Chapter 20: What goes around comes around

  Chenjiazhuang is over 50 li south along the Baishui River to the county town, and then over 150 li southeast to Biku Port. Yulekuan is between the county town and Biku, while Hananzhai is over 60 li west of Chenjiazhuang, and then over 40 li north to Zhongzhuang.

  "It looks like there are only about a hundred or so people." Chen An assessed, looking at the distant horse bandit stronghold. Lin Yushan quietly crept up from behind, "Zhao Si went to take a closer look, and there are no more than 130 people, but there are quite a few horses. The weapons are mostly knives, with a small number of bird guns, and a few old-fashioned cannons, he even saw two lifting guns, who knows where they came from."

  Chen An nodded, "You take a dozen or so men and go up from the left side. Liu Shi won't be there. I'll take a dozen or so men and go up from the right side. Hu Zi will be pinned down here, just in time to keep an eye on the whole mountain stronghold. Still use the old trick of chasing ducks, scare them into running all over the place, and Hu Zi will attack wherever he sees more people. If no one comes out, Hu Zi will sweep through each house, driving people out for me and Yu Shan to practice our marksmanship."

  "Have Zhao Si lead the vanguard to lock down the road leading to the county town, don't let anyone escape, no need for live prisoners. Is there an official-bandit collusion? It's impossible that no one will run to report the news." Chen An pointed at the mountain road below, coldly sneering a few times.

  Hǔ zǐ miào le miào duìmiàn shān yāo de zhài zǐ, hěn kuài xuǎn dìng le yī gè píng tái, dài rén kāi shǐ bù shè jī qiāng zhèn dì le. Chén ān hū rán wèn le yī jù, "duì le, Hǔ zǐ, Kē wǎ ěr shēng bìng hǎo diǎn mei yǒu?"

  Thinking of Koval, Huzi burst out laughing, "This foreigner is really weird, running around on the grassland for so many days without a problem, but as soon as he passed through Yulin, he fell ill and had diarrhea all the time. Gaodafu and Lao Yezi were together, and Liu Shi had to take him to the county town to find a doctor."

  Chen An also smiled lightly, "Probably it's just a case of not being used to the local customs, and who knows if he'll scare off the doctors in the county town, foreigners coming to him for treatment."

  Chen An smiled for a moment, feeling very interesting, and quickly took his right-wing men to find a place. Lin Yushan had already taken the left-wing men away.

  The bandit village, the wooden gate was open, two bandits holding big knives, leaning against the fence, were boasting to each other about the beautiful things they had done when they went to Yichun Inn in the county town the day before. Also, the head of the household and the leader of the patrol camp called each other brothers, who would dare to come to the village to show off their power.

  A loud gunshot was heard, and the gatekeeper thought he had misheard it and didn't pay attention. Another loud gunshot, "Where did the gunshot come from?" The bandit on the left side clearly heard this time and immediately stood up to look around everywhere.

  "Li San, did you hear that? Where's the gunshot coming from? Has someone gone hunting again?" The bandit shouted a few sentences to his companion, but didn't get any response. He turned around in surprise and was so frightened that he almost dropped his knife. Suddenly, Li San had been shot, with white brain matter mixed with bright red blood flowing out of his forehead, and his entire body slumped against the fence.

  "There are horse thieves, there are horse thieves." The gatekeeper suddenly shouted loudly, and then felt a pain in his chest. He looked down to find that fresh blood had stained his clothes red. His eyes turned black, and he fell to the ground. At this time, the mountainside was filled with the sound of gunfire on both sides.

  The big boss, who had just woken up from sleep on the bed, shook his head to get rid of last night's hangover and heard the shout of horse thieves. He couldn't help but laugh, "Horse thieves? Aren't we horse thieves?" Suddenly, the big boss was startled, someone is attacking the mountain stronghold.

  A cold sweat suddenly broke out, driving away the intoxication. Could it be someone from the patrol camp? Thinking about it, it shouldn't be. Not long ago, I had a drink with the leader and exchanged rituals, without any signs of turning against each other. Moreover, those opium-addicted ghosts from the patrol camp wouldn't have the energy to run so far to suppress bandits.

  The big boss got angry, definitely some village that didn't pay protection fees. Just as he was about to come out and teach a lesson to the offender, a burst of gunfire was heard.

  "How many bullets are needed? Suddenly, he was startled and quickly threw away the thing in his hand, crouched down and rushed into another room to get the old shotgun. His forehead was covered with cold sweat. If someone really came to suppress bandits, it wouldn't be the imperial army, would they have so many guns?"

  He picked up the old trumpet, and the master rushed out of the house, shouting loudly, "Brothers, someone has come to make trouble for us. Everyone, pick up your stuff and come out to fight. Quick, quick."

  Upon hearing the words of the master, many people with disheveled clothes and carrying their belongings rushed out, preparing to make a stand at the wall.

  The big master's blood is up, shouting loudly, "Let these guys who can't even move on the girls' bodies taste our horse bandits' ferocity, come at me!!!!" Before he could finish speaking, a scene that made the big master's soul fly away occurred.

  Several of the bandits who were walking in front suddenly broke into two pieces, and those following behind only felt splashes of crimson on their faces. They too were struck by a massive force that sent them flying into the air. More bandits were hit, with limbs and body parts flying everywhere. The wooden debris from the surrounding houses was like an explosion, and the black and yellow wood dust mixed with bright red blood formed a bloody fog that seemed impossible to disperse, almost enveloping the entire open space in the middle of the mountain stronghold.

  It was at this time that the terrifying continuous gunfire from the opposite mountain head was heard.

  The master of the house lay motionless on the ground, not daring to lift his head, and felt a wet sensation in his crotch.

  After a brief silence, the gunfire finally stopped. The master of the house slowly lifted his head, looking towards the center of the mountain stronghold, where the blood mist was gradually dispersing, leaving only patches of blood and mud on the empty ground, amidst the scattered remains of the bandits, mixed with large amounts of wood shavings and broken tiles. The entire stronghold fell silent, except for the sound of teeth chattering in many places, and no one dared to come out.

  A house was suddenly crushed with its beams and pillars broken, and it collapsed with a loud crash.

  The master of the house let out a loud shriek and quickly scrambled up, rushing headlong into his own room, not even bothering to take off the old socks on his hands.

  He buckled on a new cartridge belt, swung it back and forth a couple of times, and Tigerzi gloomily found that no horse thief dared to appear in the open space.

  Coughing a few times, Hu Zi had no choice but to follow orders and reluctantly took on the role of chasing ducks, scanning the house from left to right.

  The fierce gunfire rang out again, interspersed with numerous scattered rifle shots, which were the left and right wings finding the horse bandits who had been driven out by the machine guns.

  Chen An was very patient, finding targets in an orderly manner, shooting, finding targets, shooting. There was no need to take risks when firepower could solve the problem, and it was only natural to use firepower to solve it. After all, these bandits mainly used big knives as their primary weapon.

  After the Tiger Son finished shooting four or five more rounds, there was not a single intact house left in the entire stronghold. Either they had collapsed or were riddled with holes, so he simply stopped firing his machine gun.

  The people on both sides began to move their hands slowly and advance towards the mountain stronghold in search of something.

  There is no power to resist in the village anymore.

  After a while, the search for the mountain stronghold came to an end. While arranging for people to transport the gold, silver, and grain away, Chen An furrowed his brow as he looked at the dozen or so people who were still alive, somewhat perplexed.

  These bandits only had a few thousand taels of silver and couldn't find any other property, but there were many horses, unfortunately, many of them were killed. It's not as wealthy as the mountain bandits in Hanzhong. I guess those mountain bandits did it themselves, while this is an official-bandit collusion. Although the danger has passed, too many gifts have been given, and it's still a tight life.

  Four bandits were lucky enough to survive, including the leader of the urine pants. The rest of the dozen or so people were women who had been captured and taken into the mountain stronghold, but they were locked in a cellar and managed to survive.

  Looking at these wailing women, Chen An also felt a headache. If he let them go, he was afraid of leaking the news, but if he killed them, it would be unbearable. Lin Yushan approached him and said, "Brother-in-law, even if we send these women back home, I'm afraid not many of them will survive. There's even a possibility that they'll be bullied by their neighbors. How about this? Let them sell themselves to the Chen family as slaves. This way, we can control them and avoid future troubles with their families. Our Chen family also needs people to cook meals and wash clothes. We can't just have a few men doing everything ourselves."

  Feeling that this idea was feasible, Chen An waved his hand and let Yushan take care of it directly. To say nothing of others, they really couldn't do it, otherwise when the month arrived, they would scold the people who collected slaves to death.

  Lin Yushan stared blankly as Chen An floated away, feeling depressed, just making suggestions, didn't say I'll take care of it.

  Two women took their own lives on the spot, while the others all signed the contract to sell themselves into slavery. Having been rescued, they still sought death, truly foolish. It would have been better to commit suicide when they were first abducted. Lin Yushan gazed coldly at the women's behavior.

  She just told them all the situations they might encounter if they went home, and then talked about the way to sell themselves as slaves. Two people thought of it. If you want to die, just die, Lin Yushan is too lazy to stop you. On the contrary, if someone insists on going back by himself, he will be locked up and kept in custody at least until Chen's family stands firm here.

  A fire burned down the mountain stronghold and also cut off the source of other people's search for clues, Chen An and others secretly returned to Chenjiazhuang via a small path.

  First, the bandits were Chen An's decision. If the officials and bandits colluded, then getting rid of one arm would make the relevant officials in the city panic, and also eliminate an arm that could deal with Chenjiazhuang, which would give Chenjiazhuang time to rise.

  The bandits' defeat will also scare some local underground forces, which will inevitably shrink to prevent accidents and reduce many expansionist thoughts.

  As for the Northern Gang's evil ideas, let Liu Shi find an opportunity to take out their leader with one shot. It's estimated that the internal struggle will last for a long time, and they won't have the energy to come looking for trouble in Chenjiazhuang again.

  He asked the horse thief for more information and finally had a basic understanding of the situation in the small county town, giving Chen An's many ideas a space to unfold.

  Of course, the most urgent thing now is to build a house, and the weather will be cold soon. Fortunately, Liu Shi also came back, bringing many craftsmen with him, and the horse-drawn carriages were full of building materials. Can money make ghosts grind?