While the other bandits were looting the grain, Ah Xing and Eagle Eye stood still, observing the group of government soldiers.
"Why don't you just rob it?"
Seeing that they were standing still, Li Chang'an asked them a question.
“I have to stay and watch over you, otherwise what if you run away?”
Hawkeye glanced at him sideways, his tone somewhat impatient: "You're a prisoner now, you're not allowed to speak."
Li Chang'an was not angry when he heard this; he just smiled and then shut his mouth.
He wasn't angry, but the soldiers behind him couldn't stand it.
"How dare you!"
Chen Da stared coldly at Hawkeye, his eyes filled with murderous intent. The other soldiers' expressions also darkened, and they quickly surrounded him.
In their hearts, Li Chang'an is their faith, their god. Now that someone is insulting their god to their face, they can no longer tolerate it.
"Step back."
Li Chang'an waved his hand, and the soldiers stopped.
Ah Xing looked at these people, their movements perfectly synchronized, his eyes filled with vigilance.
These officers and soldiers were completely different from those he had seen before. The way they looked at him and his men was as if they were watching a monkey show.
Even though their weapons were in their own hands, they didn't feel any fear. This confidence was something that the soldiers who went into the mountains to suppress bandits in the past could never match.
Ah Xing cupped his hands in greeting to Li Chang'an: "Sir, Hawkeye isn't very bright, please don't take it to heart. We'll just take some food and leave. Please spare our lives."
Li Chang'an smiled upon hearing this: "Don't worry, I'm not a murderer."
“I, Li, am kind by nature. If you don’t believe me, you can go out and ask around.”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Xianzong secretly rolled his eyes. Not to mention the powerful families in Jiangnan, whose blood had flowed like rivers, the army had killed countless people along the way to Lüliang Mountain.
The number of bandits who died at Chen Da's hands alone was no less than a thousand.
Ah Xing gave a fake laugh twice, then took out a bamboo tube from his hand.
Having lived in the Lüliang Mountains for so many years, he discovered a rule: anyone who claims to be a good person is basically a ruthless killer.
Anyone who shows kindness without a reason must have an ulterior motive.
Although we don't know what these people are up to, they definitely don't have good intentions.
Ah Xing can only pray that his distress signal will be seen by the village chief.
After eating some beans, the bandits regained some of their strength. They dragged their food and carried their weapons, then prepared to leave.
These people seem suspicious; it'd be better to leave soon.
As they walked, they realized something was wrong. They turned around and saw that the soldiers were following them in perfect unison.
They took a few more steps forward, and Li Chang'an followed with his men.
The bandits moved faster and faster, until in the end they could only run.
Unfortunately, the grain carts were so big that no matter how fast they ran, they couldn't get very far.
"Stop running, stop running, the silly girl is lost."
A woman was running when she realized that the silly girl who had been following her was gone. She quickly shouted loudly to make the people in front of her stop.
"We can't worry about that now, let's run. Those soldiers are still following us."
"Exactly, who knows, maybe that silly girl took a shortcut back home."
The other bandits ignored her; they were only thinking about escaping.
The woman gritted her teeth and stopped: "No, that silly girl is my eldest brother's only child. I can't abandon her."
As she was saying this, she prepared to go back and look for it, but before she could turn around, she saw the fleeing group stop.
"Second Aunt, Second Aunt, I'm here."
The woman looked up and saw the leader of the soldiers who had been there earlier standing in front of them, holding the silly girl.
Behind the column, the officers and soldiers followed.
"Why are you running so fast? The little girl is lost, and you didn't even bother to look for her."
Li Chang'an put the little girl down and let her return to the bandits' group.
"What exactly do you want?"
Ah Xing looked at him, his body tense. The other bandits also grabbed their weapons and looked around warily.
Even the most foolish among them understood that this man had no intention of letting them go.
"It's nothing, I just wanted to visit your Pig Cage Mountain Village."
Li Chang'an turned to the side, gesturing for them to leave.
Ah Xing didn't leave, but took out the bamboo tube in his hand: "I'm warning you, there are many people in our mountain stronghold, forty or fifty thousand people. They are not as easy to talk to as we are. They are all ruthless mountain bandits who kill without blinking an eye."
"As soon as I put this down, they will come over immediately, and then you won't be able to escape."
Li Chang'an smiled but didn't say anything.
Seeing his expression, Ah Xing took out a tinderbox from his pocket, lit the cotton thread on the bamboo tube, and shouted, "One arrow pierces the clouds, and a thousand armies will come to meet us!"
"Whoosh—Bang!"
The top of the bamboo tube suddenly exploded, sending a cloud of red smoke soaring into the sky before exploding in mid-air.
Seeing the smoke billowing out, Ah Xing felt more confident; with such a thick cloud of smoke, the chieftain must have seen it.
He pointed at Li Chang'an and said, "You're going to die soon. Once our chieftain arrives, you'll know what fear is."
Looking at the smoke in the sky, Li Chang'an was also somewhat surprised. He did not expect that the explosives that Lin Linfa and his group of Confucian scholars had failed to develop had actually been produced by these people from Lüliang Mountain.
In that instant, a thought popped into his mind: he absolutely had to bring these Mo family members back to Tai'an City.
What he lacks most right now is not advisors, but people who understand the principles of investigation.
Before the smoke had even cleared, several figures descended from the sky and landed among the bandits' ranks.
When Ah Xing saw them, it was as if he had seen saviors: "Chief, you've finally come."
The village chief ignored him and instead scanned the area. When he saw the two thousand elite soldiers behind the bandits, he fell silent.
"Hawkeye, is this the big fish you were talking about, the caravan you mentioned?"
The chieftain grabbed Eagle Eyes, wishing he could slap him to death: "These people are obviously government troops, okay? Why did you lead them here?"
When Zhang Xianzong saw the chieftain, he exclaimed in surprise, "Holy crap, Ah Zhen?"
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