Chapter 1441: Chapter 1441: Not Simple

Ding Changwu, after listening, could only slap himself three times with three crisp smacks.

But Boss Bai was clearly not satisfied. He looked at Uncle Dong and said, "Old Dong, these juniors of your Ding Family are getting worse and worse. Slapping yourself with a face veil in the way—is that trying to fool a ghost?"

Uncle Dong’s face sank at once. He said to Ding Changwu, "Didn’t eat, did you? Keep hitting. Hit yourself until Lord Ghost and Boss Bai are satisfied!"

"Uncle Dong!" Ding Changwu was shocked, but seeing Uncle Dong’s darkened face and that Lord Ghost beside him who hadn’t said a word the whole time, he could only raise his hand and slap his own face again and again.

He slapped himself a good dozen times, until his face was swollen, before that Lord Ghost finally said, "We’ve gone far enough. Let’s go back."

With that, he turned his horse around and galloped off in a dashing manner.

Boss Bai also left with him. Before leaving, he gave Ding Changwu a glance and let out a very mocking cold laugh, which made Ding Changwu furious.

But Ding Changwu couldn’t draw his knife and hack Boss Bai, so he could only ask Uncle Dong, "Uncle Dong, I really can’t figure it out..."

"If you can’t figure it out, go die!" Uncle Dong didn’t give Ding Changwu any face at all. He even lashed Ding Changwu a few times with his horse whip and cursed, "You good-for-nothing who can’t read a room. Is this the time to offend Boss Bai? He’s the bandit leader of the Hundred Wolves Mountain Nine Villages Bandits! The troops the Ding Family is going to swallow this time aren’t just three Company Commander Centres, but as many as we can. If the number of troops we swallow reaches a thousand, once we get to the Northwest, Elder Ge can directly become a Troop Commander. Then it won’t be far from becoming the main general in charge of regular troops!"

What kind of time is it now?

You can see with your own eyes that the Great Chu is about to fall into chaos like the end of the former dynasty. The old master said the Ding Family needs troops to protect the family property, so they must push Ding Ge up; that’s why he sent him over to help.

The old master said that since we’re going to swallow troops, then don’t be stingy—swallow more. Join hands with the Hundred Wolves Mountain Nine Villages Bandits and swallow half of the troops marching west with Ding Ge.

Of course, we can’t swallow all of them; if we did, we’d give ourselves away.

After scolding Ding Changwu, Uncle Dong said, "Be careful what you say and do. We still have to rely on Boss Bai’s help; we can’t afford to offend him. And that Lord Ghost—behind him stands the Eagle Food Gang. Once we get to the Northwest, there will be plenty of places where our Elder Ge will have to depend on the Eagle Food Gang even more, so we absolutely can’t offend him!"

Having said that, he spat at Ding Changwu, then finally mounted his horse and rode off.

Ding Changwu, having taken a beating, didn’t dare lose his temper. He mounted his horse and silently followed behind Uncle Dong.

...

Hundred Wolves County was a large county, its territory vast like a Prefecture city, only it was too poor and sparsely populated, so it could only be designated as a county.

Within its borders it was mostly broad, open plains stretching for miles, but on both sides were towering mountain ranges. These ranges were collectively called Hundred Wolves Mountain. Not only were wild beasts rampant inside, but many bandit villages were hidden there as well. It was a notorious deadly place known to everyone in Hundred Wolves County, and normally no one dared go into the mountains.

So any trade caravan passing through Hundred Wolves County would hurry to leave and wouldn’t linger.

But Hundred Wolves County was really too big, and today’s encounter with bandits delayed them by two hours, so the army marched until the sky was completely dark and they were still out in the wilderness.

Vice General Fang and Vice General Xue, seeing that it was getting late, could only pick a place to make camp.

Many of the accompanying family members had been frightened by today’s encounter with bandits. Shortly after they halted, the cries of women and children could be heard.

"It’s the accompanying family members—they were scared by the bandit attack and are crying." Daqing brought the news to Erqing, and Erqing relayed it to Gu Jinli.

Gu Jinli said, "What happened today was indeed a bit terrifying. How are the family members on our side? They’re not scared out of their wits, are they? How are Bu Ling and her child?"

There weren’t many accompanying family members on their side; the most timid were Bu Ling and her child, so she picked them to ask after.

Erqing said, "Madam, don’t worry, mother and child are fine. Although they heard about the Corpse Pile, they didn’t see it, so they weren’t frightened... But that child Bao Fukan looks sickly, yet he’s bold. Niu Wujin said that when he passed by the Corpse Pile, he even lifted the carriage curtain to take a look, scaring everyone else in the carriage into wailing."

Niu Wujin was a clever one with a thick skin. After getting familiar with Bao Fukan, he not only came into the carriage to sleep at night, but during the day he also hugged Niu Qijin and led Niu Liu Jin over to hitch a ride in the carriage.

He was still a child, and Niu Qijin was even younger and needed someone to carry him. People on the Gu Family’s side really couldn’t bring themselves to drive them out, so they could only let him ride along in the carriage heading west.

But the Niu Wujin brothers’ skin was truly thick. Today he even brought along two children from the Niu Family Camp over there, crowding into the carriage together to hitch a ride.

Bao Fukan lost his temper and said he wanted to break off with Niu Wujin!

Niu Wujin kept apologizing and begging for mercy, saying that there were many accompanying family members on their side, many children, and if only he and his brother had seats in the carriage, others would talk behind their backs.

Their family was poor, so they could only come over to hitch a ride, and it would be just this once—he’d only bring two extra people and wouldn’t bring any more.

After hearing this, Bao Fukan was almost exploding with anger and was still sulking with Niu Wujin.

Old Bao’s wife felt sorry for Niu Wujin and the others. After consulting Aunt Xiong, she allowed Niu Wujin and his brother, as well as those two children, to continue staying in the carriage.

After hearing this, Gu Jinli said, "This Bao Fukan doesn’t seem simple; he doesn’t look like a beggar."

Smart, literate, capable, principled—no matter how you looked at it, these weren’t qualities an eight-year-old beggar should have.

Erqing asked, "Should we have someone look into him?"

Gu Jinli said, "We’re on the road now; it’s hard to investigate. Besides, he was picked up in He’an Prefecture. I’ll write home and have my eldest brother look into it."

After hearing this, Erqing said no more. She had Sanqing stay with Gu Jinli while she and Xiao Ji went to prepare food for her.

Gu Jinli instructed, "Don’t make anything complicated. Just take out the iron wok and heat up the food we bought yesterday in Humang County."

Hundred Wolves County was truly a poor place. There was no forest or river where they were camped this time, so everyone could only use the water and dry firewood they had stored earlier to cook.

Gu Jinli was worried they wouldn’t have enough water to drink or enough dry wood for warmth and didn’t want to waste water and firewood on cooking.

"Yes, this slave understands." Erqing answered and, in just over half an hour, had the meal ready.

Qin San Lang also returned. He took off his shoes and outer robe, came into the carriage to eat, and asked Gu Jinli, "Were you scared at all?"

Today’s beheading and Corpse Pile had scared quite a few people.

Gu Jinli smiled. "I’ve survived a famine. How could I be scared of this? Hurry and eat."

After hearing this, Qin San Lang looked her over. Seeing that there was indeed no fear on her face, he finally felt at ease enough to eat and then brought up the matter of standing guard at night: "There are many bandits in Hundred Wolves County. Vice General Fang and Vice General Xue said they’re increasing the number of patrols. Each time, two Company Commanders will lead troops to patrol and guard the camp together at night. Xie Cheng and I will guard the first half of the night; Lu Chong and Company Commander Liu will guard the second half."

Gu Jinli was startled when she heard this. "Lu Chong and Company Commander Liu on the second half? One’s useless and the other never does anything. The second half of the night is so dangerous—if bandits really come down for a raid, we’ll be done for."

Qin San Lang couldn’t help but laugh when he heard that. "Company Commander Liu is very fond of his own life. He’ll be fine guarding the second half."

Originally, it would have been most suitable for him to guard the second half of the night with Xie Cheng or Niu Dabao, but he and Xie Cheng were both worried about their wives. Knowing the second half of the night was more dangerous, they wanted to come back and accompany their wives.

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