Lu Tu shouted to Nie Yun and the others, "Everyone, stand ready to defend the village! I'll save people first!"
Fortunately, Lu Tu had people keep allicin on hand in the watchman's house. Now all he had to do was pull out the arrows from Sun Meng's brothers, apply some ointment, and hand them over to the villagers to take care of.
Sun Meng grabbed Lü Tu's arm and said, "Brother, these guys aren't ordinary bandits. They're very skilled. Be careful!"
Lu Tu patted his arm: "I understand, you can rest assured."
Song Yuxi offered him her sword, saying, "Husband, be careful."
"I will."
After he came out, there were still dozens of villagers standing there. Lu Tu glanced at them indifferently and said, "The meat will be distributed later. You can go home first."
The villagers stood stubbornly in place, and one of them shouted, "Chief, take us with you, so we can help out more!"
The others nodded in agreement: "Yes, sir, we can't just eat and drink your food for free. We need manpower right now, so it would be good if you had more people to run errands for us."
Seeing their resolute expressions, which suggested they weren't joking, Lu Tu felt a surge of excitement: "Alright! Let's protect the village together! Come with me to the armory and grab some weapons!"
The group of villagers picked up the long knives issued by the border troops, their morale instantly rising. They followed behind Lü Tu and ran in the direction from which Sun Meng and his companion had come.
Lu Tu ordered Liu Yang to lead about ten soldiers to guard the village, while he led Nie Yun to fight his way out.
They hadn't gone far when they found a familiar body—a villager from Kuishan Village.
A sense of sorrow welled up in everyone's hearts after seeing this. They had dug trenches to kill the Wuhuan, but they never expected to die at the hands of bandits on their way to Wuchuan.
Continuing along the official road, Lü Tu soon heard the sound of rapid hoofbeats in the distance. He gestured for the group to stop: "Everyone, hide in the woods and await my orders!"
A series of soft noises rang out around them. After everyone had hidden themselves, Lü Tu sat upright on his horse, sword in hand, and bumped into more than twenty soldiers running towards him.
When the group approached, Lü Tu finally recognized who they were: Zhou Taishan's son, Zhou Yabing!
When he saw Lü Tu, his face hardened, and he rebuked him, "Lü Tu! How have you managed to control the bandits in your Kuishan Village?"
With a wave of Zhou Yabing's hand, the soldiers threw out a pile of cloth bags from behind them, and as the ropes loosened, human heads rolled out one by one.
"No need to look anymore, I've already wiped out these bandits for you."
Lu Tu remembered Sun Meng reminding him that these bandits were not simple to deal with, and even they couldn't handle them. So how could they be so easily dealt with by Zhou Yabing, this good-for-nothing?
Moreover, seeing that there wasn't even much blood on their bodies, and no signs of a major battle, Lu Tu wasn't stupid and naturally wouldn't believe him.
Lu Tu looked at Zhou Yabing and said sarcastically, "Zhou Yabing, instead of staying in the Commandant's mansion drinking and eating meat, you braved the freezing cold to come to my Kuishan Village just to help me wipe out the bandits?"
“I was passing by and saw the bandits running rampant, so I just swept them away. This is what I should do as a border soldier. As for your dereliction of duty, I will definitely report it to the Commandant.” After saying this, Zhou Yabing turned his horse around and was about to leave.
But Lu Tu stopped him: "Zhou Yabing, you don't need to test me anymore."
Zhou Yabing, knowing the answer already, asked, "What do you mean by that?"
Lu Tu clapped his hands, and dozens of villagers wielding long knives instantly surged out from all around, surrounding Zhou Yabing.
"You had your personal guards impersonate bandits to ambush and kill my men on the way, and now you're using the heads of some insignificant people as an excuse? Do you think I'm a fool?"
Zhou Yabing was startled. He hadn't revealed any flaws, yet Lü Tu had seen through his plan at a glance. Now that he was surrounded by so many people, it would be a lie to say he wasn't panicking.
"Lu Tu, do you know what you're doing? You're rebelling!"
Lu Tu laughed loudly: "I'm rebelling? You allow your men to become bandits and rob my soldiers on the official road. I think you're the one who's rebelling!"
Without giving Zhou Yabing a chance to explain, Lü Tu continued to shout at the soldiers around him: "I know you were coerced by Zhou Yabing. You are good men of the border army. If you surrender now, I will definitely deal with you fairly and will never harm you!"
Upon hearing this, Zhou Yabing panicked and shouted at the soldiers around him, "Don't listen to this traitor!"
The twenty-odd soldiers, now facing villagers who outnumbered them by a factor of two, especially the god-like Lu Tu, couldn't help but have second thoughts.
Especially given Lü Tu's recent outstanding contributions to the Wuchuan border army, his reputation has long been well-known to them. Now that they are facing Lü Tu's wrath, how can they not be swayed?
Lu Tu continued, "You'd better think this through. Being bandits isn't the problem, but you insist on attacking my men, which is tantamount to attacking border troops. You've committed a capital offense!"
"Don't say I didn't give you a chance. If you dare to resist any longer, you'd better drop your weapons and surrender now, or don't blame me for showing no mercy!"
With a clang, one of the soldiers was so frightened by Lü Tu's righteous and stern words that he dropped his long sword to the ground.
In this situation, if one person takes the lead, the others will also choose to follow suit.
As expected, although the twenty-odd soldiers hesitated greatly, they still threw down their long swords and lowered their heads, not daring to look at Zhou Yabing.
Seeing this, Zhou Yabing was so angry that he picked up his whip and lashed it repeatedly at the soldiers, cursing, "You bunch of cowards, you actually listened to his nonsense! He's the one who colluded with the bandits! Pick up your knives now!"
The soldiers present knew better than anyone what they had done; they would never have done it if Zhou Yabing hadn't threatened them in Zhou Taishan's name.
Even though their combat strength was not great on a regular basis, they couldn't bear to take up their knives and attack Sun Meng and Sun Kuang, who were also border soldiers.
Lu Tu waved his hand and said, "Take down Zhou Yabing!"
The surrounding villagers were already angry because they hadn't been able to eat meat, and when they discovered that their fellow villagers had died unjustly, they became even more furious.
They swarmed forward and dragged Zhou Yabing off his horse, raining blows upon him, causing him to grimace and howl in pain.
If it weren't for Lü Tu's orders, Zhou Yabing would have been beaten to death on the spot by the enraged villagers. After Lü Tu stopped them, Zhou Yabing was tied up.
Lü Tu led his entourage in a grand procession toward Wuchuan, with the surrendered soldiers following behind, their heads bowed in shame.
It was still dark when passersby and merchants noticed this astonishing scene. Who would normally carry knives into the city in such a large group? Wasn't that just courting death?
But Lu Tu was determined to make a big show of things. The more people saw what he was doing, the greater his chances of winning would be. In fact, it could be said that whether he could bring down Zhou Taishan depended on this one move!
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