Chapter 7: bandit
The three little guys were showing off everywhere they went with their three little things, bragging to everyone they met, as if they were afraid that no one would know. After going around for a while, I realized that the business of this dart company was probably not doing well. Everyone was not well-dressed, and the dim sum I ate was well-made but the ingredients were really not very good. There were not many servants here either, it seemed like they were all from the dart company. There were only about 30 people in the whole company.
Having had enough fun, I returned to the main house and said to the three brothers, “Three brothers, it’s time to get down to business!”
“Very well, Brother Lan, we’ll be back in a little while.”
“No need, we’ll stay here. I need to ask you for some help.”
“Young man, if there’s anything I can do to help, I’ll be sure to do it,” Lan Shi said with a smile.
“I own several shops and would like to transport a batch of goods to Taram. This matter will naturally trouble you three, but if it is just the three of you, I am afraid there may be some mishaps. Therefore, I would like to ask your escorting agency to escort this batch of goods.“
Upon hearing this, Lan Shi’s face showed signs of joy: ‘I wonder what kind of goods it is.’
”A batch of clothes and a batch of medicine. They are not contraband, just ordinary goods.“
”How many carts are there?“
”Ten carts.”
“Thirty gold coins, delivered within twelve days. For every person who dies, a consolation fee of one gold coin.“
”Can’t it be faster?” I asked.
“Yes, it can be faster. Twelve days is a conservative estimate. Taran is only 600 li away, and at normal speed it would only take seven days to get there, but when there is doubt, you have to slow down and rest early and leave late.“
”Okay, here is a deposit of ten gold coins. Ten days from now, I will deliver the goods to you,” I said.
Within these ten days, the group of eight people from Pingdi 13 Zhai and Mu Zi 1 to 10, along with 30,000 people, set off to deliver weapons to the destination. And the hundreds of people from Qidi Zhai also arrived in the capital in batches. I carefully scattered these hundreds of people into all walks of life, mainly in industries that are conducive to collecting information, and instructed them to pay attention to the local snakes that have infiltrated the capital.
I didn’t want to go to Taram, but my father happened to be taking a group of people to Taishan to worship the sky, so I was free. Ten days later, the result of ten days of fighting in the capital of Milan was 300 pieces of ready-to-wear clothing, plus 300 pieces of stock, for a total of 600 pieces, which were loaded onto ten specially made carts (which had been ordered a month earlier). Each cart was divided into four sections, front, back, top and bottom, with each section able to hang 15 pieces of clothing (in total, only 100 pieces of clothing were high-end goods). Fire Team members 11 to 18 are also coming with me south, and each of them is carrying a small suitcase with them, which is full of medicine. I think that aphrodisiacs, yin-protecting water, and beauty medicine will be in demand wherever we go.
I also brought ten young girls with me. Although they are not very beautiful, they are still youthful and attractive. They are a bit shabby, but they were originally bought from Fatty (it seems that I have become his regular customer) a few days ago to be added to the Yalanxuan. Since this business deal is going well, I decided to take them out of the shop for now. When these ten people were first bought, they were all bony and looked similar to my skeleton, but after ten days of conditioning, they generally look more pleasing to the eye. I believe that after another seven or eight days of conditioning, they will be ready for use (you should know what I’m going to use them for, right?).
The main group (plus the 69 people in the cart) set off just as dawn broke. However, there was an accident just before they left. The little girl Ruo Xuan insisted on going with them, saying that she was not afraid because she had Long Fei to protect her. Out of a sense of fun, I agreed without saying a word. Lan Shi checked my belongings and felt that there was nothing too valuable (that was because he didn’t know what was valuable), and he didn’t think there would be any risks on this trip, so he agreed as well. In fact, there was another reason. Since we had the protection of the Yuri siblings, when Lan Shi saw them that day, he knew that these two were far more capable than he was, so he felt very relieved to have them protecting him.
A few days earlier, I had already dispatched the eleventh to eighteenth members of the gold and water teams to scout the front and back. Although the empire can be considered stable, there are still many people who occupy the mountains as their kingdom and invade the water as bandits. There are three major groups: the Tie Lian gang occupying Huashan, the Jiang Lian gang dominating Li Jiang, and the Quan Quan gang in Bai Da Shan to the south of Li Jiang. Each has 3,000 to 4,000 people. Although the empire has repeatedly sent troops to suppress them, they come and go, and when you leave, they come back. At their peak, each of the three gangs had around 10,000 people. Later, Lan Mieqing was ordered to suppress them, and he used a trick to lure the people of the three gangs out of their sphere of influence. After a battle, the three gangs suffered 80% casualties and have only now recovered.
The road from Taram to the capital is a treasure trove in the hearts of all bandits, but not many of them can actually rob. There are always 2,000 imperial knights patrolling within 100 li of each other. Any movement of more than 60 people will be immediately noticed by the imperial knights. Therefore, the only ones that can really threaten merchants on the official road are these These are the bandits of about sixty people, who suddenly attack, rob and run, scattering in all directions. It is not easy to catch them afterwards, but the number of thieves in the city can increase greatly. It is common to have one or two hundred. However, the security in the city is also tight. As soon as there is any sign of trouble, the slave soldiers will immediately go out.
We had just crossed the river and set up camp in the ancient city of Yang. Ten vehicles entered the Kui Lai Inn.
When we entered, everyone who was eating looked up at us, and many began to pay the bill and leave. A farmer stood up, dropped two coppers, and walked out. He may have walked too quickly, and suddenly bumped into Fire No. 11 Chen Youlai. Chen Youlai glared at him and didn’t say anything.
“Waiter, find us a secluded courtyard,” Lan Shi commanded the waiter.
“Gentlemen, please follow me. A waiter ran over, beaming, and led us into a courtyard.
Actually, I’m quite generous. I provided all the food along the way for free. According to the rules, I didn’t have to provide it, but the two little girls kept nagging you all day long, and you had to buy something delicious to keep them quiet. It’s not enough to buy it for them to eat; they said they have to share both the difficulties and the blessings, and asked me give everyone at the escort agency a share. Lan Ruxuan is fine, she is after all part of the agency, but Cathy is a little sneak, helping outsiders. I can’t stand the noise they make, so I have to spend 30 silver coins every day. Alas, I have to spend money to avoid trouble!
“Young master, a moment ago, a brother from the gold team sent news that there are nearly 500 strangers in the city, so we must be careful.“ Chen Youlai, Fire No. 11.
”Do you know how many merchants are still in this city?“
”There are three more. One transports antiques, one cloth, and one sells mountain goods. The latter two are said to be hiding salt.“
”How many carts are there?“
”There are only four carts for antiques, and the rest have 20 carts each.”
I thought to myself, that’s not right. It shouldn’t be salt. Although the profit from salt is high, its price cannot be higher than that of mountain goods and cloth. In the eyes of thieves, cloth and mountain goods are more precious than salt. Just salt alone would not attract so many thieves.
“Is there anything else?” I asked.
“According to the on-site investigation by the Golden Team brothers, it is estimated that probably half of the goods are weapons.”
That’s more like it. Weapons are a treasure in the eyes of thieves. Usually, even if they have the money, they can’t find any good weapons. Back in the day, Gao Mieqing used weapons as bait to lure the troops of the three gangs out of their sphere of influence.
“Is it possible to rob us?“ I turned to the others in the Jin group and asked
”We all think that it is possible, but the probability is not high. After all, our clothes are only famous in the capital. However, if the thieves have informants in the capital, it is more likely. But each of our clothes has our unique mark, so they cannot be sold in the capital at all. They may not necessarily be able to sell them at a good price elsewhere. I’m afraid they don’t know that our clothes also have marks.” Lu Qing, the 12th member of the Huo group, said.
After thinking about it for a while, I realized that there are more than 500 thieves in the city, but there are only four of us merchants. It is not easy to sell antiques, and the price will not be too good. Besides, the antiques will be easily damaged during a fight. Therefore, I am afraid that these 500 people will all rush at the three of us. The other two have weapons, so they will definitely patronize them. But it is definitely impossible for all 500 people to attack those two. There is no place that big for them to display their skills. Besides, if 500 people rush to one place, the slave soldiers will not be asleep and will not know.
“Immediately take out the bows and arrows and prepare for the night,” I told everyone. Bows and arrows are regulated in the empire. Although they are not prohibited from possessing them, they must be registered. Although I have completed the procedures for them, bows and arrows in the hands of these young people are too conspicuous, so they are all placed in the false bottom of the car.
The eight of them, all heavily armed and wearing alloy battle armor, with the Broken Sun Blade stored in their right arms and magnetic shields hidden in their left arms, reappeared in the room with bows and arrows in their hands, each with two quivers of 48 arrows. The Yuri siblings also tidied up their equipment, as they had to protect the three people and the goods, they also became more cautious.
“It should be Master Lan and the others coming,” Yuri said, looking up.
I waved my hand, signaling the eight to go out, and they disappeared out the back window.
“Little brother, little sister, I’ve come to see you.” The first to rush in was Lan Ruxuan.
“Brother Lei, the situation is a bit dire,“ Lan Shi said with a serious expression on his face. Ever since I gave each of the three brothers a flying dragon (plus a second-grade magic stone, of course, otherwise none of them could hatch baby dragons), these four have called me brother every time, but why do they always put a diminutive in front of it? By the way, I also gave the three brothers a copy of the Ao Lei Dao Pu.
”What happened?” I asked deliberately.
“Someone in the inn was acting suspiciously. Our men went out to investigate. There are a lot of unfamiliar faces in town. I’m afraid something will happen at night, so I came to give you a heads-up. I’ll leave Xiao Juan here as well. Please take good care of her.” The last sentence was directed at Yuri and his sister.
In the middle of the night, a dark cloud covered the moon. From the wall of the courtyard, more than 20 figures jumped down silently. With a loud noise, a fireball hit the rushing person, who screamed and fell to the ground. “Ahhh,” there were several more screams. As soon as they fell to the ground, many more people fell, all shot down by arrows and bows. However, people still kept jumping off the wall, jumping down to find a place to hide and fight back with hidden weapons in their hands. The shrill sound of arrows and hidden weapons whizzing through the courtyard was terrifying. Every now and then, we heard screams, but obviously we were on top. After all, we knew the terrain well. Although three people were seriously injured and seven were slightly injured, there were no fatalities.
After a while, there were no more sounds of arrows whizzing through the air. The thieves began to brandish the swords and axes in their hands and charge up fearlessly, not immediately engaging in combat with the bodyguards protecting the cart. Instead, they set up a common formation in the open area and began to join forces to resist the thieves’ fierce attack.
I frowned and summoned two stone monsters and three horned monsters. “Yuli sister, Yuriko, go help them. You don’t have to worry about me here, I’ll be fine with these guys protecting me.”
“Yes, Yuli sister, you go help dad, we have Longfei, Zilei, and Yaguang protecting us,” Ruqian the little girl also anxiously said, looking at the fierce battle outside.
The Yuri siblings looked at each other and nodded. The long sword in Yuri’s hand (not the Flame of Raging Fire, but another artifact of the fire element) was unsheathed. The sword, which had been glowing red, gradually dimmed, as Yuri conserved his energy. With a clear whoosh, Yuri pointed his long sword forward, slashing into the group of thieves like a whirlwind, knocking down three enemies with one strike. A burly man wielding a huge axe came from the side, and the eerie sound of thunder followed the axe, as if it were illusory. Three axes appeared out of thin air and slashed at Yuri. Suddenly, red light appeared on Yuri’s sword, and the sword fearlessly collided with the axe. The axe was flung back violently, and the burly man’s heavy body fell backward, with a large hole in his throat. Wutao’s sword energy erupted again, and the sword charged wildly into the crowd.
Yuli walked out of the room and kept casting recovery and support spells behind her, and occasionally attacking with ice magic. A fierce blade of energy suddenly struck Yuli, but a water shield suddenly appeared in its path. Another lightning strike shot straight at the attacker, who was a tall man. The tall man raised the shield in his hand to block the lightning, and without hesitation, he extended his sword and slashed at Yuli. Still without chanting a spell, a water shield blocked the sword. “Ice Ring,” a fourth-level spell was casually spun out, while the lightning thorn was sent again to pierce the tall man. A shield caught the lightning, and the tall man’s internal energy exploded to block the damage from the ice ring. Yuli smiled slightly, and the ice ring that had been behind her flowed towards her. The next moment, the ice ring in front of her suddenly exploded. This was the fifth-order magic “Ice Blast”. Unable to react in time, the internal energy of the man in the high room was completely blown away, and the man in the high room screamed and rolled over, running backwards.
“The slave soldiers are here, let’s go.” Someone shouted from outside the wall.
The group of thieves suddenly became chaotic and retreated. “Goddess of Ice Palm, beg the power of the gods, ice wings unfold, soar and dance in the sky.” An illusory ice-winged bird appeared and flew towards the retreating thieves, instantly freezing the eight thieves who were lagging behind.
Seeing that the battle outside was over, the three of us came out. Of course, I had already collected the monsters. I didn’t want to excite them too much. There was already enough bloodshed. If there was another heart attack, it would be my fault.
“What a tragedy,” I said, licking my lips. There were more than forty bodies on the ground, and more than half of them had been killed by arrows. Six of the twenty people from our side of the dart company had fallen, and Lan Shi and the Three Brothers were also panting, their bodies covered in wounds. If Yuli hadn’t used the magic of the Blessing Ring in an emergency, I’m afraid four of the six would have died.
The eight people in the fire team were also covered in wounds. Although they had alloy battle armor, they didn’t have enough power and still suffered a lot of injuries under the siege of many people. However, it was obvious that they had trained well, and the injuries were all on non-important parts of their bodies. However, it was obvious that they had lost a lot of blood. The eight people still had fear in their faces and were breathing rapidly.
“Not bad, not bad. You survived, didn’t run away, fought bravely and killed your enemies, used the bow and arrow well, and performed very well. Experiencing this life and death situation has greatly benefited your cultivation, and you must continue to do so in the future.“ I praised them a little.
”Yes,“ the eight of them said after stabilizing their breathing.
”However, your internal strength cultivation is obviously lacking, and even the battle armor was broken. You must practice diligently in the future.“
”Understood,” the eight of them said in unison.
“Lan Ju, is everything alright?“
”This time, we have to thank the young man, and thank you both.“ Lan Ju thanked us gratefully, ‘But it’s really sad that the two brothers have to go like this.’
”It’s only right that we help each other, but can we leave tomorrow?”
“I’m afraid we can’t leave tomorrow, unless we want to leave these four people behind. After this incident, I’m afraid these people won’t be able to guard the cart easily, and we all have injuries that need to be treated, otherwise we’ll suffer when we encounter the enemy.“ Wu Jianjun said.
”Okay, tomorrow we’ll take a day off, if that doesn’t work, we can take two days off. Everyone can ask the doctor to come and take a look again, and I’ll pay.” Seeing the two little girls staring at me fiercely, I could only add this last sentence.
After a while, the constables came and questioned us. The experienced Lan Shi answered them fluently and sent them away.
Soon, news came that, apart from the antique dealer, no one else was robbed. The other two places were attacked, and the cloth merchant was robbed. I was secretly happy. I go to sell clothes, and he sells cloth, isn’t that blocking my way to wealth? He deserved to be robbed.
In order to help them recover as soon as possible, Yuli and I also used recovery spells to heal the injuries of everyone. After dawn, the doctor also came to take a look and prescribed some medicine. After noon, those with minor injuries had recovered, but the four men were too seriously injured and would probably not be able to fight for a short period of time. Helplessly, we had no choice but to leave the four men in Yanggu City.
The news of what happened in Yang City had obviously spread, and we kept hearing people talking about it along the way. Imperial soldiers were also mobilized to thoroughly interrogate the passing travelers. When we arrived in Panshiu City in the afternoon, the city was on high alert. Not only had the officers and soldiers been mobilized, but even the slave soldiers had begun to go on duty. After some detailed interrogation, we were able to check into an inn.
“Young master, just now we received news that the people who ambushed us last night were from the Quanquan Gang,” Chen Youlai said.
“Do you know who else came?“ I asked.
”One of the five top fighters from the Quanquan Gang was killed by us yesterday, and it is likely that two more top fighters were involved.“
”Have these people run out of money that they have to send such top fighters to steal from us?“ I said.
”Maybe they are specifically targeting our goods!” Huo Shisan said.
“Your goods are just a few clothes and medicines, so why would those people target this shipment?“ Lei Zibing, who was standing next to me, asked. They had just entered the capital and didn’t know how famous Milan Capital was yet.
”Brother Lei, our clothes are very valuable.“
”No matter how valuable they are!“ Zhao Yun also shook his head.
”One hundred gold coins for one piece.” Looking at the three brothers’ wide-open mouths, I giggled like a little hen.
“I wonder how well the three of you have mastered the Thunder Power technique,“ I asked again.
”We’ve only just started, and haven’t yet seen any benefits,“ Wu Jianjun said.
”I have nine pills here that will help you practice the Thunder Power technique,“ I said, giving each of them three pills. ‘Each person can only take three pills at a time.’
”How do we take them?“ Lei Zibing asked.
”Just take one every day while you’re practicing,”
It was already the fifth day on the road, and we were hurrying along in the warm sunshine. Chen Youlai came up from behind and walked over to the car I was sitting in: “Young master, I have news that someone is ambushing us up ahead.”
I cursed in my heart, is this still a way to do business? Just a few days and someone is already robbing us.
“How many are there?”
“Less than fifty.”
“Notify Master Lan and the others.”
The group continued walking, but stopped outside the ambush circle. Everyone put the cart on the road, sat down on the ground, drank water, chatted, and hated the thieves who were ambushing them in the forest in front of them.
After a rest, everyone set off again. I looked at the five farmers sitting on the field edge and asked, “Hey, have you seen a dog wearing shoes?”
The five farmers looked at each other stupidly for a while, and an older farmer said, “Young master, where in the world would there be a dog wearing shoes?”
A strange smile appeared on my face, and I made a gesture to the eight people in the fire group and said, “Then what are you wearing on your feet?”
As soon as I finished speaking, the eight members of the fire team simultaneously raised their left hands, and sixteen domineering iron needles flashed like lightning and pounced on five people. At the same moment, the old farmer let out a strange cry and fell backwards, and the next moment a fire dragon soared into the air and charged at the old farmer. The other four farmers were shot down before they could react.
“This old man is quite alert, he immediately woke up. Really, don’t think about it, how could a farmer be wearing thin-soled boots,” I shook my head and said.
Just then, a shout of battle came from the forest next to us. The eight members of the fire team immediately took out their bows and arrows, stepped out of formation quickly, and stood in front of the chariot. The burly man in the front, carrying a mace, had just reached a hundred paces in front of the chariot when he saw the wolf’s tooth arrow gleaming in the sun. He gasped and his forward strides immediately stopped. A glance at the eight men showed that they were clearly well-trained elites. The most frightening thing was that one arrow was on the string, but he was still holding three arrows in his hand, clearly capable of shooting consecutive arrows. Of the forty or so people in his group, I’m afraid that not more than twenty will be able to rush to the front of the cart. The burly man quickly raised his hand to signal for the others to stop.
I also spoke in time, “Don’t release the arrows yet.”
Yuri was completely dominating the old farmer, and was just stretching his muscles.
“What kind of hero are you with a bow and arrow? If you’re so capable, you can have a proper match with your master,” the burly man said with a red face.
“So bullying our children makes you a hero?“ Cathy shouted at him.
”Who’s bullying you? I’m just here to rob you, and I won’t hurt you,“ the man said, blushing.
”You’re robbing our children, so you’re bullying us,“
”We’re here to rob the owner of this car, your family’s money, not your children’s,” the man was very patient, carefully explaining to Cathy.
“This hero,“ I said with a smile to the burly man, ‘I’m really sorry, but I am the owner of these cars.’
”You,” the burly man looked at me in disbelief, and then looked at the arrow that was still flashing with cold light. The man gritted his teeth and said, ”Let’s do this. It’s not easy for us to come out on a trip like this, so just give us ten gold coins for the toll.”
“No, this hero,” I pointed at Yuli, ‘my sister doesn’t let me spend money recklessly. If you want money, just defeat my sister.’
Looking at the beautiful woman in front of him, the burly man let out a sigh of disappointment. He said listlessly, ”Forget it, we’ll just go.”
The big man was quite amusing: “Hey, don’t you want your companions?” I shouted.
“They are not my companions,” the big man said, looking at the corpses on the ground and the old man who had already been captured.
“Don’t go. Do you think you can come and go as you please?” I said sternly.
The big man’s face changed: “What else do you want?” The thieves behind him also clamored.
“In the future, you are not allowed to block any of my cars.”
“Unless you can defeat me,“ the big man said firmly.
”Sister,“ I said to Yuli, ‘will you help defeat this big guy?’
”Okay,“ Yuli readily agreed, pulling a lightning wand out of her sleeve.
”Can’t you find a man to do it!“ the big man shouted angrily
”There’s really nothing I can do,” I said, pretending to be helpless, ”my sister is the most powerful here, so why don’t you just surrender?”
Considering the plan for survival, the big man did not agree to my proposal: “Okay, young girl, be careful.”
Perhaps sensing the big man’s great power, Yuli sister immediately cast a Water Wall (5th rank). “Magician,” the big man’s face changed, and before Yuli could easily cast a second spell, he swung his club over Yuli’s sister in a single unadorned motion. With a “sizzling” sound, an “Electric Lance” (5th rank) flashed from the wand flashed out and flew at the big man at high speed. The big man didn’t even dodge, but shouted out, and the mace slammed violently into the wall of water, immediately shattering it. With a bang, the spear of electricity hit the big man, knocking him back five steps in one go. The big man rubbed his chest hard and looked at Yuli with disbelief on his face.