Provocation

The wealthy families had very little time. There wasn't enough time to move their possessions or grain stores, so there was plenty to plunder.

Some of the wealthy families kept a few trained fighters as guards.

Only a dozen or so had practiced martial arts; the rest were ordinary people. They might have been able to resist a few dozen or a hundred bandits, but against an army of several thousand, they were utterly helpless. The enemy swept in and killed them with ease.

Before afternoon, one fortified estate after another belonging to the wealthy families of Liang City had fallen.

Some of the smarter ones didn't resist. They lost most of their money and grain, but kept their lives and land. They still had a chance to start over.

The wealthy families who resisted to the death were slaughtered to the last. Their entire households were laid out neatly in their fortified estates, and their land became ownerless.

"Put these bodies in front of the Garrison, about two hundred paces away—beyond their range." Liu Zuolong pointed to the corpses of several wealthy families and gave his deputy the order.

The deputy didn't understand what he meant and asked Liu Zuolong, "General, are we trying to provoke them and force them out of the city to fight?"

Liu Zuolong laughed heartily.

"Mostly, I want to see how they react. If they keep the gates shut and do nothing, then they're truly scared, and I can keep plundering without worry.

"If they send people out to collect the bodies or hurl abuse at us, it means they still have some fight in them. Then we'll have to deal with them more cautiously. We can judge the defenders' morale and their commander's nerve by how the Garrison reacts."

"This battle isn't about blades and spears. It's about hearts. Laying out the bodies there will do more than a siege. Those officials inside the city will soon be too anxious to sleep." Liu Zuolong thought over his plan and couldn't help feeling it was brilliant.

The deputy listened, looking thoughtful, then praised him. "Brilliant, General. Truly brilliant."

Liu Zuolong laughed. "All right, enough flattery. How's the recruitment going? I told you to enlist the displaced and poor people here."

The deputy hurriedly replied, "Three hundred and thirty-one joined today. Most of them are young and strong."

"Good. More than three hundred is a decent start. Once they're doing well, send them back to talk to their fellow townspeople. Each one could bring several more.

"Hmph. I wonder how many more years Great Jin can hold on."

Liu Zuolong's tone was full of contempt for Great Jin.

At Liu Zuolong's command, several Roaming Bandits dragged the corpses of the wealthy families one by one to the foot of the Garrison walls and left them exposed in the open.

"What are they doing? Whose bodies are those?"

"Could they be local residents?"

They were too far away to make out anything beyond the fact that the bodies were human, let alone see their faces. All they could do was guess.

Once the bodies had been laid out, the Roaming Bandits began hurling insults toward the Garrison. "Cowards! You spineless fools! Are you going to hide behind your shell like turtles forever?"

Their insults grew more and more vile. They even dragged in eighteen generations of Thousand-Household Commander Su's ancestors.

The defenders on the city walls saw it all and began whispering among themselves.

The men on the walls weren't just Garrison soldiers. There were also conscripted civilians brought in from below. Seeing the Roaming Bandits lay out the bodies beyond the city, they couldn't help shivering with fear. Their hands and feet went cold, and their fingers trembled. They were scared—terrified.

What if their own family members were among them...

The Garrison soldiers, on the other hand, barely reacted at all. The civilians couldn't help feeling disappointed in them.

"Damn it." Thousand-Household Commander Su watched the scene and felt a sinking dread.

Those bodies were clearly the wealthy families.

He could see what the enemy was doing: undermining morale. They weren't just trying to frighten the defenders; they were also trying to sow discord within the Garrison.

The Thousand-Household Commanders and Hundred-Household Commanders relied on the wealthy families' "gifts" for their gray income and for the money they used to curry favor with their superiors.

If the Garrison acted as though the wealthy families' destruction meant nothing, refusing to intervene or even take a stand, those families would give him fewer gifts in the future. What would happen to his source of income?

He gritted his teeth and ordered the defenders on the walls, "Bring back the bodies of those wealthy families. You'll get five taels of silver for each one. Whoever kills one of those bandits will get ten taels for the bandit chief!"

At his words, everyone was delighted by the prospect of a reward. But when they thought it over, it seemed impossible. They were too far away, beyond the range of ordinary bows. Even if they shot, their arrows might not come anywhere close.

Lin Xuan gazed at the Roaming Bandits, eyes burning. The bodies they had laid out didn't affect him at all, but the mention of a reward had piqued his interest.

Still, he was cautious. What if there were experts hiding among the Roaming Bandits? He could leave the city and be surrounded by them in an instant.

On the other hand, the Liangcheng Thousand-Household Office offered a good vantage point. It was winter, too, and the trees had shed their leaves, leaving the nearby woods bare.

There was no sign of any Roaming Bandits lying in ambush nearby!

"Lin Xuan requests permission to go!" He stepped forward.

As soon as he spoke, a tall, broad-shouldered young man beside him followed suit. "Zhang Quan requests permission to go!"

Thousand-Household Commander Su nodded. "Then you two may try. If you truly bring back a bandit chief and the bodies, I'll keep my word."

Lin Xuan looked at Zhang Quan, unsure whether the man had wanted to go all along or had only decided to after seeing Lin Xuan volunteer.

Lin Xuan had no intention of fighting them head-on. He planned to test them with arrows and kill some Roaming Bandits; if things went badly, he would run.

Once the gates opened, the two of them dashed toward the few Roaming Bandits.

Lin Xuan didn't run too fast. He was pretending.

Seeing only two men come out, and seeing that they weren't running very fast, the Roaming Bandits didn't panic. They simply waited where they were.

When Lin Xuan was only a hundred paces away, he suddenly accelerated. Reaching for the longbow on his back, he nocked an Armor-Piercing Arrow and shot it at one of the bandits.

Lin Xuan's move caught them off guard. The Roaming Bandit tried to dodge, but the distance made it difficult. Lin Xuan kept them at a range of forty paces.

The first arrow struck the bandit's arm, piercing straight through his forearm.

He cried out in pain and staggered several steps, trying to flee.

But it was already too late. Lin Xuan's second arrow was already on its way, striking him in the back and piercing straight through him.

Lin Xuan was a little surprised. So these people really had just been running their mouths; they hadn't hidden any ambushers.

Seeing that Lin Xuan had killed one of them by surprise, Zhang Quan felt more confident too. He drew his bow and shot at another bandit. But this one was far more skilled. He took a short step and dodged to the side, easily avoiding the arrow.

"This man is at least in the middle stage of Bone Binding," Zhang Quan judged.