Shenxi waved his hand and said directly, "If I'm not mistaken, those bandits will return in a short while."

The villagers were startled when they heard this.

Life has been hard for many years, and things have finally become more stable. Why can't the bandits let them go?

Although Shenxi was not afraid of small groups of bandits, she dared not speculate on how many bandits would return.

There were soldiers among the bandits. If she was their leader, she certainly wouldn't have just led them to plunder and then gone back.

Especially since the heroine Leng Aofu saved half the village last night, it's impossible that the escaped bandits didn't send messages elsewhere.

Did they dare to commit the crime so close to her in an attempt to lure her out?

The place where Leng Aofu rescued the villagers was not in the village itself, but on the way to Qiaozhen.

Chenxi overlooked this place. At that time, it was a very urgent situation. Given the abilities of these bandits, how could they have let the villagers escape?

Even in Wangjiazhuang, the people fought desperately, but that was all they could do. It was very difficult to escape. A few individuals might have managed to escape, but half the village's population had managed to run away, and the police were chasing them all the way to Qiaozhen.

In other words, regardless of whether Leng Aofu happens to be there or not, this group of people will arrive at Qiaozhen.

Then the story of Wangjiazhuang can also be overturned. The villagers were brave, but it was still difficult to resist bandits. How could they have held out for so long?

At this moment, a guard who had been scouting and searching for traces of bandits rushed back: "Commander, Commander!"

The guards were already out of breath.

"They've arrived, quite a few of them."

Shenxi immediately understood and ordered, "No need to go any further. Let's see who comes out on top this time."

The villagers turned pale with fright; the leader's words were far too serious.

Shenxi immediately instructed, "Village chief, you are most familiar with this area. We still need your guidance on where to hide, where to set up ambushes, and where it is suitable to wage guerrilla warfare."

Luzhuang had calmed down and was no longer flustered after hearing what the leader said.

"Alright, sir, please follow me."

Riding horses on mountain roads is difficult, so Chenxi had already ordered people to tie the horses outside the mountains.

Shenxi wasn't afraid that anyone would come here to steal the horse; it was her chief's horse, and whoever stole it would be in trouble.

Besides, this place is quite secluded.

Lu Zhuang led Chen Xi into the mountains outside the village.

The mountains are rugged with rocks and the trees are withered and dense.

Lu Zhuang walked quickly, occasionally explaining the traps to prevent Chen Xi and the others from falling in.

As they walked, Leng Aofu leaned closer to Chen Xi: "Commander, let me take some men to intercept and kill them."

Shen Xi shook her head: "Aunt Leng, this is not a one-man battle. If I were the leader of the other side, I would definitely bring a lot of people and be determined to wipe out their leader in one fell swoop."

"If you lead a group of people to intercept and kill them, it will only increase casualties."

Leng Aofu asked, puzzled, "But if this continues, we'll inevitably have to fight in the end, won't we?"

Shenxi explained, "It's different. If I'm not mistaken, the other side definitely has more people than us this time. We need to plan carefully and avoid too many unnecessary casualties."

Shenxi turned to Luzhuang and asked, "Village chief, how many such traps are there?"

Lu Zhuang smiled wryly: "Not many. These are the same old traps. If we can catch prey, we will. But this year, we can hardly catch any prey. There are fewer and fewer prey in the mountains."

Chen Xi nodded, then asked, "Was the place where you hid last night not easily found by ordinary people?"

Lu Zhuang nodded: "I can't find it. There's a cave behind a lot of vines. And this cave is on a cliff."

Chen Xi frowned and stopped in her tracks.

Are the vines as dry as these trees?

Lu Zhuang didn't know what Chen Xi meant by asking this, but seeing that Chen Xi had stopped, he had no choice but to stop as well and reply: "Yes, it hasn't rained this year, and the vines have dried up completely."

Chen Xi frowned again, then asked, "How high is the cliff? What's below?"

Lu Zhuang replied, "The cliff is tens of meters high, and below it is an open space where nothing grows and there are no rocks. Originally, we thought this large flat area could be used for farming, but nothing grows. This year, not even a few grasses have grown."

"However, there is one advantage: the salt we eat is swept out from there."

Upon hearing this, Chenxi immediately understood; it turned out that the land below was all saline-alkali soil.

In this kind of land, things might grow a little during the rainy season, but nothing grows during the dry season.

Chenxi asked Luzhuang again, "Is there a road leading outside from here?"

Lu Zhuang shook his head: "Below is a basin of about several tens of acres, surrounded by cliffs on all sides, with no road leading out."

Chenxi asked Luzhuang again, "Is there really no way out of the basin below?"

Lu Zhuang answered with certainty, "No, we've lived here all our lives and often come here to collect salt. We know the terrain here inside and out."

"The surrounding area is all cliffs. In the good old days, fearless sheep would often climb down to lick salt. We would occasionally find sheep that had fallen to their deaths at the bottom of the cliff."

Shenxi thought to himself, "That's right. Animal World has introduced that goats are good at climbing, especially blue sheep, whose climbing ability is superb. There are many places that humans cannot climb with their bare hands, but these sheep can climb up and down without any fear."

Hearing this, Chenxi said, "Let's keep going, let's go to that cliff."

Although Lu Zhuang didn't understand, he was obedient and led the people forward.

When he led Shenxi to the top of the cliff, Shenxi couldn't help but admire the wonders of nature.

The vines, grown over many years, have woven a dense curtain that hangs halfway down the cliff.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!