Strange Tales from the Northern Qi Dynasty

Chapter 1 Eat fish
July of the tenth year of Tianbao.

Cheng'an County.

Dark clouds rolled in the sky, and the world was gloomy and cold.

On the scorched land, a dead tree stood alone on the side of the road. A crow on the dead tree tilted its head, gazing quietly ahead.

A man was standing on the side of the road. His entire body was stained with mud and was pitch black. His hair was tangled together and covered his head, so his facial features could not be seen. His hunched body made it impossible to tell his age.

The skinny and dirty body was exposed, completely naked, with the ribs almost breaking through the skin on the abdomen.

His legs moved unnaturally, inching forward a little bit, and the shrunken thing under his crotch swayed as he moved forward.

The sound of heavy horse hooves could be heard in the distance, and the ground shook slightly.

The man turned around.

Three tall and strong war horses carrying their masters came galloping along the road.

The warhorse was wearing heavy armor woven from pieces of iron chains. Even the horse's head was chained and topped with a fan-shaped piece of iron.

As the warhorse ran, the iron chains made heavy clashes.

The owner of the warhorse was also wearing heavy armor, with three black feathers on his helmet, and his face was covered with a bronze mask that showed a strange smile.

Extraordinarily penetrating.

When the two sides met, the knight, holding a ring-handled sword, leaned sideways and made a chopping gesture.

"Puch!"

“Gah~~~”

The crow let out a sharp and piercing cry, then flapped its wings and flew into the sky.

The knight sheathed his sword and disappeared down the road.

Only a headless corpse was left standing in the distance, blood oozing weakly from the neck, then it knelt down and fell heavily.

The crow flew over the road, and many sceneries kept flashing in its eyes. Finally, what was reflected in its eyes was a fast-flowing river.

Zhang River.

A lone fishing boat was struggling hard in the turbid Zhang River.

Four or five older children were standing on the fishing boat, retrieving the fishing nets.

The water was rushing, and the splashes kept hitting the broken fishing boat. The boat groaned and the shaking became more and more severe.

The children stood very steadily and shouted something loudly.

The Zhang River appears a grayish-yellow color, making it difficult to see the scenery in the river.

It was as if an unspeakable shadow was passing by the fishing boat, and waves of water splashed on it.

The children pulled up the fishing net with great effort, but did not catch much. They frantically turned over the mud and saw small fishes flipping their bodies and flapping against the deck, their dull grey eyes looking cold.

Zhang Erlang squatted in the middle, turned over the mud, and grabbed a big fish.

He was about to say something with a smile, when suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye.

"what!!"

He suddenly dropped the fish in his hand to the ground, took two steps back in horror, lost his balance instantly, and fell into the Zhang River behind him.

Everyone was shocked by this sudden change and stood there dumbfounded.

A powerful hand grabbed Zhang Erlang's neck. The hand was so big that it seemed to cover Erlang's entire face. The hand pulled him up.

After being pulled up, Erlang knelt on the deck, covering his throat and gasping for breath.

He looked up and saw the person who had just rescued him.

This man is not very old, less than twenty years old.

He was tall, and took up the space of three or four people. His short coat was bulging, and he looked very strong. He held a fishing fork in his left hand, and his face was as sharp as a knife, dark and rough. The fishing boat kept swaying, but he was as steady as a mountain, standing on the boat, motionless.

At this moment, he was looking down at Zhang Erlang with his head down.

"what happened?"

"Brother Peach Fish. That Fish"

Zhang Jilang pointed at the fishing net with trembling hands.

Liu Taozi glanced at the fishing net and said, "Dock."

The children were very obedient. They quickly picked up the oars and started rowing towards the shore. However, the Zhang River held them tightly and did not want them to escape.

After rowing for a long time and in a panic, the fishing boat finally reached the shore.

After securing the fishing boat, a group of people quickly got off the boat.

Liu Taozi pulled out the fishing net by herself and threw it hard on the ground.

Zhang Erlang stood aside cautiously and pointed out the big fish. Liu Taozi picked up the fish and looked at it carefully.

He pulled something out of the fish's mouth.

A bent finger.

Liu Taozi put his fingers aside and continued to search in the mud.

Soon, the loot was piled up.

Fingers, ears, and a half-eaten human head. The head was very small, only slightly larger than Liu Taozi's fist.

"Ugh~~~"

The teenagers around couldn't bear it any longer, they bent over and vomited.

Liu Taozi didn't know how long he had been searching. He stood up and looked to the left, at the piled up human remains.

"Erlang, we won't be using the fishing boat for now. When your grandfather comes back, tell him not to fish for now."

“This fish cannot be eaten.”

Liu Taozi spoke.

Zhang Jilang nodded.

Liu Taozi signaled to the rest of the people and was about to leave.

Zhang Erlang suddenly shouted, "Brother Taozi! What should we do with these fish?!"

"Buried."

"Gah~~~"

The shrill cry of crows was heard in the air.

Liu Taozi paused, looked up, and saw a crow circling by.

The sound of horse hooves could be heard in the distance, and the ground began to tremble slightly.

The young men were horrified and took a few steps back.

Three knights wearing strange masks rode their war horses and galloped towards them from a distance.

When the war horses charged at full speed, the earth shook and the mountains trembled. The young men wanted to dodge, but their legs were so weak that they couldn't even take a step.

The warhorse rushed all the way to Liu Taozi's front. The rider reined in the horse, and the warhorse lowered its head, with its face almost touching Liu Taozi's face.

The angry breath of the warhorse blew Liu Taozi's long hair. Liu Taozi stared at the warhorse, motionless.

Blood was oozing out of the package hanging on the warhorse's waist.

The knight looked at the people in front of him, his eyes focused on their necks, counting their heads.

"γr qrqa!kr?"

The leader looked at the person on his left and spoke.

The children looked at each other for a few seconds. This was Xianbei language, which they could not understand.

Liu Taozi took a step back, bowed his head towards them, and said, "prrgn."

The three knights stared at Liu Taozi fiercely, and the leader laughed, "French?"

"Han people."

"Oh, what do you do?"

"We are fishermen from nearby and we fish here."

The knight's eyes fell on the open space not far away and he saw the fishing nets and the spoils beside them.

"It's a good harvest, but why leave all those fish there?"

“Why don’t you eat it?”

Zhang Erlang replied impatiently: "We fished out the body!!"

The knight didn't even look at him, he just stared at Liu Taozi in front of him.

Liu Taozi replied: "This fish doesn't seem very clean."

“No, these fish are clean.”

"These fish are cleaner than virgins."

"Eat it, eat it."

The knight gave thoughtful advice.

Liu Taozi said nothing.

The leader slowly pulled out a ring-handled sword from his waist and hung it at the side of his horse. Blood dripped from the ring-handled sword and bloomed on the dark ground.

Liu Taozi looked at the smiley mask. Both eyes were curved into smiles, as was the mouth. It looked like it was laughing.

Liu Taozi turned around and looked at everyone, "What are you still standing there for? Collect all the fish and take them home to eat."

Shivering, everyone walked to the fishing net and put the fish into bamboo baskets. Their hands were shaking so badly that they couldn't even lift the fish several times.

After they put all the fish into the basket, Liu Taozi glanced at the three knights again, and then led everyone away.

Several children walked barefoot on the muddy road.

Zhang Erlang wiped his tears and couldn't help sobbing.

The same thing happened to the other few people. Tears welled up in their frightened eyes, but they did not dare to stop.

"Brother Taozi, are we going to die?"

"What would it be like to die?"

"Will it hurt?"

"Walk slowly, don't run, don't look back, just keep going at this speed."

Liu Taozi's calm tone dispelled some of their fears.

They walked for a long time, but no one dared to look back.

I don’t know how long I walked, but I finally came to a fork in the road. There were road-protecting forests on both sides and three roads in front of me.

Liu Taozi then slowly turned around.

On the high slope in the distance, three knights stood on horseback.

Even from a distance, Liu Taozi seemed to be able to see their laughing masks.

The corner of Liu Taozi's left eye twitched, and a hint of ferocity flashed in his eyes.

He led everyone to the path on the left.

"Brother Taozi, is this the way to the Wild Boar Forest? Where are we going?"

"I will fall down later. You guys throw the fish basket to me and then go straight ahead without looking back. Go back home from the stone bridge."

"and you."

"Don't worry about me. If anyone dares to look back, I will feed him to the fish."

As Liu Taozi spoke, the others nodded.

They walked for a long time before Liu Taozi stumbled and suddenly fell to the ground, trying to get up with difficulty. Several friends quickly placed the fish basket in front of him and left quickly.

Liu Taozi panted, stood up with difficulty, cursed a few words towards the distance, then picked up the fish basket in front of him, hung the fish basket on his body, supported himself with the fishing fork, and limped towards the distance.

The harpoon was just a sharpened stick.

Liu Taozi was walking very slowly. He didn't know how long he had been walking before the woods on both sides became denser. He could faintly hear the sound of horse hooves behind him, and it seemed that the sound was approaching.

Liu Taozi finally stopped, put the fish basket in front of him, panting, and sat down beside it, gasping for breath.

When he raised his head, three knights had appeared in front of him. The blood on the ring-handled sword of the leader had already coagulated, and the other two also held swords.

“Why not fish?”

"You still feel unclean?"

"I'll eat it now."

Liu Taozi picked up branches from the surrounding area in a panic, piled them up, took out a flint, and placed the fish aside.

The three knights just watched the exhausted boy busy himself.

Liu Taozi quickly made a fire. He pierced the fish with a wooden stick, then sat by the fire and started roasting the fish.

He raised his head and looked at the three knights in front of him.

"qrimaan?"

The leader laughed and slowly climbed down from his horse.

"Okay, if you're willing to entertain me, I'd be happy to do so."

The leader walked step by step to Liu Taozi.

At this moment, Liu Taozi pulled out the fishing fork beside him, jumped up, and threw it hard.

The wooden stick made a sound of breaking through the air and hit the smiling face on the knight's mask head-on.

“Puff!!!”

Blood spurted out and the knight fell with his head raised, the harpoon stuck in his mouth, the tail still buzzing.

ps: In July, the Yuan clan was severely punished, and no one was spared from Emperor Zhaocheng and his descendants. Those whose fathers or grandfathers were kings, or who were noble and prominent, or whose brothers were strong, were all beheaded in the East Market. Their babies were thrown into the air and caught with a baton. A total of 721 people died, and their bodies were thrown into the Zhang River. When fish were cut open, many of them found claws and toenails, and the people in the capital did not eat fish for a long time. ——"Book of Northern Qi·Annals of Wenxuan"

(End of this chapter)