Inside the enclosing wall, it was completely packed with carts!
Aside from over thirty horse-drawn carriages, there were handcarts and wheelbarrows. The sacks of grain on them were already tied down securely. At a glance, there were actually two to three hundred of them.
They filled almost all the empty spaces between the granaries, leaving only narrow walkways for people to pass through.
Jiang Jin's lips curled up. This was all packed and ready for the 'robbers'—they could just haul it away as soon as they arrived. How considerate! Great service!
Now, it was going to benefit her. Carriages, handcarts, and wheelbarrows were all important means of transportation, and exactly what she lacked.
She looked at the rows of warehouses, wondering how much grain was still left inside.
Soldiers were patrolling the granaries in pairs, covering four directions and making a round every half-quarter of an hour.
"Who is it? Who's there?" a soldier patrolling the outer wall shouted.
The squad leader and the other soldiers followed his gaze but saw nothing. However, out of caution, they quickly approached the spot.
They soon reached the base of the wall, but there was absolutely nothing.
The squad leader frowned. "Lao Wu, did you see wrong?"
Lao Wu scratched his head. "Strange, I clearly saw a silhouette here just now. How did it suddenly disappear?"
Another soldier grumbled, "You definitely saw it wrong. It was probably just a tree shadow, and your eyes played tricks on you."
Lao Wu himself grew unsure. "Then maybe I did see it wrong."
It was hard to see clearly at night anyway; mistaking a tree shadow for a person was entirely possible.
The soldier teased, "Are you nervous? What's there to be nervous about? It's not our first time. Relax, when they get here, we just need to watch them haul the grain away."
The squad leader said, "Alright, keep patrolling. Who knows how long it will take for them to arrive. Let's all stay alert."
Lao Wu sounded a bit envious. "Speaking of which, it's really nice to be a 'bandit'. I heard that they get to secretly keep a portion of the things they rob from the commoners."
The soldier scoffed coldly, "What is money? Women are the real prize. Last time, Zhang Liu went with the Quzhao people to rob a household and had his way with the women there. That taste, tsk tsk tsk..."
Lao Wu couldn't help but retort, "You say it as if you were the one who had them."
The soldier replied, "Can't I even think about it? Just imagine how delicate and tender those women from wealthy families are raised to be. If I could just have a go once, hehe..."
Their voices gradually faded away. Jiang Jin, who had already jumped over the wall, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn't expected the defenses here to be even stricter than in Liang City, with people patrolling the outside as well.
Hunching her body, she headed toward the nearest granary, used her old trick to open the door, slipped inside, and closed it behind her.
Only then did she turn to look at the granary. She was truly curious about how much grain was still left inside.
However, the result disappointed her a bit. There wasn't much grain left, probably only around one or two hundred shi.
But thinking about it, it made sense. There was a food shortage everywhere now. Even if Magistrate Lin robbed those wealthy merchants, how many wealthy merchants were there left for him to rob?
Not to mention that the plundered grain was constantly being transported to the Quzhao people. Having this much left was already pretty good.
She stopped dwelling on it. After storing the grain from this granary into her spatial dimension, she gently opened the door, ensured no one was around, and slipped out.
She bent low, weaving through the handcarts and wheelbarrows. Every so often, she stored a cart along with its grain into her space, looking for an opportunity to strike.
A pair of patrolling soldiers glanced at the surrounding carts. The shorter soldier looked a bit confused. "Have you noticed that there seem to be fewer carts?"
The taller soldier looked left and right. "I don't think so. It looks about the same to me."
The shorter soldier frowned. He felt something was off but couldn't quite put his finger on what the problem was.
The taller soldier laughed at him. "Stop overthinking it. You must be seeing things. How could there be fewer? We've been watching this place the whole time."
"Besides, if any were really missing, they would have to go out through the main gate, right? We have dozens of men guarding the main gate. You're just too nervous."
The shorter soldier scratched his hair. "Then maybe I did see it wrong, hehe. Life right now is much better than before."
The taller soldier agreed with this point. "Absolutely. I also think the Quzhao people aren't actually that scary. We're cooperating with them very well right now."
The shorter soldier chuckled and patted his shoulder. "What do you mean cooperate? In the future, we will be Quzhao people ourselves."
"Is that so?"
The two men, who had been conversing in low voices, froze. They looked at each other, confusion flashing in their eyes. Neither of them had just spoken!
Startled, they felt a chill run down their spines. Before they could determine where the voice had come from, a severe pain shot through their bodies, and they began to convulse uncontrollably.
Jiang Jin stood behind them, holding a stun baton in each hand with the power turned to the maximum. She found that stun batons were truly useful—no blood, nice and clean.
After taking the two out, she stripped the shorter soldier of his clothes and changed into them. Just as she was about to drag the bodies to the side, she realized, damn it, she couldn't drag them!
Jiang Jin felt a bit awkward. Fortunately, there was no one around. Whatever, she gave up; she would just let the two bodies lie there.
"What are you doing?" In the distance, another two-man patrol seemed to notice something wrong and was walking over.
Jiang Jin looked up at them, pointed to the two bodies on the ground, and said in a hoarse voice, "I don't know what happened to them. They suddenly fainted. Come over quickly and see what's going on."
The two men suspected nothing. Under the hazy moonlight, they couldn't see faces clearly, only blurry silhouettes.
They hurried forward. Only when they got close did they notice that Jiang Jin's clothes were a bit disheveled, and one of the men lying on the ground was only wearing his inner garments.
One of them gasped. "No way, you guys... you... no matter how much you want it, you can't do this kind of thing while on duty!"
Jiang Jin was dumbfounded. The stun baton she was about to thrust forward paused. What did he mean?
It took her a good moment to realize that this man thought she was doing something dirty. This was truly outrageous. Wait, were the people of this era really this open-minded?
She quickly whispered her denial. "I wasn't, I didn't, don't misunderstand."
Then, she asked curiously, "Are there a lot of, uh, man-on-man relationships among our soldiers?"
The soldier who spoke earlier couldn't help but tease, "Haven't you enjoyed it yourself? What does it matter if there are a lot or not? The taste of a man is pretty good too. It's just that you're way too fierce, aren't you? One against two, and you completely wrecked them?"
Jiang Jin: "...I really didn't! You have to believe me!"
Her expression was hard to describe as she shook her head and sighed. "God gave you a golden cudgel, but you use it as a shit-stirring stick. It's truly..."
The soldier frowned. "What... what are you saying?"
The other soldier also noticed something was wrong. "Wait, aren't you supposed to be in pairs? Why are there three of you?"
Jiang Jin shrugged. "Because I'm the extra one."
Before her voice even faded, the stun batons were already pressed against their abdomens.
After taking these two down as well, she didn't linger. She took out a handcart she had just stored to block the four bodies from view.
After that, she wandered around the granary area, greeting anyone she saw in a friendly manner, and then finding the right moment to strike them down in the dark.
