Chapter 49: The Two Strongholds Reach a Consensus

The County Magistrate of Li City had organized several bandit suppression campaigns, all of which ended in failure. In the end, it was the people from the Five Poisons Stronghold who joined forces and took advantage of a suppression campaign to drive the others away.

Thinking about it now, those people were the real, proper mountain lords; the life his own group led was nowhere near as comfortable or free as theirs.

Thinking of this, Black Centipede felt somewhat helpless, constantly persuading himself not to go against gold and silver; there was no easy money to be made in this world.

After giving himself a bit of mental preparation, Black Centipede went out, gathered a group of men, and headed toward the Viper Stronghold again.

Viper had assumed the other party would come back tomorrow at the earliest; he hadn't expected them to return late at night.

People always said he was a lecher, but how could he not know what was more important? He could only reluctantly let go of the beauty in his arms.

Black Centipede had already made up his mind on the way over, so upon seeing Viper, he got straight to the point: "I agree to your terms. Sixty percent it is!"

Viper didn't agree immediately; instead, he narrowed his eyes and pondered: if he asked for seventy percent right now, would the other party agree?

Black Centipede exposed Viper's little scheme without reservation: "If you want to take advantage of my plight, you'd better save it! If you dare to ask for seventy percent, I'll turn around and leave immediately."

Viper didn't respond directly, clearly still harboring evil intentions: "The Tang family side won't be easy to answer to."

"Answer to them?" Black Centipede snorted coldly. "Hmph, must my Centipede Stronghold stay in these Lianhuan Mountains?"

Without waiting for Viper to speak, Black Centipede continued: "With so many brothers in my Centipede Stronghold, I can be a mountain lord anywhere. At worst, I'll stop fighting, pull up stakes, and leave immediately, leaving you Viper Stronghold here to play with them slowly."

Viper hadn't expected the other party to say this. The key was that looking at Black Centipede's expression, it didn't seem like a threat—he really had this intention.

Don't pull a bowstring too tight, or it will snap. Viper knew this simple principle; getting sixty percent was already quite good.

Thus, Viper put on an enthusiastic smile, his attitude a complete change from before.

"Didn't we already agree during the day? Just sixty percent, I have no objections."

Black Centipede despised this look of Viper's the most, but since they still had to join forces to fight the Spider Stronghold, he could only pretend not to see it.

Now that the most important distribution of benefits had been settled, the subsequent matters were simple: how many men each side would provide, when to strike, and so on.

Because the Tang family was pressing hard, Black Centipede proposed striking early tomorrow morning, but Viper did not agree.

The reason was simple: they were the attacking side, and the battlefield would certainly be the Spider Stronghold. The defenders had the advantage, and the attack route was from bottom to top, giving the enemy a wider field of vision.

If they waited until night to attack, they could limit the Spider Stronghold's geographical advantage to the greatest extent.

Hearing Viper put it this way, Black Centipede also felt it made sense. If everything went smoothly, they could send the people to the Tang family overnight after the fight; there should be enough time.

Viper had two purposes for this proposal: first, it could indeed reduce casualties among his men; second, the night was convenient for him to fish in troubled waters.

Once both sides fought until they were both injured, he would swallow both strongholds in one fell swoop. By then, what could the Toad Stronghold and Scorpion Stronghold do to him!

Of course, this was the ideal situation. The worst-case scenario was merely splitting the Spider Stronghold with the Centipede Stronghold. Either way, it was all profit and no harm for Viper.

After discussing it, Black Centipede took his men and left. Viper suddenly turned to Asp and said, "Why are you so quiet today? You haven't said a word!"

Asp felt a bit guilty and feigned a yawn: "I'm a bit sleepy."

Viper stared straight at Asp and suddenly laughed: "It is indeed quite late. Let's talk about whatever it is tomorrow!"

Asp nodded and left, unaware that the look Viper gave him as he watched him go contained complex emotions.

"We've been brothers for so many years, don't you go doing anything stupid!"

At the same time, in a mountain hollow not far from the Lianhuan Mountains, two groups of men were quietly meeting.

One group was the forty-plus men led by Luo Feng. In two days, by recruiting one person for ten wen, he had expanded the entire team from ten to sixty people; the cave could no longer hold them.

Leaving Luo Jin and the dozen or so others who had no combat ability at the original spot, he brought the remaining forty-plus men here to wait.

If it weren't for the fact that the ten taels of silver Jiang Jinshi gave him had already been spent, Luo Feng could have continued recruiting; after all, there were more and more refugees at the city gates.

Giving ten wen per person, they had only given out a few hundred wen in total, but they were here to attack a stronghold—they needed not just people, but blades!

Don't let the other brothers from the Sunshine Stronghold see them later and think they were beggars.

In one go, they bought dozens of wood-chopping knives and also bought quite a few flatbreads as dry rations to carry on their persons.

Although the team looked uneven, it could be considered to have some semblance of order.

On the other side was the group of over a dozen people led by Zhang Honghong, with Tang Lin and Wang Xiaoniu following behind.

After Zhang Honghong received the news from Wang Xiaoniu, she immediately thought of ways to recruit people with Tang Lin. Thinking that the old, weak, sick, and disabled wouldn't be of any help, they didn't take any of them, only looking for those sturdy men.

There was no shortage of such people among the refugees; after all, those with poor health might have already fallen on the road while fleeing.

At first, Zhang Honghong was looked down upon. Even if she was a refugee, they couldn't just listen to a woman!

And so, a scene that made Tang Lin's pupils quake appeared: Zhang Honghong beat them one by one, without a single defeat.

Now, the dozen or so sturdy men behind the two had all been beaten into submission by Zhang Honghong. There was no helping those who were beaten but still unwilling to join, so they only managed to pull in this many people in the end.

Under Tang Lin's gesturing prompts, Zhang Honghong finally understood the meaning, so she went to buy some pig-slaughtering knives to equip the men.

Zhang Honghong looked at the forty-plus men behind Luo Feng, all of them holding wood-chopping knives that glinted coldly in the moonlight.

She couldn't help but feel a sense of respect—was this a squad from the Sunshine Stronghold? A single squad had so many people, full of bandit spirit!

Luo Feng looked at Zhang Honghong's team and couldn't help but sigh—they were all elites! Each one looked like they could go a few rounds with him; would his own ragtag group be mocked?

Thus, the two greeted each other very politely under Wang Xiaoniu's introduction.

Luo Feng considered himself a newcomer, so his words were full of honorifics and pleasantries, fearing he might cause dissatisfaction.

Zhang Honghong hadn't expected the Sunshine Stronghold to be so united internally; not only did they not look down on her for being a woman, but they were also so enthusiastic and polite.

Only Wang Xiaoniu was puzzled: aren't you all veterans of the Sunshine Stronghold? Why do you look like you've never met before?

Following a round of small talk, the topic was finally brought to the main business.

Zhang Honghong, Tang Lin, Wang Xiaoniu, Luo Feng, and Wang Hou sat in a circle.

Because there was no specific time for the action, although everyone had arrived, no one knew the next step.

Wang Xiaoniu relayed Jiang Jinshi's original words: Jiang Jinshi only said to gather at this time and this place today, without confirming the specific time to strike.

The few couldn't come to any conclusion, so they could only continue hiding in the mountain hollow. Fortunately, Luo Feng had brought plenty of dry rations.

There was no help for it; Jiang Jinshi couldn't predict the future either. He could only try to arrange the time as early as possible. Even if the plan failed and they couldn't fight, it would be good to have people to support his group as they came down the mountain.

It was just a pity for this group of people, who fed the mosquitoes in the mountain hollow all night without daring to light a fire.