The rebel army's foremost master craftsman forged a million iron pylons!

"What are you doing?" Zhao Yong asked, looking puzzled.

"There are many snakes, insects, and rodents in the mountains. Use this to tie your trouser legs tightly to avoid being bitten by poisonous snakes."

"This... is amazing!"

Zhao Yong felt a surge of respect for Li Tian and immediately tied his trouser legs tightly with a strip of cloth.

The two waited silently in the cave.

……

"Master Zhou, something's not right!"

At this moment, Master Zhou was like an ant on a hot pan, and every now and then he would climb up the city wall to ask if those two people had arrived yet.

The key point is that the information brought back by the servant was terrifying. The two of them killed more than a dozen militia members. Anyone who didn't know better would think they had encountered the imperial armored forces.

"Master, we have deployed defenses all over Zhou Family Village. Even if those two had wings, they wouldn't be able to fly in."

The servant answered in this way, but Master Zhou was still not at ease. If they can't fly in with wings, can't they come in from underground?

There is an underground river beneath Zhoujiazhuang.

"Xiao Liu, go quickly and take a few men to guard the underground river. Bring water armor and send men to patrol the water every half hour. If you encounter those two little bastards, shoot them dead with arrows."

Master Zhou shouted.

The servant boy named Xiao Liuzi quickly led several other servants toward the underground river.

After giving the instructions, Old Master Zhou was still not entirely at ease, so he added, "Chief Zhou, take a few men out of the manor and search the surrounding woods."

"I suspect those two are still hiding in the woods. If you run into them, bring me their heads."

Zhou Dutou was a man in his forties who used to serve in the imperial army. He was discharged after injuring his leg and came to Zhoujiazhuang to become a captain.

He is skilled in reconnaissance and can lead a team.

He has a long scar on his face, which looks a bit scary.

"You lot, come with me!"

Having accepted Old Master Zhou's order, Chief Zhou nodded and left Zhou Family Village with seven or eight followers.

Zhou Dutou searched very carefully, almost meticulously examining every inch of the area, but perhaps by fate, they somehow missed the cave where Li Tian and Zhao Yong were hiding.

Li Tian and Zhao Yong had already gripped their weapons and were ready for battle.

Who knew that after wandering around outside the cave, these people would go somewhere else.

The search was completed without major incident.

When Chief Zhou returned to report that the surrounding mountains and forests had been searched but no trace of the two men could be found, Master Zhou finally breathed a long sigh of relief and cursed under his breath.

"Those two damned scoundrels must have been scared by my Zhou Family Village. They've obediently gone back to Wolf Head Fortress."

Master Zhou breathed a long sigh of relief and went back to his room to rest.

However, the defense of Zhoujiazhuang was not relaxed. Hundreds of soldiers took turns patrolling the city walls, making Zhoujiazhuang appear impregnable once again.

"Sergeant, which way to go?"

As night fell and the moon rose over the mountain, Li Tian took out a piece of dried meat from his pocket and handed it to Zhao Yong.

The two chewed the jerky vigorously while discussing what to do that evening.

"Climb the cliff!" Li Tian said decisively.

Zhao Yong paused for a moment, "Why not take the waterway? The cliff is steep, and it's dark, so it's easy to have an accident. It's safer to take the waterway."

"The waterway was safe, but someone had installed iron gates on it beforehand."

"This means that the people of Zhoujiazhuang already knew about this passage."

"If we go now, there's a 50% chance they haven't increased their manpower for protection. If they have, we'll die if we go."

"I can't gamble with both of our lives!"

"Then let's walk along the cliff."

Upon hearing Li Tian's explanation, Zhao Yong also agreed that the waterway was unsafe and nodded emphatically.

Zhoujiazhuang

Master Zhou still felt somewhat uneasy, so he summoned Chief Zhou, "Chief Zhou, are the city walls securely defended?"

Zhou, the head constable, nodded. "Don't worry, sir. There are two hundred men guarding the city wall. Even if they were ten thousand men, they couldn't break through our city wall."

Master Zhou said "Oh," and then asked, "Is our waterway still safe?"

Chief Zhou said, "There are six guards over there. According to the master's orders, someone goes into the water to check every half hour. There is absolutely no problem."

Hearing this, Master Zhou finally felt relieved, blew out the candles, and lay down peacefully on the bed.

And at this moment,

On a cliff east of Zhoujiazhuang, two small black dots were moving extremely slowly.

It was Li Tian and Zhao Yong.

Li Tian goes without saying; his eagle eye already has night vision capabilities, making climbing effortless for him.

Although Zhao Yong was a bit weak, he could still barely see the road by the moonlight.

The rocks were hard, and while climbing, he scraped off a lot of skin and flesh, but Zhao Yong didn't utter a sound and endured it.

The saying goes, "The darkest place is under the lamp."

Actually, there were two guards on this side of the cliff, one carrying a stick and the other a spear. A bonfire was lit on the cliff, and they were drinking and chatting.

From their elevated vantage point, with the cliff providing cover, Li Tian and Zhao Yong remained completely unaware of what was happening until they reached the top.

In the darkness, Li Tian and Zhao Yong lay motionless in the grass, like cheetahs in the dark.

"There are two people in total. Let's be quick and make sure they don't make any noise."

Li Tian whispered something to Zhao Yong, then suddenly ran towards the person on the far right. Zhao Yong silently pulled out his dagger and slowly crawled towards the person on the far right.

Five meters!

Three meters!

one meter!

The two men made their move almost simultaneously.

Li Tian burst out of the darkness, covering a man's mouth with one hand. The dagger in his hand drew a line of blood on the man's throat. He covered the mouth for two more seconds, and the man collapsed to the ground.

Zhao Yong was slightly less skilled; he held a stone in his left hand and a dagger in his right. As soon as he emerged from the darkness, he smashed the stone over the man's head.

With a thud, the person mumbled "Who's there?" and collapsed to the ground.

Zhao Yong was startled and quickly covered the man's neck with his hand, while holding a dagger in his hand and stabbing wildly at his chest.

He couldn't remember how many times he stabbed him.

"That's enough!"

He only stopped when Li Tian's voice rang in his ears.

This was Zhao Yong's first time venturing deep into enemy territory alone to carry out killings; his back was soaked with sweat.

Until Li Tian's voice rang out.

Zhao Yong looked up, somewhat nervously, and asked, "Sergeant, did we alert anyone?"

"Let's see how things go!"

Li Tian said calmly, and the two of them silently retreated into the darkness and lay in ambush.

The two lay prone in the darkness for about ten more minutes, and seeing no one come to check on them, they finally felt relieved.

The two men hurriedly threw the two corpses down the mountain and then quietly sneaked into Zhoujiazhuang.

Because a large number of men were sent to the city walls, the defenses inside Zhoujiazhuang became even more lax.

The two easily found the location of Master Zhou's bedroom.

Very simple,

The largest and most luxurious room in the house was Old Master Zhou's bedroom.

Li Tian gently poked a hole in the window paper with his finger and peeked inside. He saw an old man in his fifties lying on the bed, fast asleep, with a long golden robe draped over the chair next to him.

The robe is very luxurious; it must cost at least twenty taels of silver.

"Zhao Yong, you wait outside. I'm going in to have a chat with Master Zhou!"

Li Tian gave Zhao Yong an order, then opened the window with one hand and, as nimb as a cat, deftly slipped into Old Master Zhou's bedroom.