The bandit leader was furious, feeling insulted. "I heard from these refugees that your Zhen family has been distributing porridge here for five days now, and there are this many people every day!"

"Everyone knows that your Zhen family is one of the wealthiest in Jizhou. Enough talk. If you don't hand over 100,000 shi of grain, we'll storm your manor right now."

"Kill the men, take the women!" the bandit leader threatened.

"Your Majesty, you have no idea how much 100,000 shi is. The entire grain reserves of Wuji County combined are no more than that!"

Seeing this, Zhang hurriedly stepped forward and said, "Even if we could give it to you, you couldn't take it away!"

Oh, I see!

Upon hearing this, the bandit leader realized he had miscalculated: "Then... then it'll be ten thousand shi! No less than that!"

That's about all the flexibility there is in negotiating!

Although what Zhang said was true, the fact that the bandit leader only wanted one-tenth of the price after hearing Zhang's statement almost made Liu Wei burst out laughing.

It's surprising that the Black Mountain Army are such a group of well-mannered and principled thieves!

If the Zhen family can send them away with 10,000 shi of grain, then there's no need for me to take action!

One shi (石) in the Han Dynasty was about 59.9 jin (斤), so 10,000 shi would be about 600,000 jin (斤).

However, they only had a thousand cavalrymen; how could they possibly take them all with them?

Even if you use handcarts, each carrying three or four thousand pounds, it would still take more than 150 handcarts, what a huge procession that would be!

Perhaps Zhen Yao was truly concerned about the transportation problems of these Black Mountain troops:

"Your Majesty, ten thousand shi is too much. I'm worried you won't be able to take it all with you!"

Upon hearing this, the bandit leader felt that the insult was even worse than what Zhen Yao had just told them about the thousand bushels of grain they had been given.

"Smack!"

He suddenly raised his whip and lashed it hard across Zhen Yao's fair face!

Everyone was astonished.

"Why...why did you hit me?" Zhen Yao covered his face, looking completely bewildered.

"That's exactly what I'm going to do, stop babbling and making fun of me!"

"Brothers, charge in! We'll take it ourselves!"

The bandit leader had no time to waste words with Zhen Yao. With a wave of his hand, the hundred followers he had brought drew their weapons and charged forward!

Zhang hadn't expected her son to anger the other party, and immediately shouted, "Your Majesty, stop!"

But these people wouldn't listen to her calls at all.

The servants of Zhenjiazhuang rushed to stop them, but they were no match for these thieves who had killed people.

In the blink of an eye, a dozen or so farmhands were knocked to the ground.

Zhen Yao was so frightened that he ran behind his mother and hid.

Zhang also retreated in a panic. She didn't know how to deal with the other party who was being unreasonable!

The bandit leader, carrying a knife, walked step by step towards Zhang with a cold smile:

"Madam Zhen, you still look quite charming!"

"I imagine your five daughters are even more stunningly beautiful!"

Zhang was so frightened that her face turned pale. She never expected that the bandit leader not only had his eyes on her, a woman who was almost forty years old, but also on her five daughters!

As expected, Liu Wei from Zhuojun was right.

If her daughter and daughter-in-law had come out, they would have become the targets of the thieves long ago.

"What...what do you want to do?"

Zhang retreated step by step, trembling. She had underestimated these thieves.

"Yes! Hehe!"

The bandit leader rubbed his hands together and approached step by step!