Meng Zhao's conversation with Li Yuan and Yao Jun was known to no one else.
This covert defection was naturally even less known to outsiders. It was classified as top-secret information.
No matter how clever the Jingshan Bandits were, they likely could never have imagined that the river pirates would betray their own identity and class to side with the Imperial Court's lackeys!
Even if they had their suspicions, they would never have guessed that the target was Meng Zhao, who was currently at the height of his power...
Inside the refugee camp, where more than ten thousand people ate, drank, relieved themselves, and lived, everything was deathly still, like a ghostly realm of the dead, silent and soundless.
After bribing the person carrying their letter, Wang Xu and the other Jingshan Bandits began a torturous wait, waiting morning and night alike.
Every day, they counted the time on their fingers. At night, they tossed and turned without sleep, wondering when the people of the Wu River Waterway would send a reply.
They waited like this for three days. From hope, to disappointment, to despair, nothing changed, and no news came.
The suppressed fire in the hearts of the Jingshan Bandits only burned hotter and hotter, stifled within them, faintly showing signs of eruption.
The Wu River Pirates were their one remaining hope. If that hope was shattered, they could only fight to the death.
By the fourth day, the Jingshan Bandits were already on the verge of losing control, with the whole group stirred into a frenzy.
After breakfast, Wang Xu returned to his little shack. He lay on the filthy wooden plank bed, his hands behind his head, staring up at the ceiling with an empty mind, not knowing how to change their current predicament.
The pressure on