Chapter 23: Wu Dalang and Wu Erlang

  "No, it's not the same! We will leave them a way out, we will leave them some food, and won't let them starve to death immediately. And we also said that if we really can't survive, as long as we have enough food to eat, they will at least have a bowl of porridge to drink, and won't be starved to death. Unlike the government and the army who really want our lives!"

  "You've brought them all up the mountain! Good! Now you have three thousand people in your stronghold, can you afford to feed them? What if more come later, ten thousand, thirty thousand?"

  "How are you going to support them? Are you just going to keep looting? What will happen when there's no one left to farm in the mountains, and a famine hits? Do you think this looting will lead to a way out? In the end, all you'll do is lead them to starve to death!"

  Zu Lang cried and replied: "I also knew it would be like this! But we didn't want to either! Are we born to love living a life with no tomorrow? We were originally just law-abiding ordinary people, but the government forced us, and we really can't make ends meet.

  "It's better to go up the mountain and be a bandit, at least you can kill some corrupt officials. Dying is also a way to vent your anger! It's all because the government is too oppressive, we ordinary people just want to live one more day, if not becoming a bandit, what other ways do we have to survive? Who else can save us?"

  Sun Ce fell silent for a moment before saying, "Zu Lang, I had already inquired about you before coming here. Among the mountain bandits, you are considered to have some humanity, not excessively greedy or bloodthirsty. Otherwise, I would have beheaded you with one stroke of my sword by now. Have you ever thought about your future? Or do you plan on spending the rest of your life like this, dying without even being able to show your face to your ancestors?"

  Zu Lang angrily said: "I've said it before, we don't want to be like this either. Who doesn't want to live a peaceful life? It's not like we were born with a rebellious bone. A lifetime of poverty and hardship. We're really being forced to the point where we can't survive, that's why us brothers have become bandits!"

  "That's good, you can think of it that way!"

  Sun Ce nodded "It seems you still have a way out. I'll give you a chance, from today on, start anew, follow me and be my subordinate."

  "Are you asking me to follow you to be a government official?"

  Zu Lang raised his head and looked at Sun Ce with a questioning expression. "But I think they're just another group of worse thieves. What's the point?"

  Still being oppressed by those corrupt officials. It's better to be a mountain king here, free and easy. Otherwise, General, you come to our mountain stronghold, I'll lead all the brothers to follow you as their leader."

  He actually won over Sun Ce. He's indeed a mountain bandit with some skill.

  Sun Ce couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head: "What I want you to do is not to let you become an official soldier, but to continue being your Mountain Great King."

  "But from now on, secretly listen to my orders, help me integrate the surrounding mountain bandit forces, and incidentally serve as my eyes and ears, helping me gather intelligence. Once I have pacified Jiangdong, I promise you, I will give you and your brothers a new life with a place to settle down."

  Zu Lang was shocked and said: "You want to pacify Jiangdong? Who are you, after all? The land of Jiangdong is a complex mix of various forces, how can you have such great ability?"

  Sun Ce looked into his eyes and smiled slightly: "To be honest with you, Jiangdong is my hometown. I am the eldest son of the General who broke the barbarians, Sun Ce. In those years, my father also recruited soldiers in this land. Now there are still people from your village in my team."

  Zu Lang was overjoyed and said: "So you're a descendant of General Pu Huai, why didn't you say so earlier? Are you here to rescue us now? Back when the general was recruiting soldiers in our village, everyone knew that he loved his people like his own children, and his soldiers like his own sons. He's the only good general in the Han Dynasty."

  Everyone hopes that the general can come to his own place as a governor, and the young and strong are willing to be the general's soldiers. Unfortunately, why can't this old heaven let good people live longer and let the common people have a better life? I also wanted to join the army at that time, but because I was too young, I couldn't join the general's troops. Later, something happened at home, and I was forced by those corrupt officials to go up the mountain and become a bandit!

  Sun Ce nodded: "You still remember my father's kindness, I thank you on behalf of my father! However, when my father was ambushed and died, he didn't bring much peace and happiness to the people of Jiangdong. Now, I'm back."

  I will continue what he has not done, do it well and finish it! I want to give the people a peaceful world. Are you willing to come and help me with this?

  Zu Lang immediately responded: "Zu Lang originally wanted to be a general of the Broken Army, but due to various reasons... Today, the young master not only doesn't mind that I'm the son of a thief, but also spared my life and is willing to give us brothers such a long-awaited promise. Zu Lang naturally believes in the young master. From now on, this life belongs to the young master. I am willing to die for the young master!"

  Sun Ce nodded in satisfaction. He thought to himself, "It seems that this Zu Lang has truly surrendered, although it's a chaotic world, who is born wanting to be a thief? This is for the better, so I won't have to take his life. They're all talented individuals, killing them with one stroke would be such a waste."

  Sun Ce continued to ask: "Zu Lang! I have another thing to ask you, a month ago, why did you attack the camp of our 500 new soldiers?"

  Zu Lang was shocked: "Is that the young master's person? Ah! The ones who killed their way out that night were indeed you, young masters! Zu Lang deserves to die! I don't know if it's the young master's great luck or misfortune, but Zu Lang has committed a grave sin. Please, young master, punish me."

  In his heart, he wondered if this was still human. One person had killed more than 200 of the strongest brothers under his command in one night. Later on, the younger brothers didn't dare to get close to this killing god anymore. They were really scared out of their wits. Fortunately, this time, he wasn't coming to kill, otherwise, the younger brothers would have collapsed early on.

  Sun Ce waved his hand helplessly: "Forget it, at that time, you didn't know me either. Now we are in the same army, it's just a pity about those 500 brothers, they died too unjustly."

  I don't even know how to explain to them how we survived. And you, tell me, why did you go and raid our military camp that day?

  Zulang recalled: "That day, we were in the city when a scout sent us a message saying that someone had said that your camp had many treasures and grains, and it was only a logistics soldier escorting the heavy luggage, with no fighting power."

  It just so happened that the mountain was about to run out of food, and we had no choice but to take action. That day, all the strong men in our village were mobilized, only to find that the young master was so brave!

  "The brothers suffered too much loss and didn't get much grain. Fortunately, on the way back, we robbed a wealthy family and got our hands on some grain."

  "Afterwards, that scout was also severely punished by me. He said he only heard the news in a wine shop, and later when scouting around the camp, he indeed saw your soldiers transporting grain into the camp. It's just that no one expected that there wasn't much grain in the camp."

  Sun Ce thought deeply: "It seems that someone is intentionally spreading false information to lure you and your men to deal with us! Who could this person be?"

  "It's actually quite simple. The current Sun Ce is still too weak, a 18-year-old half-grown boy with no territory and no army, how can he enter the eyes of those heroic figures."

  It must be someone who is now in a position of mutual interest with me, that is, Yuan Shu's side.

  "So it was him who did it. Among the generals under Yuan Shu, I don't think anyone would have such a mind, it seems that it's mostly Yang Hong's doing. This Yang Hong, what did I do to offend him? Why is he so bent on dealing with me?"

  Fortunately, this time the ones who came to attack the mountain stronghold were all those old soldiers. Last time, Lin Jia Da led a part of the remaining new recruits to follow Cheng Pu to Jiangdu, and the remaining ten people stayed behind to guard the military camp. Otherwise, this operation would have required many more words. I don't know how they explained it to them. Fortunately, it saved a lot of saliva.

  Lü Meng brought Yan Shang in, and this broken hero looked like he had completely lost his initial heroic spirit. The whole person seemed to have been drained of his backbone, with a pale complexion and no spark in his eyes. Sun Ce gave a wink to Zulong.

  "Good brother! I'm sorry for you. Big Brother knows you won't do anything to betray your brothers. The Master has also told me so! It's just that the brothers have misunderstood you now, it's best if you go back with the Master first and avoid this wave of trouble. After that, I'll slowly explain things clearly to the brothers."

  Her eyes suddenly burst out with a sharp light, staring at Zulang urgently and saying: "What! Brother Zulang! You understand me, you really understand me! You know I've done my best! I didn't betray everyone. Right, right?"

  People still need hope in their hearts to keep going and live a wonderful life!

  Seeing Zulang nodding heavily at him, he finally let out a heavy sigh: "It's okay, it's okay with Big Brother around. Hmm, Big Brother, you said Master? Who is that! Is this little... oh, is this the skilled young master?"

  Fortunately, the reaction was timely and didn't call out "Little White Face" three times. "Big Brother, have you surrendered to him too?"

  Zu Lang nodded and introduced Sun Ce, telling him about the promise he had made. Yan Shuang listened with great joy, knelt down and said: "Master is above, Yan Shuang greets Master. Yan Shuang has no other wishes in this life, only wanting to help the people do some things, so that they can suffer less in this chaotic world. With a loyal and brave general like Master coming forward, it will surely be possible to achieve great things. I wish to devote my life to serving Master with the loyalty of a dog or horse, please Master fulfill me."

  Sun Ce smiled and helped him up: "You've already lost to me anyway. If you don't do something for me, I'll have to say you're not a good gambler. In the future, there will be many more times when I need your help, so I hope you can all work together with me!"

  The two men spoke in unison, clenching their fists and saying: "We will follow your orders, my lord. We are willing to die for you and repay the kindness you have shown us!"

  Sun Ce said, "In that case, Zu Lang will continue to stay here and manage the business. For the time being, my sworn brother Zhou Yu, Zhou Gongjin, will be in charge of you all. You will hand over the intelligence you have collected to him for processing, as he is now in overall charge of this matter."

  You also need to work with him to gather refugees. And select the strong and healthy ones from the refugees to form a team, and train them.

  Also make an effort to gather the bandits from other mountain strongholds. Let them also do less evil to the common people, otherwise, I will inevitably not forgive them when I come.

  As for you, your skill in lightness and agility is very useful, don't waste it. You go to Zhou Yu's place, on the one hand as his deputy, and on the other hand as a liaison officer between Zuo Lang and Zhou Yu. Gong Jing is currently at the Dan Yang governor's office gathering refugees and organizing scouts. I'll have my personal soldiers send you there, he will arrange for you to do things."

  Both of them said: "Yes! We will definitely not betray our lord's orders!"

  Zulang said, "My lord, I caught two small wolf cubs while hunting in the mountains the other day. Their fur was snow-white all over, and I thought they weren't ordinary wolves, so I kept them. The old hunters here say that when they grow up, they might become the king of wolves. I'd like to offer them to you, my lord, please accept them."

  "Actually, the main reason is that people in the village are not getting enough to eat, and where can we get meat to feed these two beasts? I'm also reluctant to give them away, but watching them starve to death is unbearable, so I had no choice but to send them to Master."

  Sun Ce was very interested and asked him to bring them over for a look. Before long, he walked out of the gate and soon came back carrying two wolf cubs in his arms like they were precious treasures.

  Two little snow-white fur balls, eyes not yet open, probably hungry and looking around with their small heads. In the later generations, gray wolves are common, but snow-white ones are extremely rare, one look and you know it's a rare breed. Of course, we have to keep them.

  In modern times, Sun Ce really yearned to raise a big black-backed fish. However, the conditions did not permit it, and it could only be an eternal regret.

  Now it's good to send two pure wolves directly to let Sun Ce get rid of his regret. It's really a perfect life!

  Sun Ce gently picked them up and stroked them twice, finding that the two little wolves looked almost identical, except one had a faintly black tip on its tail.

  Sun Ce immediately decided that this all-white one would be called Wu Dalian, and the other one would naturally be Wu Erlang!