Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 60: Trapped in one's own web
“…”
Xu Wufu pointed at Su Laochang, his mouth trembling but unable to utter a word.
He felt as if all the anger he had endured in his entire life was rushing towards him at this moment, threatening to swallow up the last of his sanity.
"Not to mention other things, Qingxi Village is weak, and there are dozens of women and children detained by the bandits of Hutou Village. They dare not offend the bandits of Hutou Village. Deng Gui sent Wu Jiang to guard Qingxi Village. Not only did the head of the family not stop him, he also agreed with Deng Gui. Wu Jiang was so angry that night that he looked like you, the head of the family now..." Su Laochang took a sip of tea, chewed the tea leaves with relish, sat down in front of Xu Wufu slowly, and said.
"Is this beast trying to blackmail us?" Xu Bosong picked up the tea bowl and smashed it to pieces, pointing to the sky and the ground and cursing, "Does he want to drag the entire Xu clan into the sea of fire? He is so ambitious that he doesn't even care about the clan's feelings? Has he ever thought about the Xu clan's 3,000 or 4,000 people? If something happens, how many people will lose their heads and how many orphans and widows will be displaced?"
Xu Zhongyu was so angry that he kept rubbing his chest, afraid that if he said one more word, he would kick his feet and die.
"Xu Wujiang deserves death!" Xu Wuqi drew his sword and fiercely chopped off a corner of the Eight Immortals Table, cursing angrily, "We were so eager back then, but we were afraid that it would implicate the clan. But Xu Wujiang is such a bastard, doesn't he know that the Xu ancestors have worked here for nine generations, and how much blood and tears have seeped into this soil? How is he going to face the deceased ancestors of the Xu family?"
Su Laochang stared at the knife in Xu Wuqi's hand and said calmly: "If the master can do it on the first day, he shouldn't wrongly make Wujiang and others do it on the fifteenth day. Brother Wuqi, it's useless to scare me with a knife. If the master doesn't agree to lend 30,000 kilograms of grain and some iron tools to the new camp of Lion Camel Ridge before nightfall today, Wujiang can only raise the name of Xu clan in Xiema Mountain to recruit soldiers and give it a try. Even if the whole Xu clan is involved, there is nothing we can do. Please forgive me, master!"
"Is there absolutely no room for easing?" Xu Wufu stared at Su Laochang and asked word by word.
"If you want to blame someone, just blame yourself first. But please understand that if there is a glimmer of hope, Wu Jiang will not resort to such a desperate measure," Su Laochang said. "If there is nothing else, there are still many things to do in Lion Camel Ridge. Old Chang will take his leave first!"
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Xu Huai sat on the cliff, wiping the shiny blade with a piece of elk skin; Liu Qiong'er held a bronze mirror that was polished to a shine, looking at the faint bloodstains on her snow-white face, worried that it would leave scars.
As the sun sets, a horse stops under a pine tree not far away, leisurely chewing the grass beside the path.
Xu Wukun was staring at the direction of Lutai North Village nervously. He saw a team of mules and horses coming out of the North Village Gate from afar. He breathed a sigh of relief, put down the tension in his throat, sat down and said, "Xu Wufu is not brave enough to fight to the death!"
"Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes. Why are you worried about these things, Uncle Wu Kun?" Xu Huai said with a smile.
"I have been working for Xu Wufu over the years, watching him travel around the states and counties, and seeing how he dealt with his opponents and the rebellious troublemakers in the clan. I always felt uneasy in my heart! Maybe I have become less and less ambitious!" Xu Wukun said self-deprecatingly. He had to admit that Xu Wufu still had some prestige in his heart.
"Since Xu Wufu agreed to our conditions, we should do something for them!" Xu Huai picked up the dark blue iron helmet placed aside, tied the leather rope around his neck, and together with Xu Wukun, they led the horses grazing beside the wild path and slowly walked down the mountain.
Passing by the new village halfway up the mountain, Xu Wuliang saw Xu Huai and Xu Wukun walking down the mountain, and hurried over to ask, "What are you doing?"
"Pan Chenghu has sent out a lot of scouts to spy on the north bank of Qingliu Creek. It's really annoying! Since Xu Wufu has sent food over, we have to do our part as well." Xu Huai said.
"That's right! Let's go together." Xu Wuliang waved towards the village, and three more people wearing armor and holding bows came out, leading horses.
The new village located halfway up the eastern slope of Lion Camel Ridge does not have any decent defenses. The rammed earth walls are built using the plank method and are currently only three or four feet high, and can be climbed over with a hand.
If Pan Chenghu sent more than a hundred bandits to bypass Lutaibei Village and wade through the shallow water where Qingliu Creek merges into Baijian River, they could directly attack the new village of Shituoling. The more than a hundred families in the new village would have no ability to resist except to flee in panic into the depths of the mountains and forests.
If they did not want this to happen, they had to make Pan Chenghu realize that the stone valley located between the new village and the Lutaibei village in the northeast corner of Lion Camel Ridge was a trap that could kill them if they dared to enter it.
Forcibly borrowing grain from Lutai Village was not only a practical tyranny that would make it even more difficult for Xu Wufu to prove his innocence in the future, but also a way to let Pan Chenghu see the close connection between the new village of Shituoling and the Xu clan.
At this time, Xu Huai took Xu Wuliang, Xu Wukun and others to the banks of Qingliu Creek to suppress the activities of the bandits' scouts, and this was also his intention.
Xu Huai, Xu Wukun, Xu Wuliang and others slowly went down to the bottom of the valley. At this time, Su Laochang was leading a team of mules and horses from Lutaibei Village and entering the Stone Valley from the other side.
There were thirty mules and horses, each with a large bamboo basket hung on both sides of the saddle, which was very heavy. It was estimated that one trip could transport tens of thousands of kilograms of grain to the new village for storage.
Xu Huai reined in his horse and stopped on the high ground. Xu Wuqi, who was in charge of the Lutaibei Village, approached and glared at Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun, scolding them in a low voice: "What a good thing you two did!"
As Xu Wuliang and Xu Wukun were threatened with dragging the entire Xu clan into the water, they felt guilty and lowered their heads without looking at Xu Wuqi.
Xu Wuqi also hated these two people for completely siding with Xu Wujiang. He didn't want to waste any more words with them, so he led the mule and horse team and walked along the rugged mountain road to the new village.
Mr. Su often came over to rest.
Xu Wuliang asked, "Xu Wufu and Xu Heng, father and son, are not up to no good, right? Why did they ask Xu Wuqi to be in charge of the transportation? Is there a trick?"
"I'm not afraid of that," Su Laochang shook his head and laughed, "If I tell you to go into the North Village and start killing people, will you do it? The new village of Lion Camel Ridge is full of women and children. No matter how much Xu Wufu hates them, he can't order his clansmen to kill each other. At worst, he can secretly order Xu Wuqi to imprison all the women and children. However, if Xu Wufu really dares to do this, it will only make Wujiang and the others have no way to retreat, and they can only make the final decision to drag the entire Xu clan into the water!"
Xu Wuliang thought about it and it made sense. Even if Xu Wufu made some irrational decisions in anger, he couldn't just cover up everything and make the tribesmen obey him without any reason.
"Xu Wufu didn't agree to your help in driving away the bandit scouts, but he didn't object either," Su Laochang said, "but I think he was mainly angry and couldn't save face to ask Xu Huai for help."
Although the Xu family usually has nearly fifty armed farmhands, and each of them is not much weaker than the elite bandits, these farmhands have to lead clan soldiers with inferior training and equipment to guard various villages, so they cannot spare too many people to go out of the village to suppress the elite scouts of the bandits.
Although the Xu family assembled 600 soldiers, they had to guard various camps. During the day, they also needed to send soldiers to protect the clansmen to go to the pasture to cut grass and feed the mules and horses in the pen. However, the 300 bandits were concentrated in Shangliu Camp, which in fact weakened the Xu family's military advantage to the greatest extent.
When it comes to field combat capabilities, the local militia are still slightly inferior to the bandits.
This situation is not favorable to the Xu family, but should they concentrate the clan’s soldiers to besiege the bandits entrenched in Shangliu Village?
Obviously, Xu Wufu would not take this step easily.
Don't be so impulsive, just do a simple calculation and you will see the truth.
If Xu could encircle and destroy Pan Chenghu's bandits in Shangliuzhai, he might get a reward of one or two thousand strings of cash from the prefecture and county. But even if he won a great victory, he would still have to suffer at least hundreds of casualties, and those were the elite and backbone of the clan.
Don’t you understand what is more important?
Right now, the best way for Xu is to restrict the activities of the bandit scouts and compress the activity space of Pan Chenghu's troops.
Does Pan Chenghu really dare to stay in Shangliuzhai, which has no strategic location, for a long time and wait for the prefecture and county to mobilize a large number of soldiers to suppress him?
As long as Pan Chenghu loses his patience first and leads his bandits to flee to another place, the Xu family will be able to safely survive this crisis.
When it comes to restricting the activities of the bandits and scouts along the Qingliu River, there is probably no more suitable person than Xu Huai.
Although in the eyes of the tribe members, Xu Wuqi's sword, bow and horsemanship skills are not inferior to Xu Huai, but Xu Heng is incompetent. Xu Wufu relies on Xu Wuqi to take charge of the defense of each village, so how could they dare to let him take the risk of leading his team out of the village to fight with the bandits and scouts?
The mouth of Qingliu Creek where it merges into Baijian River is nearly a hundred feet wide. The water level has not risen yet, and most of the rocky creek bed is exposed above the water surface.
Seeing Xu Huai, Xu Wukun, Xu Wuliang and others wading directly from the creek mouth to the north bank of Qingliu Creek, Xu Wufu stood on the north wall of the fort and said to his youngest son Xu Chen: "You and Zhou Jing each lead a team of cavalry out, but be careful and drive the enemy out. Don't compete for credit with that reckless guy!"
Xu Wuqi is trustworthy, but Zhou Jing and others are still hesitant when it comes to matters involving Xu Huai, and Xu Wufu is worried that they will repeat the mistakes of Xu Wukun.
However, apart from Xu Wuqi, Zhou Jing and other old soldiers who returned from the Jingsheng Army, there were not many people in the entire Xu family who were capable of leading the clan soldiers - Xu Bosong, Xu Zhongyu and Xu Wuqing were better at managing various businesses.
This was mainly because Xu Wufu had relied too much on Xu Wuqi, Xu Wukun, Zhou Jing and others in the past. Xu Wujiang, Xu Sihu, Xu Xin'an and others who were considered rising stars were squeezed out by him to join the Inspection Office, which eventually led to such a mess of trouble.
The eldest son Xu Heng was usually fierce-mouthed and didn't dare to climb the village wall at critical moments. Xu Wufu was full of disappointment. He couldn't care less about his wife crying in the house. He could only be hard-hearted and pull out his youngest son Xu Chen, who was only 18 years old, to learn how to lead the clan soldiers...
