Chapter 50: The Evil Captives Have an Evil Requital

  At this time, Lü Er, who was in charge of cleaning up the battlefield, found Guan Yu and reported to him the casualties on both sides.

  Guan Hai felt a pang of heartache after hearing the news. His heartache was not because he had fewer people under his command, but because nearly a hundred of his brothers who had followed him for many years had died. How could he not feel heartache?

  This can be said to be a complete victory, Guan Hai brought five small teams from the mountain stronghold, nearly 500 people. After this battle, only about 400 were left, and Zhu Jia Wuyong's mountain stronghold originally had more than 1,000 people. San Xiong took away 50 people, leaving nearly 1,000 people. Among these people, when Guan Hai made a surprise attack on the mountain stronghold, they saw that things were not going well and ran away in confusion, about 70 or 80 people.

  Although Guan Hai had left men to guard the mountain pass, there were too few of them and they could not hold their ground when many people tried to escape, as a result 70 or 80 people managed to break through.

  The number of deaths in the Zhu family's five heroic mountain strongholds was even higher, with nearly 500 people. I don't know how many were unaware that they had met King Yan in their sleep, and the ratio of casualties on both sides was roughly one to five.

  Guan Hai also understood that this time, they had taken advantage of the surprise attack at night. Otherwise, their own casualties would have been even higher. As for the remaining 400 or so people from Zhu Jia's mountain stronghold, seeing their leader dead and the rest fleeing, the situation was already hopeless, so they could only surrender. In other words, Guan Hai's mountain stronghold had captured over 400 more people.

  Lü Er finished speaking and left, leaving Guan Yu with a headache. His headache was how to deal with the more than 400 captives, and killing them all was definitely not feasible.

  Firstly, he is not a bloodthirsty person. Secondly, generally speaking, people who surrender should not be killed. Killing prisoners of war is ultimately unjustifiable.

  They've all been released, and it's even more impossible now. The 70 or 80 who have already escaped can be let go. But if we release these people again now, who knows how much harm they will cause? These people have mixed with the five heroes of Zhu's family for so many years. If we really release them all, it is basically impossible to expect them not to become mountain bandits and turn over a new leaf.

  Keeping people in the mountain stronghold and incorporating them into his own is also not feasible, as one rotten fish can spoil a whole pot of soup. What's more, there are many such "rotten fish". Nothing seems to work, and Gan Hui feels that he has no good solution left.

  At the moment when he was thinking deeply, he suddenly remembered that his master was right next to him, and this matter should be his headache. Thinking of this, Guan Hai felt relieved and relaxed a lot.

  Then he told Ma Chao about it. Who knew that after hearing Guan Yu's words, Ma Chao immediately showed an expression of "What's wrong, old Guan? You can't do it, you still have to find me."

  Ma Chao then shared his idea with Guan Yu, who was deeply impressed by his lord's ingenuity. He thought to himself that his lord was indeed a great leader, and that he had been unable to come up with a good solution despite racking his brains. In fact, Ma Chao had long anticipated this problem and had already thought of a way to resolve it, but Guan Yu did not know this. It wasn't that Ma Chao was exceptionally brilliant, but rather that Guan Yu simply lacked intelligence.

  After hearing Ma Chao's plan, Guan Hai immediately gathered the seven people including Zhou Yi and told them about Ma Chao's plan. Once all seven of them understood it, they began to implement it.

  He added Zhou Yi and the other seven, as well as Ma Chao and Wu Anguo, making a total of ten people, who were responsible for interrogating more than 400 prisoners, with an average of over 40 each. First, they recorded the names of all these 400 or so people, and after a period of time, this was all done.

  Then the ten men separately interrogated the captives, of course, one by one. The content of the interrogation was only one thing: to accuse who among these 400 people had done something wrong. Of course, you could also choose not to speak, or say as much as you wanted, but on one condition: as long as it was true. Once you told a lie and were found out, sorry, you would be dragged out and beheaded.

  If three or more people accuse the same person of doing the same bad thing, both the accuser and the accused will confront each other face to face. If the accusation is established, the offender will be punished according to the severity of the crime. In severe cases, they would be beheaded directly. Using this method, it took Gao Yin and ten others more than two days to interrogate all the prisoners.

  The number of people who were beheaded was over three hundred, leaving less than a hundred alive. Ma Chao believed that those who were beheaded were absolutely not innocent, and those who remained were also absolutely not people who had done nothing, but only because the circumstances were relatively light and did not result in loss of life. However, this was also within his expectations, and roughly matched the number he had anticipated.

  Afterwards, Guan Hai gathered the nearly hundred people who were still alive together and said loudly: "You all know that in these two days, more than 300 people have been killed. However, you should also know that not a single one of them was innocent! And as for those of you who are left, it can be said that you are lucky. Today, I, Guan Mou, say here that from now on, no one will pursue the past matters!"

  Guan Hai saw that some people in the crowd had already let out a sigh of relief, and then he had someone bring over a large trunk. When it was opened in front of everyone, they saw that it was filled with valuables.

  "If any of you want to join Guan's gang, I welcome you with open arms. From now on, we'll be sworn brothers for life and death! If you don't want to join, just take the money and leave, Guan won't stop you. However, let me make one thing clear: if anyone who leaves continues to do evil and Guan finds out, he will definitely hunt them down to the ends of the earth to eliminate the harm they bring to the people!"

  After finishing speaking, Guan Hai picked up the big knife and chopped at the flagpole next to him. The flagpole snapped in response. "If there are any offenders, they will be treated like this pole! Those who join our brotherhood will also be treated like this! I, Guan, welcome those who join our brotherhood, but my mountain stronghold is not like Zhu's Five Tigers', so if you don't want to join, you don't have to force yourselves. What I say counts, everyone can leave the mountain, and I won't stop you. Please make your choice!"

  After hearing Guan Hai's words, everyone looked at each other, and for a moment, no one made a move. It can be said that Guan Hai's words were both kind and severe. Everyone understood clearly that if they wanted to stay and join the gang, they would have to follow the rules of the mountain stronghold from then on. If not, their heads would end up like the flagpole. Taking the money and leaving was also an option, but they had to be careful not to cause any more trouble in the future, or else they would suffer a worse fate if the gang found out.

  After a while, someone walked to the front of the box, took the money and went down the mountain. With the first one came the second, third, fourth... one after another, until no one else came, leaving those who remained standing still on the spot.

  After a while, there was still no movement. Guan Hai looked around and counted the remaining people, totaling thirty-two, which meant that one-third had stayed behind and two-thirds had left. This result was also within expectations.

  "From this moment on, you are all brothers of mine!"

  After that, Guan Hai called Wu Ankou over and assigned these thirty-two people to him as his subordinates. Guan Hai had already introduced Wu Ankou to the mountain stronghold crowd before, and Zhou Yi and others also knew about Wu Ankou's abilities, and they also knew he was someone introduced by Master Ma, so of course they wouldn't have any objections. The current Wu Ankou was now on an equal footing with them in terms of status, but they didn't feel jealous or anything; instead, they were happy that the mountain stronghold had gained a new talent.

  It can be said that Guan Hai's seven trusted subordinates are indeed good, at least in Ma Chao's eyes. Originally, Guan Hai meant to let Wu An Guo directly become the second-in-command, but his kindness was rejected by Ma Chao. Ma Chao felt that it wasn't necessary, as long as they were in the mountain stronghold, Wu An Guo's position wasn't too important. His intention was to increase the stronghold's strength and also train Wu An Guo.

  Guan Hai had no choice, but in the end he still put Wu Ankang in the same position as Zhou Yi and others. As for Wu Ankang, he didn't have much to complain about, what was most important to him was doing a good job with the tasks assigned by his master, other than that there wasn't much else.

  After dealing with the captives, Guan Yu finally let out a sigh of relief. Previously, he was indeed worried and couldn't think of anything else, but Ma Chao's idea was what he thought was the best solution at the moment, and in fact, it proved to be true.

  "Old General, you've handled everything very well!" Ma Chao lavished praise on Guan Yu.

  Guan Hai then smiled and said, "It's mainly because of Master's good idea!"

  "Alright, alright, Old Guan, you don't have to be modest either. What's done well is good, and your being the master of this house hasn't been in vain!" Ma Chao said with a smile.

  He scratched the back of his head, grinned foolishly for a moment, and was still quite pleased with the praise from his master.

  "Is it true that Master is leaving again?" asked Guan Hai.

  "Yes, this time it's really leaving!" Ma Chao looked at Guan Hai and said.

  "Your subordinate is here, your subordinate has been waiting for Your Excellency's return in Qingzhou!"

  Ma Chao patted Guan Yu on the shoulder, "Don't worry, old Guan, I'll be back soon! We still have to do something big together!" At that time we will be together, and let the world be peaceful as soon as possible. This is what Ma Chao thought in his heart.

  After spending another night in Zhu Jia Wuyong's stronghold, everyone returned to Guan Hai's stronghold the next day. After all, that place was their own mountain, and before leaving, Guan Hai set fire to Zhu Jia Wuyong's stronghold, burning it to ashes, and then led the crowd back to his own stronghold.

  This time, the battle between Zhu's five heroes and the mountain stronghold was a great harvest. Not only did they kill four of the heroes, but they also captured many spoils of war from the enemy's stronghold, including money, grain, weapons, and even some horses.

  The Zhu family's stronghold is much richer than Guan Hai's, after years of operation, their family wealth is not ordinary, their family wealth is equivalent to four or five Guan Hai strongholds.

  When Guan Hai gave these reports to Ma Chao, Ma Chao was also slightly surprised. To say that this bandit, especially a notorious one like Zhu Jia Wuyong, he knew that their family background must not be simple, but the numbers Guan Hai told him still exceeded his expectations.

  Ma Chao was delighted in his heart, that's a must, fighting depends on the family foundation, without money and food, what can you expect from a few people to follow you? So with more money and food, it also means that one's own strength is increasing, and there will be something to fight for in the future. It can be said that now he has his own little family foundation, as for how it will be in the future, it still needs to come step by step.

  The crowd returned to the mountain stronghold with a full load of spoils of war, and besides the spoils of war, they also brought back the bodies of their brothers who died in battle. Fortunately, it was winter now, otherwise, it would be really difficult to preserve these days, and there was also Ma Chao's credit. So from top to bottom in the mountain stronghold, everyone was very grateful to Ma Chao. In Guan Yu's words, "Young Master Ma came up with a good idea to keep our brothers' bodies intact until they were buried in our mountain stronghold." From then on, Young Master Ma became the greatest benefactor of the entire mountain stronghold.

  Even if it's just a rumor, everyone in the mountain stronghold will still regard Ma Chao as their benefactor. Because of Ma Chao, they eliminated their long-time enemy and were able to bury their deceased brothers, so Ma Chao's prestige in the mountain stronghold is now second only to Guan Yu's.

  It's a fact that the vast majority of people in the mountain stronghold have never seen Ma Chao, but they all know that there is a Master Ma who has done a lot for the mountain stronghold. They also know that Master Ma not only has superb martial arts skills, but also has an extremely close relationship with the master of the house, and the two are considered to be familiar with each other through battle.

  Guan Hai thought it was pretty good, after all, if he were to declare Ma Chao as his lord in the future, then he would have to go with his lord to do great things, and naturally his brothers would also have to follow. And their degree of recognition of their own lord would naturally determine how many people could follow their lord to do great things.

  Guan Hai certainly hopes that everyone can be together, which also gives his brothers a better way out. But he also understands that people have different aspirations, and it's impossible for everyone to be together, so he can only hope that there are as many as possible.

  Ma Chao didn't think much of this, because he had long considered the people in the mountain stronghold as his own. He was also happy about their recognition. However, in his opinion, even if the people in the mountain stronghold did not recognize him for the time being, he still had a way to gain everyone's recognition in the future, and he was very confident about this.

  In Ma Chao's view, if this matter cannot be handled, then what is the point of discussing the conquest of the world and the pursuit of heroes? In the future, you will only encounter more troublesome and difficult things, meet stronger, more ruthless, and more difficult enemies. If you can't solve them, can't trample them under your feet, then in the end, you will be solved by others, and be trampled under their feet.

  The bow has no turning back arrow. Since you've chosen a road that can't be turned back, there's only one step at a time to move forward, all the way until the day of reaching the destination.