has collapsed! Haha~~"

The brothers joked.

Bi Zhenhai smiled and said, "You and Lao Qi will switch. Lao Qi will lead people into the salt warehouse with me, and you will stay behind to take care of them."

Lao Liu forced a smile: "Thank you, brother."

"Go!~"

Immediately, Bi Zhenhai led his people towards the depths of the cave. The sparse firelight gradually disappeared, and in the darkness, only a few voices and footsteps echoed.

Halfway up Loess Rock Mountain, Bi Zhenhai and several others were squatting behind bushes filled with snow, waiting patiently.

Soon, a figure appeared on the rugged mountain path.

"Brother!" The thin man smiled and clasped his fists.

"Lao Shi, thank you for your hard work!" Bi Zhenhai patted him on the shoulder.

"Old Ten, I heard that Cang Caoguan promoted you to be the leader of the team, and you are in charge of ten people!"

"Old Ten, do you have a chance to visit Xue's mansion? Is there gold everywhere?"

Bi Zhenhai glared and scolded: "Shut the hell up and let Lao Shi speak."

Lao Shi smiled helplessly and said: "It's still the same as before. Around the quarter of the year, the Yancang patrol guards changed their posts, leaving two quarters of an hour in between. No guards came here in the west. I've made all arrangements, C word four Warehouse No. [-] and Warehouse No. [-] each store fifty pieces of rock salt, it depends on how much we can take away."

All the brothers were smiling and gearing up.

Bi Zhenhai thought for a while and said: "The two warehouses are not far apart. Let's each take some, otherwise it will easily make people suspicious. If everything goes well later, we will set another fire and burn down several of his warehouses so that the Xue family can take care of themselves. It hurts once!"

Bi Zhenhai picked up a dry branch, broke off the straightest part, and inserted it into the mud and snow. The skewed shadow was like a clock hand.

"Brother, please get the time right. I'll go down first and listen to my signal later." Lao Shi ducked down the mountain.

The shadows of the branches moved slowly, and after a while, there was a short chirping sound from the bottom of the mountain, like an eagle kite aiming at its prey and about to pounce on it.

"Let's go! Go down the mountain!" Bi Zhenhai pulled up a scarf to cover his face, picked up the hatchet on his waist, and led a group of brothers down the mountain quietly.

Lao Shi met them at the foot of the mountain and led them all the way to the two warehouses.When we arrived at No. [-] warehouse C, we saw piles of salt-packed sacks stacked in the warehouse. The brothers were overjoyed and were busy moving them.

Bi Zhenhai picked up a bulging sack and weighed it, his expression suddenly changed.

He hurriedly put down the sack and pricked it hard with a hatchet. From the breach, fine yellow sand flowed down like water.

"It's sand! Not salt!" Bi Zhenhai was shocked and angry.

The other brothers quickly punctured the sacks to check. Without exception, the sacks were filled with fine sand.

"No, no way! I took people to stack these salt bags myself, how could they turn into sand?"

Lao Shi's face suddenly turned pale, and he stabbed the sack with a short knife like crazy.

Fine sand flowed in the palm of my hand, and Lao Shi's eyes were dull.

Not far away, there was suddenly the sound of chaotic footsteps, as if a large group of people were coming here.

"Catch the bandit Bi Zhenhai!" A roar sounded.

The brothers were shocked. Someone picked up a wooden stick and hit Lao Shi on the head: "You idiot, betray us!"

Lao Shi knelt in front of the sack, his face full of self-blame, and he was in a trance.

Bi Zhenhai took a step forward and blocked him. The wooden stick hit his raised arm and broke into two pieces with a click.

"Brother!" All the brothers were shocked.

Bi Zhenhai's face was livid, he grabbed Lao Shi and said sternly: "I believe my brother! What happened, we will find out after we get back! The dog slaves of the Xue family have surrounded us, now we brothers must work together to fight a bloody path!" "

"Yes! Big brother is right! We'll talk after we get out!"

"Done!"

The brothers raised their swords and clubs and roared angrily, then rushed out of the warehouse with Bi Zhenhai. They collided with the salt warehouse guard head-on, and the two sides exchanged fire.

"Don't be obsessed with fighting! Escape to the mountain!" Bi Zhenhai held a hatchet in both hands, opened and closed it, and slashed fiercely, roaring while killing.

On the back side of the loess rock mountain, at the entrance of the cave.

Lao Liu, who had been squatting under the rock wall, suddenly got up and walked into the wild forest.

Four or five men with tense expressions followed behind him without saying a word.

"Lao Liu, where are you going?" A brother saw it and shouted loudly.

Lao Liu didn't look back, and said in a dull voice, "I'll take people to the forest to have a look."

"Brother ordered you not to wander around, please come back soon."

Lao Liu stopped answering, and the group hurried into the forest.

After a while, a group of soldiers and horses descended from the southern hills into the forest without anyone noticing. The leader was Xue Xiuliang, wearing armor and carrying a steel knife.

"If you hadn't tipped off the news, no one would have thought that this wild forest could lead directly to the salt warehouse!"

Xue Xiuliang sat high on his horse, turned his head and looked around, marveling.

Lao Liu cupped his fists and saluted: "Second Master, Bi Zhenhai has led his people into the salt warehouse. The others are staying in the cave. You can see them through the forest."

Xue Xiuliang smiled solemnly: "Very good!"

With a wave of his hand, a group of crossbowmen took the lead and headed deeper into the forest.

Lao Liu saluted and was about to leave, but Xue Xiuliang stopped him: "Wait a minute, the elder has one more thing for you to do."

Lao Liu swallowed his saliva and said, "Please give me your instructions."

Xue Xiuliang took off the simple knife hanging on the horse hook and threw it to him, and sneered: "I want you to cut off Bi Zhenhai's head with your own hands!"

Lao Liu took the knife with trembling hands, and the people behind him were too frightened to speak.

Xue Xiuliang's eyes were cold and stern, and the tip of the long knife in his hand was pointed at him intentionally or unintentionally.

Lao Liu gritted his teeth and said: "The villain takes the order!"

Xue Xiuliang sneered and nodded: "Very good! Lead the way!"

Soon, dense arrows were shot out from the forest without warning, and several unsuspecting brothers at the entrance of the cave were shot dead on the spot.

A group of sword and shield soldiers raised their square shields, and the soldiers behind them lit torches and forced themselves into the cave in a column formation.

The brothers in the cave charged and killed several waves, resulting in heavy casualties. Only a few people climbed up the long ladder to the cave dwelling, and the rest of the brothers were blocked in the cave and suffered all casualties.

(End of this chapter)