The city of Manghuang County was captured, and everyone slowly entered the city beside Su Qi'an.
As soon as they entered the city, they saw the Manghuang County Sheriff, who had been so aggressive just now, being handcuffed and put into a prison van.
Around the street, there were countless people holding stones and throwing them at the Manghuang County Sheriff.
The Manghuang County Sheriff screamed as he was hit, his head was bruised and bleeding, and the prison car drove slowly in cooperation.
The guard of Manghuang County yelled angrily, but the only response he received was more ferocious stones and overwhelming curses.
These people are all local people from Manghuang County, and their faces are filled with deep resentment.
Looking at the gaze of the Manghuang County Sheriff, I wanted to eat his flesh and gnaw his skin.
They couldn't see Tang Feng's high-pressure rule. It was too far away from them. In front of them, there was only the superior Manghuang County Governor.
It can be said that the governor of Manghuang County is their god and the master of Manghuang County.
Tang Feng's high-pressure rule led to the county governors and county magistrates under his control, and the county governors and county magistrates exploited and deprived these lower-class people in a more arrogant way.
If nothing else, look at these people. They are all sallow and skinny, as if they could be blown away by a gust of wind.
Every time the stones were thrown, they made them gasp for air, but even so, they still couldn't relieve their anger.
In the past three years, their life had been inhumane.
Three years ago, Tang Feng was not under such high pressure, and they could barely make ends meet.
But as Tang Feng issued various tax orders one after another, through the county guards and county magistrates, it was realized that the taxes around them were at least ten times more than three years ago.
In the end, they couldn't even afford rotten vegetables and rotten eggs, so they could only go to the suburbs to eat tree bark.
This is why they can only use stones to vent their dissatisfaction. The rotten vegetable leaves that were regarded as garbage in the past are now hard to find.
The people at the bottom lived so hard just to support the sharply increasing number of soldiers in Tang Feng's hands.
Among the seven counties in Manghuang, the three magistrates who took the initiative to surrender to Su Qi'an treated the people in their respective counties slightly better, but the people in the other four counties had a miserable life.
Since Tang Feng opened the door to taxation, these county magistrates and governors have become enlightened, and various new taxes have continued to increase.
The common people at the bottom can only eat tree bark, but the Manghuang County Sheriff and some other officials live a nourishing life every day.
Logically speaking, under such high pressure, there would be massacres all over Xizhou before Su Qi'an could counterattack.
But in fact, there are very few such attacks. It's not that the local people don't want to resist.
Although these officials enjoy themselves, they are not stupid. In addition to themselves, they will also leave some soup and water for their soldiers.
In their view, as long as their soldiers have no blood, the untouchables at the bottom are nothing.
Although this strategy is vicious, it is effective. In today's Xizhou, if you can provide yourself with enough food and drink, your soldiers will naturally have no objections.
Instead, they worked even harder and used a more high-pressure method to suppress these troublemaking low-level untouchables.
Although there are many people at the bottom, they don't have anything in their hands. Facing well-equipped soldiers, a large group of people will retreat as soon as they see blood.
Fortunately, these difficult days have completely changed with the arrival of Su Qi'an.
This is why Su Qian's army was able to capture Manghuang County without much effort.
Su Qi'an has been away from Xizhou for three years. It may not be long or short, but his influence in Xizhou is huge.
During Tang Feng's three-year high-pressure rule, on the surface, everything about Su Qi'an disappeared in Xizhou. But with his return, some news about Su Qi'an spread as quickly as the wind.
They always remember how much favor they received from Suji Trading Company, which was at its peak in Xizhou back then.
Therefore, knowing that this army belonged to Su Qi'an, they welcomed it even more.
Before Su Qi'an entered the city, he ordered his army to take out part of the food and grass and prepare it in Manghuang County.
Seven counties opened porridge sheds and directly opened granaries in each county to provide food relief.
This move suddenly captured the hearts of more than 70% to 80% of the people in Manghuang County.
Su Qi'an is so generous mainly because he has his own confidence.
This time heading north into Xizhou, Su Qi'an had already prepared the logistics supplies for the 60,000-strong army.
It can be said that preparations started when we left Jiaozhou and headed to Nanzhou.
It took at least two months. This time I returned to Jiaozhou. In the battle with the barbarian Heilu, there was basically no big loss. It can be regarded as a logistics exercise.
Now going north and entering Xizhou, in order to deal with the logistics line, it was too long, so Su Qi'an concentrated the logistics in Yangliu County and Chencang County.
Now after taking Manghuang County, Su Qi'an plans to further extend the logistics line to Manghuang County.
In this way, it would be basically no problem to assemble the entire Jiaozhou's grain and grass, and take advantage of the three counties to maintain a 60,000-strong army to enter Xizhou.
Of course, Su Qi'an will definitely send heavy troops to guard the newly opened Manghuang County logistics.
What they were guarding against was not a sneak attack sent by Tang Feng or anything like that, but some local ruffians with bad intentions.
Su Qi'an opened grain warehouses to provide food relief and opened porridge sheds just to force these people out.
He remembers the old saying, a friend's favor is worth a pound of rice.
Now is wartime. You can use goodwill to win over people's hearts, but at the same time, you must also release some appropriate shock.
In this way, the combination of kindness and power will scare some young people.
In order to ensure the safety of the three counties providing logistics, Su Qian specially transferred Huo Cheng, Huang Wenyan, and Wu Yong.
With the three of them under control, Su Qi'an felt relieved in terms of logistics.
Next, you can take a good rest in Manghuang County and be ready for a full-scale counterattack at any time.
As for the one who was hit, the Manghuang County Sheriff had lost his temper and was almost breathless.
Su Qi'an signaled the supervising soldiers to take him away.
Although a person like him deserves to die, it would be an advantage for him to die now. If he is allowed to breathe, he will be of great use later, and he will still have to perform at the subsequent public trial.
It can be said that after taking over Manghuang County, the management and arrangements for Manghuang County have already appeared in his mind. Next, he only needs to follow his plan.
The 60,000 troops were not all stationed in Manghuang County in a swarm, but were distributed in the seven subordinate counties.
In this way, the control of Manghuang County can be ensured. If any trouble occurs in the subordinate counties, the soldiers stationed there can easily solve it.
After Su Qi'an issued the order, the Jiaozhou army all started busy themselves.
Six people, including the great chief, followed the expedition as spectators.
Their faces were deeply complicated, whether it was the speed at which they entered the wilderness, the people who greeted them along the road, or the opening of porridge sheds and warehouses to store grain.
They all realized that this Dongshan Marquis was not simple. He was able to capture Jiaozhou and make many of his officials obey orders. Now they can understand it to some extent.
Not to mention anything else, Su Qi'an's encirclement of Wei and the rescue of Zhao failed to resolve the crisis in the tribe, but it gave the tribe hope to take a breather.
To be honest, if they were Su Qi'an, they could use the clan issue to coerce them into becoming cannon fodder.
Or, you can just sit back and wait for the tribe to be destroyed without intervening, capture Manghuang County, and just hold on.
But Su Qi'an did not do this. His series of actions were not only for them, but also for the local people. Even if they were performing, it would be impossible for any other official, even Tang Feng, the shepherd of the state, to do this. .
In Tang Feng's eyes, these local people were a group of lowly untouchables with no value at all, but Su Qi'an's path was completely opposite to theirs.
Seeing the peaceful coexistence between the Jiaozhou soldiers and the local people before them, they could understand what Elder Er Er said to them before, "Water can carry a boat, but it can also capsize it."
Now, they have different emotions towards Su Qi'an...
At this time, Su Qi'an was not at Manghuang County Mansion, but standing on the city tower.
Familiar generals such as Su Yong, Er Meng, Chen Dao, Song Biao, etc. were not with him.
Even Tong Zhan and other directly affiliated teams were transferred to do frontline reconnaissance. Only the team of more than a dozen people led by Wang Yan remained with him.
A gust of wind blew by, and Wang Yan's figure appeared. Su Qian turned her head. Before she could speak, Wang Yan shook her head and said.
"I'm sorry, during our investigation, we found no trace of your family. Even the Lingdong County Magistrate disappeared a month ago."
As soon as these words came out, although Su Qi'an had already been prepared, his heart still trembled.
When he fled Xizhou, he originally planned to take Qin Ziyin and Lu Xiaowan with him.
But in the end they were rejected by the two of them. The reason they gave was very simple. In the battle when Suji Trading Company was destroyed, countless friends and brothers died.
They couldn't let them leave like this. Suji Trading Company was built by them, and they were not willing to let it be destroyed like this.
Although it is dangerous for them to stay, they can at least leave a hidden line for Su Qi'an in Xizhou.
When Su Qi'an returns to Xizhou, he will also be able to provide a lot of help.
With their persistence, Su Qi'an finally agreed. In the three years since he left Xizhou, Su Qi'an had been receiving news from Qin Ziyin and Lu Xiaowan.
Including that they later re-established roots in local counties and towns and opened Wanggui Buxing.
The intelligence point that was destroyed because of Su Ji Trading Company has also begun to be re-established, and everything seems to be developing in a good direction.
Until half a year ago, Qin Ziyin and Lu Xiaowan had reduced their contact with Su Qi'an in order to ensure their own safety. Later, for unknown reasons, they took the initiative to cut off contact.
Returning to Xizhou this time, in addition to seeking justice for those who died that year and for myself, the more important thing is to know the situation of Qin Ziyin and Lu Xiaowan.
When entering Manghuang County, Su Qian sent Wang Yan to lead his team to investigate.
But he didn't expect that this would be the result in the end. Qin Ziyin, Lu Xiaowan, Qin Huai and other important relatives would disappear again, and his life or death was unknown.
How can Su Qian accept this?
