Zhao Xian glanced at Chen Daniu, whose shoulder was still bandaged, and asked:
"Da Niu, does your wound still hurt?"
"It doesn't hurt anymore. This little injury is nothing to worry about. It's basically healed now. I can handle those guys from the mountain stronghold tonight without any problem."
At this moment, the village head frowned and said, "Although the people of Wild Wolf Village are not bandits, they are more hateful than bandits. This time they are going to massacre Shuixian Village, and their numbers are too great. We are no match for them at all."
Zhao Xian nodded and said:
"The only people in the village who can fight are Zhao Cheng and Chen Daniu, as well as a few family soldiers. The patrol team members are all ordinary villagers. Except for Guan Ping, who is a retired soldier, the others are no match for those people from the mountain stronghold."
If a fight breaks out, they won't even be able to protect themselves, let alone the villagers.
It was too late to report to the county government at this point. Besides, the county government only had a limited number of yamen runners, and transferring these people wouldn't make much of a difference.
Indeed, everyone was looking at Zhao Xian, hoping he would have a solution.
To protect the villagers of Narcissus Village, he had to rely on himself. Fortunately, he had a market system, so buying weapons to deal with the invaders when necessary was no problem. Although he didn't want to do this, he had no other choice.
He had studied the system before, and after an upgrade, he was able to purchase some simple weapons, mainly firearms and improvised bombs.
Using these weapons requires a certain amount of training; improper use can result in friendly fire. Since the bandits are launching a night attack, firearms are not the best choice, so bombs will be used to deal with them.
These are all my secrets, and I must not let outsiders know them. But if I were to acquire so many bombs all at once, things would get complicated.
However, I have plenty of ways to deal with this; I can easily fool them.
With this in mind, he began to make arrangements. He ordered the village head to gather all the patrol team members, more than ten in number, in an open space on the east side of the village. All his own men also went there, making a total of twenty men. As long as these men learned how to throw grenades, it would be enough to deal with the more than one hundred mountain bandits.
Everyone looked at Zhao Xian, finding it unbelievable that twenty people could deal with more than a hundred well-trained Wild Wolf Village people.
Although everyone had this question in their hearts, none of them voiced it. Since Zhao Xian had a solution, they figured they could only listen to him.
Zhao Xian had them find some stones, each weighing about one or two pounds, pile them together, and then dig several pits about eighty paces away.
After doing these things, Zhao Xian began to speak.
"Tonight, more than a hundred bandits will launch a surprise attack on Narcissus Village. These people are well-trained robbers. If we fight them directly, we are no match for them."
Since we have few people and it's nighttime, our bows and crossbows are no match for them. However, I've found more powerful weapons to deal with them.
What you need to do now is to seize the time to train, throw these stones into the pit in front, and train repeatedly.
As long as we can throw stones accurately, we will be able to defeat those bandits.
Everyone must seize the time to train. We only have a little over an hour. The safety of Narcissus Village depends on you. Start training immediately, without any slackening.
Everyone nodded in agreement and began to seriously practice throwing stones.
Seeing that things were settled here, Zhao Xian pulled the village head away.
They arrived at a secluded spot at the end of the village, where there was an abandoned cowshed, and the two went inside.
"Uncle Village Head, could you please find me some charcoal and sulfur? I need to make some gunpowder and then turn it into bombs to use against the bandits tonight."
At that time, there were no bombs, but there were already firecrackers. Wang Lizheng seemed to understand what it meant. Was this bomb the kind of firecracker that could knock people down?
After receiving Zhao Xian's affirmative reply, the village head found it unbelievable. It was the first time he had ever heard of making large firecrackers for war. But thinking about it, it made sense. Even a small firecracker falling on someone and exploding could cause pain.
If the firecrackers were made big enough, it would be entirely possible to injure or even kill people. Thinking of this, the village head became excited.
"To make gunpowder, charcoal and sulfur alone are not enough; you also need saltpeter and other things, which are not easy to obtain."
"Don't worry, Uncle Village Head, this is easy. You get the charcoal and sulfur first, and I'll prepare the rest. We'll meet up here again later," Zhao Xian said.
The village head nodded and went to prepare charcoal and sulfur. Zhao Xian didn't go anywhere. He bought a hundred simple bombs from the market system, put them in a cloth bag, and placed it next to him.
In reality, there was no way to make gunpowder and bombs in such a short time. The reason he asked the village head to prepare these materials was just to cover his tracks and keep others from knowing what he was really up to.
These bombs are easy to use; just tear off the exposed fuse and throw them to detonate. As for their power, we'll have to test them later to find out.
A little while later, the village head brought over charcoal and sulfur. He saw several bags of something in the cowshed and assumed they were saltpeter.
The village head put the things down and was about to help Zhao Xian make a bomb when Zhao Xian told him to leave immediately and stay far away from the cowshed.
“Uncle Village Head, I can make the bomb myself. This place is extremely dangerous. If it explodes, everyone here will surely die.”
"Making this bomb was a last resort. To minimize unnecessary casualties, we ask Uncle Village Head to leave. Shuixian Village cannot be without him."
Zhao Xian's words deeply moved Wang Lizheng. For the safety of Shuixian Village, Zhao Xian had disregarded his own safety; this was true righteousness.
The village head knew that Zhao Xian wouldn't be able to make the bomb if he didn't leave. Time was running out, so he had to hurry. Seeing Zhao Xian's determined look, the village head had no choice but to leave.
After the village head left, Zhao Xian first smashed the charcoal, then sprinkled off the charcoal powder. He then used the same method to remove the sulfur as well.
With nothing else to do, he knew the village head should be waiting outside the cowshed, and he couldn't go out yet, so he might as well take a rest.
He bought a folding chair from the system, leaned back on it to rest, and carefully considered how to deal with the bandits that night. Gradually, his thoughts began to become clear.
After resting for almost an hour, Zhao Xian stood up, folded up the chair, and put it into the system's storage space.
Then he bought twenty more improvised bombs from the system, intending to take them to an open space east of the village to test their power.
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