After another dozen or so breaths, everyone finally saw clearly that the people approaching from below were five or six common folk dressed in thin clothing.
When they got a bit closer, Sun Bu shouted out a question: "Where are you all from? Where are you headed?"
The common folk stopped, looked up at the arrow tower, and spoke with trembling voices.
"We are people from Gefeng, we have relatives living in the village further in. Since it's winter and we have free time, we wanted to go visit them."
Sun Bu continued asking: "Which village?"
The common folk hugged their sleeves together, their tattered and thin clothes unable to block the cold wind at all, shivering uncontrollably.
"I only know they were assigned to one of the villages inside. I don't remember which one specifically, the one called Wang Fu."
Sun Bu showed nothing on his face, and asked: "Did you bring your household registration?"
The common folk shook their heads: "We left in too much of a hurry, we didn't bring it."
"Aren't there just a few villages inside? It's not some heavily guarded secret place, just let us through. The weather is so cold and we finally managed to walk all the way here." He again pleaded in a trembling voice.
Sun Bu did not make things difficult for them, instead saying: "Fine, as long as you can answer two of my questions, I'll let you through."
The common folk's faces lit up with joy: "Officer, please go ahead."
Sun Bu nodded: "How much does a jar of Nine Heavens Jade Nectar wine cost?"
The common folk were full of question marks. The few of them exchanged glances, and the one who had spoken earlier gave an awkward smile.
"This, this, we're just ordinary folk. We've never drunk any wine, let alone something like what you mentioned, which sounds like something only nobles can afford."
The soldiers quietly raised their Dragon Neck Crossbows and aimed them at the common folk.
Sun Bu, however, seemed not to notice the problem, and continued asking: "What is a big axe minus a small axe?"
The common folk were even more confused: "What, what?"
How can a big axe subtract a small axe?
What kind of arithmetic problem is that?
Sun Bu asked no more questions, smiled, and said: "Alright, you may pass."
The common folk were completely baffled. After hearing his words, they didn't know for a moment whether they should keep moving forward.
They always felt that things had gone beyond their expectations.
Looking at Sun Bu smiling on the arrow tower, the common folk gritted their teeth and continued forward, but their expressions were very wary.
Until they were about to pass the arrow tower and saw no movement from above, they finally secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Clang.
The just-relaxed common folk heard a not-so-loud sound and looked toward the source.
They saw the door of the arrow tower pulled open, and Sun Bu led his men bursting out from inside, charging toward them.
The common folk's hearts trembled. Their hands, which had been tucked into their sleeves, suddenly pulled out, revealing daggers in their grips, and they lunged at Sun Bu and his men.
Sun Bu seemed to have expected this long ago, and swung down with the great blade in his hand.
With a clang, the dagger flew away.
Sun Bu kicked out with one foot, and the common folk he hit fell to the ground. Just as he was about to get up and run, Sun Bu stepped on him: "Stay still for me."
At the same time, the other common folk were also subdued by the soldiers.
Sun Bu gave the order: "Tie them all up."
Immediately one soldier took out a coil of rope from inside the arrow tower.
Fear flashed in the common folk's eyes, and they shouted loudly that they were wronged: "You, you, what are you doing? We're just ordinary folk. How can you soldiers of the Jinyang Army bully the people?"
Sun Bu kicked him: "Ordinary folk? You don't even know how much a jar of Nine Heavens Jade Nectar wine costs, and you still dare to call yourselves subjects of my lord?"
He sometimes truly admired his lord. Who knows how he came up with it, but one of the contents of the literacy campaign was the price of this wine. Whether someone was one of their own people could be confirmed just by matching the price.
Of course, this was a simple slogan for dealing with ordinary common folk. The secret signals for their soldiers were not nearly that simple.
Remembering something, his face twisted up.
The common folk were stunned. They didn't understand why, to be a person of Gefeng, they had to know the price of a jar of wine?
Sun Bu let out a cold snort: "You were sent by Qu Zhao, weren't you? Instead of being proper Han people, you insist on being their dogs."
The common folk's faces turned pale then red: "You, you, don't slander people. We are Han common folk. Release us at once, or we'll go to the county office and file a complaint against you."
Sun Bu couldn't be bothered with him, and waved his hand: "Tie them to those trees over there. Based on the time, patrol soldiers should be coming by soon. When they arrive, we'll have them take the prisoners back."
"Got it." The soldier was very excited, a grin spreading across his face: "Military merit finally falls to us. It took long enough."
Sun Bu smiled: "We guard the arrow tower well and do our duty properly, that in itself is military merit."
"Do you need any help?" At that moment, two groups of people came running over frantically.
It turned out that the left and right arrow towers had seen from a distance that there was 'military merit' over here, and rushed over in a hurry, hoping to get a piece of the action, but they moved too slowly and missed it.
Sun Bu stretched out a smile: "Thanks, but we've already handled it. No need for your trouble."
The squad leader of the left arrow tower, named Han Zheng, was one of the people from Yunzuo Village who had fled down the mountain back then. He patted Sun Bu on the shoulder: "You son of a gun got lucky. These people walked right into your hands."
He certainly wasn't admitting that Sun Bu was stronger. Although this fellow was tall and sturdy, if they really compared skills, he might not necessarily lose.
It was just that although the arrow towers could see each other, the distance was a bit far. They had sprinted over as fast as possible, but were still a step too slow.
Sun Bu looked simple and honest: "By my lord's blessing, all just a stroke of luck."
Seeing that everything was fine here, everyone was about to disperse when they heard the common folk shout at them: "We are ordinary folk! You can't arrest innocent common people just to pad your military merit!"
"That's right, that's right. You Jinyang Army can't indiscriminately kill the innocent. If we're not allowed into the village, we'll just leave!"
Han Zheng laughed: "Whether you're wrongfully accused, you ought to know the truth in your own hearts. You already pulled out daggers, and you still try to defend yourselves?"
The common folk choked on their words: "Those were things we found, for self-defense."
His eyes turned vicious.
Gefeng was really too eerie.
How in the world could they distinguish whether someone was one of their own people from Gefeng just by a single type of wine?
They really were sent by Qu Zhao, planning to sneak into the village to spy on the situation.
The only problem was, the Jinyang Army's money seemed to burn a hole in their pockets. Not only did they build roads between the three counties, they also built an arrow tower at every interval along the way.
Trying to sneak in quietly was completely impossible.
They had also thought about sneaking in at night, but the Jinyang Army had set up quite a few traps around the roads.
The traps were crudely made and easy to spot in the daytime, so the Jinyang Army and the people of Gefeng had no trouble moving around in the area.
But when it got pitch dark at night...
A few waves of them had tried to sneak in under cover of darkness, and every one of them had fallen in!
Plainly speaking, this was clearly designed to prevent anyone from sneaking in at night. Really, genius!
They had also sent people to disguise themselves as refugees to try to sneak into the city. Sure enough, they got inside, but they never came back out again.
On one occasion, the person who went in even led the trail back to the Qu Zhao people, getting the Qu Zhao soldiers who were lying low near the Gefeng county seat observing the situation rounded up in one fell swoop.
Tang Tishou couldn't figure out how the Jinyang Army had found them out. The ones who snuck in were clearly all Han people.
With no other choice, he had to settle for a lesser goal, planning to sneak into the area of the three counties to check the situation.
But the earlier waves of people who moved at night had directly fallen into the traps.
For this operation, they gave themselves away again because of some nonsensical jar of wine.
