Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 40 Come forward
"How about this, my dear brother, come back with me, and we'll just take half of the goods and not trouble the rest. What do you think?"

Yan Jingming's eyes fell on the young man's face, wavering and flickering, and finally he made up his mind and said these words.

The boy's eyes were filled with astonishment. "What? I'll go back with you? What do you want me to do?"

The young man was as pure as paper, but Yan Jingming's subordinates understood Yan Jingming's thoughts in an instant.

Originally, a few people had already taken a fancy to some of the women in the caravan, but after Yan Jingming said this, they could only support their leader's decision and responded in unison: "Little boy, it's a great blessing for you that Master Yan takes a fancy to you."

"For you, he spared dozens of lives here. You should appreciate this bodhisattva-like compassion."

Seeing that his subordinates gave him face, Yan Jingming was quite satisfied with his subordinates.

After hearing these naked words and looking at Yan Jingming's blazing gaze, the young man finally understood what he meant, as if waking from a dream. A slight blush suddenly crossed his face: "I am a man, not..."

Before he could finish his words, Yan Jingming interrupted him, saying, "That's not a problem. Many officials in Chang'an and Luoyang keep demon children in their homes. I, Yan Jingming, am the third disciple of Alliance Leader Wang, so why can't I keep one? If you come with me, you will definitely gain a lot."

The boy's face suddenly changed.

Pleading glances from behind were cast towards the young man.

If you are not a fool, you should know what these people are going to say.

Zhu Wen, who was hiding behind the ginkgo tree, suddenly felt extremely unhappy.

He had no interest in being a hero, but the scene before him made him feel very sick.

In this case, he can choose to turn around and leave, or he can go out directly.

Zhu Wen chose the latter.

He didn't think much about it at the time, but it was his principle to act when necessary.

"Yan Jingming, you did a good job."

Zhu Wen clapped his hands vigorously, a mocking look in his eyes, and walked out from behind a tree that several people could hug. "Doing this kind of thing is probably not what Master Wang Meng taught you."

Yan Jingming was immediately shocked, and when he found that Zhu Wen was alone, his face became even gloomier.

"Zhu Wen, what do you want to do? Don't think that just because you are the chief strategist in the Salt General's army, you can control my salt and vegetable affairs!"

"Alas." Zhu Wen sighed. "How could Lord Yan be so disrespectful? Even Lord Qin Yan is being very polite to me now."

At the banquet held when Wang Xianzhi and Huang Chao met, the young master of the Bamboo Flower Gang, Qin Yan, had confronted Zhu Wen on the spot. However, after several joint battles at Dingfeng Hill and elsewhere, their relationship had become relatively good.

"Hmph." Yan Jingming sneered, "Qin Yan, the young master of the Bamboo Flower Gang, how can he compare with the third disciple of Alliance Leader Wang? What happened today..."

"I haven't even said what I want to do, and Mr. Yan is so rude..." Zhu Wen spread his hands, looking helpless.

Hearing this, the young man in Confucian robes' expression changed slightly, but Yan Jingming's expression suddenly softened: "Then, Zhu Liangyu, if you pretend that you didn't see this today, you will have a share of the wealth here."

Between peers, addressing by given name is a sign of respect. The change in address also shows that Yan Jingming did not want to break up with Zhu Wen, the rising star in Huang Chao's army.

"Very good, very good." Zhu Wenru smiled warmly, as if in the sunshine, twisting her slender fingers. "How much are you willing to give?"

The young man's expression suddenly changed. "My dear, I thought you were a good man. How could you be in league with such a scoundrel?"

Zhu Wen didn't even look at him, but just looked at Yan Jingming with his clear eyes.

Yan Jingming hesitated for a moment, then glanced at his men. "I have more brothers, so I'll take one-third of today's profits and share them with you. Are you satisfied?"

In Yan Jingming's opinion, Zhu Wen just happened to run into him, and he had gained a 3% benefit, which was enough to give face to him, the strategist of Huang Chao's army.

Zhu Wen rubbed his hands and said, "It seems that Mr. Yan really gives me face."

"That's right. We in the underworld believe in sharing a good relationship with each other." Yan Jingming said with a hint of satisfaction, as if he really felt that he was being very righteous.

"But I still think there's something wrong with Mr. Yan's way of categorizing things."

"Oh?" Yan Jingming's face twitched slightly: "Then how much does Mr. Zhu want?"

Zhu Wen said calmly, "In my opinion, Master Yan should take his men and leave now. I will pretend I saw nothing today. If you delay, I will have to tear the rhinoceros belt off Master Yan's waist and use it as money for the funeral of the two martial artists who were killed."

Yan Jingming was stunned for a moment, then his face fell and he said sternly: "Zhu San, are you making fun of me?"

A group of lackeys around him also drew their swords and glared at Zhu Wen.

At this time, Zhu Wen heard the young man's low voice floating over with the wind.

"As for the saying 'killing someone means paying for their life', isn't it... too easy for them if they just pay for the burial?"

Zhu Wen felt amused and thought that this boy was unbelievably stupid.

But a dagger was already rushing towards him, and the blade was cold as it cut through the wind.

Yan Jingming's subordinates are a little too self-conscious.

If someone offends me, I will offend him.

The Great Xia Dragon Sparrow Sword that was carried behind Zhu Wen was suddenly unsheathed.

When Huang Chao presented the sword, it came without a scabbard. Zhu Wen had previously defeated Chen Liqing, one of the "Five Blazing Swords" under Marshal Yan, and seized her warhorse. The saddle was made from the skin of a precious South China Sea silver shark. On a whim, Zhu Wen disassembled the saddle and fashioned a scabbard for his own sword. However, he felt that Chen Liqing's skin was so thick that it must be stronger and more durable than the silver shark's skin. It would be wonderful if he could use her skin for a scabbard.

There is a saying in the industry that "a single sound is worth a thousand gold", which means that when practicing sword skills, try not to clash with the enemy. Instead, use superb skills to stick to the opponent's weapon and dissipate the force.

On a battlefield where life and death clashes at the speed of a spark, this standard is difficult to achieve. Especially in cavalry combat, it is almost impossible to avoid colliding with the opponent's weapons.

But if it was just a fight in the martial arts world, Zhu Wen was quite confident in his swordsmanship.

The knife passed silently, and the henchman who drew the knife only felt a chill on his neck.

His sword was caught by Zhu Wen's Dragon Sparrow Sword and was thrown away without a sound, falling into the reeds by the river.

Zhu Wen took advantage of the situation and swung the sword in his hand, cutting his neck cleanly and efficiently.

Then Zhu Wen heard a roar like a wolf howling.

"Zhu San, how dare you kill my brother!"

Only then did Zhu Wen realize that he had not fought in a martial arts fight for a long time.

Without armor, he felt lighter, and his blade's movements were incredibly smooth and effortless. There was no strong barrier on his opponent's neck, so the blade slid across it like paper.

The intensity of battle on the battlefield was incomparable to that of martial arts brawls. Wang Xianzhi's untamed heroes were chased and fought by Song Wei and other government generals for two or three years before they developed the ability to confront the government troops head-on.

"Yan Jingming, I'm afraid you won't believe this, but even though your subordinates were the first to attack, Zhu really didn't intend to kill him. It was just a slip of the hand..."

Zhu Wen's innocent tone made Yan Jingming and his lackeys even more furious.

Many times, the truth is hard to believe.

If Zhu Wen told Yan Jingming now that he was a person who was afraid of trouble, Yan Jingming would definitely not believe it.

Yan Jingming's minions surrounded him like a pack of wild dogs attacking.

In this situation, even if Yan Jingming remained rational and ordered his subordinates to stop, he would probably not be able to stop it.

Zhu Wen clenched the dagger on his leather belt in his left hand.

The Great Xia Dragon Bird was a long-handled sword, which meant that if the enemy came too close, he would have to have the means to fight in close combat.

The tip of the precious sword thrust forward, used like a sword, catching a minion who was originally guarding against Zhu Wen's horizontal slash off guard. The indestructible blade instantly pierced into the chest and penetrated into the heart.

At the same time, he swung his left hand dagger, piercing the abdomen of a short-statured enemy. Then he punched him, sending him flying backwards.

After killing the enemy in front of him, the sword immediately drew an arc to the right, and slashed back as if it had eyes, hitting the neck of one of Zhu Wen's minions who was attacking from behind, and his head immediately flew into the air.

But in a flash, three enemies fell under his sword.

The smooth feeling of the sword cutting through flesh reminded Zhu Wen of the feeling of chopping wood when he was a child.

Although firewood is hard, it can be easily solved as long as you find the right point of force, find the grain of the firewood, and use the power of twisting your waist and hips to chop it.

The same is true for killing people.

No matter how hard the bones are, they are not as hard as armor.

Enemies without armor are always relatively easier to kill.

But Zhu Wen immediately felt a sharp pain in his shoulder.

Yan Jingming pounced like a mad tiger, his beard trembling with his roar, and his long sword drew a cold crescent-shaped arc of light, hitting Zhu Wen's shoulder blade.

"Zhu Saner, return my brother's life to me!"

This kind of stupid talk makes no sense, but it can really give courage to those in battle.

Therefore, Yan Jingming's sword strike was full of energy and quite powerful.

If Zhu Wen had not dodged quickly, the knife would have stabbed directly into his chest.

It is certainly very satisfying to use your light skills to kill the unarmored enemies.

But it would obviously be unpleasant to be hacked without armor.

Especially when surrounded by a group of people in open ground.

As the saying goes, "two fists cannot beat four hands", not to mention that there are dozens of people on the other side.

Among them, Yan Jingming was considered a good fighter, and the rest were all fearless and desperate criminals. When they saw several people fall, they were not afraid at all, but their eyes were filled with murderous intent.

However, Zhu Wen no longer had the time to think about whether it was reckless to rush out today.

Facing a swarm of enemies, he must continue killing if he wants to survive.

So he withdrew quickly, leaning his back against the ginkgo tree that was at least five meters tall to protect his rear.

At the same time, he glanced at the reeds on the right, considering whether he could hide in the reeds to reduce the enemy's numerical pressure.

(End of this chapter)