Chapter 31: The General Flees in Panic

  At dawn, Yamagata Banto, who claims to be "a mere martial artist", was practicing swordsmanship in the courtyard when a series of earth-shaking explosions suddenly came from the west side of Seoul, flames shooting into the sky and dyeing the entire western sky red. The explosion shook the entire city of Seoul, causing the ground to tremble three times, resulting in extreme chaos.

  What's going on? Shan County stopped practicing and took a step back. In Hancheng West, there seems to be an ammunition depot. Could it be?! Shan County's friend was shocked and dared not think further, as that is the largest ammunition depot of the Imperial Army in Korea! He hastily issued orders for the entire city to be on high alert, sealing off each city gate, prohibiting arbitrary entry and exit, and figuring out what happened.

  Without keeping him waiting, the lieutenant from the west ammunition depot rushed into the courtyard with a group of people, and as soon as they entered the gate, they knelt down on the ground, not daring to raise their heads, trembling with fear, and said: "Commander, this morning, the ammunition depot in the west of the city suddenly exploded without reason, and all the ammunition has been lost."

  Shan County's friend flashed a cold light in his eyes, and with one sword, he beheaded a large head, angrily saying: "Ba Ga, you actually dared to report to me without reason, and even the reason was not clear. The empire does not need such trash."

  The rest of the soldiers were intimidated by Yu Wei's aura, all kneeling on the ground and trembling with fear, not daring to make a sound. Shan Xian You Peng didn't even wipe away his blood, sheathing his sword and saying: "Still not quickly going down to investigate clearly?"

  The crowd of people fled from the courtyard like they had been pardoned, afraid that if they weren't careful, they would again provoke Mountain County's friend into anger and become his victims.

  Unfortunately, this investigation, which lasted for half a day, finally concluded that the warehouse had been neglected for years and accidentally caught fire, causing an explosion. The Japanese people didn't suspect the Qing army at all.

  It wasn't until noon that the soldiers delivering food discovered the guards had been attacked, and reported that several Japanese military outposts had been raided by unidentified personnel, with no survivors left behind.

  Yamagata had a friend who listened, his heart skipped a beat, and his face changed suddenly. He realized that everything that happened today didn't seem so simple after all. The Japanese soldier who delivered the meal didn't know what place it was, but Yamagata knew, didn't he? Those were places where treasures were buried! If something went wrong in this place, it would be more serious than losing military supplies.

  Yamagata hastily summoned the military officer who delivered meals to personally inquire about the details, and other Japanese officers such as Notsu Dogen who knew the inside story also rushed to Yamagata's residence.

  The ghost who delivered the meal was called Koizumi Ryojin, a bit stuttering. When he saw the commander ask questions in person, he became even more afraid and spoke intermittently. Yamagata Aritomo hated him so much that he wanted to cut him down with another knife.

  "General, you...you don't know that at the time I saw it, it was a terrible sight. Little Tada, who is familiar with me, even had his gold-filled front tooth knocked out, and others were also stripped clean. This is the method of our great Japanese Imperial Army! General, you must avenge Little Tada!"

  The county magistrate had already heard enough of Shan's friend and was fed up with him. As soon as he finished speaking, the magistrate hastily ordered his men to drag him away.

  And then I thought, the method of the Great Japanese Imperial Army, could it be... Yamagata Aritomo swept his subordinates with a cold and gloomy gaze, thinking carefully again, he felt it was impossible. Not to mention that they didn't have such great audacity, even if they did, it's impossible for them to do whatever they want under his nose without being detected.

  Fortunately, at this time, another soldier came to report that a large number of horse-drawn carriages and military horses were found about 100 miles north of Hancheng. North of Hancheng is the direction towards Pyongyang, Shan Xianyou thought of a possibility, his face changed greatly, secretly calling out "not good", it must be that bastard Ye Zhiwei who did this, other people's reactions were not slow either, the first person they thought of was Ye Zhiwei.

  It's clear that Shancheng has been hurt by friends and can't get up again, too much time has been wasted already.

  "Hurry up and order Ogawa again: 'Ogawa, judging from all aspects, this must be the cunning fox Ye Ziku of the Qing army. His troops can't be many. You immediately lead a thousand imperial brave warriors to ride horses for pursuit. I will lead the main force to follow up soon. Remember to get back the gold, otherwise you and I will both be held accountable.'"

  Ogawa hastened to shout and went after the attack, Yamagata Aritomo also couldn't sit still, didn't even eat lunch, hastily gathered a 2,000-strong army, followed Ogawa towards Pyeongtaek. Hwangseong was suddenly thrown into chaos, people who didn't understand thought the Japanese army was launching another attack.

  Just as Shan County was feeling extremely depressed, Ye Zhi Kui was sleeping soundly on top of a golden box. He had never owned so much money before and finally achieved his dream from his past life - counting money until his hands cramped up. Feng Guo Zhang couldn't help but smile when he saw Ye Zhi Kui like this. After all, Ye Shao was still young, and many times, Feng Guo Zhang didn't dare to treat Ye Zhi Kui as a young person because Ye Zhi Kui was generally very mature in his actions and calm in the face of situations, not like how someone in their twenties should behave.

  The hero of the leaves lay on the golden surface for a long time and felt dull and tasteless, and the carriage was still bumping, but it was not as enjoyable as riding his own horse.

  "What's up? Any new news?" Ye Zhi Kui asked as he saw the butcher walking towards him with a note in hand.

  The butcher waved the paper strip in his hand and replied, "Thirteen Eagles sent a message from Hancheng not long ago using a carrier pigeon. Shan Xianyou has discovered our trail and ordered Xiaochuan to come after us again."

  Ye Zhui smiled and said, "As expected, now our army is not far from Wu Dashi Mountain. What can he do to me even if he sends someone over? Pass down the order, everyone will work harder, and we'll take a break after meeting with Wu Dashi."

  Butcher Zan said, "It's still the great man who has foresight, bringing enough horses, and ordering Wu Dasan to meet halfway, it seems that Xiaochuan will fail again this time and lose his rice."

  "He's as if he has no self-awareness, I don't mind giving him a lesson." Ye Zhi Kui replied lazily.

  On this side, Ogawa gritted his teeth and led more than a thousand Japanese soldiers to frantically pursue along the cart tracks. In his heart, he had already killed Ye Zhikui hundreds of times. Those few hundred tons of gold were collected by the Imperial Japanese Army after searching for several months, and some of them were even written with Ogawa's name on it. Now this bastard Ye Zhikui effortlessly took everything away in one night, cutting off his financial road, and he wouldn't die a good death!

  In the quiet ravine, a sudden burst of gunfire and artillery sounded from the front, and soon reports came in that they had been ambushed by the Qing army, with over 100 casualties.

  Kogawa was shocked, and the hatred in his heart was suddenly doused with cold water. He was afraid that Ye Zhikui would play some trick, and if he didn't catch up to the gold, he would lose his life here.

  "About how many Qing troops are there?" Little River stopped his horse and halted the army, asking cautiously.

  "In response to your words, I estimate that there are probably over a thousand Qing troops." The subordinate was not very certain.

  Kogawa heard that there were over a thousand people, and his courage was lost. He didn't dare to attack on his own and said: "The situation between the enemy and us is unclear, let's wait for the commander to arrive before making a decision."

  Until the next day, Ogawa and Yamakuni joined forces, and only then did they dare to pursue, but Ye Zhongkui had already gone far. The two chased all the way to the border of Pingdu Road, and again hesitated and dared not to advance further. In a few days, Fang Xin withdrew his troops with regret, and after hearing that Yamakuni had returned, he fell seriously ill and lay in bed for half a month without getting up.