Chapter 784: The Bandits in the Shulin

With no other choice, the Bandit Leader had to abandon these important weapons and personally gather his men together to resist the annoying Knight who was charging back and forth on horseback.

This vicious Knight's charging pattern was erratic; he would charge at young Bandits who were only focused on fleeing, and he also targeted the experienced Bandits who were moving slowly while huddled together.

However, the slightly better news was that when faced with dozens of people huddled together, the Knight could not charge straight in without obstruction; he could mostly only lean down at the edge of the crowd, seize an unlucky fellow, and throw him away with force.

Sometimes he threw them directly in front of his galloping warhorse to be trampled to death by its hooves, and other times he threw the Bandits hard into the middle of the crowd, where these unlucky fellows would mostly be pierced by the swords and blades raised by their own companions, dying at the hands of their own people.

The experienced Bandits were mostly friends who had known each other for a long time, and seeing their familiar companions pierced through the chest or limbs and dying by their own weapons, they began to curse loudly in grief and indignation.

They cursed very foully, spewing out almost every obscenity they had ever heard. However, the Knight who galloped past the edge of the crowd just laughed, waved at them, and then drove his warhorse forward to bully the young Bandits who were retreating in disarray.

It was much easier for Jier to deal with these young Bandits who did not know how to huddle together for defense; he simply pulled on the Jiansheng to adjust the warhorse's charge, turning left and right to knock the fleeing Bandits to the ground one by one.

Because he had to change direction many times, the warhorse could not reach full speed, so most of the young Bandits were only injured rather than killed, and they endured the pain to flee back to the Shulin beside the Shanglu from which they had just emerged.

"Hmph, consider yourselves lucky to run fast."

Jier pulled on the Jiansheng to make Tianxuecao stop on the Shanglu outside the Shulin, watching as the young Bandits, each one sweating profusely and wearing a look of despair, fled into the Shulin.

These terrified fellows were afraid that the sparse outskirts of the Shulin were unsafe, so they retreated another hundred meters up the mountain, and only after completely hiding in the cover of the trees did they sit down on the ground one by one, their spirits collapsing into a daze.

Some young men who had been knocked flying and injured by the warhorse, and then endured the pain to flee back, were now holding their broken arms, leaning on weapons used as substitutes for broken legs, roaring loudly to curse their companions who only cared about fleeing, questioning why they didn't come over to help them.

But the young Bandits who only cared about saving their own lives had their own excuses; they claimed that if everyone huddled together in small groups to save people and retreated slowly toward the Shulin, that Knight would surely charge over on horseback and knock several people flying to their deaths at once.

Then wouldn't everyone have died for nothing!

This explanation seemed reasonable, but the abandoned injured Bandits would not accept it obediently; most of these fellows frowned, endured the intense pain in their limbs and bodies, and glared viciously at the fellow villagers they used to call brothers.

The atmosphere was very tense for a moment.

Jier heard the arguing of those fellows from the Shanglu outside the Shulin, and he even caught a glimpse of a group of people starting to fight because of the argument in the shadows of the Shulin.

Naturally, the injured fellows were no match for the uninjured ones, and since everyone had weapons that could hurt or kill, the injured Bandits who started the fight were immediately killed in the absence of anyone to preside over or stop them.

Once someone died, the Bandits calmed down slightly, realizing what everyone had done.

The young Bandits who killed their own people panicked for a moment, and taking advantage of the time when the Bandit Leader had not yet brought his men back, they took their blood-dripping weapons and ran straight into the mountain forest without looking back.

This person did not dare to return to the New Clear Spring Village they came from, and could only flee aimlessly into the nearby mountain forest.

Not to mention that the Kingdom's usual laws were strict, the rules and punishments within a Bandit Group were few, but once violated, the force of the punishment was even heavier. Even if it was just killing someone during a dispute, the person who committed the act was definitely subject to the death penalty.

And it wasn't just an ordinary execution; in order to suppress the brutal Bandits under his command, the Bandit Leader often used very vicious and terrifying methods to deal with people.

Therefore, this reckless killer only had a real chance of survival by fleeing into the mountain forest.

However, the fat Bandit Leader who was bringing his men closer to the Shulin had no heart to carry out punishments at this moment; the Knight watching them from outside the Shulin was like a difficult problem that no one could handle, placed right before everyone's eyes.

"Boss, what should we do?"

A confidant leaned over to the Bandit Leader, who was sitting under a tree, and asked in a low voice.

Although the voice was low, the subordinates around the Bandit Leader all heard the question, and everyone looked over with confused eyes, hoping that the leader who had always led them to grow stronger could come up with a good solution.

The fat Bandit Leader thought to himself that he also wanted to know how to solve the current situation, but he couldn't say that, as everyone was looking at him.

He was like the leader of a Wolf Pack, naturally eating the best and using the best in normal times. But when encountering a predicament, he had to come up with a feasible solution. Otherwise, these seemingly loyal Bandits around him would instantly transform into hungry wolves attacking him, devour him, and then choose a new leader.

"What to do..."

He postured by thumping his single-handed Great Axe onto the soft forest floor beside him, then used his right hand to scrape his thick, dense beard.

For a moment, he couldn't think of a practical way to deal with that Knight; there were reckless methods, of course, but they wouldn't succeed and would instead lose him opportunities and prestige. Therefore, while thinking, he asked a question to buy some time for thought.

"Where are those new Bandits?"

He looked left and right; at the edge of the forest near the Shanglu, there were only his old subordinates who had followed him for at least a year or more. Everyone was either glaring at the Knight outside the Shulin, cursing, or tending to the previously injured companions.

Yet not a single young Bandit who had joined recently was to be seen.

A Bandit confidant immediately pointed toward the direction of the Cunzi and replied loudly to the leader: "Boss, that bunch of cowards all ran up the mountain. They really are a bunch of trash; they look hot-tempered and eat a lot, but their feet are fast, though they are only fast when running away."

Once this person cursed, the surrounding Bandits all followed suit. They had only lost two people and had five injured in the Knight's charging attack just now, and the others were fine besides being frightened.

And everyone had seen the state of those young Bandits; including the initial attack and the scattered flight just a moment ago, the Knight had trampled nearly ten people to death, and at least a dozen were injured, which could almost be said to be about one-third of the new Bandits.

"There are no cowards in my team, deserters! You, take ten Refining Qi experts, go up and bring them down for me. If they aren't willing to come and fight, kill them directly!"

The Bandit Leader waved his large hand and gave the order.

After speaking, this confidant Bandit called over ten familiar people and headed aggressively toward the messy and chaotic young Bandits.

Seeing his subordinates set off, the Bandit Leader then said to the rest: "The battle just now was entirely because we didn't know that a troublesome Knight was mixed into the Refugee Team. It's all the fault of that guy who sold the information; such inaccurate information must have been intentional. I can't worry about it now, but after settling this matter, I will not only put a bounty on that person's life, but I will also send people to slaughter him!"

"Right, it's all because the intelligence was unclear, otherwise we wouldn't have been so rash and reckless to go out like that."

A sycophant of the Bandit Leader said immediately.

The other Bandits didn't think there was a problem on their side either, after all, the looting jobs they had done before were actually quite good, so the problem must lie with the person who passed on and sold the news.

"I knew it, there couldn't be a word of truth in that guy's mouth! Next time I see him, I must hack him to death!"

"Why wait for next time? That person is probably still nearby selling fake news to cheat money, damn it, cheating money from his own brothers, I'll go out and slaughter him later!"

"That guy will definitely use the same method to cheat the two neighboring groups twice more. I think we shouldn't be the only ones to suffer this loss; revenge can wait. After the other two groups suffer losses from the same situation as us, we will send people to kill him."

"Well said, we can't be the only ones cheated, that would make us look very stupid. If we are to be cheated, everyone must be cheated."

The Bandits cursed and discussed in a hubbub. After hearing this, the Bandit Leader also nodded; they couldn't take all the losses themselves. If the other two groups didn't taste this 'wonderful' experience together, how could that be right?

"Good, it's settled then. Everyone keep your mouths shut and let the other two groups suffer this loss too. However, in this way, this Knight and the Refugee Team he leads..."

When the Bandit Leader said this, everyone realized that if they wanted to drag the other two groups into the water, they had to let the Knight and the Refugee Team pass through their territory. And looking at the scale of the Refugee Team, the Bandits knew there was a lot of wealth and profit inside; whoever could take down this group could immediately expand their Bandit Group with the wealth.

And even if the Refugee Team was dirt poor, in the current chaotic situation, whoever could enslave and manage more people could see their team size expand like a balloon.

This was a good thing for every Bandit; who wouldn't want to own private slaves and laborers they could control?

Although the Saint Hors Kingdom inherited the Empire's laws and regulations and prohibited the slave trade, the Kingdom's laws required people to maintain them to be useful. The Knight Lords and Soldiers who maintained local order had all been taken away by the Noble Lords to fight, so wasn't the local area left for them, these Bandits, to do as they pleased?

Many Bandits were happy to live one day at a time; the suffering and pain they had endured in their lives before were now to be fiercely compensated for by abusing their former selves—the innocent people who had been unluckily captured!

"Let's consider this matter further, wait until the team is complete before talking."

The Bandit Leader said this, and the other Bandits closed their mouths one after another, sitting on tree roots or leaning against tree trunks, peeping from the forest at the vicious Knight wandering on the nearby Shanglu and the large Refugee Team stopped in the distance.

The Bandit Leader's confidant, who had taken men up the mountain to 'invite' the young Bandits who had fled there back, also used a combination of coercion and fighting, and even killed two people who spoke rudely, before half-forcing and half-escorting the dozens of young Bandits back.

It took him quite a while to bring the people back to the team; mainly because many of the young Bandits were injured, with broken arms and legs. The fractured limbs not only made it impossible for them to move, but the pain also made the injured Bandits howl, yet they couldn't be ignored, so he had to let the uninjured ones carry them on their backs or shoulders to bring them down.

The Bandit Leader's head throbbed at the sight of these injured fellows. He grabbed a trusted Bandit subordinate and whispered, "Why bring these people back too? Just let them rest where they are and save each other. Bringing them along, they can't help in a fight and will only drag us down."

The subordinate looked troubled: "Boss, these young people are all from small groups. When they were fleeing for their lives earlier, they didn't care about their companions and ran fast, but when I went over, pfft."

The man spat with a sneer on his face: "Pfft, they were all shouting loudly about bringing their injured companions along. When dealing with the troublemakers, I already killed two people, and the others didn't say much, but on the issue of whether to bring the injured fellows or not, their attitude was the same."

The Bandit Leader also looked with disdain at the young Bandits blending into the team not far away. These guys were currently pretending to take care of their injured companions, but they weren't Physicians or Priests; how could most of them know how to handle complex injuries?

It still came down to having the veteran Bandits, who were often injured in battle, find wooden sticks and Rope to splint the broken limbs of the injured. Those with torso injuries could only lie flat on the ground and wait to see what happened.

Many people looked like their injuries weren't serious, just abdominal or chest pain, but in reality, they were already beyond saving. Although it couldn't be seen on the surface, the broken ribs inside their bodies had already punctured their Viscera, and they could only wait for death. Some others, although they also had torso injuries and were shouting loudly about the pain, were not as serious as they looked and didn't need much treatment; after lying in the Cunzi for a month or two, their bodies would naturally recover.

"It's something that can't be helped. You did well. Mineral Ore must be scorched by fire to produce iron. These newly joined young people will naturally become seasoned after experiencing a few more battles with casualties, and they will know who to be companions and friends with, and whose orders to follow to survive."

The Bandit Leader patted his subordinate on the shoulder, noted the man's merit, and then walked into the middle of the crowd.

Everyone had originally been looking outside the Shulin, most of them whispering curses at the Knight who had caused many deaths and injuries. Now, as the Bandit Leader walked out, everyone naturally gathered their gazes and quieted down to see what ideas and methods the leader had.

"Look over here, you bad seeds!"

The Bandit Leader called out to get all his subordinates' attention, then continued: "I don't think the failure of the battle just now was our own fault. It's all the fault of the guy who delivered the intelligence; that person deliberately concealed the information that there was a Knight leading the Refugee Team. That's why we carelessly ran into that arrogant Knight in an exposed place outside the Shulin."

"Pah!"

He spat loudly.

Seeing him like this, the vast majority of the Bandits, who were holding back their anger, followed the leader and spat, and the direction, naturally, was toward the Knight outside the Shulin.

It didn't matter that the person couldn't see this meaningless act of humiliation; as long as they vented their own frustration, it was fine.

"Pay attention. You bad guys who have been with me for a long time know how difficult those Knights in heavy armor riding Armored Warhorse are. I won't hide it from you all: a few years ago, I was struggling for Difficult Survival in the mountains and forests with my men just to avoid the Knights and large groups of Soldiers who were clearing me out. Ha, they are very powerful, but they aren't that amazing."

The Bandit Leader waved his hand and continued: "It's hard to surround and kill these guys without three or four hundred people—I'm talking about a lone Knight. So I thought about it just now: since the Knight is so powerful, why must I lead people to fight this guy to the death? What are we, as Bandits, seeking? Answer me!"

One of the leader's lackeys immediately shouted in response: "Boss, it's coins! Lots of coins!"

"That's right! It's coins, lots of coins, endless coins. These coins can buy anything you want. Of course, as Bandits, sometimes when we want something, we don't necessarily have to pay for it; pulling a knife works just as well. But knives can only be used in places with few people, while coins work better the more people there are, and they can also earn you people's respect."

"I heard that even the big Merchants from Merchant Guilds whose trade spans several provinces have to be carefully fawned over by Noble lords, and Knights have to speak to these people with respect? So, we Bandits must get more coins! Lots of coins! Relying on what? Relying on these hands of ours, and the swords tucked at our waists!"

"The Knight is strong, and we are no match for him, but the Refugee Team led by that Knight not only has many people, but it also seems to have many carts and donkey carts loaded with supplies. This is our real target! Supplies, carts, and people—they are all coins, all things that can be robbed. Let's change our target; no more pointless fighting and casualties, but raiding the Refugee Team, making money! Plundering! Capturing people!"

"Make money! Make money! Make money!"

The Bandits shouted.

"Plunder! Plunder! Plunder!"

The Bandits shouted excitedly.

"Capture people! Capture people! Capture people!"

The Bandits howled and shouted.

The Bandit Leader was very satisfied. Although there was no concrete or clear plan for the raid yet, with the target determined, everything would go smoothly. The disastrous retreat from before was naturally no longer mentioned by anyone.

Anyway, he had already shifted the blame for the failure onto others; reckless fighting and rash advancement were not his mistakes—it was all the fault of the guy who delivered the intelligence, right?

As for the arrogant Knight outside the Shulin, the Bandit Leader felt that since his side had already led a team to have a 'contact' with the Knight, shouldn't the other two Bandit Groups nearby, who didn't have a very good relationship with him, have a 'close contact' with the Knight just like his group?

Everyone lost men, and only then would it truly be considered 'fair'.