Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 72 Youthful Ambition
At dusk, Xu Xin'an took a few people along the creek beach south of Jinshagou, and staggered all the way to Jinshagou with twenty newly recruited bandits.
Although Liu Qiong'er said that she didn't mind taking in the old, weak, sick and disabled, and although Xu Wujiang didn't quite agree with the idea of rushing to build another village, Xu Wujiang still selected twenty newly recruited bandits from Xiema Mountain and sent them over as quickly as possible.
Among these people, there are five or six disabled people, but it basically does not affect their work; the others are the strong laborers that are in short supply in Xiema Mountain.
Xu Huai had practiced swordplay before, and he and Liu Qiong'er leaned against the wall, watching Xu Xin'an drive the twenty people into the village.
Xu Wukun and Xu Wuliang had been bandits, served in the army, and led soldiers. They didn't need Xu Huai and Liu Qiong'er to intervene in how to divide the Jinshagou village, how to set rules for these twenty people, how to discipline them, and how to arrange their work. They could just watch. It could also be seen that Xu Wukun and Xu Wuliang were quite satisfied with the people sent by Xu Wujiang.
"Did you really sneak into the military camp alone to kill Guo Caoling?" Xu Xin'an handed the people over to Xu Wukun and Xu Wuliang. He ran over excitedly and asked Xu Huai through the fence, " How did do it? How did you escape? Did Master Lu help? Even Deng Gui couldn't do anything to you?"
Deng Gui usually didn't take charge of much affairs in the military camp, but as a military scholar, he still had a lot of prestige in the eyes of Xu Xin'an and others.
Unlike his father Xu Guanshan and Su Laochang and others, Xu Xin'an, who was just over 18 years old, was fearless and at the peak of his energy, so he did not have much fear in his heart. However, he learned from Xu Wujiang that the newly appointed Inspector General Guo Caoling was assassinated by Xu Huaiqian at the instigation of Liu Qiong'er, and he was more excited.
Besides, he had some feelings for Wang Xuan at first, and he visited Wang Bing very frequently. He might be the one among so many people who least wanted to see Wang Bing die in Huaiyuan.
If there was anything that made him unhappy, it was that Liu Qiong'er did not even ask him and Xu Huai to attack together. This was simply looking down on him!
"I attacked him from hiding in the house. He wasn't difficult to kill." Xu Huai said lightly.
"That's not easy," Xu Xin'an asked curiously, "You've been taught by Master Lu for more than two months. How strong are you? How about we fight again?"
Except for that day in the willow grove when Xu Huai showed off his skills in front of Xu Xin'an in order to uncover the truth, after that, whether he was causing trouble in Huolu Hall or killing bandits in front of Lutai Village, Xu Xin'an either hid in the back camp of Lion Camel Ridge or Jinshagou, or in Xiema Mountain, and we had no chance to see him.
Hearing others talk about Xu Huai's bravery, which was rare in Tongbai Mountain over the years, he always felt that it was an exaggeration. This time, Xu Xin'an heard that Xu Huai had assassinated Guo Caoling, he could no longer resist the urge to show his skills and wanted to challenge Xu Huai to a fight.
After the assassination attempt on Guo Caoling, Xu Huai understood more clearly the subtleties of martial arts, which can only be fully stimulated when life and death are hanging by a thread. In the past two days, he also had a deeper understanding of martial arts.
Xu Xin'an had not experienced such training. Xu Huai wanted to fight him at this time, just to bully him like Xu Chen and Xu Xin, so he laughed and said, "My waist injury is not healed yet, you want to bully me? I made a big fuss in Huolu Hall and beat Xu Chen, Xu Xin and others like dogs. When can you beat fifteen or sixteen of them together and make them piss and pee, then come and challenge me!"
"That's because they didn't guard against you. I'm going to challenge them to a one-on-one fight now. I'm tired of living like this!" Xu Xin'an would not be fooled easily and said with disgust.
"What if you go to challenge Xu Chen, Xu Xin and Xu Zhi alone? If you don't even dare to do this, you are really not qualified to fight me!" Xu Huai said with a sneer.
Xu Huai was no longer interested in establishing his authority among the younger generation of the Xu family, but someone from the younger generation of the Xu family had to step forward to continue cleaning up the mess. Only by ravaging them over and over again could they be convinced.
Xu Xin'an is the most suitable.
Although it is not convenient for Xu Xin'an to appear in public at this time, Xu Wufu will select the most outstanding young people from the Xu family to participate in many confidential matters in such a crisis; what Xu Xin'an has to do is to compete with these people.
"I'll take care of them if I get a chance!" Xu Xin'an had long disliked the Xu family members above him, and thought of something to ask Xu Huai, "When you went to assassinate Guo Caoling, why didn't you think of bringing Mr. Wang to Yuhuangling? Guo Caoling is dead now, but the people behind him won't just give up!"
"Aren't you afraid of being implicated?" Xu Huai asked.
"What's the point of being afraid?" Xu Xin'an spat, and said, "Besides, we've already become bandits, why should we worry about the consequences? Maybe Mr. Wang will have a chance to make a comeback in the future, and if you and I can get some official positions with his help, wouldn't that be great?"
Xu Xin'an had figured it out by now. A young lady from an official family like Wang Xuan never took him seriously, and it was even less likely that she would be interested in him as a bandit. However, he was eager for the opportunities that Wang Bing's comeback might bring them.
Xu Huai raised his head and saw Liu Qiong'er also looking at him with bright eyes.
Obviously, Liu Qiong'er also realized that they had cared too much about the attitudes of Xu Wujiang and even Xu Guanshan, Su Laochang, Xu Wufu and other Xu family leaders, but ignored the fact that people like Xu Xin'an actually had different ideas. Deep down in their hearts, they really expected Wang Bin to make a comeback.
Maybe this is what it means to be brave enough to be fearless, or maybe it means not to be ashamed to have dreams?
At this moment, Xu Huai thought that it was right for him to be wary of people like Xu Wufu and Xu Wuqi, but he should not ignore the existence of Xu Xin'an and others.
At this time, Xu Huai looked outside the fence and saw the people who had accompanied Xu Xin'an in escorting the bandits to Jinshagou were chatting and laughing outside the fence.
Compared with other deserting soldiers, these people have one thing in common, that is, they are the younger generation of Nanzhai, all of whom have volunteered to join the Inspection Office in the past two or three years. They usually get along best with Xu Xin'an, so after becoming bandits, they all followed Xu Xin'an and were responsible for scouting the enemy situation and other matters.
As they talked, they looked around the streams and valleys, and from time to time they glanced at Liu Qiong'er's pretty face and graceful figure. There was a kind of awkward enthusiasm in their eyes, but not much fear, and they did not feel that the situation before them was difficult.
Those mature, prudent, and somewhat slick soldiers were led by Xu Sihu and usually stayed in the Chonghuang Temple on Xiema Mountain.
Xu Huai climbed up the fence, pondered for a moment, and asked Xu Xin'an: "How serious is the crisis that the Xu family is facing this time? Did Uncle Seventeen talk to you and Sihu today?"
"I did." Xu Xin'an nodded.
"What do you and Sihu think about this?" Xu Huai asked.
"Before hiding in this ditch, I was a little panicked. I kept thinking about how powerful Pan Chenghu was. How could he let us live here? What should we do if he came to drive us away? In the end, I found that Pan Chenghu was nothing special. The Soul-Snatching Spear was just a bird-feather spear!" Xu Xin'an laughed, "I got through this stage. Today, Uncle Seventeen returned to Xiema Mountain early in the morning. When talking about the matter of Hutou Village, Xu Sihu felt a little guilty, but I didn't feel anything - you dared to kill dozens of bandits in front of the village, I can't be worse than you! "
"..." Xu Huai laughed and said, "When my back injury heals, I will fight with you to see who is weaker than you. But to be honest, it is good to be fearless, but do you have any opinion on the deployment of Xiema Mountain and Lutai Village?"
Xu Xin'an frowned and said, "I can't really explain it, but I feel that the Patriarch and Uncle Seventeen are now worried that others will attack them. It seems that all their arrangements are waiting to be beaten. This doesn't feel good!"
Xu Huai said: "Your feeling is correct, but it is impossible for you to convince those people in Dazhai at the moment. You can't even say how wrong they are..."
"You are running a separate village here. Is it because you don't want to be restricted by the head of the family?" Xu Xin'an asked.
"It can be said that we must face strong enemies together, but we can't let the clan have the final say on everything," Xu Huai said, "and Uncle Seventeen wants to gain a foothold in Xiema Mountain, and he has to rely on the big village for manpower and materials. We can't let Uncle Seventeen be embarrassed in the future, so we set up another one to work hard and be self-reliant."
"You are straightforward and not afraid of hardship at all!" Xu Xin'an sighed as he looked at the simple village with only seven or eight wooden houses they had built before.
"It is impossible to convince the old stubborn people like the head of the family, Xu Zhongyu and Xu Bosong now, but there are some things you can insist on doing in Xiema Mountain." Xu Huai said.
"What can I do?" Xu Xin'an asked puzzledly.
"Try every possible means to find the big camp to ask for good horses and armor, and lead everyone to practice cavalry combat, but don't tell others that this is a bad idea I taught you..." Xu Huai said.
The various villages in Lutai can now be said to be the Xu family's main village, and are basically still under the control of Xu Wufu. If you need people, you have food, and if you need money, you have money.
Xiema Mountain lacked everything, so Xu Wufu was inevitably in charge of everything; however, Xu Wufu, Xu Bosong, Xu Zhongyu, Xu Wuqi, Zhou Jing and others were all concerned with protecting themselves.
The core idea of their many deployments is "I will not offend others unless they offend me; if someone offends me, I will make sure he can't do anything about it."
This is also what Xu Xin'an felt. All preparations were just waiting to be beaten.
At present, Xu's preparations are mainly focused on storing more food, especially preparing for the worst-case scenario, which is to store food in Xiema Mountain. Later, they will also strengthen the construction of facilities such as the walls and arrow towers of the new village and other villages, gather the tribesmen for training, and mainly rely on the walls for defense, and prepare more bows and arrows.
All these actions seem to be more defensive than offensive.
Xu Wufu and his companions were even afraid of provoking Hutou Village and the people who were behind all this, afraid of being caught. In many of their deployments, they deliberately overlooked the possibility that when the bandits from Hutou Village swarmed in, the Xu clan soldiers might give them a head-on blow.
Speaking of armor, let alone iron armor, the various Lutai villages had less than forty or fifty pieces of leather armor made of tanned cowhide, and at this time they were not prepared to purchase and mix tanned cowhide to make armor.
The vast grassland on the northern slope of Yuhuangling is used to graze mules and horses. The Xu clan members, especially the young and strong men who are the herders of the gang leader's family, all have excellent riding skills in Tongbai Mountain, but they have no practice in cavalry combat, let alone forming a formal cavalry unit.
Beipo Pasture can breed dozens or even hundreds of fine horses every year, but they are mainly used for profit; a few will remain in the clan, and they are only a capital for showing off by a few people such as Xu Wufu, Xu Heng, and Xu Chen; before Xu Wukun was with Xu Wufu, he could not get a good quality horse to ride.
Before, they were peaceful citizens of Dai Yue, and no one ever thought about practicing cavalry warfare. That was nothing; and no one thought that as local soldiers participating in suppressing bandits, fighting in the deep mountains and forests required fighting on horseback.
However, it would be too conservative, even cowardly, to deliberately not make full use of Xu's existing resources to organize a small team of elite cavalry at this time.
Xu Huai had no way to convince Xu Wufu to change anything fundamentally, but seeing that Xu Xin'an and the others were determined, he suggested that they do everything they can to ask Xu Wufu for good horses and leather armor, practice more cavalry combat and horse archery, and try to have a small team of elite cavalry available for interspersed combat before the situation deteriorated radically.
Seeing Xu Xin'an was a little hesitant, he was probably worried that his words would not work in front of Xu Wufu and the others. Xu Huai smiled and said, "I'll give you half a month. By then, Uncle Wu Kun and I will go into battle, and you can gather six or seven people to ride horses and fight us. I bet you will still be beaten to a pulp by me, and maybe even worse than Xu Chen and the others."
"Bullshit, six or seven of us can't beat you and Uncle Wu Kun?" Xu Xin'an was also very proud, and said, "I will go back and ask for a horse. We can't scout the enemy outside and can only rely on our feet or lead a mule to ride. I can't afford to lose face! No need to wait for half a month, I will come to challenge you as soon as I get a horse!"
