Wang Meng had once entertained the idea that, once his injuries healed, he might use his old vicious reputation and his younger brother's official connections to recruit this gang as his own thugs.
Now that his leg was broken, he abandoned the thought. He might not have been able to keep those men in line even when whole, much less now.
At this, the second brother grew even more nervous. He leaned closer, his voice barely audible:
"They did it, no doubt about it! I heard they made off with quite a haul—several rich households had nearly all their stored grain carried away!
"But... but they made too big a mess of it. I heard they even hurt people. Every village is on guard now, every household sealed up tight as an iron barrel."
Calculation and venom flickered in Wang Meng's clouded eyes. He muttered to himself:
"A pack of fools who only know how to steal grain... They have fat sheep right in front of them, yet don't know to slaughter them..." He suddenly turned to the second brother.
"Tell me... what if someone told them there was a hunter in Fang Family Village named Fang Yuan, who had recently come into a huge windfall?
"His house has more than enough grain and meat, and plenty of silver too... And he's the only one there who can fight. The rest of his household is just women and children..."
The second brother's face went white in an instant. He understood that Wang Meng wanted to kill with a borrowed knife, and his lips trembled.
"B-Big Brother! Fang Family Village is a large village. There are only a dozen or so of them—once they're surrounded, they won't get out!
"What if they give us up? Th-this is letting wolves into the