After being forced into a marriage with a wealthy family, the virtuous wife caused a huge uproar.

She leaped up, landing directly on Ling Yun's shoulder, and fired a hidden weapon at Xiong Zhishen, which struck him squarely in the shoulder.

Xiong Zhishen saw that it was a woman who shot a hidden weapon at him, but he didn't take it seriously; escaping was the priority.

But after only a few breaths, Xiong Zhishen suddenly collapsed to the ground, unable to even hold his knife steady.

"Boss!" one of the bandits exclaimed.

Rong Yingluo launched several hidden weapons in succession, and all the people surrounding Xiong Zhishen were hit by them, with only three managing to dodge.

Rong Yingluo's martial arts skills were lacking, so her master made her focus on practicing lightness skills and hidden weapons, as these two skills were crucial for survival in critical moments.

Tonight, all the hidden weapons she carried with her were soaked in a potent muscle-relaxing powder.

Several key leaders of the mountain stronghold were taken down, and everyone else panicked.

Some people gave up resistance, dropped their knives, and surrendered.

Once there's a first, there's bound to be a second.

Finally, they all laid down their weapons.

Of the more than one hundred people, less than half remain.

Upon seeing that the fighting had ceased, Rong Yingluo immediately began treating the wounded soldiers.

She had done this job many times, directing Ling Feng and Ling Yun to be her assistants.

"Brother-in-law, please take your men and raid the stronghold immediately. I'll handle the arrangements outside." Yuwen Zhang deliberately asked his brother-in-law to take advantage of Gu Ce.

Gu Ce raised an eyebrow. The address was strange, but he liked it.

This kid knows how to behave.

Gu Ce immediately selected about a hundred people to search the bandit's den.

Upon seeing the bandits' distress signal, Yuwen Zhang, unsure of who it might be, immediately dispatched ten men to scout the mountain pass and report back promptly.

Since they didn't know who the bandits had asked for help from, they dared not confront them head-on, so they scattered towards the back mountain.

The remaining fifty-odd bandits who were uninjured were immediately assigned to move things.

Those who are injured but not fatal should bandage their wounds, rejoin the group, and carry torches.

Gu Ce acted quickly, knowing he needed to act swiftly. As soon as he got his hands on the item, he had it carried away immediately.

The search revealed that there wasn't much valuables on the mountain; all the looted items had been disposed of, and even the cloth stolen from the Gu family was gone.

The fact that they were able to dispose of the stolen goods so quickly indicates that these bandits were not simply robbing people, but rather had formed a smuggling chain.

Rong Yingluo was so busy she barely had time to breathe. She only finished her work after Gu Ce had copied everything out.

Five of the remaining soldiers died, ten were seriously wounded, and several were slightly wounded.

"How was the harvest?" Rong Yingluo asked.

"It's just average, worth at most 100,000 taels of silver." Gu Ce frowned.

"Impossible, right? This bandit gang has been entrenched here for many years. There are quite a few merchants and travelers passing through this area. Even if they collected tolls, they wouldn't have this much in stock." Rong Yingluo exclaimed in surprise.

"You mean I might not have found it?" Gu Ce searched every place he could think of.

"Dig the ground," Rong Yingluo said, pointing to the ground.

Time was short, and Gu Ce didn't have time to dig.

"Search the chief's room carefully," Yuwen Zhang reminded him again.

Gu Ce immediately turned around and carefully investigated where Xiong Zhishen lived.

There was no need to dig; the bandit leader's bedroom had a hidden room. Sure enough, they found a lot of good stuff: various jewelry, several boxes of silver ingots, and a box of gold ingots, which were even official silver.

Together they are worth at least 200,000 taels of silver.

They carried it away.

Just as Gu Ce and the others were about to leave, the man Yuwen Zhang had sent to scout the way back rushed back to report: "Master, a lot of people have come down the mountain and are heading straight up."

Upon hearing this, Gu Ce immediately flew to the treetop and looked down. Sure enough, he saw a fire dragon rapidly approaching the mountain.

"You all retreat first. I'll go see who they are." Gu Ce's eyes narrowed dangerously.

Unexpectedly, someone actually came to help, and so quickly at that.

There were no other bandits nearby, and they were able to arrive in such a short time, so they must not be far away.

A guess steadily emerged, and Gu Ce became even more determined to find out the truth.

"I'll go with you." Rong Yingluo was also curious and wanted to know as soon as possible.

Gu Ce knew that her lightness skill was even better than his own, so he nodded.

"You two go quickly." Rong Yingluo left these words behind and headed down the mountain with Gu Ce.

Now that she could use her light-footed skills, Rong Yingluo descended the mountain directly from the treetops.

The waning moon had already risen, and the sky was no longer as dark as it had been when we arrived.

Rong Yingluo was also taken aback when she saw a long fire dragon moving forward at an extremely fast speed.

The two stopped on a tree along the path that people would inevitably pass by.

"My lord, those people aren't bandits. They look more like well-trained soldiers," Rong Yingluo said, offering her guess.

"That's right, bandits can't be this coordinated, nor are they this fast." Gu Ce coldly watched the fire dragon getting closer and closer.

"What a blatant collusion between officials and bandits!" As a citizen of Nanxia, ​​Rong Yingluo felt such hatred upon seeing this dark side that she wanted to go down and kill the leader.

Those people quickly passed by their hiding place, just as they had guessed.

This place is only about 20 miles from Gong County, so these people must have set off immediately upon seeing the signal.

Running forward, it took exactly one hour to get here.

Their fighting and killing lasted exactly one hour.

Judging by appearance, there are more than a hundred people in this group.

This was precisely the local militia that the county could muster. It was the off-season for farming, a time when the militia would gather together for training.

"Hurry up, all of you!" The county constable in charge looked anxious.

This was because they were afraid of being late to the mountain and not being able to complete the mission.

As more than a hundred people ran past him, the cold glint in Gu Ce's eyes was enough to pierce through anyone.

"Should we show ourselves?" Rong Yingluo asked.

She was eager to see what kind of expression the county magistrate would have when Gu Ce suddenly appeared as the prime minister.

"No need." Gu Ce put his arm around Rong Yingluo's waist and jumped down from the tree.

"Why?" Rong Yingluo asked, puzzled.

Wouldn't that be perfect for catching him off guard?

"The moment we show ourselves, the county magistrate will know that we were the ones who did it tonight. Those valuables will go into the county treasury, and then a portion will be transferred to the national treasury. It will be impossible for the Prince of Beijun to swallow them. You sent him to do this job just so he could get those valuables, right?" Gu Ce had guessed Yuwen Zhang's purpose ever since he learned that Yuwen Zhang was coming to fight the bandits.

"I never expected that someone as prime minister of a nation could say such a thing." Rong Yingluo realized at this moment that Gu Ce was like a sweet dumpling with sesame filling.

"Yuwen Zhang is the fourth prince, yet he can fight bandits and double-cross them. What am I, a mere prime minister, compared to that?" Gu Ce thought Rong Yingluo was praising him.

"Let's go. Yuwen Zhang and the others haven't gone far. It's very likely that these people will chase after them along the back mountain for the money," Gu Ce added.

The two bypassed the hill from the side and headed towards the back of the mountain, right under the noses of the local militia.

When the county magistrate went up the mountain, he saw corpses all over the ground and various personal belongings scattered everywhere. He was so angry that he cursed loudly.

He was still too late.

Who on earth is moving so fast?

He carefully examined the traces on the ground and quickly determined that the people were retreating towards the back of the mountain. Without saying a word, he led his men in pursuit.

But when he had chased after them for less than a hundred paces, he was hit by a hidden weapon and blocked by nine masked men in black with high martial arts skills.

In just a few rounds, the local militia fell to the ground.

The county constable was a coward; knowing he had encountered a tough opponent, he dared not fight head-on.

"Scatter it, scatter it quickly!" The county constable changed his tune as he saw fit.

Rong Yingluo pulled off her face mask: "So cowardly. How did you become a county magistrate?"

"Check it later. Let's leave first and bring those things back; that's the priority. We must leave Gong County tonight, or we won't be able to leave tomorrow," Gu Ce said.