The Thief Prince

There was no curfew in the Great Zhou Dynasty, and the city of Danzhou was still full of life at dusk.

Danzhou, being the seat of the prefecture, was much more bustling than Dangxian.

In the warm twilight, people of all kinds were still going about their business, and laughter echoed from the taverns on both sides of the street.

Several children were playing shuttlecock at the alley entrance, while three or five idle men were squatting at the foot of the city wall not far away, chatting idly.

The short vendor selling steamed buns saw off the last group of customers and quickly began to pack up his stall, perhaps eager to go home to see his wife.

The patrolling constables in the city had just changed shifts and were lazily strolling across the street corner, carrying their fire-and-water sticks.

As soon as the constables left, another group of men dressed as government officials came to the edge of the crowd.

Wu Anqing, who was walking at the front, had changed into a slightly worn brown short shirt and had an iron ruler hanging from his waist.

He was followed by about ten men, all of whom looked like constables.

Upon closer inspection, however, they revealed a fierce glint in their eyes and were much more robust than ordinary yamen runners.

Across the street, a street performer was banging a gong to attract onlookers. The stick whistled through the air in his hand, drawing applause and cheers from the crowd.

Four men wearing straw hats walked quickly past from behind the crowd.

Cao Su, who was leading the group, changed into a short outfit, wrapped the knife at his waist in cloth, and slung a satchel over his shoulder, disguising himself as a traveling merchant.

Ma San followed closely behind, his eyes darting around under his straw hat.

The four of them quietly slipped through the crowd and quickly disappeared into the depths of the streets and alleys.

At the other end of the street, a group of people were pushing three carts through the city.

The wooden buckets on the cart were covered with straw curtains, and yellow stains seeped through the gaps; it was a manure cart.

The people pushing the carts were all bare-armed, chatting and laughing despite the stench, their faces unfazed.

The leader was Li Zheng, who had changed into a cloth shirt and had his face smeared with yellow and black stains, making him look like a laborer who had been rolling in a pile of dung.

A foul stench permeated the air as people passed by, and pedestrians covered their noses and made way for them.

How could it not stink? This bucket is full of real feces!

The three hundred Black Wind bandits, along with their horses, squeezed together three large buckets of food all night long.

Li Zheng led the convoy at the front, his gaze fixed on Wu Anqing and his group at the street corner.

Their eyes met briefly, then they both looked away.

In the middle of the group, Tang Meng had one arm around Wang Xun's shoulder, like two good brothers with their arms around each other's shoulders.

Little did he know, Wang Xun had a dagger stuck to his lower back the whole time, and Tang Meng was half-dragging and half-carrying him forward.

After walking for half a day, sure enough, yamen runners and soldiers came up to question them.

Several soldiers walked across the street toward the manure cart, about to reprimand it, when Wu Anqing quickly stepped forward to meet them.

"Brothers, you've worked hard. These are long-term workers from the Li family in the west of the city. They're just transporting some things out of the city; it's no trouble at all."

After saying that, he took a few copper coins from his waist and stuffed them into the hand of the leading soldier, laughing, "Brothers, take these and have some wine."

The sergeant weighed the copper coin in his hand and scoffed, "This little bit of money, are you trying to give a beggar a handout?"

"The saying goes, 'If someone is being overly solicitous, they're either up to no good.' Today I'm going to see what contraband they're smuggling!"

After saying that, he pushed Wu Anqing aside and strode towards Li Zheng and the others with a rather dashing gait.

But as soon as they got within ten steps of the dung cart, they almost fell over from the stench.

"Get out! Which Master Li?" The soldier's expression changed drastically. "Could it be that he started out selling manure?"

Wu Anqing laughed and said, "But it's for watering the garden. I only helped keep an eye on it because I have a past relationship with him."

The soldier glanced at Wu Anqing, assuming he was just a poor, penniless yamen runner who would take on such a menial job.

Without saying anything more, he fled as fast as he could.

The manure cart passed through each checkpoint in this way.

As dusk deepened on the horizon, the number of pedestrians on the street gradually decreased.

Three manure carts were pushed into a narrow alley, and after several twists and turns, they finally arrived at the back wall of the Zhang family mansion.

At this moment, figures flickered in the alley, and people kept appearing behind Li Zheng.

The idlers on the street and the commoners buying steamed buns... were all Black Wind Thieves in disguise.

Tang Meng hoisted the stick he was holding onto his shoulder and grinned foolishly at Li Zheng; the martial arts performer was none other than him.

After counting the number of people and confirming that no one had fallen behind, Li Zheng went to the wall to take a look around.

The courtyard wall was made of blue bricks and was more than ten feet high. The gaps were filled with rice paste.

There's no way to get a foothold on this smooth wall; it's impossible to climb over it silently, and the grappling hook can't find a place to land.

Looks like I really will have to climb through the dog hole today.

Li Zheng glanced around, then grabbed Wang Xun and demanded, "Where's the dog hole?"

Wang Xun was terrified and dared not have any other thoughts. Trembling, he pointed to a corner at the end of the alley.

The group crouched down and followed to take a look. The dog hole was quite large; one person could pass through it by lying down.

It's obvious at a glance that this thing isn't just for dogs; heaven knows what Zhang Pin did with it.

Li Zheng pressed his ear against the wall and listened, and could faintly hear a "whooshing" sound.

Since there's a dog hole, they must have kept a dog there.

Fortunately, Li Zheng was prepared and gave Yan Yun a wink.

Yan Yun deftly untied a bundle, revealing more than a dozen fist-sized meat buns inside.

He casually tossed the buns one by one into the wall, and after a few excited barks, came the whimpering sounds of dogs scrambling for them.

After a moment, the sound gradually faded and weakened, and then there was no sound at all.

When traveling, those who are skilled in martial arts always carry sleeping pills with them.

A large dose of sleeping potion kneaded into the filling of steamed buns would knock down even an eight-foot-tall tough man, let alone a few guard dogs.

Everyone held their breath and waited for the time it takes for half an incense stick to burn, but there was still no silence inside the wall.

Li Zheng listened intently for a moment, then whispered, "Get ready!"

Several henchmen opened the wooden bucket lid on the manure cart, and a stench wafted out. Inside the bucket was a layer of yellowish material, with straw scraps and clumps of manure floating on top.

But the henchmen didn't care at all. They rolled up their sleeves and reached into the filth, pulling out packages protected by layers of oiled paper from under the latrine bucket.

Upon opening the oil paper, one finds a dozen or so crossbows inside.

The henchmen then pulled out short weapons such as waist knives, short axes, and iron whips from the interlayer of the manure cart's floor and passed them around for distribution.

Since Li Zheng took over the Black Wind Bandits, everyone has lowered their standards again and again, and they are willing to do all sorts of disgusting things.

The reason for this was that Li Zheng distributed real money to everyone.

Let alone smelling a bit of stench or touching a bit of poop, as long as they can keep fighting like this, if Li Zheng ever asks everyone to eat poop, no one will even bat an eye!

Li Zheng took a hand axe and tucked it into his waistband, then pulled out a waist knife from under the car.

Yan Yun cupped his hands to Li Zheng and said, "Brother, I'll go in first."

Li Zheng frowned, wanting to refuse.

Seeing Yan Yun's determined gaze, he nodded and said, "Be careful in everything you do."

Yan Yun shoved the dagger into his boot, bent down, and was the first to crawl into the dog hole.

A short while later, a long knocking sound followed by two short knocks came from inside.

Li Zheng felt a sense of relief and looked at the crowd: "Let's do it!"