Robbing and looting homes

  Ma Tai Street is still some distance from the Qinhuai River, Liu Ziguo and Zhu Tiangxia rode horses to get there, while the others walked in batches. After arriving at the destination, they would reunite again. According to analysis, that riverside house should be a famous courtesan's residence bought by Zheng Daren. The house is adjacent to the Qinhuai River, with beautiful scenery, quiet and elegant, small and delicate courtyard, really a good villa.

  A group of people stopped at the corner of the road in front of the River House, dispersing to avoid drawing attention. Seeing Liu Ziguang arrive, Deng Ken, who had been sneaking around earlier, ran over to report: "General, I've already snuck inside. There are two courtyards, and apart from four personal guards, there's an old gatekeeper, two maidservants, a rough-looking old woman, and the master and mistress of the house. The guards are all waiting for dinner in the wing room. The old woman and one maid are cooking, while the other maid is attending to Zheng and that woman as they drink wine and compose poetry."

  "Ugh, can't believe this old Zheng guy is still a cultured person, and he even writes poetry, probably erotic poetry. Alright, listen up, everyone get ready with your face-covering cloths and sacks, divide into three groups: one group takes the wind, one group follows me to catch people, another group deals with the guards. After it's done, search for valuable things, be careful not to hurt anyone, and absolutely no taking advantage of the young ladies, the entire operation must be silent, all communication through hand gestures! Did you hear that?!"

  Several guards around him whispered "got it" and quickly divided their work. A few ordinary-looking people were responsible for blocking the wind, standing at important intersections and gateways, this group was the smallest, with only four people. The capture team was led by Liu Ziguang, with members Zhu Tiandao, Ding Libin, and several former bandits who had been tied up multiple times, they were all old hands at searching for wealth. Another group of people was led by Deng Ken, all of whom were sturdy men responsible for controlling the few personal guards and everyone in the courtyard.

  It was early spring, and the sun had set early. The streets were already lit up, but there were few pedestrians around, making it a convenient time for a sneak attack. A group of burly men snuck to the edge of a small courtyard's wall, two of them forming a human ladder by grasping each other's hands, allowing a third person to climb onto their shoulders and be hoisted up with a mighty heave, landing inside the courtyard. Duncan was extremely agile and didn't need anyone's help, sprinting a few steps before leaping directly onto the wall and grabbing hold of a branch from a tree within the courtyard, silently dropping down into the yard without making a sound.

  After a moment, the door opened a crack and Duncan's black hand emerged from inside, beckoning him over.

  "It's done, let's go!" Liu Ziguang led the capture team into the house through the main gate. The old man at the door had already been knocked unconscious, with a rag stuffed in his mouth and tied up tightly. There was no sound from the wing room either, one of the guards poked his head out, gave a thumbs-up, indicating success, four personal soldiers took care of it. In the kitchen, there was even less suspense, two women were easily captured.

  Liu Ziguang led the crowd quietly to the front of the hall, where the lights were shining brightly inside. Two figures were chatting and laughing inside. Liu Ziguang made a hand gesture, and two people stood by the door, holding sacks and tattered cloth. Another person stood at the entrance, ready to knock on the door. Zhu Tiandao followed closely behind, ready to rush in and capture them. Everyone had covered their faces with masks, dressed in standard Chinese bandit attire.

  Liu Ziguang stood in the dark, felt a piece of goose egg stone in the flower pot, indicating that he could knock on the door. The man responsible for knocking on the door, Hanzi, knocked gently on the door ring without saying a word.

  A woman's voice came from inside the house, "It's taking so long to cook a carp, Xiaocui, hurry up and bring it in, Master is getting hungry." "Yes, madam," replied the maid called Xiaocui.

  The crowd's evil silent laughter, still eating fish, wait and see grandfather's iron fist, the door opened, Xiaocui didn't even have time to let out a scream, was covered by the big man at the door, wrapped around, twisted aside, tied up, gagged and blindfolded.

  Just as the door opened, Liu Ziguang's goose egg stone also flew out, smashing through the window paper and entering the room, extinguishing the large candle. The capture team swarmed into the room, and in the dark room, a woman's shrill cry and a man's angry shout "How dare you..." could still be heard.

  The screaming tail tone was abruptly terminated, the man's angry roar also had no next sentence, both of them were stuffed into a sack and carried to the courtyard.

  The search party immediately took action, the house was not big, and there were not many places to hide things. Even if there were any secret rooms, they would not be able to escape the eyes of several soldiers who used to be thieves. The candles in the main room were lit again, and a few people collected all the valuable items for themselves.

  Liu Ziguang beckoned Zhu Tianxia over to beat someone up, and first kicked Zheng Daren a few times as a demonstration.

  Zhu Tianxia was apparently doing this for the first time, and he was so excited that he couldn't contain himself, even more so than yesterday's chaos. He ran over and kicked the sack containing the Ministry of War's military equipment officer with all his might.

  Liu Ziguang was also providing technical guidance on the side. From time to time, he would demonstrate a few moves in front of everyone. He hinted to Zhu Tiandu that he should kick Zheng Daren's mouth area and even pointed to his own teeth, indicating that he must fulfill his promise and kick Zheng's surname until he found his teeth all over the ground.

  Lord Zheng was crying out in pain, rolling around on the ground. Zhu Tianxia kicked him with great satisfaction, "You dare to be disobedient! You dared to hit me with a stick, you son of a bitch, you want to rebel against me? You're a treacherous and ungrateful bastard!" The young man thought to himself, his feet kicking out even more viciously.

  The search team in the house soon had results, and someone called Liu Ziguang to come in and take a look. When he went in and took a look, even Liu, who was used to big winds and waves, couldn't help but be shocked.

  This Mr. Zheng obviously has a habit of collecting gold and silver, the heavy mandarin duck bed was moved away, the brick floor underneath was pried open by thieves with knives and swords, a small underground cellar appeared in front of them, inside were neatly stacked gold ingots, as well as round delicate mechanism gold coins without square holes, there were also many large silver ingots weighing fifty taels each, but overall there were more yellow ones than white ones. The dazzling light illuminated the bedroom which was only lit by two candles, shining brightly everywhere with a golden glow.

  Haha, it's rich, seemingly even more abundant than the goods in the iron factory's treasury. "Pack everything up and take it away!" Liu Ziguang ordered in a low voice.

  Another servant brought over a dressing box, the exquisite box had been torn apart. Inside the compartment, there were many well-printed papers, Ruiwei didn't recognize the characters, so he handed them to Liu Ziguo to look at. There were no silver notes inside, but rather things that were even more valuable than silver notes, including a large land deed from Jiangnan and an unnamed stock certificate from a Suzhou silk store. What a clever kid! He's got cash, real estate, and stocks all covered! Truly a master of finance and investment.

  Enormous assets of unknown origin, I'll take the law into my own hands. Liu Ziguang stuffed those valuable notes into his bosom and picked up a few gold coins, walked out of the door, and looked at the gold coins under the moonlight, with dragon patterns and four thin golden characters "Da Song Jinbi" (Great Song Dynasty Gold Coin). And there's foreign exchange too.

  On the other side, Zhu Tianxia was already getting a bit tired from kicking, and somehow he found a rattan stick to whip Zheng Daren. Liu Ziguang signaled him to stop, pulled him aside and handed him several foreign exchange coins "Those who see have a share, today we've cleaned out Zheng's family, it's worse than beating him ten times, that's enough, don't take anyone's life."

  The people in the house have already packed up all the gold, silver and jewelry. Several copper Xuan De stoves and wall paintings were also considered to be taken away, but they are relatively large and not very valuable, so they were abandoned.

  Liu Ziguang made a "pulling call" gesture, and everyone hid the gold and silver on their bodies without revealing any traces. They left in batches from the main gate and disappeared into the night in small groups.

  As for Zheng's family, those few personal soldiers were knocked unconscious and would wake up soon. By then, they will naturally rescue the master, madam, and the maids.

  Liu Ziguang and Zhu Tianxia rode horses side by side on the road.

  This time, the fight unexpectedly brought in a large amount of gold and silver treasures. Liu Ziguang was overjoyed, yesterday they robbed Xiao Luan's ticket, today they looted Zheng's family, adding up to around 300,000 to 400,000 taels, it's indeed faster to make money this way.

  Zhu Tianxia's face turned solemn, "A fourth-rank official like him, with so much money, how is it possible with his salary? Corruption and bribery have ruined the Ministry of War."

  One day when I have the power, I will definitely clean up these parasites. Zhu Tianxia made a silent promise to herself. But on the other hand, this Liu Ziguang is really an interesting person, and he has a similar temperament to hers. In the past two days, she not only earned some extra money but also had a thrilling experience with him, which was something she had never experienced before.

  "By the way, Brother Liu, that internal combustion engine you mentioned last time, Xiaotong still remembers it vividly. Can you tell me about it tonight?" The science boy brought this up again.

  "No problem, let's just find a place to chat... Oh right, I still need to hurry back and report the situation to the young lady, I was so caught up in the fun that I forgot about the important stuff." Liu Ziguang suddenly remembered that he hadn't told the young lady about their debt collection activities today.

  "Alright, you go ahead and attend to your business. I'll come visit again tomorrow. I'm afraid Lord Zheng won't be able to go to the Ministry of War tomorrow either, so there's no need for you to go. Tomorrow we can thoroughly discuss the improvements to the Flying Heaven Wings."

  "Alright, come find me on the Refining Edge tomorrow, I live there. By the way, I'll help you pick out a few suitable soft swords and hidden weapons, so we won't have to break off table legs to fight again in the future."

  After hearing Liu Ziguang's words, the two of them looked at each other and burst out laughing. Having fought together and shared spoils, this kind of friendship was truly precious.

  "Then let's part ways for now, see you tomorrow." Zhu Tianxia bid farewell with a bow and rode his horse in another direction, running out of ten zhang. Liu Ziguang noticed that the masters protecting Zhu Tianxia around him jumped out from the dark and followed him from afar. What a mysterious young man! I'll have to ask Big Sister, who knows everything, if there's anyone named Zhu Tianxia in the capital city.

  The young ladies are still waiting at the Guo Gong Fu, Liu Ziguang urged his horse on, galloping along the main road towards Fuzi Temple.