Mercenaries and Adventurers

Not far from the commercial road, on the gentle slope of the mountain, there are arc-shaped fields reclaimed along the gentle slope of the mountain. The clear springs in the mountains are led out by the villagers, and go all the way down along the small stone canals next to the fields, almost covering the village. All farmland owned.

The farmland outside the village is full of common wheat, but there are no farmers guarding the farmland. It is a bit strange. There are fireworks in the village, but there is no one outside the village.

This is now Xinqingquan Village.

On the small road made of stones and wood outside the village, a group of bandits were walking quickly towards the village.

Each of them carried one or two weapons in their hands, and wore various protective equipment on their bodies. Some were wrapped in animal skin clothes that would be too hot in spring, and some had their shoulders and arms exposed, with tattoos on them. Horrible monster image.

The leader was a strong and tall bandit, holding a sword in his hand and walking in front of everyone without saying a word.

After walking quickly for a while, they arrived at the gate of the village. Although Xinqingquan Village is just a small village next to the mountain, in order to protect against wild beasts and monsters in the mountains, there is still a wooden wall built around the village made of thick trees.

The height of the wooden wall, which is several meters high, is not very neat, but it is not something that ordinary people can climb up with bare hands. It is not easy to climb over without a wooden ladder.

"Hey! It's me. What are you looking at? Open the door for me!"

The leading bandit outside the gate was a leader, so he yelled rudely at the ordinary bandits who were on guard at the village gate.

However, the bandit above stuck his head out and looked down. After confirming that he was a certain leader in the gang, he did not come down and open the door. Instead, he pulled his head back and ran into the village following the footsteps.

The bandit leader raised his eyebrows, a little surprised, but not angry. He explained to the familiar bandit companions on the left and right: "Most likely, I'm going to call the bald man who stayed behind and ask for his opinion. Let's just wait a moment."

As he expected, the bandit who was originally guarding the gate did indeed return to the village to call the leader who stayed behind.

As this guy walked toward the center of the village, he shouted to his companions who were resting on the roof of a farmer's house on the roadside: "There is a group of people coming outside, led by Scarface. Everyone, please pay attention and be vigilant."

The remaining bandits who had been hiding in the shade of the trees were alert when they heard the call: "Why did he bring people back? He just went out not long ago?"

Looking at the sun, it is true that it is only the afternoon, and there are many targets this time. No matter how smooth the bandit's attack is, it is unlikely that the robbery operation will be completed at this time.

If the other party resists, the bandits and the fat sheep on the trade road can even confront each other for two or three days.

"I don't know. I'm not familiar with Scarface. How can I ask him? Isn't that just asking for a beating? I'll call the bald brother and let him take a look at the situation."

After saying that, the bandit guarding the gate came to a large, low but spacious house next to the small square in the center of the village. This guy originally thought that the bald man usually couldn't control the thing in his crotch. At this time, he was probably tossing the captured woman. After all, no one cared about him at this time. He was the biggest in the village and he had the final say at this time.

But the bandit just looked inside at the door of the house and found the bald guy just sitting on a wooden chair in the house, gathering together with his cronies and muttering something in a low voice.

"who?"

As if he realized that someone was coming to the door of the house, the bald head suddenly turned his head and growled lowly at the door of the house.

"It's me, it's me! Bald brother, it's me, the gatekeeper."

The bandit who came in explained, and then seeing the calm expression on the bald head, he immediately explained: "I'm not lazy. It was outside the village gate that Scarface suddenly came back with about ten people."

When the bald man heard this, his expression became even weirder, and he subconsciously looked at each other with his cronies: "Why is he coming back now? Hey, dog feet, do you know?"

"I didn't ask. How dare I ask? Who doesn't know the bad temper of Scarface? This guy is the most vicious. Every dog ​​passing by in the village has to be caught and slapped twice by him. I'm coming over here right now, isn't that right? Let me ask you to go over and see if he can come in. After all, the leader said, let us keep an eye on the village."

If there is more, the gatekeeper bandit nicknamed Dogfoot didn’t say much. Everyone is a bandit and they all know that the struggle for power and betrayal within the bandit gang is really normal.

Who knows if Scarface has some evil intentions in bringing people back at this time?

The muscles on the bald face with crooked thoughts trembled twice, he grunted and prevaricated a few words, and asked his subordinates to bring weapons, and then everyone trotted towards the village gate.

Bald Head walked over, asking the bandits squatting on the roof of the farmer's house to follow him. By the time he led the people to the gate of the village, there were more than ten people on his side.

"Hey! Scarface! What are you doing here at this time? Did the robbery go well?"

The bald man was lying on the terrace on the wooden gate of the village, bending down and shouting at Scarface who was walking anxiously outside.

"Smooth%%￥%! The guy who informed us about the trade route deceived us. The refugee team was actually led by a young knight. Some of the brothers were killed and injured, but luckily, most of them were those who joined It’s just a soft-footed shrimp and a little piggy soon.”

The bald man rolled his eyes and wanted to laugh, but held back.

He then asked: "Then what are you doing back? I remember bringing the weapons with me when the brothers were dispatched."

Scarface underneath knew what Baldhead was suspecting, but he didn't care. After all, he did come back following the leader's orders.

"The matter is very complicated. In short, the leader asked me to bring some of his own slaves over. It will be useful."

"What's the use? The women under the leader are all pretty, and the few men captured are also wealthy businessmen. The ransom hasn't been paid yet."

"Hmph." Scarface snorted coldly: "Don't worry about it. It's the leader's order anyway. Give the person to me, or open the door, and I'll go in and take him away myself. The leader wants people now, don't delay! If you delay any longer, those refugees will You might as well pass through our territory. Or do you have to ask the leader to come over and take the people in person? Then can we still do the front work?"

The bald man is not stupid, and has no intention of opening the village door. Not to mention that he has other agendas. Even if he is loyal to the leader, he will not open the village door before seeing the leader return.

He turned to the bandits holding swords behind him and said, "In this case, if what he said is true, bring over those captured by the leader, tie them with ropes, and send them down."

Someone asked: "It's so troublesome. Isn't it easy to open the door and let Scarface lead the people to do it?"

As soon as the man finished speaking, he was slapped on the head by the bandit next to him: "Idiot, who knows whether what Scarface said is true or not? When the door opened, he led his men in and killed everyone. Go up and fight him. Or should I go up and fight?"

The bald man snorted and laughed at the side: "That's it. Before I see the leader, I can't open the door. Even if the village is on fire, I can't open the door. Do you understand?"

After reprimanding his men in this way, Bald Head asked his men to go and bring people over.

Soon, in the large room where Baldhead was staying, seven or eight men and women wearing exquisite clothes were tied up with ropes and escorted over.

There were four women and four men among these people. The women were all relatively young. Two of the women were wearing bright cloth long skirts that were only worn by wealthy women in the city. Although they were caught by the bandits and tortured for a while, My spirit is fine, just a little depressed.

The other two women were younger, wearing cheap linen clothes from farmers in the village. Although their arms, legs and feet were a bit thick and strong, their faces were young and somewhat pretty. The two young girls were quite panicked, like puppies caught in the rain, helpless and frightened.

These two girls are locals of Xinqingquan Village. Ever since the bandits took over the village some time ago, they have felt like they have entered a nightmare from which they cannot wake up.

At this time, they didn’t know what the bandits wanted them to do. They could only lean on each other tightly while pushing and staggering.

The other four men are all middle-aged businessmen. Although they are still wearing their original clothes, several of them were beaten. Their faces were swollen, several teeth were lost, and part of the scalp on one unlucky guy's head was damaged. The bandits cut it off during the execution.

I don’t know if it was given to the family as a ‘gift’, urging the family to raise the ransom.

The steps of these businessmen are even heavier, because for them, the best result is that their families send ransom and these bandits let them back. Any additional events beyond this are risks and doomed accidents for them.

Their steps were even more sluggish, but the bandits who brought the people over were not polite. They directly pulled the rope or kicked violently, or even slammed the blunt end of the knife handle into the merchant's back.

"Everyone, walk faster. Do you want to get beaten? Walk faster!"

Despite being treated harshly, they still arrived at the village gate.

As a result, the eight men and women were driven to the gate of the village, and then they were sent to the outside of the village one by one with the ropes that bound their arms?

However, the outside of the village is not a free and safe place. There are still fierce-looking bandits, and there is also a bandit leader who is not easy to mess with at first sight.

"I am Scarface. Now you all follow me. Move quickly and don't delay! Otherwise, you will have a taste of my fist! The same goes for women!"

Knowing that this group of people, regardless of gender, were not so superficial and simple in their uses, Scarface became less polite.

After threatening the captured people, Scarface asked his men to escort these people one by one and set off. He finally looked up at the bald head on the village gate, stretched out his hand and nodded at the other person, indicating that he had recorded the other person's question this time. Behavior.

However, the bald man on top of the gate didn't care. He folded his arms and watched Scarface and others walking away from the mountain. Then he turned around and shouted to the bandits around him: "Okay, it's done, everyone goes back to their original places." . This sun is really too hot, everyone should find a place to rest!"

But in the end, he asked his trusted subordinates to stay on duty at the village gate.

Before returning to the center of the village, he whispered a few words to his trusted subordinates who stayed at the gate, then patted his subordinates heavily on the shoulders, and whispered for the last time: "Remember, take off your clothes, or you will die. What an injustice. Also, if you can find an opportunity to open the door, open it. If you can't, it doesn't matter. The neighbors next door will open the door and let their people in. If you can do it, you will naturally make some contributions. What will happen then? ,look by youself."

Before leaving, the bald man glanced at the bandit named Dogfoot who was in charge of guarding the gate, and raised his eyebrows at his henchmen.

The subordinate naturally understood and replied in a low voice: "I understand. If I take action, I will kill this guy first."

"As long as you understand, I'm leaving and you can take care of it yourself."

After saying that, he waved his hand, swayed his bald head three times, hummed a song, and walked away.

The bandits who were responsible for staying in the village couldn't bear the spring sun, so they dispersed to find a shady place to rest.

However, even if they were resting, they would always be at a high place with good visibility in the village, and most of them would have a set of throwing spears or bows and arrows at hand. However, this was not to be wary of anyone outside the village, but mainly to be afraid of the 'slaves' locked up in various houses in the village. Make trouble.

-

The bandit leader is currently arranging small groups of bandits to create some obstacles and troubles on the trade road. At the same time, a dozen bandits who were good at archery were also gathered together and lurked in the forest closest to the trade road, waiting for the refugee team to approach and cause some trouble for them.

Although he no longer plans to swallow up these refugee groups on his own, he still has to cause trouble and consume strength for the other party. If someone on his side dies, he must regain his face.

"Remember, keep your eyes alert. If you see that knight coming on horseback, hide in the woods in advance. If he doesn't chase him, wait until he is far away and then come out to create obstacles on the trade road! Slow down the speed of the refugee team. , if he dismounts to chase, then guide him to the trap area being laid, and the brothers who are ambushing there will give him a good look!"

The bandit leader stood up straight, stepped on the protruding roots of a big tree, and issued orders.

But at this time, most of the people who followed his orders to act were experienced bandits who had been with him for a while. The young bandits who had just joined the gang during this period were gathered around in twos and threes, neither working nor saying anything. speech.

Quite negative.

But if you can't stand their behavior and go up to argue or find trouble, those young bandits will directly raise their weapons, with the intention of taking action if they disagree.

The bandit leader did not rashly provoke these people at the wrong time. If he had not taken action, these young bandits would have gathered here relying on the inertia of their actions during this period, without escaping or doing anything else.

He was waiting for the needed 'props' to arrive.

With the 'help' of those 'props', these young men no longer have any superfluous and naive thoughts about not becoming bandits.

Looking around with gloomy and cruel eyes, the bandit leader asked for a piece of barbecued meat from Goujizi to simply fill his stomach and maintain his physical fitness.

At this time, Scarface, who had been back in the village for a while, came back with his people.

Scarface strode up to the bandit leader and handed the rope holding eight men and women to the leader's hand: "Boss, we brought them back, eight people, four men and four women, are they the ones you want? ?I didn’t go to the village, the bald guy didn’t let me enter the village, he found me.”

The bandit leader glanced at the eight men and women with their arms tied. He didn't care if these people were captured by his men for his control, as long as they were innocent people who had nothing to do with the bandits.

"Okay, you did a good job. The brothers in front have already made some moves. You can also take people up to watch. Create obstacles to the trade routes, release arrows in the woods, and ambush in the trap area. You can choose one by yourself. "

Scarface is a fierce guy who likes to fight, so he naturally chose to ambush the trap so that he could have a chance to kill the knight with his own hands. Of course, his own men and familiar bandits asked them to go to the other two places.

He knew what was dangerous and what was safer.

After Scarface and others walked away, the bandit leader called his henchman over, whispered a few instructions, and then pointed to a place in the woods not far away with a lot of bushes. Because there were bushes there, it was difficult to get close. Can't tell what's going on inside.

Then the bandit leader raised his weapon, personally dragged the innocent man and woman whose arms were tied, and led them over.

The bandit leader's scoundrel frowned at the leader's actions, with a face full of reluctance to participate in such misfortunes.

"How to do it?"

He muttered, "But things have to be done, otherwise he himself is not very good at fighting. If he wants to maintain his position in the gang, he has to be the leader's lackey."

"I hope the goddess can forgive me and everything I have done today. In the next year or two, half of my property will be donated to you and your church. Please forgive me."

The dogleg found a place with few people and knelt down to pray. The bandits around him didn't feel surprised when they saw it. The bandits came from all walks of life in society and had different beliefs. Many of them even had no beliefs, and because of their actions, There are a lot of bad things, so many people have all kinds of weird behaviors, which are normal.

After praying to the gods for forgiveness, he took a deep breath and closed his eyes.

When he opened it again, his eyes were already smiling, and his dirty face stained with oil was also smiling, as if he had something good to share with others.

This deliberately made smile quickly settled on his face, and Gouzizi touched it with his hand and became satisfied.

He deliberately hunched his back to make his whole body look even more vulgar. He also loosened the belt around his waist and lowered his tightly tied tight pants, as if he had taken off his pants and had sex before. Something like that.

After fiddling with these, Gouzizi took out the bandit leader's food that he carried in the bag, picked out a piece of marinated and roasted beef jerky, and broke the whole piece of jerky into pieces with his hands.

Then he held small pieces of dried meat in his hands and walked towards the young bandits around him with pretended wandering steps.

It seems like he is introducing a wonderful good thing to these simple and stupid young people. Is that the truth of the matter?