Chapter 119: What Sin Have the Common People, No Shame in the Heart

October 19th.

The group of horse bandits that attacked Luojia Town two days ago attacked Tushan Town on this day, which was also a town near Xingcheng.

Naturally, there were no City Guards in these towns, only an inspection station, with a total of more than thirty inspectors.

Such defensive strength could only guarantee the basic public security of the town, and they were powerless against a large group of horse bandits.

So after Luojia Town, Tushan Town also sent a distress signal to Xingcheng.

Xingcheng Administration Hall, General Manager's office.

"Sent out so many spies, and not a single one came back?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui looked at Cheng Bi with some anger and asked.

Cheng Bi lowered his head: "Yes, the other party probably has experts sitting in command."

After the horse bandit incident, Chief Gu Zhenhui attached great importance to it and had the Inspectorate send more than thirty secret agents to scout for intelligence for the first time, wanting to find out the truth about these horse bandits and find their hideout, so that they could send troops to wipe them out.

But the dozens of spies sent out these past few days, not a single one came back alive, all of them like stones sinking into the sea.

"Doing it so obviously, is it really the Tiger Blade Gang playing tricks?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui's face was gloomy.

When he was suppressing the Tiger Blade Gang, horse bandits suddenly appeared. He would naturally suspect that these horse bandits were created by the Tiger Blade Gang, with the purpose of luring the City Guard out of the city.

The City Guard was the most relied-upon armed force in Chief Gu Zhenhui's hands. Once the City Guard had a problem, in the future, in this Xingcheng, he would be equivalent to a general without soldiers and would no longer be able to suppress the Tiger Blade Gang.

So Chief Gu Zhenhui would naturally not send troops out of the city easily; he had to figure out the situation first.

As a result, the spies sent out didn't come back.

This, on the contrary, dispelled Chief Gu Zhenhui's suspicion, allowing him to be almost certain that the Tiger Blade Gang was behind these horse bandits!

"Could it be that Yu Hu had already laid out a layout outside several years ago and raised such a group of horse bandits in the Qiuping Mountain range?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui frowned and thought.

The horse bandits in the Qiuping Mountain range had existed for five years. If the horse bandits coming to Xingcheng to make trouble were the same group as those in the Qiuping Mountain range, it meant that the Tiger Blade Gang had started the layout five years ago.

"My Lord, I have understood in detail that the horse bandits in the Qiuping Mountain range have about two hundred people, have more than a hundred trained horses, dozens of heavy crossbows, and dozens of firearms. To raise so many people and horses, and also provide weapons and ammunition, it is impossible not to have a single trace, but the Inspectorate has not found any connection between the Tiger Blade Gang and the Qiuping Mountain range at all in these years."

Cheng Bi hurriedly opened his mouth.

He didn't believe that the Tiger Blade Gang could completely hide from the Inspectorate and raise so many people outside. If this were really the case, then he and a group of colleagues in the Inspectorate could all resign in disgrace!

"Hmm, the Tiger Blade Gang has no connection with the Qiuping Mountain range, but it doesn't mean others don't."

Chief Gu Zhenhui believed Cheng Bi's judgment and also believed in the ability of the Inspectorate, but he still felt that the horse bandits in the Qiuping Mountain range had a connection with the Tiger Blade Gang:

"How is the investigation of the 【Zhang Hanjiang Snow】 matter going?"

Now that it was known that the Dao Foundation built by Yu Hu was 【Zhang Hanjiang Snow】, as long as they could find out which forces mastered the cultivation method of this Dao Foundation and had the possibility of giving it to outsiders, they could infer which force might be supporting the Tiger Blade Gang behind the scenes.

"This subordinate is incompetent. Currently, I have searched all the forces in the Datong Prefecture territory that have the cultivation method of Dao Foundation, but I haven't been able to find out which family has the cultivation method of 【Zhang Hanjiang Snow】. Please forgive me, My Lord."

Cheng Bi knelt on one knee and asked for forgiveness from Chief Gu Zhenhui.

"None?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui stood up somewhat anxiously and paced back and forth in the office.

He rarely had such an outward display of emotion because he really didn't like the feeling of the situation not being under his control.

Next, if the horse bandits outside the city continued to harass the towns around Xingcheng, and Chief Gu Zhenhui couldn't grasp the whereabouts of the horse bandits, then he could only send the City Guard out of the city to station in each town separately to resist the attacks of the horse bandits.

But in this way, it gave the other party a chance to break them one by one.

And if he left it alone, it would be Chief Gu Zhenhui, this General Manager, being incompetent and unable to guarantee the safety of the people within the territory. By then, Yu Hu only needed to create public opinion and have his faction of officials poke the matter upward, alarming Datong Prefecture.

By then, even if Chief Gu Zhenhui wouldn't directly step down, he definitely wouldn't have a good time.

So no matter whether he sent troops or not, Chief Gu Zhenhui would fall into the trap.

This is a positive conspiracy!

"Yu Hu, without Zhang Mingze, you still have such a hand?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui walked to the window and looked in the direction of the Yu Mansion:

"Or is this move actually an arrangement made by Zhang Mingze before he died?"

Martial Arts Hall.

In the training room of the training building, Hao Yi was sparring with Li Fei.

Li Fei was still covering his eyes and blocking his ears, relying entirely on his perception ability to spar with Hao Yi.

Both of them were fast in their moves and movements, and the two steel blades constantly collided, creating sparks, and the blade edges danced with afterimages!

Under Hao Yi's training, Li Fei had completely familiarized himself with sparring with others purely by perception ability, as if he had opened a 'Mind Eye'. Even if he lost his vision and hearing, he could clearly 'see' everything around him and could accurately grasp Hao Yi's every move.

Not only that, the biggest benefit brought by the super perception ability was—prediction!

Every time before Hao Yi slashed, a mysterious feeling would arise in Li Fei's heart, allowing him to predict how Hao Yi would slash next.

Hao Yi had originally let Li Fei build his combat system with the supernatural ability of 'Danger Perception' as the core. Now Li Fei was considered to have tasted the sweetness and felt more and more that this supernatural ability was truly fragrant!

His blade technique was naturally far inferior to Hao Yi's, but by virtue of the advantage of knowing the enemy in advance, and under the condition that Hao Yi intentionally suppressed speed and strength, he could spar with Hao Yi back and forth.

Besides this, relying on the excellent defense of 'Tyrant Body', Li Fei could also fight defensively and counterattack by predicting Hao Yi's moves, which was also accurate every time.

While fighting, Li Fei suddenly perceived a large group of people appearing in the corridor outside, walking toward this practice room.

At the same time, Hao Yi also stopped his attack.

So Li Fei took off his blindfold, took out the cotton from his ears, and looked at the training room door.

At this time, he could clearly hear the series of footsteps outside.

Soon, the people outside stopped at the training room door, and then a knock on the door sounded.

"Mr. Hao, sorry to disturb you, General Manager Gu has come to visit you."

The voice of the newly appointed Hall Master of the Martial Arts Hall came from outside the door.

After the previous Hall Master Li Shengjiang was arrested, Chief Gu Zhenhui quickly arranged a new Hall Master. Now this Martial Arts Hall was finally under the control of the General Manager's faction.

"Chief Gu Zhenhui is here?"

Li Fei was somewhat surprised when he heard this voice and turned to look at Hao Yi.

Hao Yi said calmly: "Go and open the door."

So Li Fei walked to the door and opened it.

A pile of people stood outside the door, and the leader was Chief Gu Zhenhui.

"General Manager Gu."

Li Fei saluted Chief Gu Zhenhui.

"Haha, Xiao Fei, we meet again."

Chief Gu Zhenhui smiled heartily at Li Fei.

Then he stepped into the training room and turned to the people outside:

"All disperse."

So the people outside soon dispersed.

"General Manager Gu, then I will..."

Li Fei intended to say that he would also avoid it, letting Chief Gu Zhenhui and Hao Yi talk alone, but Chief Gu Zhenhui waved his hand:

"Xiao Fei, you stay; no need to avoid."

"Yes."

Li Fei nodded and then closed the room door.

Chief Gu Zhenhui then looked at Hao Yi and said sincerely:

"Mr. Hao, sorry to disturb you, please forgive me."

"General Manager Gu, no need to be polite; you can speak directly if you have anything to say."

Even facing a General Manager, Hao Yi was still very calm and spoke very directly.

This was the confidence of a Dao Foundation stage powerhouse.

Chief Gu Zhenhui didn't mind this and said in a deep voice:

"In the past few days, there have been horse bandits harassing the towns around Xingcheng. I have sent more than thirty secret agents from the Inspectorate to scout for the whereabouts of the horse bandits, but not a single secret agent came back alive! I suspect that there are experts sitting in command behind these horse bandits, and they are planning something big!"

Hao Yi looked at Chief Gu Zhenhui with no expression:

"So General Manager Gu wants to ask me to go out of the city to find the whereabouts of these horse bandits?"

This was the only possibility; otherwise, why would this General Manager run to the Martial Arts Hall in person to seek an audience with a special-grade lecturer?

Chief Gu Zhenhui nodded:

"If I can't find the whereabouts of the horse bandits, I can only send the City Guard out of the city and station them in each town separately, but this gives the other party a chance to break them one by one. So I want to earnestly request Mr. Hao to take action and find the whereabouts of these horse bandits for the people of Xingcheng!"

Having said this, he actually bent down and bowed to Hao Yi!

"I know Mr. Hao doesn't like power struggles and doesn't want to intervene in the dispute between me and the Tiger Blade Gang, but those horse bandits outside the city take more than ten lives every time they harass a town and plunder the money of the people. How pitiful are these people?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui kept the posture of bending down and bowing to Hao Yi and said somewhat excitedly:

"Mr. Hao, even if you have all kinds of disgust for me and the Tiger Blade Gang, what sin have the common people? I hope Mr. Hao can help me wipe out these horse bandits!"

Li Fei, standing on the side, looked at this Xingcheng General Manager who didn't hesitate to bow down and beg for help in person, and was really somewhat disgusted.

"It is your dereliction of duty as a General Manager that you can't protect the people of Xingcheng. You run here and shout 'what sin have the common people', isn't this purely passing the buck? Isn't this moral kidnapping?"

Li Fei really wanted to shout these words at Chief Gu Zhenhui.

Unfortunately, on this occasion, he could only remain silent.

Hao Yi looked at Chief Gu Zhenhui and was not moved by the other party's posture and words, saying coldly:

"If you really felt that the common people were innocent, you wouldn't have let the City Guard fight a big fire with the Tiger Blade Gang in the city back then."

Chief Gu Zhenhui's face stiffened.

He had repeatedly shown goodwill to Li Fei before, just to win over Hao Yi through Li Fei, but he didn't expect Hao Yi to be so unfeeling.

Fortunately, he was prepared for this.

He slowly stood up and looked at Hao Yi:

"Mr. Hao misunderstood me. If I didn't do that, how could I eradicate this tumor of the Tiger Blade Gang? This tumor had long been rooted in the body of Xingcheng, sucking the flesh and blood of Xingcheng every day. How could it be removed without going through a bone-piercing pain?"

Hao Yi: "If the Tiger Blade Gang is a tumor, what are the people under your command? Could it be that they are not sucking the flesh and blood of Xingcheng? Otherwise, why were their heads cut off and placed at the Market Entrance?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui didn't get angry upon hearing this, but shook his head with a bitter smile:

"To be honest, Mr. Hao, you know martial arts, but you don't know how to be an official, and you don't know politics. On the surface, I am the dignified General Manager, the head of a city, as if everyone should listen to me, but in reality, the Xingcheng government has long been corroded by the Tiger Blade Gang. If I want to do things, I must have the support of the people below. Then what do I rely on to get their support? Rely on the majesty of the General Manager? Or rely on the morality in their hearts?"

"None of them work, Mr. Hao. If I want to do things, I must first lure them with profit, either money or official positions, so that I can let the people below lend me their strength. I only rely on them to fight the Tiger Blade Gang first, and then I can turn back to clean up the officialdom of Xingcheng and return Xingcheng to a clean state!"

"Do you think I don't know that there are many parasites among my subordinates? But to accomplish great things, these minor details must be set aside for now. If not this, then what else can be done? Should I just let the Tiger Blade Gang completely control the Xingcheng government with their methods?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui looked at Hao Yi with extremely sincere eyes:

"Mr. Hao, these words today are truly the heartfelt words of my Gu! I know you may not believe me, but I ask Mr. Hao to wait and see. Just watch how I do it after clearing the Tiger Blade Gang. If I still cannot return Xingcheng to a clean state, then let me be beheaded by that Ghost Face!"

Hearing this, Hao Yi's gaze finally had some fluctuations.

Li Fei, standing on the side, wanted to speak several times but stopped, finally waiting silently for Hao Yi to make a decision himself.

Hao Yi looked at Chief Gu Zhenhui and said word by word:

"To achieve great things, one should not be bound by small details? The small details you put aside contain life after life, contain real life after real life. They are not small details, so I do not recognize your statement."

The expression on Chief Gu Zhenhui's face froze.

However, before he could speak, Hao Yi continued:

"But I will take action."

"Hmm?"

Chief Gu Zhenhui looked at Hao Yi in surprise, then bent down and saluted again, saying in a deep voice:

"Many thanks to Mr. Hao!"

A gentleman can be deceived by his own principles.

That Zhang Mingze of the Tiger Blade Gang knew this principle very well, so he forced Hao Yi's student to death back then without worrying about being retaliated against by Hao Yi.

Chief Gu Zhenhui obviously also knew this very well, so he took the initiative to find Hao Yi today and earnestly requested the other party to take action.

Although Hao Yi's final attitude was not as Chief Gu Zhenhui expected, it was enough as long as Hao Yi was willing to take action.

"You can go."

Hao Yi said to Chief Gu Zhenhui without any politeness.

"Good, then I won't disturb you."

Chief Gu Zhenhui didn't mind Hao Yi's rudeness at all and turned to leave the training room.

After Chief Gu Zhenhui left, Li Fei then opened his mouth:

"Master, this matter..."

"If you were me, would you take action?"

Hao Yi turned to look at Li Fei and asked with interest.

Li Fei thought for a while, looked into Hao Yi's eyes, and said slowly:

"Before, when that Inspector Cheng came to find me, Master once said to me: don't ask me, go do what you think is right."

"Now I also want to say to Master: don't ask me, Master, just go do what you think is right!"

Hao Yi was startled, then laughed loudly:

"Haha, Hahahahaha!"

The last time he laughed so loudly in front of Li Fei was when he heard Li Fei say that 'only fight for the morning and evening'.

He was willing to take action, not for Chief Gu Zhenhui, nor for the common people in the other party's mouth, but for the morality in

He did not care what others thought; he only sought to have a clear conscience!

However, these words from Li Fei at this moment still made Hao Yi feel very comforted.

At the very least, this student understood him.

"This matter is very suspicious; it is highly likely that the Tiger Blade Gang is causing trouble behind the scenes. I only hope that Master can act with caution and must take care of yourself!"

Li Fei said to Hao Yi with concern.

"Rest assured."

Hao Yi rarely revealed such a high-spirited appearance in front of Li Fei:

"In this territory of Xingcheng, if I want to leave, no one can stop me!"

Seeking monthly votes

(End of chapter)