There are various shops and the tax collector's yard on the main street. At this time, the alarm bells were ringing from that direction, causing the people who were fleeing to the outside to become more and more panicked; there were also many people who had left Zhong's house last night.
Zhuang, who had escaped from his misfortune, still looked panic-stricken and embarrassed, like a dog that had lost its home and was frightened by the news.
Xu Huai walked near the main street and looked out from the alley. People on the stone street had fled away, but there were also many people who poked their heads out of the alley to watch the excitement.
From a distance, I saw seven or eight thieves with fleshy faces, scars, or skinny and ruthless thieves riding tall horses in front of the Tang Family Warehouse. While monitoring the movements around the market, they were also watching over 20 people parked outside the shop.
There was a horse, and other thieves had already entered the shop courtyard.
The bandits in Tongbai Mountain were not rich enough to ride two horses per person. Looking at the number of horses, it can be estimated that there were only thirty-four or five bandits who suddenly broke into Huaiyuan to rob.
At this time, in addition to the two soldiers from the military camp, there were three more people lying in a pool of blood on the stone street, twitching. Blood could be seen gurgling from their necks. They were killed by this group of bandits for unknown reasons.
Military warriors cross the river to patrol the market, usually consisting of ten to twenty people led by ten generals or section commanders.
In today's situation, it would be normal for a section-level officer to lead a team of 20 people to inspect the east coast and maintain order. There will also be three or four soldiers on duty on the tax supervision side.
However, at this time, except for the two soldiers who died in Shijie, Xu Huai could not see any other soldiers. They must be hiding in some lane or courtyard, and did not dare to surround and kill this group of soldiers before reinforcements arrived from the west bank across the river.
Fierce bandits.
On both sides of the main street, which is five to six hundred paces long, most of the shops are the business of various clans. Usually there should be several or ten dealers guarding them, but at this time, Xu Huai saw that all the shops were closed.
They all looked like they were sweeping the snow in front of their doors.
Chen Zixiao, Pan Chenghu, Zhong Changqing, Gao Xiangzhong and other thief chiefs have not yet led their thief troops to attack in large numbers, but the shadow of the snow-washed Zhongjiazhuang has already shrouded the sky above Tongbai Mountain, making everyone in the clan feel in danger.
, dare not provoke this group of bandits of unknown origin.
Without a strong figure standing up to take the lead, the so-called powerful clan forces are nothing but scattered sand in front of the more ferocious thieves!
"You guard the carriage in the alley, and I'll go to the front and take a look!" Xu Huai told Yin Peng.
Yin Peng had not had much contact with Xu Huai before, but he knew that he was a famous fool in the Xu clan, and he didn't know what he wanted to do at this time. What was there to see ahead?
However, he was a new member of the gang today. His master Xu Wuliang and the big man Xu Wujiang both ordered him and Zhou Jianxiong to stay in Huaiyuan and obey Xu Huai's orders. At this time, he could only respond in silence.
Xu Huai walked across the stone street, pushed open the half-open wooden door of Zheng's butcher shop, and motioned to Butcher Zheng and Chen Gui, who were leaning against the door gap, to step in: "I'll borrow a place to watch the fun!"
"Didn't you go back to Yuhuangling?" Butcher Zheng asked in surprise.
These days, the butcher shop seems to be a lowly business, but there are not many people in Huaiyuan Town who are more distinguished than Butcher Zheng, but the information is much better than that of Zhou Jianxiong, a real low-income person.
He heard that Pan Chenghu had harassed Lutai Village a few days ago, and that a brave man from the Xu family killed more than a dozen thieves in front of the village. The clansmen all envied the Xu family for their good fortune.
The powerful fool can be dispatched at will.
Butcher Zheng had suffered losses at the hands of Xu Huai, so he guessed that the rumors were somewhat true, but he didn't want to see Xu Huai again in Huaiyuan at this time.
"Someone asked me to send a gift to Mr. Deng, but I didn't want to have this happen." Xu Huai pointed to the carriage in the alley opposite and said to Butcher Zheng.
"You don't..." Butcher Zheng also wanted to say that Xu Huai was not stupid. He knew that he had to avoid the limelight at this time, but he thought that it was not a good thing to say, and he was afraid that this fool would smell it and blackmail him again.
I forced myself to swallow the word "silly".
The alarm bells in the tax house yard are still ringing, but it will take time for the reinforcements from the west bank to send out the military stronghold and cross the river; more importantly, more than a hundred soldiers have arrived, and they can really surround and kill nearly 30 warriors riding fast horses.
bandit?
The frightened people who hid behind the windows and doors of various shops watching the excitement were beating in their hearts at this moment.
After a while, I saw more than 20 thieves walking out of the Tang's warehouse, carrying or carrying various heavy baggage. Judging from their bloody appearance, I don't know how many people they killed and how much property they stole after breaking into the warehouse.
, but when he saw them coming out, he got on his horse, lifted the reins on the horse's back and looked in the direction of the ferry. After a while, they galloped towards Stone Street East Road in a swarm.
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that these murderous stars would finally leave.
"Guo Junpan, the big guy in Laoyatan! But he's not from Hutou Village..."
The thieves rode up to the Zheng's butcher shop, but stopped for some reason. Butcher Zheng was well-informed and recognized the leader, the bearded thief chief with a fierce face and a scar running through his entire thin face.
He gasped and exclaimed in a suppressed voice.
The people Xu Huai knew in Huaiyuan were definitely not as good as old thugs and local cowards like Butcher Zhao.
If the copycat forces want to inquire about some news, or have some red goods, or even kidnap meat tickets, they need someone to talk to them about the ransom, and people like Butcher Zhao are more popular.
Xu Huai narrowed his eyes slightly and stared at Guo Junpan, who was carrying a big bow on his back and a long knife on his waist. However, he had also heard about this man's reputation as a good shooter, and for a moment he couldn't figure out why these people stopped in the street and didn't leave.
Seeing more than thirty thieves talking in low voices on the long street, they soon saw the smiles on their faces suddenly turned obscene. As the Laoyatan thieves chief Guo Junpan rode towards the east road of the long street with more than twenty riders, the remaining six
However, Qi Qi turned back to the west. After a while, he saw these people riding their horses and ramming straight towards the gate of Yuehong Mansion.
I don’t know whether it’s because the courtyard of Yuehong Building is not as strong as the warehouse, or because the thieves have already noticed that the people in Yuehong Building concealed the door to peek outside. The door was immediately knocked open by two horses, and several thieves slashed at it.
The long knife went straight in, and several people escaped like bloody gourds, screaming in the street.
Xu Huai was also shocked. He didn't expect that these thieves broke into the Tang's warehouse and robbed money. They also went to Yuehong Mansion to rob women?
The Tang family's main businesses in the market are warehouses and Yuehong Building, but the nursing home is mainly concentrated in the warehouse where a large amount of money and goods are stored.
In addition to young and old girls and beauties, Yuehong Mansion mainly consists of servants, maids, and madams who serve flower customers. Even though there are several nursing homes to prevent trouble, who would have thought that horse thieves would come there.
A place like Yuehonglou snatches women?
After a while, six cavalrymen were seen galloping out of Yuehong Tower. In front of each of them, a woman was tied up with a rope and pinned to the saddle.
"Sun! The one in the red shirt and skirt is Tian Yanyan!" Chen Gui said, swallowing hard behind Butcher Zheng, "These thieves in Laoyatan are really good at picking out good stuff. Maybe they have been keeping an eye on the market for a long time.
!”
"After Liu Qiong'er was redeemed from Yuehong Mansion, Tian Yanyan became the leader. She did her art but not her body. Although the price was not as high as Liu Qiong'er's, but to meet a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl for tea would cost one or two silver tattoos.
, it’s like robbing them—they didn’t even expect to meet Guo Junpan, the ancestor of the thieves, after they were beaten to death!” Butcher Zheng also swallowed his saliva.
"What do you mean? In what way am I inferior to this little bitch? You can't help but swallow your saliva after just one look at it?" Butcher Zheng's wife was so happy that she didn't care what the situation was and just slapped her with a fat slap.
Butcher Zheng greeted him, "You keep saying that it's too hard for me to be in charge of the family and that I need someone to serve me. Are you thinking of asking for a house? The younger one will come back and piss me off!"
Butcher Zheng feared his wife as much as a tiger, so he ducked subconsciously. Without thinking, he knocked open the ajar wooden door, staggered without stopping, and rushed straight into the stone street, blocking the six thieves who had snatched the woman from Yuehong Mansion.
Butcher Zheng was dumbfounded; Chen Gui and Butcher Zheng, who were still in the butcher shop, were also dumbfounded.
The six thieves were also dumbfounded: they broke into the long street within a stick of incense and killed twenty or thirty people. They did not expect that at this time, a brave man ran out to block their way.
"Misunderstanding! Grandpa Thief, what a misunderstanding!" Butcher Zheng knelt down on the stone street with a bang and kowtowed to beg for mercy.
These ruthless gangsters don't care about misunderstandings, and they don't care about killing another guy with a savage face who looks less good than them. "There are some unscrupulous people blocking our way!"
The thief smiled ferociously and threw the woman in front of him off the saddle, pulled out his knife, then raised the knife and rushed towards Butcher Zheng on horseback.
"How brave!"
The thief heard the shouts of his accomplices behind him, turned his head and saw a figure, as fast as a stone bullet thrown from a catapult, suddenly leaping out of the doorway.
The thief's eyes suddenly narrowed. It would be hard to imagine that an ordinary person could have such a strong momentum by leaping. If he hadn't been brave and good at fighting, he would have just relied on his subconscious to dodge, but he would have exposed the vital points of his left armpit.
.
The thief glanced at the man who still held the knife with the scabbard in his hand, and he just smiled contemptuously in his heart. He was indeed another idiot who showed off his bravery. Jumping so high was useless. He smiled ferociously and turned around suddenly, flatly.
He raised his sword and slashed across the idiot's chest and abdomen.
Xu Huai smiled slightly, and when the thieves' knife slashed across him, his waist and abdomen muscles suddenly retracted, and his figure stagnated in mid-air for a moment, narrowly avoiding the knife, and the knife in his left hand was unimaginable at the same time.
He quickly slashed out, like a stream of water flashing past his eyes.
Xu Huai stood still in front of the long street, slowly threw the scabbard aside, and looked back at the dumbfounded Butcher Zheng: "Zheng Tu, you said you can get ten guan reward for killing a thief, aren't you kidding me? You can help me figure it out.
Calculate how much reward I can get today, if you make a mistake, I will tear your bones apart and kill your mother!"
Butcher Zheng was still lying with his buttocks on the stone street. Only then did he see the thief who had just come towards him with a knife. He was cut off at the waist, and the two parts of his body fell off the horse's back with a "plop", and his intestines flowed all over the floor.
.
"Ah!" Butcher Zheng was stimulated and screamed like a woman.
