As Guan Xiaorou’s orders spread, the entire Xihe Bay Village quickly sprang into action.
The three village heads stopped work at the kiln factory, cement plant, lime plant, and all the construction sites. They gathered every male worker together.
“Brothers, uncles, everyone! You should already know the situation in our village without me saying it!”
The old village head stood on the platform and shouted, “Bandits took advantage of the master’s absence to raid Jinchuan. They have already reached Nanshan and Liudian, just over ten li away, and they are heading straight for our village!
What happens when bandits enter a village needs no further explanation, right?
The lady has said that from this moment, all men must form tiger-hunting teams and fight the bandits together with the escort masters!
Anyone who is too scared should leave Xihe Bay right now! Those who perform well will have their names recorded, and when the master returns, they will receive big rewards!”
“Old village head, saying that makes it sound like you do not see us as family. I may not be from Xihe Bay or Guanjia Village, but my whole family has moved here. The lady does not need to tell me anything. I will help fight the bandits anyway.”
“The lady talking about rewards feels too distant. I, Old Zhang, may be a rough man who never studied, but I understand this much: protecting the village means protecting ourselves!”
“Right! If bandits enter the village, we all die!”
“Brothers, fight the bandits to the death!”
The world is chaotic, and ordinary people know exactly what happens when bandits enter a village.
Many male workers from other villages had their home villages ruined by bandits long ago. They already hated bandits deeply.
The old village head barely needed to rally them. The men already felt the danger themselves.
One by one, they went home to grab firewood knives, kitchen knives, spears, and other weapons. If a household had more than one man and not enough weapons, they went to the iron workshop to borrow some.
In less than half an hour, the largest tiger-hunting team in Xihe Bay was formed.
The open land between Xihe Bay and Guanjia Village had long been filled with factories and dormitories. Xihe Bay, Guanjia Village, and the second team made up of outsiders had now merged into one large area.
For easier management, the three village heads divided the tiger-hunting team into three parts.
The male workers of each village would protect their own village.
In an instant, the atmosphere in all three villages became extremely tense.
Especially in Xihe Bay Village, the female workers kept spinning thread and weaving cloth, but their hand crossbows and arrow boxes were placed right beside them.
As soon as the gong sounded, they could pick up the crossbows and join the fight.
Guan Xiaorou gathered all the elderly, weak, women, and children into the textile factory canteen.
When the courtyard was first designed, Jin Feng had already considered defence.
The textile factory, Jin Feng’s siheyuan, and the smelting workshop were separated only by single walls. The surrounding walls had built-in forts and hidden arrow slits. This was Xihe Bay’s final line of defence.
If bandits really broke into the village, Guan Xiaorou could still lead the female workers from the textile factory in a last stand.
“Sister-in-law, the factories and the laboratory are all prepared.”
Xiaoyu came in to report.
The laboratory and key factories held too many of Jin Feng’s secrets.
So Guan Xiaorou had ordered Xiaoyu to plant explosives under the laboratory and some critical equipment.
If it truly came to the worst, Guan Xiaorou would order everything blown up.
All supplies from the factories had been moved to the warehouse in the back mountain.
There is an old saying: an honest man’s temper is like thunder in the hottest summer. Do not bully the honest man who only aims straight and never causes trouble.
Honest people are not fools. They just usually choose not to fuss over small things.
The softer a person’s character, the more ruthless they become once they decide to be cruel.
For example, Guan Xiaorou right now had pure madness in her eyes. Xiaoyu suspected she was already prepared to perish together with the bandits.
“Has the message been sent to Brother Liang?” Guan Xiaorou asked.
“It has been sent, but Brother Liang is marching with the army. Their speed is very slow. They will not make it in time.”
Xiaoyu asked cautiously, “Should I send a message to my brother instead, and ask him to bring people back as quickly as possible?”
Xiaoyu’s brother was Liu Tie. Like Zhang Liang, he was one of the earliest villagers to follow Jin Feng.
At first he led escort teams to transport goods. Later, when the escort teams were replaced by a proper security bureau, he became the village’s chief steward. He helped Jin Feng coordinate between the security bureau, the商会, and all the factories.
When Jin Feng went to Xichuan, Liu Tie led the labourers to transport supplies and grain. He was in charge of logistics.
Jianmen Pass was vital to Jinchuan, so it had to be entrusted to someone reliable.
After much thought, Zhang Liang decided to recruit Liu Tie into the Zhenyuan Army and send him there.
So Liu Tie took several hundred cavalry and rushed to Jianmen Pass.
The Zhenyuan Army’s paperwork was complete, and the handover should have gone smoothly. But the original commander at Jianmen Pass received hints from powerful people and started making trouble halfway through. He kept picking faults and refused to complete the remaining steps.
By then the documents had already been stamped. In name, Jianmen Pass already belonged to the Zhenyuan Army.
If anything went wrong at Jianmen Pass now, it would be the Zhenyuan Army’s responsibility. Jin Feng, as the person in charge, would definitely be implicated.
In that situation, how could Liu Tie dare to leave with his men? He was effectively tied to Jianmen Pass.
Jin Feng had only a little over a thousand warhorses in total, and Liu Tie had six hundred of them.
Moreover, he led three hundred escort masters and three hundred Zhenyuan Army soldiers, all elite.
If Liu Tie brought his men back to reinforce, it could greatly ease the crisis in Jinchuan.
But after frowning and thinking for a moment, Guan Xiaorou shook her head and said, “The people at Jianmen Pass are deliberately making trouble for your brother just to keep him there. If your brother brings his men back now, it would play right into their hands!
Mulang told me that losing a strategic pass can lead to execution under the law. Your brother cannot move!”
Jianmen Pass was a major gateway into Shu. According to Dakang law, the garrison there could never drop below five hundred men at any time.
That was why Zhang Liang had sent six hundred.
The extra hundred were meant to prevent the commander from causing problems.
Jin Feng always tried to avoid giving others any handle against him, and Guan Xiaorou had been influenced by this.
So no matter how desperate Xihe Bay became, she never considered asking Liu Tie to bring his men back for help.
Because doing so might implicate Jin Feng and give people a chance to attack him over it.
“How about this then? Let my brother send some of the warhorses back. Would that work?” Xiaoyu asked.
“That should be fine!”
Guan Xiaorou nodded slightly.
There were too few warhorses in the village. Going anywhere meant running on foot, which was far too slow.
With warhorses, support could reach different places several times faster.
“Then I will go and send the message right away.” Xiaoyu agreed and ran out to pass on the order.
While Xihe Bay was in complete chaos, a thousand li away, Jin Feng led Tang Xiaobei and the others into Suizhou Prefecture against the cold wind.
Suizhou lay in northern Hubei. Two hundred li to the west was the Han River.
The Han River was one of the major tributaries of the Yangtze, so the Jinchuan商会 also had a branch in Suizhou Prefecture.
After entering the city, Jin Feng and his group went straight to the商会 branch.
“Master! Madam!”
When the female manager of the Suizhou branch saw Jin Feng, tears of excitement streamed down her face. “We have finally waited for you!”
“Is something wrong?”
Jin Feng and Tang Xiaobei exchanged a glance and both saw a trace of worry in each other’s eyes.
