Chapter 20 They must have come to steal things…

They must have come to rob us, so they didn't carry many items with them.

Qin Ren searched them thoroughly and found two dried flatbreads, two large knives, a dagger, some loose silver, and a jade pendant.

Qin Ren stuffed the silver coins and jade pendant into his backpack and slowly walked towards the main street along the road ahead.

During this time, he met a young man, whom he had met once before.

Seeing that he was running in a panic, Qin Ren threw him a large knife.

The man was startled and didn't understand what he meant at first.

He seemed to realize what was happening, and while picking up the broadsword from the ground, he said to Qin Ren, "Thank you, brother. By the way, brother, don't go into the street. There are a lot of bandits there, and it will be very dangerous for you to go there by yourself."

Qin Ren could understand the word "mountain bandit." Liu Qingyue often said these two words to him, and after hearing them so many times, they sounded very familiar and were naturally memorized.

In fact, Qin Ren remembered more than just these few words. As he came into contact with more people in this world, he gradually remembered more and more words.

Qin Ren has a strong learning ability and a good memory. He believes that as long as he interacts more with the people here, he should be able to understand their language soon.

Qin Ren roughly guessed what the young man meant, so he didn't continue walking towards the main street.

He could handle two or three bandits on his own.

If he were to encounter five or six of them at once, he would be in great danger.

Qin Ren stayed behind not to fight those bandits to the death.

He was only after the stolen goods on the bandits, wanting to rob them while doing some good deeds for the townspeople.

The bandits had stolen all their treasures, and Qin Ren didn't know whose they had stolen from, so he had no way to return them.

Besides, he had done a good deed, so it wouldn't hurt for him to take a little extra money.

In his world, even acts of bravery deserve a banner of recognition.

According to the information Liu Qingyue had gathered earlier, a group of bandits had already visited this town.

According to the townspeople, there are no bandits in their area at all.

The sudden appearance of so many bandits is likely due to a large number of refugees turning to banditry, or perhaps some local thugs and ruffians.

These people were no good; they committed all sorts of atrocities, including burning, killing, and looting, along the way.

Even if Qin Ren accidentally kills such a villain, it wouldn't be considered intentional homicide; rather, it would be seen as eliminating a scourge for the people.

Furthermore, given that these people were committing murder and arson, Qin Ren's actions against them were an act of heroism.

...

This group of bandits was not large. After entering the town, they dispersed and began plundering food and gold from house to house.

At this point, Yulai Town had almost no food or gold left.

This group of bandits arrived late, so they didn't find anything valuable along the way.

Two bandits, having failed to find anything, grew angry and decided to capture and kill some people to vent their frustration. Just as they grabbed a child and were about to cut off his head to play with it, the child's mother emerged from her hiding place.

The two bandits became excited upon seeing this. They easily subdued the woman who was about to attack them and planned to commit their beastly acts in broad daylight.

Seeing that she couldn't beat them, the woman quickly pleaded, "My lords, my lords, I'm willing to serve you. Please spare my child. I'll do anything you ask if you're willing to let him go."

Upon hearing this, the two bandits not only refused to release the child, but also planned to gouge out the child's eyes in front of the woman.

Seeing this, the woman resisted with all her might and unexpectedly broke free from the bandit's grasp.

As she rushed toward her child towards the blade, the woman thought she was definitely going to die this time.

But unexpectedly, the bandit holding the knife was suddenly knocked unconscious by a blow from a stick.

The person who knocked out the bandits was none other than Qin Ren, who rushed over after hearing the commotion.

Qin Ren didn't come alone; he was followed by two men.

Both men were villagers. Their families had been killed by bandits, and now, with no ties to them, they were filled with hatred.

Seeing that Qin Ren was looking for a lone bandit, they simply followed him and helped him.

Seeing that the bandit had been knocked unconscious, they charged at the other bandit.

They weren't as swift as Qin Ren in fighting, but with Qin Ren's help, they easily defeated the remaining bandits.

Looking at the two fallen bandits, the woman thought of her husband who had recently died. Suddenly, she picked up a large knife from the ground and killed one of the bandits.

She looked somewhat frightening; her clothes were disheveled, her hair was loose, and her eyes were bloodshot.

The thought that they also wanted to gouge out her child's eyes quickly dispelled the disgust and fear from her first murder, followed by endless sorrow and despair.

Qin Ren ordered them to search the bandits' belongings and then distribute the extra weapons to other people in the town.

As the townspeople acquired more and more weapons, a young man couldn't help but speak up: "The bandits are few in number. With our benefactor's help, we can kill all the remaining bandits."

Some people disagreed, saying, "Killing bandits should be done by the garrison. We are just ordinary people. If we take weapons to kill bandits, what if... what if we are mistaken for rebels and killed as traitors?"

"But the garrison hasn't arrived yet, and the county is in complete chaos. They probably have to ensure the safety of the county first, and they don't have time to care about our lives."

“Yes, why don’t we go kill those bandits? I want to follow my benefactor to kill them. They killed my father, and he was my only family. I must avenge him.”

“Then, I’ll go too. I want to catch them and ask where my brother is. My brother is a brother, I can’t just abandon him.”

“I’m going too. My elder brother and sister-in-law were killed by bandits. I want to avenge them.”

...

At this point, the people following Qin Ren realized that Qin Ren couldn't understand what they were saying.

To make it easier for Qin Ren to understand what they were saying, one of the women even racked her brains to gesture to him.

Qin Ren couldn't understand what they were saying, but he could guess their thoughts from a few words.

Without Qin Ren leading them, even if they wanted to rebel, there was no one to stop them.

Now that Qin Ren has given them weapons and set an example for them, they have discovered that those mountain bandits are not so scary after all.

The bandits were either disaster victims or local thugs; they had all recently become bandits.

Because they haven't received proper training, they are nowhere near as formidable as an army, and when they fight, they're like a disorganized mob. It's really not difficult to deal with them.

At the very beginning, Qin Ren only took a few pieces of silver and a jade pendant; after that, he didn't take anything else from the bandits.

It wasn't that he didn't want it, it was mainly because... the people here were too pitiful, so Qin Ren gave them everything.

Seeing them discussing killing the bandits, Qin Ren wholeheartedly agreed.

Anyway, there aren't many bandits, and keeping them around is useless; on the contrary, they would threaten the lives of ordinary people.

It would be better to kill them; not only would it save food, but it would also reduce unrest in society.

The problem now is that Qin Ren can't understand what they're saying, which makes cooperating with them quite difficult.

In order not to delay their plans, Qin Ren decided to act according to the circumstances.

He wasn't part of their plan; they did everything their own way.

While they were making their plans, the bandits discovered that many of their men had died.

After that, the bandits no longer acted alone, but instead formed groups of seven or eight.

When Qin Ren and his group came out of a courtyard, they happened to encounter such a small team.

The squad consisted of eight people. When they saw Qin Ren and his men coming out, they immediately picked up their ranged weapons and attacked them.

However, since they were not a regular army and had not received any rigorous training, they were okay when using close-range weapons, but they were much worse when using long-range weapons.

Because as long as Qin Ren and his men moved, the bandits couldn't hit them at all.

Seeing this, Qin Ren couldn't help but sneer, and then he also took out a bow and arrow and aimed it at them.

He wanted to make them understand that not just anyone can be a bandit.

Even if it's murder and robbery, you still need to have some real skills.

Qin Ren had studied shooting and always had excellent accuracy.

However, since he had never used an ancient bow and arrow before, he was a little clumsy and accidentally missed with his first shot.

By the time of the second arrow, Qin Ren's accuracy had clearly improved.

He successfully shot a bandit in the shoulder, which immediately caused the bandits on the other side to abandon their ranged weapons and rush towards them with their knives.

Compared to the bandits who had seen blood, Qin Ren's men were much weaker.

When some people saw the bandits charging towards them, their first reaction was to grab their weapons and run away.

Qin Ren ignored them and quickly retreated while pulling out a stun gun from behind his back.

Then he held a stun gun in one hand and a large knife in the other.

If you can stun them with electricity, just stun them directly; if you can't stun them, use weapons.

Because Qin Ren was strong enough, and although his side was weak, many people helped him divert the hatred, so Qin Ren was able to handle the situation with relative ease.

Soon, half of the eight people on the other side were stunned by Qin Ren's electric shock, and two others were beaten to death by the townspeople.

Of the remaining two, one was injured, and the other escaped in the chaos.

Qin Ren led them to tie up the bandits, then let them search their belongings before moving on to a safer place.

Some people in the town were injured, but their injuries weren't too serious. The women in the group helped bandage them, and then they moved to another place with Qin Ren.

This time, the number of bandits was small, less than fifty in total.

They took down seven people in this wave, and together with those Qin Ren had captured earlier, they now have almost twenty.

Of these twenty-odd bandits, nearly half were killed, all by people from the town.

The remaining half of the people were separated and imprisoned, with the intention of handing them over to the court for disposal once the officials arrived.

This leaves fewer than thirty bandits.

With so many men lost at once, Qin Ren felt they might not dare to come back.

They weren't as skilled as the previous bandits; they were clearly just ordinary thugs who, seeing how the bandits could rob and plunder, pretended to be bandits and imitated them.

However, just in case, after settling the people in town, Qin Ren decided to go out alone to scout out the situation.

To make things easier, Qin Ren didn't bring too much with him this time.

He only carried a stun gun, a bow and arrow, and an entrenching tool.

Yulai Town wasn't very big, and Qin Ren jogged around it all in no time.

Then, on the road at the entrance to the town, he discovered a regular army, and the remaining bandits were all captured.

Seeing this, Qin Ren didn't dare to step forward; the soldiers of ancient times were not the same as the soldiers of his world.

If they discover Qin Ren, given his strange attire, they might mistake him for a foreigner and arrest him.

A note from the author:

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