Chapter 76: Don't Discuss Openly with Enemies

  "Who is this?" Wang Kuang saw the head and was startled. He hastily jumped back: "Take it away, take it away." This Huang Da, who had not shown up for several months, had actually committed a murder. If the victim was a wicked villain, that would be okay, but if he was an innocent person with no grudges, this matter would be a big deal.

  Huang Da looked a bit weak, so Wang Kuang let him sit down and talk after he had wrapped the head again and put it in a corner. He also took out some dry food, salted vegetables, and a small wine from his package to give to Huang Da. Fortunately, Wang Kuang had developed a habit of carrying food with him due to his low blood sugar condition later in life. Otherwise, he would have had to go wake up Gao San to get something to eat at this late hour, which would have disturbed many people, including Li Ye who lived in the same courtyard.

  Huang Da sat down and started gobbling down his food, looking like he had been starving for a whole day.

  "Tell me, what's going on?" Wang Kuang asked as Huang Da calmed down a bit.

  Huang Da had been traveling north with a merchant caravan since the time he exposed Wang Kuang's poster. On Mount Qi Xia, they encountered bandits again. This mountain was located at the intersection of Fujian, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi provinces, with steep mountains and treacherous roads, making it a lawless area where thieves often roamed. This time Huang Da wasn't so lucky and couldn't escape, getting caught instead. Originally he was to be beheaded, but seeing that things weren't going well, he made up a story saying he wanted to surrender to the bandits. The leader of the bandits had spent a lot of effort capturing Huang Da and was impressed by his leg strength, so he decided it would be useful to keep him and spared his life.

  This band of thieves is very cunning, every time they send out scouts to gather information from a distance. Whenever there are government soldiers coming, they flee far away. They don't move the large merchant groups, but specialize in moving small ones. Moreover, they never leave any survivors behind. Therefore, over the past two years, there have been cases of missing merchant groups, but no one knows who did it. The missing ones were all small merchant groups, so it didn't attract much attention from the government. They all thought it was done by wandering bandits.

  After staying on Qixia Ridge for several months, Huang Dadi had several opportunities to escape, but he kept hearing someone mention Wang Kuang's name, and fearing that this group of people would not be beneficial to his benefactor, he endured it and did not leave, and carefully inquired.

  Until recently, Huang Da only found out that the gang of thieves was actually connected to the Deng family in Yangzhou, and Deng Sen was their leader. They had been active in the Nanhai area since the Daye era, but with the increase in the Tang Dynasty's suppression efforts after the Sui Dynasty, they were unable to find a place to hide in Nanhai and had moved to the lawless area of Qixia Ridge several years ago. Meanwhile, Deng Sen pretended to be a wealthy merchant from Nanhai living in Yangzhou and colluded with Rong Wu, the military governor of Yangzhou.

  They gang of robbers ambushed at Qixia Ridge, while Deng Sen sent the news of the merchant team to Qixia Ridge in advance with a fast horse in Yangzhou, and Luo Wu provided the knives and guns from the general's camp for their use.

  Deng's family was going to avenge Wang Kuang, and Huang Da knew about it. Later, when Deng Sen's family and Luo Wu were killed, he also knew. But this time on the mountain, he saw a young man, and all the bandits on the mountain called him Xiao Dangjia. After inquiring, he found out that he was Deng Zheng, Deng Sen's eldest son. Because when Deng Sen had an accident, he happened to be sent to Nongshan to escort the looted money back to Yangzhou, so he escaped. And it was also this young master of the Deng family who had heard that Wang Kuang would cross Qixia Ridge tomorrow and decided to set up an ambush in a dangerous place to take Wang Kuang's head to sacrifice to his tomb.

  Huang Da heard the news and was shocked, thinking he had to hurry to inform Wang Kuang. Coincidentally, just as he was preparing to escape down the mountain, he was called by Deng Zheng to accompany him to inspect the ambush site. Huang Da took advantage of the opportunity to strike Deng Zheng from behind, and fearing he might have killed the wrong person, he cut off his head and prepared to bring it back to Jian'an for Deng San and Deng Xiao San to identify. On the way down from Qixia Ridge, he had to avoid patrolling bandits, and didn't arrive at the foot of the mountain until afternoon. From Qixia Ridge to Tangxing was over 60 miles away, and he feared that people on the mountain might discover him and send someone to chase after him, so he took a secret route, going without food all day. By the time he arrived in Tangxing City, it was already night, and although he had planned to continue on to Jian'an, he heard from passersby that Wang Kuang and his men were already in Tangxing. He inquired about Wang Kuang's residence and waited until late at night before sneaking over the wall into the courtyard. Fortunately, Wang Kuang never went to bed early, so Huang Da was able to sneak up to the window of the room where he heard movement and knocked on it. If he had knocked on Li Yexu's window by mistake, he would have been caught without being given a chance to explain himself.

  Knowing the ins and outs of the matter, Wang Kuang thought for a moment and decided to inform Li Yexu after all. There was indeed a treacherous place on Qixia Ridge. Every time Wang Kuang's descendants went to Northeast China to study, they had to take a car over Qixia Ridge. On the halfway slope of Qixia Ridge, there was a flat area, with one side being a cliff and the other side being a precipice. There was also a spring eye, where people passing through the mountain would usually rest and drink water. If the terrain had not changed much in a thousand years, they should have set up an ambush there. Moreover, according to Huang Da's words, there were Second Master and Third Master on the mountain, and more than a hundred people below. If they were not prepared, they would be caught off guard when they arrived, and it was likely that they would be defeated.

  As they had decided to set out early the next morning, they wanted to cross the Xi Xia Ridge before dark. If they hadn't prepared by then, it would be too late. Therefore, Wang Kuang took Huang Da and carried the human head to knock on Xu Guoxu's and Li Yexi's doors.

  After telling the whole story, of course, he had to conceal the fact that he had once plotted against Deng Sen and Luo Wu. Xu Guoxu listened with indignation: "How can this be? No regard for national law, gathering in the mountains and forests, killing merchants, daring to run to Jian'an to kidnap people, now again want to use this conspiracy. Heaven is going crazy! Heaven is going crazy!" On one side, he ordered his entourage to wake up Cen Yuzi, on the other side, he asked Li Yesui: "Does General Li have any good strategy?" This group of people had only twenty or thirty soldiers, even adding the county government's officials, there were only about twenty more people. The other side had over a hundred people, and even if they rushed to Jian'an to seek help from the garrison (counties did not have garrisons, only states had garrisons), it would take at least a day for the reinforcements to arrive.

  Cen Yu's son hastily arrived, and after hearing the news, he was also covered in cold sweat. If they had discovered this later, something would have happened to Tian Xing and his group as soon as they left. He would definitely not be able to escape responsibility: "I've often heard that merchants who enter Qixia Ridge have gone missing, and I've dispatched constables to investigate multiple times, but no signs of the thieves were found. It turns out they were hiding so secretly."

  Li Yexu bowed his head and pondered for a moment, then asked in detail about the situation on Mount Huangda, and also furrowed his brow.

  Wang Kuang suddenly remembered something and asked Huang Da: "Are there bows and crossbows on the mountain?"

  "I've never seen it before, and the mountain is steep and dense with trees on Qixia Ridge, the road is winding and narrow, with few open spaces, and bows and crossbows are not easy to use." Huang Da thought for a moment before responding.

  "In that case, then there's a way." Since the other side didn't have long-range attack weapons, Wang Kuang wasn't afraid of them.

  "What? Erlang, do you have a good plan? Speak quickly." Xu Guoxu had already heard the crowd's analysis and was at his wit's end. He had even made up his mind that if there was no other way, he would not leave, but instead wait for reinforcements to arrive and wipe out the bandits before leaving.

  Li Yexu didn't believe that Wang Kuang could have a way out, having been in the army for several years and reading more military books than he had drunk water, not to mention the teachings of his grandfather since childhood. He himself couldn't think of a complete strategy, how could a small merchant like him have a solution?

  Wang finished speaking, Xu Guoxu listened and applauded, Li Yesui's eyes lit up, but still muttered: "This method may not be entirely upright."

  "Commander Li is wrong, it's no longer a matter of being open and aboveboard, but a life-and-death struggle between us and the bandits. If they didn't want to take our lives, that would be one thing, but as things stand now, I'm sure you're aware that they normally don't dare oppose the government troops, yet this time it seems they'll stop at nothing to leave no one alive." Indeed, if they only killed Wang Kuang alone, their existence would certainly become known to the imperial court; only by leaving not a single soul alive could they have enough time to escape elsewhere.

  Blocked by Wang Kuang's words, Li Yexu also had nothing to say, and everyone prepared according to what Wang Kuang said.

  The next morning, the team set off. Since Huang Da had said that the bandits had sent scouts to investigate, if only the troops departed, it would definitely alert the bandits. Therefore, Wang Kuang and Xu Guoxiao still went together, while Wang Rong and Sun Jiaying were left behind. As for Lin Xuanmeng, he had been influenced by Wang Kuang over the years and was stimulated by this matter. According to Wang Kuang's words, there was basically no danger, but he insisted on following along. Once he left Jian'an, no one could control him, so no one could persuade him. As soon as someone tried to advise him, he would glare: "Second Brother is going, how can I not go?"

  To cover up, the team, except for Wang Xian and two others who stayed behind, took all the rest of the people and goods with them, and arrived at the foot of Qixia Ridge after more than two hours. At this time, there were scouts sent by Li Yesi in advance to report that they had discovered the enemy's scouts, but according to orders, they did not dare to startle the snake. Sure enough, soon after, under the reminder of the scouts, Wang Kuang and others found a figure flashing by in the distance on high ground. Everyone became cautious and vigilant without realizing it.

  Huang Da also disguised himself as a soldier and hid in the team. After the team walked for more than an hour, Huang Da reminded everyone: "We're almost there."

  Wang Kuang took a look at the terrain and found that it was not much different from the place remembered by later generations, so the spring in front should be the ambush site.

  After walking for a while, they arrived at the spring. On the edge of the spring were several earthenware bowls, which were used by travelers to scoop up water to drink. At Li Ye's command, all the soldiers dismounted and rushed over to grab some water to drink. However, after drinking the water, they all started clutching their stomachs in pain. Just then, a loud shout was heard, and a group of about 80 or 90 people came charging forward. Seeing the Imperial Guardsmen rolling around on the ground, clutching their stomachs, the leader, a burly man, burst out laughing: "Surrender to me, and I'll spare the lives of the young ones to use as sacrifices for our flag! Otherwise, not one of you will be left alive!"

  The thieves saw the soldiers rolling on the ground, and they all came up with a smile. To know what happened next, listen to the next episode (selling a suspense, everyone guess, what method did Wang Kuang use?)

  Division -

  Originally according to Hei Que's plan, some content of this chapter and the next would be glossed over with a few sentences, but yesterday's comments from book friends made Hei Que realize that some readers read quickly and didn't notice the foreshadowing earlier, so it was decided to write more details after all, and the 1,000 or so words written yesterday were scrapped and rewritten.

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