Chapter 32: Clearing Bandits (Middle)

  Mt. Tianshan, the old nest of Cao Cao's flying cavalry, was approached by Che Feng with the head of the flying cavalry on a pike. In the cold weather, it had already turned into an ice block. The Tumed cavalry were preparing to attack the mountain, and if the remaining defenders refused to surrender and resisted stubbornly, they would drive the newly surrendered prisoners to attack the mountain.

  Che Feng walked alone into the midst of the horse thieves, smashing his stone-like head to the ground with his hand, his right hand grasping the hilt of his knife, bellowing: "Surrender and join us; resist, and this will be your fate!"

  More than fifty bandits looked at each other, the whole scene was silent. The thing was too sudden, the master of the house led a large team down the mountain for half a day, and when he came back, only one head was left.

  "One hour later, either you come down the mountain or we'll attack!" Che Feng threw out these words and turned to leave, following Zhai Zhe's orders to go up to the bandit's lair. His heart couldn't help but thump wildly, and when he went down the mountain, he forced himself to remain calm so his footsteps wouldn't seem hurried.

  Half an hour later, the mountain bandits walked down one after another and stood at the top of the mountain where they could clearly see the scale of the attackers. The days of the mountain bandits were all the same, and for most people, following whom made no big difference.

  The terrain of Mt. Mote is treacherous, adjacent to the Tokto Grassland, and Princess Ulan is stationed here to facilitate communication with the nomadic Tumet people, but this is not the old camp that Di Zhe wants, it's too far from Kill Hu Kou.

  The Tumet cavalry had just taken over the Sky Ridge, and Di Zhe immediately arranged a new task for Xiao Zhishen.

  "From the captives' confessions, there are four large groups of horse thieves outside Kuhu: Wang Sanqing from Liangcheng, Cao Fei and Zhong Shanlang from Ling'er, and Geng Guang. Now that Cao Fei has been taken care of, the other two groups from Ling'er will be our next targets. You quickly return to Duo Yan grassland, take advantage of the fact that the Chahar people are gathered during winter, and the grasslands are empty, bring all the men and horses from the old camp over!"

  "All of them? Five hundred men!" Xiao Zhi's words were laced with concern. As a former horse thief, he knew the difficulties that horse thieves faced on the grasslands. Without the support of a powerful force, they were no different from stray dogs.

  Di Zhe helplessly smiled and said, "If not so, we can only let them surrender to the Jurchen people!" The eight merchant households couldn't afford to waste money supporting such a large group of people on the grasslands.

  "Alright!" Xiao Zhiyan's voice was somewhat delayed, in his experience it was very difficult to support so many bandits just by killing Hu Kou.

  Di Zhe guessed what Xiao Zhi meant and said, "I do things according to my conscience. From the time I left Zhangjiakou, I had made up my mind. Life and death are determined by fate, wealth and honor are determined by heaven."

  Xiao Zhiyan curled up the corners of his mouth, and Di Zhe even abandoned the identity of Second Young Master, but he was a bit hesitant, which didn't seem like his style.

  Xiao Zhi's words were brought away by five close guards on the same day.

  Di Zhe will merge the surrendered horse thieves with his own troops and have in-depth conversations with people every day to understand the terrain and forces of Lin Ge.

  Helin Gol is almost entirely mountainous, with Liangcheng to the east, the Yellow River to the west, Guihua to the north and Daming's Hu Kou to the south. The only major road out of Hu Kou extends through Helin Gol and Liangcheng, directly connecting to Guihua City. Today, the old crow mountain of Ma Zezhong in the north and Geng Guang's Hei Shan in the south can both threaten this road directly.

  Princess Wulan saw Zhai Zhe's daily worried and unhappy face as he wrote and drew on the map, reminding him: "The Khan's cavalry can't go to attack the horse bandits' stronghold! You have to think of a way yourself!" The terrain of the horse bandit's stronghold was treacherous, easy to defend but hard to attack. Wulan didn't want to lose her limited power and also wanted to test Zhai Zhe's abilities. There were so many Han people, through her understanding, there must be more than just Zhai Zhe who was willing to take risks among the Han merchants. The Khan's plan didn't have to rely on this person in front of her.

  "You don't have to attack the mountain stronghold, but you still have to help me with one more thing!"

  "What's wrong?"

  "It's very simple!" Di Zhe folded up the sheepskin in his hand.

  Temur was fed up, why did the Han envoy find his family as soon as he entered the Tokto Grassland, but the Khan's cavalry request could not be refused. Now he and Wuliji's family drove the herd into the Helingeer Mountains again. Familiar bandits guided them on the way, carefully avoiding Laoyashan and Heishan. In this weather, Helingeer had no oil or water, most of the bandits were hiding in the old camp for winter, and would not patrol too far.

  In addition to these few horse thieves, there were some scattered bandits in Helin'ger. These people were refugees who had been eliminated by the horse thieves. Many of them could no longer survive due to lack of clothing and food while hiding in the mountains, and Ning Sheng was one of them.

  Ning Sheng's strength can't even draw a bow and arrow, nor will he take a knife to kill someone. The only thing he can do is calculate accounts and make deals. Bandits don't need such people, after all, winter food is very precious.

  Hiding in the mountains to avoid war since summer, Ning Sheng's more than 100 people are now left with only a dozen or so. Now his daily routine is leaning against a big tree, waiting for rabbits to knock themselves out on it; if not, he can only find some grass roots and bark to fill his hunger.

  Hunger made Ning Sheng somewhat dizzy, and he spent half a day in a daze. Occasionally, when he raised his head, his eyes lit up, and he shouted loudly: "There's a herd of sheep at the foot of the mountain!"

  Not far away, a dozen or so people crawled out of the cave, their eyes shining with a thrilling light that stared straight at the livestock below.

  "Is it a rush?"

  Ning Sheng swallowed his saliva and said: "Robbing is death, not robbing is also death!"

  "Run!" Having lived here for several months, they were familiar with the terrain and quickly turned to the front of the herd.

  When Temur saw the twenty or so people in tattered clothes standing in the middle of the road, he secretly laughed to himself. This was already the fifth group, and such bandits didn't need the sweat lodge cavalry to come out; they could take care of themselves. However, according to Gerdelt's arrangement, he still blew a loud whistle towards the rear.

  A dozen Tumet cavalrymen emerged from the mountain forest, their iron hooves trampling through the thin snow.

  Ning Sheng's face changed color for a moment before returning to normal. At this point, dying at the hands of the Mongols might be a kind of liberation.

  The Tumet people surrounded them, and the leading cavalry shouted loudly: "Leave!"

  "Go?"

  Ning Sheng's mind was filled with question marks. Could it be that there were still people who wanted to capture themselves, didn't that mean they had hope of living on?

  Driven north and then west by the Tumed cavalry, they entered a mountain pass at nightfall, where Ning Sheng saw many familiar faces he had met in the Helin region, all of whom were being held inside.

  At the entrance of the canyon, two Han people were adding firewood and lighting a fire, with a large pot boiling over with fierce flames, emitting hot air.

  "Drink a bowl of hot soup!" A man scooped up a spoonful of soup and poured it into the bowl on the chopping board in front of the pot, with a few drops of oil still floating on top.

  Ning Sheng's tears almost fell as he felt a glimmer of hope. He was willing to do whatever these people asked him to do.

  A yellow-haired man came over and asked: "What are you all going to do?"

  Ning Sheng turned his head to look at the people behind him, wondering how to respond.

  The man impatiently asked: "I'm just asking what you guys used to do?"

  An old man shouted from behind: "I can forge iron, I used to forge iron for the Tumet people!"

  The old man was thin and gaunt, as if a gust of wind could blow him away. Che Feng looked at him with suspicious eyes, but then a young boy squeezed out from behind the old man and said in a very certain tone: "My grandfather can forge iron, I can too!"

  Ning Sheng said in a low and timid voice: "I'm a businessman!"

  The remaining people were either slaves of the Tatars or slaves of the herdsmen. The vast majority of Han people who escaped to the grasslands, eight or nine out of ten, became slaves of the Tumet people just to make a living.

  Che Feng nodded at Ning Sheng and his grandson, saying: "You two follow me!" Then he turned around and left.

  Within five days, Di Zhe searched for nearly two hundred refugees, mostly elderly and weak people.

  Sweat-drenched cavalrymen continued to herd refugees into the canyon below Mo Tian Ridge.

  "What do you want these people to do?" Ulan stamped her small leather boots on the snowy ground several times, and then said: "Our food is limited, although we have captured some of the flying household goods, I can only give you half at most!"

  "These people are the eyes and ears of Zhongshan Lang and Geng Guang, only by cleaning them up can I have a chance to get rid of these two! Moreover," Zhai Zhe smiled and said: "As long as one is alive, there is hope, there is strength."

  Wulan raised her face, with a smile at the corners of her eyes like a new moon, and said: "I didn't expect you still have some compassion!"

  Although the words sounded unpleasant, accompanied by her tone and expression, they didn't seem to be blaming, but rather coquettish. The charming eyes made Zhai Zhe's heart skip a beat. Suddenly, he thought of Fan Yi in Zhangjiakou, that lively and vivacious girl who was nominally his wife. Under the strict etiquette of the Great Ming dynasty, his escape would bring her enormous pressure.