Encountering Clear Wind Stronghold

The faces of the escort guards at the nearby table instantly darkened.

The bearded escort chief slammed his wine bowl heavily onto the table, gave a cold snort, and turned his head away.

Manager Bai seemed not to have seen it at all. Instead, he beamed with delight and used tea in place of wine to toast Wang Chong several bowls in a row.

He also said a pile of polite formalities like "when away from home, one relies on friends."

After Manager Bai left, Wang Chong lowered his voice.

"Do you know why I wanted to travel with them?"

Chen Jing had watched from the side the entire time. Hearing Wang Chong's question, he silently nodded.

"Then tell me."

Wang Chong was testing Chen Jing.

Chen Jing glanced at the young manager, then at the escort banner by the wall, and answered in a low voice.

"Uncle Wang once traveled to and from the county town, so you must be able to confirm these people's identities. There is no concealment or falsification."

"The world is in chaos now, and roaming bandits and mountain brigands run rampant."

"Although you and I both know some fists and kicks, if we truly run into a gang of mountain bandits, having a few more people is still better than fighting alone."

Wang Chong nodded in satisfaction.

"You're very clever. That is exactly it."

"When you are away from home, martial strength alone is not enough. Human relations, worldly dealings, judging the hour and sizing up the situation are the weight upon the weight. You must take it in carefully."

Chen Jing nodded.

"Many thanks for your guidance, Uncle Wang."

The night passed without incident.

At first light the next day, the caravan had already packed up and made ready.

Seven or eight packhorses pulled cart after cart of medicinal herbs.

Manager Bai brought seven or eight shop hands from the medicine firm, plus ten escort guards from the Wei Yuan Escort Agency, and then Wang Chong and Chen Jing.

The party numbered nearly twenty people and set out in a grand procession.

The group followed the mountain road for about an hour. The terrain gradually grew steep and dangerous, and dense, packed woods stood on both sides.

The treetops overhead covered the sky and blotted out the sun, leaving the forest dim and gloomy.

Only now and then did a few shafts of sunlight leak through the gaps between branches and leaves, casting mottled patches of light on the ground.

The mountain wind blew through the trees with a rustling roar.

At some point, the birdsong had stopped. The whole forest was so quiet that only the horses' hooves and the group's footsteps remained.

The bearded escort chief from the Wei Yuan Escort Agency was experienced and had long since ordered everyone to draw their weapons.

Several escort guards protected both sides of the packhorses, their gazes sweeping back and forth across the woods on the slopes to either side.

Wang Chong also tightened his grip on his iron spear.

He said in a low voice to Chen Jing, "Stay close to me."

Chen Jing gripped his white-shafted spear, his feet stepping with the footwork of the Fierce Tiger Stance, his body sinking slightly low.

He copied Wang Chong, watching the six roads and listening in all eight directions, catching every movement around them.

The group was just passing through a narrow mountain hollow. The slopes on both sides were steep, and in the middle there was only a mountain path barely wide enough for two horses to walk side by side.

The warning in Chen Jing's heart suddenly exploded. He snapped his head up and saw dense figures emerging from the shrubbery on the slopes to either side.

Those figures seemed to have burrowed out from beneath the ground. In an instant, they covered the entire mountainside, looking down from above at the caravan in the valley.

On the mountain road ahead, a group of men and horses turned out from around a bend. At their head was a burly man carrying a Nine-Ring Broadsword on his shoulder, the iron rings along the back of the blade clattering loudly.

"Clear Wind Stronghold is here."

The big man's voice was rough as stone as he roared out loudly.

"Leave all the goods and silver behind. If your grandpas are pleased, maybe we'll even leave you a way to live."

Manager Bai's face stiffened. He instinctively retreated to the bearded escort chief's side and cursed inwardly that this was bad.

"How did we run into Clear Wind Stronghold!"

At the rear of the group, Wang Chong's expression also changed abruptly. As he swept his gaze over the dense figures all around, he explained to Chen Jing in a low voice.

"This Clear Wind Stronghold is the largest greenwood mountain stronghold around Green Mountain City. They specialize in the business of killing and robbing on the roads."

"Over the past ten-odd years, countless mountain strongholds have risen around Green Mountain City, but all of them were either arrested or wiped out by Six Gates working together with the government troops."

"No mountain bandit stronghold has ever been able to exist for more than a year."

"But Clear Wind Stronghold is different. It's said this stronghold is located deep in Little Green Mountain, yet no one knows its exact position."

"These bandits of Clear Wind Stronghold are even more like gods appearing and ghosts vanishing. They can always avoid the searches of Six Gates and the government troops, and to this day they still remain at large."

"It must be those bandits taking advantage of the roving rebels stirring up chaos, so they've come down the mountain to rob the road again—and we just happened to run right into them."

Chen Jing's heart tightened as well.

He made a rough count. The mountain bandits in the woods all around them numbered nearly a hundred, while they had fewer than twenty men.

And half of them were pharmacy clerks and stewards.

They were no match for the bandits at all.

The bearded escort captain at the front had gone livid too. He pressed a hand to his saber, stepped forward, cupped his fists, and said, "Chief of Clear Wind Stronghold, I am Zhao Tieqiao of the Wei Yuan Escort Agency. We understand the rules of the greenwood."

"Here are fifty taels of silver for the brothers to buy wine with. I ask that the chief raise your noble hand and give our Wei Yuan Escort Agency some face."

As he spoke, he took a heavy money pouch from his chest, waved his hand, and tossed it. With a smack, it flew far out and landed in the middle of the road.

The burly man glanced at the money pouch, then suddenly threw his head back and laughed loudly. "Wei Yuan Escort Agency?"

"The Wei Yuan Escort Agency has no face to speak of before my Clear Wind Stronghold. If you can take out fifty taels to buy your way through, that just shows this cargo of yours is worth far more than fifty taels."

He rested the Nine-Ring Broadsword on his shoulder and grinned.

"Sorry, but my Clear Wind Stronghold has always done things by killing people to silence them. We want the goods, and the people have to die too."

As soon as he finished speaking, the big man swung the Nine-Ring Broadsword in his hand forward. The blade rings clattered with a jarring crash. "Kill them!"

In an instant, the bandits on the slopes to either side all let out a howl, brandishing blades and spears as they charged down the hillsides.

"Protect the escort!"

Zhao Tieqiao roared, drew the saber at his waist, and crashed head-on into the bandits charging down.

Several escort guards also drew their blades one after another to meet the enemy, falling into a chaotic melee with the bandits.

Most of the pharmacy clerks were ordinary people. Some grabbed carrying poles and cudgels to fight for their lives, while others were so frightened they retreated again and again, breaking into flight.

Those who panicked and chose any path blindly were chopped down by bandits in a single slash.

Screams rose, echoing through the valley.

Wang Chong grabbed Chen Jing by the arm and growled, "Stay close to me. Don't worry about the caravan!"

With that, he thrust out his iron spear.

He charged toward the rear, in the direction where the bandits were thinnest.

Why would Chen Jing need him to teach him that?

He had never planned to worry about the pharmacy in the first place. At a time like this, whoever tried to play the hero was just sick of living too long.

The two went one in front, one behind.

They rushed fiercely toward a steep slope at the side of the mountainside.

Wang Chong's iron spear was like a dragon.

With one thrust, he pierced through the chest of a bandit blocking the way.

Chen Jing followed closely behind. The White Wax Pole stabbed out abruptly, the spear tip piercing accurately into another bandit's throat.

Basic Spear Technique proficiency +10.

In a single exchange, the two of them stabbed two men down. Their steps did not pause in the slightest as they continued charging forward.

The bandits on the mountainside had originally all been surging toward the caravan. None of them had expected two such people to suddenly dart out from among the group.

They did not protect the escort, did not linger in battle, and had only one thought in mind: break through.

In just that moment of stunned hesitation, Wang Chong and Chen Jing had already rushed out of the encirclement and plunged headfirst into the dense forest on the slope.

When the others in the caravan saw this, they copied them. Who still had the mind to care about cargo? In twos and threes, they joined forces and charged outward.

Some escort guards protected Steward Bai as they ran in another direction.

Some clerks were caught by bandits and cut down to the ground, while others with quick wits imitated Wang Chong and Chen Jing, taking advantage of the chaos to burrow into the woods.

The burly man cut down the bearded escort captain, who was being besieged by several men, with a single slash. He looked up and saw that several people had already run up the slope, and his face instantly darkened.

He kicked the corpse aside, pointed the Nine-Ring Broadsword toward the slope, and shouted sternly, "Chase them! If even one gets away, I'll use your heads to make up the number!"