Chapter 29: Decision to Leave the Mountain

  Listening to Huang Youren's tearful and sniffling account of his misfortune, Xu Bin also felt that the villagers of Huangjiazhuang were indeed quite pitiful. However, he didn't understand what Huang Youren meant by "butcher landlord", so he quickly asked Li Chengbing, who was known as the "mountain stronghold's everything expert", about the background of this butcher family and why they dared to be so lawless in the countryside.

  From Li Chengbing's mouth, Xu Bin learned about the situation of the Tu family, which was roughly the same as what Huang Youren had said before. The only difference is that Li Chengbing knew that the wealthy butcher, who was able to open a brothel and casino in Fengnan, not only because the county magistrate's brother-in-law helped, but also because Tu Fugui and the commander of the city defense camp in Juzhao City, Zhu San, were sworn brothers.

  Apart from this, the Tú family also raised more than 20 gunmen in their own old house in the town, and they were all trained by that Zhu Yingchang to be quasi-military personnel. Even the casinos and brothels owned by the Tú family in the city were shares of Zhu Yingchang. It was precisely because of the protection of these two high-ranking military and political officials in Júxiāng City that the Tú family dared to be so tyrannical in Bǎofēng Town, Military Peak Mountain.

  Even some old families in Juzhen City, when facing the arrogance of the Tu family, can only swallow their anger and dare not provoke Tu Fugui easily. They are afraid of offending this ruthless and cunning butcher-turned-landlord, which may lead to suppression or extermination by his two powerful backers. As the saying goes, 'A corrupt official can bring down a whole family, while a corrupt county magistrate can wipe out an entire clan.' In those days, the power of the county head was still very great.

  In addition, nowadays Longhua country is in a state of war and bandits are rampant everywhere. If you really provoke those city defense camp soldiers, who knows that one night they will take off their military uniforms and suddenly turn from soldiers to bandits, and your whole family will be slaughtered. At that time, I'm afraid there will be no place to file a complaint even if you have grievances.

  Upon hearing that there was such a landlord with immense public resentment at the foot of Junfeng Mountain, Xu Bin, who had been worried about how to recover the expenses and funds spent during this period, suddenly had an epiphany. He decided that the first battle of the Xu family army, which had been training for nearly two months, would be against the Butcher's family.

  As for the so-called garrison in Juzi City, its actual strength is less than 300 people. Moreover, this year's military officers are quite serious about embezzling their salaries. If they really dare to take up arms against Heifeng Village again and flee into the mountains to carry out a purge, Xu Bin will not mind teaching them what guerrilla warfare in the jungle is all about when he arrives.

  Deciding to make the first move, he chose to attack the Butcher's family. Looking at the Huang family villagers who were wearing thin clothes and had been hiding in the mountains for a day and night, Xu Bin said politely: "Fellow villagers, it's not a good idea to stay here like this. Look at the children beside you, their little faces are frozen purple. They don't have the same resistance as adults, if they really catch a cold, it will be troublesome."

  "If my fellow villagers trust me, then come with me to my mountain stronghold. Once we're up there, I'll arrange for you to have food and lodging. In two days' time, I'll take care of the trouble with the Butcher family for you, so you won't have to worry about their revenge or threats anymore, and you can go back down the mountain to live a peaceful life. How's that? Don't just stand there, come with me!"

  When the young bandit leader, who was not called the Big Boss but the Big Captain, invited all the villagers to go up the mountain, the villagers of Huangjiazhuang seemed hesitant and turned their eyes to Village Chief Huang Youren, as if waiting for this trusted village chief to make a decision.

  As the village head, Huang Youren was actually unwilling to follow Xu Bin up the mountain. However, seeing that several households in the village had children who were constantly coughing, he also worried that if they really froze to death on this mountain, it would be a disaster.

  In these times, it's not like in the future. If you catch a cold and don't have money to treat it or medicine to take, you're really close to death. But treating illnesses and taking medicine isn't something ordinary people can afford, is it?

  Helpless, Huang Youren could only hope that the polite young bandit leader in front of him was a trustworthy good man. He bowed and said: "Thank you for your kindness, if we are lucky enough to escape this disaster, I and the 56 old and young people of Huangjiazhuang will definitely thank you for your great kindness."

  Knowing that the village chief would be worried, Xu Bin didn't explain anything and just arranged for them to rest in the mountain stronghold for two days. After resolving the Tu family's affairs, they should know that this bandit leader still keeps his word. This way, in the future when the Xu family army is active in Huangjia Village, they shouldn't receive any more cold stares from these villagers!

  Xu Xianzhong looked surprised and said, "Little Bin, why did you bring so many villagers up the mountain? You can't tell me that you're going to rob these ordinary people, can you? That's not allowed!"

  Look at these two uncles, they seem to have decided that these villagers are their own people who were brought up the mountain. Xu Bin hurriedly explained with a bitter smile: "Second uncle, do you think I'm that kind of person? These people were all met by me during training in the mountains, and they happened to be from Huangjiazhuang village at the foot of the mountain. They were afraid that the Tu family from Baofeng Town would come to rob them, so they had no choice but to hide on this mountain, and coincidentally our people ran into them.

  I saw that many of them were elderly and children, staying in the mountains overnight without shelter would not last long. I thought, why not lead them to our mountain stronghold to take refuge for a while? After all, we've been neighbors for so many years. Now that our neighbor is in trouble, lending a hand is only natural, what do you think, Second Uncle?”

  Upon hearing that the villagers were not rushing up the mountain, Xu Yi Zhong slightly let out a breath of relief. When he saw Huang You Ren, Xu Yi Zhong hurriedly stepped forward and said: "Village Chief Huang, it's really you! I'm Xu Lao Er, I've bought grain from your village before, do you still remember me?"

  Huang Youren looked at Xu Yizhong with a surprised expression and said, "Oh! How is it you? Eh, what are you doing in this mountain? Aren't you the grain merchant from the city?"

  Xu Yizhong, who had bought a lot of surplus grain in Huangjiazhuang back then, still left some impression on Village Chief Huang Youren. However, at that time, he remembered Xu saying he was a grain merchant from the city who came to the countryside to buy grain. But now, suddenly seeing him appear in this mountain, his heart is indeed somewhat surprised.

  However, seeing a familiar face like Xu Yizhong made Huang Youren feel slightly more at ease. At least in his opinion, bandits who could spend money to buy grain from the common people instead of robbing it by force couldn't be all that cruel.

  Xu Yizhong roughly explained his identity and then pulled Huang Youren to ask about the situation again. After listening to Huang's account, he finally believed what his nephew had said earlier. Seeing that the villagers of Huangjia Village were freezing, he didn't say much and immediately ordered his subordinates who were in charge of cooking to make ginger soup for the villagers to warm them up.

  He also ordered the kitchen to cook two pots of millet porridge for these villagers. Seeing that they didn't pose any threat after coming up the mountain, and instead were treated with such hospitality, the villagers of Huangjiazhuang felt that the bandits from Heifengzhai weren't as frightening as they had imagined!

  When Xu Yizhong was in charge of taking care of the villagers, Xu Bin immediately convened a meeting with the three battalion commanders of the Xu family army, planning to take this opportunity to eliminate the Tu family. With the evil deeds committed by the Tu family in Baofeng Town and Juxiang City, it is believed that the common people will applaud when the Tu family is eliminated. This will also help improve the prestige of the Xu family army on the ground in Juxiang.

  Besides, the Tú family is a well-known landlord in Bǎofēng Town, and their assets must be considerable. By eliminating the harm while also making a small fortune, how could Xǔ Bīn possibly not do such a thing that kills two birds with one stone?

  As for the city defense camp in Juzi City, those people are no different from the mountain bandits in Xu Bin's eyes. If they really don't die and find their own trouble, Xu Bin doesn't mind competing with each other to see who can't hold on in the end.

  In this vast mountain, as long as we don't encounter another premeditated ambush like last time, the government army can't defeat the bandits in the mountains. Of course, this refers to the city defense camps that are now mixed up and waiting for death in the city, not those elite combat troops.

  Moreover, the city defense camp that ambushed and betrayed Xu Bin's father last time was this very one. For this reason, it can be considered polite for the Xu family army not to take revenge on them. If these people really think Hei Feng is easy to bully, Xu Bin won't mind taking drastic measures and wiping out this city defense camp!

  Although that would alarm the main forces of Linzhou Prefecture, with knives at their throats and not resisting, it's not Xu Bin's style.

  With Xu Bin's insistence, the three company commanders naturally didn't say much and soon dispatched the second company to scout out information under Li Chengbing's leadership, hastily heading down the mountain to Baofeng Town to gather news about the Tu family. As for Xu Bin and other members of the Xu family army, they chose to head down the mountain early tomorrow morning to garrison Huangjia Village.

  At that time, the Butcher family was indeed as Huang Youren said, and they would send gunmen to rob people in the village. Xu Bin didn't mind sending these Butcher family's running dogs to accompany Ma Liu underground before exterminating the Butcher family. If you want to talk about robbery, these bandits are indeed experts!

  When Xu Bin wanted to take down the Tu family, Xu Yi Zhong was strongly opposed. However, when Xu Bin mentioned that he would expand the Xu family army and purchase a large batch of military supplies next, Xu Yi Zhong knew that if he didn't go and grab some ill-gotten gains for use, the funds he had painstakingly accumulated might be in danger of being depleted.

  So he heard Xu Bin tell himself that either the money for expanding the army would be provided by Xu Yi Zhong, or else he could only rely on Xu Bin to come up with a plan and lead this newly established Xu family army down the mountain to plunder. At that time, they would use these riches plundered from the homes of evil landlords to expand the size of the Xu family army. He believed that the financial pressure on Black Wind Fortress would not be as great as it was now.

  For the training of this hundred-strong army in front of him, nearly three thousand Longyang coins have been consumed in less than two months. Every time Xu Yizhong takes out money, he is very heartbroken. Thinking about what Xu Bin said, in the future, the scale of the Xu family army will continue to expand, and all of them will be equipped with a uniform German-made rifle bullets, which will cost a lot of money.

  If no funds are raised to support, relying solely on Xu Yizhong's small treasury will not last long. Therefore, knowing that the Tu family cannot be easily provoked but indeed has money, Xu Bin has already made up his mind to rob the Tu family. He didn't say much, after all, finding money is something that still relies on Xu Bin.

  All he could do was help Xu Bin manage the account. Moreover, robbing those wealthy and ruthless merchants and officials who were also a principle that Heifengzhai had always followed! The Butcher's family naturally met the standards of Heifengzhai's robbery!

  When asked about the chances of success, Xu Bin replied with a 90% confidence. In the end, he didn't stop this young nephew and took him down the mountain to plunder for the first time. After all, as the leader of the mountain stronghold, leading the team to plunder was an essential experience. Only by tempering Xu Bin as soon as possible could the future Black Wind Stronghold grow stronger faster.

  It's worth noting that in his heart, Xu Yizhong has always envied the status of the White Family Village in Juzhen City. If in the future, Heifeng Village can also grow into a large mountain village with thousands of people and guns, I'm sure the prestige of the Xu family will be even greater than it is now!

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