Chapter 66: Gou Family Village (Part 3)

Lin Quan’an, forced into a corner, realized that the “kūnzéi” masters’ money wasn’t so easy to earn. He said, “Your honorable accent is still a bit strange. It would be best to speak as little as possible once we’re inside.”

Arriving at the front of the village, the main gate was open, with cheval de frise placed in front. Several militiamen stood guard, and others kept watch from the watchtower. The defense was reasonably tight. As Lin Quan’an was familiar with the locals, he exchanged a few greetings, slipped them some small items, and then led Xue Ziliang inside.

There were about two hundred households in the village. Most houses had stone walls and thatched roofs, while the poorer ones had walls and roofs woven from bamboo. Xue Ziliang found this quite curious, but he wasn’t here for sightseeing. He focused on memorizing the layout and direction of the roads. There were few pedestrians in the village, only the elderly and children; the able-bodied men were probably all out working.

Lin Quan’an walked along, shaking his peddler’s drum. When the women saw him, they gathered around to buy needles, thread, and other small items. Some who had no money traded with eggs or dried rice noodles. In a short while, he had accumulated a pile of goods. Xue Ziliang followed Lin Quan’an for almost a full circuit of the village. The entire stockade had only one gate. The wall was just over three meters high, made of rammed earth and stone, and was extremely solid, showing almost no signs of erosion or peeling, as if it were as strong as concrete. A few wooden watchtowers were scattered along the wall, and defensive materials like stones and rolling logs could be seen piled on top. There also seemed to be some sort of cannons. There were no defensive structures inside the village itself. The so-called inner wall was just a relatively high courtyard wall. The dozen or so households of the core Gou family were concentrated in a complex of connected residences. For fire prevention, the entire complex was separated from the surrounding houses by a wide street, giving it the initial appearance of a fortress within a fortress.

But upon closer inspection, this residential wall was not simple. Although he had heard there were more than ten Gou family residences there, there were only two entrances: the main gate on the south and the back gate on the north. Facing the street was a tall gatehouse, flanked by brick-eaved reverse-sited wing rooms. The back wall had loopholes for firing hand cannons and matchlocks. The thick elm wood gate was covered with iron sheets and studded with rows of large-headed iron nails, making it nearly impossible to break through with an axe. The back gate was small but sturdy, and the wall, built of stone, was over four meters high. Judging by the stones at its base, it was not thin.

However, these obstacles were insignificant to the transmigrators. Xue Ziliang even felt that his personal reconnaissance was a bit redundant. With the firepower of the military group, breaking into the village would be a piece of cake. The only difficulty was how to open the main gate. The gate was made of thick, heavy wood, with a huge locking bar behind it. The best way would be to blow it open directly, but the military group had no explosives. Perhaps they could burn it with oil?

After leaving the village, Xue Ziliang returned to the woods, noted down all the key points he had seen in his notebook, and drew a map of the village interior. The people who remained in the woods also took some exterior photos with a long-focus lens.

Wang Ruixiang said to Xue Ziliang, “Let’s send out the reconnaissance plane to get some data.”

Xue Ziliang initially thought it was unnecessary, but then he considered that the situation inside the inner residence was still unclear. After breaching the outer wall, attacking the inner residence would be another challenge, and being unfamiliar with the road layout would be a problem. So he agreed. Hearing this, Wang Ruixiang rubbed his hands together in excitement and went off to assemble the large model airplane.

This thing was huge. Even disassembled, it required three people to carry it, along with a pile of miscellaneous parts, fuel, a camera set, and a laptop for receiving the signal. Several people quickly assembled the large model airplane, only to discover a problem. There was no concrete ground here!

This type of large model airplane, unlike smaller remote-controlled ones, needed a runway to take off and land. In the modern world, finding a flat stretch of ground was easy; even the most remote villages had roads or concrete threshing grounds. A flat sports field or grassy area would also work in a pinch, but at this moment, none of these conditions were available.

It would have been possible to level a piece of land outside the woods on the spot, but they had no tools, and making such a commotion in an open area would certainly attract patrols. Helpless, they had to pack up their things in disappointment and head back. The first aerial reconnaissance mission thus ended in failure.

“We must develop a rocket-assisted takeoff system!” Wang Ruixiang said bitterly.

“We’ll head back, and on the way, we’ll look for an opportunity to grab a couple of people!”

“Capture some ‘tongues’?”

“That’s right.” Xue Ziliang was already familiar with this Chinese slang. “There are some things we can only find out by asking them.”

“Done!” The group rubbed their hands in anticipation, except for the dejected Wang Ruixiang.

Xue Ziliang divided the men into two groups and set up an ambush in the woods on both sides of the road. This spot was neither too close nor too far from the village, providing enough time to retreat and also avoiding the capture of uninvolved personnel. To avoid causing too much of a disturbance, they decided to use knives and Wang Ruixiang’s crossbow if force was necessary.

The weather in Lingao was hot, regardless of the season. Daytime temperatures in autumn and winter could reach around thirty degrees Celsius. Staying in the stuffy woods made them sweat profusely. Although they had all applied insect repellent, various flying insects and mosquitoes still bit them relentlessly, making the new recruits complain bitterly. Fortunately, more than a month of hard training had cultivated their willpower, and no one moved about randomly.

A few people walked on the road sporadically, but there was no one worth capturing. After a long wait, a sedan chair appeared on the road, with a blue cloth canopy. A man who looked like a master was lying sprawled inside, followed by about ten retainers. There was also a figure who looked like a maid, carrying a bundle and walking beside the sedan chair.

Ye Mengyan got a little nervous and quickly crawled over to ask Xue Ziliang, “Captain, a big shot is here!”

Xue Ziliang nodded. It was obvious this was an important person from Gou Family Village, perhaps even Gou the Elder himself. Besides the guide, they had four men, giving them a considerable chance of success.

He pondered for a moment, his gaze falling on Lin Quan’an, which made the peddler jump—every time this “kūnzéi” master looked at him like that, it meant trouble. Sure enough, Xue Ziliang called him over again.

The person in the sedan chair was none other than the second master of the Gou family, Gou Xunli, the head of the Lingao County underworld who lived in the city. He had recently received news that the pirates from Bairen Beach had arrived at the Ma Niao saltworks. Gou Xunli had read some books, dealt with government officials in the county town, and monopolized lawsuits for many years, so he was quite knowledgeable. He knew that the Ma Niao saltworks was a major source of revenue for the county, and his elder brother, Gou Xunyi, had spent a lot of effort to get it under control. The Kun bandits sending a small team to the saltworks was undoubtedly to snatch this piece of fat meat. A few days ago, he heard from people in the yamen that the Kun bandits had sent someone to see Advisor Wang and had demanded to take over the salt tax collection. Gou the Second knew things were not looking good and quickly ordered his sedan chair to return to the village—a countermeasure had to be devised as soon as possible.

He was different from Gou Xunyi. In modern terms, his methods were not as crude. He always knew to leave some room for maneuver, so although he was a feared and powerful figure in the county, his reputation was not too bad. In contrast, Gou Xunyi was a tyrannical character who would insist on taking his share whether he was in the right or not, and who feared that his evil deeds were not thorough or brutal enough. Gou Xunli was a little worried about his elder brother. These Kun-haired pirates were not ordinary bandits. If a conflict broke out between the two sides, the Gou family would definitely suffer a great loss.

Gou Xunli planned to persuade Gou Xunyi to quickly send someone to negotiate with the Kun bandits, cede a portion of the saltworks’ profits, and make money amicably. He guessed that the Kun bandits intended to stay in Lingao for the long term. They were powerful, and if he could ally with them, suffering a small loss now might not be a bad thing in the long run. As he was pondering this and thinking about how to persuade his hot-tempered elder brother, the sedan chair suddenly stopped. He opened his eyes and asked, “What’s going on?”

The head retainer came over and replied, “There’s a peddler on the road, saying he wants to cry out for justice.”

Gou Xunli cursed, “Bastard.” He thought it was most likely the village retainers or militiamen robbing a peddler again. This bunch of bandits only knew lawlessness and didn’t even understand the principle of “a rabbit doesn’t eat the grass near its own burrow.” He waved his hand in annoyance, “Drive him away.”

Just as he spoke, a bowstring twanged from the side of the road. A crossbow bolt was already embedded in the neck of a sedan chair bearer. His eyes rolled back, and he and the sedan chair toppled to the ground. The whole group instantly fell into chaos.

With a whistle, four men rushed out from the side of the road, all brandishing gleaming short knives. The escorting retainers didn’t even have time to draw their weapons before their throats were slit and they fell to the ground, blood gushing from their necks, dying instantly. The turn of events was so fast that no one could react. A few retainers were so panicked they forgot to draw their swords and instead swung their scabbards at the attackers.

Ye Mengyan didn’t have time to savor the taste of his first kill. He saw a retainer with a ferocious expression charging at him, brandishing a sheathed sword. He couldn’t help but take a few steps back, tripped over a body on the ground, and fell on his backside. A wave of fear washed over him. “Mother, I’m going to die!” His mind was a blur, but his hand instinctively thrust the knife forward. The sharp blade pierced the opponent’s stomach as if cutting through tofu, sinking in easily to the hilt. Ye Mengyan watched as the man in front of him, his eyes wide and his face contorted, collapsed. Something that looked like intestines spilled out from under him. A wave of nausea churned in his stomach, and he vomited out the compressed biscuits he had eaten for lunch. The projectile was long and accurate, hitting the face of the maid who was cowering under the sedan chair. The young girl, already terrified by the scene, was hit by this sour and smelly “facial,” and, unable to process what was happening, fainted on the spot.

Although the retainers were numerous, they were caught completely off guard. Four died in the initial assault, and arrows continued to fly from the bushes. No one had the will to fight, and they scattered in all directions. Six bodies and two wounded were left on the ground, and three prisoners were captured, including a maid. Unfortunately, the master in the sedan chair had escaped the moment the chair fell, as fast as a rabbit.

Xue Ziliang ordered them to leave the wounded and the woman, tie up the prisoners, and leave quickly. But Ye Mengyan, seeing that the girl was pretty, insisted on taking her. Xue Ziliang was annoyed but had no choice but to order a prisoner to carry the girl on his back. The group quickly retreated. These men were not professional soldiers, after all, and were inevitably flustered after killing. They ran wildly, herding the prisoners, not even feeling tired. Seeing that his team members’ faces had turned pale, Xue Ziliang quickly contacted Bairen City by radio and asked them to send a vehicle to pick them up. By the time they returned to the camp, before they could even complete the handover and write their reports, several of them were already vomiting their guts out.