Chapter 67: Stragglers

"There isn't anything worth looting within a radius of several dozen miles. Those big mountain strongholds are all linked together, supporting each other like horns; they are very hard to break. As for the remaining small strongholds, they are all more or less acquaintances! This time when we went out to collect grain, they all paid the requested amount!"

Zhang Zhuanggen’s opening words dampened the spirits of quite a few people.

Wu Nai listened impatiently: "Too many twists and turns. So what if I see acquaintances? I specialize in eating acquaintances! If that really doesn't work, let's go learn from Mao'erba and slaughter a few more settlements. Even a fly is meat, no matter how small! If that still doesn't work, then we go attack those big strongholds, those rich bastards. Inside, they have big fish and meat, wives and concubines—we are all dying of envy!"

The people at his table quickly chimed in, each one rubbing their palms and itching to act.

Zhang Zhuanggen waved his hand and lowered his voice: "I called everyone here today because there is actually movement over at Mount Wuxing!"

"Mount Wuxing?"

Mount Wuxing is about twenty miles northeast of the county seat. If one takes the official road from Ma Chao’s Tomb and Hejiaying, the entire way is a main road, extremely easy to travel.

The people in the main hall all quieted down.

"What happened over there?"

Wu Zhuge also furrowed his brows.

"A few days ago, some scouts discovered that people have been going missing in the villages over there!"

"Doesn't Mount Wuxing border Shuzhoupu and Huo'anying? I'm afraid it was done by Xie the Goiter, right?"

"I initially thought it was Master Xie who did it too, but later I discovered something was wrong. Even people in their forties and fifties were going missing. Moreover, the nests of several groups of bandits at Mount Wuxing, Longgoukous, and Pengshan were all slaughtered!"

Zhang Zhuanggen said with a heavy tone: "This matter has actually become quite serious. It just so happens that rumors are spreading that some of Zhang Xianzhong’s forces have entered the Shaanxi border. The people in the county seat are all scared out of their wits, thinking these people are the vanguard of Zhang Xianzhong’s main camp."

"They are even trafficking forty or fifty-year-olds? Is this something Zhang Xianzhong would do?"

"The bandits had their nests slaughtered? That ruthless? I also think that Zhang Xianzhong’s vanguard usually disguises themselves as merchants to scout for information, or acts as internal agents to open gates. How could they possibly go up the mountain to snatch food from us, their descendants?"

"It definitely isn't Zhang Xianzhong; it must be other roving rebels!"

For a moment, many people in the hall discovered that something was wrong. Even Zhang Cang’s expression became grave.

Logically speaking, those who could have their nests wiped out must have had a massive disparity in strength. Those three groups of bandits had a total of ten or twenty people, and they were as cunning as crystal monkeys. Who had such great ability to wipe out their nests all at once?

"Damn it, did you find out clearly or not?"

Wu Zhuge, pressured by the urge to urinate, said impatiently.

"They all have Shaanxi accents. They look like chaotic soldiers—they have armor, muskets, and a cavalry unit. The number of people is not small, at least thirty or forty!"

Zhang Zhuanggen stopped playing coy and stated his conclusion directly.

"Hiss..."

The main hall instantly fell silent. Li You also understood, but asked with some curiosity: "What kind of thing is a musket?"

"Ah?"

Not to mention Zhang Cang being shocked, even Li Qinxiang at the side stared blankly at Li You. Since the time of Emperor Yongle, the Great Ming had established the Divine Engine Battalion as a standard unit. It had been over two hundred years since then. In the countryside, weddings and funerals all had welcoming muskets, banquet muskets, wedding muskets, and funeral muskets. How could Li You, a scholar who knew everything, not know what a musket was?

Li You regretted it as soon as he asked. He hadn't realized just then that this thing was a "firearm," so he immediately laughed: "I know it's a fire-musket, I was just teasing you... haha..."

In fact, inside the hall, apart from Li You’s joking voice, no one spoke. Even Wu Nai, who had been clamoring the loudest just a moment ago, was now speechless.

Originally, everyone thought they were going out for a "spring outing" to do some work. Who knew it would be such a tough nut to crack!

Are you kidding? At least thirty soldiers, with heavy armor, firearms, and a significant cavalry unit. Most importantly, their place of origin was Shaanxi. Such deserters had a lineup that could be called luxurious. The armor alone was enough to make the mountain bandits lose their courage.

In the age of cold weapons, the effectiveness of armor in war was beyond imagination. For example, the Hungarians once tried to restore the lamellar armor of the 6th-century Avars and Huns, and used a 9mm Luger pistol to shoot at the scales. The result was that although the scales were damaged, the bullets could not penetrate them, which meant that the person protected by the scales would not die even if the armor was damaged.

That is why there is Li Shimin’s "Black Armor Cavalry" in the *Zizhi Tongjian*, and Zheng Chenggong’s "Iron Man Army" in *Mingji Nanlue, Volume 11*, both of which achieved incredible and terrifying combat records.

Therefore, rulers of all dynasties "banned armor but not weapons," and there is the saying, "Armor is worth three crossbows; three sets of armor will send you to the underworld." For example, Zhou Yafu of the Han Dynasty went to the underworld because he privately stored five hundred sets of armor.

And in their Longmen Shanzhai, among the four leaders, only Shi Dayu had a set of ancestral lamellar armor. A few years ago, Wu Zhuge robbed a set of pangolin armor from a family in Mianxian whose ancestors had produced a military graduate, but it was only a set of leather armor.

Even this set of leather armor would take a skilled craftsman more than a month to make, and iron armor would take anywhere from three months to half a year. Just the labor hours alone, if you count the material costs, would be an absolute astronomical figure for commoners. That is why there is the saying about ancestral armor.

"Shouldn't the imperial court's forces be concentrated in the areas of Southern Shaanxi, Western Sichuan, and Yunyang right now? Where did these deserters and stragglers come from?"

Niu Jinku muttered to himself in confusion. The Governor of Shaanxi, Zheng Chongjian, had personally gone south, and the heavy troops of He Renlong and Li Guoqi had already set out.

"Perhaps they are stragglers who escaped from those two battles at Miaoya, it's hard to say!"

"Have these people been hanging around that area for a long time? They shouldn't be planning to take root, right??"

Wu Zhuge pondered. Regarding this gang of vicious, desperate soldiers, it was better not to provoke them as long as they were guest troops.

Actually, he had lost his nerve the moment he heard they had Shaanxi accents. One must know that the most capable fighters in recent years were the Shaanxi border troops. Of course, most of these people followed the roving rebels, either becoming core members or setting up their own factions.

Shaanxi during the Chongzhen era was a place that produced many rebels, especially Suide.

This place produced "Passing Star" Zhang Tianlin, whose forces reached over a hundred thousand at their peak. In fact, he also had four biological brothers who were also in the business of rebellion: "Great General" Zhang Dameng, "Second General" Zhang Erneng, "Lone Tiger" Zhang Sanlong, and "Fourth Tiger" Zhang Suxiang.

"Hard to say!"

Zhang Zhuanggen said: "They seem to have been in that area for some time, and the scope of their sweeping is getting larger and larger. The county seat has already heard rumors and has organized local militia, but this gang of bastards seems to specifically like suppressing bandits!"

"Motherfucker!"

Wu Zhuge cursed viciously. Mount Wuxing was not the closest to them; the closest should have been Qiganshan. But the problem was that Qiganshan was blocked by Mount Dingjun and the Hanjiang, so the closest one ended up being Longmen Shanzhai.

As the leader, Wu Zhuge knew his own family's foundation all too well. As official-bandits, the Longmen mountain bandits were used to living in luxury. Just like last time when they followed others to loot Lueyang County, they hadn't worked for nearly a month, yet they still had plenty to eat.

Because Cao Er would send them grain. Aside from doing dirty work for the gentry and wealthy families, other looting and village-slaughtering were just picking soft persimmons to satisfy their bloodlust and earn some extra money... so where had they ever fought a decent battle?

Let alone fighting a hard battle against Shaanxi government troops?

Among his subordinates, the only ones who could truly fight were probably the dozen or so border troop deserters brought by Shi Dayu, and two of them had been chopped down by Li You a few days ago.

As for the people under Wu Nai and Zhang Zhuanggen, there were quite a few of them, but as for those who could shoulder the burden... sigh, they were all pieces of shit. They were majestic when killing civilians, but fighting strong troops... pfft!

For a time, the main hall was somewhat silent.

"How many horses do they have?"

An untimely voice rang out. Everyone turned their gaze to Zhang Cang’s table, looking at Li You, who looked harmless and handsome.