The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 268 Guarding Your Home
Let's rewind to July!
The day Liu Sanlang brought the news of the giant eel's birth back to Jiaoshui County.

The rebel army split into two routes and headed straight for Weizhou and Mizhou.

Wu Jialiang was in charge of Weizhou. After leading his troops out of Jiaoshui County, he immediately marched towards Changyi County at top speed.

Changyi County is also a rather unlucky place.

In real history, Changyi County was where Talan, the Left Deputy Marshal of the Jin Army, stationed his troops. In this historical context, due to the arrival of Yue Wenxuan, Changyi County also became a frontline city in the battle between the Jin Dynasty and the rebel army on the Jiaodong Peninsula.

Every time the Jin army "passed through" this area, it brought profound suffering to the local people.

As the army marched along, they saw no normal villages on either side of the road, only dilapidated houses and ruins.

As they walked, Ji Menghan, who had come with the army, suddenly sighed and pointed to a barren slope in the distance, saying, "From there to there... it's all our Ji family's land. It doesn't belong to the main family; it belongs to the branch families. These branch families don't have much contact with our main family anymore, and many of them are very poor, just ordinary farmers..."

Upon hearing this, Wu Jialiang turned around and looked at them, his expression grim: "These people are probably..."

Ji Menghan nodded heavily: "I'm afraid not many will survive. Inspector Wu, I'd like to lead a team over to take a look."

Wu Jialian nodded and said to Fan Wen, "Brother Yu, you take a team to protect Mr. Ji."

Under the protection of Fan Wen and a small squad of soldiers, Ji Menghan left the main army and walked up the hillside, his eyes constantly searching. However, there were no living people in the few dilapidated houses beside the hillside. He couldn't even find a single person from the branch family. Instead, he found several skeletons by the edge of the field.

Ji Menghan couldn't help but shed tears, and she hoped even more that she could find a surviving relative from the branch family. The main army had all gone far away, and her small team was still searching on the hillside.

Yu Fanwen couldn't help but say, "Mr. Ji, I'm afraid your relatives... Sigh, let's just follow the army."

Ji Menghan nodded dejectedly and was about to leave.

Just then, Yu Fanwen frowned and jumped to the side, blocking Ji Menghan's path.

Ji Menghan: "?"

In the next instant, Yu Fanwen drew his sword and blocked the arrow with a "clang".

Twenty or thirty men jumped out of the pit on the hillside. These men were dressed in tattered clothes, but they all carried weapons. Their faces were pale and sickly. The leader was holding a hunting bow, and it seemed that he was the one who shot the arrow earlier.

The man said, "This mountain is mine, these trees are mine. If you want to pass, leave some money for the toll."

Yu Fanwen: "Damn it! You guys don't follow the rules of the martial world. You shot an arrow before even using any slang. Is this how you run the bandits? Next time, remember this: once an arrow is shot, it means it's time to fight. What's the point of using any slang? It's a life-or-death situation."

The man opposite was stunned; clearly, he didn't know the rules of the outlaw world.

Rules didn't matter anymore. This group of people had obviously been starving for a long time, so they didn't care about rules. With a shout, they charged directly at Ji Menghan and the others. Someone even shouted, "This group of people looks rich. They must have a lot of good stuff on them."

Isn't this nonsense?
The rebel army has been following the True Lord for the past few years, and they've been well-fed and clothed. They're all full of energy and vitality, clearly enjoying plenty of meat. Even small landowners with limited land don't get as much meat as the rebel soldiers.

If you put them out there for the robbers to see, they'll all be easy targets.

The bandits charged in, howling...

They outnumbered the rebel squad by more than double, but none of the rebel soldiers were afraid. Many even laughed out loud. When they saw their opponents charging at them, the rebel soldiers didn't even move. Only one of them asked, "County Commandant Yu, how do we deal with these people?" It turned out that after Wu Jialiang became the patrol inspector, Yu Fanwen became the county commander of Jimo.

Yu Fanwen said in a deep voice, "I just said it was a life-or-death situation. To shoot a hidden arrow at Mr. Ji is a capital offense."

Someone laughed and said, "Then kill them all?"

"No!" Ji Menghan spoke up: "Since they didn't kill me, their crime is forgivable. Capture them all alive."

Yu Fan smiled and said, "Then let's capture them alive."

After saying that, he took a big step forward and charged headlong into the group of robbers.

When fighting against the Jin bandits, Yu Fanwen's martial arts skills were not fully displayed, but this kind of small-scale battle was the perfect opportunity for him to showcase his skills. He had used a broken sword to deflect Zhang Dashu's wolf-tooth spear and launch a strong attack on the Mandarin Duck Formation, demonstrating his exceptional martial arts skills. In the rebel army, he was a top-three fighter in pure hand-to-hand combat.

A group of starving, emaciated bandits were no match for him.

Yu Fanwen knocked down one child with a single punch, then slapped another with the back of his knife, and kicked a robber flying ten feet away.

His soldiers, under Qi Jiguang's leadership, had been training diligently every day for over a year, making them far superior to ordinary martial arts practitioners.

In no time at all, twenty or thirty bandits were lying on the ground.

Ji Menghan: "Tie them all up and take them away. Let's catch up with the army first and then talk to them slowly."

He's not in a hurry to find his relatives now. Since there are bandits here, it's no wonder his relatives are nowhere to be found. He'd better catch up with the army and make sure he's safe first.

The group, escorting twenty or thirty prisoners, quickly caught up with the army led by Wu Jialiang.

"Huh? You went out for a stroll and brought back quite a few people." Wu Jialiang was quick-witted and could guess who these people were without even asking: "It seems the banditry here is quite serious."

"Hmm!" Yu Fanwen blushed slightly and said, "It seems that just like when you first arrived in Jimo County, there must have been these kinds of things everywhere in the countryside. I was one of them back then... Luckily, you led me onto the right path..."

Wu Jialiang shrugged: "Mr. Ji, the task of pacifying the people is your responsibility. You can handle these people as you see fit. I'm only here to conquer and seize territory."

Ji Menghan nodded.

Now that he had a large army accompanying him, he was relatively safe, so he was in the mood to interrogate the prisoners. He brought the group of people over and questioned them one by one. He learned that they were all locals from Changyi County. The Jin army had crossed the border several times, which meant that the people of Changyi County had not been able to grow crops normally for one or two years, and the area had fallen into a very serious famine.

Many people fled to Jiaoshui County, while many others were captured by the Jin army and forced into labor. Later, during the attack on Jiaoshui County, they were defeated and "captured" by the "palace traitors"...

Some people, unwilling to leave their homeland and unwilling to be lackeys of the Jin people, transformed into mountain bandits and hid in the mountains and forests.

These people are not true outlaws, so of course they don't understand the rules of the outlaw world.

It's understandable that people would say something as silly as shooting an arrow before making an incision.

After being interrogated, the group of men burst into tears: "Good sir! We were blind to your greatness and shouldn't have robbed you. We dared not beg for our lives, but we still have wives, children, and elderly parents in the mountains, hundreds of mouths waiting for us to bring back food. Please spare our lives, even if it means sparing hundreds of lives. In our next life, we will be reborn as dogs to guard your home."

(End of this chapter)