Chapter 3: A Private Visit to Cloudy Mountain

  "We are all willing!" All the soldiers responded to follow him, because they had followed many past superiors, but none of them had the commanding ability like Murong Wuji. They all believed that following Murong Wuji was their only way out, which would allow them to establish merits for the country while keeping their own lives safe. Everyone expressed agreement after hearing Murong Wuji's idea.

  "But there are at least a hundred or so bandit gangs in the Yunyang Mountains, big and small. Even if we only count the smaller ones, there must be several thousand people involved. As for the larger ones, there might even be tens of thousands. Where do we start?" Pai Miao seemed to feel that it was impossible to make a move, as bandits had become the mainstream in this region of several hundred miles. It was really difficult to decide where to start."

  "Hu Pai's deputy is absolutely right, we must first set a goal before taking action, otherwise it would be impossible to swallow such a big piece of meat!" Zhao Changyou felt that Hu Pai's deputy made a lot of sense. This was the primary purpose of military operations. Although this time they were dealing with those bandit troops for reorganization and reform, after all, it was still a military action. Without clear goals and complete plans, no one dared to guarantee what the outcome would be.

  "Who is the most powerful bandit?" Murong Wu Di thought for a moment before asking. He was very clear that whoever could affect the situation here was the most powerful bandit, and only by subjugating this bandit would the other bandits be willing to surrender to him, making it easier to handle the remaining matters, so he asked Zhao Changyou.

  "The bandits here are the most powerful, with Yunyang Mountain's Dongbian Tian Tang Zhai's Wild Chrysanthemum as their leader. Although she is a woman, she has nearly six thousand followers under her command!" Zhao Changyou revealed what he knew about the situation.

  "Yes, although they are the largest bandits here, they have never bullied the weak and small. They only rob those wealthy and ruthless landlords and corrupt local officials! However, it's not easy for us to subdue thousands of bandits with just a handful of brothers." Hu Pai saw through Murong Wuyi's thought process and understood his idea, but in his opinion, this task was basically impossible to accomplish.

  "With these bandits not doing anything bad to us, I believe it's only a matter of time before we subdue them!" Muyong Wudi had already made up his mind. "Alright, have Hu Pai lead the brothers to camp at the foot of the mountain, then have the brother who knows how to operate the cannon bring the mortar and shells to ambush near Tian Tang Stockade. When you hear my gunshot, fire two or three rounds into the empty center of Tian Tang Stockade. Meanwhile, I'll go to Tian Tang Stockade with Zhao Pai!"

  "Hmm..." Hu Pai's deputy didn't quite agree, but also didn't oppose, and after hearing Murong Wudi's order, he immediately responded with a "yes", then organized everyone to find a nearby place to camp.

  Zhao Changyou followed Mu Rong Wudi in the direction of Tian Tang Zhai, it seemed that this time they really were going to venture into that bottomless Dragon's Pool and Tiger's Den.

  Tianyuan Village is located on the west side of Yunyang Mountain, surrounded by mountain roads and terraced fields. From a distance, it looks like a stacked paradise, living up to its name. At the intersection, two white cranes stand on an ancient pine tree, looking up at the sky as if telling people about the beauty here, with a serene and idyllic appearance, like a haven from the world. If not for the intense battle that just took place, it would be hard to imagine this beautiful scene belongs to this war-torn era.

  The sunset gradually went west, the mountain valley's dusk atmosphere slowly became thick and dense, making people involuntarily think of the terror of howling wolves in the dark night, but this did not bring any fear to Murong Wu Di and Zhao Chang Yu, they just continued to move forward on that rugged mountain road according to their own will.

  "Who goes there!" A voice suddenly emerged from the mysterious valley, apparently a sentinel in the opposite valley had discovered Murong Wuji and his group, and was now asking them about their origin and why they were coming here at this time.

  "I am the guest of your master, quickly inform your master Ye Zhanhu for me!" Murong Wuji knew that this was already an area controlled by Ye Zhanhu, which was their destination, so he said to the guard without any hesitation.

  "Guest? I haven't heard the master mention it before?" The guard muttered to himself, then said to Murong Wuji, "Wait!"

  After a while, the guard returned and walked up to Murong Wudi, saying: "The master said that although no guests were invited in, since you've come, please go in first and talk about it later!"

  "Thanks!" Murong Wudi said, then gave Zhao Changyou a wink, planning to go in together. However, they hadn't taken two steps before being immediately stopped by the other side.

  "Do you know the rules? When meeting our master, one must hand over their weapons!" The sentry said as he immediately reached out to pull out the pistol from Murong Wudi's waist. His manner was as if this matter did not allow for any discussion or negotiation, and he had to force Murong Wudi to hand over his gun.

  "How dare you be so unreasonable to our Commander Murong! Believe it or not, I'll blow your brains out right now!" Zhao Changyou saw that the opponent was not being polite at all, and came up with the intention of putting down Murong Wude's gun. He immediately pulled out his German-made pistol from his waist, cocked it, and pressed it against the opponent's head, shouting at him.

  "You really are something, you and your officer must leave the gun behind, this is the rule of our White Cloud Mountain!" The sentry didn't seem to be afraid at all, and he didn't take the matter of having a gun pointed at his head seriously.

  "Alright, Zhao Pai Zhang, don't be unreasonable to others like this!" Murong Wudei stretched out his hand and pushed away the gun in Zhao Changyou's hand, then ordered him, "I'll go in, you stay here!"

  "But..." Zhao Changyou was clearly unhappy, this was a bandit's lair, and if he didn't follow Mu Rongwu, in case something happened inside, he really worried that Mu Rongwu would get into trouble.

  "Take my gun, don't worry, I'm a guest they've been expecting, nothing will happen!" Murong Wudei said as he handed his Browning pistol to Zhao Changyou, then followed the sentry inside without another word.

  Inside the main hall, in front of a large character for "righteousness", sat a woman wearing a cape, playing with a Browning pistol. Her curved eyebrows were adorned with a pair of bright, watery eyes, and her high nose bridge was topped with lips that were slightly red but not lacking in sensuality. If this were the 21st century, she would probably be a movie star, or at least an otherworldly beauty, seemingly having no connection to the fierce bandit leader Ye Shanhuo.

  On both sides of the woman, a large group of people stood in a row, holding either guns or knives in their hands, each one ferocious beyond compare, truly living up to the reputation of the two characters "bandit".

  "I heard you told them I'm your guest, right?" Wild Coral asked as she saw Murong Wuji led by her own men to stand before her. She put away the gun in her hand and slowly inserted it into her waist, then inquired.

  "It is..." Murong Wudei said coldly, apparently not very interested in this woman's inquiry.

  "I didn't know I had a guest like you on Cloud Sun Mountain!" Wild Coral walked up to Murong Wudi and stopped almost nose-to-nose with him, "Aren't you afraid I'll kill you?"

  Although the words were fierce, they didn't seem to have any hostility towards Murong Wuji, but rather a lack of understanding as to why he, as a military man, would choose this time to come find her. It's not like she and the Zhengfu people got along, quite the opposite, in fact Zhengfu's security team had even taken action against them before, which was a deep-seated hatred for them. Not arresting Murong Wuji on the spot already showed great courtesy to this so-called guest.

  "If I'm afraid, I won't come up!" Murong Wudei didn't have the slightest hint of fear, although he had only heard about the bandits' formation before and had never seen it in person. Today was his first time seeing it, but he didn't show any signs of being intimidated.

  "It seems you are not from the Security Team of Commander Liang!" Wild Coral seemed to understand something, those security team members would never have the guts like Murong Wudi, and when they saw her with so many brothers under her command, they must have been scared out of their wits.

  "I'm certainly not, I just came down from the battlefield of anti-Japanese war, how can you mention me in the same breath with those idle security teams? You're insulting me by saying that!" Murong Wudei said, he didn't want to be associated with those incompetent so-called security teams, which would be an unprecedented insult to him.

  "Get him out of here and kill him!" Wild Coral shouted, immediately ordering her subordinates to take Mu Rong Wudi away, not knowing which sentence had offended her, she wanted to kill Mu Rong Wudi without saying another word.

  "Wait, what do you want to do? Why did you kill me?" Murong Wudei didn't understand what was going on. He hadn't even spoken yet, he had only answered the other person's question, that's all. How could this possibly offend Ye Zhiqiu? He really couldn't figure out what was happening.

  "You dare to lie in front of me, do you think I'm a three-year-old child who can be easily fooled? Your clothes are so clean, how could you have just come from the battlefield? You're obviously trying to deceive me. If I don't kill you, how can I stay on this Cloudy Mountain?" Wild Hibiscus explained briefly in front of him, but didn't allow him to say another word, and directly gave a decisive order: "Take him away!"