The Horse Bandit Leader was a complete miser. He was a person who valued money very much. This could not be blamed on him. After all, he was a poor man who did not have enough to eat since he was young. It was because he was afraid of being poor that once he obtained wealth, he would hold on to it tightly and would not let it go. Even if his life was threatened, he would not give up the wealth that he had obtained with great difficulty.
This kind of behavior was very similar to the crayfish in the rivers in the countryside. When the shrimp fisherman lifted the fishing rod, the crayfish would be suspended in the air but would not be willing to let go of its big pincers. Then, it could only become the shrimp fisherman's meal.
People who were afraid of being poor had a mysterious desire for wealth. Their desire for wealth far exceeded that of ordinary people. In order to obtain wealth, they would do anything, even if it meant becoming a Horse Bandit.
Of course, not everyone was like this. There were also some people who were once poor. After they became rich, they gradually became extravagant and were more generous than anyone else.
This kind of situation was very normal. Perhaps when they were poor, they saw the people around them treating them every day but they did not have the ability to do so. They had always been sullen in their hearts. After they became rich, they had to find ways to make up for this sense of achievement. Therefore, they would try their best to treat others in this way to satisfy their heart.
In short, although they were all poor people, the places where they were hurt were different. This would lead to different consequences and would lead to completely different performances after they became rich.
Since the Horse Bandit Leader had already decided to do this, Skinny Monkey and One-eyed had no choice but to agree. Skinny Monkey was almost unaffected by this. However, One-eyed Monkey was sad. He could have taken the official road and galloped quickly. At this moment, he could only take the rugged mountain road.
The only thing that was worth rejoicing was that most of the grain would be transported by the official road. If these large quantities of grain were taken away, they would really be exhausted to death.
Since the matter had been decided, the next step was to prepare. According to the distance to the east of the river, they would need to travel for about half a month to a month. However, the grain would be enough for two months. Therefore, at least half of the grain would be given to the rice shop owner in the city and let him be responsible for the transportation. They only needed half of the grain, but this was not a small amount. In order to reduce the logistical pressure, all the Horse Bandits were required to bring half a month's worth of dry rations and some salted vegetables and dried meat. This way, the Horse Bandits who were responsible for transportation would be able to relieve some of the pressure.
After One-eyed left the tent, he began to make arrangements. He ordered the mounted bandits under his command to quickly prepare half a month's worth of dry rations, dried meat, and salted vegetables. He also ordered them to put them into a bag that had already been prepared. This way, when they set out, it would be very convenient to distribute the dry rations to each of the mounted bandits. At the same time, some of the grains that were not easy to rot were moved to designated locations so that the rice shop owners in the city could better transport these grains away.
"Since he asked us to prepare so much food, it seems that we can leave this place soon."
A fat Horse Bandit said.
Foal nodded and said, "That's right, we definitely have to leave. The soldiers here are too difficult to deal with. We should have left long ago. I heard that we are going to Fox Tu Mountain on the east of the river. I wonder what the scenery there is like, and if there are any profits."
"Who knows? But we'll know when we get there. "
The fat Horse Bandit said. He paused and then said, "Brother Ma, I just took a look. Brother Yan doesn't seem to be in a good mood. Is he troubled by something? Why don't we go and ask him during dinner? "
Foal declined, "Fatty, you can go and ask him yourself."
"I don't dare to go alone. Let's go together!"
The fat Horse Bandit said.
Foal was secretly delighted. He quickly nodded and said, "Alright! Then I'll go with you and ask him. When the time comes, we'll bring a few bottles of good wine. While drinking, we can ask Brother Yan what's troubling him and share some of his worries. "
"That's right. We can't go without wine. I'll go get a few bottles of the best wine and hide them first."
The fat Horse Bandit happily ran to get the wine.
The Horse Bandits moved quickly. Before long, they had distributed three to four hundred portions of dried food and meat and placed them in a fixed place.
"Brother Ma, Brother Yan is alone in the tent? Let's bring the wine and meat in! See how much I've packed? "
The fat Horse Bandit gently lifted a corner of the food box and said.
Foal took a look. Amazing! Not only were there a few bottles of good wine in the food box, there were also four plates of cut meat and four plates of ingredients. They were all good dishes.
"Not bad! These are all good dishes. "
Foal said.
The fat Horse Bandit looked behind him and said, "This is only half. There's another box at the back. There are meat buns and egg soup in it."
"Not bad! Let's go! We'll go in now. "
Foal said as he picked up the other food box and entered the tent with the fat Horse Bandit.
They were mainly in charge of logistics. Usually, they would cook, take care of the horses and go out to chop firewood. It might seem tiring and hard work, but there were benefits to being in charge of logistics. They could eat better. They could eat delicious food that ordinary people could not eat. Even if everyone went hungry, the people in charge of logistics would not go hungry.
After entering the tent, they saw One-Eye sitting on a chair in a bad mood. His brows were tightly knitted as if there was something bothering him.
"Brother Yan, it's dark. It's time to eat."
The fat Horse Bandit very attentively took out all the delicious food from the food box and placed it in front of One-Eye.
"I'm so upset! Everything doesn't taste good and I don't have much appetite. "
One-eyed sighed.
"Brother Yan, come, have a drink first. If there's anything bothering you, you can tell us. It's very uncomfortable to keep it bottled up in your heart."
The fat Horse Bandit said.
Foal also said, "Brother Yan, if you still treat us as brothers, don't keep it to yourself. If there's anything bothering you, we can share some of it with you."
One-Eye was naturally very happy to hear that. He said, "Brothers, we're all family. Why would I, One-Eye, deliberately hide it from you? It's just that this matter has already been decided. Even if you knew, it would only add to your troubles. "
"Brother Yan's troubles, how can we relax alone? We have to accompany Brother Yan's troubles."
Foal said.
One-Eye was indeed very uncomfortable. Seeing how loyal his brothers were, he sighed and said, "I won't hide it from you two brothers. This time, we were going to take the main road to Hedong. But because the leader was unwilling to spend money to buy a road, we're going to take the small road in the north. This way, with so many things, it will be very difficult to travel. We might not even reach Hedong in a month! Moreover, the journey will be very difficult. I'm afraid our brothers will have to suffer. "
"So Brother Yan is worried about us! I really don't know what to say. No matter how difficult it is, as long as we can share Brother Yan's worries, it's worth it. "
Foal said.
Fatty also said, "Brother Yan, you don't have to worry too much. Isn't it just a small road? We grew up in the mountains. We've seen all kinds of roads. No matter how difficult it is, we're not afraid. "
One-Eye shook his head gently and said, "You two are too optimistic. If it's a hundred or eighty miles, we can endure it if it's difficult. But the journey to Hedong is a thousand miles and we have to cross many large rivers. If we bring too many useless things, it will seriously slow down our progress and make it easier for the soldiers to discover us."
"Brother Yan, I've been to Yinzhou and Suizhou in the northeast. The roads are okay. It's not that difficult!"
Foal said blindly.
One-Eye said with a smile, "Brother, you're taking the official road. The official road is maintained by the imperial court, so the road conditions are naturally better. But we can't take the official road now. We can only take the rugged small roads. Some of these small roads are not much different from the roads you usually use to chop firewood. Let me ask you, is this road suitable for humans? It's hard enough to walk this road empty-handed, not to mention carrying so many things."
"It's not much different from the roads we use to chop firewood. This is too difficult! Can't we secretly take the official road? "
Foal asked.
One-Eye said, "We can take part of the official road, but if we encounter a checkpoint, we have to take the small roads. Because we don't have a guide, we can't pass the checkpoint at all."
His words were very clear. Most of the time, they took the official road because there was no one to check it. But once they encountered a checkpoint, they would be in trouble. Because the checkpoint was checked, the Horse Gang could not pass the checkpoint without proper procedures. Therefore, they could only take the small roads to bypass the checkpoint.
For a woodcutter, any checkpoint could be bypassed. After all, it was impossible for both sides of the checkpoint to be high cliffs. There must be a place that could be bypassed. Even if it was the Great Wall, one could easily climb over it with a rope with an iron hook.
However, for a large troop with more people and more supplies, it was very difficult to bypass a checkpoint. These huge supplies would become a heavy burden for the troop and could even drag the troop to death.
In the past, there was an army that did not hesitate to blow up the few heavy weapons they carried in order to enter the core of the Central Plains on time. This was because the roads that could be used to transport large weapons were blocked by the enemy. It was completely impossible to enter the Central Plains through this place. They could only choose to take the small roads that the enemy would not expect to break through the encirclement and enter the Central Plains in one fell swoop. But in this way, the large heavy weapons that the troop carried could not be passed through. In the end, the commander did not hesitate to blow up the heavy weapons in order to complete the mission.
In order to achieve one's goal, one had to give up everything that could be given up. This was true wisdom and also a necessity for success. The Horse Gang leader was obviously a complete fool. He did not forget to take his treasures with him when he was running for his life. He was truly a master who did not care about his life for wealth.
"Brother Eye, how many checkpoints do we have to bypass along the way?"
Foal asked.
"Ah, there are more than ten of them?"
One-eyed opened his mouth and took out the map from his arms. He continued, "Take a look! These are the three roads that we have to take to get to Hedong. We were originally going to take the red line but now we have to take the green line with the leader. Skinny Monkey is still going to take the purple line. Look! None of them are good roads. "
Fatty only took a glance and lost interest. Foal studied the map very seriously. He wanted to make a copy for Big Colt to bring back so that he could perform meritorious deeds.
"Can you understand it? You can still read it. "
One-Eye did not suspect anything and kept the map in a huff. However, Foal had already seen it clearly. He had drawn the map before and naturally memorized it after a few glances.
"Fatty, do you understand it?"
Foal asked pretentiously.
Fatty shook his head and said, "It's a mess, I don't understand."
"Ah, I don't understand it either. But I guess those squiggly earthworm-like lines are roads."
Foal purposely said.
"Let's not talk about this. Brothers, let's drink, let's drink."
One-Eye was in a better mood. He did not want to think about anything else but drinking.
"Come, come, come, let's drink. We're about to leave this place and there won't be such good food and drink along the way. Let's drink as much as we can."
Foal said.
"Drink, drink, drink …"
Fatty could hold his liquor well and loved drinking.
After eating and drinking to his heart's content, Fatty ran back to his tent to sleep. Meanwhile, Foal secretly went to draw a map. It used its fastest speed to complete the drawing, and after checking it a few times, it secretly hid away.
It was late at night and he could not leave the camp. This was the rule of the horse bandits' lair and no one could break it. Otherwise, they would be treated as spies.
A day ago, there was a horse bandit who tried to leave in the middle of the night but was shot dead by arrows. This person might have been arranged by Lao Guo earlier. He had been lurking because he could not find a chance to deliver the message. Now that it was the most critical moment, he wanted to take the risk and deliver the message. In the end, he lost his life. Seeing this, Foal did not dare to act rashly.
Fortunately, he didn't have to take such a risk and could still pass on the message smoothly. He often needed to lead a group of mounted gangsters to chop firewood. This was an excellent opportunity to pass on the situation. He had already passed on the message once, and this time, he would use this method to pass on the message.
The next day, Foal and Fatty led ten horse bandits to chop firewood again. This was the last time they would go out to chop firewood because after this, they would leave the lair and go to the east of the river to develop.
"Fatty, if we meet a pheasant today, I'll try to kill two and we'll share a drumstick each, okay?"
Foal said.
"Okay! Roast chicken is delicious, hehe. "
Fatty said.
"Coo coo coo, coo coo coo …"
Foal had just finished speaking when they heard the sound of pheasants in the distance.
"Oh, pheasants really came. I'll go with you! I'll learn from you and see how you catch pheasants. "
Fatty said.
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