The bandits below the mountain really weren't leaving.
Cheng Xu watched with cold eyes. Li Daoxuan, standing beside him, watched with the same icy calm—two men silently judging a field of idiots.
At the front of the bandit formation, about five hundred men lined up shoulder to shoulder, all dedicated to one task: swearing upward at full volume.
One unified chorus rose like a foul-smelling storm:
"Hey! Up there! You're the Zhengjia Village militia, right? Damn your mothers! Zheng Yanfu dared to kill officials and rebel—what a hero! And you people? Instead of learning from him, you help the government bully us righteous rebels! You're the dogs of the officials! Worse than manure! May your ancestors choke on stone tablets!"
Zheng Daniu turned red like boiling shrimp. He roared back, "Zheng Yanfu is a—Mmf!"
A militia brother clamped his mouth shut and dragged him back.
"Brother Wang Er wants to protect Zheng Yanfu's reputation. Don't expose anything."
Zheng Daniu struggled. "I don't care! I'll expose everything! Damn it—I treated him as a childhood friend! And he came at night to slaughter Gaojia Village!"
He shoved the man aside, crawled to the cliff edge, and screamed:
"Zheng Yanfu is a son of a dog! If you follow him, I'll curse your mothers too!"
Of course, his best buddy Gao Chuwu had to support him.
He slid next to him, puffed up his chest, and added:
"Yes! I curse your mothers too!"
The militia followed suit.
A whole cliff of villagers hurling insults like an avalanche of swear words.
Cheng Xu snapped.
"Stop! All of you! Idiots! The louder you yell, the more you expose our numbers! Before this, they had NO idea how many we had on the mountain!"
Everyone froze.
Even Li Daoxuan couldn't help chuckling.
True. Even I didn't think of that. But this guy? A lifetime of fighting bandits probably trains that kind of mind.
The militia truly lacked discipline. Turning them into a proper force would take time—and a lot of yelling. Cheng Xu seemed just the man for it.
While Li Daoxuan was thinking this, he noticed something below.
The bandits were making moves.
The front row kept insulting as loud as ever—but in the back, hundreds slipped away into the woods. Led by Sui-Feng-Xiong and Er-Chun, they retreated behind cover, then disappeared into a hidden ravine.
Li Daoxuan couldn't instantly count how many, so he snapped a mental photo through his "camera," had the internal system scan, and—
Four hundred.
Four hundred men—just enough to move without making the front line look thinner.
These weren't random peasants. They were hardened fighters. No old men. No children. All muscle, all trouble.
A local herb-gatherer, familiar with every inch of the mountain, led them quietly through the ravine toward the back of the hill.
Li Daoxuan glanced at the route and smirked internally.
Exactly the spot Cheng Xu told Xing Honglang to guard.
The man's instincts were sharp.
Why is someone like Cheng Xu just a low-ranked patrol officer? Why send Jinyiwei to kill him? The Ming court… truly loves wasting talent.
Meanwhile—
Quangou Village
The freshly appointed patrol officer, Fang Wushang, stood on a height staring toward Heyang County. Magistrate Liang claimed the bandits would pass through this village, but Fang had been waiting till his legs went numb.
No bandits.
Where were they?
His deputy came running, breathless.
"General Fang! Bad news! Fan-Shan-Yue didn't come our way—they went toward Gaojia Village!"
Fang Wushang erupted.
"Damn that useless Liang Shixian! Acting like he knew everything! He SWORE they'd come here! He's full of crap! Move! We head to Gaojia Village!"
The deputy groaned.
"It's more than ten li through the mountains—we can't make it in time!"
"Late or not, we're going! Move!"
Back at the ravine—
Xing Honglang and her crew waited quietly. After a while, they heard rustling.
Sui-Feng-Xiong and Er-Chun crept forward, leading four hundred men up the ravine, whispering as they sneaked.
Er-Chun muttered, "Damn it, I saw Xing Honglang earlier. The ones throwing stones on the hillside—they were her people."
Sui-Feng-Xiong hissed, "Really?"
"Really! I was climbing closest to the top. Looked up—and she was staring straight at me!"
Sui-Feng-Xiong spat.
"That damn woman! Running off to join the militia? Traitor to the brotherhood!"
Er-Chun snarled, "Once we reach the top and kill them from behind, Big Boss will attack from the front. We'll crush them, take that woman alive, and I'll personally make her regret being born!"
Sui-Feng-Xiong grinned. "All right! I'll help you catch her!"
At that moment—
A woman's powerful voice thundered from above:
"Er-Chun! I see you!"
The bandits froze and looked up.
Xing Honglang's head poked over the cliff.
A heartbeat later, one of her smugglers popped up beside her—
—and dropped a rolling log straight down.
"Damn it!"
Sui-Feng-Xiong and Er-Chun leapt aside.
Then came the roaring thunder.
Rolling logs and stones poured down like the wrath of Earth itself.
Even the fiercest bandit couldn't withstand that. In seconds, the ravine filled with screams, collapsing formations, and four hundred hardened men turning into headless chickens.
Many fled backward.
But Er-Chun, living up to the "Chun" in his name, got angrier instead of smarter.
He ignored the chaos, ignored death, and charged uphill screaming like a madman.
Astonishingly, nothing hit him. Logs flew past. Rocks smashed beside him. Destiny must have been on his side—or stupidity formed a protective shield. Either way, he burst out of the ravine and sprinted up the slope toward Xing Honglang.
Two smugglers prepared to block him, but Xing Honglang raised a hand.
"Stand aside. I'll settle this myself."
Footnotes
Swearing Battles – Historically common between opposing armies; sometimes intended to provoke, sometimes to mask troop movements—exactly what the bandits attempted here.
Ravine Ambush Warfare – Narrow gullies were perfect kill zones for rolling logs and stones, an ancient mountain-defense technique widely used because it required no weapons—just gravity.
Bandit Culture – Many rebel or bandit groups glamorized "brotherhood" while committing violence; betrayal by one of their own was considered the ultimate insult, hence their fury at Xing Honglang.