Chapter 143: White Elephant Divine Flesh

As the woman spoke, her face was filled with despair.

Li Lin turned his head and asked, "Commander Xie, do you know about this?"

Xie Shuyou shook his head.

Li Lin looked at the woman again and asked, "Why has the south of you become a desert?"

The woman first shook her head, then her expression turned mad: "This must be the punishment of the Great King Mo Yi's god upon us, because we did not bring him enough blood sacrifices, did not bring him enough Han human heads, he is unhappy, has abandoned us, he has turned our land into sand, cut off our water sources, left us without food... hahahaha, this is divine punishment."

Li Lin shook his head: "Lock her back up."

Two soldiers came forward and threw the woman back into the house to be locked up.

Li Lin moved away from these small houses, and only then did he feel the air was much fresher.

"County Lieutenant Li, how should these four hundred and some people be handled?"

"Execute them according to wartime military law!"

Xie Shuyou hissed.

Li Lin looked at him sideways, his expression cold.

Xie Shuyou immediately reacted, speaking seriously: "Please give specific orders, County Lieutenant Li."

"Women under thirty-five and over fifteen are to be kept; after checking for no epidemics, send them back to Jincheng to be assigned to the Laundry Bureau."

"Girls under fourteen or female infants are to be sent to the Brokerage."

"Boys over six, adult men, and the elderly are all to be executed. Boys under six are likewise to be sent to the Brokerage." Li Lin looked at Xie Shuyou: "Are there any further questions?"

Xie Shuyou shook his head vigorously: "None."

"Then go do the work."

"Yes!" Xie Shuyou said respectfully.

He felt a very cold killing intent on Li Lin.

Li Lin turned back and said to the several Company Commanders he had brought from Yulin County: "You take people outside, find a flat spot, and dig a large pit."

The several Company Commanders looked at Li Lin's cold expression, all feeling somewhat afraid, immediately clasped their fists in response, and did not dare to hesitate.

Soon, the five hundred local militia Li Lin brought arrived outside to dig the pit, while the one hundred and some soldiers of the military town took the men and elderly to be executed outside.

These people were starving; although they knew disaster was imminent, they could not resist.

Of course... there were also many who did not resist.

Because they saw their own children under five, so small, seemed able to survive.

So they willingly followed the soldiers away.

Soon, almost everyone in the entire military town had gone outside to work.

Only four people remained in the military town.

Li Lin, Bai Zhiwei, Zhao Hao, and Su Bei!

"Go, I will watch here." Li Lin smiled.

Bai Zhiwei and Zhao Hao pulled Su Bei and walked toward the secret passage.

Of the four hundred and some Southern Barbarians, fewer than two hundred were to be executed.

The rest were able to survive.

And they were all women.

They locked themselves in their houses; let alone walking out, they did not even dare to look outside once more.

After a bit more than an hour, with the efforts of the five hundred local militia, a large pit had been dug.

Those Southern Barbarians were pushed to the edge of the pit, made to kneel, then their heads were chopped off with a single blow, and their corpses were kicked into the pit.

It sounds very cruel... but in substance it is already very merciful.

At least they were not tortured.

When the Southern Barbarians invaded Great Qi, what they did was truly beastly.

It is all recorded in the history books.

Li Lin watched from the city wall, his expression very cold.

Not long after, Bai Zhiwei and the others came out of the secret passage; they secretly hid the bundles outside, then returned to the military town.

By evening, the large pit had been refilled, and the local militia and military town soldiers had returned.

"Reporting to the County Lieutenant, the military order has been completed."

Li Lin nodded.

At this moment, a military scribe came over from the side and placed a record in front of Li Lin.

After Li Lin looked at it for a while and confirmed the record had no errors, he waved his hand, and someone brought the County Lieutenant's official seal.

Li Lin stamped the record document and then signed his own name.

This record will, in future time, be passed up layer by layer, undergo review, and finally be stored in the Jingcheng Document Bureau.

Li Lin looked at the distant forests and suddenly asked: "Those several forests... when late autumn arrives, will the leaves wither and turn yellow?"

"They will not!"

"Truly a pity." Li Lin sighed: "If only we could burn them all down with one fire."

Xie Shuyou looked at Li Lin in surprise; he thought this man was very handsome, with a very pale face, but the things he did were the opposite of his appearance.

Very dark.

"So the reason the County Lieutenant brought me here was for this matter." Li Lin sighed: "The Northern Di are also attacking our Northern Frontier like mad; now the Southern Barbarians would rather die than run over from the forest side. What exactly has happened around Great Qi? Why do natural and man-made disasters occur simultaneously in the north and south! This is not reasonable."

Xie Shuyou was a martial man; he understood even less and could only listen.

After thinking for a while, Li Lin said: "Commander Xie, in the future, if you can still catch Southern Barbarians, you must interrogate them more thoroughly, see exactly what has happened in the south, and if the south has become desertified, what the cause is."

Xie Shuyou nodded repeatedly.

Li Lin came down off the city wall and said to several of Yulin County's du-tou: "Arrange for everyone to rest tonight, good food and good drink. Tomorrow we head back to the county seat, but we'll need to bring back over two hundred more women."

Everyone burst out laughing.

One bold local soldier asked: "County Lieutenant, I don't want this month's salary — could you let me pick out a wife to take home?"

Everyone burst out laughing.

Li Lin shook his head and said: "Cut it out. Wait until they've been assigned to the Laundry Bureau or the Broker Bureau, then you can think about it. If anyone causes trouble now and it gets discovered, nothing will happen to me, but you lot will probably be flayed alive."

The local soldiers all roared with laughter.

They were only asking, after all.

After all, there were plenty of bachelors among them.

If they married a woman from a respectable family, they couldn't afford the betrothal gifts.

But if it was one of these Southern Barbarian women, they could buy one for less than a tenth of that price.

The local soldiers made camp in the military town, setting up cauldrons to cook.

Li Lin, meanwhile, sat idly on a chair, taking in the scenery.

Before long, Xie Shuyou walked over and said: "County Lieutenant, I've heard you're from a noble family — you must know far more than us rough folk."

"Not a noble family, just ordinary people."

Xie Shuyou didn't believe it.

Could an ordinary household raise such a jade-like, radiant young man?

"What exactly happened over on the Southern Barbarians' side? Can you make a guess or two?"

Li Lin shook his head: "Not really sure."

"But I have heard some rumors!" Xie Shuyou suddenly said in a mysterious tone.

"What rumors?"

"The Southern Barbarians' god is dead."

"Mm?"

Where there are ghosts and cultivation of immortality, naturally there are gods.

"Someone saw the Southern Barbarians' god die?" Li Lin was very curious: "What did their god look like?"

"It was a white elephant."

"A huge white elephant! As tall as a small hill." Xie Shuyou said: "I heard quite a few people in the Tang family army got their hands on the White Elephant God's flesh!"

(End of chapter)