Mid-Autumn Festival, the Day of the Dead, Ullambana Festival, the Day of the Living.
Burn paper ingots to worship the dead souls, release river lanterns to express thoughts and thoughts.
On July 12, the 13th year of Hongye in the Great Wei Dynasty, Captain Jiang Ren of Jing'an issued an order to prepare for war. Only two days later, 13 warriors from various counties were gathered.
On July 15, the day of the Ghost Festival, the Jing'an commander led 3,000 troops to Jing'an City without waiting for reinforcements from the provincial government.
There were 500 soldiers from the Wuwei Camp, 300 soldiers from the Shesheng Camp, 300 soldiers from the Xiaoqi Camp, 1,800 auxiliary soldiers, and more than 100 soldiers with divine arms and black armor.
Zhou Yuan looked at the secret treasure in his hand and felt that a big battle was about to happen.
【Weapon: Tiger Shooting Bow】
【Introduction: A lantern displaying carving skills is displayed at the door, and a tiger shooter is invited to sit at the table; the lantern riddle is also a lantern tiger, and the solution is to shoot the tiger.】
【Effect: The bow has a force of five stones and six hundred pounds. After locking onto the target, it has an additional stealth-breaking effect. The person hit by the arrow will be judged as having had his stealth broken.
Note: The less health the target has and the lower its level, the stronger the stealth breaking effect will be.
【Weapon: Evil-Suppressing Arrow】
【Introduction: Wealth is the source of life, evil is the source of life, suppress evil, avoid disasters, and resolve difficulties.】
【Effect: Suppresses evil spirits, eradicates demons, purifies the aura, can directly attack Yin spirits, and causes additional damage to evil spirits.】
The combination of the Tiger-Shooting Bow and the Evil-Suppressing Arrow is very effective in restraining the Painted Skin Ghost.
The fact that the Jing'an Army had such highly targeted weapons in its warehouse proved that Captain Jing'an had already made preparations to eliminate the ghosts.
Previously, the spies in the provincial government and the army had targeted a limited number of suspects, so Captain Jing'an could still tolerate it.
But this time, the Painted Skin Ghost's behavior of blocking the streets, patrolling the city, and undermining the superiors has exceeded the tolerance limit of Captain Jing'an.
He was worried that if he didn't take action, the Painted Skin Ghost would use government decrees to replace a large number of people in the city.
"Today is the Ghost Festival, the day when the gates of hell open and the dead return home.
Whatever the reason for the sudden appearance of the city's ghosts, today will surely be their day to run rampant."
In fact, what Jing'an Captain Jiang Ren was most worried about was not the ghost plague in the city, but the combination of the ghost plague and the special time of the Ghost Festival.
It is recorded in the law book of Wei Du Town that Zhongyuan is the festival of ghosts. On the 15th day of July, ghosts are able to escape from the secret realm.
In other words, on the day of the Ghost Festival, the secret realm will temporarily lose its restraint on the ghosts, and the ghosts in the secret realm will be able to freely enter the human world.
Jing'an City had never been plagued by ghost disasters in the past, but the unusual movements of ghosts in the city this time, coupled with the approaching Ghost Festival, made it impossible for Captain Jing'an to ignore it.
Therefore, he not only summoned warriors from all the subordinate counties, but also sent a letter asking for help to the governor of Huaizhou, the provincial capital.
It was only because the reinforcements from Huaizhou Prefecture had not arrived yet, otherwise Jiang Ren would not mind surrounding the county town and forcefully severing the connection between the Ghost Festival and the ghost plague in the city.
"Orders, Jing'an Commander Zhou Yuan, hold the military flag and command one hundred light cavalrymen to control the city gates and welcome the central army in."
"promise."
As a military officer who can use the Three Talents Seal and has warrior-like abilities, Zhou Yuan is indeed suitable to be the vanguard of the central army.
After receiving the order, he rode into the cavalry camp, asked the captain in the camp to select more than a hundred light cavalry, and headed straight for Jing'an City.
Thump, thump, thump...
When the galloping light cavalry arrived near the county town, the guards guarding the city discovered something unusual.
It is unrealistic to expect these guards who maintain public order and patrol the gates to respond quickly.
The panicked crowd hurried to make way for the official road, and the frightened guards drove away the people inside and outside the city gate, trying to close the city gate.
Whoosh, whoosh.
Two heavy arrows pierced the gate bolts in the hands of the guards, frightening them so much that they dropped the hardwood bolts to the ground.
"Captain Jing'an has ordered the opening of the south gate to welcome the central army into the city.
The other three gates are open to the public as normal. Anyone who fabricates lies to cause panic or takes advantage of the situation to cause chaos will be executed."
"You idiot, look at this flag. Are you going to lock our Jing'an Army out of the city?"
Although Zhou Yuan fired two arrows in succession to prevent the city guards from closing the city gate, he still spoke in a businesslike manner.
The accompanying light cavalry was not so good. They started cursing and scolding, leaving the city guards stunned.
"General, don't be angry. We are all brothers. We haven't received any orders from the county office. How can we not be afraid when we see the cavalry galloping?"
When the guards at the city gate saw that they were their own people, they quickly straightened their leather armor and helmets and ran out to explain, hoping that these soldiers would not cause trouble for them, the city guards.
"Here is the military order. Immediately inform the county governor and the county chancellor. The Jing'an Army has been ordered to enter the city to defend it."
Zhou Yuan threw the black token covered with red writing in his hand to the city gate commander so that he could report to his superiors and avoid being punished by military law for letting the person pass without permission.
"Okay, General, please wait a moment. I'll go find our Governor Qu."
After the farce, the people near the South Gate also calmed down.
For them, since it was the Jing'an Army that came, there was nothing to be afraid of.
Because many men from ordinary families in the city also served in the Jing'an Army.
To round it off, the Jing'an Army is actually the people of Jing'an, the only difference is that one side is training with weapons while the other side is busy with their lives.
In particular, military officers would buy houses in the city, marry and have children, which greatly increased the sense of identity among the people in the city.
Therefore, when the central army infantry and auxiliary troops arrived, some people dared to go up and say a few words.
Military officers familiar with the procedure immediately organized auxiliary soldiers to guard the official road, allowing the central army soldiers to enter the city first.
"Zhou Yuan, is there anything unusual in the city?"
"Captain, there's nothing happening in the city. The hooligans patrolling the streets dispersed on their own when they saw the cavalry entering the city."
"He still knows how to hide. It seems the situation is not completely out of control."
Captain Jing'an rode into the city, met with the county governor and the prime minister first, and then sent troops to take over the four gates of the city.
The soldiers who were on duty still followed the principle of allowing entry and exit, and did not care that the ghosts in the city would take the opportunity to escape.
Captain Jing'an wanted no major chaos on the Ghost Festival. If the ghosts left the city, it would be exactly what he wanted.
The Jing'an Army began to enter the city in the morning, and the soldiers from each camp completed the replacement of guards in the afternoon.
Immediately afterwards, Jing'an Captain Jiang Ren distributed eight teams, led by warriors from various counties, to carry out the order to capture and kill ghosts.
Because Zhou Yuan possessed skills similar to those of a warrior, he was also granted five divine arm warriors, twenty black armor warriors, and 50 auxiliary soldiers to carry out the retreat mission.
"The Black Tiger Gang? It seems the city's spies are more focused on forces than individuals."
The military order Zhou Yuan received was to investigate the Black Tiger Gang. The document did not include any detailed names of people, but only recorded that many members of the Black Tiger Gang were abnormal and should be arrested and blood tests conducted.
The entire arrest operation was concentrated on small and medium-sized forces in various markets in the city, and did not affect the painted skins hidden in the homes of ordinary people and the painted skins of county officials.
"Captain, aren't you going to investigate further? Without the cooperation of officials, the ghosts can't close off the streets and patrol the city."
“It’s impossible to investigate in detail, so just destroy the middle layer.
The upper layers value profit and are good at avoiding, while the lower layers are afraid of trouble and are good at hiding. Only attacking the middle layers will make them afraid to act and unable to gather their strength to resist."
"Zhou Yuan, the warriors in each county have their own laws. You are young and impulsive, so don't act recklessly. Hand over the guilty to the auxiliary soldiers for arrest. Don't take the opportunity to kill them.
Otherwise, when blood flows like a river, we, the soldiers who suppress the rebellion, will also become bloodthirsty evil spirits in the eyes of the people.
If, in the end, we're no better than a bunch of painted skins, we might as well not enter the city at all."
"Yuan received the order to execute only those who resisted and fled, and to arrest those who obeyed orders and surrendered."