Chapter Eighty: Coming to the Door! (Please Subscribe!!)

In the days that followed, Li Yun remained at the Fortress of the Ten Kings.

Much of that time, he spent with Zhou Liang, sorting through the old members of the stronghold, especially the half-grown youths.

There were quite a few young people in the fortress, about twenty of them in all. To Li Yun’s surprise, only a few among those twenty had fathers.

Or rather, only a few knew who their fathers were.

The rest knew only who their mothers were; they did not know their fathers, and in most cases their mothers were already dead.

It was not hard to understand why.

The Fortress of the Ten Kings was different from the Great Cang Mountain Stronghold. The latter was more like a band of landless peasants who had taken to the hills, and a large portion of them were still officially registered as peasants.

Banditry was merely a side occupation.

Thus, the households in the Great Cang Mountain Stronghold were no different from those in any village: a man and a woman could live together, and could even raise children such as Li Yun, Zhang Hu, and Heizi, the second generation of the stronghold.

But in the Fortress of the Ten Kings, most were full-time, professional bandits, entirely removed from ordinary labor.

These bandits stole women up the mountain, and all too often they were not content to keep them for themselves alone. When women on the mountain became pregnant and bore children, most of those children were sent straight back down the mountain and sold to families below; very few were raised on the hill.

In a place without law or restraint, those who held the advantage in force often developed cruel hearts. These bandits had no interest in raising children.

So how had the children in the Fortress of the Ten Kings been left behind?

In most cases, it was because their mothers were fierce of spirit and would rather die than be separated from their children, or because one of the chiefs had a rare moment of mercy. Only then had these children been allowed to remain on the mountain.

And precisely because of that, few of those fierce mothers had survived until now.

It was worth mentioning that most of those left in the stronghold were boys.

For if they were girls, they would be sold off to the households below by the age of seven or eight at the latest, taken away to serve as slaves in wealthy families.

In short, these so-called dependents of the Fortress of the Ten Kings were utterly unlike the dependents of the Great Cang Mountain Stronghold.

After learning the full situation with Zhou Liang, Li Yun looked at the children and could not help frowning.

“The Fortress of the Ten Kings is very different from our Great Cang Mountain Stronghold.”

Zhou Liang, following behind him, gave a light snort and said, “Most mountain fortresses across the land are more like the Fortress of the Ten Kings. Our Great Cang Mountain Stronghold is the odd one out…”

“Back then, your father was framed for murder and fled to the mountains. Your second uncle came up here because he killed a government soldier resisting taxes.”

“When the Great Cang Mountain Stronghold was first built, there were only seven or eight men in all, and two of them were from your Li Family Village.”

Li Yun glanced back at Zhou Liang, understanding in his heart that the other person surnamed Li he referred to was Li Zheng’s father, the old chieftain Li Mazi’s distant cousin.

“Our Great Cang Mountain Stronghold was meant to hide from the world and scrape together a living on the mountain. Your father would not even let us rob the common people. Naturally, it was not like the Fortress of the Ten Kings.”

Li Yun looked at Zhou Liang and asked with a smile, “Really did not rob?”

Zhou Liang was silent for a moment, then said slowly, “If we were truly starving, then of course we would rob.”

The Big Chieftain Li gave a snort and did not reply.

After a while, he asked, “Third Uncle, why did you take to the mountains back then?”

“I?”

Zhou Liang raised his eyes toward the distance and said quietly, “Back then, everyone who followed your father into outlaw life was a person of bitter fate.”

He sighed and did not continue.

But after a brief pause, he went on, “The chieftain wants to expand our strength. These children are useful people. Some of them are already twelve or thirteen; in a few more years, they will be able to work for the stronghold.”

“Then I’ll leave them in Third Uncle’s care,” Li Yun said.

He turned his head and looked at the youths, who had already gathered together.

In their eyes there was only fear and unease; there was almost no hatred to be seen.

Li Yun spoke crisply.

“The former chieftain of the Fortress of the Ten Kings is gone. From today onward, I am your new chieftain.”

“My name is Li Yun.”

As he said this, he pointed at Zhou Liang and said in a deep voice, “And from now on, he will be your teacher.”

“Follow me, and you will have meat to eat and clothes to wear.”

“If there are any who do not wish to stay…”

Li Yun gave a short laugh and said, “Then I’m afraid there’s no way to send you back down the mountain right away. We’ll have to wait a few years and see.”

Over these past few days, Li Yun had not shortchanged them; all the food and drink they were due had been provided. At this moment, the children all stared at him, blinking, fixed in place.

After he had lectured them for a few sentences, Li Yun began to feel strangely uncomfortable all over.

He had never done such a thing before, but he would have to learn to get used to it.

The chaos of the age could descend at any time. If he wished to accomplish anything, this sort of address would likely become a common occurrence in the days ahead.

After speaking with the youths for a while longer, Li Yun handed them over to Zhou Liang and then instructed, “Keep a close eye on those adult bandits of the Fortress of the Ten Kings as well. If any of them refuse to behave, kill them outright.”

Zhou Liang nodded. “Rest assured, chieftain. I will handle it well.”

...

Two more days passed in the blink of an eye.

Li Yun had been stuck at the Fortress of the Ten Kings for nearly five days, yet still no movement had come from the prefecture’s troops. He took Li Zheng down the mountain for a look around, and even the Xuanzhou soldiers at the foot of the mountain had vanished without a trace.

When he returned to the Fortress of the Ten Kings and called Li Zheng and Liu Bo over, he drank some water and said, “Looks like they should not be coming anytime soon.”

Liu Bo gave a snort and said with a laugh, “Seems Second Brother guessed right. Xuanzhou barely has any troops at all, and every one of them is a coward who fears for his life, too afraid to come to the Fortress of the Ten Kings.”

Li Yun looked at his two brothers and said solemnly, “Since there are no problems on the mountain for now, I need to go back to Qingyang and see how things stand.”

“Lean Monkey, you don’t need to go back with me this time. Stay with Ninth Brother and help him manage the affairs of the Fortress of the Ten Kings.”

He paused there, then continued, “Ninth Brother, if someone comes up the mountain to pay a visit and says he wants to discuss matters with you…”

Liu Bo thumped his chest and said, “Then I will be the new chieftain of the Fortress of the Ten Kings, and I’ll talk to them!”

Li Yun nodded and smiled. “In that case, you can agree to it. We may as well work out a partnership with them.”

If the so-called powerful figures of Xuanzhou confirmed that the Fortress of the Ten Kings had changed hands, and that it would be difficult for them to capture, then they would very likely cooperate with the new chieftain of the fortress.

This would allow them, first, to continue maintaining their shadowy, semi-legal enterprises, and second, to stabilize the new bandits in the stronghold so that the evidence would not fall into the hands of those who should not have it.

And Li Yun, just happened to want to keep them steady as well.

After explaining the matters of the Fortress of the Ten Kings, Li Yun went down Ten Kings Peak alone by a side path. Once he had left Lingyang Mountain, he changed back into the black official robe and hurried back to Qingyang County.

Because he had no horse, by the time Li Yun reached Qingyang it was already evening. He made it into the city before the gates were shut, but he did not go to the county yamen. Instead, he returned to his own courtyard, washed up, and slept soundly through the night.

The next morning, Head Constable Li put on a fresh set of clothes and strolled leisurely to the county yamen. Just as he entered the gate, Chen Da spotted him at once and hurried forward, cupping his fists in salute.

“Head Constable!”

Seeing him in such a state, Li Yun asked with a smile, “What happened? Why the rush?”

“You’ve finally come back.”

Chen Da lowered his head with a wry smile. “Your men started looking for you yesterday, but we really had no idea where you had gone.”

“What were you looking for me for?” Li Yun asked with a smile. “Something going on at the yamen?”

“Commander Cao has arrived.”

Chen Da kept his head bowed and said, “He reached Qingyang yesterday.”

Li Yun was startled. “He came back with the county magistrate?”

Chen Da shook his head. “The magistrate returned two days earlier. Commander Cao only arrived in Qingyang yesterday.”

“What does that have to do with me?” Head Constable Li stretched. “Why look for me?”

“It was Commander Cao who was looking for you, Head Constable.”

Chen Da scratched his head and said, “I heard... I heard he wants the Head Constable to lead our anti-bandit force and cooperate with the prefectural troops to wipe out the Fortress of the Ten Kings on Lingyang Mountain...”

Li Yun patted Chen Da on the shoulder and said with a smile, “All right, I understand. I’ll go see the magistrate and find out what is really going on.”

Having said that, Li Yun clasped his hands behind his back and headed toward Magistrate Xue’s study, while the smile on his face had already all but disappeared.

Clearly, someone in the prefecture had begun to suspect him.

After all, his performance at the Fortress of the Ten Kings over the past few days had indeed been somewhat strange.

And this Cao Rong was most likely here to probe him.

After taking a deep breath, Li Yun’s face once again broke into a smile.

He had already decided how to deal with this.

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The End.