Free Web NovelChapter 1229: Chapter 1210: Return to the Capital (2)
Some of the scholars who were more stubborn, or had no old acquaintances willing to help them, saw this and simply came to ask the Zhao Family Army for assistance.
The Guardian General Pingyi thought for a moment and let them eat with the guard army, two meals a day; whatever the officers and soldiers ate, they would eat. If they camped in the open at night, he would also give them some bedding and allow them to pitch camp alongside the army.
The number of scholars coming to seek protection grew and grew, but Pingyi did not take in just anyone. If they could not explain their family background, could not recite a few pages of their genealogy, or if their clothes and ornaments still looked fairly decent, he would not help them.
Even so, the number of scholars he took in kept increasing.
Then, when they were nearing Luoyang, one night, from the quiet outer ring of the camp there suddenly came shrieks, then a clamor. But the noise quickly died away, and eight more corpses lay on the ground.
Torches flared one after another in the darkness. The family heads of the various great clans bivouacked not far away all sent people over to ask what had happened.
Pingyi, right in front of the people who had come, wiped the blood from his blade onto the corpses and said to them with a smile, "Nothing serious. It’s just that the traitor Wang Dun sent assassins to murder King Langya, and we have taken them down."
"Go back and tell your family heads that the traitors have all been wiped out, and let them sleep easy." After that he turned to the scholars who had been frightened and said, "Gentlemen, be at ease. We had word beforehand of the assassins’ treasonous plot. Rest assured, since you did not participate, our Great General will never implicate you."
One scholar’s face was ugly as he asked, "You already knew beforehand that they had slipped in among us to plot treason?"
Pingyi gave him a sidelong glance and said, "That is a military secret. My lord, are you sure you wish to pry into it?"
The scholar fell silent.
Pingyi waved for his men to drag all the corpses away, then said to the crowd, "It’s late. Everyone, get some rest."
As soon as Pingyi left, someone immediately raised the idea of leaving.
The soldiers did not stop them. Apart from those eight fake scholars who had taken up blades and tried to stab Sima Rui and were killed, they truly did not implicate anyone else, nor did they even investigate, as if they were quite confident that there were no assassins left among them.
But even if they believed that, the scholars did not.
Indeed, they felt there were still assassins mixed in among them. Even if the Zhao Family Army did not implicate them, once the killing started it was impossible not to injure the innocent. Tonight, when the incident broke out unexpectedly, two of their side were injured.
One saw the assassins and soldiers hacking at each other, and in his panic to flee fell flat on all fours, cracking his head; another, in fright, stuck out his foot to kick an assassin and was then surrounded and hacked at by two of them.
Although men of letters all study the Six Arts, and the gentlemen present all knew some martial skills, the other side had weapons, and these men...
Aside from a very few who had kept their swords, the rest of the scholars had already pawned their swords back in Jiangnan just to get food.
So the scholar who had kicked at the assassin was rather badly hurt, taking two cuts.
Pingyi felt both sympathy and gratitude for them. He did not leave them to their fate but had them carried into the camp for treatment.
The commotion here did not affect the common folk trailing at the rear of the column; most of them hadn’t even heard it before it was over.
As for the gentry families camped nearest the army, once they learned of it they fell as quiet as chickens. They waited with their hearts in their throats and, when dawn came safely, the column set out as usual.
The Zhao Family Army had not taken the opportunity to search them for assassins, nor to extort them.
The gentry families following behind fell silent for a moment. Seeing the Guard Camp ahead drawing farther away, they hurriedly packed up, gathered their families and retainers, and rushed to catch up.
The commoners behind were already tramping over the grass to pass them, even turning their heads to look at them with contempt. "Scholars really are delicate. The Guard Camp has already gone on, and they’re only just waking up."
"Exactly. Won’t get up on their own and still block the road, holding us up."
The various scholars: ...
These commoners were all people who had fled south to Jiangnan over the past few years, but even after so many years in Jiangnan, they had not managed to build up any sort of livelihood.
Most had become tenant farmers or long-term hired hands for the great clans and scholar-gentry, earning tiny wages just to get by. Life was very hard.
They had heard that in Jiangbei, so long as they returned to register as residents, they could be allotted land and seed, and could even rent farm tools from the county government at very low interest. Anyone with the least bit of courage wanted to go back.
In the past there had been no chance, but now that a chance had come, they simply bundled up their belongings and left.
Some were moving back with their entire household; being poor, they had little luggage. They turned all the grain at home into dry rations, slung it on their backs, and set off.
Others split off one or two sons or daughters, gathered with several fellow villagers into a group, and traveled north together.
