Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 82: Reward for Killing
There were shops and the tax collector's yard on the main street. At this time, the alarm bells rang "duan duan duan" from that direction, making the people who were fleeing to the outside more panicked. In addition, many people had fled from Zhongjiazhuang the night before, and at this moment they still looked panic-stricken, like dogs that had lost their homes, terrified at the slightest sign of danger.
Xu Huai walked to the main street and looked out from the alley. He saw that few people had fled the stone street, but there were still many people sticking their heads out of the alley to watch the fun.
From a distance, one could see seven or eight thieves riding tall horses in front of the Tang family warehouse. Some had fat faces, some had scars all over their bodies, and some were thin and cruel. They were monitoring the movements on both sides of the street and guarding the more than 20 horses parked outside the shop. The other thieves had already rushed into the yard of the shop.
The bandits in Tongbai Mountain were not rich enough to have only two horses each. Judging from the number of horses, it can be estimated that there were only thirty-four or thirty-five bandits who suddenly broke into Huaiyuan to rob.
At this time, in addition to the two soldiers in the military camp, there were three people lying in a pool of blood on the stone street, twitching. Blood could be seen flowing from their necks. It was unknown why they were killed by this group of bandits.
The soldiers of the military camp crossed the river to patrol the streets, usually with ten generals or generals leading a team of ten to twenty people.
Under the circumstances today, it would be normal for a military officer to lead a team of 20 people to check and maintain order on the east bank, and there would also be three or four soldiers on duty to monitor the tax.
However, apart from the two soldiers who died on Stone Street, Xu Huai could not see any other soldiers. They must be hiding in some alley or shop yard, and did not dare to surround and kill these ferocious bandits before reinforcements arrived across the river from the west bank.
On both sides of the main street, which was about five or six hundred steps long, most of the shops were businesses owned by large clans. Normally, they should have several or dozens of farmhands guarding them. But at this moment, Xu Huai saw that all the shops had closed their doors tightly, and they all looked like they were minding their own business.
Chen Zixiao, Pan Chenghu, Zhong Changqing, Gao Xiangzhong and other bandit chiefs had not yet led their troops to launch a large-scale attack, but the shadow of the tragic massacre at Zhongjiazhuang had already shrouded the sky above Tongbai Mountain, causing all the major clans to feel insecure and dare not provoke this group of bandits of unknown origin.
Without a strong person to take the lead, the so-called powerful clan forces will be nothing but a pile of loose sand in front of the more brutal bandits!
"You guard the carriage in the alley, I'll go take a look ahead!" Xu Huai instructed Yin Peng.
Yin Peng had never had much contact with Xu Huai before, but he knew that he was a well-known fool from the Xu clan. He didn't know what he wanted to do at this time. What was going to happen in the future?
However, he had just joined the gang today, and his master Xu Wuliang and the big boss Xu Wujiang had told him and Zhou Jianxiong to stay in Huaiyuan and obey Xu Huai's orders. So he could only respond in silence at this time.
Xu Huai walked across the stone street, pushed open the half-open wooden door of Zheng's butcher shop, and motioned to Zheng the butcher and Chen Gui, who were standing next to the door, to move in: "I want to borrow a spot to watch the fun!"
"Aren't you going back to Yuhuangling?" Zheng the butcher asked in surprise.
The business of butchers these days may seem like a menial one, but there aren't many people in Huaiyuan Town who are more prestigious than Zheng the Butcher, and he is much more well-informed than Zhou Jianxiong and other truly impoverished people.
He heard from others that Pan Chenghu had attacked Lutai Village some days ago, and that the Xu family had a brave and reckless man who killed more than a dozen bandits in front of the village. All the big clans envied the Xu family for having such a fool who was ignorant of the danger but had strong skills and could be used at will.
Zheng the butcher had suffered at the hands of Xu Huai, and guessed that the rumors had some truth to them, but he didn't expect to see Xu Huai again in Huaiyuan at this time.
"Someone asked me to deliver a gift to Mr. Deng, but I didn't expect this to happen." Xu Huai pointed to the carriage in the alley across the street and said to Zheng the Butcher.
"You're not..." Zheng the butcher wanted to say that Xu Huai was not stupid, and knew that he should avoid the limelight at this time, but he thought that this was not a good thing to say, and was afraid that this idiot would hear it and blackmail him again, so he swallowed the word "stupid" in his mouth.
The alarm bells in the tax office yard were still ringing, but it would take time for the reinforcements from the west bank to cross the river from the military camp; more importantly, could the hundreds of soldiers who came over really surround and kill nearly thirty bandits on fast horses?
The people who were hiding behind the windows and doors of each shop to watch the fun were frightened and their hearts were pounding.
Soon, more than twenty thieves were seen walking out of Tang's warehouse, some carrying or carrying various heavy bags. They were covered in blood, and it was unknown how many people they had killed or how much property they had robbed after breaking into the warehouse. But when they came out, they mounted their horses, held the reins on their horses and looked in the direction of the ferry. After a while, they swarmed towards the east road of Shi Street.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that these killers would eventually leave.
"Guo Junpan, the big shot in Laoyatan, is not from Hutouzhai..."
The thieves rode their horses to Zheng's butcher shop, but stopped for some reason. Zheng the butcher was knowledgeable and recognized the leader, a bearded thief with a fierce look and a scar running through his entire thin face. He gasped and exclaimed in surprise, suppressing his voice.
The people Xu Huai knew in Huaiyuan were definitely not as good as the old ruffians and local tyrants like Zhao the Butcher.
When the Shanzhai forces want to find out some news, or have some valuable goods to sell, or even have kidnapped someone, they need someone to mediate and negotiate the ransom, and people like Zhao the Butcher are more popular.
Xu Huai narrowed his eyes slightly, staring at Guo Junpan, who was carrying a large bow on his back and a long sword on his waist. He had also heard of this man's reputation as a good archer, and for a moment he could not guess why these people stopped in the street and did not move forward.
Seeing more than thirty thieves whispering in the long street, soon the smiles on their faces suddenly became obscene. The Laoyatan thief chieftain Guo Junpan led more than twenty riders to the east of the long street, while the remaining six or seven riders turned back to the west. After a while, these people were seen riding their horses straight towards the gate of Yuehonglou.
It was not known whether the gate of Yuehonglou was not as solid as the warehouse, or whether the thieves had already seen that the people in Yuehonglou had left the door ajar to peek at what was happening outside, but the gate was immediately knocked open by two horses, and several thieves rushed in with long swords wielding. Several people escaped like blood gourds, screaming in the street.
Xu Huai was also shocked. He didn't expect that these thieves not only broke into the Tang family warehouse and robbed money, but also went to Yuehonglou to rob women?
The Tang family's businesses in the market are mainly warehouses and Yuehonglou, but the security guards are mainly concentrated in the warehouses where large amounts of money and goods are stored.
In addition to the girls of all ages and prostitutes, Yuehonglou mainly has servants, maids, and brothels serving the guests. Even though there are a few guards to prevent trouble, who could have imagined that horse thieves would come to a place like Yuehonglou to rob women?
After a while, six riders were seen galloping out of Yuehong Tower, each of them tied a woman with a rope and pressed her on the saddle.
"Fuck! The one in the red dress is Tian Yanyan!" Chen Gui said behind Zheng the butcher, swallowing his saliva, "These thieves in Laoyatan really know how to pick good goods. Maybe they have spies watching the movements in the street market for a long time!"
"After Liu Qiong'er was redeemed from Yuehonglou, Tian Yanyan became the leader. She sells her art but not her body. Although her price is not as high as Liu Qiong'er, she demands one or two taels of silver just to have tea and meet a little girl of sixteen or seventeen, as if she were robbing them - they never thought that they would really run into the ancestor of thieves, Guo Junpan!" Zheng the butcher also swallowed his saliva.
"What do you mean? How am I inferior to this little bitch? I'm jealous just by looking at her." Zheng the Butcher's wife was so jealous that she didn't care about the situation at all. She slapped Zheng the Butcher on the face with her fat palm. "You keep saying that it's too hard for me to be the head of the family and I need someone to serve me. Are you thinking of asking Fang Xiao to come back and make me angry to death?"
Butcher Zheng was afraid of his wife like a tiger, so he dodged subconsciously, but he accidentally knocked open the half-closed wooden door. He stumbled and rushed into the middle of the stone street, blocking the six thieves who had snatched the woman from Yuehonglou.
Zheng the butcher was stunned; Chen Gui and Zheng the butcher's wife, who were still in the butcher's shop were also stunned.
The six thieves were also dumbfounded: it took them an incense stick of time to break into the long street, killing and wounding twenty or thirty people, but they did not expect that at this time a brave man would run out and block their way.
"Misunderstanding! You thief, it's really a misunderstanding!" Zheng the butcher knelt down on the stone street with a "bang" and kowtowed for mercy.
These bandits didn't care about any misunderstandings, nor did they care about killing one more guy with a face full of flesh, who looked even more vicious than them. "There are actually people who don't know what's good for them and are blocking our way!" The thief grinned and threw the woman in front of him off the saddle. He drew his knife, raised his knife, and rushed towards Zheng the butcher on his horse.
"How brave!"
The thief heard his accomplice shouting behind him, and turned his head to see a figure suddenly leaping out of the doorway as fast as a stone bullet thrown from a crossbow.
The thief's pupils narrowed suddenly. It was hard for him to imagine that an ordinary person could have such a strong momentum with just one leap. If he was not brave and good at fighting, he would have just dodged subconsciously and exposed the vital part of his left armpit.
The thief glanced at the man who was coming with the sword and sheath still in his hand, and just smiled contemptuously in his heart. He thought it was indeed another idiot who was trying to show off his bravery. What's the point of jumping so high for no reason? He turned around suddenly with a grim smile, raised the sword and slashed at the idiot's chest and abdomen.
Xu Huai smiled slightly, and when the thief's knife slashed at him, the muscles in his waist and abdomen suddenly contracted, and his body paused in mid-air for a moment, narrowly avoiding the knife. At the same time, his left hand knife pulled out with unimaginable speed, like a pool of water flashing before his eyes.
Xu Huai stood still in front of the long street, slowly threw the scabbard aside, and looked back at the dumbfounded Zheng the butcher: "Zheng the butcher, you said that you can get a reward of ten strings of cash for killing a thief, weren't you lying to me? Please help me calculate how much cash I can get today. If you are wrong, I will tear your bones apart and fuck your mother!"
Zheng the butcher was still lying on the stone street with his butt sticking up. It was only then that he saw the thief who had just swung his knife at him was broken in half at the waist, and the two halves of his body fell off the horse's back with a plop, his intestines spilling all over the ground.
"Ah!" Zheng the Butcher was stimulated and screamed like a woman.
