Chapter 770: Making Contact

This troop-training method was passed down from Panlong City. Soldiers were to march through forests of spears and seas of blood and fire. Those who survived grew at astonishing speed and earned generous rewards.

It was simple, brutal, and cruel. However, it was undeniably effective.

Every recruit received no gentle care or patient protection, only a trial of life and death.

The southern trade route had likewise become a training ground for Yuheng City’s army. On the busiest days, they fought as many as two battles in a single day.

He Lingchuan himself was so busy that he was practically spinning like a top. He constantly thought about how to fight the water bandits, how to reorganize the patrol units, and which officers deserved promotion.

Every matter required his attention.

Even while eating, he pored over the latest battle reports. He had not returned home in at least a dozen days, much less found time to keep Ms. Sun company.

And the water bandits were far from the only concern. He had also become deeply involved in Yuheng City’s civil affairs.

He had originally thought that handling military matters alone would be enough. Bloody, hard-edged work was at least simple.

Ha, it turned out that he had been the simple one.

In cities such as Panlong City and Yuheng City, nearly every aspect of government ultimately revolved around the military and the war effort. He Lingchuan had no fewer officials of every rank to meet than Wen Daolun did.

He even had to carve out time to deliver speeches at Yuheng Academy, rallying students and soldiers and boosting morale.

Great figures had the troubles of great figures.

For example, there were never enough hours in the day.

Wen Daolun had even pulled him into discussions about reforming the tax system. The bandit problem in Longchuan was a historical grievance. West Ji had once squeezed the people dry, scraping the land a meter deep until civil unrest erupted and banditry flourished. Yuheng City therefore had to show the common people as much goodwill as possible and find every means to separate the officials from the bandits in their eyes.

Wen Daolun was extremely anxious to accomplish that.

He Lingchuan had also noticed that each stay in the Panlong World was growing longer.

At first, he had remained there for only a day or so. Later, that stretched to four or five days. Now, ten days or half a month had become commonplace. During his longest visit, he had spent more than twenty days in the Panlong World, while only a single night passed in reality.

Sometimes, he could no longer tell which world was real and which was the Panlong World.

After all, he clearly spent far more time in Yuheng City than he did in reality.

Is this connected to the Generous Pot recovering its lid?

He had a vague feeling that this world was becoming more solid.

In any case, after more than a dozen guerrilla clashes filled with killing, pursuit, and desperate escapes, both the number and frequency of robberies committed by the Longchuan water bandits began to fall noticeably.

Their manpower and reinforcements were limited, after all. Following several ferocious counterattacks in which Yuheng City’s army spared neither blood nor lives, the bandits’ arrogance had finally been beaten down.

Bandits did not contend openly with the authorities.

Sooner or later, that natural law always took effect.

Under the relentless suppression of Yuheng’s new army, the Longchuan Trade Route began to recover once more.

At the north-central stretch of the Longchuan Trade Route stood the Azure Wolf Post Station.

At this time of year, frogs croaked without pause from morning to night in the small lake behind the post station. Their calls filled the air, yet not a single frog could be seen, for the lotus stalks grew taller than a man.

Beneath the blazing sun, He Lingchuan entered the Azure Wolf Post Station wearing a straw hat and plain cloth garments. He tossed the station attendant a few pieces of broken silver and asked him to set up a low table and chairs behind the post station, beside the lake.

It was cooler there, with a breeze coming off the water.

He was not the only one with the idea. Seven or eight tables had been set up along the lakeshore, each spaced far apart. No one disturbed anyone else. Unless someone shouted across the distance, they could not even overhear one another’s conversations.

He Lingchuan ordered a large jug of the local specialty, bayberry wine, along with a plate of crispy salted peanuts. Then he squatted beside the table and started munching away.

The aroma of charcoal drifted over in waves.

Not far away, a thin, dark-skinned man had set up a grill. He had just laid dozens of meat skewers over the coals and was vigorously fanning them with a palm-leaf fan.

He Lingchuan ordered more than a dozen skewers as well, intending to sample the man’s cooking.

The skewers had yet to finish grilling when someone approached from across the way. The newcomer also wore a green bamboo hat. He strolled casually up to He Lingchuan’s table, stopped, and asked, “Anyone sitting here?”

“No, feel free to take it.” He Lingchuan took out a wooden cup and filled it with bayberry wine.

The newcomer was Skinny.

They had not seen each other for two months, and Skinny had grown both thinner and darker.

“Why is it this wine again?” Skinny complained the moment he sat down. “I’ve nearly drunk myself sick on it back at the stockade.”

It was rather amusing. Longchuan might have been a nest of water bandits, but the finest bayberry wine within hundreds of kilometers was produced there.

The bandits went out to rob people while also selling their local specialties to the outside world.

They stole money and earned money at the same time, without letting one interfere with the other.

“Which stockade makes the best bayberry wine?” He Lingchuan had poached Skinny from Panlong City precisely to send him undercover among the Longchuan bandits. The man was a born social creature, someone who could blend into any crowd wherever he went.

“Qianjin Stockade, obviously. The bayberries from those old trees grow this big!” Skinny formed a circle with his thumb and forefinger.

He Lingchuan estimated that he meant roughly the size of a table-tennis ball.

“There’s also a clear spring behind the stockade,” added Skinny. “Good fruit and good water are what make good wine.”

He Lingchuan found that curious. “Weren’t you sent to the Lu Family Gang? How did you get to eat Qianjin Stockade’s fruit and drink its spring water?”

Skinny clicked his tongue. “The Lu Family Gang broke apart last month. I pulled a few strings through some acquaintances and got myself into Qianjin Stockade.”

“Broke apart?” He Lingchuan picked up a peanut with his chopsticks. “How does a gang that large simply fall apart?”

The Lu Family Gang claimed to have eight hundred men on the water. It was not the strongest bandit faction in Longchuan, but it had the greatest numbers.

In the later generations of Yuan, even a local regular army might not have eight hundred soldiers.

On the strength of its manpower alone, the Lu Family Gang ranked among Longchuan’s major powers.

“During the attack on Yuheng City three months ago, the Lu Family Gang sent Sixth Lu. He was an important figure within the gang. Boss Lu favored him most and originally intended to make him his successor. But then...”

“Mm, Sixth Lu died,” He Lingchuan said.

Of course he knew. When they tallied military merit after the battle, he had personally seen the man’s severed head.

“Last month, Boss Lu died of illness as well. None of the remaining leaders accepted the others. They fought several times, then each took their own followers and left. That was the end of the gang.”

Skinny stopped speaking at that point, because the thin, dark-skinned young man from the grill had come over with ten skewers. “The rest are still cooking.”

“No hurry.” He Lingchuan ate one of the lamb skewers and immediately called out, “Give us another ten lamb skewers!”

The skewers were fragrant and tender. There was a perfect trace of charcoal smoke that clung to the lamb fat, showcasing just how perfectly cooked the skewer was, as it was neither burned nor overcooked.

“Coming right up!”

The other customers seated around the lake also found the skewers delicious and began adding to their orders.

The dark-skinned young man walked away with a broad smile. Skinny jerked his chin toward the man’s back. “He isn’t another faction’s spy, is he?”

“Sharp eyes.” He Lingchuan lowered his voice. “He’s one of ours.”

Only then did Skinny relax. “The kid’s pretty good. Even if he stops working as an informant for you someday, he could return to Yuheng City, set up a barbecue stall, and make a living from this skill.”

“He enlisted two months ago and showed a fair amount of talent. It was only later that everyone discovered his greatest strength wasn’t fighting but grilling skewers.”

Skinny took advantage of the heat and stripped several skewers of alternating fat and lean meat before continuing, “The Lu Family Gang’s collapse also had a lot to do with Yuheng City. Over the past few months, patrols along the Longchuan Trade Route and throughout the villages on the plains have grown tighter and tighter. The water bandits now come home empty-handed six times out of ten. Complaints are everywhere.”

“This is only the beginning.” He Lingchuan picked up a steaming skewer of grilled heart tube. Mm, fragrant, crisp, and even slightly sweet. “Every snake, miscreant, and stray monster has crowded into Longchuan. I’ll make sure none of them can find a single bite to eat!”