Chapter 43: Boar Ridge Gorge

  Li Qin listened, then sneered and laughed dryly. Not only him, but everyone around who heard it also sneered. Li Qin said with a dry laugh: "Is this okay? Isn't this equivalent to us taking advantage of the situation while the county magistrate and the bandits take the loss?"

  Jia Fan's face turned red with rage, and he glared at him, saying: "Why can't it be done? We don't take any risks, and after the fact, we can push all the blame onto someone else. Where can you find such a good deal? If this still can't be done, then that's really strange!"

  Everyone's mind appeared with a picture, Tang County Lord learned that the raw iron was robbed, anxious to immediately start a team of soldiers and horses, out of the city to find, but encountered the bandits at Zhu Gou Gorge, two groups of people had a big fight...

  Feng Cheng had already run out of the woods and heard Jia Yu and Li Qin's conversation, he muttered: "If it's really like that, I'm afraid County Magistrate has not prepared enough and will suffer a great loss!"

  Li Qin nodded slightly and said that perhaps Tang Jie would suffer a great defeat, and as a result, he would vent his anger on himself, making it difficult for him to stay in the Fuping Army.

  Jia Xun seemed to know what Li Qian was thinking, and said: "Ah Qian, don't worry about the future. It's okay if the county magistrate loses face, but you've made a meritorious achievement. As long as you say it was under his guidance, isn't that enough? Moreover, since we won the battle against the bandits, when he reports to the prefecture, he'll also save face. Even if he's not satisfied with you, he can't do anything to you because you're a meritorious person. And now that you've gained wealth and your power has increased, while he's lost face and his power has weakened, it's a case of one side growing stronger as the other weakens. He'll actually have to rely on you and won't dare offend you!"

  Jia Lian is not great in other aspects, but he has one good point: no matter who he gives advice to, he always does his best and doesn't play tricks. Especially when giving advice to his brother-in-law, he not only thinks through the plan thoroughly but also considers the future situation for Li Qiang.

  Li Qin nodded heavily, these things he would think of too, but it's hard to think that fast. He glanced at Jia Xian, his brother-in-law, whose brain was really not ordinary, and his thoughts were turning rapidly!

  Li QIN looked around at everyone and asked: "What does everyone think? Is this plan feasible or not?"

  What opinions do others have, Fu Jiao Bing listens to him completely, what he says is what it is. As for Feng Cheng, he is even less of a useful brain, the words spoken by Jia Yu behind his back, he hasn't even figured out yet, how could he possibly raise any opposing views?

  Li Qin saw that everyone was silent, so he said: "Since no one has any opinions, I'll take charge. I've decided to follow my brother-in-law's approach and try it once. Wealth and honor are won in the midst of danger; if you don't enter the tiger's lair, how can you get the tiger's cub?"

  Everyone was silent, only Jia Yu nodded, and then Ma Chao shouted: "Xiao Chao follow Li Shu to go."

  Li Qinxin thought: "I won't be misunderstood what I said!" He also said: "Achievements and fame are only obtained on horseback, this is a great opportunity to establish merit!"

  Everyone was still silent, and even Ma Chao didn't make a sound this time.

  It seems that he is not good at mobilizing before the war, so Li Qin can only speak in plain language. He said loudly: "As long as we succeed this time, we will eat meat every day and have wine to drink!"

  "Alright, let's do it!" The crowd immediately agreed, saying that nothing else could stimulate them except for the practical benefits of food and drink.

  Jia thought to himself, "A group of rascals, all they care about is food!" He said, "Ah Qiu, didn't you have some things left behind? There was a battle there, with bloodstains and corpses, right? Send someone back to bring the spoils of war here, but don't clean up the battlefield. Instead, scatter the corpses everywhere. When the bandits arrive and see the corpses all over the ground, they'll be in a great hurry and won't dare come back. That will give us time."

  Li Qin responded with a sound, and immediately dispatched several Han soldiers to go back and help Xu Xiaoni. He led the remaining people to wait in place. Yijia Xun estimated that even if the robbers came quickly, it would take a good while for them to arrive.

  Everyone listened to the instructions and entered the forest, taking out dry rations to eat and resting at the same time. Li Qian and Jia Yu sat under a big tree talking about family matters. After a while, Ma Chao also ran over, asking Li Qian for food. Li Qian shared his dry rations with him, then hugged Ma Chao and continued chatting with Jia Yu about family affairs.

  When Jia Xian heard that his elderly father had not drunk wine for two years, he couldn't help but sigh and say: "I have the honor of being a filial son, it's just that I've never had the chance to be unfilial. But when it comes to the word 'filial', I really feel guilty towards my parents, unable to serve them by their side, and it pains me deeply."

  Li Qinan comforted him, saying: "Brother-in-law, you don't have to blame yourself like this. Isn't your sister at home? She's capable and filial, and all the neighbors think she's a good daughter-in-law. Besides, our family will help support her too. As for enjoying wealth and luxury, that's not possible, but when there are difficulties, everyone can bear them together, and that's no problem."

  He paused for a moment and then said: "Brother-in-law, you must never let sister down in the future, otherwise it would be unforgivable!"

  Jia Yu murmured: "How can we betray, how can we betray!"

  He spoke of the heavy and then the happy, Li Qin talked about his treatment of Liu Sheng's horse, and also mentioned the cuju competition, as well as his soldiers. Listening to Jia Yu made him excited again, pointing and commenting on Wu Xiaosan and others, but his comments were really not good, either mediocre or similar to mediocre, listening to Wu Xiaosan and others rolling their eyes, if Li Qin was not around, they would have come over to beat up Jia Yu!

  Ma Chao was chewing on dried meat, listening to Jia Xu's evaluation of the Fu Jiao soldiers. He didn't understand whether the two words "Pi Fu" were praising or criticizing someone, so he asked: "Uncle Jia, what about little Chao? Is little Chao a Pi Fu?"

  Jia Yu said solemnly, "You're not a grown man yet. To become one, you need to be older. So hurry up and grow up! Right now, you're at most just a young boy!"

  Ma Chao nodded and said to Li Qian: "Uncle Li, I'm a grown man now, not that little yellow kid!"

  Li Qian burst out laughing and patted Ma Chao's shoulder, asking Jia Xu: "Brother-in-law, this young man is named Ma Chao, from the 18 Slopes, his father is named Ma Teng, a brave warrior, and has... uh, good relations with the Di people. Have you ever heard of Ma Teng in the province?"

  Jia Xu looked down on Ma Chao, took a glance at his appearance and snorted: "Whether it was Ma Teng who married a Di woman or his father who married a Hu woman, they must have been extremely poor. A person without any backing, even if he is a brave warrior, what can he do? How can he possibly make a name for himself in the province? And how could I have ever heard of him?" Thinking of his own family background, he couldn't help but sigh.

  Li QIN also sighed slightly, Jia Xun and Ma Teng were both temporarily disheartened people. The Han Dynasty's door-to-door forces were really too big to imagine, but people with skills would not be buried forever and would eventually rise to prominence.

  He helped Ma Chao tidy up his hair, this kid arrived at the right time, the Ma family will prosper again, and this little boy can shout at Zhang Fei in the future: "Fei'er, my family has been a noble for generations, who knows you, a rustic rascal!"

  Ma Chao did humiliate Zhang Fei in history, but he didn't call him "Fei'er", Li Qiang will teach him, Li Qiang will be a good uncle!

  After a while, the sun was setting in the west. It was then that Xu Xiaoni and his men arrived, leading their horses and carrying their spoils of war.

  Li QIN asked Jia Yu: "Brother-in-law, what should we do now? We can't keep waiting here, shall we move forward a bit?"

  Jia Yu stood up, walked out of the woods and looked around. He said: "Staying here is too dangerous, but moving forward isn't suitable either. What if we run into bandit scouts? We'll be in trouble. We need to think about self-preservation first, then think about how to gain benefits."

  After observing the terrain, he entered the forest and said: "Put the big cart here first, as well as the spoils of war and other things that are not easy to carry. Let's walk half a mile into the forest, hide, wait for the robbers to pass by, and then we'll go out, following their route, and kill our way into Zhu Stock Canyon."

  Feng Cheng knew he wasn't a quick-witted person, so he had been enduring in silence all along. But now he couldn't bear it anymore and said: "Still hiding here? It's only half a mile away from here, who knows if we'll be discovered?"

  Jia Fan waved his hand and said, "It's precisely because we're staying here that we definitely won't be discovered. As long as we don't make a sound, the robbers will search everywhere else, but they won't search around this area. You can rest assured!"

  Li Qindao said, "My brother-in-law is right. The robbers are in a hurry to save people and don't have the mood to take these things away. We can come back for them after we've finished our business. There's no need to worry about losing anything!"

  Jia Zhen smiled and said: "It's still Ah Qian who understands things clearly, no wonder you're their leader!"

  Li Qin called on everyone to gather their weapons, led the war horses, and together they hid deep in the forest. Half a mile was not far, but it was enough to prevent the robbers from discovering them immediately, and as long as they were not discovered immediately, the robbers would not be able to enter the forest for a detailed search.

  Bo Lou galloped all the way, finally getting rid of the pursuing soldiers behind him. After the danger was lifted, his whole body's strength seemed to be drained, and he fell on the horseback, carried by the warhorse back to the old nest, Zhu Stock Gorge.

  Back at the mountain stronghold, the bandits guarding it saw him and hurriedly shouted: "Bao Er, how was it? This time we got good stuff, the government will send people to urge us, they want us to hand over the raw iron... if we don't give it to them, I'm afraid there will be trouble, we can't afford to offend them...... Hey, what's wrong with you?"

  When he saw his own people, Bao Er could no longer hold on and fell off the horse. The robbers were shocked to see this and realized that something unexpected had happened during the robbery. They rushed back to Bao Er, lifted him up, and carried him into their hideout.

  In the main hall of the stronghold, the leader, Shi Lang, gazed at the rack of weapons and thought to himself: "As long as we can deliver this shipment of raw iron to the Bao Department, I'm sure our arsenal will be able to exchange for a new batch. Then we can recruit more men, and the power of our stronghold will surely become even greater. At that time, I'll hand over the stronghold to my son, and I can spend my old age in comfort."

  Shaluo Xiao was over sixty years old, but his body was still very robust. Like most of the Hu people, he had a pair of bowlegs, which were caused by many years of horseback riding. He only had one son, Shaluo Zhan, and this son was good in every way except that he had not given him any grandsons, although he had taken many daughters-in-law for his son, but still no grandson had been born, which was the only thing that gave him a headache.

  Suddenly, a small clown rushed in from outside and shouted: "Boss, Bao Er is back!"

  "Ha! So your young leader has also returned, and I suppose you've plundered a lot of raw iron?"

  "No, no, just come back and be confused for a while..." Xiao Jiaoluo said with a trembling body.

  Shelaro was shocked, and suddenly had a bad premonition. Could it be that something has happened to his son? His son must not have an accident, if he does, I will be finished!

  ——

  The second update is here! Wishing you peace and continued collection, voting, and support. Sorry to trouble everyone, thank you very much, thank you very much!