Chapter 149: The Innkeeper's Advice, the Eavesdropping Mao Mao

"Are you all here?" the innkeeper, nicknamed 'Blood Dagger', asked the scouts.

The scouts glanced at each other, confirming that everyone had arrived.

On the road from 【Meiqian Chakou】 to 【Suishi Cheng】, including the fork leading north, there are currently nearly ten bandit groups of varying sizes, but only seven of them are large enough to have extra personnel stationed here at 【Meiqian Chakou】.

The rest are too small and can only roam about, plundering lone villagers and travelers.

"You all know that a caravan arrived here tonight; it's quite large and powerful. But don't think this caravan is a juicy fruit like the 【Wealth Fruit】 Merchant Guild's caravan from before. Hmph, it's actually just a hard, unripe acorn."

The innkeeper gave a cold snort: "The leader of this group is a young Knight named Sir Jier. I don't know how strong he is, but given his status, his strength certainly won't be lacking. More importantly, they are staying at my inn, and they not only have a Knight leading them, but also several dozen formidable Warriors. They all seem to have armor, and the weapons in their hands are diverse and professional."

He pointed his finger at these bandit scouts: "Compared to them, you are all just like pathetic beggar scum on the street."

The scouts were slightly dissatisfied, but one scout who had boldly come face-to-face with Jier's Warriors in the tavern nodded: "Their equipment is indeed good, and their vigilance is very high. I tried to make contact with them in the tavern, and they actually dropped the plate of meat they had just been served and left immediately?"

"That is what I wanted to talk about. This group is indeed a rare caravan since the last time the 【Wealth Fruit】 Merchant Guild was robbed, but the difficulty of plundering them on the road is too high. Even if you eventually took down this caravan, the casualties within your respective groups would be very severe. You must know that when you go out to work as a bandit, the key is not how many caravans you rob or how famous you are, but that you yourself must be able to survive."

As an old bandit, the innkeeper shared his important insights: "If a person is dead, all those other things are meaningless. No matter how famous you were before, not long after you die, no one will remember you. 'Shanlang Bani' was famous enough, right? He dominated the mountain trade route between 【Baishiguan】 and 【Duoen Town】, and countless caravans passing through were robbed by him. Later on, some caravans even offered him half their goods upon seeing him. But a while ago, this Shanlang Bani was too arrogant and actually attacked a Refugee Team led by a Knight. Hmph, and that Knight just happened to be this young Sir Jier."

The innkeeper spread his hands: "And in the end? Shanlang Bani just fell like that. Now, besides old guys like me, who still talks about that guy? No one. So, it's not that I'm afraid of that young Knight; after all, he is just a young man, and no matter how strong he is, a hundred people swarming him would still drown him. But what is truly terrifying are the dozens of well-trained Warriors under his command."

"Don't go against a Knight with such a scale of subordinates; even if you all joined forces, you wouldn't have the strength. You must know that the more organized a team is, the easier it is for them to be scattered in chaos and then flee in all directions."

However, despite the innkeeper saying so much in persuasion, he noticed that at least five or six of the seven scouts opposite him were unimpressed. Some even curled their lips in secret, muttering some nasty words under their breath.

Most were likely mocking him for being old and cowardly. But because he held a high status in the bandit circle, these young scouts dared not mock him out loud.

"What? You all think I'm nagging, think I have no guts? I tell you, when I was dominating and plundering in the neighboring county, you guys were probably still nursing at your mothers' breasts! We are bandits, a group of people who make a living by plundering. Plundering and survival—these are our primary goals, not just thinking that because the other side is strong, we must find a way to rob them."

"That's not comparing who is stronger, that's being stupid! If you really think you are strong and have many men, why haven't I seen you join forces to attack towns? Or ransack the wealthy villages near several large towns? Or go straight east to clash with those lords' armies?"

Hearing this reprimand, several scouts lowered their heads, but some curled their lips in disdain, though no one retorted at this moment.

After all, he was a very high-ranking old bandit, and they were merely scouts in their groups; only their respective bosses would have the status to retort to his face.

"Now, you all go back and tell your bosses my words and judgment, and choose your targets for plunder cautiously. For a caravan that looks like fat meat but turns out to be a stone when you take a bite, it's best not to provoke them from the start. Let them pass and choose easier targets. After all, a lot of the goods from the last robbery haven't been processed yet. And everyone has some Shop Assistants from the Merchant Guild in their hands; the ransoms for these people are also a significant amount."

"Go back and tell your bosses to cautiously send intermediaries to negotiate with the 【Wealth Fruit】 Merchant Guild, let them come up with a suitable price to ransom the Shop Assistants, and it's best not to negotiate or release people here."

After he finished speaking, the several bandit scouts left this small Jiedian one by one at intervals. But these scouts did not know that when they entered this Jiedian, a Mao Mao had been hiding and tracking them, and after these people entered the underground warehouse of the wooden shop, this Mao Mao even snuck into the shop and pressed its large ears against the floor to eavesdrop on what the people below were doing.

Kuaitui Maomao could understand quite a bit of Human Common Language; it was just that it wasn't easy for it to speak human words, as their body's vocal structure was different from humans. Their large, furry ears could even allow the Mao Maos to hear many sounds that humans could not, and their eyes could see things that were not easy for humans to see. This included the middle of the night; humans found it difficult to identify things in the dark, but Mao Maos could move easily, just like in the daytime.

After listening carefully for a while, the Mao Mao could perceive that these people were a group or several groups of human bandits, and they seemed to have their eyes on Sir Jier's team. But it didn't seem like it either; after all, the human speaking below seemed to be constantly advising others not to take action against Jier's team.

This made it a bit confused, not knowing what these human bandits meant. However, when it and other Mao Maos first left their tribe, they had naively helped a group of human bandits do things, but those human bandits deceived the Mao Maos, made them work, but ultimately did not pay them their reward.

Therefore, human bandits are all bad humans and cannot be trusted.

Trying hard to remember what those people said in its mind, Kuaitui Maomao scurried back to the 【Siren Ganzi】 inn not far away.

Hearing a light tapping sound on the wooden door of its room, especially at a lower position, Jier knew that the Mao Mao he had sent out had made some discoveries.

"Come in quickly." Jier pulled open the wooden door and let his little Scout in.

Kuaitui Maomao jumped onto the table in the room and chattered away, telling Jier everything it had heard.

Jier rubbed his forehead with his hand, trying to get some intelligence from the chaotic vocabulary.

"Seven people walked out of that place, right? They claimed to be bandits, right?"

Facing Jier's question, Kuaitui Maomao nodded.

"Besides that, there was one person advising those bandits not to take action against my team? Because my team is strong? Heh, then I have to thank him." Jier remarked.

The Mao Mao chattered some more.

"Hmm, that guy also advised the bandit groups to focus on the hostages from the robbed caravan and demand ransom from the Merchant Guild?"

Jier pondered for a while and roughly guessed who this person was.

Since the inn was full of Jier's Warriors, he knew everyone who came in and out on the surface. Don't look at how he pretended to go to his room to rest; in reality, he had his people in the lobby and the backyard coming to report the situation every once in a while.

After late night, no one entered or left the entire inn, but the Huimao Hu Li had discovered earlier that there was an unopened floor trapdoor in the innkeeper's room. If he hadn't guessed wrong, that trapdoor led outside the inn, allowing the innkeeper to secretly meet with the surrounding bandit scouts.

It was just that their meeting place wasn't secret enough; although it was the middle of the night and the location was in the basement of an unmanned shop, a lot of the content was still overheard by the Mao Mao.

"Like this, you go secretly to the outside of the innkeeper's room now and peek inside through the vent. Especially see if he is in the room. Go quickly."

After Jier finished giving instructions, Kuaitui Maomao lived up to its name, its footsteps light as it vanished in a flash.

Before Jier could ponder the current situation further, Kuaitui Maomao slipped back in through the open room door: "Jier, Jier, that person, not, in, room. Room, wood, bed, moved, pitch black, tunnel, revealed!"

Jier smiled and wanted to reward the little guy, so he took out a piece of roasted meat and a Silver Coin, letting the Mao Mao choose.

But the clever Kuaitui Maomao wouldn't choose; it took both.

It tore and swallowed the roasted meat into its mouth, while the Silver Coin was placed in a small pouch on the specially made harness on its body.

Seeing this, Jier just smiled and said nothing. After praising Kuaitui Maomao twice, he let it move freely tonight, but it had to come back to meet up with everyone before dawn.

After the Mao Mao ran off with light footsteps, Jier sat on the bed, pondering this intelligence.

The grocery store owner at the fork, although he was a person from the 【Treasure House】 Merchant Guild of the Merchant Union, he himself also seemed to be secretly buying black-market goods from the bandits at low prices. Clearly, he was involved with those bandits.

As for the local tavern owner, his stance was a bit vague; after all, he was in the business of selling food and drinks. People brought money to consume, so he naturally opened for business. After all, for the same two Gold Coins, can you say this Gold Coin is noble? Or say that the other equally glittering Gold Coin is despicable?

And the 【Wangu Canzhuo】 inn, although that owner and his Shop Assistants were as stubborn, stingy, and conservative as him, they seemed to be the most normal shop here. Clearly, the conservative way was to simply conduct inn operations, rather than getting involved in these matters of blood, fire, and swords.

【Siren Ganzi】 inn, clearly the owner here had deep connections with the outside bandit groups, but it was unclear what kind of relationship he had with those bandits—was it cooperation? Or command? If this inn owner was actually one of the bosses of the nearby bandit groups, that would be truly exciting.

From what Kuaitui Maomao overheard, this innkeeper was even telling other bandits who had robbed caravans how to use the hostages in their hands to demand ransom.

This was clearly done in the manner of an instructor.

And the 【Zihonghua】 inn, clearly the two brothers who owned this inn knew the several caravan Stewards Jier had brought this time, and they also seemed to be plotting something in secret.

The tavern owner had said before that those Oakes Brothers were themselves the sponsors and supporters of the nearby bandit groups, and the brothers themselves were also wealthy and influential people in the nearby village, holding a lot of status in the village.

What the stance of these people was at this time and what they were going to do, Jier could roughly guess, but he didn't know exactly how the other side would act. After all, this was Jier's first time passing through here, and he lacked a key piece of information.

That is, the specific number of people and strength of each force in the surrounding area.

He only knew that the number of foreign bandits around Duoen Town recently was very high, and they were able to intercept and defeat the large-scale caravan of the 【Wealth Fruit】 Merchant Guild in advance under the intelligence of an inside man. You must know that the larger the caravan, the more supporting drivers, Merchant Guild Stewards, Shop Assistants, caravan guards, thugs, etc., there were.

To be able to take down such a caravan, the number of bandits plundering it could not have been small.

Otherwise, the caravan's guards alone could have routed some smaller bandit groups.

Jier did not know that, in fact, because the security environment in the surrounding Noble territories had deteriorated, many villagers in remote areas had become refugees and vagrants, and many of them had joined those Bandit Groups just for a bite to eat.

Many vagrants joined Bandit Groups not only for a bite to eat, but also partly out of revenge against Merchants who had raised the prices of essential survival goods due to the worsening situation.

Jier was unaware that the surrounding Bandit Groups were actually expanding their manpower rapidly; the recent successful robbery of a Merchant Union caravan had allowed them to make a huge profit, and the mindset of many people, who had originally only intended to scrape by for a meal, changed rapidly.

After all, many of them were formerly farmers from various places; even if an entire family farmed for a year, it was difficult to guarantee earning a single Gold Coin from selling the grain harvested from the fields. One must know that this was not the income of one person, but the harvest of an entire family working hard for a year, even with guaranteed ownership of sufficient land, was not worth a single Gold Coin.

Yet after they became Bandits, with a simple robbery and the advantage of overwhelming numbers, they could easily harvest an income of more than one Gold Coin from the robbed Caravan.

This immediately caused many young people to change their minds.

Why work hard at farming? Isn't it faster to make money by being a Bandit and robbing others?

By being a Bandit for a year, one might be able to save up wealth that would be difficult to accumulate in a lifetime of farming.

Precisely because more and more people were joining outside Bandit Groups, this also triggered reactions from various local forces.

The Merchant Union and the Thieves Guild of Dorn Town originally intended to use the old methods of the Thieves Guild to wipe out the largest nearby Bandit Group and completely suppress these bold outsiders.

However, the batch of surrendered Soldiers that Jier accidentally provided caused the Merchant Union, after inspecting the combat effectiveness of those Soldiers, to change their minds. By arming those few but Refining Qi Soldiers, and with the cooperation of the Thieves Guild, they could gradually clear out the scale and number of surrounding Bandits by wiping out one Bandit Group at a time.

In fact, the various surrounding Bandit Groups had always been watched by people sent by the Thieves Guild; they knew exactly where their lairs were and what their scale was.

And the local small and medium-sized Merchant Guilds, as well as traditional local forces, also seemed to have some intentions of taking advantage of the situation.

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