Chapter 153

Several young soldiers walked toward him.

"General Cao has great ability; last night he devised a plan to surround and kill more than ten experts of the Ghost Gui Ming Jiao, which really makes people feel relieved."

"Exactly, it's one thing that we don't go looking for them, but these thieves actually dared to take the initiative to attack."

"Should be killed!"

Several people discussed excitedly while walking.

Suddenly.

A young man inadvertently glanced at an old man and hurriedly saluted: "Lord Li."

The others were reminded and all bowed in unison.

Li Rui waved his hand: "What were you talking about just now?"

"Reporting to you, my lord, General Cao surrounded and killed more than ten Ghost Gui Ming Jiao demons lurking around Qinghe last night."

"This is a great thing!"

Seeing Li Rui show a smile.

Several soldiers secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Who in the Anning Guard didn't know that this Lord Li before them was a man of Military Advisor Jiang, and had accomplished several beautiful tasks, and Jiang Linxian and Cao Wei were at odds; they were afraid of hearing Cao Wei achieve merit and venting their anger on them.

"Go."

Li Rui waved his hand.

Venting anger?

He wasn't that narrow-minded.

Cao Wei's battle had severely dampened the spirit of the Ghost Gui Ming Jiao, at least enough to keep Qinghe peaceful for a year.

He was naturally happy to see such a good thing.

Jiang Linxian and Cao Wei being at odds was a matter of stance and position.

Cao Wei worked hard to deal with the Ghost Gui Ming Jiao; it was impossible for Jiang Linxian to trip him up or be jealous because of this.

This was their duty.

It was even more impossible for Li Rui.

A moment later.

He arrived at the drill ground of the Galloping Tiger Cavalry.

He saw Tan Hu training the formation, and the figures of those young disciples of the Huaqing Sect were already gone.

Ever since returning from Qingfeng Villa.

Han Qin and the others had received orders from Jiang Linxian and left the Galloping Tiger Cavalry.

It should be considered that Jiang Linxian was very satisfied with Li Rui's training, so he recalled these Huaqing Sect disciples early.

Sending away the Crown Prince's party, Li Rui was happy to be idle.

Standing on the side watching the training.

Tan Hu then walked over, drenched in sweat: "Li Laoge, have you heard? General Cao killed quite a few demons of the Ghost Gui Ming Jiao; it's truly satisfying!"

Li Rui nodded: "I just heard about it on the way here."

"This Cao fellow looks sissy, but his hands are quite ruthless."

Li Rui's scalp went numb: "Little Brother Tan, it's fine to say this in front of me, but don't ever say it in front of others in the future."

This is the Anning Guard, and there are hundreds of eyes watching.

As the chief officer, it couldn't be simpler for Cao Wei to want to kill someone.

From this thunderous means, it can be seen.

This Ministry of War official who came from the capital is not a kind person, and he won't be soft-hearted when killing people.

Tan Hu also realized that these words might bring disaster upon himself and scratched his head awkwardly:

"Li Laoge is right."

After getting along with Li Rui, he was also influenced and was no longer as impulsive and reckless as before.

"Alright, tidy up, and come out with me for a trip."

Li Rui said lightly.

"Work again?"

Unlike others, Tan Hu was a person who couldn't stay idle, otherwise he wouldn't be dragging Liang He and the others to train every day; it was all because they were idle.

He was eager for more trouble, just to relieve boredom.

Seeing Tan Hu's excited look, Li Rui shook his head: "Little Brother Tan, don't cause any more trouble."

Tan Hu slapped his chest with a thud:

"Everything depends on Li Laoge's look."

Li Rui then continued: "There are mountain people missing in the Willow Tree Village area, suspected to be the work of demon beasts, Lord Ning told us to go take a look."

Besides monitoring the Jianghu, another important task of the Anning Guard is to suppress demon chaos.

"Go, go, go."

Hearing it was demon beasts, Tan Hu became even more energetic and called out to the Galloping Tiger Battalion soldiers behind him: "Little brats, work is at the door, let's go with me."

A group of people were already exhausted and lying on the ground.

Hearing Tan Hu's words, they wailed even more; it wasn't as if everyone was born with divine strength like Tan Hu.

They were very tired, alright!

In the end, Li Rui was understanding and suggested setting off at noon.

Anyway, the demon chaos had been reported three days ago, and it wasn't just their Galloping Tiger Battalion handling it, so being a little late wouldn't have much impact.

After noon.

Li Rui led the people of the Galloping Tiger Battalion on horseback straight to Willow Tree Village outside the city.

Lived for decades.

Already familiar with the villages and strongholds around Qinghe, Li Rui took the lead, and half an hour later arrived at Willow Tree Village twenty miles away.

Looking at the familiar village.

Li Rui's heart stirred.

When he was still a groom in the Zhu family, he often came to this village, mainly because buying forage here was cheaper.

"Giddyup!"

With a light shout, the group slowed down and slowly entered the village.

Some children playing at the village entrance saw this scene and showed curious expressions.

Children are ignorant.

The adults in the village saw Li Rui and the others and shrank their necks in fear; they didn't know the specific identities of Li Rui and these people, but as long as they were government officials, they couldn't afford to offend any of them.

Li Rui just glanced at them lightly. Three years ago.

He was the same as these people, even shrinking back more so as not to be noticed.

A moment later.

The crowd arrived at the middle of the village.

Tan Hu's eyes lit up, and he jumped off his horse and shouted: "Li Laoge Ge, why have you come too?"

He saw Ge Hong chatting with an old man leaning on a cane, whose age was estimated to be not much younger than Li Rui.

Ge Hong turned his head.

And saw Li Rui and Tan Hu, and was also happy: "I heard from Head Ning that he sent people to assist, didn't expect it to be you."

Li Rui jumped off, and in a few steps walked to Ge Hong's side.

Ning Zhong didn't tell him when he was there that it was Ge Hong's Wu-rank battalion handling the demon chaos.

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Ge Hong was happy.

He had been sent by Ning Zhongtian to the village two days ago to handle the demon chaos, but two days had passed, and another person who went to the mountains to pick herbs had died, and he hadn't even seen the shadow of the demon beast.

Getting ruthless, he had the idea of searching the mountains.

But he was just a platoon leader, and he had a total of fifty people under him.

In normal times, it was enough, but searching the mountain gullies behind Willow Tree Village covered a radius of more than a hundred miles, which was simply not enough.

So he asked Ning Zhongtian for people.

Didn't expect to wait for Li Rui here.

Logically speaking, the duty of the Night Scouts is close to scouts, and they deal more with sects, so handling demon chaos is generally the responsibility of each battalion.

It is estimated that there have been many things recently, so Ning Zhongtian sent the Galloping Tiger Cavalry to support.

Li Rui looked at the old man standing beside Ge Hong and said: "Old Zhao, do you still remember me?"

The old village chief surnamed Zhao was a bit puzzled.

He didn't understand why this old official before him addressed him so kindly.

His cloudy old eyes looked at Li Rui for a long time, and finally overlapped with the figure of a groom in his mind; his eyes widened, and he pointed at Li Rui in disbelief:

"You are... the groom from the Zhu family?"

After saying this, he regretted it.

If it wasn't him, he would have offended the official before him.

He was just about to find a way to make up for it when Li Rui smiled and nodded: "Old Zhao, your memory is as good as ever."

"It really is?!"

Village Chief Zhao was so surprised he couldn't speak.

In his impression, a few years ago, there was a groom from the Zhu family who often came to Willow Tree Village to collect forage, it seemed his name was Li... Li Rui?

"Li Lao?"

He pondered for a long time before saying it.

Li Rui saw this old man who was four or five years younger than himself and chuckled: "Why, I changed my clothes, and you don't recognize me?"

Village Chief Zhao confirmed his identity and only felt his heart thumping.

The groom transformed into an official.

He had lived for nearly seventy years and had never heard of such a story.

Seeing Old Zhao was too shocked.

Li Rui coughed lightly and changed the subject: "Old Zhao, tell me first what exactly happened in the village?"

He was truly afraid that this Old Zhao would get too excited and die of old age right there.

That would be a sin.

The previous Registrar Ma had been eagerly waiting for this Old Zhao to turn seventy, so he could report to the prefecture office that there was an additional seventy-year-old village chief in his jurisdiction.

It's a pity that Registrar Ma was transferred to an outer county, and it is said he was promoted to Registrar, so he probably wouldn't see it.

Village Chief Zhao calmed down upon hearing this.

He said in a somewhat trembling and hoarse voice: "Just a few days ago, Zhao San's eldest son went up the mountain to pick herbs, but four or five days passed, and he didn't return, so I thought there was a problem and called a few young men to go up the mountain to look."

"After searching, we found a corpse in the gully, it was Zhao San's eldest son."

"Falling to death while picking herbs is common, I didn't take it to heart, but a few days later, Zhao Lao Ba died again, and when he was found, his body was gnawed beyond recognition, and only then did I realize something was wrong and reported it to the officials."

At this time.

Ge Hong took over the conversation: "I took the coroner to see it, it was indeed the work of a demon beast, but that demon beast is extremely cunning; as soon as I took people up the mountain, it burrowed into the deep mountains."

Looking depressed.

For this matter, he had already stayed in Willow Tree Village for three or four days.

Li Rui pondered:

"Indeed tricky."

Although demon beasts don't have high intelligence, their survival instincts are very strong, and once they enter the mountains and forests, they are much stronger than human martial artists.

Wanting to find a demon beast in the vast mountains is not generally difficult.

Ge Hong looked at Li Rui hopefully: "Li Laoge, is there a way?"

Li Rui shook his head.

He wasn't an immortal, nor could he tell fortunes, so he was also blind to this kind of thing.

"Brother Ge, I think even if we go to search the mountains, it's highly likely to be useless."

Ge Hong only had fifty people, plus their fifteen people, that was only sixty-five people; wanting to search the mountains with this many people was simply wishful thinking.

"Then what do you think we should do, Li Laoge?"

Ge Hong was also out of ideas.

Li Rui firmly spat out one word: "Wait."

Ge Hong sighed; he naturally knew this method, but if it went on like this, they would have to spend at least half a month in this Willow Tree Village, which was really not worth it.

Li Rui understood Ge Hong's thoughts, and his tone became rarely persistent: "Li Laoge Ge, since it is a matter arranged by Head Ning, we must do it even if it takes more time."

Either don't do things, or do them well.

How can there be talk of giving up halfway?

Li Rui didn't pity the villagers of Willow Tree Village, he just did things according to the rules in his bones.

At seventy, follow your heart's desire without overstepping the rules.

That's because he knows and acts as one; no matter how he does it, it's already within the rules.

(End of chapter)