Chapter 766

Outside the hidden pass at Fengshen Pass, the gale rolled up large swaths of sand and dust, hitting the heavy oilcloth of the horse carriages and emitting a dull rustling sound.

The Qi State wealthy merchant stood in front of the carriage team, rubbing his frozen knuckles with force, and shouted at the top of his lungs to urge those shivering laborers to speed up the progress of the carriages.

Those heavy wooden boxes loaded with supreme-grade iron ingots flickered with a cold light that was enough to shake the foundation of the Great Zhou nation under the reflection of the moonlight, and the friction sound of the carriage wheels crushing the gravel was exceptionally ear-piercing in this silent night.

The pass-guarding commandant, clutching the heavy bag of gold ingots, shouted at his subordinates to hurry up and move away the last thorny obstacle blocking the road, giving this heaven-reaching god of wealth a smooth and unobstructed road.

Without warning, a sharp, mournful whistle sound that tore through the night sky and was enough to pierce people's eardrums exploded at the highest point of the valley.

On the steep and precipitous black cliffs that were like monster fangs around the pass, hundreds of steel repeating crossbow arrows burning with ghostly green phosphorus fire poured down like a sudden meteor shower of death, carrying a whistling sound that made people's scalps numb.

This dense rain of arrows accurately avoided the horse carriages loaded with goods, but mercilessly nailed the roads and retreat paths at both ends of the merchant team with dense arrow shafts, turning them into a cage from which they could not fly.

Accompanied by a uniform sound of steel being drawn from scabbards that made people's livers and gallbladders crack, those Embroidered Attire Envoys hiding in the darkness launched a thunderous action.

Gao Jiong led this group of killing machines draped in dark black brocade clothing, like Asura evil ghosts surging out from the netherworld, stepping on the steep cliffs with their feet, and sliding down to the center of the merchant team silently with the help of hook ropes.

The pass-guarding commandant was scared out of his wits upon seeing this; he tried to draw the sword at his waist to resist in a panic, but his trembling hands couldn't even hold the hilt.

Gao Jiong approached like a ghost, his black official boots carrying violent strength, and kicked directly and heavily at the knee joint of the commandant.

Accompanied by a crisp sound of bone shattering, the commandant emitted a miserable howl like a slaughtered pig, his legs broke powerlessly, and he knelt heavily beside the boxes of smuggled gold he had just released, rolling on the ground in pain while holding his broken leg.

After the initial short astonishment, the Qi State wealthy merchant quickly forced himself to calm down; relying on the massive network of human relationships he had woven in the courts of the two countries behind him, he didn't believe that these attackers dared to really do anything to him.

Not only was he not afraid, but he stepped forward two steps with his big belly, pointed his fat finger straight at Gao Jiong's nose, and broke into a burst of arrogant and domineering threats.

"Which blind dog-legged man from which yamen are you, that you even dare to block my merchant team? Do you know what kind of life-and-death friendship I have with the Inspector of Lingzhou?"

The wealthy merchant waved the bright yellow customs clearance document, spraying spit everywhere, and extremely arrogantly moved out the names of the Qi State high-level officials and Great Zhou clans, trying to use power to crush this young general with a gloomy face.

"If you dare to move a single hair of mine, not only will you, the small fish leading the team, lose your head, but even that yellow-mouthed child Chen Yan, the Governor of Xiazhou, will have to obediently peel off a layer of skin and kneel on the ground to respectfully send this batch of goods out of the pass for me."

Facing this life-and-death provocation that was arrogant to the extreme, a mocking sneer that was extremely cruel and like looking at a dead person slowly appeared on Gao Jiong's face, which was always dark and gloomy.

He didn't waste half a sentence to refute this crazy clamor before death, nor did he look at the waste paper covered with seals, but made the most cold-blooded response with actual actions.

Gao Jiong drew the Embroidered Spring Sword specially used for executing absolute killing missions from his waist in reverse, the blade drawing a dazzling cold light like a bolt of lightning in the dim night.

He didn't have any hesitation or pause, his waist suddenly exerted force, driving his right arm holding the sword to swing a perfect half-moon-shaped death trajectory in mid-air, and slashed fiercely and ruthlessly toward the wealthy merchant's neck.

With a hair-raising sound of a sharp blade cutting flesh and breaking the neck bone, the wealthy merchant's massive head, full of fat, instantly shot into the sky, rolling out several terrifying blood lines in mid-air.

Warm blood sprayed out like a fountain that had lost control from the smooth cavity, splashing directly onto the face and body of the pass-guarding commandant who was still howling.

The head that was thrown away even had its expression frozen in that high-and-mighty, arrogant, and domineering look of the previous second until it landed, completely unaware that it had been separated from its body.

The headless fat corpse swayed twice in place, then fell forward, smashing heavily into the lid of the wooden box beside it, revealing the full smuggled pig iron flickering with cold light inside.

Those guards and laborers in the merchant team who were originally holding sticks and preparing to resist were completely scared out of their wits by this thunderous means of decisive killing, and their faces turned bloodless as they threw down the ridiculous weapons in their hands.

This group of people knelt and prostrated on the cold and rough Gobi stone beach one after another like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, knocking their foreheads until they were bloody, and begging Gao Jiong for mercy crazily.

Gao Jiong kicked the wealthy merchant's head, which was still staring in death, in front of the pass-guarding commandant, his boot tip pressing on the bloodstains on the ground, and then coldly issued the absolute killing order that left no survivors.

"Pass the highest hand order of the Pillar of State, all personnel involved in smuggling here, whether they are the masterminds or the accomplices doing coolie work, are all to be executed on the spot, not a single one left."

He wiped the blood off the Embroidered Spring Sword on the commandant's clothes, the blade entering the scabbard with a crisp sound.

"Transport all the goods on these horse carriages, as well as the gold and silver found on their bodies, back to the Xiazhou treasury for entry without missing a single bit. Anyone who dares to hide even a single copper coin will be guilty of the same crime as these people."

A tragic slaughter was immediately staged within this narrow Fengshen Pass checkpoint, and the Embroidered Attire Envoys drew their sharp horizontal blades, mercilessly harvesting the lives of these pests of the nation like autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves.

Miserable howls rose and fell in the valley, and the sprayed warm blood completely soaked this arid land, the thick bloody smell completely covering the pungent smell of saltpeter on the goods.

The next morning, when the first ray of sunlight struggled to pierce through the morning mist outside Xiazhou City, dozens of eye-catching high poles up to two zhang high had already been erected on the empty execution platform outside the city wall.

Dozens of heads still dripping with dark red blood, including that greedy pass-guarding commandant and that wealthy merchant from the Qi State with heaven-reaching background, were hung high in the wind and swayed back and forth, having been pierced through the skull with iron wire in unison.

This thunderous and consequence-ignoring act of killing the chicken to warn the monkey was like a terrifying bloody storm sweeping the world, instantly sweeping across the long and complex merchant roads of the northern border.

Those who were originally watching in the dark and harboring lucky thoughts of wanting to commit crimes against the wind were scared to death after seeing the miserable end of these powerful people, and completely cut off all thoughts of colluding with the grasslands to smuggle.