Unparalleled Duo

I've wandered off topic again...let's get back to the main point.

In the late afternoon, Ma Si led the mounted team and arrived at the village entrance first. He looked around and didn't see a soul, not even a wisp of cooking smoke from the village.

Confronted with such an abnormal scene, Ma Si naturally had his suspicions, "Heh...are they trying to pull an 'empty fortress' strategy on me?"

Ma Si was no Sima Yi. He wouldn't run away just because he overthought it. He simply waited at the village entrance for a short while until the twenty or so footmen arrived. Then he ordered five minions to enter the village first and scout the way.

These were five mountain bandits, not regular army men. When bandits carry out orders, they have to consider the situation... They understood very well that if there was any ambush in the village, they would be cannon fodder, dying in vain. So their scouting was extremely careful: it could be said they were hesitant to move forward, dawdling along.

About the time it takes to burn a stick of incense (around half an hour) later, these five guys were still loitering around the entrance to the village, having only forced their way into about a dozen houses.

Ma Si was sitting on horseback and was somewhat fatigued. Eventually he became impatient and said, "Alright! No more searching! Everyone, into the village! Grab whatever you can! Those who loot the most will get the most!"

As soon as these words were issued, everyone, especially the five who had entered the village earlier, surged into the village like they were injected with adrenaline and began a frenzy of plundering.

This bout of looting lasted quite a while, these guys almost emptied the village of its grain reserves and valuable possessions of the villagers. Of the twenty who had come on horseback, except for the bandit leader Ma Si, all had dismounted as the horses were laden with heavy goods... The faces of the bandits all showed satisfied grins, even the two minions who had been scared away by Sun Yixie the day before had forgotten the original purpose of their visit.

Ma Si thought to himself, "Perhaps the villagers were frightened and to save their lives, they all hid in the mountains, figuring once we took the money and grain, we wouldn't harm them further."

Having reached this conclusion, he didn't pay much attention to the "empty fortress" strategy anymore.

Unexpectedly, at this moment...

"Chief——" a hoarse shout suddenly came from the road outside the village.

Before long, a grime-covered bandit, with clothes charred and spotted, stumbled and rolled in front of Ma Si, crying out with a sobbing tone, "Chief! Disaster! Our... our stronghold has been attacked! Hurry back and take a look!"

"What?" Ma Si shouted in alarm and then, anger soared, he bellowed, "What happened?"

"Huff...huff..." The lackey was exhausted from running. After catching his breath, he continued, "Not long after you left, people named Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai came to the gates, shouting threats to take your life... The brothers saw that there were only two of them, so they opened the gates to try and capture them to present to you for a thousand cuts, but those two had extremely powerful martial arts and the brothers were no match; they died or were injured, and then they set fire to the stronghold, I barely escaped with my life to report to you..."

"Outrageous!" Ma Si didn't even wait for the lackey to finish speaking, he yelled at the surrounding men, "Men! Hurry, follow me back to the stronghold! Leave the goods on the horses, we'll come back for them later!"

The bandits this time were truly obedient, as an actual emergency had arisen... their home had been ransacked, how could they not panic? Their hidden treasures were gone, and if the stronghold burned down, where would they go?

So, putting himself in the lead, Ma Si spurred his horse into a gallop, rushing back towards the stronghold.

Meanwhile, the forty or so remaining bandits left the looted goods on the horses or on the ground and hurriedly ran back along the road.

The distance between the two places was neither close nor far. After a short while, Ma Si already saw smoke billowing into the sky ahead. Anger leapt from his heart to the edge of his gall, vowing not to let that man surnamed Huang and the one surnamed Sun get away.

However, when he rushed back to the stronghold, he discovered... that the so-called "fire" was just a pile of straw, set ablaze in the middle of the stronghold, and the walls and houses of the stronghold were not on fire at all.

As he got closer, he saw ten bodies scattered haphazardly on the ground inside the gate, all his own men.

In an instant, a thought flashed through his mind: "I only left ten men in the stronghold, so that man who just reported was... Damn it!"

Ma Si knew he had been duped and hurriedly turned his horse, racing back towards Nanyuan Village...

...

Today's "switching homes" stratagem was concocted jointly by Huang Donglai and Sun Yixie.

First of all, early this morning, back when the bandits were still sleeping in, the villagers of Nanyuan Village had already left en masse.

The elderly, women, and children were all organized by the village head to hide in the mountains, while the remaining forty to fifty able-bodied male villagers all carried "Poison Bombs" and weapons prepared the day before and followed Sun and Huang to the bandits' inevitable route.

In the late afternoon, when the two groups of bandits successively passed the road, those villagers hid in the forest, watching quietly, not making a move.

Only after the bandits had passed did Sun and Huang lead more than a dozen robust villagers to Zouma Village.

With Huang Donglai's qinggong skills, scaling the bumpy walls of Zouma Village was effortless, and of the ten bandits guarding the stronghold, only two were on lookout at the gate, and they couldn't stop Huang Donglai even if they saw him climbing the wall.

After entering the stronghold, Huang Donglai disabled four minions with a few punches and kicks. The remaining six, seeing what happened, wisely knelt and surrendered. Then, Huang Donglai ordered them to open the gates.

Sun Yixie and the ten had more villagers stream in. The villagers, holding deep grudges, saw their enemies kneeling on the ground and charged at them in a frenzy, savagely beating the bandits who had already dropped their weapons to death with sticks.

Sun and Huang didn't stop these villagers—they were never saints, and they understood they had no right to stop them.

After the villagers had vented their anger, Sun Yixie instructed them to collect some firewood from the stronghold (the bandits also needed to make fire for cooking every day), light a fire, and create the illusion of "the stronghold being burned".

Huang Donglai then found a set of bandit clothes and simply "put on some makeup" with pot ash and charcoal from the stove. Shortly after, he went to "report to the chief".

Not long after he left, Sun Yixie led the remaining villagers out of the stronghold and returned to the ambush spot they had arranged before, to meet with other villagers and prepare for the next step...

After waiting a while, Ma Si came by himself on horseback.

Sun Yixie was patient. Seeing that it was only Ma Si, he decided to let him pass first, waiting a bit longer to see what would happen.

Some time later, they finally waited for the forty or so foot-traveling bandits. These people... When they arrived at the scene, had also seen the smoke in the sky. So each of them hurried and panted, and because they had lost a lot of energy moving stuff during the looting, they were already spent.

Sun Yixie saw the perfect opportunity and gave the command. Villagers hidden on both sides of the road suddenly attacked, throwing dozens of "Poison Bombs" prepared by Huang Donglai into the crowd.

The bandits, who had only been focused on running forward, were taken by surprise by the ambush from the woods. Many of them lost their footing and fell, then tripped up the ones behind them. It didn't take long for the forty men to be thrown into chaos.

The villagers, all with red cloth over their faces, tossed packets of the poison powder, following Huang's unique recipe, into the midst of the bandits. Coughs and screams filled the air as some bandits inhaled the powder and collapsed on the spot, while others had their eyes clouded by the dust and couldn't stop tearing up. In the commotion, they wielded their blades against their own comrades in a blind frenzy...

As the poison powder gradually dissipated, nearly thirty of the forty bandits were either lying motionless or injured. The remaining ones were in a state of shock, mistaking the masked figures for a rival gang.

At that moment, Sun Yixie picked up a trident and shouted, "Attack with me!"

The farmers were encouraged by his shout. They emerged from both sides of the road with various long weapons (mainly farming tools) and swooped in, unleashing their long-held hatred and fury on the disarrayed bandits.

As they were in the midst of their slaughter, Huang Donglai, who had washed his face clean in the village for safety reasons (fearing being mistaken and killed by his own people), and had also changed his clothes, arrived at the scene.

The addition of Huang Donglai completely extinguished any hope the bandits had of fighting back.

Before long, these Zouma Village bandits who had been rampant in the Baiji Ridge area for many years were completely annihilated.

And at that very moment... Ma Si, alone on his horse, appeared on the hill at the end of the road.