Water Margin: I am Zhu Biao

Upon hearing this, Zhu Biao finally raised his eyelids and gave her a cold glance.

"explain!"

His tone was extremely dismissive.

Last night, Liang Siqi ignored his orders and performed poorly in the battle, which made him dissatisfied and worsened his already bad impression of her.

If she weren't still useful, she would have been drugged with a bowl of sleeping potion and thrown away by the roadside long ago.

"fire!"

Liang Siqi's face darkened, but she forced herself not to lash out, only managing to squeeze out a single word through gritted teeth.

"fire?"

Zhu Biao raised an eyebrow, his eyes sharpened, and he suddenly realized something.

"You mean, set the mountain on fire?"

"Hmph, not too stupid."

Liang Siqi gave a haughty snort and pointed to the window that was rattling loudly in the wind.

"The northwest wind is howling fiercely right now. If we head east out of the Taihang Mountains, that wicked man surnamed Qin will surely be lying in ambush downwind."

She paused, then jabbed her finger hard on the map, her voice filled with murderous intent.

"Just one big fire will burn it down, and no matter how many ambushes or schemes they have, they will all be reduced to ashes."

hiss~

Zhu Biao felt a chill run down his spine.

That little vixen is truly wicked; she actually came up with such a scheme to kill off her offspring. But this trick is also very effective and suits her perfectly.

He wasn't actually afraid to confront Master Qin face-to-face, but he was extremely wary of this bastard's pre-arranged ambush.

For example, poison arrays, arrow arrays, crossbow arrays, or chained horse traps.

None of these are things that can be overcome by human effort.

Liang Siqi was absolutely right. No matter what kind of bird formation it is, it will be completely useless against a fire formation. The flames will spread and leave nothing but barren land.

All schemes and tricks will turn to ashes.

Once the ambush is gone, and it's a real, bloody battle, whoever chickens out is a coward!

At this point, Zhu Biao felt his mind clear.

"From now on, use your brain more and don't use your hands."

He awkwardly uttered a remark, then got up and walked towards the back room, his steps much lighter than before.

"cut!"

Liang Siqi scoffed, but then she laughed.

In an instant, it was as if a hundred flowers were blooming, a sight of unparalleled beauty. Ruyi was stunned. The way Si Niang smiled and didn't smile was like two completely different people!

Immediately, she felt a chill run down her spine.

Fourth Sister is so beautiful and quick-witted; she's about to take over my still-unsecured position as strategist. What should I do?

As evening fell and darkness descended, at the eastern end of the Fukouxing Ancient Road, lay Shahu Pass.

A few miles to the west, in a dense forest, there is a sheltered, gentle slope.

"Third Brother, there's a village to the east. If we set it on fire, won't innocent people be burned to death?"

Zhu Biao was applying lamp oil to the trunk of an old pine tree when he heard this and paused in his actions.

"Ha! You're such a pig-brain."

Before Zhu Biao could reply, Liang Siqi retorted dismissively.

"They were about seven or eight miles away. Unless they were dead, the villagers would have run far away as soon as they saw the fire in the mountains."

"Pah! You're a heartless, rotten woman!"

Pang Qiutang immediately spat and retorted angrily.

Even if no one dies from the fire, the villagers have destroyed their houses. How are they going to survive in this harsh winter?

Liang Siqi's expression froze for a moment, but she reacted quickly and immediately passed the question to Zhu Biao.

"Shut up! This was decided by your third brother, go ask him!"

"Ahem~"

Zhu Biao coughed twice, choked by the choking sensation.

However, not only Pang Qiutang, but also Ruyi, Zhu Wu, and Su Fang stopped what they were doing and stared at him.

Now, as long as Zhu Biao gives the order, even if there are mountains of corpses and seas of blood ahead, they will not hesitate to grab their knives and charge.

However, they do have reservations about harming innocent people and destroying their homes.

"It's alright! We have plenty of money now."

Zhu Biao stopped coughing and said in a deep voice:

"I have already checked that village. There are only about twenty households. After we get rid of the powerful enemy, we will give each household twenty taels of silver as compensation. That will be enough for them to build a new house."

Zhu Biao's decision was not made on a whim, but his original plan was to compensate each family with ten taels of silver.

They were all mud-brick and thatched houses made from local materials. Even with their belongings inside, they weren't worth five taels of silver. The remaining five taels would be enough for them to save for several years.

However, the situation is slightly off at this moment.

An inappropriate response could undermine morale and the authority he had painstakingly built, which is why he temporarily escalated the situation.

"Young Master is righteous!"

Sure enough, as soon as he finished speaking, Zhu Wu grinned.

"As expected of my third brother!"

Pang Qiutang's eyes lit up, and everyone else laughed, full of energy, and quickened their pace.

"Five or six hundred taels of silver, you, you really can bear to part with it?"

Only Liang Siqi looked astonished and asked incredulously.

Zhu Biao rolled his eyes at her, his expression arrogant, and said, word by word:

"A true man keeps his word!"

He said this aloud, but in his heart he thought: I don't believe that Gao Qiu's retainers can't even scrape together a few hundred taels of silver.

As the last rays of the setting sun disappeared, the first sparks rose in the forest.

boom!

Immediately afterwards, more than twenty large trees burst into flames almost simultaneously.

In the morning, Zhu Biao and his men searched the inn from top to bottom, taking everything from cloth, bedding, straw mats, kerosene, lamp oil, vegetable oil, and even lard.

He transformed these trees into extra-large torches.

boom!

Half a cup of tea later, a night breeze blew, instantly lifting the tree canopy and igniting nearby trees one after another, causing the fire to visibly grow several times larger.

It is already out of control.

"It's done!"

Zhu Wu clapped his hands and laughed heartily.

"Who...who are you? How are you so skilled at arson?"

Liang Siqi looked at Zhu Biao with a strange expression. Setting fire to a mountain was no easy task, especially since it had just snowed heavily.

"Heh~"

Zhu Biao sneered.

"Who are they? Honest people who have been driven to desperation by those filthy beasts in the government and by this rotten world."

Meanwhile, in a forest near the Shahu Pass passage.

"what?"

On the top of an old tree, the bat-like flying thief's eyes suddenly narrowed.

A few breaths later, he shouted down towards the tree:

"Master Qin, something terrible has happened! There's a fire in the mountains!"

A few dozen steps away, in a tree hollow that resembled a cave, Master Qin suddenly opened his eerie green eyes.

"Explain yourself clearly, where did the fire start?"

The thief said in a panic:

"A fire has broken out to the west, and it's spreading rapidly towards us!"

Pfft!

A small, naked girl flew out of the tree hole, her face covered with greenish-blue lines, her eyes lifeless.

How far apart are they?

Master Qin emerged like a ghost, his eyes flashing like will-o'-the-wisps.

"It's less than five li! It will take about two incense sticks to spread across."

Before he could finish speaking, Shadowless began coughing violently; the fire hadn't even arrived yet, but the smoke had already drifted over.

"Master Qin, we can't stay here any longer, let's hurry!"

As he spoke, he scrambled down the tree like a big monkey, ran to Master Qin, and said anxiously.

Snapped!

Before he could finish speaking, Master Qin slapped him across the face, sending him flying several feet away like a wooden stake.

At this moment, a dazzling red light shone through the western mountains and forests, and the smoke grew increasingly thick.

Without even glancing at the thief lying on the ground, his life hanging in the balance, Master Qin quickly took a few steps and stepped on a half-buried, dark pottery jar.

Whoosh!

The earthenware jar shattered instantly, and the sound of breaking echoed continuously as it approached, extending towards the passageway.

Shashasha~

A few breaths later, a chilling rustling sound suddenly rang out in the snow.

After a while, countless centipedes and scorpions that should have been hibernating surged into the forest like a black tide.

Just looking at it sends chills down my spine.

When the swarm of poisonous insects passed by Master Qin, it split in two as if cutting through the waves, and went around him.

Among them, several tiny, brightly colored centipedes and scorpions quickly crawled onto his robe and burrowed into his sleeves.

"Uh~"

Master Qin suddenly let out a muffled groan.

Countless hideous green and blue lines instantly appeared on his aged face, and the ghostly green flames in his eyes surged several degrees.

After a long while, the terrifying lines on his face slowly faded, and he glared hatefully in the direction of the wildfire.

"You little thief, do you think you can escape by setting a fire?"

At the edge of the fire, Liang Siqi felt the scorching heat and watched helplessly as the large trees, burned to a bright red, collapsed.

"Do you think this fire will be able to drive away that sorcerer surnamed Qin?"

A strange emotion welled up inside her, and she asked in a trembling voice.

"Do you think he's a god? Invulnerable to water and fire?"

"So, do you think we can successfully get out of the mountains?"

She pressed for more information.

"We will definitely be able to leave. After the wildfire is extinguished tomorrow, it will probably snow. When it snows, that will be the time for us to leave the mountain and part ways."

Zhu Biao glanced at her and replied patiently.

After all, he was about to leave the mountain, and when he passed through the city, he would have to make this little vixen appear in public to clear his name.

Boom!

A giant tree fell, sending countless sparks flying, and Liang Siqi instinctively shuddered.