After the crowd dispersed, Zhang Feng was alone in the forest, groping his way forward. According to the information provided by Wu Cheng, the leader of the Yingzhou Garrison, this group of mountain bandits had been hiding here for years. Because there was no road into the mountains, they had failed to eradicate them despite multiple attempts. However, whenever Wu Cheng spoke of this, he couldn't shake off the feeling that something strange was hidden beneath the surface.

  At this moment, the moon is hanging in the middle of the sky, it's a good time to find the mountain stronghold. Thinking of this, Zhang Feng couldn't help but quicken his pace, wearing ordinary farmer's clothes, he darted through the forest, which made Old Liu, who was following behind him, suffer.

  They had originally planned to follow the children from a distance, and if their mission was successful, they would not appear. On the other hand, if they failed to gather intelligence or were discovered by the enemy, the three of them would take action and cover their retreat.

  But who would have thought that these little kids were so bold, they actually took action alone for the first time on a reconnaissance mission. The three of them were stunned and had to disperse, fortunately, except for Zhang Feng, everyone else was relatively cautious, advancing slowly and not far apart. Only Zhang Feng was the most reckless, rushing out quickly, if it wasn't for Old Liu's quick legs, he would have been lost long ago.

  It's not surprising that Zhang Feng and his team did this, as dispersing to execute tasks efficiently makes it easier to hide, and even if one person is exposed, the other teammates can continue to complete the task. This was exactly what San Ren taught them, and Zhang Feng also assigned tasks according to this idea, but he subconsciously ignored what Lao Liu said at the end.

  "Captain Zhang, what I said earlier is the most common way of doing things for scouts like us. But since you're all newbies, it's better to work in pairs and watch each other's backs while completing tasks."

  The words behind didn't even pass through Zhang Feng's mind, directly entering his left ear and exiting his right ear, he only focused on the most common way of doing things.

  And who made Old Liu and the others boast about the great achievements of the scouts, and even elevated the role of the scouts so high that Zhang Feng felt a sense of glorious mission in being able to be a scout, making him want to do things according to the true methods of a scout, directly throwing away their identity as newcomers.

  Old Liu walked with a bitter face and quickened his pace, while also hiding himself from being discovered at all times.

  ……

  Beishan is located north of Pinggu County, so the locals gave it this name. In fact, it's a mountain range that is wide but not high, with dense trees in the mountains.

  In the midst of this mountain lies a stronghold, which is exactly Zhang Feng and his group's target. And that gang of so-called bandits are right here.

  It was already nighttime, and most people in the village had gone to sleep. However, in a house located northeast of the village, four people were having a conversation by candlelight.

  "Li Shui, I've long seen that you're a despicable person. I didn't expect you'd actually want to surrender. My god, I was blind to have considered you as a brother."

  " Iron madman, what the hell is wrong with you? Now a large group of Ming soldiers has arrived in Pinggu County, do you think they are here to go shopping?! They are here to suppress bandits, to kill us! What can we use to resist them?"

  "Damn you, you cowardly turtle grandson!"

  "I don't want to see people in the village die for nothing, we'll return that batch of military rations intact, maybe we can get off lightly, otherwise everyone will be waiting for their heads to roll." As soon as Tie Fengzi heard this, he slammed his hand on the table and stood up, ready to rush over and beat someone.

  "Bring it on, you still want to fight me? Come on, come on, I'm not afraid of you!" Li Shui's temper was also rising, he rolled up his sleeves and was about to engage in a fierce battle with Tie Fengzi.

  "Huang" sat at the head, slapped the tea table beside him with a loud slap, and shouted: "What time is it now, the great enemy is in front of us, you two are still killing each other, do you still have me, this big brother, in your eyes?"

  The two men who were about to take action hastily stopped, and it turned out that the four people in this house were the ones who robbed the military rations, also the creators of this mountain stronghold, and also the people Zhao Chuhai wanted to kill.

  The two who were arguing were Li Shui, the third eldest, and Tie Feng, the fifth eldest. The remaining two were Tie Shan, the eldest, and Ding Wu, the second eldest. It was Tie Shan who had smashed the table.

  Tie Shan and Tie Feng were biological brothers, Ding Wu was the one-eyed archer who shot Zhao Baihu, and Li Shui was the interrogator that night.

  Lao Wu Tie had a violent temper, and would start a big fight at the slightest disagreement. When he got crazy, no one could stop him except his own brother Tie Shan. Everyone in the mountain village was afraid of him, and they even gave him a nickname - "Tie Fēngzi" (Iron Madman)...

  Lao San Li was cautious by nature, but he was overly cautious, and it wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him timid. When Tie Shan and the others wanted to desert the Yuan army that year, he strongly opposed it, and if not for Tie Shan's kindness towards him and treating him like a brother, he wouldn't have dared to want to desert. Last time when they robbed the military rations, he also didn't agree with it, but since three votes were against one vote, his opposition was useless.

  This time, the King of Yan personally sent troops to suppress the bandits, which scared him so much that his timid nature took over. He insisted on going down the mountain to surrender and return the grain, and then explain the situation to the leaders of the large army below, although they had killed Ming soldiers, but that was an unavoidable move, thinking that the King of Yan's personal guards would not be as ruthless as Zhao Chuhai.

  This way, one can save their own life and also allow the villagers in the mountain stronghold to survive, isn't that a better outcome?

  Tie Feng strongly opposed it, because these people were first surrounded and robbed of their goods in the city for no reason, then the county magistrate personally ordered to cut off their livelihood, and even slandered them as mountain bandits, making neighboring counties dare not accept their mountain goods. What's more hateful is that the damned Zhao Chuhai also asked the Wei Suo officer to besiege them. All of this made Tie Feng extremely resentful of Zhao Chuhai, and in his eyes, there were no good people in the entire Ming court.

  It's because of these two opposing ideas that we had what just happened earlier...

  Tie Shan looked at his two brothers, then at the remains of the wooden table he had smashed to pieces beneath his feet, and let out a helpless sigh.

  "Lao Er, what's your take on this situation?" Tieshan turned his head and said to Ding Wu, who had been silent all along.

  Lao Er Ding Wu, a one-eyed man, was once the best archer in the Yuan army, but after being shot in the left eye by an arrow during a battle, his archery skills became inaccurate and he became taciturn.

  Ding Wu heard the eldest brother's question and remained silent, Tie Shan himself also shook his head, he was also confused and wanted to try every possible treatment, unexpectedly asking himself this usually taciturn second brother.

  "Either fight or surrender" was recalled by Ding Wu's slightly hoarse voice when he withdrew his gaze from Tie Shan.

  Tie Feng and Li Shui were both stunned, neither of them could be bothered to argue with each other, thinking that Second Brother was up to something, whether he was surrendering or not.

  Only Lao Da Iron Mountain slowly let out a mouthful, as if he had understood, but didn't explain anything to the two of them.

  "Big brother, second brother, what riddle are you solving? Why aren't either of you speaking?"

  Just as Iron Crazy was about to go crazy, Old Three gradually reacted and, unusually, didn't interrupt Iron Wind. Instead, he looked at his two brothers with a complex expression and calmly said: "Little Five, calm down for a moment and listen to what Big Brother has to say..."

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