Chapter Sixty-Six: The Zhou Family of Dangyang County

Liu Gou’er panted heavily, running madly along the narrow mountain path through the woods. Only when he was utterly exhausted did he collapse onto the ground, limp as a broken puppet.

Even now, Liu Gou’er had no idea what had just happened. In a daze, he remembered he and his companions had fallen into an ambush—the rain of crossbow bolts showering down upon the crowd brought back the terror he’d felt the first time he’d faced barbarian cavalry.

Because of his timidity, Liu Gou’er had always been bullied, even among the routed soldiers. So, when he became a mountain bandit, he obediently stayed at the very back of the group, not daring to approach anyone else.

He never expected that this habit would be what saved his life.

From behind, he could still hear shouts and curses echoing faintly. Liu Gou’er knew his companions had probably all been captured.

But who were these people who had ambushed them? Could it be bandits from another mountain?

If that were the case, the bandits of Dang County were truly formidable!

All thoughts of living as a bandit—feasting on meat and gulping down wine—had vanished entirely. The only thing filling this coward’s mind now was how he might sneak back to his hometown undetected.

“Hey there, brother, you sure run fast.”

A sudden voice made Liu Gou’er’s soul nearly flee his body. Instinctively, he struggled to his feet, but after two frantic attempts, he was still sprawled helplessly on the ground.

“Stop flailing. Be good and put your hands behind your back.”

Liu Gou’er finally saw who had spoken—a smiling boy of about ten. Hope flickered in his heart; he tried to reach for the dagger hidden at his waist, but to his dismay, realized that during his wild flight, both the dagger and the long saber he’d been clutching were lost somewhere along the way.

Staring at the strange crossbow in the boy’s hand, Liu Gou’er lowered his head in resignation and obediently put his hands behind his back. He had become the captive of a mere child; truly, his life was a pitiful one.

Wang Erhu grinned as he tied up the swift-footed deserter with a leather cord. With this fellow in custody, the hunting team would surely lose plenty of points!

Given his master’s temperament, whenever they fought bandits, not a single one was left alive. Yet the hunting team had let one escape—clearly, they’d been slacking off during drills!

Like a dead dog, Liu Gou’er was dragged before a young man. At a glance, Liu Gou’er decided this was an important figure.

Though the young man was dressed in the same odd attire as the others, everyone clustered around him. In fact, as Liu Gou’er was brought over, several showed signs of nervousness, their hands instinctively going to their sword hilts.

“Well done, Erhu! Give this fellow credit for the capture!” The young man lacked the gravity and authority one would expect from a leader; he seemed even less imposing than the perpetually stern steward of the Zhou family Liu Gou’er had once seen. “Which of you old hands wants to search this cowardly deserter?”

Watching as two guards dragged the prisoner into the nearby woods, Zhao Hengyi silently mourned for him for three seconds.

Among the old soldiers were several former scouts from the Xuan Battalion, all highly skilled at interrogating captives—in Zhao Hengyi’s eyes, they far outstripped the torture experts he remembered from his past life.

Not long after, the two guards returned, leaving the prisoner behind in the woods. Clearly, these men understood their master’s temperament better than Wu Lao Liu did.

“Master, these deserters aren’t all from the same line.”

“Whoever sent them to join the Mountain Dragon deliberately split up the deserters from various defensive lines and mixed them together.”

“All hundred or so of them came from six different border towns.”

“That boy just now didn’t know who the real mastermind was, but he did say that for the past few days, they’d been hiding in a manor outside Zhou Family Town.”

“The one Wu Lao Liu shot dead with the first arrow was from the Zhou family. Once in the stronghold, he was to serve as their advisor—every deserter followed his orders.”

The Zhou family?

Zhao Hengyi had some impression of them. The Zhou family wielded immense influence in Dang County, not because they were especially domineering or had some remarkable enterprise, but simply due to their sheer numbers and the fact that they owned three manors outside the city.

The Zhou family perfectly fit Zhao Hengyi’s image of a rustic magnate. In his understanding, families like the Zhou’s continuously bought land and exploited their tenant farmers; through such means, the family fortune was passed down from generation to generation.

Such a clan held great sway locally, but took little interest in trade, at most buying a few shops in the county town to rent out.

Given their vast network of relatives, the Zhou family could solve most problems they encountered in Dang County with ease. It made no sense for them to go to great lengths to cultivate a band of mountain bandits.

Or perhaps the Zhou family was merely a tool—hiding the deserters, leading them to become outlaws, all at the behest of some mastermind behind the scenes?

It didn’t quite add up. After all, the Zhou family had been entrenched in Dang County for generations. If there truly was a long-planning master behind the scenes, that would be a chilling thought.

Zhao Hengyi was more inclined to believe that the Zhou family was cooperating with a powerful force or influential individual. After all, gathering deserters from the border, splitting them up, and smuggling them to Dang County—no mere local landowner could manage such a feat.

But then, what use would an outside power or person have in cultivating bandits here?

The Zhou family was nothing like Huang Xin—Master Huang, nicknamed the Weasel, had been sent by outside forces to Dang County to amass wealth and seize power.

Master Huang was a lone wolf; most of the tributes he collected from the Clifftop Bandits were handed over to his patron. Plus, his mischief in the county offices made him a high-return investment for his master.

But a clan as deep-rooted as the Zhou family, even if they could extract tribute from the bandits, could scarcely deliver much of it upward.

And the weapons in those deserters’ hands were all regulation military gear. Those longbows were even more extraordinary—few of the local garrison could boast such arms!

Such lavish equipment, had it not been for Zhao Hengyi and the presence at Elm Bay, would be wasted on mere bandits around Dang County.

The mastermind behind all this clearly had little understanding of the local situation, proving they weren’t a native of Dang County.

What could be their aim, to pay such a price and even enlist the Zhou family, the most powerful clan in Dang County? What was the true plot behind the scenes?