Chapter 36
This morning, Cheng Dairen got up as usual and went to the vegetable garden to take a look. The peppers were growing well. Then he took a look at the pigs and horses raised by Shan Zhai, and several chicks pecked at small insects on the ground.
Everything is calm and peaceful, just like every day in the past.
However, for some reason, Cheng Dairen always felt uneasy, his left eyelid kept twitching, and he had a feeling that something was going to happen.
"Something big is going wrong, something big is going wrong..."
Just then, Xu Shenji hurried over, running so fast that he was panting and out of breath.
"What's going on?" asked Cheng Dairen.
"The great hall, Zhu's stronghold has been destroyed!" Xu Shenji's face turned pale, without a hint of blood color.
"Whose fake hand is that?"
"Go take a look, you'll know once you see it. The entire Zhu family village, with over thirty people, was slaughtered."
"Go, take me to see!"
Xu Shenji hurried along, leading the way ahead, and they ran into Qin Man and Lin Shaoyu along the way. Li Xingzhe came out of the house, and everyone from Frog Village had mobilized, of course, there were only six people in Frog Village to begin with. He didn't know what was going on either, but he followed behind everyone else.
Upon arriving at Zhu's village, it became clear that Cheng Dairen's earlier scent of gunpowder was false, but the current smell of blood was overwhelming.
On a hillside, corpses were scattered all over, each one lying in a pool of blood, with blood drops hanging from the green grass. From an 80-year-old woman to a young child, Cheng Dalai saw a child's corpse lying in the bushes, looking like he was only five or six years old.
Now every corpse has its head chopped off, with only the body lying on the ground.
He subconsciously covered his mouth, and a dry retch escaped from his throat.
"What's wrong, haven't you seen a dead person before?"
A voice suddenly rang out, and Gao Fei Hu's face turned black as he stared at Cheng Da Lei.
Today, not only the Toad Village, but also the Flying Tiger Village, Apricot Flower Ridge, Bald Head Slope, Dog Head Ridge and other mountain village heads of Qingniu Mountain have all arrived at Zhu Family Stockade.
Cheng Dali ignored Gao Feihu's sarcasm and continued to cover his mouth.
"Hey, is that the hand of the Na family's village? Everyone is having dinner at Qingniu Mountain, no need to take things so far, right?" Little White Wolf suddenly said.
"Haven't you figured it out yet? It wasn't us who made the move, it was an outsider!" Gaofei shouted.
"Who?" asked Cheng Dairen.
Fei Hu's Yu Quren said: "Hei Shi Cheng, Lu Hong."
Cheng Darui hadn't seen him before and asked, "Who is this?"
"Master Cheng, under Flying Tiger Fort's military advisor Yu Rou, this is actually the first time I've met Master Cheng."
Cheng Dalai said: "How did Yu Junshi know that Lu Hong was involved?"
"We arrived early and found a bloody letter at Zhu's village, with Lu Hong's name on it. It also said...also said..."
"What else did you say? Hurry up and speak!" asked Xiong Da from Bald Slope.
"He also said that three days later, they will pass by Qingniu Mountain and that there is a person waiting for them at the foot of the mountain!"
The blood letter was taken out from Yu Rou's body and passed around for everyone to see. Huang San Yuan took a look, it was Lu Hong's handwriting, proving that the blood letter was genuine.
Among the mountain bandits, there were those who could read. After reading, their faces sank like ice. Now, more than 50 heads of the mountain strongholds in Qingniu Mountain are all here, a sea of dark faces, yet not a single person speaks. Everyone's face is gloomy, looking at the dead on the ground, with a sense of sympathetic sorrow.
During this time, the Qingniu Mountain was on high alert, and each of the mountain strongholds were thinking about how to swallow up Xue Banjiang's batch of longevity gifts, and also pondering how Lu Hong would respond to the mountain stronghold of Qingniu Mountain. It was nothing more than "soldiers coming to fight, water coming to earth"
But no one had expected that Lu Hong didn't have the intention to engage in a fierce battle with everyone. He only used one move... killing the chicken to scare the monkey.
Rushing overnight, the blood slaughter of Zhu's village, as if a big Qingniu Mountain, more than 50 mountain bandits, but not one household heard any movement. Coming to kill, returning to kill, Lu Hong wanted to use this method to tell everyone. He had pacified Zhu's village and also pacified any mountain stronghold on Qingniu Mountain.
Thinking of this, who isn't like a cicada in winter, feeling as if there's a knife hanging over their head, ready to fall at any moment.
Originally, a group of people were arguing about how to rob Lu Hong, sharpening their knives and worrying that others would take the lead. But now, everyone has retreated and hidden, no one dares to have this thought in mind again.
At this time, someone stumbled into Zhujiashan Village, still holding a wild rabbit in his hand.
Cheng Dali really recognized this person, he was Zhu Xiaopeng from Zhujiazhuang, who had borrowed some chili powder from Hamaizhai a few days ago, and the two had met once.
Zhu Xiaopeng narrowly escaped disaster while hunting in the mountains last night, but what he saw was the tragic state of the mountain stronghold. He collapsed instantly and fell to the ground with a thud, wailing uncontrollably.
The wailing sound echoed in everyone's ears, and no one felt good. There were more than 30 people in Zhujiashan, including the elderly and children, who usually didn't go down the mountain to rob, mainly because there were too few people, and it was said that they couldn't even rob successfully and might be robbed instead. But today, more than 30 people from Zhujiashan were slaughtered clean, including children, old people, women...
Zhu Xiaopeng suddenly stood up and slowly walked in front of Cheng Dairen.
"Cheng, I'm afraid I won't be able to repay the debt I owe you, don't take it to heart."
"It doesn't matter, just live well." At this point, Cheng Dalai could only say these words.
"My father is dead, my mother is dead, my wife and children are all dead. How can I go on living?"
As he spoke, Zhu Xiaopeng suddenly let out a loud roar and violently crashed into a large rock. Cheng Dairen reacted half a beat too slow, and before he could do anything, Zhu Xiaopeng had smashed his head open, his corpse falling right in front of him.
Cheng Dairen was stunned and didn't dare believe what was happening in front of him.
"Hey, everyone lend a hand and bury him!" Gaofei shouted.
Several leaders of the mountain stronghold used knives to dig soil and carried the corpses of Zhu's stronghold into the ground.
Cheng Dalai waved his hand, dispersing the bloody smell on the tip of his nose, and said weakly: "Let's go, we're going back."
"Hey, how can you be so inhumane and not care at all?" Gaofei said.
Cheng Dalai didn't look back, waving his hand to lead the people back to Ha Ma Village. After returning to Ha Ma Village, Cheng Dalai fell ill and lay in bed, with cold sweat seeping out layer by layer.
"Master, are you alright?" Xu Ling'er brought a bowl of ginger soup for Cheng Da Lei and walked into the house.
Cheng Dalai shook his head, holding the ginger soup with both hands, took a sip, and suddenly his wrist trembled. The coarse ceramic bowl fell to the ground with a loud crash, shattering into pieces.
"The Master..."
Cheng Dalai waved his hand, not letting Xu Ling'er come forward, and stared blankly at the ceramic pieces on the ground.
Xu Ling'er stood aside, also didn't know what to do, and could only say: "Eldest master, are you alright? If not, then rest early."
Cheng Dali told Xulinger to clean up the remaining debris on the ground, and then he stepped onto the kang, after a while, he looked out of the window and said his first sentence after returning to Hamao Village.
"The life of a mountain bandit... is indeed cheaper than a dog's."
