L.F-Hist.Novelist Chapter 39 Bandits Pass Through, Causing Utter Horror
Chapter 39 Bandits Pass Through, Causing Utter Horror
"Haha, thank you all for gracing us with your presence and bringing your teams to work with me, Hong! Let's drink to our hearts' content today, until we're completely drunk!"
At an open-air banquet, Hong Tong, the head manager of Lianyun Village, laughed heartily. He looked at the leaders, big and small, who had come with their teams after receiving his invitation to join the fight, picked up his wine bowl, and drank it all in one gulp.
The others also laughed and echoed:
"Boss Hong is absolutely right! Let's drink until we drop tonight!"
They all downed their drinks, and the group drank and ate meat, looking quite pleased with themselves.
Judging solely from the banquet scene before them, these bandits gathered together seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely, showing no trace of their usual ferocity, but rather exuding the air of chivalrous heroes.
However, if you combine the banquet scene in front of you with the village behind you, whose walls have been breached and whose houses have been set on fire, then the scene can only be described as horrifying.
So many bandits have come to Lianyun Village, what will they do for food, drink, and sanitation?
Without a doubt, when Lianyun Village gathered its forces, it certainly couldn't have prepared enough food for all these bandits. These people had to bring their own dry rations to fight.
There was no other reason than that Lianyun Village was powerful. Relying on their 200 brothers, other bandits, even if unwilling, dared not refuse the invitation sent by Lianyun Village.
Since those people dare to come anyway, why should Lianyun Village spend money to prepare a large amount of food?
For these bandits, their families didn't have much surplus food, so how could they possibly prepare all the food they needed along the way?
Therefore, they followed the principle of plundering wherever they went, directly borrowing grain from villages along the way.
The reason why this small stone village, which was being ravaged by bandits, suffered such misfortune was because its location was right on a major transportation route.
At the beginning, bandits passed by their village and asked to borrow grain, and the villagers naturally dared not refuse.
As the saying goes, losing money is better than losing a disaster. They felt that they didn't need to get into a fight with these bandits who were quick to kill over some food. Anyway, these guys would just leave after taking the food.
The people of Xiaoshi Village never expected that after one group of bandits left, another group of bandits would come. Bandits kept passing through this road, and almost every group of bandits would ask them for food.
At first, they still had grain to borrow, but after handing over all their grain to the previous groups of bandits, Xiaoshi Village was completely out of food, and even their own rations were running out.
Under these circumstances, the bandits behind them naturally felt dissatisfied.
According to their logic, if I borrow grain from you, it's because I'm giving you face!
So you guys dared to be so disrespectful and forced me to resort to violence, what else is there to say?
Since they're unwilling to lend us grain, they might as well just break into the village and seize the grain themselves!
Although Xiaoshi Village had nearly 100 households, when bandits armed with long guns and short cannons gathered and began to attack the village, the village was simply no match for them.
As the bandits who knew how to use gunpowder blew open the outer wall of the village, they swarmed in and immediately rushed into the village to loot the grain.
After storming into the village, the bandits were still somewhat restrained and unwilling to kill too many people.
They killed a few troublemakers who wouldn't back down, forced the others to hand over their last bit of food, then kidnapped a few women for their amusement before running away.
But then there will be more bandits, and they will all pass through this road and the small stone village in front of us!
When they saw that the bandits ahead had already robbed Xiaoshi Village, they wondered if they would lose face if they didn't follow the path these people had cleared and go in to rob it as well.
Once inside, the bandits continued their usual routine, looting both food and women. However, they discovered that the bandits in front of them had already plundered all the food, and even killing people wouldn't yield any more. This enraged the bandits.
So they not only abused young women, but also killed people all over the village.
They killed not only to vent their anger, but also to use these villagers as food!
It's important to know that these bandits didn't treat the weak villagers as human beings in their daily lives. They not only killed for pleasure, but also took people's hearts and livers to drink with, and many of these things are clearly recorded in Water Margin.
It must be said that Shi Nai'an was a man of experience; if he hadn't personally witnessed these events, he could never have portrayed the true nature of these outlaws so vividly.
It wasn't just these bandits; in the past, when Qing soldiers were short of food during battles, they would even kill people everywhere and use human flesh as rations. When Emperor Qianlong sent troops to quell a rebellion, he even personally approved such a thing when reviewing memorials, stating without any hesitation that the common people were worthless and their flesh could be used to fill their stomachs.
In this situation, how could it be possible to expect the bandits to retain their last line of defense?
As a result, the entire village of Xiaoshi was slaughtered by countless bandits. In the end, the entire village, regardless of age or gender, was completely wiped out by these bandits. Even at the bandits' current feast, some dishes were made by these villagers.
In addition, the seven or eight Taoist priests from Dilong Temple, who had been hired by Lianyun Village at a high price, also demanded some of the corpses.
Besides wanting to earn money, another reason they came here to help Lianyun Village fight was that they needed enough corpses for alchemy and some high-quality corpses to refine iron corpses!
While these bandits were busy preparing a grand feast and studying "what kind of heat is best for making a person," several hunters who had returned from hunting in the mountains hid in the shadows, watching all of this with tears in their eyes.
They never dreamed that just going out hunting would result in their family and village being slaughtered by these bandits when they returned!
They couldn't understand why their village would pay security fees to several bandit groups around the village every so often, and they never dared to resist.
Even when bandits came down from the mountains to kidnap people, and took away the women from their village, they would obediently pool their money to ransom the women back, without daring to express any complaints.
They thought they had done their best to submit to the bandits, but even so, the bandits still showed no mercy and killed everyone in their village!
Even the Lianyunzhai bandits and other bandit groups that had promised to protect them did not take them seriously at this time. Some of them even sat at the banquet laughing loudly and tearing apart their dead relatives!
"Old Yang, don't make a sound! Don't do anything rash!"
Several hunters were holding down a burly man who was struggling desperately, constantly trying to persuade him, but even with all their strength, they could barely hold him down.
Helpless, when Old Yang saw his wife and two children chopped up by the bandits and laid out on the table, the string of reason in his mind snapped. At that moment, all he wanted to do was fight these bandits to the death; everything else was a blank.
Just then, a hunter leaned close to Old Yang's ear and whispered:
"Old Yang, listen to me carefully. It's not just you who wants revenge; I want revenge too. My mother was chopped up by these thugs!"
"But if you rush out now, you won't get any revenge; you'll just end up killing yourself!"
"If you really want revenge, listen to my advice. Let's run away in the dark as fast as we can. After we're done, go find the Luo family army and tell them everything that gang has been up to!"
"I heard that these gangs gathered together to fight the Luo family army. The Luo family army helps us poor folks fight gangs. As long as we find the Luo family army, they will definitely avenge us!"
After hearing what his companion said, Lao Yang suddenly stopped struggling.
Immediately after his companion released him, he nodded slightly and whispered:
"Alright, in that case, let's go find Luo's army! I want to join Luo's army and fight in gangs!"
Although the bandits had successfully gathered, they were not moving quickly; the banquet alone would take them several days to prepare.
There was no way around it; after all, they were just bandits, not a well-trained army, and it was impossible for them to obey orders without question.
It's simply impossible to expect them to launch a full-scale attack on Luo's army without any delay under the orders of a bandit leader.
In particular, the reason they are holding a banquet now is not just to celebrate and boost morale, but also to discuss how everyone's territory and benefits should be divided after the war is over.
To be honest, they didn't really care much about dividing up the territory, because there was no doubt that after defeating the Luo family army, most of the territory here would probably be taken over by Lianyun Village.
Lianyun Village is right next to Luo Family Army's territory. If other bandits occupy a piece of land here, they won't be able to control it. They can't expect Lianyun Village to be kind enough to watch over these lands for them, can they?
Since they wouldn't get much territory, they naturally wanted more benefits to take with them, such as how to divide the silver they robbed from the Luo family army, and how to divide the muskets they robbed from the Luo family army.
For many bandits, firearms and warhorses were more important than the silver that Luo's army might have.
After being in the underworld for so long, most bandits share a common mindset:
Silver is certainly useful, but guns and horses are the truly useful things.
With these things in hand, the silver will come sooner or later; but without these things, even if they have silver, they will not be able to keep it in the end.
But this led to the bandits from different factions starting to fight over the spoils.
Especially Lianyun Village, they originally intended to take out the silver from Luo Family Army to give to these bandits, and never thought of giving away this batch of weapons.
For Lianyun Village, this batch of weapons is enough to enhance their strength to a higher level, and giving it away would be simply aiding the enemy!
These bandits won't stay with us forever; once they get their hands on a gun, they'll cause us trouble.
While they were arguing heatedly, neither willing to back down, Old Yang and his group of hunters, after running for two days and two nights, finally reached the first village within the territory of the Luo family army.