Daughter of the Jianghu (Part 6)
Menghuling used to be a fairly "mature" mountain stronghold, with heavily guarded guards from the foot of the mountain all the way to the center of the stronghold. The division of labor in the stronghold was clear and each had a supervisor. Any new recruits or hostages brought up the mountain had to be strictly supervised and trained for a period of time. It could be said that they were like an iron barrel - until Xi Zhongting killed his way through Lanling City.
The deputy governor of Lanling City has close ties with the bandits of Menghuling.
Relying on this, the provincial government did not take the governor seriously even after it became independent, and did all kinds of hurtful things behind this puppet that was pushed to the front.
Unfortunately, the officers and soldiers of Lanling City could not stop Xi Zhongting from advancing, let alone these bandits who could only manage their own little piece of land.
As soon as Xi Zhongting captured Lanling City, the deputy prefect immediately absconded with his wealth, intending to slip away to Menghu Ridge to continue his reign as the boss. He assumed Xi Zhongting would not interfere with Menghu Ridge's affairs after taking Lanling City. Bandits were not rebels; they had existed in every dynasty during peacetime, but they were not currently the targets of the court's high-priority punishment.
He had a wild idea, and as soon as he sneaked under the city gate, he was shot through by an arrow from Xi Zhongting.
It is hard to say whether this unscrupulous unlucky guy was just out of luck. Xi Zhongting did find out the mastermind behind the tyranny in Lanling City, but the recovery of other cities was also imminent. He did not have the energy to deal with the bandits on Menghu Ridge. He only left some people to clean up the city defenses and asked the prefect to post a notice to avoid people hanging around at the foot of Menghu Ridge and to warn all passing merchants.
Before leaving, he hurried to the foot of Menghu Ridge and beat the gongs and drums three times back and forth to intimidate people, leaving the rest to be dealt with after the imperial envoy from the court arrived.
And these rounds of gongs and drums really have miraculous effects.
The bandits on Menghu Ridge hid for a while, and then heard that the imperial court had begun to take steps to recover the states. The people in the village became restless. They were afraid that the imperial court would send troops to suppress them. Some of those who forced women into prostitution still yearned for the life of good citizens, so there was chaos in the village for a while.
The leader wanted to eliminate those who had turned against him, to prevent the village from being eaten away by the termites among his own people. He had no idea that the second-in-command, with whom he had long been at odds, would ignore the "external threat" and be determined to replace him. Taking advantage of his decisive and brutal purge, he started a devastating internal struggle.
In the end, the boss died on the first chair in the meeting hall of the village. He was dragged out by the second in command with a frail body and beheaded. This was the abrupt end of the play.
The second-in-command's surname is Sun. The "Sun" in "Sunshan" (meaning "failed") was a poor scholar who repeatedly failed the imperial examinations before turning to banditry. He toiled for nearly twenty years on the path to the imperial examinations, until his daughter was able to take the exam. His elderly parents were unwilling to support him, and his devoted wife, a virtuous woman, became an unfaithful mother, placing all their hopes on their daughter, who couldn't even carry on the family line.
He felt abandoned by his family and had nowhere else to turn. So one night he picked up a hatchet and took the initiative to attack, using it as a token of his loyalty to the family and went up to Menghu Ridge.
This night, Menghu Ridge seemed no different from any other night.
Sun, now the boss, watched the bloody game before him numbly. He actually disliked this kind of bloody release. Born a weak scholar, he preferred to use his brain and rely on cunning. Witnessing his opponent's devastating face at the moment of defeat was the greatest reward he could experience in competition.
But he had no choice.
Although he had strategized and eliminated the chieftain, he was powerless and could not suppress these militaristic leaders. Without the chieftain, his subordinates, a group of servile scoundrels who only obeyed his orders, were just as docile as he was. He was still a military advisor in name only. If he didn't have leverage over the former prefect, he would have had no leverage at all. He could only placate these people in other ways to occasionally advance his grand vision of hegemony.
Mr. Sun's face twisted for a moment, then quickly returned to normal.
In his life, except for the first few decades when he was manipulated by the imperial court, it can be said that he had no luck in the second half of his life.
As soon as he trampled on the cruel imperial examination system, the imperial court immediately fell into turmoil. Not to mention the imperial examination, nothing could be done. As soon as he killed the relatives who had let him down, Lanling City rose up in arms and Menghu Ridge became the most comfortable place in Lanling City.
Headmaster Sun looked at the group of beastly people in front of him, sneered softly, and left in a huff.
Behind him, a group of "beasts" in the tall bonfire saw the mouse running away and burst into laughter. They almost overturned the roof of the woodshed where the "goods" were locked. The roof rustled down, and Bian Hongqiu, who had just opened his eyes, was caught off guard by the dust in his eyes, and tears streamed down his face.
When they were kidnapped and taken to the mountain, all their belongings were searched and taken away. Now their hands and feet were shackled with wooden shackles, making it very difficult for them to move.
After all, Zhuang Ji had more blood flowing in his chest and was not careful enough. The last time he explored the mountain, he was able to remember the general terrain of Menghu Ridge and the locations of several important places such as the kitchen and wine cellar, which was already very good. He never thought of going to see how the captives were locked up. Moreover, the captives he saw last time all had a narrow escape from death in the betting field.
She jumped in front of Bian Hongqiu in a panic and asked with almost no hope, "Do you know how to unlock this kind of lock?"
The shackles used to hold the captives in the mountain stronghold were made of wood, tightly encircling their wrists and ankles. They looked like a delicate square box with a medium-thick wire embedded in the middle. Unless one was incredibly strong or gifted, it would be impossible to break them open with brute force. Not to mention Zhuang Ji's thin arms and legs, which always used softness to overcome strength. Even Lao Ju, who had rubbed his wrists until they bled, didn't budge at all.
Bian Hongqiu blinked hard to see, tears streaming down his face, unable to even rub his eyes.
During these brief moments of visibility, he immediately recognized the lock as a type of Luban lock, which he often played with as a child.
Seeing the strange, somewhat bewildered look on his face, as if wondering why these thugs would use children's toys to lock people up, Zhuang Ji thought the woodshed was too dim and he must have been mistaken. The next moment, Bian Hongqiu clumsily climbed up against the wall, hopped around, and found the lock on Zhuang Ji's back.
Zhuang Ji twisted his head so hard that his neck almost broke, and he let out an "ouch" with a red face.
Before he could finish his "Ah" cry, he felt a sudden tightening force on his wrist, and then the pieces of wood that no one could handle were scattered all over the ground. Some of them had tiny bits of wire on their surfaces, and they immediately dimmed into darkness under the weak moonlight.
Zhuang Ji subconsciously twisted her hands, turned around and looked at Bian Hongqiu in surprise, who still had his back to her.
Bian Hongqiu didn't think it was a big deal. He'd taken this thing apart hundreds of times as a child, and could figure out its shape even with his eyes closed. Though his wrists were chained, the strength he'd gained from years of stone carving was enough to break the crucial link. He didn't understand the surprise in Zhuang Ji's eyes. Just when he thought this village was truly a straw shelter, the door to the woodshed was kicked open.
Zhuang Ji immediately sat down with his hands behind his back, covering the marks on the ground.
The big man who came had arms thicker than two Bian Hongqius. He glanced at the woodshed where the new guests were staying, grinned at Bian Hongqiu who was still crying, and showed a very creepy smile: "There is a puppy that has not been weaned yet." As he said that, he walked forward and picked up Bian Hongqiu with one hand and took him out.
Bian Hongqiu struggled a few times like a mayfly trying to shake a tree. Lao Ju bent over and tried to move forward, but was held back by Zhuang Ji, who had freed his hands.
The door of the woodshed was not closed, and Bian Hongqiu was carried onto the shoulders of the big man in a dizzying manner.
He marveled at his companions, "There are actually puppies in this world who have never cried!"
The remaining demons and monsters bared their teeth and screamed: "Put him in there! I love to see people cry and scream! Look at what dead faces these people in the back are in. They don't even scream. It's so boring to play with them!"
At this moment, Bian Hongqiu actually didn't understand what they were saying at all.
But the reverse flow of blood and the increasingly excited screams around him ignited the fear hidden in his bones. When he was thrown into the betting field, he was shaking so much that he almost started to convulse. The roars became more intense, and a long-lost sense of pride rushed to Bian Hongqiu's face. He struggled from his knees to stand, and the ashes in his eyes were washed away by tears. His vision cleared, and he almost stepped on the head of the person who died with his eyes open.
The death and cruelty that he had experienced briefly at Xiliu Sea finally found him today.
The betting field was no larger than half the size of the martial arts training ground at the Shangyang Prince Liang's mansion. The piles of corpses reached his calves, hearts, livers, intestines, and stomachs scattered across the ground, some still showing signs of being gnawed by animals. He saw a hand still struggling in death, veins and bones protruding in defiance, five nails brutally broken, piercing the ground with the fingers.
Bian Hongqiu immediately knelt down again with weak legs and vomited all over the floor.
"Hahahaha interesting interesting!"
The same old voice pierced his mind, and he finally understood why Zhuang Ji kept silent about the situation on the mountain, and finally understood what "cargo" and "target" meant.
Song Jingyan's voice traveled through time. She said, "Your Highness, you are the master of the Liang Palace. The kindness you have shown and the things you have done are too small."
Bian Hongqiu was trembling as she tried to control her shaking jaw, and this time the tears that flowed out were filled with emotion.
His mind was almost a mess, and his eyes were desperately scanning the place where the blood and flesh of innocent people were piled up, as if he wanted to engrave this scene in his mind.
He recalled how Shao Zheng had taken him on a worldly tour of the barbarian camps abandoned by the exiles last year. Inside the camp lay the bodies of many Dayu civilians and soldiers—all carefully collected and neatly laid out in front of the camp, waiting for Bian Hongqiu to make a few ceremonial remarks before sending them back home.
Before leaving, Song Jingyan told him that the barbarians loved to slaughter the people of Dayu, and hoped that he could try to comfort his fellow soldiers who had seen the corpses. But he himself had never seen such a tragic scene, so how could he empathize with such heart-wrenching pain?
At this moment, the tangled choices between his father, determined to rise to prominence, and the high-ranking Emperor Xue, swirled in his mind. His father was right, he thought, and neither was His Majesty. His father had saved countless lives from massacre at the hands of the barbarians, and His Majesty had protected countless lives from banditry.
But what about him?
Bian Hongqiu's tears fell drop by drop, tinged with confusion. He thought of his days in Shangyang, and could only imagine his mother's luxurious, almost cloud-high embroidery building, and the "delicate flowers" that would toss the entire Shangyang area around and soak it in their flavor. He bent over and vomited again, overwhelmed by this almost tangible imagination.
His reaction pleases all the bloody hyenas.
The first arrow, carrying the beasts' murderous intent and excitement, flew towards Bian Hongqiu's left shoulder.
Bian Hongqiu was shot through by the huge impact force, and his left shoulder wrapped with the arrow flipped back several times. The arrow feather broke fragilely in his body.
Bian Hongqiu, who was about to be drowned by his own tears and lost consciousness, took a few deep breaths and knelt down. His slender and powerful fingers, stained with the unyielding souls of the dead, touched the buttonholes, and then exerted force - his two nails broke off with a sound, and blood splashed over the old blood that had accumulated in the field for years.
He remained kneeling, his hands moving downwards. With another "crack," two of his nails snapped along with the shackles. Then, he practically dug out half the arrow from his left shoulder.
The hunters outside the arena didn't understand why, but the cub's sudden and insolent resistance made them very unhappy, so they all raised their arrows -
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