Chapter 8 Rewards

  Those who heard it couldn't help but show a look of shame on their faces. Xue Liangchen let out a cold snort, took the ointment and clean cloth strips, pulled out the short knife from his waist, heated it over the fire for a while, and then gently told Yue Fei: "This young fellow, bite down on this wooden strip, I'll remove the arrowhead poison for you, it will be fine in a moment!" He immediately ordered Xue Liangyu beside him: "You hold him down, don't let him move around!"

  "Alright!" Xue Liangyun responded with a grunt, and then reached out to press down on Yue Fei. From a young age, he had possessed extraordinary strength, and at the age of 14, he could already wear two layers of armor and jump onto his warhorse without using stirrups. Among the four brothers of the Xue family, although he was the youngest, if it came to physical strength, he was actually the first. However, when Xue Liangchen helped Yue Fei pull out the arrowhead, he only felt a sudden jolt from below, and almost flipped himself over, unable to help but exclaim: "You have great strength!"

  Yue Fei ignored him, and after Xue Liangchen finished bandaging his own wound, he struggled to get up, bowed to Xue Liangchen and said: "I, Yue Fei, thank you for saving my life and treating my wounds!"

  "Yue Fei? Isn't that Yue Wumu?" Zhou Ping was greatly surprised, carefully sizing up the wounded youth in front of him. He saw that the other's build was sturdy, his face covered with dust and bloodstains, and for a moment couldn't make out what he looked like. He had to press down the curiosity in his heart and listen carefully.

  "Never mind, you're just injured, go rest!" Xue Liangchen smiled slightly and was about to leave when he heard Yue Fei ask from behind: "May I ask, why didn't you use your full strength to kill the enemy just now, but instead let them escape?"

  Xue Liangchen was taken aback by his words and turned around with a smile: "Young man, what do you mean?"

  "Just now when you ordered your men to set fire, they only set the dry grass on the outside of the village's right side ablaze, but the houses and other places inside the village didn't catch fire at all! Clearly, it was just a plan to scare off the bandits and then stop!"

  Xue Liangyu, who was standing beside him, became enraged upon hearing this and pressed the hilt of his waist knife, shouting: "You little brat, are you asking for death? Does my second brother need your guidance on how to do things?"

  "Fourth brother, retreat!" Xue Liangchen shouted in a low voice and smiled at Yue Fei: "We only have more than ten people, it's already good if we can scare the thieves away!"

  Yue Fei took a look at the bowmen's pale faces and didn't say anything else. Zhou Ping, who was standing beside him, looked at Yue Fei's face covered with dust and bloodstains, and his doubts grew stronger.

  "This young man can't be the real Yue Wu Mu, can he? If I'm not mistaken, Yue Fei was also from Xiangzhou!"

  Zhou Ping finally couldn't hold back the doubts in his heart, walked aside, and came back with a bucket of clear water after a while. He smiled: "Yue Xiaoge, looking at your dusty and bloody face, you must be feeling uncomfortable, wipe it off!"

  "Thank you, brother!" Yue Fei gratefully clasped his hands together and then began to wash himself. As the dust and blood were washed away, a plain and unremarkable face was revealed, with a pair of eyes that were mismatched in size, one big and one small, giving him a somewhat comical appearance at first glance.

  Yue Fei saw Zhou Ping staring at him with a pair of dead eyes, but he didn't get angry, and instead smiled: "Brother, don't laugh, I've had uneven eye sizes since I was young!"

  "It's really the King of Martial Arts!" Zhou Ping suppressed his inner excitement, any Chinese person from a later generation could understand how he felt at this moment. A living martial arts saint had appeared right in front of him, but it was better to be reserved, otherwise it would not be good if he were to offend the other party.

  "Yue Xiaoge misunderstood!" Zhou Ping hurriedly smiled and said: "I just felt that you looked very familiar, as if I had seen you somewhere before. If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't have noticed that your two eyes are not the same size!"

  "Ah, I see!" Yue Fei was still a naive and honest young man of sixteen or seventeen at that time. Without thinking much, he believed Zhou Ping's nonsense: "Ah, I see! Your younger brother also finds you quite familiar, I must have met you during one of the market rushes, right? And I haven't even asked for your honorable name yet."

  "Tai Fu?" Zhou Ping was taken aback, only to realize that Yue Fei was asking for his name and courtesy name. He then recalled that Yue Fei should have received some education, judging from his attire and demeanor which seemed out of place with those of a poor rural youth.

  "My surname is Zhou and my name is Ping, originally from the Youzhou region!" Zhou Ping then fabricated his background and said: "I am a tenant farmer of the Xue family, this time I came with the master to catch the thief!"

  "My younger brother's surname is Yue and his name is Fei. He is from Tangyin in this province. His family was poor and had no way to make a living, so he became a servant at the Han household."

  The two men, Zhou and Yue, talked for a while. Then Yue Fei told Zhou about his family background and his humble origins. Zhou learned that Yue Fei had lost his father at a young age and only had his elderly mother to care for him. This made Zhou even more convinced that the person in front of him was indeed the famous General Yue, known as the "Yue Wu Mu" or "Yue E Wang". He became even more cautious with his words.

  At this time, Yue Fei was just a 16-17 year old youth who had recently gone through a life-or-death struggle. Deep down inside, he also had a desire to unburden himself. After chatting with Zhou for a while, he suddenly sighed and said: "I shot and killed the bandit leader Zhang Chao last night. I thought capturing a few remaining rebels today would be an easy matter, but unexpectedly..."

  Yue Fei trailed off here, let out a deep breath, lowered his head, and looked rather dejected.

  Zhou Ping looked at the young farmer in front of him, and the respectful feeling he had earlier gradually dissipated, replaced by a few hints of familiarity. He spoke softly to comfort him: "Brother Yue, this matter isn't your responsibility either. If it weren't for Zhu Zhi's greed for merit, falling into the bandits' trap, we wouldn't have suffered defeat."

  "What Brother Zhou said is not wrong!" Yue Fei's face showed a resentful expression: "However, I don't blame Zhu Zhi for being greedy and falling into the enemy's trap. After all, thieves are cunning, and it wasn't just him who fell into the trap. But as the county lieutenant, he encountered the enemy and yet fled alone first, abandoning his subordinates without a care - that is truly deserving of death!" As he spoke to this point, Yue Fei suddenly punched the ground with one fist, but accidentally pulled on the wound on his shoulder, causing his face to change color drastically.

  "Brother Yue, be careful of your wound!" Zhou Ping hastily supported Yue Fei, secretly sighing that indeed it was fate that decided one's life. This person was now just an ordinary farmer, yet he dared to openly criticize the county magistrate in front of outsiders. No wonder he ended up with such a miserable outcome later on. Just as Zhou Ping was thinking about how to console him, he heard someone shouting from behind: "Ah Ping, come quickly and help out, we don't have enough hands here!"

  Zhou Ping responded with a sound, but it was Xue Liangyu who was counting the spoils of war and asked him to come over to keep accounts. Xue Liangyu directed his subordinates while whispering to Zhou Ping: "Ah Ping, don't bother with that injured kid, he's got an ungrateful look on his face, one glance and you can tell he's a short-lived ghost, be careful not to get tainted by bad luck!"

  "Thank you, Mr. Xue!" Zhou Ping replied with a mixture of laughter and tears, thinking to himself: "This Xue Si Lang really does have a born jinxed mouth!"

  Anyang County Government

  "What? The bandits are so powerful, with over a thousand people?" Shen Heng's face turned pale white, as if the surrounding powder walls were closing in on him.

  "Not bad!" The shoulder of Zhu Zhi, who was kneeling on the ground, was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages, his face was purple and blue, as if he had just escaped from the battlefield: "The subordinate learned that the group of thieves were in Gaoping Village, so he led the four rural archers to capture them. Originally, they had already surrounded the leader of the thieves in the village, but unexpectedly, more than a thousand thieves suddenly arrived. Although I, with loyalty and righteousness, led the troops to fight to the death, we were outnumbered and could only break out of the encirclement. The rest of the archers...” By this point, Zhu Zhi had already fallen to the ground in pain and was crying.

  "County Magistrate Zhu, please rise!" Shen Heng stood up and helped Zhu Zhi to a side seat. If what he said was true, then Anyang County was already in danger, the Song Dynasty had been at peace for over a hundred years, and the people of Hebei had long forgotten the sound of war drums. It was actually hard to part with this county magistrate. Shen Heng thought about this and was just about to ask him how to strengthen the county's defenses when a clerk suddenly came in and whispered a few words in Shen Heng's ear. The county magistrate's expression changed slightly, he glared at Zhu Zhi fiercely, then quickly left, leaving Zhu Zhi alone in the hall.

  "You said that bandit had only fifty or sixty men?" Shen Heng's face seemed to have a layer of frost condensed on it, and he asked Xue Liangchen.

  "Not bad!" Xue Liangchen thought the county magistrate was upset because he had just learned that the archers were defeated by bandits in Gaoping Village, so he quickly explained: "County magistrate, although the thieves escaped, all the kidnapped people have been rescued, and only eight archers died, and the wounded have all received medical treatment, no big deal!" He was afraid that the county magistrate would ask for the goods back, so he deliberately didn't mention the matter of the goods.

  "Fifty or sixty people, good fellow Zhu Zhi, how dare you deceive a certain family!" Shen Heng suppressed the anger in his chest and took a closer look at Xue Liangchen brothers, Liu Sheng, Zhou Ping, and Yue Fei. He spoke warmly to Xue Liangchen: "Alright, tell me about the battle in detail."

  "Yes, County Master!" Xue Liangchen sang a fat note and began to explain. He was a meticulous person, and the common saying "officials protect each other" meant that if he were to reveal the details of how County Lieutenant Zhu had fallen into the ambush, he would definitely offend not only Zhu but also the current county magistrate. Therefore, Xue Liangchen did not mention his own role in rushing to the scene, instead focusing on how he had designed a plan to scare off the bandits, rescue the captured civilians, and treat the wounded archers. After finishing his account, Xue Liangchen bowed down to the county magistrate and said: "Earlier, this humble commoner failed to pursue the bandits, allowing their leader to escape the net. Please forgive me, County Master!"

  "Alright, you only have a dozen or so men, while the bandits have fifty or sixty. It's no wonder you couldn't hold out!" Shen Heng reached out to help Xue Liangchen up, thinking to himself: "This guy brought just over ten people and was able to scare off five or six times as many bandits, rescuing the kidnapped villagers... if he were in Zhu Zhi's position, what would those thieves be capable of? He'd be better off in the county magistrate's seat!" This idea burned brighter and brighter in his heart like a fireball.

  "County Magistrate, a humble commoner has something to report!" On the side, Yue Fei couldn't bear it anymore and knelt down.

  "Oh, it's Xiao Ge!" Because of Han Xiaozhuo's reason, Shen Heng still remembered this guest. Seeing the bandage on him, for some unknown reason, he suddenly felt a strange sense of pleasure: "What can I do for you?"

  "County Magistrate!" Yue Fei bowed his head and explained how County Lieutenant Zhu Zhi had taken credit for the ambush and was the first to flee from the village: "At that time, although we were ambushed in the village, as long as County Lieutenant sir stayed behind to fight to the death, there might still be a chance of winning. But he galloped away alone, which led to our defeat!" Yue Fei rolled up his right sleeve, revealing whip marks and said: "I grabbed hold of Lieutenant Zhu's horse, trying to persuade him to stay, but he whipped me fiercely, leaving these scars!"