Seeing Shuangjiang, the other man also raised his hands and hurriedly promised, "I won't shout or speak, just don't hit me."
Shuangjiang: "..." She realized that the people in this village were all a bit cowardly.
Zhao Er and the Diarrhea Bandit were both dumbfounded, failing to react for a moment. "What, what are you doing? Didn't you say you wouldn't hurt our fellow villagers?"
At this time, sounds came from the mountain path below the cliff. The two looked toward the noise and saw over a hundred men and women armed with weapons heading their way.
Zhao Er belatedly realized he had been tricked. His eyes widened in fury, "You, you..."
Jiang Jin shushed him, "It's fine, don't be nervous. They will be up here soon."
Zhao Er: "..." Is this just a matter of being nervous? This concerns the life and death of their entire village!
Just as he was about to fight back, Jiang Jin waved her stick at him. "I advise you not to make any reckless moves."
When Jiang Jin led her mighty contingent into the village on Wuhu Mountain, it caused a massive stir among the villagers.
The village head, Zhao Shu, walked out tremblingly, supported by two villagers. He glanced at Zhao Er and his companion, who were keeping their heads down.
Then he looked at Jiang Jin and her group, who were holding weapons with an imposing aura.
His heart skipped a beat, already having a rough idea of what had happened. He asked with a trembling voice, "May I ask what brings you and your people to our Wuhu Mountain, young lady?"
Jiang Jin got straight to the point. "Gefeng is mine now. I do not allow bandits in my territory. Seeing as you haven't indiscriminately killed the innocent, I am giving you a chance to surrender."
Zhao Shu exclaimed, "What did you say? Gefeng is yours? Wasn't Gefeng occupied by the Quzhao people long ago? And you, you..."
He wanted to say, how could a woman conquer Gefeng and become its ruler? But looking at the robust soldiers standing behind her, he wisely kept his mouth shut.
He weighed his words for a moment before saying, "I wonder if our other villagers down the mountain are still alive?"
Jiang Jin nodded. "Naturally. We in Gefeng do not kill the innocent."
Zhao Shu secretly breathed a sigh of relief. As long as they were alive, that was what mattered; those were a hundred lives.
Jiang Jin continued, "I am now giving you a choice: surrender and become citizens of my Gefeng, otherwise, we will have no choice but to eradicate the bandits."
Zhao Shu: "..." Can a single option even be called a choice?
Suppressing his unease, he asked, "If we surrender, will you drive us back to where we came from?"
If that were the case, they would have no way to survive. Their former village had nothing left; even their houses had been burned down by refugees.
Jiang Jin shook her head. "Of course not. Come back with me to Gefeng County; there is work for you in the city."
Zhao Shu breathed a massive sigh of relief. As long as they didn't have to go back. Then, remembering something, his heart leaped into his throat again. "May I ask what kind of work? Is it forced labor?"
Jiang Jin shook her head calmly. "Helping to build houses, mine, log, and so on. Different jobs offer different wages."
Zhao Shu's breath hitched. "Wh-what, what did you say? There are wages?"
He had never heard of getting paid for doing work for the government. Even the most grueling forced labor at most provided food, and terrible food at that.
Jiang Jin: "Naturally. Logging includes lunch and one and a half catties of grain a day. If it's mining, three meals are included, along with one and a half catties of grain a day."
Mining was relatively harder, mainly because it was too far to return home, so they had to live in the mining area, which was why all three meals were covered.
Zhao Shu's breathing grew rapid. "Is this true?"
The villagers behind him also looked on with burning eyes, waiting for Jiang Jin's confirmation.
"It's true." Jiang Jin added, "You can also become soldiers. Room and board are fully covered, plus half a stone of grain a month."
Receiving a definitive answer, Zhao Shu's face wrinkled into a smile, and tears even shimmered in his eyes. "Good, good, finally someone wants us. Boo-hoo, we'll go down the mountain, we'll go to Gefeng."
He turned around and shouted to the villagers, "Hurry, everyone hurry, pack up and let's head down the mountain. Don't let, let the noble lady wait too long."
The villagers were also thrilled and responded loudly, "Alright, going right now, we'll be ready in a moment."
After saying that, they scattered back to their homes to pack, looking as jubilant as if it were the New Year.
Even Zhao Er and the Diarrhea Guy looked at her with faces full of gratitude.
Jiang Jin: "..." Wait, this script is a bit off. How did they surrender so easily?
Then why did she go through all this trouble to set up this surrender act? Wouldn't it have been better to just offer them amnesty directly?
Yao Ji also felt a bit disappointed. He had wanted to stretch his muscles, and this was it?
Jiang Jin suppressed the strange feeling in her heart. "We will be confiscating the wealth you plundered on the mountain."
A hint of reluctance flashed in Zhao Shu's eyes, but it quickly faded. "Naturally, noble lady. I will take you to our storehouse right now."
Jiang Jin nodded.
When Jiang Jin saw Wuhu Mountain's storehouse, she finally understood why Zhao Shu was so willing to follow her down the mountain.
There were only a little over 30 stones of grain in the storehouse. For the more than 500 villagers of Wuhu Mountain, let alone surviving the winter, it would be hard to even last a month.
No wonder these villagers of Wuhu Mountain all looked sallow and emaciated; they probably struggled to even get twenty percent full on a normal day.
Zhao Shu felt somewhat embarrassed, also feeling that they were quite failures as bandits.
Fearing Jiang Jin's disdain, he quickly tried to make up for himself and the villagers. "Noble lady, although we don't have much grain, we still have some copper coins. Look, they are right there in the baskets."
Xie Nanxiao led two soldiers over to check. There were 5 baskets in total, though none were full. After a rough count, there were over 50 strings of cash, which was indeed a fair amount.
But for a bandit lair of over 500 people, it was a bit meager.
Not to mention whether this money could buy grain in troubled times, even if it could, based on current grain prices, it would only sustain the village's food supply for about a month.
Jiang Jin waved her hand powerlessly.
The soldiers immediately stepped forward to carry the grain and copper coins down the mountain.
Coming out of the storehouse, Jiang Jin finally had the mood to look at the village. Most of the houses in the village were simple wooden huts, along with some thatched cottages.
In such an environment, when winter came, many would likely not survive.
Zhao Shu followed her gaze and explained, "The mountain is all sandy soil, and the only path into the village is that cliff. There's simply no way to transport clay up here, so..."
Saying this, he sighed heavily. "We commoners have it so hard!"
Jiang Jin agreed with his words. She looked at the busy villagers. "It won't be hard anymore from now on."
It was already afternoon when Jiang Jin and her people returned to Gefeng City.
Mainly because the cliff was difficult to descend. Especially for the old, weak, women, and children, they had to be lowered one by one in baskets, which took a lot of time.
Jiang Jin handed over matters like settlement and household registration directly to Luo Qingci to handle.
By evening, the information on these people reached Jiang Jin's hands. There were 536 bandits in total.
Eighty-six people signed up for mining. For people accustomed to hardship, they were not afraid of hard work; they were only afraid of going hungry.
What surprised her the most was that 152 people actually signed up to become soldiers.
Dong Si was somewhat worried. "My Lord, they used to be bandits. Can we let them become soldiers? Would it be inappropriate?"
Jiang Jin shook her head. "It's fine. Once they enter the military camp, it won't be up to them to call the shots. Besides, from observing their actions, they are all quite simple and straightforward people."
