Suppression of the Bandits

"The coffin is ready. It has an inner coffin and an outer coffin, and I had my men fill the space between them with the finest refined salt. This will ensure Fourth Brother's body won't decay easily," Chen Mo slowly explained inside Qingmu County's largest coffin shop.

According to Mo Hu's wishes, he planned to send Mo Dao back to his hometown, Tulong County in Shouren Prefecture, for burial. It was a thousand li away.

Mo Dao's body would have to remain exposed for at least half a month. They had to take measures against decay, or things would turn ugly by the time they transported him home.

"This time, I really have to thank you. I'll pay you back later." Mo Hu's voice was grateful, and he thanked him with utmost solemnity.

He had not brought much money with him this time. Buying the coffin and salt, along with the other things needed to prepare the body, had cost nearly twenty taels of silver in total. Chen Mo had paid for all of it.

It was easy to add flowers to brocade, but difficult to send charcoal in snowy weather. Without a doubt, Chen Mo was sending him charcoal in the snow.

"Fourth Brother is my elder brother too. We're brothers—don't speak such outsider's words," Chen Mo said.

The money he was spending now had not been painstakingly saved up bit by bit. It had come from that Daoist before, so he naturally did not feel any pain spending it.

Besides, Mo Dao was his Fourth Brother. Mo Dao had shown him kindness while alive, and he had not yet had the chance to repay him.

Now that Mo Dao had died, Chen Mo ought to prepare his body for burial. No matter how much money he spent, it was only right.

"Let's put Fourth Brother in the coffin first." Chen Mo spoke only after seeing the coffin shop assistants bring over a basin of reddish medicinal broth.

This medicinal broth was the coffin shopkeeper's secret formula. Supposedly, washing the body with it would preserve it for longer.

Mo Hu said nothing more. He forcefully wiped at his slightly reddened eyes.

"Let's go outside first." Chen Mo waved his hand, indicating for them to leave, and followed them out as well.

Before long, quiet sobs came from inside the room.

Chen Mo waited outside for more than half an hour before a shout finally came from within.

Mo Dao's entire body had been washed clean. The missing section had been filled with cotton and wrapped in a piece of fine silk.

Once he was dressed, it was basically impossible to tell that anything was missing.

Mo Hu had already put a layer of underclothes on him. According to the customs of their hometown, someone Mo Dao's age had to wear four garments underneath and three over them, for a total of seven layers.

Chen Mo stepped forward to help, and together they dressed Mo Dao in the remaining five garments.

"Qingmu County's County Lieutenant sent over a piece of uncut jade for Fourth Brother to hold in his mouth."

Chen Mo took a piece of fine mutton-fat white jade from his robes. Judging by its quality alone, it was worth at least six or seven taels of silver.

In Great Qian, when the dead were placed in their coffins, they had to hold something in their mouths.

The Emperor held pearls, feudal lords held jade, scholar-officials held green jade, while commoners could only hold ordinary silver coins.

Given Mo Dao's status, he should originally have been allowed only green jade.

The so-called green jade was qingyu.

However, after the founding Grand Ancestor of the current dynasty ascended the throne, he issued an edict throughout the realm: anyone handling weddings, funerals, or marriages could use rites one rank above their station.

Thus, Mo Dao could now be buried with white jade in his mouth.

"Please thank him for me later, Thirteenth Brother," Mo Hu said.

If the County Lieutenant had not sent over this piece of mutton-fat white jade, they would not only have had to spend more silver to buy one, they might not even have been able to find one.

Qingmu County was not a particularly large county, and white jade of this quality was difficult to find there.

The two of them worked together to place Mo Dao in the coffin. Then they lifted the lid and closed it, leaving it to be nailed shut when he was formally buried.

Chen Mo called over several personal soldiers to help carry the coffin. The carriage had long since been prepared. With two horses pulling it, transporting a coffin was no difficult task.

"Go without worry. I'll speak to my adoptive father."

With Chen Mo's assurance, Mo Hu felt much more at ease about leaving.

"Two generals, my master sent ten taels of silver to give this general for travel expenses."

A young servant in gray cloth clothing came trotting over, holding a money pouch.

"Who is your master?" Mo Hu asked instead of immediately accepting the money.

"The magistrate of Qingmu County, Wang Shouzheng," the servant announced.

"Please thank your master for me." Only then did Mo Hu accept the silver.

Mo Dao had died, but the magistrate and County Lieutenant had at least once been colleagues who had met him. Although the funeral was not being held here, the two men had still sent servants bearing some gifts.

"Be careful on the road. Come back quickly." Chen Mo offered one final warning.

Mo Hu nodded lightly, then drove the horse-drawn coffin away into the distance.

Chen Mo returned to the city with the others and had them rest where they were. They had been worn out by the long journey, exhausted in both body and horse, and there was no need for them to rush back to the military camp immediately.

There was another reason they were staying here: to guard against that band of bandits passing through the area.

If those bandits wanted to continue deeper into Xingyuan Prefecture, they had to pass through Qingmu County.

With Chen Mo and the others here, they could investigate and prepare in advance, preventing any sudden developments.

This was something only Chen Mo and his men could handle. If they relied on the local auxiliary army, they would probably have to wait until the bandits came knocking before they reacted.

Of course, Chen Mo had not forgotten to send several personal soldiers to first transport the bodies of the other comrades back to the military camp. He also had them pass along the news of the bandits' tracks to General Sun.

That had been what they were supposed to do from the very beginning. Now that they had information, they naturally had to send it out.

The next two days were fairly peaceful. Chen Mo visited quite a few of the small food stalls throughout the city.

During the two days they rested here, the county office naturally covered all their food and lodging. The meals were quite good, and Chen Mo's occasional trips to the food stalls could only be counted as an extra meal.

After drinking two bowls of Qingmu County's specialty smooth-meat soup, sweat broke out all over his body. Only then did Chen Mo rise from the food stall and prepare to return to camp.

The camp where they were temporarily stationed lay in the northern part of the county seat, inside a somewhat dilapidated compound.

The remaining horses were temporarily kept in another courtyard, where several personal soldiers were assigned to watch over them.

After entering the area, Chen Mo did not immediately return to camp. Instead, he weaved through the many narrow alleys.

He had already looked over the surroundings on the first day after arriving, so he was fairly familiar with them.

Even weaving through the many narrow alleys, he could not possibly get lost.

"Were you looking for me?" Chen Mo quietly came up behind a man and spoke with a smile.

The man wore the most ordinary blue cloth clothes. When he heard the voice, he did not flee. Instead, he turned around in terror.

Then he saw a fist drawing closer and closer to his face.

Chen Mo dropped him with a single move, then carried him into the temporary barracks.

This man was not particularly strong. His physical strength was passable, but he lacked combat experience.

If a martial artist with ample combat experience discovered that Chen Mo had circled around behind him,

he would either obediently submit or fight with all his strength while attempting to flee forward.

Under no circumstances would he waste time turning around.

When several personal soldiers resting in the barracks saw Chen Mo carrying someone in, they immediately surrounded him.

"Bring a few basins of cold water and wake him up. Prepare some torture instruments too. I'm going to interrogate him." Chen Mo casually flung the man onto the ground and gave the order.

The personal soldiers immediately got to work. First, they found a sturdy wooden chair and tied the man to it.

Then they splashed him awake with clean water and brought over torture instruments to prepare for the interrogation.

"Speak. What's your name, and why were you following me? Where are your accomplices? Inside the city or outside?"

Gao Dayou had only just opened his eyes when he was hit with a string of questions raining down on him.

When he failed to answer, Chen Mo did not waste words and directly ordered his men to apply torture.

Under severe torture, the man soon spilled everything as readily as beans poured from a bamboo tube.

The group numbered more than a hundred people, and they truly had ties with the Qi Refiners of the Grand Heaven Dao.

According to the man, they had come here on the orders of a Celestial Master to lie low. As for what they were supposed to do, they had not been told.

They only had to wait here. After some time, a Celestial Master would come to them.

Yet they had waited and waited outside, and no one ever came.

He had followed Chen Mo because, several days earlier, Chen Mo and his group had ridden into the city. The commotion had been too great, drawing their attention.

He had come in mainly to find out what Chen Mo and the others were doing and see when they planned to leave the county seat.

Once this information was combined with what Chen Mo had learned before, everything instantly became clear in his mind. The bandits had first entered Qingmu County to lie low. Then the Grand Heaven Dao Sect's people had taken action, planning to go into Qing Province to harvest something before coming here to meet them.

However, the imperial court had learned in advance that bandits would be passing through, which was why it had informed his adoptive father and had him send people to investigate the situation here.

Chen Mo and his group had happened to encounter those Celestial Masters and fought them.

Of the five Celestial Masters, two had died and one had fled seriously wounded. Even if the remaining two had not been injured, they absolutely would not dare enter Xingyuan Prefecture again for the time being.

The people sent ahead had consequently become abandoned pawns, able only to continue waiting here in misery.

"Keep a close watch on him. From now on, no one except me is allowed in or out. Even if you die, you'll die in this courtyard." Chen Mo issued the order in a stern voice.

Since more than a hundred bandits really were entrenched outside the city, they had to go and suppress them.

These more than one hundred bandits were not ordinary mountain bandits or wandering outlaws. According to Gao Dayou, all of them were young and strong men like him. They had not practiced martial arts, but they had basically all trained their physical strength, and every one of them carried a weapon.

Chen Mo and his men had fewer than thirty personal soldiers. Completely wiping them out would be rather difficult.

They could only find a way to quickly request reinforcements and have his adoptive father send elite troops to suppress them.

Before that, however, this news absolutely could not leak. Otherwise, by the time they reached the bandits, they would definitely find nothing but empty air.

Two days later, Sun Shouren personally led his elite troops to suppress the bandits. Chen Mo charged into the formation on horseback and beheaded dozens of bandit leaders in the midst of battle.