Chapter 188: Finally Done Something Useful
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
“What?”
Meng Zi pinched open the other party’s mouth, and black-tainted blood flowed out from the corner of his mouth. “There was poison in his mouth. He committed suicide by biting the poison pill.”
“Oh, he bit a poison pill and committed suicide.”
Meng Zi’s expression was a little ominous. Usually, people like this dead guy were trained death warriors. The other party actually sent men who were willing to sacrifice their lives to secretly follow them. The person behind them must have an influential background. “Check every carriage carefully to see if there are still people hiding.”
“Alright.”
Qiao Yang looked at the dead man and couldn’t help but be curious. “How did you discover he was hiding under the carriage, Uncle Meng?”
“1 was following closely behind the carriage just now and found water flowing out from under the carriage.” Meng Zi did not always travel in front. Instead, he kept patrolling back and forth. When he moved to the back, he found that there was water flowing out of one carriage. He felt that something was wrong, so he ran to the side of the carriage. When he saw that there was nothing wrong with the coachman, he speculated that there might be someone hiding under the carriage.
That was why he made the team stop to rest. It was to pull out the “leech” that was attached to the carriage.
“Area Chief, we’ve checked the other carriages. We didn’t find anyone.”
Meng Zi was still worried, so he personally checked all the carriages again. After making sure that there was really no one, he allowed everyone to get onto the carriages and continue on their journey.
However, he didn’t go to the northern wilderness straightaway. Instead, he kept going in circles outside after reaching the northern wilderness.
After the previous experience, everyone did not have any doubts and quietly followed Meng Zi. It was not until the sky darkened and the surroundings were so dark that they could not see the road that Meng Zi allowed them to enter the northern wilderness and head to the Tiger Base.
“Uncle Meng, is someone following us?” Qiao Yang came to Meng Zi and asked in a low voice.
Meng Zi nodded. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but after the person hiding under the carriage killed himself, the other party might have been a little anxious because he actually exposed his whereabouts.
“These scumbags. 1 really want to finish them off with one slash.”
“We don’t know how many people there are on the other side. Don’t act rashly.”
Qiao Yang held back his anger and said, “Uncle Meng, don’t worry. I won’t be rash.”
Meng Zi allowed the team to leave first, and he brought up the rear. After entering the northern wilderness, it would not be easy for those people to catch up with them. However, the grain was very heavy, and the carriages would leave a very obvious mark on the ground. He stayed behind to smooth out these wheel tracks.
Meng Zi’s conjecture was right. After those people followed the group into the northern wilderness, they became a little disoriented because of the darkness. They wanted to follow the tracks on the ground, but there were no traces left on the ground. They could only continue to move in the direction of the Tiger Base based on the direction they had searched earlier.
Meng Zi hid in the dark and watched as those people slowly approached the team. He quietly sneaked up behind them like a cheetah lurking in the dark. He seized the opportunity to quickly dart forward and cover the mouth and nose of the last person. Before the other party could react, he broke his neck.
“Who is it?” The person in front heard the movement behind him and quickly turned around, but he didn’t see anything.
“Everyone, stay together. Be more careful in the dark.”
“Alright.”
As soon as he finished speaking, another person’s neck was broken.
The corpse was silently dragged into the bushes.
Just as Meng Zi was about to attack again, he was discovered by the people in front.
“There’s someone here. Everyone, be careful!”
Meng Zi swung the saber in his hand and slashed at the other party. In less than 15 minutes, the five people fell to the ground. Every one of them had a pillar of blood spurting out of his neck. Their bodies collapsed to the ground and convulsed until they died of blood loss.
Meng Zi placed the corpses in an abandoned cave and covered it with wild vegetation. After tidying everything up, he set off to go after the team.
Number Four, who was guarding the gate wall, noticed that a team was approaching. He led his men out of the gate and bypassed the array formation to hide in the dark to observe the approaching team. After confirming that the people were Qiao Yang and the rest, Number Four emerged from the dark.
“Second Young Master, you are back.”
Qiao Yang got a fright and glared at him somewhat angrily. “Are you a dead man? Why didn’t you make a sound when you came out?”
Number Four pursed his lips. This fellow was so lacking in vigilance, yet he blamed him for not making a sound when he walked?
“It’s getting late. Second Young Master, you should go back first.”
Qiao Yang gave a snort and haughtily rode his horse back to the Tiger Base. If it wasn’t already very late, he would have gone to Su Ying to take credit for his accomplishment. He wanted to show her how well he did on his first trip out of the base camp!
Tiger Might did not sleep at all. He knew his younger brother’s petulant personality well. Although Meng Zi was accompanying his younger brother, he could not help but worry.
“Leader, Second Young Master has returned.”
Tiger Might stood up from his chair when he heard that. However, he slowly sat back down when he heard the sound of unstable breathing coming upstairs.
Very soon, Qiao Yang dashed in excitedly. “Big Brother, I have already completed the task you assigned me successfully. Zhang Liang has taken all the silver we earned from selling charcoal and given us rice in exchange.”
Tiger Might nodded with a stern face. “Not bad. You’ve finally done something useful.”
Qiao Yang was speechless momentarily.
“Big Brother, are you complimenting me?”
“Yes.”
Following that, his subordinate walked in and asked, “Leader, do you want to put all the rice and flour in the warehouse?”.
Tiger Might was a little baffled. They couldn’t have gotten too much grain with a few dozen taels of silver. His men could just store it in the warehouse. Why did his men still need to ask him? He stood up and walked out. When he saw more than ten carriages filled to the brim with rice sacks, he stared at Qiao Yang in shock. “Did you rob these?”
“Big Brother, don’t malign me. I’m a good person. These were all given by Zhang Liang. He said that we can bring the rice back first and we can pay him the balance of the silver we still owe him with charcoal this month.”
How much charcoal would they have to pay back?
Tiger Might did not expect Zhang Liang to be so magnanimous.
“Fine. Where’s Brother Meng? Why didn’t I see him come back with you?”
“Uncle Meng is bringing up the rear. When we came back, there were a few sons of bitches secretly following us. Fortunately, Uncle Meng found out. Otherwise, it would be troublesome if they really followed us back.”
When Tiger Might heard this, his expression clouded over. “Those people really didn’t let the matter rest.”
“Big Brother, is this First Prince of the Chu State really that powerful? He can’t possibly send troops to deal with us, right?”
Tiger Might didn’t know, but he felt that it was unlikely for the Chu State to send out a large number of troops to deal with them. Over the years, it wasn’t that he didn’t know about the friction between the Chu State and the Nan State. The troops at the border pass weren’t enough to deal with the Nan State. Even if they wanted to deal with them, they definitely wouldn’t send out a large number of troops recklessly.
However, the First Prince was backed by a state, so it was best for them to avoid him.
“At the end of the month, after completing the charcoal trade, no one should leave the base camp again.”
“Alright.”
As the two brothers were talking, they saw Li Yong running over in a hurry. “Leader, bad news. The Area Chief of the North District is injured.”
Tiger Might was shocked and immediately followed Qiao Yang out of the Tiger Base..