Super Cultivation System of the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 42 Sudden bad news

Guan Yu, Zhang Yong, Cheng Liang and myself surrounded these bandits into a small circle. All of them were terrified, and even the three leaders dared not breathe.

Liu He looked at the expressions of these people and knew that the battle had been won without a doubt.

"Brother, how should we deal with these people? None of them are good people. It would be better to let someone stab them all to death with a halberd. This will also be an explanation to the villagers!"

Cheng Liang was often harassed by bandits in his early years, so he hated these people deeply.

But Guan Yu disagreed. He held the big knife across his back, stroked his beard which was only two or three inches long with his right hand, squinted his eyes, and walked forward.

"Brother Cheng, you can't do that. Although these bandits are hateful, most of them are just poor people who were forced to become bandits because of their difficult lives. Now that the threat has been eliminated, why should we kill them all?"

Hearing Guan Yu speaking for them and others, the bandits looked at him with gratitude.

"Hey, Brother Guan, you are wrong! Nowadays, bandits are rampant in the world and are a disaster for the village. Only by cutting the grass and eradicating the roots can we avoid future troubles! If we let them go back, I am afraid that the villagers in other places will suffer!"

Cheng Liang argued with reason, and the bandits listened and swore an oath one after another.

"We have no choice but to do this. We will definitely mend our ways when we return!"

"Yes, yes! We swear that we will never do such evil things again!"

Liu He looked at Zhang Yong and asked, "Yongzi, what do you think?"

Zhang Yong clasped his fists towards Liu He and said, "I think it's a bit cruel to kill them all. But what brother Cheng said is also right. We can't feel at ease if we just let them go. If there is a way to settle them in one place and put them under our supervision, then we can have the best of both worlds!"

Liu He nodded and was about to speak when suddenly a roar was heard!

"You bastard, give me back my parents' lives!"

With the weak moonlight and firelight, they saw a tall and strong man running towards them with two hammers in his hands. After seeing the man's face clearly, Liu He and others were shocked!
"Brother Zhu Ye!"

The person who came was Zhu Ye. When he looked at these bandits, his eyes suddenly became bloodshot, his brows were furrowed, his chest was heaving, and he was breathing heavily, obviously he was extremely angry.

"Brother Zhu, what's going on? What happened to your parents?"

Liu He asked.

Zhu Ye raised his hammer, pointed at the bandits, and roared, "What a bunch of scum! I followed my elder brother's orders and returned home, only to find the gates of the mansion wide open and corpses everywhere! My poor parents...both died at the hands of these bandits!"

"What!" Liu He and others were shocked!
Zhu Ye was extremely angry, and he swung his hammer, like a violent storm, unstoppable! The man with the goatee was the first to be hit by Zhu Ye's hammer, and immediately spurted blood from his mouth, and was knocked away, dying.

Seeing how brave Zhu Ye was and how deep his hatred was, the remaining bandits immediately knelt down and kowtowed in order to avoid death.

Zhang Yong was slightly calmer and quickly stopped Zhu Ye, preventing him from continuing to hammer him.

Liu He stepped forward and grabbed Zhu Ye's hand, saying in a painful voice: "Brother Zhu, uncle has helped us a lot over the years. His kindness is as great as a mountain. Now that he is harmed, we brothers will never sit idly by. Let me find out the truth and catch the enemy, including the two bandit leaders. We will kill them each and relieve the hatred in our hearts!"

Liu He's words calmed Zhu Ye's anger a little. Zhu Ye stood beside Liu He, holding two hammers, and stared at the remaining two bandit leaders with bloodshot eyes, scaring them so much that they collapsed to the ground, unable to move.

Liu He held the spear in front of his chest and asked angrily: "Who gave the order to rob the Zhu Mansion in the next village? Who did it? Stand up and die. Otherwise, we will all be killed!" As soon as Liu He said this, the remaining thieves were in chaos. In order to save their lives, they blamed each other. However, it is a blessing not a disaster, and it is a disaster that cannot be avoided. Under the unanimous identification of many thieves, five people were pushed out.

“Please spare me, please spare me…it was the boss who ordered us to do this…Please spare me…”

The five people knew they were doomed to die, but they still knelt down and begged for mercy, hoping for a lucky break.

When Zhu Ye saw them, his anger surged again. He raised his two hammers and was about to kill them, but was stopped by Liu He again.

"Don't worry, brother. Let me find out the situation first. The Zhu Mansion is a wealthy local family with high walls and heavy gates. There are more than a dozen servants and special guards. Bandits have always come and dared not to attack your house. Even if they did, ordinary thirty or fifty people would not be able to get close to the inner house."

After hearing what Liu He said, Zhu Ye seemed to understand a little.

Zhang Yong asked Liu He, "Sir, are you saying there is a spy in the Zhu Mansion?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhu Ye rejected them himself.

"Absolutely not. There are a total of 24 people in my house. All the bodies are in the yard and in the room. There are no exceptions. It shouldn't be a spy in the house."

After hearing what Zhu Ye said, Liu He was also a little confused. Without any spies, how could these bandits think of attacking Zhu's mansion, and succeed in one fell swoop? This was really abnormal.

Liu He thought of the man named Ke that the other party had just mentioned, and turned to look at the bandits. When they were stared at by him, they became even more frightened.

"Tell me, why did you go and attack Zhu's mansion? And how did you succeed so easily? If you answer truthfully, I will leave you with your bodies intact. Otherwise, I will peel off your skin and tear your bones apart, and make you live a life worse than death!"

Several people were terrified and rushed to speak out.

"In fact, it was the Fourth Master who first proposed this matter. He said that someone would pick us up after we arrived at the Zhu Mansion. When I arrived, I saw the door open and everyone inside fainted on the ground. The Fourth Master also specifically instructed that they should be killed, so we... This was really not our intention! Please spare my life, sir!"

After hearing the confessions of several people, Zhu Ye glared at the two heads and shouted, "Who is the fourth head? Who of you two is it?"

The scholar sighed.

"No need to ask. The one you just killed with your hammer was the Fourth Master. The five of us know what you want to ask. If you want to know, I will tell you. But can you spare my life?"

The scholar said in an almost pleading tone.

"Hmph, spare your life? That's just wishful thinking. Tell me quickly and I'll make you happy. Otherwise, I'll let you know my methods! Tell me now!"

After hearing Zhu Ye's angry shout, the scholar knew that his life was in danger, and it would be good enough if he could pray for a quick death and an intact body.

"There are countless mountain strongholds in the Taihang Mountains. In the area near Langdiao County, there are eight or nine mountain strongholds within a radius of more than 100 miles. The small ones have only dozens of people, and the big ones like us have more than 300 people. Although we have experienced government suppression and mutual annexation over the years, there are still many mountain strongholds left."

After a few words, Zhu Ye became impatient. He thought what he said was all nonsense and was stalling for time, so he wanted to kill him with a hammer, but was stopped by Liu He.

"No hurry, just let him finish."

The scholar swallowed his saliva in fear and continued, "It is difficult for a mountain stronghold like ours to develop to such a scale on its own. We must have some connections with the nearby government. In Langdiao County, there is a county lieutenant who knows the five of us. We pay him some tribute every year, and he guarantees that we will be safe."

(End of this chapter)