Chapter 427 Who will dig this mass grave?
(Thanks to Big Tiger's sister for casting a monthly vote.)
Having gone through so much trouble, of course I should bring back something valuable.
Moreover, Li Shiyue wouldn't believe everything the bandits said.
Should we believe what these people say?
That's really stupid.
You should know that Jian'an is at least 600 li away from here, and that doesn't even take into account that this group of bandits took a deserted mountain road.
If you include hiking through the mountains, the distance becomes even longer.
The bandits weren't a regular army capable of marching a hundred miles a day.
Judging from the timelines mentioned by these people, it took them at least a month to reach this mountain stronghold after leaving Jian'an.
For over a month, they walked along mountain paths. Could they really go without food and water?
It will inevitably pass through villages and towns.
Moreover, Li Shiyue was certain that in other places, this group of bandits must have done the same thing they did at Zhao You's house—taking the opportunity to ask for water, entering the house to kill and steal food, and going down the mountain at night to burn, kill, rob, and kidnap women and girls who could be sold for money.
In other words, this gang of thieves must have committed more than just the crime at Zhao You's house!
However, they have never been caught, presumably because they were only committing minor offenses before, and had not actually committed such a major crime as robbing an entire village.
Or perhaps they killed people, stole grain and gold, and fled into the mountains, leaving the local constables who were tasked with apprehending the thieves empty-handed.
Sure enough, as a light drizzle began to fall, Hei Zi led the Xuanjia Army over carrying two wooden boxes, one large and one small.
“General, it was found in the woodshed behind their kitchen.”
Hei Zi stepped forward and lifted the lid of the large wooden box. Even without the sun shining, Li Shiyue could still see the unique luster of precious metals on this pile of silver ingots.
Li Shiyue stepped forward, picked up a boat-shaped silver ingot to examine it, and exclaimed, "Wow, it's about 80% new, and it's even official silver!"
Turning around, Li Shiyue looked at the two rows of bandits still kneeling on the ground and said with a sneer, "Well done, you guys are pretty good, you even managed to get your hands on this government silver."
"From which government office did you steal this?"
Li Shiyue put down the silver ingots and then looked at the other valuables in the small wooden box. There were about ten gold ingots, some pearls and jewelry, and then some small pieces of silver and copper coins of obviously poor quality.
Presumably, that pile in the corner was looted from various homes in Zhao You's family.
Chen Yong suddenly stepped forward and slapped the thief who had shouted "Boss!" from inside the house earlier across the face.
"The general is asking you a question!"
Before the bandit, whom the other bandits called "Second Boss," could react, Chen Yong slapped him again.
"Didn't you hear me?"
After delivering two solid slaps, Chen Yong pretended to realize that he hadn't removed the gag from the second-in-command's mouth and went over to remove it.
"Speak quickly, just answer whatever the general asks you!"
The second-in-command, bewildered by Li Shiyue's mocking gaze, swallowed hard before stammering, "General, this silver didn't come from the government office."
Li Shiyue walked over and stood in front of the second-in-command.
"Oh? Tell me in detail, if this government silver didn't come from the government office, then how was it obtained?"
The second-in-command, who looked thin and frail, unable to lift a finger, and resembled a scholar, knelt on the ground with his head down and whispered to Li Shiyue how they had obtained this pile of government silver.
It turned out that this pile of government silver belonged to Wang, a wealthy man from Qingshiling, whom they had robbed on the way.
As for where Wang, a wealthy landlord, got all this government silver from, the bandits had no idea.
"...The chief said that we need some money to escape, otherwise we will still die."
Wang the richest man in our Qingshiling Town. His family not only had tenant farmers, but also many shops.
Moreover, he usually holds back 20% or even 30% of the fish catch from fishermen.
In short, the Wang family must have had a lot of gold and silver.
So I suggested to the chief that we rob the Wang family tonight to get some money to use on our escape journey.”
"The entire Wang family is dead."
Li Shiyue said this with certainty.
Upon hearing Li Shiyue's words, the second-in-command suddenly looked up at Li Shiyue.
Li Shiyue didn't look at him, but instead glanced at Sun Xiaoliu.
Sun Xiaoliu was quick-witted and had already taken out paper and pen to write down what the second-in-command had said.
"...The chief had his eye on the Wang family's daughters, and because he wanted to kidnap them, he ended up having to kill them all."
When we were looting the Wang family's gold and silver, we found these official silver coins hidden in the crevices of the bed where the wealthy Wang slept.
The bed was neatly covered with this kind of official silver!
Li Shiyue nodded, then asked the second-in-command another question: "What about the Wang family girl? Did you kill her? Or was she sold on the way?"
"......"
The second-in-command was trembling, whether from kneeling outside in the rain all night or from Li Shiyue once again hitting the nail on the head regarding the evil deeds they had committed.
“We dare not spend the government silver. When the chief had his fill of the Wang family’s daughters, he sold them to a brothel when they passed through Fuzhou.”
At this moment, Hei Zi also led the Xuanjia Army to move all the people they had killed from the entrance of the village to the wooden house last night to this place.
Presumably because it had rained all night, the smell of blood on the corpse was not very strong.
After glancing at it, Li Shiyue said to Hei Zi, "Cut off his head and take it back to collect the reward."
Having received Li Shiyue's words, Hei Zi led the other three men forward with knives to behead him.
This scene terrified the twenty or so bandits.
Some of the more timid ones urinated on the spot.
Qin Fen stood at the door, staring intently as Hei Zi and his men chopped off heads.
Qin Fen wasn't too scared at this moment. He was a hunter after all, and he had seen plenty of bloody scenes.
Although the scene of beheading was indeed somewhat shocking to him, it wasn't enough to scare him so much that he defecated and urinated like those bandits.
Qin Fen simply elevated his status towards Li Shiyue, his sister-in-law, once again in his mind.
Qin Fen now felt that Li Shiyue was willing to call him "brother-in-law" even before he married Li Qiutian, which was truly because he genuinely loved Li Qiutian.
Although Qin Fen couldn't say it aloud, his beast-like intuition told him: "I must continue to be good to Qiu Tian. As long as I'm good to Qiu Tian, everyone will be fine!"
At this moment, Wang Cuihua, who was hiding in front of the wooden house window, cried out in surprise and then covered Zhao Xier's eyes, who was standing in front of her.
"Mother?"
"Don't look!"
In less than fifteen minutes, dozens of heads were piled up together.
A strong stench of blood permeated the area, and Li Shiyue then instructed Chen Yong, "Find a place and dig a big pit."
Why dig a hole?
Of course, it's for burying corpses.
This headless corpse can't just be left like that.
As for who will dig this mass grave?
Those were naturally the twenty or so bandits who had been kneeling on the ground and getting soaked in the rain all night.
Chen Yong selected a few Xuanjia soldiers and went forward to untie the ropes binding the hands and feet of these bandits one by one, distributing the pickaxes that the Xuanjia soldiers had searched out from the kitchen to them.
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