At this time, Li Yi turned to the old patriarch and said: "Grandfather, where are we going next? We have been walking for more than ten days, why do we keep going forward?"

The old patriarch sighed and said to Li Yi: "We originally planned to go to Taiyuan to escape famine, but the entire Taiyuan Prefecture was crowded with hungry people. We had no choice but to keep walking eastward. Now we are at the boundary of Zhending Prefecture

, but Zhending Prefecture no longer allows hungry people to enter, so we have no choice but to rush to Baoding Prefecture, hoping that hungry people will still be allowed to enter, otherwise we will really not be able to survive."

Li Yi nodded. He knew that Baoding Mansion was only three days away from here.

At this time, a man ran over on horseback. When he saw Li Yi, he jumped off the horse in a hurry and said, "My lord, I have led people to inspect the surrounding area for twenty miles, and I found nothing unusual."

Li Yi nodded, smiled and said loudly: "Brother Zhang, thank you for your hard work. Go get something to eat quickly, otherwise you will have to drink the northwest wind."

After hearing this, Zhang Mingde quickly agreed and hurried to eat, fearing that he would not be able to eat if he was late.

Seeing the doubtful look in the old patriarch's eyes, Li Yi said with a smile: "I was worried that there would be bandits, so I asked Brother Zhang to take a few military households who knew how to ride and patrol around."

The old patriarch nodded and said: "You are still thoughtful. Zhang Mingde and the others are veterans of the local guard station in Yan'an. They are proficient in martial arts and are pretty good people. You can use them with confidence. But what is the origin of those bandits?"

"You haven't had time to ask yet, why don't you go and ask with me, grandpa?" After speaking, Li Yi supported the old patriarch and walked towards the place where the bandits were being held.

The bandits were all tied up hand and foot, and were watched by Wang Jin and six young men. Under the threat of spears and sabers, they did not dare to mess around.

Seeing Li Yi approaching, Wang Jin immediately ran over and said somewhat unnaturally: "Everything is normal here. There were a few bandits whispering to each other just now. After being beaten, they all became honest."

Li Yi knew that Wang Jin was older than him, so he was not very respectful to him on weekdays. Now that he had become the leader of the team, Wang Jin couldn't let go for a while. But Li Yi was not a stingy person. This kind of thing was just a quarrel between friends. It was not at all

Didn't care.

He patted Wang Jin on the shoulder and said with a smile: "As long as you are here, cousin, I have nothing to worry about."

Wang Jin felt relieved after hearing this, and with a smile on his face, he went back to continue guarding.

Several young men nearby saw him and immediately ran up to surround him. One of them said with disbelief: "Wang Jin, I didn't expect that you are really my benefactor's cousin? I thought you were lying to us."

Wang Jin's face was full of pride after hearing this, and he said proudly: "When did I lie to you? The benefactor you are talking about is my cousin. When he saw me, he had to call me cousin."

The young people around him looked envious and wished they could change their identities with Wang Jin.

Li Yi took an honest-looking bandit aside. As soon as the bandit stood firm, he immediately lay down on the ground obediently and quickly kowtowed to beg for mercy. Judging from his skillful appearance, he must have done this more than once.

Li Yi leaned on his saber and wanted to look fierce, but he couldn't do it well. He could only ask dryly: "What's your name?"

"Little...little monkey."

"Monkey?" Li Yi looked him up and down. He really looked like a monkey. He struggled to hold back his smile, "What do you do?"

The monkey responded quickly: "The little one was originally a tenant in Hengkouhe Village, Zhending Prefecture. Because he couldn't bear the oppression of the big family, he took refuge in Tianliang Village on Hushan Mountain and became a bandit."

Life is hard these days, and many lower-class people often find it difficult to survive, so many simply take over the mountains to become kings and the grass to become bandits, which is not surprising.

Li Yi had no doubts and asked: "Monkey, what do you know about Tianliang Village? Tell them all, don't hide them."

The monkey replied: "There is no small thing on the mountain that I don't know about. Just ask me. As long as you let me go, I will tell you everything."

He is a sensible gangster. Li Yi smiled and said: "Really? Then tell me, what is the origin of this Tianliang Village? If what you say is true, I will let you go."

The monkey was overjoyed and quickly revealed all the details of Tianliang Village in detail.

It turns out that this is already the boundary of the Taihang Mountains, with thousands of miles of mountains as cover. There are many bandits in the mountains, and they make a living by robbing passing caravans and refugees. Tianliang Village is one of them.

Tianliang Village is only a small village in the Taihang Mountains, with only 400 people and two heads.

Today, the second boss, Li Sanyong, caught a lone refugee while patrolling. After questioning, it turned out that there was a group of refugees crossing the border nearby. In desperation, a horse army with fifteen people chased after him, and the first boss dispatched another

Two hundred brothers came to support him.

They had done the thing of plundering the refugees many times, and they often won a great victory very easily.

Unexpectedly, this time I encountered Li Yi, the God of Killing, leading a group of crazy refugees, and killed them all.

Li Yi laughed after hearing this and said: "Tell me honestly, how many people are there in your Tianliang Village now? How many people can you fight?"

The monkey was slightly startled, but he still said honestly: "There are only a hundred old and weak people left in the village. The second master died, and only the eldest master was left in the village. There are still 700 family members of the village living in the back village, and all of them are

Women and children can’t do much.”

The monkey then introduced the situation in the cottage in detail, including the structure of the buildings inside, the distribution of bandits, and the warehouses, etc., all of which were explained clearly.

After hearing what he said, Li Yi asked curiously: "Monkey, I clearly have bad intentions when I ask you about the situation in the village. Why did you say it so readily?"

A moment of peace.

Finally, the monkey said: "The little one is not an ungrateful person. The reason why he did this is because the boss of us is so stupid."

"According to the rules of the martial arts world, even the boss can only exchange things for the things under his command and cannot rob them. But our boss not only steals our money, but also treats us like cattle and horses. No one can stand it. Not only

It's me. Many of our brothers are very dissatisfied. If they didn't have nowhere to go, they would have run away long ago."

Nodding, Li Yi untied the rope around the monkey and said with a smile: "You can leave now. Before you leave, I want to negotiate a business with you. You can agree, but we won't embarrass you if you don't agree."

.Do you want to listen?”

The monkey said submissively: "Of course I will listen, little one."

"You said that there are only a hundred old and weak people guarding the stronghold, and you are very dissatisfied with your boss, so the guarding must not be very tight. I want to lead a group of young men to capture the stronghold, but the attack will inevitably increase casualties. If

How about you convince some reliable brothers to help us trick us into opening the stronghold’s gate and fight our way in. Then we’ll give you 10% of the property in the stronghold?”

The monkey was slightly startled. He never expected that Li Yi would let these bandits attack his hometown.

But considering that the people in the cottage were hurt this time, and the boss was mean and unrighteous, he didn't go back even if he went back. It would be better to get some money and invest in other companies.

Taihang Mountain lacks everything except bandits. If you can't live anywhere, why do you have to hang yourself from a tree with a crooked neck in Tianliang Village?

Thinking of this, he nodded heavily and said: "Okay. I will go back and discuss it with the brothers. I think they will all agree. I should make preparations early."

With that said, he walked back.

Li Yi didn't send anyone to follow him. He didn't trust the people he hired and didn't use the people he suspected. This group of bandits couldn't make any trouble. Defending from the east to the west would only increase hidden dangers.

The old patriarch on the side watched it from beginning to end. Li Yi instigated the bandits with just a few words and came up with a plan to attack the bandits' lair at night. This was not just visiting relatives or visiting the courtyard, but real swords and guns.

Fighting, why is it so careless?

Thinking about it, he coughed and said: "Shitou, is it too hasty to attack the bandit stronghold tonight? Otherwise, if we discuss it again, we can avoid a lot of mistakes."

Li Yi knew the old patriarch's worries, but he had deeper considerations and saw the crisis that these refugees were about to encounter.

As far as he knows, the northwest has been hit by various disasters for several consecutive years. Not only ordinary farmers, but also some small and medium-sized landowners cannot survive and have become refugees. A large number of refugees cannot survive in the northwest, and they have flowed into the Central Plains in large numbers.

As a result, all provinces and governments are facing heavy pressure and cannot provide relief at all, so they can only start to restrict the entry of refugees.

Therefore, even if this group of people enters Baoding Prefecture, it will be difficult for them to survive. Only by finding a way to obtain a batch of supplies can they persist until the day when hope appears.

"Grandpa Patriarch, it's not that I'm rash, but that we have to do this." Li Yi said earnestly: "Although we defeated the bandits this time, we got nothing except weapons and vehicles. And these things cannot be eaten.

, and we are very short of food. If this continues, some of us will still starve to death."

"But it only takes us three days to reach Baoding Mansion, and then the problem will naturally be solved." The old patriarch said.

"Grandpa Patriarch, the problem is not that easy to solve at all. You also know that the Ming Dynasty has been suffering from famine for many years. Even the capital area can't help the hungry people. Who can guarantee that Baoding Prefecture will give us food. There are more than a thousand of us now and we don't even have food for tomorrow.

, if we don’t have food by then, we will all starve to death.”

Seeing that the old patriarch's face was pale, Li Yi quickly softened his tone and said: "So, we must ensure that we have a batch of life-saving food in our hands. Now the guards of Tianliang Village are very empty, and they are all plundered by their copycat villages.

Wealth of righteousness. As long as we capture Tianliang Stronghold, the food in it will be enough for us to rush to Baoding Mansion. Even if something happens, we will be able to survive."

Li Yixiao's persuasion based on reason and emotion was really for the sake of everyone. The old patriarch was not a stubborn person. He listened to what he said and finally said sadly:

"When people get old, they are afraid of this and that. A child like you can't see it clearly. Shitou, you were right just now. We must have a batch of life-saving food in our hands. Next, you can just go ahead and do it.

The old man will definitely support you with all his strength."
Chapter completed!