What happened next was no surprise at all. After witnessing Ian Song kill Luke Black with a single finger, all fifty-eight bandits from Black Tiger Stronghold surrendered and joined Clearwind Stronghold.
Afterward, Ian personally led the bandits to Black Tiger Stronghold and moved all its grain, money, and valuables back to Clearwind Stronghold. In addition, there were six women who had been abducted by Victor Black.
These women were all respectable girls from villages near the Blackwind Mountains. Ian originally planned to give them some silver and send them home.
Unexpectedly, aside from two married women with children who wanted to return, the other four all chose to leave.
When they were taken up the mountain, all four were virgins. Now, after being violated by Victor Black and his men, going home would mean never being able to hold their heads up in the village again, and their families would also suffer disgrace.
Since they didn’t want to leave, Ian took them in as well, bringing them back to Clearwind Stronghold and assigning them tasks like sewing, laundry, and cooking.
After tallying up the loot, this raid on Black Tiger Stronghold yielded 5,000 catties of grain, 120 taels of silver, 10 taels of gold, and some miscellaneous dry goods.
“So poor!”
When Ian saw that they’d only scored a little silver, he couldn’t help feeling disappointed. But then he remembered there were a hundred and eight strongholds in the Blackwind Mountains, all living off robbery—a classic case of too many monks and too little meat. Black Tiger was just a small stronghold, so it was never going to be rich.
Early the next morning.
Ian gathered all the bandits in the stronghold and announced two things.
First, starting today, everyone except the old, weak, sick, disabled, and women must train for two hours a day. One hour in the morning, from 7 to 9 a.m., and one hour in the afternoon, from 3 to 5 p.m.
As the saying goes, you need to be strong to forge iron. With just this bunch who are only a bit tougher than regular folks, how could they ever become the number-one bandit gang under heaven? So, training was absolutely necessary.
These bandits were used to being lazy, so when they heard Ian’s decision, they all pulled long faces—but not a single one dared object.
But Ian’s second announcement had everyone grinning from ear to ear.
Because Ian was going to hand out silver to everyone.
You have to realize, neither Clearwind nor Black Tiger Stronghold ever paid their people before. Getting enough to eat was already a luxury, let alone pocketing silver. After all, most of the guys who became bandits were just farmers who couldn’t afford a meal.
Ordinary lackeys would get one tael of silver a month, plus extra rewards for completing missions. The women in charge of laundry and cooking would also get paid—five qian of silver per month.
Old Stick, since he could read and write, was put in charge of managing the grain and handling purchases, earning three taels of silver a month.
As for Sam Wu, since he was missing a leg and couldn’t go out raiding—and couldn’t read either—Ian gave him the job of managing the vegetable plots and animal pens, leading the old, weak, sick, and disabled in farming and raising livestock. He’d get two taels a month, and all the elderly and disabled bandits would get one tael each.
On top of that, Ian set up a reward system.
Including Burt "Bull" Bolton, there were eighty-two bandits in total. Every ten days, they’d hold a competition, and the top five would get prizes: first place, ten taels of silver; second, eight taels; third, five taels; fourth, three taels; and fifth, two taels. Anyone who made the top five three times in a row would receive a mysterious gift personally from Ian.
When they heard about this reward system, the bandits’ eyes all lit up green—they couldn’t wait to start training.
Whether in the Great Qin world or the apocalypse, Ian had plenty of experience training troops.
During the morning session, Ian focused on endurance and physical strength—running, push-ups, sit-ups, and even jump rope were all part of the training.
In the afternoon, the main focus was on fist and saber techniques.
With his level of skill, coming up with a few moves for saber and fist techniques was a breeze.
After these announcements, Ian could clearly feel a new sense of energy stirring in Clearwind Stronghold.
After breakfast, Old Stick came looking for Ian and bluntly said, “Boss, handing out silver is a good thing, but where are we supposed to get so much silver to hand out?”
“Old Stick, what business are we in?” Ian asked.
"Bandits!" Old Stick replied.
"And since we’re bandits, why should we be worried about not having enough silver?" Ian said, unconcerned.
Old Stick looked miserable. "Oh my little ancestor, you’ve just become the boss, so maybe you don’t know—the territories we rob from are all strictly divided. For Clearwind Stronghold, making two hundred taels a year is already good. With your new plan, we’ll be spending over two hundred taels a month! Where’s the rest supposed to come from? If we can’t pay, the men will lose faith. The worst thing for a leader is not having the crowd’s support. Boss, it’s not too late to take back your decision!"
Ian waved him off. "A promise made is like water spilled—it can’t be taken back. If we can’t get enough from our own turf, we’ll just have to find another way!"
"Sigh!"
Seeing Ian was set on his course, Old Stick could only sigh and walk away.
In the blink of an eye, three days passed.
Under Ian’s management, Clearwind Stronghold was now running smoothly and efficiently.
So, Ian decided to head to the county town to scout for news.
The Blackwind Mountains lay within Yuet Province, and the nearest town to Clearwind Stronghold was Peacehold County—just eighty li away.
The bandits of the Blackwind Mountains dared to rob passing merchants and armed escorts, but none ever targeted Peacehold County. That was because Peacehold County had three thousand well-equipped county soldiers, and their commander, Henry Dunn, was a top-tier martial expert.
He was even stronger than Lone-Blade Gideon, the most powerful bandit chief among the 108 mountain strongholds.
Ever since Henry Dunn took office, he’d been determined to wipe out the bandits of the Blackwind Mountains.
Unfortunately, the Blackwind Mountains were vast and easy to defend but hard to attack. Plus, while the 108 mountain strongholds often fought among themselves, they always united to resist the imperial army.
After several failed campaigns, Henry Dunn eventually gave up on his plan to exterminate the mountain bandits.
But with Henry Dunn guarding Peacehold County, no bandit dared to make a move on the town.
The imperial court was known as the Grand Zhou Empire, ruling over thirteen provinces. Yuet Province ranked last among them—by far the poorest.
All this information was what Ian had managed to dig up. If he wanted to learn more about this world, he’d have to pay a visit to Peacehold County.
After breakfast, Ian set out with Lily Qi.
Ever since she’d killed Liu Feihu with a single sword thrust, she’d been badly shaken—it was only today that she finally recovered.
An hour later.
Ian and Lily Qi arrived in Peacehold County together.
But they’d barely walked a few steps when Ian noticed Lily Qi had stopped in front of a candied haw stall, unable to move on. Seeing this, Ian couldn’t help but smile wryly and bought her a skewer of candied haw.