Sun Jian's gaze was fixed on the scene of Gu Zijian fighting with the man in black.

Judging from the battle, it was clear that Gu Zijian had the upper hand and didn't need any help at all.

After several rounds of fighting, the man in black was kicked away again, but this time he had no chance to get up again, because Gu Zijian had stepped on his back and pressed his sword against his throat.

"Heroine, spare my life! Heroine, spare my life!"

The man in black lay on the ground, pleading with Gu Zijian.

"You injured my husband and almost killed him. Why should I forgive you?"

Gu Zijian pressed the sword even closer, the blade already piercing the skin and tissue of his throat. The man in black screamed and begged for mercy in excruciating pain.

"No, no, no! Don't kill me!"

Please!

"Purple Sword, don't kill him yet."

Sun Jian took a few steps forward and ripped off the veil from the man in black's face.

The man in black thought he was going to be killed and shuddered in fright.

The man was about thirty-five years old, with a fleshy face, prominent cheekbones, and a long scar from his right eye to the back of his ear. He was clearly not a good person.

"Who are you? What do you want by breaking into my house in the middle of the night? To kill me?"

Sun Jian stepped on his face; there was no need to show any respect to such a person.

"ah……"

The man in black screamed in pain as Sun Jian stomped hard on his face.

"My patience is limited. I'll only count to three. If you still don't make a sound after three counts, I'll just kill you and then report it to the authorities."

"1!"

Sun Jian raised a finger and said loudly.

The man in black was also terrified. Knowing that this family was not ordinary people, he quickly begged for mercy.

"I'll talk, I'll talk, please don't kill me."

"Okay, then tell me quickly."

Sun Jian moved his foot away and, imitating Gu Zijian, stepped on his chest.

"My name is Scarface, but they all call me Little Knife. I'm out here... out scouting."

"Scouting out the location?"

"them?"

Gu Zijian seemed unfamiliar with this term and was somewhat puzzled.

"My lord, what is 'reconnaissance'?"

Chu Qingcheng, who was standing to the side, also asked.

"Wow, really? You guys don't even know what scouting is? Scouting is for gathering information," Zhou Wan'er explained from the side.

Chu Qingcheng also mustered up her courage and asked from the side, "Where...where are you from? Who are you scouting for?"

Little did they know, she looked incredibly cute, both adorable and fierce.

If Sun Jian hadn't needed to cover his wound with his other hand, he would have loved to kiss her right now.

“I…I’m from Wolf Head Mountain.”

The man in black said with a pitiful expression.

"Wolf Head Mountain?"

Sun Jian felt a strong sense of familiarity upon hearing the place name. After pondering his predecessor's memories, he immediately made a judgment.

"Holy crap, isn't that Bandit Mountain?!"

From his memories of his past life, Sun Jian learned that Wolf Head Mountain was more than 40 kilometers away from the west of the village and was a real bandit mountain.

It is said that there are hundreds of bandits in the mountains who specialize in burning, killing, looting, and robbing people of their money.

In the early years, things were better. Sun Jian remembered that during the third year of the Ganwu era, these bandits used the pretext of robbing the rich to help the poor and acting on behalf of Heaven to target wealthy families and rarely bothered poor households.

However, since the sixth year of the Ganwu era, when the Da Gan and Da Zhou went to war, the Da Song and Da Xia also joined the battle. The people suffered greatly from the taxes, and with two consecutive years of famine, even wealthy families had little grain left. They dared not go to the city because there were government troops, so they began to target all the surrounding villages.

When faced with survival, human nature becomes even more selfish and greedy. When people can't survive, they don't care about any nonsense about robbing the rich to help the poor or acting as a righteous force. They just plunder whoever has grain or oil.

"bandit……"

Chu Qingcheng, who had just been acting all fierce and cute, was immediately frightened and hid behind Sun Jian upon hearing that it was a bandit mountain.

Zhou Wan'er was a little better, only slightly frowning.

The only truly composed people in the room were Gu Zijian and Sun Jian.

"So what if he's a bandit? Kill him today, and the authorities won't even need to report it; the bandits won't even know."

Gu Zijian held his sword horizontally, ready to stab the scarred man to death.

"Purple Sword, wait."

Sun Jian stopped her again.

"What's wrong, my husband?"

"He almost stabbed you with a dagger, and he's a bandit too. I can't let him live!"

Sun Jian sighed softly and said, "Killing him now would only harm us."

“You are not native residents of this area, so you may not know this.”

“There are not only bandits in the west around Hongnong County, but also a band of bandits in Hupan Mountain to the north, numbering about 1,700 or 1,800, although they are more than 80 kilometers away from here.”

"This guy is at most a scout sent out by bandits."

“If the bandits send out scouts, they will come down the mountain to plunder, whether they are dead or alive.”

“Even if we kill him now, the bandits won’t get the news and will still come. If he shows up in our village, it means our village is doomed.”

"ah?"

These words startled even Gu Zijian, let alone Chu Qingcheng and Zhou Wan'er.

"Big brother... Big brother is quite knowledgeable."

The bandit named Scarface breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing Sun Jian's words and began to fawn over him with a smile.

"Even if you kill me, they'll still come. You might as well let me go now. I'll go back and tell the chief that this village has no food and no women. Hehe..."

"You better behave!"

Gu Zijian kicked the bandit in the groin, causing Scarface to scream in agony.

"Husband, what should we do now? Should we report it to the authorities?"

Zhou Wan'er chimed in, "Yes, you're a meritorious official of the government, they certainly won't abandon you."

"Ha, if reporting to the authorities were useful, the bandits of Wolf Head Mountain and Tiger Coil Mountain wouldn't have lasted for so many years."

Sun Jian snorted coldly.

“My lord, shouldn’t Lord Wang be a good official…? How come he doesn’t care about the rampant bandits in the area?” Chu Qingcheng said.

Sun Jian sighed and patiently explained to the three women, "Lord Wang has only been in Hongnong County for a little over two years, but the bandits here have been around for at least six or seven years, and they are deeply entrenched."

"Furthermore, our area is very close to the border of the Great Zhou Kingdom, only 300 kilometers away. Many strong men in the county have been conscripted into the army. The few soldiers we have are struggling to protect the city, let alone have time to deal with these bandits who are far away."

"Furthermore, these bandit dens are beyond the jurisdiction of Hongnong County. We have no right to manage them, not to mention that so many people in our county are starving to death every day. The government has no grain and no money, so even if we wanted to, we are powerless."

"Hiding is out of the question. If we move out today, when will we ever come back? Even if we do come back, what if we get robbed by bandits again? If we never come back, we have nowhere to live in the city. The three of us can't live as dependents forever, can we?"

Zhou Wan'er was quite clever and quickly realized that Sun Jian already had a plan.

"So what you mean is?"

"When soldiers come, we'll block them; when water comes, we'll dam it," Sun Jian said calmly.