Six, Dividing Spoils (First Watch)

  Things were quickly clarified.

  Once Bao's temper flares up when it involves his mother, there is actually another principle.

  Do not kill those who are about to die.

  The long knife-wielding man who was pierced through the abdomen by Qin Yu's single spear became the only living witness to this principle with great honor.

  Tan Yong just casually asked a few questions.

  Unexpectedly, Fan Jian's words were actually true.

  On that day, Qian Yu hunted wild boar king, halfway through the golden leopard intervened, and later three hunters appeared.

  These three hunters were precisely Fan Jian's retainers.

  Huyang and Wudang are not adjacent, the two counties belong to Nanyang, one in the southwest and one in the northeast, there is still a certain distance between them. Fan Jian led a group of door guests from Fanjiazhuang, this trip was mainly for a leopard's gallbladder.

  It is said that Fan Ren, the eldest son of the Fan family, was particularly fond of his frail granddaughter. He invited a famous doctor to take her pulse and prescribe medicine. The prescription wasn't difficult to fill with herbs, but it required a fresh leopard's gallbladder as a guide for the medicine. Fan Ren had trouble buying the medicine in Huayang, so he offered a generous reward for someone to find one. Many days passed without finding a suitable one. His second brother, Fan Jian, volunteered to go out and hunt for it.

  After searching and inquiring all the way, I finally saw the leopard's flower tail yesterday. The three door guests were eager to make a name for themselves and didn't take the local hunters seriously, so they thought of taking the golden leopard by hand. Who would have thought that the wild boar king was fierce and powerful, and in the end, only two people and two dogs escaped.

  The two men who narrowly escaped with their lives returned, and naturally didn't dare to tell the truth. They made excuses, saying that they had already hunted down the golden leopard, but it was snatched away by local hunters halfway through, and also killed Xiong Er brothers and Shandian, Saitu and so on.

  Before the current dynasty was established, the Fan family was already a prominent family in Huayang, dominating the local area. After following Liu Xiu to conquer the vast territory, they dominated Nanyang for over ten generations and controlled Huayang for two hundred years, notorious for being unreasonable and tyrannical.

  The final occurrence of the Fan family's nighttime raid on Bao Village was indeed normal.

  On their way south, they had already slaughtered several small villages similar to this one, just for the rare and precious medicinal materials that might be available in the hunters' homes.

  If Bao and his brothers were slightly weaker, they would also be slaughtered and their village taken.

  Tan Yu sighed deeply after asking, the country is about to perish, the powerful and wealthy are evil, this is a true portrayal of the chaotic world at the end of the Han Dynasty!

  The three parts of regret and unease that had been lingering in her heart suddenly vanished without a trace.

  All these cruel and ruthless villains who are evil without realizing it should be killed!

  Bao didn't kill the white-robed swordsman, but he also didn't treat his injuries. He left him lying heavily wounded in the snow, letting his hunting dog, Ruhua, watch over him until he froze to death.

  When they were about to bury all the white-clothed knife guests of Lake Yang, Qin Yu suddenly remembered that group of black-clothed knife guests on Mount Xiangshou.

  Although they are dressed in different attire and wield different weapons, they are equally overbearing and cruel, often annihilating entire families at will.

  Why are these wealthy and powerful classes so arrogant as to think that everyone else is just cannon fodder?

  In Tan Yu's single room, three fellow disciples gathered together.

  Bao Chu and Qin Yu sat facing each other, with Zhang Ren shrinking into the innermost part of the fire kang, forming a triangular standoff.

  On the kang, four things were placed.

  A golden-hilted short sword; a sleeveless half-body grey fur coat; a white jade ring; and finally, a bamboo scroll.

  "Good brother, finished touching the corpse? So many fragments." He picked up the short knife, "Wow, so heavy, could it be really made of gold?"

  Bao raised an eyebrow and glanced over.

  Zhang Ren said, "These are all the personal belongings of that leader's two young masters. They're called contraband goods for smuggling and selling poison. There are also some jewels, medicinal materials, and so on. The rest of the people don't have anything good. Oh right, Second Brother, there are two characters on the scabbard, what do they mean? I don't recognize them."

  Tan Yu picked up the short knife, and on one side of the scabbard, there were indeed two characters in a font that seemed to be carved in relief. He lit an oil lamp and examined it for half a day, hesitating: "It's actually the word 'Yu Ci' (Imperial Gift)? This knife might really have some origin."

  "'Imperial gift?' Zhang Ren was very interested, 'Is it a reward from His Majesty?'"

  "It's probably so." Qin Yu pulled out the short knife, touched the steel mouth, and was somewhat disappointed. "The handle is gold, I thought it was a real gold knife, Master, it's yours now, hey, it's quite sharp, just right for cutting pork every day." He inserted the knife into the scabbard and threw it to Baochu.

  Bao took over and didn't have much of an opinion, directly putting it on his waist.

  Zhang Ren saw that the two senior brothers were staring at the gray leather jacket, and explained: "This leather jacket is made of unknown animal skin, it's very thin, but it's very solid, forty steps away, my black crossbow can't even penetrate it."

  Bao took a glance and said: "It's too small, I won't be able to wear it."

  "I don't want it either, little brother you can take it and wear it yourself." The clothes that the dead man had worn, Qin Yu still felt a bit disgusted. Moreover, the family heirloom black leather he was wearing inside was not bad in quality, so he didn't want to change even more.

  "I've got this thing, it's pretty good, don't need clothes anymore." Zhang Ren raised his right hand.

  He took a glance and found that on the thumb of his right hand, there was a strange bronze ornament, which looked like a ring. The back of the finger had a semi-circular cover, pressed against the back of the finger, and the front of the finger had a slight bulge.

  Bao Zhong said: "You use a black crossbow, what do you want with this copper trigger?"

  Nü, pronounced as "shè", is a device for shooting on horseback, also known as a trigger finger later commonly seen in Ming and Qing dynasties.

  Zhang Rendao said, "Big Brother, I also want to practice archery. Although the black crossbow is convenient, its range is too short. In the future, if we follow Second Brother into battle, it will be a disadvantage."

  "Little brother has a heart." Qin Yu smiled and thought to himself: "Could it be that he knows he will become a famous general in the future, so he is starting to prepare ahead of time?"

  Well, it should be said that he hopes to become a famous general of his generation, and now he must necessarily start preparing.

  The three of them looked at each other, and no one wanted the treasure?

  "Hmm, I think... this armor, why don't we just give it to Master instead?" In the end, Qin Yu suddenly had an idea, his mouth crooking up at one corner.

  Bao Chu and Zhang Ren looked at each other, nodded in unison with a tacit understanding.

  "Don't tell him how it came, just say... we hunted the wild boar king and asked Dried Mother to tan and sew the best hide, specially for Master." Zhang Ren said in a low voice, blinking his eyes.

  "Junior brother is indeed insightful, this good thing will be handed over to you." Qin Yu patted his junior brother's shoulder with a smile.

  Zhang Ren reluctantly agreed with a sullen face.

  Bao thought to himself: "Although Master doesn't hunt, his vision is quite high, how can he not see the quality and workmanship? However, this leather jacket does keep Master warm and safe."

  Tan Yun knew that Bao Chu and Zhang Ren were illiterate, so he stretched out his hand, pulled the bamboo slips over, opened the cloth strip wrapped around the slips, took a look, and his expression changed.

  This bamboo slip is actually a letter.

  Fan Ren, the master of the Fan family in Huyang, wrote a secret letter to Zhang Xuan, the governor of Changsha, representing the three major families of Fan, Feng and Yu in Huyang. The letter stated that previously discussed matters had been decided by the Nanyang aristocrats, and they would only follow Zhang's lead. The required money and grain had already been purchased near Jiangling and would be secretly transported to Changsha soon, with a special person sent to escort them.

  Tan Yu thought: "According to what the guest said, Heyang is east of XinYe, 180,000 miles away from Changsha. What's the point for the wealthy families in Heyang to curry favor with the governor of Changsha?"

  Zhang Ren rolled up his fur coat and picked up the ring, saying: "This white jade ring, Second Brother, you take it."

  Tan Yun stretched out his hand and took off the ring on his hand.

  "Hmm, this thing is still a crucial item for the transaction, put it here with me first."

  ……

  Fen finished dividing the organs, Zhang Ren pouted and put on his leather jacket, and went up the mountain overnight to deliver the treasure.

  Bao got up and went out to check if there were any loopholes in the destruction of the evidence by his subordinates.

  Tan Yun returned to her own room and continued to recite the Jade Sword Heart Sutra.

  At dawn, Zhang Ren had returned to Bao Village.

  Bao was already asleep, but was rudely awakened by Zhang Ren's uncontrolled knocking on the door. He got out of bed grumbling and dazed. Qin Yu, who was originally in a state of habitual side-lying breathing exercise, came out quickly instead.

  The brothers gathered together again, and Zhang Ren's face was slightly tense.

  "Master said that Hu Yangfan is not an ordinary wealthy family, let Big Brother take care of it tomorrow morning and escort Auntie to Changsha Yiyang, which is safer." He and Qin Yu are both motherless children, all recognizing the old lady of the Bao family as their adoptive mother.

  Tan Yong and Bao Chu exchanged a glance. Bao Chu slightly furrowed his thick eyebrows, saying: "Then I'll go prepare first."

  "Master asked Eldest Brother to bring all the villagers here, and once they move, they won't come back. Master said that the land over there is more fertile." Zhang Ren added.

  Bao nodded slightly.

  Although Bao Zhuang is not big, after all, it's also a village with over ten households and dozens of people. There are many elderly, weak, sickly and disabled people, but there are also seven or eight strong young men. However, these people are mostly farmers who are skilled in farm work, although they have strength, they don't know martial arts. Moreover, due to nutritional problems, their eyesight is not good at night. Therefore, Bao Chu has an agreement with them that no matter what happens, without his summons, it's strictly forbidden for them to go out at night.

  "It's all because of me that Master got into trouble." Qin Yu felt a bit uneasy, if he hadn't gone hunting for the Wild Boar King, this wouldn't have happened.

  Bao shook his head, disagreeing.

  "I won't get involved in my junior brother's affairs. Those people are ruthless and have already come this far, even if there was no junior brother, they would still kill their way into the village. Besides, I'm tired of living on Mount Wudang, going to Jiangnan to live for a while wouldn't be bad either."

  He stood up and went out to pack his luggage first.

  Tan Yun saw Zhang Ren still sitting there motionless and knew he had more to say, so she remained silent.

  Zhang Ren leaned in close to Qin Yu's ear and whispered, "Master said that the letter you have is very important and useful. It would be best if you could go to Jiangling and see if there's an opportunity to take it away."

  Tan Yong was taken aback, his mind was agile, but he hadn't thought of this step yet.

  "Right! I want to start my own sect. How can I recruit brave warriors without money and food? Master is indeed cunning, having eaten more salt."

  "This plan is brilliant!" Quan Yu's spirit was lifted, and he jumped up, "We'll leave at dawn."

  "Alright!" Zhang Ren stood up with a smile, "Master said to let me accompany Big Brother as well. He has already sent someone to send a message to the Quan family in Wuling and we can meet at Jiangling when the time comes. The token and password are like this..."

  "Uh-huh, I know. " Qin Yu nodded, but suddenly hesitated, "But if we all leave, who will take care of Master?"

  "After Master handed over to me, he went away from the back mountain by himself." Zhang Ren spread his hands, "However, the old man did put on that leather jacket, it's quite fitting!"

  Tan Yong burst out laughing.

  "Master finally reminded him to let Second Brother you must remember your own ambition, absolutely cannot waver."

  Qin Yu slightly lowered his head and said: "Yes, disciple will follow Master's orders."

  "There's nothing left." Zhang Ren patted his hands and looked at him with curiosity, "Second Brother, what is your ambition after all?"

  Tan Yun looked at Zhang Ren and thought that his younger brother was still young. The words he said to Master, he probably didn't understand either!

  "Sweep away the remnants and eliminate the filthy, restore the Han dynasty."

  Zhang Ren opened his mouth wide and thought: "Second Master is really a rascal, always saying things that we can't understand."