Jin Erniu's skills have improved significantly since he trained with Liang Shuyan. He led two soldiers directly from their hiding place in the woods, grabbed the bandit by the neck, and the other two quickly subdued the two men next to the bandit. Then, they dragged the bandit leader over.

Liang Shuyan spoke again: "Tie up this bandit, gag him, hang him up, and set up a fire below him. Don't stop the fire without my order. Roast him until these bandits surrender!"

Everyone could see that Liang Shuyan was indeed worthy of being the Tea Lady appointed by the Emperor. Even when fighting the enemy, she had such insight, not to mention...

Several soldiers prepared a fire and started roasting the bandit leader, while other soldiers used ropes to suspend him above the fire.

The bandit leader immediately shouted, "Help! What are you doing? We have plenty of food and drink on the mountain. Take whatever you want. Why are you treating me like this?"

The two bandits sneered, "What? Boss, didn't you say we had no food or silver? Why are you saying we have it now? You, you didn't secretly hide the food and silver from us, did you?"

It turns out there are three bandit leaders. The one who was just kidnapped is the eldest. What about these two? Liang Shuyan frowned, somewhat regretting that her actions were a bit abrupt. She hadn't seen that these two leaders were going to rebel against the eldest. In that case, would the eldest become an ineffective hostage?

"We don't have any, but this grain and silver is our reserve. In case we are hunted down by the imperial court, we need to prepare some food and silver to escape with, right? Second brother, third brother, hurry and save me, otherwise, we brothers will be left without anyone to lead us!"

"Without a leader, does the world really stop moving without you, brother? Don't we still have me, the second brother? Humph! How dare you hide grain and silver from us! Brothers, let them burn to death!"

Liang Shuyan realized that the hostage had failed, and then glanced at Wang Xuehua. Wang Xuehua immediately understood Liang Shuyan's meaning. She leaped forward and grabbed the second brother by the neck. The third brother saw that the situation was not good and tried to turn around and run away, but unexpectedly, Wang Xuehua stretched out her right hand and lifted him up.

With the second-in-command on her left and the third-in-command on her right, the two bandits dared not utter a word. Wang Xuehua's leaping and walking in the air was like that of a legendary hero, extremely heroic and dashing.

Zhao Heng clapped his hands excitedly: "Xuehua is amazing! She captured two bandit leaders in one go!"

Liang Shuyan snorted coldly and tied up the three bandits. "I want to see if these people still want to surrender."

The three bandit leaders were tied up, and the rest panicked: "We'll all go down, please let us go! We know where the grain and silver are, if you let us go, we'll hand them over!"

Liang Shuyan gently clasped her arms together and nodded: "Alright, since that's the case, then hurry up and get the things, otherwise, we'll burn them all to death right now!"

The bandits were quite loyal to each other. Seeing that the three bandits were about to be burned to ashes, they all rushed over and knelt down in front of Liang Shuyan.

"Tell me, where is the thing?"

"I'll take you to find it, but you can't go back on your promise. Let us go!" A bandit led the constables towards a cellar behind the mountain.

Inside the cellar, a large amount of gold and silver jewelry, along with several cartloads of grain, were unearthed. The constables glanced at them, then winked at the magistrate, who waved his hand and said, "Alright, I'll go report to the magistrate. You stay here and keep watch. Make sure these bandits don't get away!"

The bandits knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly: "Please, we are innocent villagers from the foot of the mountain. If we hadn't been captured by bandits and brought up the mountain, this wouldn't have happened. Please, let us go!"

Upon hearing what the bandit said, Liang Shuyan then said, "Alright, whoever is willing to surrender, stand on this side. Those who are not willing to surrender, or those who still want to be bandits, all stand here!"

The bandits realized that these people would never let them go. Even if they were unwilling to hand over the gold and silver, they would still find a way to get them. Surrendering might save their lives, but if they didn't surrender and were taken into the capital by the magistrate, they would only face certain death!

Soon, everyone stood on this side in order. Liang Shuyan nodded: "So, you are all willing to surrender. I'm warning you, if you dare to feign surrender, I will have to send you all to the palace, where you will all be beheaded. The Emperor will cut off your heads and hang them at the Meridian Gate. Think about it!"

"We are willing to surrender. Please release us. We are willing to do whatever you command!"

The magistrate walked over to Liang Shuyan, glanced at the bandits kneeling on the ground, and said, "Since it was Lady Cha who saved you, you must follow Lady Cha. No matter what you do, you must never be bandits again. Otherwise, if I catch you, you will not survive."

The bandits nodded vigorously, "Yes, yes, we will obey your orders, Madam!"

Liang Shuyan was planning to set up a security team in Daling Village. She could assign these people to any positions, and the rest could be placed in restaurants and teahouses. In addition, some branch stores also needed manpower.

"Alright, since that's the case, you can all come back with me!"

The magistrate ordered his men to tie up the bandit leaders, and loaded the spoils onto a carriage, ready to take them to the capital.

Jin Erniu led the people from the martial arts school and said, "Let's go, let's go back. There's still a lot to do at the martial arts school, let's head back first!"

Liang Shuyan returned to Daling Village with a group of people. When Grandma Jin learned of this, she stood at the entrance of the village and waited for her.

"Mother, why are you standing here? It's very windy outside, please go inside!"

Grandma Jin glanced at Liang Shuyan, then excitedly grabbed Liang Shuyan's hand and said, "Are you alright? Fighting bandits isn't your forte. I've been worried about you the whole time."

Liang Shuyan didn't know what to say, and hesitated for a moment before saying, "Mother, I'm back safe and sound, aren't I? Besides, Xuehua is very capable. With Xuehua around, I won't get hurt!"

Xuehua blushed and said, "No, no, it's all thanks to Auntie's good command that those bandits surrendered!"