Chapter 213 – Bandit Suppression, Kill or Capture (3)
Meng Hunyun surveyed the area; all personnel were already on standby. Satisfied, he turned to respond to Jiang Pengji.
“As the saying goes, a gentleman should not stand under a dangerous wall. Young Master, how can you put yourself in danger?”
Xu Ke had long run out of patience with this capricious Young Master, unable to win an argument against him day by day.
Jiang Pengji donned a dark robe, simply adorned, looking more like a seasoned fighter than a noble scion.
Seated casually, she smiled enigmatically at Xu Ke. “Xiaoyu is getting more like a housekeeper every day. You know my skills are quite good. If it weren’t for training these inexperienced pups, I could single-handedly take out an entire bandit stronghold.”
Her bravado almost made Xu Ke’s head ache with worry, and he had to persuade her with earnestness.
“You possess remarkable martial arts, Young Master, which is incredibly impressive; however, that doesn’t mean you should take the field yourself. Your role is to command and strategize from the rear. As the saying goes, the son of a thousand gold should not lounge around, and a hundred-gold son should not ride a dangerous horse…”
Random punches can still hit a seasoned master, and what if the Young Master got accidentally harmed by those desperate outlaws?
Jiang Pengji grinned. “No need to lecture me. I understand the principles, but I just don’t want to do it that way.”
Upon hearing this, Xu Ke’s expression turned hopeless, and the audience in the livestream burst into laughter again.
Poor Xu Ke, really!
【Surao Chansheng】: Haha, I snapped a screenshot of Xu Ke’s expression; it could use a caption—’So frustrated! What can I do? I’m helpless too.’ Honestly, having such a hard-to-please boss like the streamer probably has Xu Ke contemplating a job change.
【Gongsun Siyun】: Not possible. Xu Ke’s indenture is still in the hands of that evil streamer, he’ll have to suffer for life.
【Uncle and Young Soldier】: Indenture? Tsk tsk tsk, that wicked old landlord! I’m mentally supporting Xu Ke to rise up in rebellion.
【Patrick Star】: Mental support won’t do anything. Just send a donation or two—who knows, maybe the streamer will be in a good mood and drop the wickedness.
As if to respond to Patrick Star, a flurry of donation notifications chimed in from the system backend, enough to flood the screen.
【Old Driver Alliance】: Tsk tsk, why do I dislike hearing that? I’ve been following this livestream for over a month and never once heard the streamer ask for donations or trick the audience into giving. Saying it like that makes the streamer sound so scheming.
【Patrick Star】: I didn’t mean to imply scheming, just casually mentioning…
Jiang Pengji never asked for donations, nor did she play any tricks; the audience could donate if they liked or just quietly watch the stream if they didn’t. Even so, the donations steadily increased with the length of the livestream, climbing to a frightening extent.
Faced with the tidal wave of donations, the system was overjoyed, floating in delight.
The more donations Jiang Pengji raked in, the more popularity points she gained—after all, the system and the streamer were sharing profits fifty-fifty.
Unfortunately, Jiang Pengji simply ignored the few strategies it had tailored for her; if she had used them, the donations could have multiplied by dozens!
While feeling regretful, she drooled over the continuous stream of donations.
In her mind, she told the system, “Let’s switch to semi-interactive streaming mode now; we’ll use the predetermined topic.”
As soon as she finished speaking, the system promptly complied.
In the next moment, all the viewers saw a new subtitle in the livestream—’Deep Mountain Bandit Suppression Record (1).’
This became the theme of this semi-interactive streaming task: Suppressing Bandits!
Meng Hunyun did not disappoint her expectations; under his leadership, all training for the troops was on track.
Originally disorganized and lacking cohesion, the troops had begun to take shape, and after a month of hard training, the physical qualities of the men had improved significantly. They were still far from regular soldiers, but they were definitely better than the rabble of the bandits.
“You can’t be so willful, Young Master…”
Xu Ke had lost track of how many times he had sighed because of Jiang Pengji.
“It’s not my first time; I’ll get used to it. I’m precious; ordinary people can’t injure me.” Jiang Pengji smiled brightly at him, reassuring, “Xiaoyu should have a bit of faith in me. If I shrink back in fear from these scoundrels, how can I achieve great things in the future? The scale of what’s to come will only grow larger than now…”
It’s just a small fracas. Xu Ke grumbled on, but what else could he do?
Though he had a lot to say, facing Jiang Pengji, he felt as deflated as a punctured balloon, left speechless.
At that moment, the tall and sturdy Meng Hunyun stepped in, addressing Jiang Pengji, “Young Master, everything is prepared.”
“Got it.” After replying, Jiang Pengji took out two rolls of coarse cloth from her sleeve and spread them out.
One piece of cloth was large and had an irregular shape, with charcoal sketches marking a geographical map of the nearby mountains and rivers of Hejian County. Besides that, it was covered in various intricate symbols that made one’s eyes spin.
“This location is our next target. I secretly went to scout it out and sketched a rough map.”
With that, Jiang Pengji unfurled the other piece of cloth, revealing a detailed layout of a bandit stronghold and the distribution of personnel at various checkpoints!
Jiang Pengji had only notified them yesterday about going to suppress the bandits; time was tight, and just gathering supplies and preparing food would take considerable effort. Meng Hunyun had worried that his Young Master would act recklessly and wanted to have a heart-to-heart chat with her, but little did he know she was already well-prepared.
With his tiger eyes fixated on the detailed bandit stronghold map, Meng Hunyun was completely absorbed, mentally simulating tactical movements.
Only Xu Ke was focused on something different.
His face darkened as he asked, “Young Master, you mean… this map was drawn by you yourself?”
Meng Hunyun beside him clapped his hands, “This drawing technique is incredibly clear and precise; it would be quite useful for scouts at the forefront…”
Xu Ke cut him off sternly, “That’s not the point; the point is—when did our Young Master venture alone into the deep mountains to check out the bandits?”
Isn’t that even more dangerous than her directly confronting the bandits?
Meng Hunyun paused, finally realizing why Xu Ke looked so grim.
The map on the cloth was drawn by Jiang Pengji herself, which implied what?
It meant she had gone alone into the deep mountains and gathered intel on several bandit strongholds!
Faced with the disapproving gazes of Meng Hunyun and Xu Ke, Jiang Pengji secretly rolled her eyes.
She wasn’t alone; she had thousands of ‘Old Drivers’ in the livestream, right?
Moreover, she had done pioneering reconnaissance work countless times before.
Scouting out bandit strongholds didn’t necessarily require her to infiltrate deeply; she had her methods for gathering intelligence.
Jiang Pengji clumsily shifted topics, “Let’s leave these matters for after we’ve dealt with the bandits. Xiaoyu, see? I’m just fine now; things aren’t as dangerous as you think…”
