Some patrolled various towns to maintain order and control the displaced people, some waited at the yamen for orders, and the remaining nearly three hundred people were just waiting for his command to rush out and suppress the bandits.
If Wang Ergou wasn't lying, he should have enough men, but the stronghold was easy to defend and difficult to attack, so these bandits were really hard to wipe out.
If we cannot take them down in one fell swoop tomorrow, the government will likely suffer heavy losses. At this time, the refugees have not yet been settled, and we still have to suppress bandits, which is already a waste of manpower and resources.
The city is slowly recovering, and the prefect has a lot of things to do, so he can't offer much help, since it's just a small mountain stronghold.
However, the small team that escorted the disaster relief funds remained in the yamen, and the prefect ordered them to obey his commands.
Originally intended to suppress refugees, they can now help him suppress bandits. Although there are only about twenty of them, they are still a source of assistance.
Delivering the silver tomorrow is a good opportunity; he can't miss it and must seize it in one fell swoop.
After thinking for a while, he told Lin Yan'an some more details and then had him leave, while he went to prepare for the bandit suppression the next day.
The following day, Jiang Yimian spent the entire day in the small depression.
The others were busy with their own things and didn't go out after hearing Jiang Yimian's words.
Jiang Yimian didn't leave the small depression until late afternoon, when she made an excuse to go find Mimi.
As soon as we entered the woods near the cave, we heard a lot of rustling sounds.
Jiang Yimian carefully made her way through the woods where traps had been set, and from a distance she could see people hiding in the dense forest and bushes halfway up the mountain.
Although those people were lying on the ground wearing clothes made of withered leaves, Jiang Yimian still spotted them at a glance.
The breathing of the group was so loud that others couldn't hear it, but she could clearly hear everyone's breathing.
She glanced at the familiar ghillie suit, then concealed her presence and disappeared to another location.
Jiang Yimian found a clump of bushes halfway up the mountain with a wide view and where she could hide herself before looking into the mountain village.
There were more people patrolling the mountain stronghold today than yesterday. Several teams were looking around the stronghold, and even the people on the watchtower were on high alert. No one was slacking off and they were all paying attention to the surrounding movements.
They're probably all preparing for sending money to the Lin family.
They say you can gamble and win big, and these counterfeiters are gambling too.
They were betting that the Lin family wouldn't report it to the authorities, and that the government wouldn't be able to breach the mountain stronghold.
It must be said that the location of the stronghold is indeed excellent, connecting to a deep mountain. If these bandits want to escape, they can simply hide in the deep mountains, and it would be difficult for the government officials to find their whereabouts even if they searched for ten days or half a month.
However, Jiang Yimian will not give them that chance.
Seeing that it was almost time and wisps of smoke were already rising from the village, she went straight down the mountain.
With a few leaps, taking advantage of the fact that everyone on the watchtower was looking at the road in the distance, she directly jumped over the two-meter-high fence and sneaked into the mountain village.
It's probably still five quarters past Shen time, more than two hours before seven quarters past You time, plenty of time for her to cause trouble.
Upon entering the mountain village, she was met by a patrol team. In a moment of panic, she immediately hid in a nearby house.
The room was very clean, and you could see at a glance that there was only a cabinet about one and a half meters tall, a table, and a bed.
Next to the table was a window, which was tightly closed at the moment.
Jiang Yimian glanced around and saw that the patrol team outside had left. Just as she was about to go out, she saw several young women walking over, chatting and laughing, seemingly about to come in.
Startled, she darted into the wardrobe. Before she could close the door, a dark figure darted in and quickly shut the door.
The man clearly hadn't expected anyone to be in the cabinet, and reached out to attack her.
The cabinet was too cramped for Jiang Yimian to dodge, so she simply didn't flinch and instead thrust the curved dagger directly at the other person.
The door to the room was opened at that moment, and the light from outside shone through the gaps in the cabinet, but then quickly disappeared.
The opponent paused and withdrew his force in time, not continuing his attack. Jiang Yimian's dagger remained firmly pressed against the opponent's waist, but she made no further move.
The two of them held their breath, carefully watching the movements outside.
"This is really strange. Why did they tell us to cook so early? We've eaten now, are they going to make us another meal in the middle of the night?"
"Who knows? Let's just cook. Who dares to disobey the chieftain's orders?"
As they talked, the two sat on stools in front of the table and drank water. The other man lowered his voice and said, "Hey, I heard from some bandits that it seems to be about a batch of goods that were stolen last time. I heard that the goods belonged to some wealthy family. The chieftain specially sent someone to deliver a message to that wealthy family, asking them to send money to ransom the goods and the people."
"I heard that most of that stuff has already been sold, so why are you still redeeming it?"
"You wouldn't know this, would you? It's probably because of the people locked up in the woodshed. There's a young master from a wealthy family in there. I reckon he won't come back alive."
"These bandits are cunning, ruthless, and untrustworthy. They're disgusting. They even want to keep us around to have their babies. Bah!"
"Keep your voice down. Alright, hurry up and go cook, or you'll get yelled at."
After saying that, the group left the house.
The door was closed, and the room fell silent again.
Jiang Yimian sheathed the dagger, pushed open the cabinet door, and bright light instantly illuminated the cabinet.
She looked at the familiar person in front of her with a calm expression and asked in surprise, "What are you doing here?"
It had been quite a while since I'd seen him, but the person in front of me hadn't changed much. His coarse linen clothes couldn't hide his imposing presence, but the coldness in his eyes seemed to have increased.
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