"Don't..."
Bang...
Liu Tiezhu didn't give Yang Jingming any chance to explain. He shot him in the head with one bullet.
This bastard who colluded with bandits to harm villagers deserved to die ten times over.
The splattered blood had already stunned the two women into silence.
Snapping back to reality, the two women quickly crawled over to Liu Tiezhu.
"Big brother, please don't kill us."
"Spare us, and we'll do anything you want."
"This has nothing to do with you two. Get out of here."
Liu Tiezhu waved his hand, not bothering with them further.
The two women, relieved, scrambled out of the house and vanished in an instant.
Liu Tiezhu stripped the bandits of everything valuable, then searched the rooms.
An hour later, he led three horses, hauling several hundred pounds of meat, and met up with Er Gouzi.
Seeing Liu Tiezhu safe and sound, Yang Haitian and the others breathed a sigh of relief.
The gunshots earlier had sent chills down their spines.
If not for Yang Haitian's condition, Er Gouzi would have already grabbed his rifle and rushed over to check.
"Tiezhu, all taken care of?" Yang Haitian asked.
"All taken care of. Yang Jingming and his two sons have gone to meet their ancestors."
"The other five bandits, I sent them to hell too," Liu Tiezhu said.
Yang Haitian asked, "What about Yang Jingming's two daughters-in-law?"
"I let them go."
Let them go?
Hearing this, Yang Haitian's face darkened.
"This is trouble now."
Er Gouzi looked confused.
"Brother Tian, what's the trouble? They're just two women."
Yang Haitian said, "The women aren't the problem, but their families are the real trouble."
"Yang Jingming's eldest daughter-in-law is Li Mei. Her older brother is the town's militia captain."
"His second daughter-in-law is Chen Xiuhua. Her father is a town official."
"You killed their husbands and let them go. Their families won't let this slide."
Er Gouzi's expression shifted, and he glanced at Liu Tiezhu, silently asking if they should chase the women down and finish them off.
Liu Tiezhu shrugged it off, waving his hand. "Brother Tian, don't worry. Even if those two women go home and tell their brother and father, so what?"
"We're not planning to go back to the village anyway. Where would they find us?"
Yang Haitian thought it over and realized it made sense.
"It's getting late. We need to hurry back to the stone cave. Brother Tian, we can't delay treating your wound."
With that, Liu Tiezhu signaled Er Gouzi to lead the mule.
They didn't make it back to the mountain cave until late at night.
Uncle and the others gasped when they saw Yang Haitian's injuries.
Yang Yulan hugged Yang Haitian, sobbing uncontrollably.
Liu Tiezhu reassured her, "It's okay. With some medicine and rest, he'll recover."
By the time they finished treating Yang Haitian's wounds, it was already deep into the night.
After a round of intimacy with Yang Yulan, Liu Tiezhu lay on the bed, unable to sleep. He took out the captured Type 54 pistol and toyed with it.
This was a rare item. After World War II, only high-ranking officers in the military were qualified to carry one.
He wondered where that bandit had gotten his hands on it.
With this pistol, his personal safety was further enhanced.
Unfortunately, the pistol only had thirty-three rounds of ammunition.
After fiddling with it for a while, Liu Tiezhu put the pistol away.
From now on, he'd only keep it at his waist for self-defense.
For killing bandits and outlaws, he'd still rely on compound bows and rifles.
Now he had guns, bullets, money, and meat.
But Liu Tiezhu still couldn't relax.
The meat supply was less than six thousand pounds.
That number seemed large, but every day they woke up, the consumption was staggering.
The hunting dogs had grown to thirty-five pounds each, and two pounds of meat per day no longer satisfied their appetites.
Liu Tiezhu had his sister-in-law feed each dog three pounds daily—fifty-seven pounds total. Adding the white-tailed eagle's five pounds, that was sixty-two pounds of meat a day.
With eight mouths in the household, three meals a day required ten pounds of meat.
At this rate, the meat wouldn't last three months.
He needed to find more meat to keep everyone from going hungry.
The fastest way to get meat was to follow the bandits' example—raid villages, burn, kill, and loot.
But Liu Tiezhu scorned such methods.
His plan was either to venture deeper into the mountains or, like now, seize resources from the bandits.
These bandits were filthy rich. One raid could net him hundreds or even more pounds of meat, but the risk was enormous—one wrong move and he'd lose his life.
After mulling it over for a while, Liu Tiezhu finally drifted off to sleep.
The next day, he didn't wake up until noon.
His older brother and uncle were still digging the secret tunnel, while Yang Haitian played with Yaoyao.
Er Gouzi, Yulan, and his sister-in-law helped haul away the excavated dirt.
After lunch, Liu Tiezhu took Er Gouzi to set up traps fifty meters outside the cave.
The following days were a blur of activity for the family.
On the fifth day, after lunch, Liu Tiezhu had Er Gouzi finish setting the remaining traps while he rode out of the mountains with ten rifles and a hundred rounds of ammunition.
It took him four hours to return to Liu Family Village.
By then, it was dark, and the village was eerily quiet.
After several raids by bandits, most villagers had either moved away or fled. At night, not a single soul was in sight.
In the thorny woods of Liu Family Village, Yang Hua was waiting early, accompanied by five burly men.
After five days of investigation, he'd discovered that Zhang Mingtao and his brother had regrouped.
They were now building a camp in Denglou Village and had recruited dozens of men to form the Zhang Family Army.
Denglou Village was the必经之路 for villagers heading to town.
Zhang Mingtao's choice of location was obvious.
He planned to block the road into town and bleed the surrounding villagers dry.
Just then, the sound of hooves approached.
Yang Hua knew it was Liu Tiezhu, and they immediately went out to greet him.
"Did you get any news on Zhang Mingtao and his brother?" Liu Tiezhu asked bluntly as soon as he entered.
"Got it. Those bastards have regrouped."
"They're building a barracks in Denglou Village and have recruited dozens of men."
"According to my informant, the camp is well-stocked with food and money."
Yang Hua handed Liu Tiezhu a notebook.
"This is a map of the camp drawn by the informant, along with the number of people stationed there."
Liu Tiezhu took the notebook, studied it for a few minutes, and frowned.
The camp wasn't large, but it had sixty men stationed there.
That only confirmed there were resources inside.
Liu Tiezhu put down the notebook and glanced at the men behind Yang Hua. "Is this all we've got?"
Including Yang Hua and himself, there were only seven people.
With such a small force, raiding Zhang Mingtao's camp would be suicide.
"Brother Tiezhu, this is all I could recruit for now."
"Don't worry, these are my brothers. Their combat skills are solid—"
Liu Tiezhu cut him off with a wave.
"I'm not doubting their skills."
"But with so few of us, we wouldn't even be a snack for Zhang Mingtao's Zhang Family Army."
"Our goal isn't to fight the Zhangs. It's to take their food and money."
"Have your informant map out the camp in detail—where the food is stored, who handles the payroll, and which tent they sleep in."
"Also, find out their shift changes and daily routines."
"Brother Tiezhu, that'll take some time."
"We're already out of food here." Yang Hua said awkwardly.
"I've got rifles on my horse. One for each of you, with ten rounds."
"Grab your rifles now. I'll take you to get some food."
With that, Liu Tiezhu picked up a rifle and strode out of the thorny woods.
Yang Hua and the others quickly grabbed their rifles and followed him.
The group entered the village and headed straight to the right.