Chapter 29 Bandit Den

Chapter 29 Bandit Den

Chapter 29 Bandit Den

The seven personal soldiers did not enter the main hall, but stood guard outside the door.

Each of them stood with their chests and heads held high, their eyes not looking to the side, their right hands resting on the holsters of their gun belts, looking extremely majestic.

Seeing how powerful Shao Quanzhong was, the second sister-in-law's eyes showed hope, "Quanzhong, you are here, it would be great if you can save our village -

It's a pity that there are too few of you this time, and you may not be able to defeat those bandits."

Hearing the word "bandit", Shao Quanzhong's eyes sparkled, "Okay, okay, I'll go see my second brother first."

Shao Quanzhong and Song Laosan followed the second sister-in-law into the main hall and then turned into the dark room at the east end.

The room smelled of herbs. Song Lao Er was lying on the bed with gauze on his head, his arm hanging in front of his chest, and a bamboo board clamped on his left leg. It was obvious that he had been beaten severely.

Song Laosan took off the spear from his back, stood in the corner, bent over and approached, "Second brother, who beat you like this? You are the head of the village, where are all the young men in the village?"

Song Laoer had heard the conversation between his second sister-in-law and them, but he couldn't move.

He half-raised his body in bed, looking at his third brother's brand new army uniform and the foreign rifle in the corner, a smile on his face.

"It's been a few years since we last met. Quanzhong has made great progress. Third brother, you should follow Quanzhong and work hard.

You can't intervene in my affairs. In this day and age, aren't we ordinary people destined to be bullied?"

Shao Quanzhong snorted, "I can't do anything about the common people being bullied now, but I can't let my fellow villagers be bullied!

There are bandits coming to our village? Why don't you send people to the militia to ask for help? "

Song Lao Er shook his head and said, "I know the rules of the militia. If we want the militia to drive away the bandits, we have to collect money to pay tribute to the militia and pay for the departure fee.

How can we have so much money in our village? These bandits don't kill people, they just rob food and drink, which is far less than the tribute to the militia.

Besides, we should just grit our teeth, invite the militia, and drive the bandits away. Once the militia leaves, the bandits will come back for revenge, and they might kill people. It’s better to just endure it and let it go.”

Shao Quanzhong stepped forward and took Song Laoer's hand, "Second brother, that is Yang Yong's rule. My rule is that if the gentry donate money, the common people don't have to pay. They just need to contribute manpower and effort.

Don't worry, now that I'm here, the good days of these bandits are over. Second brother, tell me about their origins."

"Quanzhong, you can't fight these bandits, they came from the bandit den in Qinhu Lake in the north.

There are forty-eight bandits in this group. Even if all the young men in the village fight hard and drive them away, if they return to Chenhu Lake and bring people to take revenge, we will be finished.

There were more than 800 bandits hiding in Qinhu Lake. Yang Yong had no way to deal with them. He could only collect money from the common people, pay tribute to them regularly, and send them food and money.

Yang Yong died recently, and no one brought them food. So they came out to look for food, right? "

It turned out that this was caused by me killing Yang Yong. Yang Yong boasted that he had extensive connections with the bandits in Qinhu Lake, but it turned out that he pretended to be a grandson and paid tribute to the bandits to ensure his safety.

Shao Quanzhong did not look down on Yang Yong because he was a local and probably knew the situation in Qinhu Lake.

Qinhu Lake is dotted with ditches and ponds, and a crisscross network of rivers. There are dozens of gangs of bandits hiding in the more than 3,000 acres of swamp.

The base of these bandits is very secret and outsiders have no way of knowing it. If the anti-bandit team enters the lake, they will definitely get lost.

There are not many bandits living in Qinhu Lake, only about 300.

The other bandits were both bandits and civilians. They usually farmed in their own villages. Once the leaders found a target to rob, they would gather the bandits and go out to do a deal. Once the core bandits issued a call, the bandits who followed them would come from their villages on boats.

There are dozens of people on each boat, dozens of long oars, and thousands of oars supporting the boat. It is very lively and spectacular, and is called "boat meeting".

The boat meeting actually originated from the Ming Dynasty when various villages joined together to fight against Japanese pirates. Now the heroes of Qinhu Lake still continue this tradition.

When the boat handle is not used to support the boat, the handle with a drill attached to it becomes a spear. Officials, can you tell which good citizen rowing the boat will instantly turn into a bandit with a spear?
The imperial court also sent a large-scale army to Qinhu Lake to suppress the bandits, but the bandits immediately dispersed without a trace. Large-scale military deployments are impossible to sustain, and a small team will be defeated.

The government has been troubled by the bandits in Qinhu Lake for a long time, but has no idea how to deal with it.

Yang Yong, on the other hand, lived in peace with the bandits by paying tribute. After the bandits got food and grass, they went to rob other places and no longer harmed the village. Therefore, the government was actually quite satisfied with Yang Yong's approach.

"This bunch of bandits had no food to eat, so they came to our village to steal food and took up residence in the Lu family ancestral hall.

We have provided them with food and drink for many days, and they have not left. Now it seems that we can no longer afford it.”

Song Lao San gnashed his teeth and said, "Since our village provides food and drink, why did you get beaten, second brother?"

"It was our village's old Lin family's Bo Zai who was getting married. Seeing that the bandits were behaving themselves in the Lu family's ancestral hall, they mustered up the courage to hold the wedding secretly, but they were still discovered by the bandits.

Because the bride was dressed in red and green, was too eye-catching, and was pretty, the bandits took her into the Lu family ancestral hall and harmed her.

I was beaten because I brought a few young men with me to stop them.

Alas, the bride was released, but the Lin family had no choice but to kill the firstborn this time."

Shao Quanzhong's face showed murderous intent, "These bandits have no sense of justice. They should all be killed for doing this dirty thing!"

Bo Zai was also a childhood friend of Song Lao San and Shao Quanzhong. After being humiliated, Song Lao San was furious and turned around to grab a gun, "Brother Shao, let's go and kill these bandits now!"

Shao Quanzhong quickly grabbed him and said, "Old Third, can you shoot? The nine of us can't do it."

Shao Quanzhong did not let Tian Xing distribute rifles to other people. He only gave one to Song Laosan who followed him home.

Instead, he distributed pistols to his personal soldiers, and from then on, the personal soldiers led by Zhang Siwen would become a pistol team.

On the boat returning from Shanghai, Shao Quanzhong had already taught Zhang Siwen and his personal soldiers how to use the revolver.

They learned the theory, but were taken out again before they could practice shooting.

On the way home this time, Shao Quanzhong asked his personal soldiers to row the boat and hurriedly taught Song Laosan how to use the rifle.

Nine people in the group were equipped with guns, but eight of them never fired a single bullet. They were all just show-offs. In fact, only Shao Quanzhong could really shoot.

He went home to look for people, not to plan a fight. Shao Quanzhong didn't want to waste every second and just wanted to seize the time to teach.

"We just relied on me to shoot and scare the bandits away. It would be even worse if they went back to Qinhu to find someone to take revenge."

Shao Quanzhong's eyes were cold, and he made a beheading gesture, "If we want to fight, we must kill these 48 bandits at once, not letting any of them go, and let the bandits in Qinhu Lake know nothing about it."

Song Lao San scratched his head and said, "I will go back to the village and call all three hundred brothers to surround the Lu family ancestral hall?"

Shao Quanzhong closed his eyes and thought for a while, "No, I have a lot of experience in dealing with bandits. Listen to me, I promise to kill them, and we won't be afraid of bandits coming again in the future."

(End of this chapter)