Ten miles away, less than an hour later, the Xingjun rushed to the north gate of Qucheng. From a distance, the so-called city gate was only built by a wall. Except for the city gate, the walls on both sides were only about two or three meters high. , less than half the height of the city walls that the Star Army had seen before, so it is very appropriate to describe it as a wall.
Despite this, after getting closer, Lu Yunyou still found that there were many refugees outside the city, scattered and scattered against the wall. Obviously, the two or three-meter-high wall could still keep those people out of the city.
Seeing the army approaching, the refugees scrambled up from the ground and watched the army approach with a look of fear. Some even ran away out of fear.
The reactions of the refugees were genuine, but Lu Yunyou didn't care. His attention was all above the city gate.
There were no guards above the city gate, which was only three or four meters wide, and on both sides of the city tower. The city gate below was closed tightly. When I was wondering why there was no one there, the two Star Army sentries who had been sent to check the situation just came out over the wall.
"General..." Running all the way to the front of the army, the two of them reported the situation they discovered to Lu Yunyou immediately.
According to the two men's accounts, the city was in chaos, and not a single living person could be seen. Instead, there were many corpses lying on the street, as if they had just experienced a massacre.
After the two of them finished speaking, the faces of Lu Yunyou, Xing Hu and others became much more solemn, and everyone still had a bad premonition in their hearts. In order to verify the truth, Lu Yunyou directly ordered people to break open the city gate.
When the city gate opened, everyone had a much wider field of vision. Looking forward, they saw an empty avenue with not a single person in sight. Looking further in, there were some scattered residences on both sides of the road. All the scenes showed a kind of The smell of ruin.
After entering, judging from the scattered residences on both sides, Qucheng is far poorer than everyone imagined. Although it is a neighboring city to Shiyan City, it cannot be compared with Shiyan City at all.
A little further forward, when the army approached those houses, in addition to some falling instruments on both sides of the road, some corpses and blood stains appeared directly in front of everyone. Just as the two sentinels said before, there was a fight in the city.
The further you go, the more corpses there are on the roadside. All of them are dressed as civilians. Not only that, some farm tools and rotten vegetables and breakfast can be seen everywhere. The scene becomes more and more miserable. Some corpses still have the look of death on their faces. His painful expression was unbearable to look at.
Corpses were lying scattered on the ground like randomly discarded objects. After looking at them for a few more times, Lu Yunyou felt more and more as if the lives of those people were worthless and had nothing to do with the rotten fruits and vegetables on the ground. different.
Unknowingly, the army had walked several miles along the main road. From beginning to end, except for the vicious birds that gnawed on the corpses, not a single person could be seen, and there was no life at all. It was like walking in an empty city. .
He felt more and more that something was wrong. With a wave of his hand, Lu Yunyou stopped the army, then turned to look at Xing Hu and Wang Yi and shouted: "Two generals, Qucheng may have been looted by bandits nearby. Many civilians were looted for no reason. Killed!"
"Commander Lu, you mean that this was not done by the city lord of Qucheng?" Wang Yihou frowned and questioned directly.
"Last night, I heard from the villagers of Orchid Village that the Lord of Qucheng City is a man who wields power and is good at making money. He is not cruel in character and would not do such a thing. Besides, these civilians do not look like rich people. Attract the lord of Qu City!" Having thought about it carefully just now, Lu Yunyou always felt that it was more likely that these civilians would die in the hands of bandits.
"In Commander Lu's opinion, is the lord of Qu City still in the city?" Wang Yihou asked again, thinking that Lu Yunyou's analysis made sense.
"Presumably they are no longer in the city, otherwise those bandits would not be killing civilians without restraint." A solemn look appeared on his face. Lu Yunyou was greatly surprised by the brutal behavior of those bandits. At the same time, he sympathized even more with the suffering of these civilians. It was difficult to imagine those violent people. The bandits even spared the helpless civilians.
In addition, judging from the current situation, the number of bandits seems to be large.
"Whoever did it, we'll find out if we go to the city lord's palace and have a look," he said. After listening to the two people talking for a long time but having no clue, Xing Hu was anxious and gave them an idea directly.
Although he is a rough person, he is not a villain. The scene in front of him is also unbearable to him. It is worth mentioning that when Xing Hu was serving in the local area, his duty was to combat banditry. Because of this , there was obviously a bit of anger in his voice.
"Commander Lu, I would like to lead a team of people to search everywhere in the city to see if there are any civilians alive, and then see if there is any food left in those houses. Is it okay?" Xing Hu suggested that he go to the location in the city. While taking a look, Wang Yihou directly suggested searching the city first.
"Then General Lao Wang will lead a thousand people to search everywhere. If any civilians are found alive, they will be brought to the city. I will ask them some information personally." Understanding that Wang Yihou's main purpose is to search for food, Lu Yunyou said No objection.
"Yes," Wang Yihou accepted the order, then rode his horse to the back of the team and separated out a thousand people to take them away directly. Then he divided the thousand people into several teams and searched from several directions at the same time. At the same time, Lu Yunyou Then he took Xing Hu and continued walking towards the city.
As we walked further in, there were more and more corpses on the road. The massacre seemed to come suddenly. Many people died on the street without having time to escape.
There were already soldiers in front who were responsible for moving the bodies and some items to both sides of the road, while Lu Yunyou and Xing Hu were constantly observing the surrounding situation.
Li Shuangxi, who was also sitting on the horse, was so frightened that he couldn't speak. He had never seen the scene of corpses strewn in front of him in his life. The more he saw, the more nervous he became. Unlike Li Shuangxi, Lu Yunyou and the others were battle-hardened. For many people, the scene in front of them was not scary at all, but only made them sympathize.
We kept walking all the way to the center of the city. As expected, we still didn't see a single living person. Qucheng seemed to have become a dead city, with only messy streets and lifeless empty alleys. Look around. Four weeks later, Lu Yunyou and everyone stopped in front of the city lord's mansion.
The City Lord's Mansion in front of them was obviously the most majestic building in the city, but it was still lifeless, with not even a guard at the door.
After first sending a team of personnel to search the city lord's palace, Lu Yunyou was thinking about what to do next. The situation in Qucheng was undoubtedly worse than he expected. The city lord and those local forces escaped, and countless civilians were killed. Seeing living people, he really had no confidence in collecting enough food and grass in such an empty city, but the tasks assigned by Yan Nantian would not change due to the situation in Qucheng, and the current situation was very difficult for him.
After a while of helplessness, Lu Yunyou thought about what Mr. Hong said about delivering food last night. Originally, he didn't expect much food from the village, but now he is thinking about it consciously or unconsciously. Now, he only hopes that Wang A roar can yield something.
"General Lu, that bastard city lord has run away, what should we do?" What he saw along the way kept irritating Xing Hu. The behavior is extremely angry.
"General Xing, don't be impatient. Wait until General Wang finds out the situation." Shaking his head, Lu Yunyou was not as irritable as Xing Hu.
"Then what are we going to do now?" Xing Hu was puzzled.
"It doesn't matter if those corpses remain on the street. General Xing will take the soldiers to clean them up. We may have to stay in Qucheng for a few days." Without thinking too much, Lu Yunyou directly arranged something for Xing Hu to do.
"How many days?" Xing Hu raised his eyebrows and immediately asked in shock: "But General Yan only gave us three days of rations. Where can we get so much food to last for a few days? Shouldn't we go directly to Qincheng? "
"I want to send someone to Qincheng to check the situation first. If the situation there is the same as Qucheng, there is no need for us to go there." Looking back at Yu Tong and other deputy generals, Lu Yunyou planned to send some people with outstanding strength there. , then asked directly: "I wonder which of you is willing to go?"
In fact, it can be seen from the poverty of Qucheng that Qincheng will not be any richer than Qucheng. If the lord of Qincheng also ran away with money, then the situation in Qincheng is likely to be similar to Qucheng. In order to prevent them from running away in vain After one trip, Lu Yunyou had his current plan.
"General Lu, the situation can't be that bad, right?" When Lu Yunyou speculated on the situation in Qincheng, Xing Hu couldn't help but become nervous. If it was true as Lu Yunyou said, then the difficulties they encountered on this trip would be beyond imagination.
"General, my subordinates are willing to go." As Lu Yunyou's direct subordinate, Yu Tong was the first to speak out in support of Lu Yunyou.
"Commander Lu, my subordinates are also willing to go," and then one of Xing Hu's subordinates arrived.
