An hour later, the two had walked several hundred meters.
"Stop!" Liu Tiezhu lowered his voice and halted.
A few meters ahead, the stench of blood was pungent.
Ergouzi said, "With that much blood, the injured person must be dead."
"Let's go check it out. Be careful."
Liu Tiezhu gave the order, crouched down, and crept forward quietly.
Ergouzi walked backward, facing away from Liu Tiezhu.
His rifle was loaded, and his eyes constantly scanned the surroundings.
When they reached the bloodstained spot, they found no one there.
The footprints on the ground were fresh, suggesting the person had left not long ago.
"Should we follow them?" Ergouzi asked.
Liu Tiezhu said, "Since we've come this far, we won't rest easy unless we follow and find out."
Anyone daring to come to a place like this in the dead of night wasn't to be trifled with.
He needed to figure out who they were to keep his family out of danger.
The two followed the footprints for nearly two hours before stopping.
By then, they had left the mountain and reached its base.
About twenty meters away, a fire was burning, surrounded by five burly men sitting in a circle.
From their clothing, Liu Tiezhu could tell at a glance that these men weren't ordinary bandits.
Ergouzi also recognized they weren't good people and whispered, "Brother Tiezhu, are these bandits?"
"These bastards—weren't they almost wiped out by Zhang Jingyang? What are they doing sitting around here?"
Liu Tiezhu said, "They're not the same group."
"The bandits from Tian'gang Stronghold all have the character 'Tian' embroidered on their clothes."
"Look closely at these men's clothes—they have a golden knife embroidered on them."
"And don't you feel they're different from ordinary bandits? They have a special aura about them."
"What kind of special aura?" Ergouzi asked.
Liu Tiezhu paused, then snapped back to reality.
Ergouzi wasn't strong enough yet to sense the bloody smell these men carried.
Seeing Liu Tiezhu didn't respond, Ergouzi continued, "How many bandits are hiding in this mountain?"
"Feel like going over to hear what they're saying?" Liu Tiezhu said.
Ergouzi hesitated, then nodded.
The two crouched down, slipped into the weeds, and moved each step with extreme caution.
When they were six meters from the five men, Liu Tiezhu signaled Ergouzi to stop.
Then, the voices of the men reached their ears.
They lay still in the weeds, watching the men chat and drink.
An hour later, the men, full of food and drink, extinguished the fire, mounted their horses, and left.
Liu Tiezhu and Ergouzi didn't dare linger either. They stood up, stretched their limbs, and hurried back toward the stone cave.
From the men's conversation, Liu Tiezhu learned that the gunshots they'd heard earlier had killed the contact from Tian'gang Stronghold.
And these men weren't bandits—they were horse bandits.
A large organization hiding deep in the mountains, they were sworn enemies of Tian'gang Stronghold.
There were many such organizations in the mountains, and now they were all coming out.
They planned to recruit talent from the villages, build their forces, claim territory, and seize resources.
Beyond that, Liu Tiezhu also heard from the horse bandits that the higher-ups had completely abandoned this area.
Hearing this, Liu Tiezhu was shocked.
If what the horse bandits said was true, this area would become a lawless no-man's-land.
Soon, strongholds would spring up everywhere, and burning, killing, and looting would become the norm.
"Brother Tiezhu, thank goodness we hunted enough game before, or we wouldn't survive," Ergouzi said.
"When horse bandits and bandits are everywhere, we unarmed folks won't make it."
"Ergouzi, don't worry too much. Chaos might not be a bad thing for us."
"If the higher-ups don't care, we have no restraints. We can go all out."
"We have guns and bullets. As long as we're careful, we can live well," Liu Tiezhu said.
He had mentally prepared for this situation, but he hadn't expected it to come so soon.
With his former life's mercenary skills, dealing with these bandits was more than enough.
Ergouzi caught on quickly and replied, "Brother Tiezhu, you're right. Since the higher-ups don't care about us, we don't have to follow any rules."
By the time they returned to the stone cave, it was already broad daylight.
Uncle and Big Brother, who were eating breakfast, quickly gathered around to ask.
Liu Tiezhu asked, "Uncle, you've seen a lot. Do you know of an organization called the Golden Knife Horse Bandits?"
Golden Knife Horse Bandits?
Uncle paused, then suddenly remembered something, his face turning deathly pale.
"Was it the Golden Knife Horse Bandits who fired the shots last night?"
Liu Tiezhu nodded. "What's wrong? Do you know them?"
Uncle said, "Of course I do. They're far more formidable than the bandits from Tian'gang Stronghold."
"Your grandfather told me that the Golden Knife Horse Bandits were originally remnants of a Kuomintang suicide brigade from World War II."
"After their defeat, fearing punishment, they took their equipment and military pay and fled into the mountains."
Remnants of a Kuomintang suicide brigade?
These men had been through war.
Cold sweat broke out on Liu Tiezhu's forehead.
No wonder they carried a bloody aura and spoke with such arrogance—they had real skills.
"Tiezhu, how do you know they're the Golden Knife Horse Bandits? Are you sure you're not mistaken?"
Before Liu Tiezhu could ask further, Uncle's voice came again.
"They said it themselves," Liu Tiezhu replied.
"Why are these people in this area?" Uncle muttered, then asked, "What's their real goal?"
"They plan to come out of the mountains, recruit talent, build their forces, and claim territory as kings."
Liu Tiezhu didn't hold back and told them everything he and Ergouzi had heard.
Hiss...
Uncle and Big Brother gasped after hearing it.
The higher-ups had abandoned this place, and countless horse bandits and bandits were emerging to carve out their own territories.
Soon, there would be widespread suffering, recreating the brutal conditions after World War II, with nowhere safe.
Thinking this over, Uncle grew worried again.
Once this crisis fully erupted, who knew how long it would take to calm down?
They still had over six thousand jin of meat and several thousand jin of rice.
Given how things were developing,
in a few months, their family would soon face starvation.
After some thought, Uncle said, "From today on, we need to carefully ration our food."
"Uncle, don't worry about the food."
Liu Tiezhu said, "We have guns and hunting dogs."
"The white-tailed eagle we're raising is almost grown, so getting game will be easy."
"There are no animals in this area, but deeper in the mountains, there's plenty."
Ergouzi chimed in, "Brother Tiezhu is right."
"And even if we can't hunt, we can always take what we need."
"Those bandits and horse bandits can steal from the villagers, so why can't we steal from them?"
"We have plenty of guns and ammo now. If we don't use them to get resources, are we just going to let them rust?"
At this, Big Brother and Uncle fell silent.
Liu Tiezhu added, "Chaos breeds heroes. If we want to survive in this environment, we need to think differently."
"We can't let our guns and ammo rust."
"Besides self-defense, we need to use them to secure food to live."