The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 158 The Art of Writing
The men in charge of Beicang Village were all summoned to the fourth leader.

The villagers finally experienced what it means to be on a pirate ship and then find it hard to get off!
More than a hundred children and several elderly people were left in Longpan Village as hostages, and the bandits were given an advance payment of fifty taels of silver.

I had no choice but to do whatever they told me to do, even if it meant holding my nose.

The fourth leader demanded that Beicang Village help transport the 10,000 shi of grain away overnight.

The villagers of Beicang Village are used to carrying things.

Almost every household had a type of utility vehicle, such as a large flatbed cart, a small handcart, or a wheelbarrow.

With the fourth leader's order to set off.

The bandits led the way, followed by more than two thousand villagers who dragged large carts full of grain, leaving through the two main gates and four side gates.

The old village chief often said, "Don't put all your eggs in one basket."

The bandits were quite obedient to advice.

In retaliation for the border troops who had killed more than two hundred of his brothers, the fourth leader left dozens of men behind to cause trouble.

They planned to burn down the remaining two hundred-plus granaries.

The bandits circled the remaining granaries, some even scratching their horses.

"How are we supposed to burn this? The floor of the granary is entirely paved with stone slabs, the walls are made of blue bricks, and there are only a few wooden beams on the roof!"

“Beicang Village was a crucial storage center for grain transport, so fire prevention and moisture control were definitely top priorities when these granaries were built. Didn’t you see the waterways behind the granaries that connect to the Grand Canal?”

"The barns are hard to burn, but there are still dozens of barns of grain, right? Grain in its husk is very easy to catch fire."

"Let's go, let's burn down a warehouse and see what happens."

Dozens of bandits chose a row of barns and opened the door to the middle one.

The leaders were about to throw the torches they were holding inside.

Suddenly, a gust of wind swept past the back of my head.

Then, the bandit at the front let out a few screams.

"Help! Help!"

King Atu is about to be driven mad by these two-legged beasts.

Not only did they steal so many bags of grain, they even tried to burn the grain.

That's millet!
These ten granaries in this row could feed millions of mice!
We'd rather burn those nasty things than let the rats have a single bite!
The rat may be patient, but I, the Great King, cannot!

In his rage, King Atu completely forgot his master's instructions and did whatever made him feel good.

He unleashed a barrage of steel claws and sharp teeth at dozens of mountain bandits.
Not to mention what happened to the bandits after they fell into the hands of King Atu.

Meanwhile, fierce battles were taking place outside the six gates surrounding Beicang Village.

Gan Minglan led a small squad of musketeers who guarded the widest north gate leading to the canal.

Before the muskets started firing and exploding, she had everyone switch to longswords.

Although the musket squad killed hundreds of people in the first half hour.

However, the bandits were numerous and shamelessly used the 330 border soldiers who had been drugged as shields.

The musketeers were afraid of hurting their own men, so they were indeed a bit hesitant when firing.

In the second half.

Close-quarters combat is very difficult.

This tough battle lasted from the latter half of the night until dawn.

Before the centurion collapsed from his severe injuries, he was still feeling fortunate that the Jade-Faced Rakshasa had come to their rescue.
Gan Minglan was in so much pain that she wanted to curse.

She ran to the west gate after killing the people at the north gate.

After finishing at the west gate, they had to rush to the south gate for reinforcements.

They practically circled all six doors.

The bandits and some of the villagers who participated in the battle were all dead, but no one on their side was standing either.

Death is death, injury is injury.

Several archers among the bandits were quite accurate, and Gan Minglan was hit by arrows in both the abdomen and back.

She urgently needed to use her wood-based powers to heal her external injuries and slowly push the arrows out of her body.
When the medical team members arrived, their hearts nearly stopped. The entire Beicang Village was dyed bright red.

Corpses and wounded people can be seen everywhere on the roads leading to the village entrance.

Today is a rare sunny day.

Not far from the east gate.

There was a man sitting cross-legged in a burlap grain sack on a plank, his eyes closed, his right hand gripping a wooden gun, still in a ready-to-attack stance.

In a state between sleep and wakefulness.

Hearing their footsteps, he suddenly opened his eyes.

The golden morning light shone on her blood-stained face, giving her a somewhat solemn and dignified appearance.

The murderous intent had not yet faded from her eyes.

Looking into their eyes is chilling.

With her arms trembling, Madam She walked up to her and asked with concern, "Xia-ge'er's teacher's wife, are you alright? Where are you hurt?"

Gan Minglan sensed her body after it had been repaired by the wood-type ability and shook her head:
"I'm fine. Quickly transport them all back to the post station, separate the seriously injured from the lightly injured, and fetch all the doctors from town."

The emotions of the She family and others changed drastically. They were initially terrified when they saw the corpses scattered all over the ground, but then breathed a sigh of relief after finding Gan Minglan.

With her there, they have a pillar of support!

Following Gan Minglan's instructions, they quickly found a thousand border soldiers among the corpses scattered on the ground.

More than 620 people who had already died were laid out in one place.

The more than 380 people who were seriously injured to varying degrees were quickly loaded onto carts and taken back to the post station.

They moved and rearranged the items very carefully.

I'm afraid of causing further harm to these wounded patients who are covered in blood.

Each vehicle carried four or five wounded patients, each weighing 600 pounds. They worked in pairs, desperately pulling them into the post station.

The anxious postmaster and the stablemen, seeing this scene, came forward to greet them.

"This this."

Gan Minglan stopped these people from asking questions.

He said to the postmaster:

"Please have your courier run to Yuyang City and deliver a message to General Lai Suzhi. Tell him that the bandits in Youzhou are colluding with the villagers of Beicang Village to steal the grain we are reselling to Yuyang City."

The postmaster's face changed drastically, and he angrily cursed, "The villagers of Beibeicang Village, how dare they!"

Gan Minglan said expressionlessly:

"Who says otherwise? These grains were purchased by merchants related to General Zhao by marriage during last year's bumper harvest."

They bought it at a price several times higher than the market price, but unexpectedly, they couldn't even transport it out of Youzhou later.

Our in-laws came to us and sold it to General Zhao at cost price.

Our military farmland in the Northwest is also good land, and we don't lack food!

So they approached General Lai of Yuyang City and resold the grain.

General Tian and his men had other official business to attend to, while we were originally staying behind to hand over the duties to General Lai.

Who would have thought that even in Youzhou, there would be bandits and villagers who dared to steal from General Lai?

"Tsk tsk, I wonder if the bandits' stronghold will still be safe."

As she spoke, she casually glanced at the postmaster's face.

Sure enough, it was as spectacular as an overturned palette.

It's unclear which faction this person represents.

Despite the commotion last night, they all stayed holed up in the post station and didn't offer any help.

Gan Minglan had no choice but to use subtle language to bring up General Lai Suzhi.

She wanted to see what kind of deterrent power the general commanding 100,000 border troops wielded in the small town of Haijin.
(End of this chapter)