Chapter 78: Slapping Faces

"Oh! Very good! It seems these people are truly audacious," Su Fan's eyes revealed a hint of killing intent.

Ever since the Zhuhua Gang moved into Wu Jun, the area had become somewhat chaotic; after all, they were a jianghu gang, a bunch of lawless characters, and compared to those local tyrants, they were more prone to destruction.

Consequently, Su Fan had also sent over a few private soldiers whose strength was comparable to the peak of Third-rate.

However, the news that came back a few days later was that these men had been severely beaten, and two of them had even been detained.

"Have Ling Zhan and Ren Tong come over."

Su Fan was extremely annoyed in his heart; originally, he hadn't taken those people seriously, and sending a few Third-rate men over was merely to warn them not to go too far—he hadn't intended to wipe these gangs out from the start.

But the fact that these people were so arrogant now clearly meant they did not hold him, the Prefect, in any regard.

"My manpower is still too scarce."

As for those people from the Zhuhua Gang, he could not possibly take action personally; if he had to take action against mere Incense Masters, wouldn't that be too beneath his status?

Ling Zhan and the others arrived quickly.

"Young Master!"

"Prefect."

The three of them arrived and offered their salutations first.

"Alright, enough with the formalities. I had you come because there is a matter I need you to handle. Some days ago, the Zhuhua Gang came to Wu Jun, and I sent men to warn them. As a result, those men were beaten and injured, and two were even held back."

Su Fan gave a brief explanation.

"What? How preposterous!"

Upon hearing this, the three were all somewhat angry. Regardless of anything else, the three were now Su Fan's subordinates and men of the government; hearing that these jianghu figures were so arrogant naturally made them displeased.

"How dare they?"

Ren Tong then felt somewhat puzzled; could it be that these jianghu figures were so arrogant that they dared to provoke even the Yuwen Clan?

In truth, of course not. Although the Zhuhua Gang was arrogant, they were not daring enough to offend everyone. The reason they moved to beat Su Fan's men was because they had no idea that Su Fan was a member of the Yuwen Family.

They assumed he was just an ordinary Prefect.

As for an ordinary Prefect, these people from the Zhuhua Gang truly did not care.

This world was just like that; jianghu experts did not have much awe for the Imperial Court, unless it was those great clans and powerful families, which might make them think a little higher of them.

"Young Master, what are your orders?"

"Daring to touch my men—naturally, I will let them see how many eyes Lord Ma has."

Su Fan wore a look of severity, "You are to take action, bring all the people from the Zhuhua Gang to me, and then behead them in the street."

Su Fan was naturally not afraid of the Zhuhua Gang; on the contrary, he would have them beheaded in the street.

Not only did he want to kill them, he wanted to crush their spirits.

"Yes, Young Master."

Ren Tong and Huang Quan had no objections, and Ling Zhan naturally would not oppose it either; he had been worrying about having no merits to earn.

One must know that Su Fan had shown him the grace of discovery; although he was only a Colonel, he already held the prestige of a Commandery Commandant.

In Wu Jun, who didn't know that he was the real Commandery Commandant? As for the one on paper, he had long since left Wu Jun and only held the title in name.

Therefore, he was truly grateful to Su Fan and was willing to go through fire and water for him.

"Hmm! Take more men with you. The Zhuhua Gang can be considered a First-rate major gang. They don't have any top-tier experts, but they have quite a few Second-rate ones. Don't capsize in the gutter when the time comes."

The strength of the Zhuhua Gang, with their leader Yin Kaishan, was estimated to be at the First-rate Innate level, with at most two or three other First-rate Innate experts below him, but those people likely wouldn't come to Wu Jun.

So, those who could come would only be Second-rate.

But there would certainly be many Second-rate ones, and these jianghu people who followed the True Qi Martial Dao had some insidious martial arts; if one wasn't careful, one could suffer a great loss.

Ren Tong and the others were Second-rate combatants, and Ling Zhan was at the peak of Second-rate, even capable of challenging First-rate experts.

However, they were, after all, battlefield generals and rarely encountered these jianghu martial artists, so they might suffer losses if they weren't careful.

"Young Master, rest assured. This time, I will take two squads of men."

A squad of Su Fan's private soldiers consisted of one hundred men, led by a Hundred-man Commander. His private soldiers were based on merit; only those with strong ability could become Hundred-man Commanders.

The original eight hundred private soldiers had eight Hundred-man Commanders who were all at the peak of Third-rate. If they followed the standard progression, they would likely break through to Second-rate within a year or two, or even this year for the fast ones.

Two squads of men, with the majority at the Third-rate standard, were indeed not comparable to a rabble of a jianghu gang.

No matter how strong the martial arts of jianghu figures were, they could only sigh in despair when facing a refined army, unless they were a Grandmaster like Ning Daoqi, or a top-tier Master like the Evil King, who could ignore an army of a million.

As for the rest, even a Super First-rate martial artist could only flee in panic when facing tens of thousands of refined troops.

Su Fan's two squads of private soldiers were not a bit inferior to thousands of refined Combat Soldiers.

After all, Su Fan was very generous with his private soldiers, pouring all kinds of resources into them crazily, and the results were not bad.

They were even more refined than the Personal Guard Battalion of some fierce generals, and they had all seen blood, making their combat effectiveness even stronger.

Clad in Iron Armor—that's right, Su Fan's private soldiers all had armor, and although they were only half-body armor, it was still very formidable.

This kind of Iron Armor could block many attacks, and combined with their training of the Fleshly Body, their bodies were already very thick and sturdy.

With great strength and thick skin, they were absolutely the best candidates for heavy infantry.

The key was that the Squad Leaders and Platoon Leaders leading them were all Third-rate combatants; when they charged, it was absolutely terrifying.

As for Ren Tong and Huang Quan, taking these squads to suppress bandits around Wu Jun, whether they were mountain bandits or water bandits, no one could stop them.

Ren Tong naturally knew the strength of Su Fan's private soldiers, so he was very confident. He knew what kind of force the Zhuhua Gang was—one of the Eight Gangs and Ten Associations—yet he was still not afraid.

Behind him stood Su Fan and the Yuwen Family.

Compared to the Yuwen Clan, what did the Zhuhua Gang count for? Moreover, they held the righteousness of the Imperial Court.

Would the Zhuhua Gang dare to oppose the Prefecture Office?

"Be careful. Those jianghu figures are not straightforward like those in the army. If pushed to the limit, they will do anything—poisoning, assassination. Although your strength is not bad, in the jianghu, it counts for nothing."

"Don't be too careless."

Su Fan looked at Ren Tong and Huang Quan, and of course Ling Zhan, and his heart settled slightly. As long as it wasn't Yin Kaishan, then the others posed no great threat to them.

Moreover, with his hundreds of elite private soldiers, even a first-class Xiantian expert would not dare to easily barge in.

If one disregards the cost, using the lives of a great army, one could also grind a first-class Xiantian expert to death.

"Alright, go and prepare!"

Su Fan waved his hand; this could also be considered a test for them, for if they could not even handle this, how could they stand on their own in the future?

He wondered to himself if he should cultivate more talent, but it was a pity that there were too few people from humble backgrounds in Wu Jun.

Most of the powerful clans were family-oriented, so he did not dare to entrust them with important tasks.

It seemed he could only cultivate them from among the commoners, which would likely require some time.