novelAbuy Chapter 23 The Xu Family of Xiapi
Chapter 23 The Xu Family of Xiapi
No one speaks.
Because they all knew that Li Sheng was right.
"Brother Sheng,"
Liu Wu lowered his voice.
"This must have been done by bandits. We need to get back quickly, firstly to report to the county, and secondly to defend the village. Since the bandits were able to get here, there might already be some scattered bandits heading south."
His father served in the Han army and made meritorious contributions, so in his education, he learned that relying on collective combat was the safest and easiest way to win.
Just like hunting, it requires the division of labor and cooperation of each part in order to kill the target without losing a single bit of its contents.
"No rush."
When Liu Wu raised his opinion, Li Sheng raised his hand to stop him.
"Let's observe further."
Liu Wu opened his mouth as if to say something, but was silenced by Li Sheng's firm gaze.
After a cursory observation, Li Sheng discovered that the bandits were quite incompetent, as they had not left anyone to guard the village entrance.
Thinking of this, he picked up two pebbles from the ground and threw them forcefully at the corpse at the village entrance.
The crow, which was feeding, was startled by the sudden pebble and flapped its wings to fly into the sky.
"Ah! Ah! Ah!"
It circled in the sky, emitting a noisy cry.
Liu Wu cast a questioning look at him: Wouldn't doing this alert the enemy?
Li Sheng shook his head slightly.
This was also part of his test.
After a while, when no one came out to investigate, Liu Wu finally felt relieved.
Li Sheng became even more convinced of his judgment: none of these bandits had any brains.
"Everyone, hide in the roadside bushes while I go scout around."
The crowd obeyed and bent down to enter the bushes on both sides of the village entrance.
Seeing the eyes peering at him from the bushes, Li Sheng gestured for them to lie down, then turned to look at the big tree at the village entrance.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, Li Sheng moved with the agility of a cheetah, sprinting and climbing to the top of the tree in no time.
It was springtime, and hidden by the dense foliage, no one would have noticed that a person was hiding in the tree.
Li Sheng had a commanding view of the entire village layout.
Judging from the traces of their activities in the village, this gang of bandits numbered quite a bit, around a hundred people.
Moreover, they were almost all men.
What concerned Li Sheng even more was something else.
Not everyone in the village was killed.
He observed for a long time and found that several people who looked like villagers were walking out of the courtyards of each household, carrying basins and jars in their hands, and heading in a certain direction in the village.
Their movements seemed reluctant, more like...being driven away.
"Are they cooking for these bandits?"
Li Sheng looked towards the center of the village and saw a tall courtyard wall about a mile away on the north side of the village.
The courtyard wall was made of rammed earth and was more than two people high. There were watchtowers at the four corners, and you could vaguely see people moving around on the top of the wall.
That was a fortified village owned by a wealthy landlord in the village.
Li Sheng squinted, his mind racing.
He suddenly understood something.
After observing for a while, he finally climbed down from the tree and came to his men.
Li Sheng said in a low voice.
"The bandits did not kill everyone."
The group looked at each other in bewilderment, and Liu Wu was taken aback.
"What do you mean?"
"They are likely manipulating the people."
Li Sheng's gaze fell on the fortified village, and his voice was very soft.
"I saw from the tree that this band of bandits had broken into the village, looted the grain, and found that it wasn't enough to eat. As everyone knows, these days, no family has any surplus grain; most of the grain in the village is in the hands of wealthy landlords. So they coerced the villagers and prepared to attack that fortified village."
Liu Wu followed Li Sheng's gaze, and his pupils suddenly contracted.
"Brother Sheng, you mean...?"
"I mean, this band of bandits' intention wasn't to massacre the village, but to steal grain."
Li Sheng's voice was calm.
"As long as the fortified village falls, they will be able to obtain food and money and survive."
"So what do we do?"
Liu Wu's voice sounded a little strained.
"Wait for the perfect opportunity."
Li Sheng's eyes held ambition.
……
At this moment, in the largest room in the village, about a dozen people were sitting or lying down, huddled together.
The air was filled with the stench of sweat, blood, and the sour smell of something that hadn't been washed in a long time.
On the offering table in the center of the ancestral hall sat a man in his thirties.
This man had a face full of scars, with a knife scar across his left cheek, making him look particularly ferocious.
His name was Zhang Kuo, and he was the leader of this band of bandits.
He was originally a wandering knight in the northern part of Xiapi Kingdom, who, relying on his martial prowess, ran rampant in the countryside.
Later, when Xiapi was conquered by the Yellow Turbans, he gathered a group of local ruffians and scoundrels, calling himself "Taiping Colonel," and took advantage of the chaos to rob several households, obtaining some weapons and food.
However, the interests within Xiapi were quickly divided up by the more powerful groups among the rebels, leaving him with no choice but to flee south with his men.
"Captain,"
A thin man ran in from outside, his face full of obsequiousness.
"I found out that the fortified village to the north belongs to a family surnamed Wang. It is said that the Xu family, known as 'Crouching Tiger,' took their daughter as a concubine, and that's how they rose to prominence. They keep more than a dozen guards and some tenants, so the total number is probably thirty to fifty."
"The Xu family, the 'Hidden Tigers'?"
Zhang Kuo chuckled.
"They're just relying on having a eunuch ancestor! In the past, it was one thing for the Xu family to run rampant in the countryside and prey on the people, but now that we've conquered Xiapi, does a descendant of a eunuch family dare to act arrogantly in front of me?"
Zhang Kuo chuckled.
"Besides, I have over a hundred men under my command. Why would I be afraid of his thirty or fifty guards?"
"That's right, that's right, Captain is awesome!"
The thin man nodded repeatedly.
"By the way... Captain, I've also found out something else."
"explain."
"The Wang family's fortified village has high walls and deep moats, and it stores a lot of grain inside. At least... enough to feed us for half a year."
Zhang Kuo's eyes lit up.
"Six months?"
"More than that."
The thin man swallowed hard.
Zhang Kuo stood up, paced back and forth in the room a few times, and then suddenly stopped.
"Have all the villagers who were captured been taken care of?"
"It's all arranged. They're all locked up in a few dilapidated houses at the east end of the village. My men have already told them that we'll attack the fortified village tomorrow. Anyone who disobeys will be killed. Those who follow me will also get a share of the grain after we take the fortified village."
"What did they say?"
"Quite a few have agreed, and some are still hesitant. But don't worry, Captain, I'll do some more 'work' on them. These peasants are practically starving, yet they still want to be obedient citizens!"
The skinny man chuckled, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.
Zhang Kuo nodded, his gaze falling on the darkening sky outside the window.
"Pass down the order: rest well tonight. At dawn tomorrow, immediately attack Wangjiawu Fortress."
"promise!"