Chapter 287: 278: Yuheng Sword Guest Huang Yifu

Chapter 287: Chapter 278: Yuheng Sword Guest Huang Yifu

“The Star Moon Sect has the Seven Stars Hall, which consists of Tianshu, Tianxuan, Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yao Guang; each Star Hall has four leaders and numerous swordsmen.”

“Huang Yifu is a swordsman from the Yuheng Hall of the Seven Stars Hall!”

Wu Zhan explained simply.

Yang Zhenshan nodded slightly, he knew about the Star Moon Sect and also knew about the Seven Stars Hall.

The Star Moon Sect has both an internal and an external division, internally there is the Four Moon Flag, and externally, the Seven Stars Hall. The Four Moon Flags are the New Moon, First Quarter, Full Moon, and Last Quarter; the Seven Stars are what Wu Zhan mentioned, the Seven Stars Hall.

Alright, that’s all he knew, and he didn’t know much more in detail.

“So what does ‘swordsman’ refer to?”

“Um, putting it simply, a swordsman is essentially the enforcer for the Seven Stars Hall, they typically have a group holed up in the mountains.”

Yang Zhenshan nodded, “So it was this Yuheng swordsman who robbed us of our cotton fabrics!”

“Yes, Huang Yifu has always been stationed on Qingfu Mountain, commanding over two hundred bandits, making a living by collecting tolls from passing merchants.”

“Usually, they wouldn’t rob merchant convoys, but this time, for some reason, they actually stole our cotton fabrics!”

Wu Zhan said.

Qingfu Mountain is located in the southern part of Jing’an Prefecture, it is an extension of Changqing Mountain, yes, the Changqing Mountain where Yang Family Village is located.

The official road beneath Qingfu Mountain is one of the major routes leading to Jing’an City, and Huang Yifu makes his living off this road.

Yang Zhenshan stroked his beard, his expression calm, but internally he was quite astounded.

It’s quite something how these bandits make their living by collecting tolls on the mountain.

Tsk tsk, this is certainly much easier than plundering homes!

“Is everyone from the convoy alright?” Yang Zhenshan asked.

“A few of the guards escorting the convoy were killed!” Wu Zhan said.

Yang Zhenshan’s expression immediately turned grim.

Of the three batches of cotton fabrics, besides the first batch which was personally escorted by Wu Zhan, the remaining two batches were carried by guards hired by the cloth merchants of Jing’an City.

To steal is one thing, but to kill as well!

That’s a bit too much!

Yang Zhenshan stood up and started pacing back and forth in his study.

Liaodong is different from Chongshan Town; Chongshan Town has rogue soldiers, chaotic troops, but not bandits.

Bandits cannot survive in Chongshan Town, they can’t just rob the military.

However, the chaotic soldiers from Chongshan Town used to be worse than bandits, until they were dealt with by Lu Chongde and Liang Chu, and Chongshan Town was rid of chaotic soldiers.

But Liaodong has many fierce bandits, and many are in the depths of Changqing Mountain.

Back then, when Yang Zhenshan was still in Yang Family Village, didn’t he fight bandits?

But the bandits he dealt with can’t compare to this Yuheng swordsman.

The cotton fabrics were stolen, should they be taken back?

Technically, since the cotton fabrics haven’t reached Tenglong Guard yet, and he hasn’t paid for them, the robbery doesn’t affect him directly.

But, these were the goods he requested, the cotton fabrics that the military households need.

Currently, many military households at Tenglong Guard are waiting for this batch of cotton fabrics!

Plus, without this batch, it would be difficult for Jing’an City to gather such an amount of fabrics again.

“They must be taken back!”

“Damn~”

Yang Zhenshan couldn’t help but curse, just a group of bandits, and he, the Commander of Tenglong Guard, should be afraid of them?

“Master, the Star Moon Sect is not to be trifled with!” Wu Zhan said gravely.

Yang Zhenshan grinned, “What? Are court officials easier to provoke?”

Jianghu forces are just jianghu forces, compared to the court, what are they?

Of course, this is not to say that Jianghu forces aren’t formidable, there are indeed many powerful Jianghu sects within the worldly society.

But then again, the Da Rong Court does not allow overly powerful Jianghu sects within its territory.

So, many formidable forces in Jianghu don’t have their bases within the domain of Da Rong.

Like the Star Moon Sect, their sect base is located on an island in the East South Sea Domain of Da Rong, but the Seven Stars Hall is within the territory of Da Rong.

This is also why the court hasn’t targeted the Star Moon Sect specifically, otherwise, the Star Moon Sect would have been eradicated long ago.

“Am I, the General, supposed to fear a bunch of bandits!”

Yang Zhenshan’s expression turned cold, then he called out towards the door, “Come, pass the orders, summon Song Dashan to gather a hundred cavalry, to follow me out of the city!”

Xie Yuan is responsible for the specifics at the government office, serving as Yang Zhenshan’s deputy, while Song Dashan is responsible for overseeing the remaining two hundred cavalry, in charge of city defense at Guard City.

Taking down a bunch of bandits doesn’t need two hundred cavalry, Yang Zhenshan thinks even a hundred is overkill.

If it weren’t for the soldiers feeling too idle these days in Guard City, Yang Zhenshan would have liked to take just twenty personal followers to challenge that so-called Yuheng swordsman’s stronghold.

Alright!

Actually, Yang Zhenshan was also feeling frustrated.

A few months ago, he had been killing magnificently in battles across thousands of miles, truly exhilarating, but now, being made to sit all day in the study dealing with these tedious government affairs, ah, this life is incomparable, so he wanted to go out to get some air.

That’s how people are, busy looking for leisure, yet feel uneasy once they truly rest.

While on the battlefield, amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood daily, dreaming of the war ending so he could return to the warmth of home and family.

Now staying at home cuddling wife and children, his heart couldn’t stop feeling restless.

Following Yang Zhenshan’s orders, soon Song Dashan had gathered a hundred cavalry outside the city gate.

“Sir! Where are we heading?”

Seeing Yang Zhenshan leaving the city with his Personal Followers, Song Dashan hurriedly stepped forward to ask.

“To kill!”

Yang Zhenshan cracked a smile.

Upon hearing this, Song Dashan’s eyes immediately lit up; he had been unbearably idle lately.

Helplessly, he was a naive and honest man, meticulous in his duties, and took everything he was tasked with seriously, though whether he could do it well was another matter.

Compared to him, Xie Yuan was undoubtedly better at handling the tedious tasks of the government office.

Thus, Yang Zhenshan treated Xie Yuan as his deputy, while Song Dashan could only handle some simpler tasks.

Usually, what Song Dashan did most was patrol within the city, inspecting the city defense matters, and beyond that, there was nothing else for him to do.

“Let’s go, set off!” Yang Zhenshan gestured, leading a hundred and twenty Cavalry towards the south at a gallop.

Qingfu Mountain was located in the southern part of Jing’an Prefecture, over a hundred Li away from Guard City. Riding horses, it could nearly be reached in two hours; if not for the remaining snow on the road, it would take approximately one hour.

…

Jing’an Prefecture, the Shang family.

The cloth merchant Wang Zhenze ran into the Shang family’s main hall sweating profusely, his chubby face filled with anxiety.

“Family Head Shang, you must help me!”

“That’s four thousand bolts of cotton fabric, nearly half of my fortune!”

“Family Head Shang, Family Head Shang!”

Wang Zhenze pleaded as he looked at Shang Mingde.

Originally, this matter was mediated by Shang Mingde, and Wang Zhenze also thought it was a good deal. Selling cotton to anyone was the same, and selling to Yang Zhenshan could even foster some connections.

However, he never expected that just after his cotton fabric left Jing’an Prefecture, it was seized by a group of bandits.

The loss of the cotton fabric was bearable, but the cargo handlers and guards suffered over a dozen casualties.

Such a great loss was indeed crippling for him, although saying it constituted half of his fortune was somewhat of an exaggeration; after all, he was a major cloth merchant of Jing’an Prefecture, possessing wealth amounting to several tens of thousands of Silver.

Shang Mingde felt a headache coming on; this commotion, despite his purely good intentions in assisting, had landed him in such a situation, making him extremely troubled.

“Brother Wang, it’s not that I don’t want to help you, but I really can’t assist!”

“Huang Yifu is someone you know well too, my Shang family truly cannot afford to provoke him!”

If it were just Huang Yifu alone, the Shang family wouldn’t fear, but Huang Yifu was a Yuheng swordsman, backed by Yuheng Star Hall.

The Shang family had a heritage of hundreds of years, but it paled in comparison to Yuheng Star Hall.

Let alone mention the Star Moon Sect.

“But, but this~~” Wang Zhenze said with a mournful face, adding, “What about General Yang then?”

Shang Mingde was even more helpless, “The goods weren’t delivered to the Tenglong Guard, how can you expect General Yang to just give you Silver!”

Their previous agreement with Wu Zhan was payment upon delivery, and after the first two batches of cotton fabric reached Tenglong Guard, the payment was promptly made without any delay.

Shang Mingde believed Yang Zhenshan was a man of integrity, but he didn’t think Yang Zhenshan would kindly help Wang Zhenze, after all, it fundamentally wasn’t Yang Zhenshan’s fault.

“So there’s really no way out?” Wang Zhenze couldn’t help but feel utterly disappointed.

Such a loss of thousands of bolts of cotton fabric caused him immense heartache.

He wished he could dismember Huang Yifu and his band of killers a thousand times, but as a merchant, he had no way to handle someone like Huang Yifu.

“Ah, just consider it as losing money to avoid disaster!” Shang Mingde consoled.

Wang Zhenze had no choice but to leave the Shang residence with heavy sorrow.

In contrast to Wang Zhenze’s sorrow, the bandit stronghold on Qingfu Mountain was buzzing with joy.

“Hahaha, leader, our brothers won’t have to endure the cold anymore!”

“Right right, with this batch of cotton fabric, we can comfortably spend the winter!”

Inside the rugged hall, a group of burly bandits laughed triumphantly.

Seated in the principal seat, Huang Yifu, nearly forty, was clad in a black mink coat and wearing a gray rabbit hat, grinning broadly.

“Hahaha, brothers, prepare the food and drink, tonight we shall not return until we’re drunk!”

His hearty voice rose in the hall, immediately sparking cheers among the bandits.

They weren’t short on Silver, as all passing merchant convoys had to pay them a toll, but they lacked supplies—food, cotton fabric and clothes, alcohol, meat, etc.—these were all things they needed.

After all, they were thieves and couldn’t openly go into the city to buy goods, and the city’s merchants didn’t want to do business with them.

Thus, they could only disguise themselves and secretly enter the city to purchase some supplies.

However, doing so they could never buy much at once, usually just some daily necessities.

Huang Yifu was a clever man, understanding the difference between a full meal and a starving one, so he always insisted on only collecting tolls, never plundering the caravans.

This time, however, he was compelled.

The stronghold lacked cotton for winter, and to prevent his brothers from suffering in the cold, he risked seizing the goods once.

They had actually targeted several major cloth merchants in Jing’an City early on, initially planning to rob within the city, but before they could act, several major shipments of cotton were consecutively transported out of the city.

Being cautious, they did not rob the first and second batches of cotton but clarified where those batches were headed before striking the third batch.

They knew the previous two batches went to Tenglong Guard, but they didn’t know Yang Zhenshan was now the Commander of Tenglong Guard; they still thought Tenglong Guard was the same as before, controlled by the Lan family.

Knowing the Lan family well, Huang Yifu recognized their character of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, so he didn’t mind offending the Lan family.

As for Yang Zhenshan, well, he most likely hadn’t heard of Yang Zhenshan’s great reputation.

After all, hidden away in the mountains day after day, their sources of information were relatively outdated and isolated. If it were news from Jing’an City or the surrounding counties, they might pay more attention.

Beyond Jing’an Prefecture, they lacked channels for information.

Thus, they were still happily feasting and drinking heartily.