Chapter 235 – Spitting Blood (Part 4)
The Hejian County Guard wiped his face clean, gathering over a thousand shi of grain and various weapons from several families.
Just as he had anticipated, apart from Liu Zhi, no one else was willing to part with anything voluntarily; instead, they opted to settle matters with money.
He assumed that the personnel Liu Zhi allocated were the elite troops he had nurtured in Hujun, so the Hejian County Guard was quite confident about this operation to wipe out the bandits. He compiled the acquired resources into a booklet, handed it over to Liu Zhi, and made it clear that he wasn’t skilled in coordination and hoped that Liu Zhi would take more care.
After all, they were technically his troops, and while he claimed to lend them, the Hejian County Guard didn’t want to interfere too much.
Naturally, Liu Zhi wouldn’t refuse the resources offered; after humbly declining a couple of times, he accepted them under the Hejian County Guard’s insistence.
Turning around, he promptly handed these over to his daughter.
Jiang Pengji: “…”
It was just a matter of sweet-talking them, and heaps of grain and wealth came knocking at their door. She finally understood why the Liu family’s second branch was so rich.
However, the Liu family didn’t catch her drift and casually hinted, “The Guard is quite restless and eager to see the bandits dealt with.”
Jiang Pengji’s mind stirred as she grasped the meaning behind those words and nodded in response.
“Father, please rest assured. I know what I’m doing.”
The bandits must be dealt with, but who she targeted was entirely her decision; all she needed to do was present impressive results.
Estimating that the Hejian County Guard would be grateful, thinking Liu Zhi was quite generous, and feeling that “Liu Xi” was a young hero.
In any case, both the material benefits and the fame would go to them “father and son,” while others suffered losses yet remained cheerful.
Liu Zhi worriedly advised, “The taller trees attract the wind, and the more you stand out, the rougher the waters become. The world is filled with ignorance; those whose character is outstanding are easily subject to jealousy and criticism. As a father, I don’t want you to suffer such grievances, so at necessary times, Lan Ting can modestly conceal his brilliance, avoiding the spotlight of others’ conflicts. The result is what you should care about; showing reckless courage for a moment or fighting for a moment’s victory is completely unnecessary.”
Others might not know her future, but Liu Zhi understood her ambition and talent.
He had witnessed this child disrupt the Meng Clan’s lifeline and still live freely.
Could others achieve that?
With steady and methodical advancement, she had already laid some foundation; future development would be even smoother.
Once her wings were fully grown, in just one opportunity, she could soar straight to the top and astonish the world, shaking both court and common folk.
“Father, rest assured, I’m not that foolish and reckless.”
Jiang Pengji responded with a smile.
Liu Zhi nodded in satisfaction, only to belatedly realize something felt a bit off.
This was his daughter!
Meanwhile, Jiang Pengji was busily preparing to eliminate the bandits and capture the “murderer” who harmed the Meng family’s Young Master, while the Meng Clan’s Escort Group Leader looked utterly defeated, escorting Meng Liang’s coffin back to Cangzhou Meng County with twenty or so remnants.
Dressed in white, with white flags raised high and paper money fluttering, the sound of spirit bells rang out all the way.
Meng Liang had been dead for a while; to prevent his body from rotting and breeding maggots, they had specially crafted a unique coffin filled with a large amount of ice, racing against time to return his remains home before the early summer set in.
However, carrying a coffin made it difficult to speed things up.
What once could be a journey of merely half a month ended up taking them a whole month and a half.
A month and a half, and they didn’t even know how many times the yellow flowers had wilted.
At this moment, Jiang Pengji had expanded her bandit extermination unit to a thousand members, and this was still after her repeated scrutiny; had she relaxed her selection criteria slightly, it was estimated she could have gathered two thousand. In just a month and a half, she had conquered over twenty bandit strongholds, using them as secret bases, raking in countless spoils from the bandit hunt, including antiques, famous artifacts, and paintings, which she all handed over. However, she kept the grain, cotton, and silver for herself.
The Hejian County Guard was fully aware of her actions but chose not to say anything.
In this era, knowledge was invaluable; the worth of calligraphy and antiques far exceeded that of grain.
However, this rule didn’t play a role for Jiang Pengji.
She knew that only by strengthening her own power and building capital to survive the chaotic world could she later acquire whatever antiques and calligraphy she desired.
Thus, these seemingly expensive relics, in her eyes, were merely worthless pieces of paper rolls, and she turned them in without an ounce of regret.
She didn’t care, but faced with the antiques and artworks she had turned in, the Hejian County Guard felt she was far too honest, upright, and silently took a significant loss… Having gained something, he was particularly lenient towards the captured bandits; how to deal with them was entirely up to the Liu Residence.
The only regret was that he couldn’t capture the ruthless bandit who killed Meng Liang—Meng Hunyun.
But thinking about the decreasing threats near Hejian County, the Guard felt tremendously relieved, secretly envious of Liu Zhi.
Look at their elite soldiers, and then look at his own; the gap was simply too vast.
The former fought bandits for real, with rivers of blood flowing, while the latter was chased around by bandits, merely letting them grow stronger.
As the unit size expanded, Meng Hunyun went into temporary hiding, and all the pressure fell squarely on Xu Ke’s shoulders.
He was busier than ever, with no time to rest; if Qi Guanrang hadn’t occasionally come to lend a hand, he surely would have been exhausted.
Just when he finally found a moment to catch his breath, he turned around to find that his Young Master’s unit had already expanded to a thousand men.
A thousand private soldiers might not seem like much in front of any well-established family, but considering the time taken to form the unit and their current condition, the only words to describe it were “incredible.” Even witnessing the development of the unit with his own eyes, Xu Ke was somewhat taken aback.
“Just look at it; Xiaoyu is increasingly busy these days.”
Qi Guanrang’s wedding to Wei Yuan’s daughter was set for after August. Don’t let that long date fool you; they still had to go through a complex series of rituals and ceremonies, making eight months feel quite rushed. If it weren’t for Wei Yuan’s urgency to marry off his daughter, it might have dragged on for a year or more.
So now, Qi Guanrang was practically a future groom himself, joyous and spirited, shaking off any gloom from his brow.
“Unlike Wen Zheng’s leisurely pace…” Xu Ke said blandly. He and Qi Guanrang had grown closer, sharing a lot of common topics over time, which brewed a friendship between them. “You and Master Gongcao have already decided on a Young Master, so why still hesitate to express it?”
Jiang Pengji’s clandestine power grew rapidly, yet it had no unstable risks and was instead quite solid—thanks to Xu Ke’s hard work.
However, one person’s abilities were ultimately limited; there was only so much energy to go around.
Previously, when the unit had only a hundred members, he managed the inner affairs while Meng Hunyun handled the outer ones, keeping everything perfectly organized.
Now, with Meng Hunyun unable to make an appearance due to the sensitive timing, much of the work piled onto his shoulders. And with the unit expanding tenfold, his workload naturally increased tenfold at the very least… More work with no increase in pay, and no colleagues to share the burden!
He was about to explode!
