Chapter 166: Countermeasures

"Manager Tang, pass on a message for me: tomorrow at twelve noon, I will host a banquet at Hongfu Lou to entertain the three great gang leaders. Tell them they must arrive on time," Meng Yifan said coldly, his face as still as water.

"Lord Meng, please rest assured, I will certainly deliver the message." Manager Tang breathed a sigh of relief. He had truly been afraid that Meng Yifan, in a fit of rage, would have him beheaded and displayed to the public. Now that he was being sent to deliver a message, his life was temporarily saved.

Meng Yifan soon received reports from his subordinates; the situation at other grain shops was similar to Manager Tang's, with only a tiny amount of grain left.

It was obvious that all the grain shops within Luolong County were controlled by the Three Great Gangs.

They controlled the grain trade, which meant they held the economic lifeline of Luolong County. No wonder there had always been a saying that the ones who truly called the shots in Luolong County were the Three Great Gangs.

If the Luolong County Magistrate was obedient, they would let him be a comfortable magistrate; if the magistrate was disobedient, the Three Great Gangs could use any number of methods to make the magistrate scram.

Meng Yifan led his men back to the county office, where several key figures gathered to ponder a way to break the deadlock.

"Mr. Liu, how much longer can the grain in our warehouse last? Can we sell some to the commoners in the city who are short on food?" Meng Dayong asked.

Liu Dengke held the rank of scholar and was capable of speaking and calculating. He was currently moonlighting as the manager of the warehouse and accounts. He opened the ledger and said, "The grain in the warehouse is limited. Supplying one thousand soldiers and their families, plus providing porridge for the refugees, is already stretching us thin."

"If we sell grain to the commoners in the city, two or three tens of thousands of them will surely swarm over to line up and buy it."

"The Three Great Gangs hiding in the shadows will even add fuel to the fire. By then, even if we limit the purchase amount per person, to supply the city's thirty-plus thousand commoners, our grain will last at most two or three days. Therefore, we absolutely cannot sell the grain."

Meng Dayong frowned tightly; he also realized the severity of the problem.

If two or three tens of thousands of commoners had nothing to eat, the entire Luolong County would face a catastrophe.

If the Three Great Gangs were to secretly incite the people, those two or three tens of thousands of commoners could become a mob, or even join the Three Great Gangs to attack Meng Yifan and the others.

"Yifan, if you host a banquet for the three gang leaders tomorrow, they will certainly propose very harsh conditions. They might even want you to become a puppet magistrate like Lv Dazhi."

"If that happens, the Three Great Gangs will still be the ones in charge of Luolong County. What kind of great cause of rebellion are we talking about? Why don't we take our core backbone, go far away, and find some remote, impoverished place to hide?"

Meng Dayong couldn't help but want to retreat. He had long known that the path of rebellion was difficult, but he hadn't expected that just trying to control this small county of Luolong would involve so many difficulties.

Meng Yifan gave a bitter smile. This cheap father of his wanted to escape whenever he encountered trouble. No wonder he had spent half his life as a poor hunter in the countryside. If Meng Yifan hadn't transmigrated here, everyone in Qinghe Village would have been eaten by the Flying Tiger Demon.

"Father, there is no turning back once the arrow is fired. We have already killed the magistrate Lv Dazhi and wiped out the Divine Machine Battalion's Thousand-man Unit. Do you think we can still escape? The only way forward now is to walk this path to the end. Either the rebellion succeeds and we enjoy great wealth and honor, or we wait to be dragged to the vegetable market and sliced into a thousand pieces," Meng Yifan said.

Meng Dayong sighed and said, "I understand, but what do we do now?"

Meng Yifan did not answer, but looked at the others present, asking everyone to speak up and see if there were any good ideas.

Xu Dafu, Wang Dachui, Liu Dengke, Liu Zhongyong, Meng Yitong, and the others looked at each other and shook their heads, not knowing how to handle it. Finally, everyone turned their eyes to Meng Yifan, longing for him to come up with a solution.

Meng Yifan said, "Selling grain is definitely not an option. We will proceed in three steps. The first step is to send people to investigate where the Three Great Gangs are hiding the grain. Once we find the location, we will go directly and seize it. With grain in hand, we won't panic, and we can declare war on the Three Great Gangs and wipe out these bastards."

"Another step is to find a way to locate the hideouts of the Three Great Gangs' core figures. If we can find them, we will launch a decapitation strike. Once we eliminate the leaders of the Three Great Gangs, the other gang members will be nothing but a rabble, unable to form a climate, and will be easy to deal with."

"If the first two steps don't work, then we can only wait for tomorrow noon when the Three Great Gangs come to negotiate. We will take the opportunity to strike and directly capture the three gang leaders."

Liu Dengke pondered for a moment and felt that Meng Yifan's response might not be effective. The Three Great Gangs dared to do this, so the places where they hid the grain were likely very secret and could not be easily found by Meng Yifan.

Furthermore, Meng Yifan's plan for a decapitation strike would also encounter similar problems; the main personnel of the Three Great Gangs were all in hiding, and if one wanted to decapitate them, one couldn't find where they were.

As for setting a trap banquet, the three gang leaders were all cunning old foxes. They would not be caught off guard and come to their deaths; they would very likely send representatives to negotiate.

Although Liu Dengke felt that Meng Yifan's plan might not be useful, he had no better ideas and could only proceed this way; having a plan was better than having no plan.

Meng Dayong followed Meng Yifan's words implicitly. He led the yamen runners, dressed in plain clothes, to walk the streets and alleys to gather information.

A day passed quickly. By evening, Meng Dayong returned with some disappointment and said to Meng Yifan, "Yifan, it's very strange. The core figures of the Three Great Gangs seem to have vanished mysteriously; we can't find them at all. The only gang members we can find now are hoodlums, ruffians, and low-lifes who aren't worth mentioning."

"I secretly captured a few people and interrogated them under torture, but they truly don't know where the leaders and other core figures of the Three Great Gangs are hiding, nor do they know where the grain is hidden."

Meng Yifan said, "Father, this was to be expected. Even as you stepped out the door, you were already being watched by the Three Great Gangs' eyes and ears. Your every move is under the control of the Three Great Gangs, so you certainly wouldn't find any useful information. Perhaps the leaders of the Three Great Gangs are hiding in the shadows, watching us make fools of ourselves."

"Yifan, what should we do then?" Meng Dayong was a bit anxious. Throughout the day, many commoners in Luolong County were short of food. Meng Yifan had to increase the grain supply at the porridge-dispensing station outside the city. Although each person could only receive one bowl of porridge a day, there were just too many people.

On this day, the grain consumption of Meng Yifan and his men tripled or quadrupled. If the grain shops still didn't sell grain tomorrow, the commoners in the city would not be able to sit still and would surely swarm outside the city to receive porridge. This was a severe test for Meng Yifan's grain reserves.

Meng Yifan had been dispensing porridge to provide disaster relief. If he suddenly stopped, many people who were originally grateful to him would surely turn to cursing him.

Coupled with the rumors spread by the Three Great Gangs in the shadows, it was very likely that all the commoners in the city would rise up against Meng Yifan's rule.

The human heart is hard to fathom. They would easily forget the good Meng Yifan had done for them and only remember that because Meng Yifan rebelled, they had no grain to eat. This was human nature.

"Father, don't panic, I have a way," Meng Yifan smiled. He had asked Meng Dayong to take people to investigate just to pull the wool over their eyes; in reality, Meng Yifan had long known that it was likely nothing could be found.

Seeing Meng Yifan full of confidence, Meng Dayong asked curiously, "Yifan, what method do you have? Tell me."

"Haha, Father, after it gets dark later, you guard me. I will take the Array Disk and lead the ghost soldiers and ghost generals to patrol Luolong County at night."

"They are Yin Soul bodies and can pass through walls and drill into the ground. Their search speed is extremely fast; one night is enough to turn Luolong County upside down," Meng Yifan said.

"Eh! That's right, this method is good!" Meng Dayong clapped his hands in approval. Outside the county office, there must be many eyes and ears of the Three Great Gangs, and they could keep an eye on those yamen runners and constables.

However, the people keeping watch were basically mortals with flesh eyes. As long as the ghost soldiers and ghost generals didn't take the initiative to reveal themselves or get too close to a Martial Artist, it would be difficult for the watchers to discover them.

This way, they could find the places where the Three Great Gangs stored grain without anyone knowing, and could also find the hideouts of the Three Great Gangs' backbone members.

In this way, let's see how the Three Great Gangs play their game.