Chapter 190 Taking the Silver

The burly man returned to the front of the house and pushed open the door. Inside, a group of trembling women and children huddled together nervously, looking at the group of soldiers outside.

Several of the women rushed forward and grabbed the man's arms, their eyes filled with tears.

"Boss!"

They heard what the big man said outside. The leader was willing to commit suicide on the spot to save their lives.

A group of young farm children also crowded around.

Before the big man could say anything, a group of people started crying.

The burly man seemed afraid that Lin Changning and the others would get impatient, so he pushed the women towards the door.

"Stop crying, everyone. Hurry down the mountain and find a good way to make a living in the future."

After saying that, they pushed people out one by one, and the group of people walked down the path that Lin Changning and the others had cleared, wiping away tears and sobbing.

The big man and his companions stood in front of the house, craning their necks to watch the women and children walk briskly down the mountain. They only relaxed when the women and children left the village.

Lin Changning's men have already tied up all the bandits they detained.

He had previously thought there were seven or eight hundred people in this village, but he had overestimated them.

Excluding the women and children, there are now less than four hundred people left in the village. Of course, they did kill quite a few when they broke in.

The rest were those who wisely abandoned their weapons and surrendered; since it was a war, there were bound to be injuries.

Lu Shan has already led his men to count the casualties, but the plan was meticulous, and the people gathered in the mountains were not particularly skilled, so the casualties should not be too great.

Lin Changning stood in front of the house: "When are we going to the cliff?"

After seeing that Lin Changning had released the women and children from the village as they wished, the burly man clasped his hands and said with a hint of sincerity, "That cliff can only be accessed during the day. It's too dark today. If someone falls off, they will be gone forever. You'll have to wait until daytime before I take you there."

Lin Changning and his group climbed up from that cliff, and the current weather makes it quite difficult to climb.

It was too dark at the time, and they didn't notice what was below the cliff.

It's a pity, but I doubt anyone would have guessed that 100,000 taels of silver were hidden in the cave below the cliff.

We can get down the cliff tomorrow, but it might be difficult to carry the silver up.

She might have to go down there herself tomorrow; two people were too weak to get up during tonight's surprise attack.

These softies still need to practice.

Otherwise, after a while, when they go to the battlefield and face the even more ferocious Tartars, that won't do.

After thinking it over, Lin Changning watched as the soldiers guarded and imprisoned all the men. The big man and the group of men in front of him were also tied up by Wan Jin, who was standing next to Lin Changning.

Looking at the sky, it would be two more hours before dawn. After detaining the group of people, Lin Changning ordered the team to rest on the spot. A few hours would be enough time to set up a small camp.

After the order was given, several tents were quickly set up in the village. Lin Changning and Lao Zhou went in first, while Wan Jin and Lu Shan led their men to patrol around the village to check for any escapees.

Tomorrow they would be climbing down a cliff, so Lin Changning leaned against a simple felt mat on the tent and prepared to take a nap.

Old Zhou was also feeling sleepy. The two of them each laid out a blanket, lay down on the ground, and took a nap, planning to talk again when it got light.

Lin Changning had only been dozing off for a short while when a steady snoring sound came from one corner of the tent.

"..." I don't know what kind of sins I committed to actually choose to share a tent with Old Zhou.

Lin Changning lay on the felt, his eyes open, until dawn.

The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Old Zhou opened his sleepy eyes, stretched, and got up from the felt mat.

Turning his head, he came face to face with Lin Changning, who was covered in resentment and had two panda eyes.

"Oh dear, what's going on in Changning?"

Lin Changning ground her back teeth. Old Zhou's snoring had kept her awake all night.

She was even angrier when she heard Lao Zhou ask her that question that morning.

"It must be tough for your sister-in-law to sleep with you all the time, Lao Zhou. Do you often get kicked out of bed?"

Old Zhou was a little confused and honestly replied, "How did you know that my wife kicked me out of bed?"

Someone snoring so loudly can't sleep; it would be strange if I didn't kick him out of bed.

If someone can sleep with such loud snoring, then your sister-in-law must have really good sleep quality.

Lin Changning rolled her eyes, got up, and prepared to leave the tent. She hadn't slept all night, and was now walking unsteadily.

I hadn't slept well for the past few days, and today, after the bandit suppression was successful, I was finally able to rest for a while, but Old Zhou's snoring kept me awake all night.

Lin Changning was absolutely furious.

After stepping out of the tent, he saw the bamboo basket that someone had left behind yesterday and angrily kicked it.

He kicked the basket dozens of meters away.

Lu Shan and Wan Jin finished their patrol of the village and returned here just in time to see Lin Changning venting his anger on the bamboo basket.

Upon closer inspection, they saw that their own commander had dark circles under his eyes and silently took a step back.

It's so early in the morning; most people are grumpy when they wake up, so it's best for them to keep their distance.

After Lin Changning went outside, he headed to the place where the bandits had been guarding the previous day.

Seeing that this group of carefree people were still sleeping, I gently kicked them a few times to wake them up.

If she can't sleep well, none of these people can sleep either.

"Wake up, wake up, everyone get up!"

This group of people were actually quite alert; they opened their eyes alertly almost as soon as Lin Changning started calling for reinforcements.

The burly man at the head of the group saw that it was Lin Changning, and then looked at the sky outside, which was already bright.

"Are you going down the cliff now, sir?"

Lin Changning nodded: "Who will take me there?"

The burly man struggled to his feet and shook his legs: "I'll take you there, but could you ask these people to untie us first? Otherwise, it'll be difficult to get down the cliff."

Lin Changning refused: "Just point out the place to me when we get there, you don't need to get down, I'll get down."

The big man seemed somewhat surprised, because in his understanding, these officials were all very afraid of their lives. What official would personally go down the cliff? Most of them would have their subordinates do it for them.

This person looks somewhat different.

After glancing at Lin Changning with some surprise, the burly man nodded and, despite his hands being bound, led Lin Changning outside.

The other side of the cliff is very steep, and he usually doesn't want to go down, because he might accidentally fall and be smashed to pieces.

The man led his men directly to the cliff behind the village, where they saw several grappling hooks on the cliff.

It suddenly dawned on me where those people had come from yesterday.

He fell asleep while thinking about it yesterday, still unable to figure out how these people sneaked into the village.

Now that I see these grappling hooks, I understand why.

The man was held captive by two soldiers and slowly walked towards the cliff face. After walking a few steps along the cliff, he pointed to a path with his toes.

"Sir, go down from here. There's a cave to the right of that cypress tree. The official silver is stored inside. I've taken some twice before, but I didn't bring much back. The rest should still be there. We need two people to go down and tie the rope tightly to the box, then have someone pull it up."