739: bandit

"General Zhou!"

Su Chen spoke to Zhou Guanhai beside him, and the latter immediately responded respectfully, "Your subordinate is here."

"I currently have one thousand four hundred soldiers in my hands. If I give them to you, how much of an impact could you make?"

Zhou Guanhai frowned, thinking seriously for a moment before speaking, "If there is enough training time, combined with Formations and geographical advantages, we could temporarily hold off thirty thousand troops."

Only thirty thousand?

Su Chen wasn't particularly surprised by this result. After all, with so few people, he hadn't truly expected Zhou Guanhai to pull off anything legendary.

"Let's keep moving."

As Su Chen's voice fell, a person dressed in black immediately stepped out from ahead. He quickly arrived before Su Chen, knelt, and saluted, saying, "Master, there is a group of mountain bandits ahead, about two hundred people."

Su Chen reacted immediately upon hearing the words 'mountain bandits'.

That's right.

In this world, the law is incomplete in many places, and communication is extremely inconvenient. This leads to the existence of mountain bandits in many areas. Although these bandits cannot shake the entire Great Yu Dynasty, they certainly exist.

The corners of Su Chen's mouth curled up slightly.

Then he would start right here and subvert the entire Great Yu Dynasty.

Based on his understanding of the Great Yu Dynasty during this time, the country was peaceful, its military strength was robust, and the people lived well. The conditions for a popular uprising were not met, let alone a rebellion.

Therefore, Su Chen only had one way.

And that was to use his own strength to forcibly defeat the entire Great Yu Dynasty.

Compared to the previous battle, the difficulty this time was on a completely different Rank.

Thinking of this, Su Chen directly summoned the one thousand four hundred soldiers.

Next, fifty cavalrymen, ninety hidden guards, and over four hundred death soldiers were all summoned.

He hadn't summoned them before because he felt it wasn't safe yet. If he summoned them rashly, he would lose his trump cards for escaping danger.

But now, it seemed that was no longer necessary.

Su Chen spoke in a calm voice, "Surround the area ahead. Do not let a single person escape."

The army immediately moved silently in a pincer movement, converging toward the front. Su Chen only had a hundred people by his side, but these hundred were all death soldiers, and Zhou Guanhai was also with him.

Even if they encountered over two hundred bandits, there was no need to worry... Just a short distance ahead, on a rural path.

A group of carriages was slowly moving forward. There were both old and young among them; clearly, it wasn't a merchant caravan, but more like a family moving house.

This group consisted of about forty people. Women and children made up nearly two-thirds of them, with only one-third being adult males.

Only three to five of them held weapons; the others carried kitchen knives, farming tools, and the like.

"Master, do you think the Zhao Family will catch up?"

Inside a carriage, a middle-aged man in his forties looked full of worry. Hearing the woman beside him say this, his brow furrowed tightly, and he finally let out a helpless sigh.

"It's hard to say. We didn't take the main roads, and we made arrangements when we left. Plus, we took a long detour. Even if they know we've left, it will likely be difficult for them to find us."

Hearing this, the woman clearly breathed a sigh of relief.

Beside the two of them was a girl who looked to be in her early eighteen, with a face as fresh and clear as a lotus. She wore a light green dress and had an outstanding temperament.

"The hateful Zhao Family! Seeing they couldn't beat our Xu Family, they actually used such dirty tricks to frame us. It's truly despicable and shameless."

Xu Yuheng sighed helplessly, "They all said the Zhao Family had the support of the County Magistrate. I thought it was just a rumor, but it turned out to be true. This plot to frame our Xu Family was full of holes, yet the County Magistrate directly sentenced my Xu Family to death."

"If I hadn't moved quickly, the entire family might have been beheaded by now."

Thinking of this, his eyes were filled with lingering fear.

If the people of the Xu Family had all died because of him, he would never have been able to rest in peace even in the afterlife.

This time, they had brought enough food and silver, intending to head straight for Nanzhou. Although the conditions there were slightly worse than in Dongzhou, at least they wouldn't die.

Xu Yuheng couldn't help but sigh again. The journey to Nanzhou was long and arduous.

At their speed, it would take at least a month. Fortunately, it was summer; if it were winter, the old and young among them certainly wouldn't be able to handle trekking across mountains and rivers.

Xu Yuheng stepped down from the carriage and said, "Everyone, let's hurry. We can only relax once we are out of the range of Anping County, otherwise neither the County Magistrate nor the Zhao Family will let us go."

The people of the Xu Family felt extremely heavy-hearted upon hearing this.

People of this era were most reluctant to leave their homes.

But now they were forced onto this path. If they didn't leave Anping County, there would only be a dead end.

The sound of sobbing rose from the crowd. A middle-aged woman, followed by a young child and holding an infant in her arms, had red eyes and tears streaming down her face.

Beside her, a middle-aged man's eyes were also slightly red.

Xu Yuheng suddenly frowned, "Wait a moment."

He took two steps forward, then looked ahead with a solemn expression.

A group of people suddenly burst out from the mountain forest. They wore yellow silk sashes around their waists and carried large sabers on their shoulders. The leader had three scars on his face and wore a predatory smile.

"The Yellow Flag Gang!?"

The moment he saw these people, Xu Yuheng's face changed drastically.

The Yellow Flag Gang were bandits from the surrounding mountains, numbering two or three hundred. They frequently looted passing caravans. The government had sent people to suppress them, but they could never wipe them all out.

It was unclear whether they couldn't do it or simply didn't want to.

The Yellow Flag Gang's name was notorious in the surrounding counties. Xu Yuheng never imagined they would be so unlucky.

"Yo, you actually recognize the Yellow Flag Gang."

A grim smile appeared on the leading burly man's face. More and more people stepped out behind him, at least a hundred by rough estimate, and everyone was armed. They were clearly not a match for the Xu Family.

The scarred man took two steps forward and said coldly, "Since you recognize my Yellow Flag Gang, then you should know what we do, right?"

Fear welled up in Xu Yuheng's heart, as it did for many in the Xu Family.

They had naturally heard of the Yellow Flag Gang's reputation. These were ruthless men who lived on the edge of a blade. Once involved with them, one would basically end up dead or injured.

"We have naturally heard of the Yellow Flag Gang's great name."

Xu Yuheng forced a fawning smile onto his face.

"Don't try to get cozy with me!" The scarred man sneered. He scanned the Xu Family's caravan. Although there were many women, their looks were ordinary and couldn't be called beauties. Disdain showed in his eyes.

"Fine, our Yellow Flag Gang doesn't kill everyone we see. I'll give you a chance to live. One thousand taels for your lives. If you can produce it, I'll let you go. If not, you all die here today."

One thousand taels!?

The smile on Xu Yuheng's face immediately turned extremely ugly...