Chapter 61: Cangshan Has a Stronghold (Part 1)

  Cangshan Village is indeed a place that government soldiers couldn't find after searching for several years, and its location is really secluded.

  The village was not far from the outside of the mountain. The mountain road was so difficult to travel, and with Xiao Ziyang's barely passable riding skills, it only took more than two hours to arrive at the destination.

  At the beginning, Ma Zei took Xiao Ziyang and walked on the small path trampled by the medicine collector. It wasn't until Xiao Ziyang thought he was unlucky again and met the second master that Ma Zei took him onto a strange road.

  This road is strange because it's not a road, but a small river. The water is very shallow, only about one foot deep; however, it's quite wide, approximately three zhang (about 10 meters) or so.

  The river was across the path that the herb collectors had trodden out, and since the water was shallow, the herb collectors had placed several stepping stones in the river to cross it. After the mountain bandits brought Xiao Ziyang down into the river on horseback, they did not continue along the small path on the opposite bank; instead, they followed the river upstream.

  The river flowed quickly and the small road parted ways. After walking for about half a watch, the two of them followed the river to a mountain valley. The trees in this valley were extremely dense, with lush branches forming a long corridor above the river. Horseback riders had to bow their heads to avoid the branches. The mountain bandits led Xiao Ziyang through this hidden waterway for another half watch before it suddenly opened up, revealing a small plain nestled among the mountains.

  The place where Cangshan Village is located is not particularly dangerous, it is between the two peaks of a double-peaked mountain opposite the plain in the mountains. The double-peaked mountain is not high, and the village is only about 200 zhang away from the foot of the mountain. In front of the village is a gentle slope. On the slope between the two peaks, there is a wooden wall with a height of about 2 zhang, with a gate opening in the middle that is about 3 zhang wide.

  In the hazy morning light, Xiao Ziyang looked at the distant mountain stronghold. After a brief moment, he said to the bandit beside him, "Scram!" The bandit was taken aback, carefully turned his horse's head around and retreated, glancing back at Xiao Ziyang as if fearing he would suddenly attack from behind. It wasn't until they had run over a hundred yards away that they suddenly whipped their horses into a frenzied gallop, quickly disappearing into the river valley.

  The lucky bandit who escaped with his life did not know that he had been circling around the Ghost Gate Pass several times, and Xiao Ziyang had reached for the longbow on his shoulder several times, only to put it down again, ultimately sparing his life.

  Xiao Ziyang tied his horse in the woods and sneaked towards the mountain stronghold.

  As he approached the mountain stronghold, he became increasingly cautious.

  Suddenly, a mountain wind blew by, and Xiao Ziyang's face changed color. The wind carried a strong bloody smell.

  Xiao Ziyang strolled under the shade of the trees, slowly approaching the mountain stronghold's gate.

  He crouched behind a large tree, carefully observing the two watchtowers on either side of the mountain stronghold's gate. Two bandits were keeping watch, one leaning against the railing with his head lowered, while the other sat on the floor of the watchtower, propped up against the fence, his head tilted to one side.

  The two seemed to be dozing off, but Xiao Ziyang took a closer look and saw that the person leaning on the railing had a patch of shadow on his chest, which looked like bloodstains. The head of the person sitting on the floor was tilted at an angle that exceeded the normal range.

  "Could it be that someone has already arrived?" Xiao Ziyang hesitated for a moment, then crawled forward and climbed up the watchtower. The two bandits on watch had been killed long ago, one with his neck twisted off and the other stabbed through the chest.

  Xiao Ziyang crouched on the watchtower and carefully observed the interior of the mountain stronghold.

  This village is not small, as soon as you enter the village gate, it is a martial arts field with a length and width of about 60 zhang; on the edge of the martial arts field, in the corner near the cliff, there are more than ten wooden stakes, and on the wooden stakes, there are still a few scattered arrows.

  On both sides of the martial arts arena were two rows of wooden houses, and in front of them was a tall and spacious wooden house over three zhang high and six zhang wide. Above the main gate of the wooden house hung a black signboard with the three large characters "Hall of Gathered Righteousness".

  Behind the hall of justice is a courtyard, and on both sides, not far away, there are also courtyards, which seem to be the residences of three village heads.

  Xiao Ziyang was examining, when suddenly a black figure darted out from a wooden hut on the right side. The person was slender and agile, with footsteps that made no sound as they landed on the ground, rising and falling like a wisp of smoke.

  The black shadow slipped out of the wooden house, carefully looked around, observed for a moment, and then flashed into another wooden house next door through the window.

  He had just slipped into the wooden hut, and from another wooden hut on the left side of the opposite side, a black-clad man in night gear also slipped out.

  As two men in black slipped into each of the wooden huts, the bloody smell in the mountain village grew thicker.

  Seeing that someone had already taken the lead, Xiao Ziyang felt a sense of withdrawal to avoid misunderstanding. But for some reason, looking at the agile figures of these two men in black, he always felt a little familiar, and hesitated to take another look.

  At this moment, a woman's shrill cry, a man's shout, and the sound of clashing blades suddenly came from the courtyard on the right side of the assembly hall opposite the martial arts arena.

  This string of sounds on this quiet night was like a thunderclap, suddenly waking up all the bandits in the village.

  The strong smell of blood suddenly made the awakened mountain bandits aware that something was wrong. A moment later, dozens of disheveled horse bandits holding swords rushed out of the wooden house.

  Two men in black took advantage of the chaos to kill two more, and the dying bandit's mournful cry instantly made them have nowhere to hide. The bandits shouted and surrounded them.

  These bandits in the mountain stronghold are all fierce thieves brought by the Cao brothers from Jinzhou, each with excellent martial skills. Moreover, these people are all fugitives who have been used to living on the edge of life and death, and when they fight, they use a desperate and ruthless style.

  Two men in black clothes with martial arts skills that were no weaker than Xiao Ziyang's, but under the siege of many horse bandits, they gradually became unable to hold on.

  Seeing this scene, Xiao Ziyang naturally couldn't just stand by and do nothing. He flipped his hand to take down the longbow from his shoulder, drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and in an instant several of the most skilled and ferocious horse bandits fell to the ground with arrows lodged in them.

  The horse thieves were suddenly attacked and immediately became chaotic. Two men in black took advantage of the chaos to break through the encirclement, gather together, and join forces to resist the enemy.

  This group of horse thieves was extremely high-quality, and after a brief commotion, more than ten people rushed towards the gate of the camp, while the rest surrounded the two men in black again.

  Xiao Ziyang ignored the dozen or so people rushing towards him, and instead drew his bow and shot at the horse thieves surrounding the black-clad man. Every time he drew his bow, a horse thief would fall to the ground with a thud.

  Under the threat of death, the bandits' ferocity was suppressed, and they became timid when taking action.

  The horse thieves who had lost their ferocity could no longer pose a threat to the two men in black, and together they killed several more people.

  At this time, more than a dozen horse thieves had already rushed to the bottom of the watchtower. Xiao Ziyang saw that the two men in black had escaped danger, put away their bows and arrows, turned around, pulled out their thick-backed knives, and quickly jumped down from the watchtower.

  With a loud "thud", Xiao Ziyang heavily fell to the ground, as if it wasn't a person who jumped down from the watchtower, but an iron tower itself.