Chapter 13: Raising Prairie Ground Otters – The King of Thieves Emerges!

"Ding! You have spent 500 reputation points to upgrade the Great Ground Slug from cub to adult!"

"Ding! You have spent 3000 reputation points to upgrade the Great Ground Slug from mature to adult!"

After several upgrades, the giant ground otter in Liu Fuyu's animal trough has now grown into an enormous and ferocious beast.

Standing 6 meters tall and weighing 5 tons, it is incredibly large and robust. Not only are its limbs strong, but its fingernails are also sharp and pointed, making it easy for it to tear apart a black bear or rhinoceros.

After traveling all day, we finally set up camp to rest as night fell.

The Liao emperor was sitting in his carriage, his mind in a daze.

The man who had driven the carriage for him, the old eunuch, and everyone nearby who had heard the commotion were all killed.

If such a scandal gets out, where will the Liao Dynasty put its face?

Meanwhile, the Liao emperor, now calm and composed, looked at the wine flask in his hand with a face full of shame and summoned the imperial physician.

"Investigate what the foreign object in this wine sac is."

The imperial physician took the wine sachet; normal wine should be colorless and odorless.

However, the few drops of remaining wine poured out of the wine sac were cloudy and greenish, clearly adulterated with something else.

But the imperial physician couldn't identify what it was no matter what he tried.

The Liao emperor had no choice but to give up, lying in the carriage, feeling nauseous from what had just happened...

When it got late at night and everyone was fast asleep, only a few Liao soldiers on night patrol remained around.

Liu Fu quietly crept to the bottom of the carriage and released the prairie ground otter.

The creature immediately began digging a hole with its sharp claws, leaving no sound in its wake. A tunnel stretched straight down to the Liao soldiers' supply camp.

Liu Fu then secretly sneaked into the underground cave and arrived at the mountain of grain and fodder in the camp. He opened the animal breeding pasture and started loading grain and fodder inside.

One shi of grain in this world is 120 jin. With 600,000 Liao soldiers and the consumption of warhorses, at least 8,000 shi of grain and fodder are needed every day.

Liu Fu directly took away 100,000 shi of grain and fodder from the camp, then ordered the steppe ground otter to bury its burrow and retreat back into the carriage.

The reason for choosing the prairie ground otter for breeding is twofold: firstly, it digs burrows silently, and secondly, it reflects the habits of the prairie ground otter.

Although they are ferocious and terrifying, they are extremely careful in their actions. The holes they dig are often filled back in without leaving any trace.

Liu Fu chose it precisely because of this.

As the saying goes, digging a hole is easy, but filling it is difficult. It wasn't until late at night that the prairie ground otter managed to fill the hole it had dug back in.

Liu Fu lay down in the carriage and fell asleep, sleeping until dawn.

When I woke up in the morning, I could hear the sound of a whip lashing someone hard in the distance.

Liu Fu got off the carriage and looked into the distance. He saw that they were several grain transport officials from the Liao Kingdom, who were tied to pillars and whipped until their bodies were covered in blood and flesh.

Liu Fu asked with a puzzled look:

"What happened?"

A Liao soldier, a thousand-man commander, bowed and replied:

"Last night, 100,000 shi of grain were lost from the army, and His Majesty is sending people to interrogate them."

Liu Fu went there specifically to watch the spectacle, and, not content with just watching, he made sure things got interesting, offering his analysis:

"There are dozens of detachments on patrol in the army, and 100,000 shi of grain is no small amount. That's more than a million jin of grain. How could they possibly transport it away quietly overnight?"

The Liao emperor was aware of this, and even some of the soldiers in the army could see the problem.

But the Liao emperor is furious!

One incident after another occurred in the military camp, infuriating him so much that he could only vent his anger on a few grain transport officers.

But even if those grain transport officers were killed, the lost military rations would never be recovered.

During the following days of marching, the guards at the supply camp became increasingly strict, and Liu Fu did not steal any more military rations.

Having traveled for ten days, they had unknowingly covered thousands of miles across the grasslands, and were only half a day away from reaching the capital of the Liao Kingdom.

The Liao emperor was unusually pleased. To celebrate the Later Han's agreement to pay tribute, he ordered that pigs and sheep be slaughtered that very night for a hearty feast before returning to the capital the next day!

Unexpectedly, that very night, after everyone had eaten and drunk their fill and fallen asleep, they relaxed their guard.

Liu Fu's prairie ground otter has started moving again.

This time, Liu Fu was ruthless, directly seizing 200,000 shi of military rations. In other words, the Liao army lost another 2.4 million jin of military rations!

The next morning, when the Liao emperor learned of this, he could no longer contain himself!

He drew his imperial sword and smashed the tables, tents, memorials, and various displays in the main tent to pieces, then pointed to the sky and cursed!

But no matter how much he vents his impotent rage, it won't help.

The 200,000 shi of military rations that were lost will not magically grow legs and run back.

The Liao emperor, enraged and red-eyed, summoned Mo Erbuhua, the Liao's top detective and inspector, to handle the matter in full.

This Moor Buhua truly deserves to be called a master detective. He has been in charge of the Liao Kingdom's Supervisory Department for more than 30 years, and he has solved even the most difficult unsolved cases.

Moore didn't search for traces on the spot, but Liu Fu, who had watched Conan anime since childhood, had an extremely strong sense of counter-surveillance.

There wasn't a single fingerprint or shoe print left on the ground for Moore.

Even though it was a burrow dug by a prairie ground otter, the top layer of soil was slightly loose, which Moorbuhua noticed was unusual.

But the hole had long been filled in, making it impossible to trace.

The enraged Liao emperor summoned thousands of Liao soldiers, who dug countless large holes in the surrounding area for miles around, but to no avail.

The clues they have so far only allow them to deduce that someone infiltrated the grain camp by digging tunnels and stole the military rations.

But how could more than two million catties of grain be moved away overnight?

Besides, the cave is small; how many people can be hidden in one cave? Even if the grain is moved, it can't go far, so where can that grain be hidden?

The Liao emperor dispatched a large number of cavalry to search the grasslands for any suspicious grain transport convoys.

They didn't find the grain transport team, but they did catch quite a few rabbits.

The trail went cold, and even the Inspector General Moorbuhua, who had solved countless mysteries of the Liao Dynasty, was now helpless.

If no clues can be found to identify the suspect, then the only option is to deduce the motive behind the crime.

Thus, Moore quickly identified the most likely perpetrator as Liu Fu!

It's actually quite simple: among all these people, Liu Fu is the most likely perpetrator.

Because he was a prince of the Later Han Dynasty, the hatred between the Han and Liao people had lasted for hundreds of years. How could the Han people, who had suffered countless years of plunder, possibly submit to the Liao people?

None of these Liao soldiers dared to be so audacious as to steal their own country's military rations.

Hearing the descriptions of the Liao Emperor and the Left and Right Chancellors, Moorbuhua, who considered Liu Fu to be extremely difficult to deal with, was quite disdainful and requested:

"Your Majesty, why don't I test this man to see if he stole the military rations? I'll find out once I test him."

Not long after, Liu Fu was invited to the Liao Emperor's tent.

Liu Fu only saw a tall, thin Liao man who was extremely shrewd and had sharp eyes. He was dressed in Liao official robes and his eyes were like searchlights, constantly looking him up and down.

Moore Buhua already knew that Liu Fu was not easy to deal with, so he went straight to the point and tried to trick Liu Fu into showing his reaction.

"Eighth Prince of the Later Han Dynasty, if I may be so bold as to ask, did you steal the 300,000 shi of military rations that my Great Liao Dynasty lost?"

After asking the question, Moore narrowed his eyes and began to carefully observe the changes in Liu Fu's expression.

Unexpectedly, Liu Fu remained true to his word and immediately stood up and admitted it:

"That's right, it was I who stole the Liao Kingdom's military rations!"