The Military Governor in Dream of the Red Chamber

Chapter 99 Sending the Master to Heaven

"Huh?" The bandit being stared at by Jia Chen felt a shiver run down his spine.

He panicked. Did this adult in front of him know him?

Would it be a good thing to know yourself?

Will you forgive yourself?

He looked up and sized up Jia Chen, feeling that the person in front of him was somewhat familiar, but he couldn't quite place him for a moment.

"It's you, you bastard." Jia Mao happened to come over, saw the man, recognized him, and kicked him to the ground.

The man screamed, but upon seeing Jia Mao, he exclaimed in surprise, "It's you, Jia Mao! And... Jia Chen?"

"Hmph, they caused us trouble at Zhenqiang Fort back then, and then ran away. Didn't expect to fall into your grandfather's hands today, did you?" Jia Mao said through gritted teeth.

It was this guy who gathered some local border troops to provoke us in various ways. The three of us fought with them, and in the end, they were exiled to Qianshandun.

But this group of people had long since disappeared without a trace.

Now, when I see him again, he's actually in the bandits' group.

Wang Baisheng and the others quickly learned the whole story from Jia Mao, and looked at this guy as if he were a dead man.

Not to mention that he had already offended the authorities, his identity as a bandit meant he had no chance of survival; no one would be spared this time.

"My lord, Lord Jia, that matter cannot be blamed on me. I was only following orders—" The man was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly to Jia Chen.

He didn't recognize Jia Chen immediately because Jia Chen's appearance and demeanor had changed quite a bit.

Jia Mao, on the other hand, has a rather unique appearance; anyone who has met him once will find him hard to forget.

"Whose orders are you on?" Jia Chen asked calmly, gesturing for Jia Mao to step back.

"Yes, he was a steward of the Sun family. He..." The man dared not hide it any longer and revealed the whole story. "Later, he let me escape from the army and introduced me to Beifeng Village."

"North Wind Village?" Jia Chen was taken aback. "No wonder there are so many horses."

Beifengzhai was a notorious bandit organization in Datong, with its stronghold located in Liuleng Mountain on the eastern side of Datong.

Liuleng Mountain is located about 80 li southeast of Deshengbao.

The mountains contain many mineral resources, especially white marble, which has attracted countless people to mine them. Many of these mining operations are carried out secretly and can be considered mining piracy.

The Liuleng Mountain is crisscrossed with ravines and has a complex terrain. In addition, there are a large number of mines, which can be said to provide excellent hiding conditions for bandits, making it extremely difficult for the government to crack down on them.

Therefore, this place is the lair of many bandits, and Beifeng Village is one of the best among them.

Beifengzhai was known for its thousand cavalry, who roamed Datong Town and the grasslands, looting, burning, and committing all sorts of atrocities.

Since Beifeng Village's movements were all carried out by cavalry, moving swiftly like the wind, the government troops had even less of a chance to deal with them.

However, his claim of having a thousand cavalrymen is likely an exaggeration.

In Jia Chen's opinion, there was no way to avoid splitting it in half.

In fact, this was proven by the information obtained from this guy: the entire North Wind Village had less than five hundred horses.

Even so, Beifeng Village was considered quite powerful among these bandits; not everyone could get their hands on so many horses.

This time, the two hundred or so horses represent roughly half of the horses in Beifeng Village.

"The Sun family is colluding with Beifeng Village?" Jia Mao asked, somewhat surprised.

"Nothing to be surprised about." Jia Chen glanced at him and said indifferently, "We can't call it collusion, but perhaps these are bandits that the Sun family keeps on the outside."

Many thoughts flashed through Jia Chen's mind.

The fact that Beifeng Village has so many horses shows its strength; these horses alone are quite valuable.

Ordinary bandits simply couldn't get their hands on that many horses, and even if they did, they would have a hard time affording to keep them.

If a powerful clan like the Sun family were secretly supporting them, that would be a different story.

The Sun family kept these bandits, mostly because of their involvement in smuggling.

One reason is to have them provide covert protection, and the second is to use them to attack competitors.

Many caravans smuggled goods across the border, allowing these bandits to rob other caravans and cause huge losses to their competitors.

"My lord, you are quite right. These things have been rumored in Datong for a long time, but ordinary people cannot obtain any substantial evidence," Zhao Zheng said.

This is not just a problem for the Sun family; other large families are doing the same thing.

They don't necessarily support just one bandit group, but rather multiple groups.

Some of the bandits were even members of their own families who had gathered together.

"My lord, spare my life! I was just doing my job. Please be magnanimous and let me off the hook." He didn't know what happened to Jia Chen afterward.

However, in his opinion, Jia Chen and the others were probably dead. They had offended the Sun family in Datong, so how could they possibly survive?

But when he saw him again, he found that Jia Chen didn't seem like a soldier anymore.

So many people listen to Jia Chen?

Could it be that these guys have also become outlaws?

He dared not think too much; all he wanted now was to live.

Jia Mao looked at Jia Chen, who then gave him a wink.

"Still want to live?" Jia Mao immediately understood, grabbed the guy, and said, "Since you've provided a lot of information, Grandpa will give you a quick death."

"No~~ No, please have mercy~~" the man begged for mercy, but when he realized he was doomed, he began to curse a few times.

The entire group from Beifeng Village was killed. After a final count, they found that only 113 horses remained. The others either died in the chaos or escaped in the confusion and were difficult to find.

"My lord, are there enough horses?" Zhao Zheng asked.

"Too many," Jia Chen shook his head.

"My lord, the more horses the better!" Wang Baisheng grinned.

Jia Chen smiled and said, "Choose forty strong and healthy horses to take back, and kill the rest."

"Huh?" Everyone was stunned.

They never expected Jia Chen to give such an order.

Who would be willing to kill horses, especially more than seventy of them?

"Bringing so many horses back would make us too conspicuous, and we could easily be exposed," Jia Chen said in a deep voice. "When Wei Ya travels, he's always accompanied by at most twenty guards, maybe even fewer. Forty of our men will be enough to ambush him. Also, after the deed is done, these forty horses must be killed and disposed of. We can't let outsiders know that our Qianshan Fortress once had so many horses. Even if someone suspects us, as long as we don't have enough horses, we won't be able to evacuate in time, thus clearing our name."

"My lord, I understand." Huang Xiuer said, glancing at Wang Baisheng and the others before sneering, "Do I need to think further about your orders, sir?"

Wang Baisheng and the others looked embarrassed.

It wasn't that they disobeyed Jia Chen's orders; it was simply that the orders were perplexing to them.

"We're just reluctant to part with these horses. As long as you give the order, I, Wang Baisheng, wouldn't hesitate to go through fire and water," Wang Baisheng shouted.

So, no matter how reluctant they were, they had no choice but to get rid of the horses.

Since we have enough horses, there's no need to raid the northern barbarian settlements anymore, lest we create unnecessary trouble.

Besides leaving behind forty fine horses, Jia Chen also left behind some of the clothes, swords, and other weapons of the bandits from Beifeng Village.

Previously, the intention was simply to pin the blame for killing Wei Ya on the bandits.

Now that we have these, it's even better; we can push it directly onto Beifeng Village.

At that time, I can accidentally leave behind some weapons or other items that bear traces of Beifeng Village.

Since the Sun family is connected to Beifeng Village, Jia Chen felt that this could cause the Sun family some trouble.

Jia Chen remembered the grudges against the Sun family; he wanted to collect some interest first.

He even wondered if Wei Ya and the others' desire to transfer him from Qianshan Fort was also related to Sun Shaozu.

As far as he knew, when Wei Ya was still serving as the official in charge of the defense of Desheng Fort, Sun Shaozu had visited him many times, and the two had a special relationship.

After Jia Chen and his group returned, they immediately hid the forty horses and other items related to Beifeng Village in the city.

If outsiders come to Qianshan Fort, such as those delivering orders or even superiors coming to inspect, we can't let them see us at a glance.

It's better to be safe than sorry.

Moreover, these were brought back without the help of most other people in the city.

This matter is known only to a small group of the most reliable people.

This matter is of great importance, and Jia Chen has to be careful. If it is leaked, his men will probably have no choice but to become bandits and take up arms if they want to survive.

Jia Chen didn't want everyone to end up in this situation.

On the afternoon of Lunar New Year's Eve, Jia Chen received news that the officials of the various forts under Zhenqiang Fort and other subordinates of the garrison commander, such as some captains and lieutenants, would go to pay New Year's greetings to Wei Ya, the garrison commander, early on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

That day, he had to be early. After receiving everyone's New Year's greetings, Wei Ya still had to go to Desheng Fort to pay his respects to Lieutenant General Liu Tianwang.

Sun Tiechong was right; it happened on the third day of the Lunar New Year.

On the morning of the third day of the Lunar New Year, just as dawn was breaking, Jia Chen, along with Jia Mao, Wang Baisheng, and four others, rode to Zhenqiang Fort.

It's best not to be late for something like this; it's better to go early and wait.

Jia Chen's attitude was still very proper, and no one could find fault with him.

Actually, Liu Cheng and Zhao Zheng were there even earlier than Jia Chen and the others.

The two men, along with thirty-eight carefully selected men, a total of forty people, rode out of Qianshan Fort and headed south.

It was still dark when they set off.

The task of intercepting Wei Ya was assigned to the two of them, and they needed to ambush him halfway there as early as possible.

Although Jia Mao, Wang Baisheng, and Ding Heihu are more courageous, they still need to be careful in this kind of thing and cannot be careless.

Therefore, it would be more appropriate to entrust the task to Liu Cheng and Zhao Zheng.

Besides, Jia Mao and his companions are tall and have distinctive features, so they would be easily recognized if they were seen by someone.

Therefore, those who accompanied Liu Cheng and his companion on this trip were of average build and appearance, in order to better avoid attracting attention.

Furthermore, this time, they still didn't bring firearms. Instead, they changed into cotton-padded clothes that they had taken from the bandits, and brought the bandits' swords, bows and arrows, etc. They rode the bandits' horses, leaving the saddles and reins exactly as they were.

Since the intention is to impersonate bandits and thieves, one must appear convincingly like them.

The main hall of the military commander's residence was warm and inviting.

Jia Chen and other officials of the fortified village, along with the commanders, had already taken off their heavy cloaks and cotton-padded clothes and sat around the scorching hot brazier.

Wei Ya didn't keep everyone waiting long before he strode in.

Everyone hurriedly stood up to greet them.

After Wei Ya was seated at the head of the table, everyone clasped their hands in greeting and shouted in unison, "We wish you a Happy New Year, Your Excellency! May you have a prosperous New Year and rise to higher positions!"

Wei Ya smiled and gestured for refrain from formalities, then instructed his servants to bring out hot wine and food.

He knew that since everyone had come so early, they probably hadn't eaten much.

After chatting with everyone for a while, Wei Ya stood up and said, "I still have to go to Desheng Fort. You all eat here before you go back, Gaogou!"

"Here!" Gao Gou immediately stepped forward.

"I'm leaving this to you."

"My lord, please rest assured."

The crowd escorted Wei Ya to the south gate.

They said auspicious words like "Have a safe journey, sir."

Watching Wei Ya depart with his twelve personal guards, Jia Chen really wanted to say, "Have a safe journey, we'll be sending you to heaven soon."