This site was some distance from the main camp. Fang Zichen hadn't brought Guaizai along—this wasn't something a child should see. He returned to the camp with Zhang Quan and spotted Guaizai sneaking toward the "treasure vault."
Fang Zichen paused, then followed.
Guaizai took out the gold chain and rings he'd hidden earlier, held them in his palms with a reluctant look, then tossed them back into the chest.
He wasn't completely clueless about right and wrong.
Just now Fang Zichen had covered his eyes, but Guaizai still heard.
Those people were crying—so sorrowfully—their voices overlapping as they asked, "Why did it take you so long to get here?"
"Officials, please, I beg you, hurry and save my little brother—he looks like he's about to give out."
Guaizai could more or less guess what had happened.
Those big brothers and sisters had been wronged by some terrible villains.
The villains had stolen their silver and bullied them on top of that.
Earlier, when the men who had been dredging the ditch for bodies came back and told their companions what they'd found, Guaizai overheard. And suddenly, he felt that he couldn't keep that big gold chain—it was tainted.
Now he turned his head and saw Fang Zichen standing right behind him. Guaizai yelped: "Father, you scared the daylights out of me! If you scare Guaizai to death, there won't be anyone left to smash the mourning basin for you when you're gone."
Fang Zichen first gave him a smack on his butt, then ruffled his hair. "Son, you've grown up. Your old father's been tightening his belt day in and day out to raise you, and it wasn't for nothing. I don't want this silver either. But you've done well in wiping out the bandits—when we get back, I'll reward you with one hundred taels, on official expense."
Guaizai's eyes lit up. He gave Fang Zichen two loud smooches and said in a sticky, affectionate tone: "Father, you really are a great official! Guaizai admires you so much!"
Zhang Quan: "······"
Zhang Quan rolled his eyes, feeling an urge to spit blood. Lord Fang really knew how to use his authority for personal gain—giving that silver to Young Master Guaizai was as good as putting it straight into his own pocket.
Fang Zichen put on a solemn, worldly-wise expression and said, "Who says it isn't so? To be an official, you've got to be like your father—completely incorruptible, perfectly fair, rewarding the good and punishing the bad, and treating money like dirt. Got it?"
Guaizai nodded solemnly: "Mhm! Guaizai understands!"
Zhang Quan: "······"
The man who had just been secretly pocketing stolen goods couldn't take his eyes off that chest full of gold and silver—and now the same man said he treated money like dirt? What was this world coming to? Didn't people have to take responsibility for their own words anymore?
Fang Zichen had Yang Chengfeng handle the cleanup. The young women and ger needed to be settled, and the bodies had to be dug up and transported back for identification—they couldn't just leave people buried in the deep mountains. He himself took Guaizai and the imperial guards to "escort" the bandits back to the yamen.
With the game up, Yu Daniu probably knew he was done for. Tied in a string behind the horses along with his men, he kept hurling abuse at Fang Zichen.
"You son of a bitch! You bastard!"
"I'll haunt you even as a ghost!"
"Scumbag!"
"Bastard! I curse you to die without heirs!"
Guaizai turned to glance back, then said, "Father, this guy's cursing at you."
Fang Zichen: "I heard."
"Father, this guy looks like he hasn't got much schooling—he just keeps saying the same few things over and over. Guaizai wants to curse him back too. I'll curse your granny's leg!"
Zhang Quan: "······"
Zhang Quan watched as Guaizai and Yu Daniu traded colourful insults, with Fang Zichen egging them on from the side.
"Son, your skills aren't quite there yet! Lucky for you, your father's here to teach you the real essence of our national culture. Come on, repeat after me—I curse your grandpa!"
Zhang Quan: "······"
Even the grandfather isn't spared?
I have to tell Zhujun about this when we get back.
Yu Daniu was furious from being verbally battered by the father-son duo, But he wasn't very good at cursing in the official language, so he switched to the local dialect.
Fang Zichen didn't understand a single word, and for a moment he felt that he and his son were at a disadvantage for not knowing the local dialect. But Guaizai understood it. Back in Ronghe Village, when an old man had kicked up a fuss, he'd cursed in the local dialect too. Guaizai had later asked Shi Ger about it, and those words were absolutely foul. So he told Fang Zichen to stop, then jumped off his horse, strutted over to Yu Daniu with an arrogant, don't-mess-with-me swagger and went at him fiercely.
"You did bad things, bullied the big brothers and sisters, and cursed people out—Guaizai's going to beat you senseless, beat you senseless!"
Yu Daniu was beaten half to death by him, covered in bumps, with lips swollen like two big sausages.
Merchants in the Shunan area always got held up whenever they passed through places like Longhu Mountain. The bandits couldn't possibly lie in ambush by the roadside for all twelve shichen of the day and still hit their mark every time—they must have had spies in town. When merchants stopped in Shunan Town, word would immediately be sent to the bandits. Fang Zichen hadn't made a grand entrance when he arrived, and he'd deliberately flashed his wealth, so he was certainly being watched. Before he'd moved against their hideout, Fang Zichen had sent men to buy two dogs and fed them specially prepared meat alongside Black Whirlwind. The meat was basically like dog food, and the dogs loved it.
As the saying goes: wolves travel a thousand li eating meat, dogs travel a thousand li eating shit.
[狼行千里吃肉，狗行千里吃屎 (láng xíng qiān lǐ chī ròu, gǒu xíng qiān lǐ chī shǐ): lit. Wolves travel a thousand li eating meat; dogs travel a thousand li eating shit; fig. A person's nature cannot be changed — the strong and ambitious will always thrive and seek the best, while the weak and servile will always remain lowly and settle for the worst, no matter how far they go or how much their circumstances change.]
By now the three dogs were hooked on that flavour. When Fang Zichen reached Shunan and stopped feeding it to them, they wouldn't even touch meat buns.
The "water" splashed onto the bandits was a special brew of Fang Zichen's—it reeked of dog food and the smell clung on for a long time. Some of it would drip off along the way, and since there were so many men, some of them were bound to be sloppy; they wouldn't wash their clothes right away. As long as the smell stayed on them, once the dogs were released...
His first strike was at Qiuling Mountain.
Because it was the farthest from Longhu Mountain, any commotion there wouldn't carry over in time.
That night, Shi Linjie followed Fang Zichen's orders and led his troops to the location. As soon as the dogs were released, they sniffed around, caught the scent, and bolted straight into the woods. No matter how deep or well hidden the bandits were, they were found.
Qiuling Mountain was taken in one sweep. Shi Linjie tied up the bandits but didn't return immediately.
Once they came down the mountain and entered the town, the commotion would be too big. If the spies spotted it, the groups at West Mountain and Longhu Mountain would likely scatter.
Fang Zichen wasn't about to let a single one escape.
After Qiuling Mountain came West Mountain.
The Qin family troops and the dozen or so imperial guards had all been deployed, so Fang Zichen had to go to the yamen to find Yang Chengfeng and get the soldiers back.
He'd kept his arrival in Shunan completely secret. Yang Chengfeng was startled just to see him. Zhang Quan flashed his official badge, and Yang Chengfeng hastily dropped to his knees.
"Your subordinate has failed in his duty. Not knowing of your lordship's arrival, I—"
Fang Zichen cut him off and said he needed troops.
Yang Chengfeng asked cautiously what for.
What else? To wipe out bandits!
Yang Chengfeng tried to talk him out of it, saying the bandits were cunning and slippery—even if they caught them, they'd just bolt into the mountains, like stones sinking into the sea, impossible to track down again. "My lord, this can't be rushed. We should proceed slowly and carefully."
Fang Zichen wasn't having any of his "slow and careful." Food was best eaten hot. He said he was going to raid their lair that very night. Yang Chengfeng braced himself for the man to come back empty-handed and lose his temper, and had his calming words all prepared. But before the yamen gate even opened, an imperial guard ran over and said all the bandits on Longhu Mountain had been captured, but there were some complications, and the prefect wanted him to come handle things.
Yang Chengfeng didn't even have time to change his clothes. He hurried up the mountain with his secretary and the guards. When he got there and saw the bandits trussed up like silkworm cocoons, unable to move an inch, his jaw dropped.
He'd fought these bandits a hundred rounds and could never get the upper hand—and now this...
He was overjoyed! But not even half a stick of incense later, when he saw the bodies the soldiers had dug up, he fell silent.
Yang Chengfeng had known the bandits took hostages and killed them anyway. He'd prepared himself when he came. But now, seeing dozens of corpses laid out in a long row, he still felt a heavy ache in his heart.
The bandits were tied up in a long string behind the horses. When they entered the town, it was an eye-catching sight.
The townsfolk gathered around, pointing and whispering.
"What's going on here?"
"Who are these people?"
Some small merchants who had been robbed before and barely escaped with their lives now found Yu Daniu's silhouette vaguely familiar. They stared for a long time, then shouted out.
"Those are the bandits from Longhu Mountain!"
"What?!"
The words exploded through the crowd like a bomb.
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