Translator: Mr Voltaire
Editor: Modlawls123
After conquering the bandit village, Zhao Fu gave out 400 sets of Silver grade equipment. These were all from Gu Feng’s spatial ring.
All of the bandits and Liu Subai were shocked as they watched Zhao Fu pass out the Silver grade equipment. Even Mountain Willow Town didn’t have so many sets of Silver grade equipment. In fact, even those in the upper levels of Mountain Willow Town only had one piece of Silver grade equipment, and the Bandit Chief of this village only had one Silver grade piece of equipment, which was the spear.
“Who in the world is this person?”
Zhao Fu started to seem more and more mysterious to those around him. None of them could guess just what sort of status he had, though no one dared to directly ask because that would simply be seeking death. All of them completely and utterly feared Zhao Fu now.
Zhao Fu had many reasons for giving these bandits Silver grade equipment. He had far fewer people than Mountain Willow Town, and because the bandits had lower cultivation as well, they were at a great disadvantage. Giving them Silver grade equipment not only increased their battle power but also increased their battle spirit.
However, when he saw how undisciplined and idle these bandits seemed, Zhao Fu decided to give them proper battle training.
***
Within Mountain Willow Town, a hawk-nosed man frowned and asked one of his subordinates, “What’s going on? Where are the Liu family’s people?”
The subordinate respectfully lowered his head as he replied, “When we went, we only found the dry corpses of ten of our people; they seemed to have been attacked by some demonic creature. However, we didn’t find the Liu family’s people!”
“Hmph! They must have escaped!” Zhang Hong coldly harrumphed as he said angrily.
The subordinate nodded as he replied, “It’s possible that they escaped, but it’s also possible that they were attacked by the demonic creature, though we didn’t find their corpses. Nevertheless, because they have an elderly woman and a young boy, it’s impossible for them to survive for long in the wilderness. They’ll either be killed by bandits or eaten by wild beasts. Right now, we should be focusing on how to placate the townspeople.”
Zhang Hong thought for a moment before saying, “I know. You can go!”
Following this, the subordinate respectfully retreated.
***
Back at Zhao Fu’s side, Zhao Fu started to teach the bandits how to work together in battle. After a few days of intense training, the bandits started to seem a bit like soldiers.
Following this, Zhao Fu took the 400 bandits, as well as Liu Subai, and started carrying out the plan.
A few hours later, Zhao Fu and his soldiers arrived at a hill and looked at Mountain Willow Town in the distance. The town was quite big, and it occupied ten or so square kilometers. It also had six-meter tall walls. If Zhao Fu attacked this town directly with his 400 bandits, it would be impossible to conquer this town.
Because Liu Subai had told Zhao Fu a lot of information about Mountain Willow Town, he decided to lie in wait here to wait for someone.
Even though most of the soldiers had already surrendered to Zhang Hong, there was still a small faction that was unwilling. They continued to support the Liu family, and Zhang Hong treated these people quite poorly.
He would give them the most tiring and difficult jobs to them, such as patrolling the outermost boundaries of Mountain Willow Town. The patrolling region was quite large, so those on patrol had to check the surrounding five-kilometer radius area of Mountain Willow Town. There were also many soldiers stationed on the town walls and below the walls.
Mountain Willow Town’s strict defenses comprised of three lines. The first was the soldiers patrolling the outermost region; the second was the area around the town walls; and the final one was the soldiers on the town walls.
Perhaps it was because Zhang Hong didn’t trust the soldiers he put on the first line of defense, but the second and third lines of defense were comprised of mainly elites and his most trusted troops. He absolutely wouldn’t let anything happen to shake his rule.
Soon, a group of roughly 200 soldiers started to walk towards where Zhao Fu and his soldiers were.
At that moment, one of the soldiers said in displeasure, “Zhang Hong’s too much; he even made us patrol the outer region. Before, we were Mayor Liu’s trusted aides and the elites among elites. Who would have thought we would fall into such a situation? All of our good equipment was taken as well, and we have to work tirelessly every day and suffer harsh conditions!”
Another soldier also said angrily, “That’s right! Zhang Hong doesn’t treat us as soldiers of Mountain Willow Town; he just wants us to die as soon as possible without him doing anything himself. Whenever I see how arrogant Zhang Hong’s people are, I feel goddamn angry! Sometimes I even wonder if Mayor Liu’s death had to do with Zhang Hong.”
“Alright, enough! Now that Zhang Hong is the new Mayor and it’s said that he’s going to marry Big Miss Liu, Mountain Willow Town will soon belong to Zhang Hong. Let’s not complain; even though we’re tired, we’re still protecting Mountain Willow Town,” a middle-aged man, the captain of this team, said as he sighed.
The other soldiers couldn’t accept this, but after thinking about it, all they could do was sigh.
“Careful! There are people ahead,” the middle-aged captain suddenly shouted, surprising the soldiers.
Following this, people started to walk out and surrounded the 200 soldiers. Seeing the people around them and the sparkling silver equipment on them, the soldiers’ pupils contracted as they nervously looked about them. They were in grave danger!
“Who are you? Do you know that we’re Mountain Willow Town’s people?” the middle-aged captain shouted as he looked around seriously, feeling quite confused. Where had such a powerful group of people come from?
“Uncle Sun!” a familiar voice filled with joy said.
Sun Xiaowei was that middle-aged captain, and he turned and saw that it was Liu Subai. He asked in surprise, “Big Miss Liu, shouldn’t you be at home? Why are you here? Who are they?”
Sun Xiaowei looked at the enemies around them, and he found that Liu Subai had come together with them.
“It’s like this, Uncle Sun. We were kept under house arrest by Zhang Hong and escaped with great difficulty. I suspect that my father’s death was caused by Zhang Hong, and this sir here is going to help me take back Mountain Willow Town!”
After seeing someone she knew, Liu Subai was quite excited and started explaining everything to him before introducing Zhao Fu to him.
After hearing Liu Subai say these things, everyone looked over at the mysterious black-cloaked figure.
Sun Xiaowei could tell with a glance that this person wasn’t ordinary, and he was quite wary towards him. He then looked back at Liu Subai and asked, “Big Miss Liu, is what you said really the truth?”
Liu Subai nodded earnestly and told him everything that had happened.
After hearing what Liu Subai had to say, the soldiers who were still loyal to the Liu family became completely infuriated, and they were more or less certain that it was Zhang Hong who had caused Mayor Liu’s death. Adding on how Zhang Hong had treated them, they quickly decided to join Zhao Fu’s party.