As soon as Qi Chenglang finished speaking, the quiet surroundings suddenly became noisy, as if they had been in an illusion, and now the illusion had broken and they had returned to reality.
Cries of pain and snoring filled the air, and soon someone noticed something was wrong. At that moment, Qi Chenglang launched a signal flare.
The signal flare exploded in the air, creating a blue flower that briefly illuminated the entire mountain. Qi Chenglang and Zhang Yuankai exchanged a glance in the brief light, then both drew their long swords and leaped into the blaze.
They expected a fierce battle, but what happened was that when they kicked open one door, the people inside were missing limbs; when they kicked open another door, the people inside were already dead. There weren't many intact people left for them, and these people were very weak in combat.
The two fought fiercely, and just as the people on the mountainside reached the summit, the encirclement and suppression operation on the summit was already over.
Qi Chenglang pointed his blade downwards, a few drops of blood dripping onto the ground. He grinned at Zhang Yuankai, "Ten people captured."
Zhang Yuankai angrily sheathed his knife, didn't announce the number, turned around and roared, "Hurry up, tie up all those injured people inside and bring them out. I want to ask them who gave them the guts!"
Qi Chenglang clicked his tongue and shook his head, then stepped forward and patted Zhang Yuankai on the shoulder: "Tell me, why get angry? If you didn't win, you didn't win, it's no big deal. In the entire palace, how many people are stronger than me? Besides, with Uncle Wolf's help, we've reduced our losses, haven't we?"
Zhang Yuankai rolled his eyes in annoyance, took half a step to the side, and his shoulders trembled slightly: "Get lost!"
Qi Chenglang chuckled and then put away his knife. After all the people in the mountain stronghold were strung together with hemp rope like candied hawthorns, Qi Chenglang finally spoke: "Who among you is in charge here?"
These bandits felt utterly wronged. They were still asleep when not only were their arms and legs inexplicably broken, but they were also surrounded and killed by the government officials.
One of the men, who had lost an arm, shouted, "You people are shameless! Just because you're government officials doesn't give you the right to raid other people's homes in the middle of the night! If you're so capable, let's fight one-on-one!"
Upon hearing this, Qi Chenglang knew that he was no ordinary person. He took two steps forward and kicked him to the ground: "Fight me one-on-one? You're not worthy!"
He was a high-ranking palace guard, now the chief guard of Prince Wen. It would be a laughing stock to hear that he was fighting a bandit one-on-one!
"Tell me, where are the things you looted a couple of days ago?"
The leader turned his head to one side, and his tone suddenly softened: "Sir, we are all good people. We just set up a mountain as a village. Look at us, there's nothing decent in here. How could we be the bandits you're talking about?"
Strangely enough, the escorting guards and the rewards could not be found even after searching the entire mountain. This made Qi Chenglang, who had been so confident, somewhat anxious, and at the same time, he understood why this bandit had been able to exist for so many years.
There must be someone supporting it, and not just any nobody.
Thinking of the prefects who hadn't replied to his letters today, Qi Chenglang narrowed his eyes slightly, stepped on the man's chest, and with a little force, the man cried out in pain, trying to roll around, but Qi Chenglang's foot held him firmly in place: "I'll ask you one more time, where did the stolen goods go?"
The man cried out, "Murder! The officials are killing people without even asking questions!"
Qi Chenglang closed his eyes slightly, took two steps back, and gave Zhang Yuankai a wink: "Take him to the small hut next door and have a good talk with him, let them know what friendly communication is."
For some reason, the leader felt a sudden jolt in his heart, as if being punched and kicked outside was a good thing.
Before he could react, Zhang Yuankai had already cut the ropes around him and dragged him by the feet into a small hut next door.
After the screams of the leader inside, which were many times more miserable than before, came out, Qi Chenglang smiled slightly: "Do you know who went in just now? Before coming to Mobei, this person worked in the Ministry of Justice. Since taking office, he has come into contact with at least eight hundred or a thousand prisoners, but none of them could keep a secret from him."
Qi Chenglang spoke calmly and slowly, walking back and forth in front of the bandits with his hands behind his back. Behind him were constables carrying torches. The bandits could not see his face, but they had a terrifying feeling that he was a living Yama descending to earth.
The bandits felt a cool night breeze, the chill spreading from their hearts and quickly enveloping their limbs and bones.
"It doesn't matter if you don't speak now, but once you're escorted to Changzhou Prefecture, you won't have the chance to speak."
“I’ll talk, I’ll talk.” One of them couldn’t withstand the pressure and burst into tears. “We really were villagers, villagers from Quanzhoujing Township. Our village is the northernmost village in the northern desert. When the Northern Di invaded, the first thing they did was massacre our village.”
Several bandits nearby seemed to recall the horrors of that year, and began to sob and weep as they recounted: "That night, it was also around this time. Almost all the old people, women, and children in our village died, leaving us to desperately flee..."
"Wait a minute!" Qi Chenglang sensed something was amiss. "Even if you were in a village on the border of Quanzhou, the Northern Desert Army would be stationed in front of you. You're saying that when the Northern Barbarians invaded and massacred people, the Northern Desert Army didn't resist? There was no fighting, and they just let the Northern Barbarians enter freely?"
Twenty years ago, the general of the Northern Army should have been that person. How could he have allowed the Northern Barbarians to enter the vicinity of Quanzhou so quietly, burning, killing, and looting?
“It’s true!” One of them hurriedly spoke up when he saw that Qi Chenglang didn’t believe him. “We all heard it. It was the Northern Barbarian language! We heard it clearly! They killed one family and burned another. We had no choice but to run away overnight. A few days later, when we heard that the Northern Desert Army had captured the Northern Barbarian prisoners, we went home and found that we had lost our identities.”
The survivors of the entire village lost their identities. Some of them went to the government office, but were directly imprisoned and never came out again.
These people had no identity, no travel permits, and could go nowhere, so they had no choice but to become outlaws.
At this point, Qi Chenglang did not doubt that they would lie, but the whole thing just didn't make sense. All the elderly, women and children in a village were killed, while the able-bodied men who were left behind had no identity. If this were told, who wouldn't be confused?
And most importantly, how did a group of villagers defeat the escort team's guards and successfully take away all the rewards?
Qi Chenglang suppressed his thoughts and pointed at the first person to speak, saying, "Your identities have been revealed. Now, tell us honestly, where did the stolen goods go?"
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