Witch Wind

Chapter 5: Fighting violence with violence (Part )

Xing Tianli clenched the double-barreled shotgun with his ten fingers.

The dark-faced man laughed and pushed the bearded man aside. He sat down at the eight-immortal table and knocked on the table vigorously: "My dear nephew, you are quite skilled, but no matter how good you are, how many people can you protect?"

"Why don't you give me a cup of tea and say something nice?" The dark-faced man stretched his neck and said, "You hit me hard, so I'll ask you to serve me a cup of tea and confess your guilt. Is that okay?"

Familiar faces flashed through Xing Tianli's mind.

Having lived in Xiaolongqiu Town for ten years, even though Xing Tianli lived a secluded life and only went to and from work, he still knew so many people. Many of them had some friendship and bond with him.

Xing Tianli pondered for a long time, and suddenly asked Li Kuisheng: "Uncle, I know that you have been doing some shady business behind the scenes these years."

Li Kuisheng looked a little embarrassed.

"How much money do you have in your bank account? Can you tell me the truth?"

Li Kuisheng blinked his eyes and said in a deep voice: "There are indeed some businesses that I haven't told you about. The annual income is quite high, but the expenses are also high. The annual surplus is always about 20,000 or 300,000 taels of silver. Now I have 200,000 or 300,000 taels of silver on hand!"

Xing Tianli was startled.

He opened his eyes wide, and stared at Li Kuisheng with his empty eyeballs.

You are just a lowly ninth-rank inspector, a minor official in a small town. Yet, despite your high expenses, you have managed to save up two or three hundred thousand yuan in ten years?

It can be seen that this business is truly "shameful". No wonder these two evil guests and the people behind them would target you, Li Kuisheng!
"That's it, it's settled." Xing Tianli sighed, suddenly raised his double-barreled shotgun, and pointed it hard at the black-faced man's forehead.

The black-faced man's face suddenly froze, and he said in a hoarse voice: "My dear nephew, no, no, I say, brother, you are... Lao Li, Lao Li, take care of your nephew. This thing is not reliable, it will go off if it goes off!"

'Boom'!
Xing Tianli pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Two shotgun shells were fired, and the huge head of the black-faced man exploded. Blood plasma and brain matter spurted more than ten feet away. The floor of the main hall and the corridor in front of the door were dotted with peach petals.

There were shadows moving in the east and west wing rooms in the front yard, and more than twenty skilled men from the Patrol Inspection Office strode out with long and short guns in hand.

Xing Tianli kicked the black-faced man with a flying kick, and he flew straight into the yard. The wind and rain were howling, and the blood flowing from his neck instantly dyed half of the water in the yard red.

Li Kuisheng stood up in shock.

The bearded man stared in amazement at the double-barreled shotgun that was slowly emitting green smoke. His body trembled slightly, and suddenly he knelt on the ground with a "thump" and raised his hands high towards Xing Tianli: "My dear nephew, we can talk it out, but it doesn't have to come to this!"

Xing Tianli pulled out two hot shells from the gun chamber with a "swish", grabbed two bullets from the table, and slowly loaded them into the gun chamber. The slightly hot muzzle of the gun was pressed against the bearded man's forehead again, and Xing Tianli smiled and said, "I don't like being threatened."

Sweat was pouring down the bearded man's forehead. He smiled dryly and said, "Yes, yes, yes, I can see that. Old Li was one of the most powerful generals in our Black Borneo Expeditionary Force. You are his nephew, so you must be a son of a general and decisive in killing people."

The bearded man said in a deep voice: "It is us who are not able to recognize the great man. We are offended!"

Xing Tianli raised his eyebrows and smiled: "Oh? You also know the saying 'one cannot recognize Mount Tai'? Where is Mount Tai?"

Li Kuisheng and the bearded man both looked at Xing Tianli in confusion. In this situation, someone had just been killed, it was such a tense scene, and you suddenly said something like "nonsense", what did you mean?
Xing Tianli blushed slightly. He really said something meaningless in an inappropriate occasion. He poked the bearded man's forehead with his shotgun and asked him, "A few days ago, I thought my uncle had talked about everything and settled everything, so I didn't ask him what the matter was."

"Why did you come to my house so eagerly to drag him into this?"

Li Kuisheng coughed lightly.

Xing Tianli ignored him.

The bearded man said in a very simple tone: "Although Lao Li is only the inspector of Xiaolongqiu Town, Xiaoyandang Lake is directly connected to the Yangtze River. From the Yangtze River, through Xiaoyandang Lake, into Jingshui, there is a waterway that goes straight to the northwest."

"In addition to the waterways, Xiaolongqiu Town is also the most important intersection and transfer point for several land routes."

"Didn't Lao Li accumulate this fortune by helping others transport smuggled salt, iron, tobacco, and arms over the years? What we want is the road that Lao Li and his team have opened up in all aspects over the years!"

Xing Tianli nodded and put away his double-barreled shotgun.

The bearded man just smiled a little relieved at surviving a disaster when a cold light flashed and the lights of the candles in the room suddenly dimmed.

Xing Tianli pulled out the sword from the thin bamboo pole and with one sword he cut off the bearded man's left arm at the shoulder.

Blood splattered, the bearded man cried out, and rolled desperately on the ground, covering the wound with his right hand.

Li Kuisheng looked at the bearded man rolling on the ground, with a trace of pity on his face. But he looked at Xing Tianli, his lips moved slightly, wanting to say something, but then he closed his mouth, inexplicably straightened his body, puffed out his chest, and looked at Xing Tianli's young but inexplicably cold face with a fiery gaze.

"Uncle." Xing Tianli flicked his wrist, and a drop of blood fell to the ground from the tip of his sword. He said softly, "Those people they just mentioned, if they have any connection with me and might make me be controlled by others, you should spend some money, give two hundred taels to each family, and send them away overnight."

"Send it farther away, away from the route you do business. At least, five hundred miles away? Is that okay?"

"It's done!" Li Kuisheng nodded fiercely, without even looking at the bearded man, and strode into his bedroom. After a while, he strode out holding a lacquer box, and after saying hello, he left quickly with seven or eight men from the patrol inspection office.

The bearded man looked at Xing Tianli with a twisted face. He said sternly, "Nephew, you, you, you want to fight us head-on?"

Xing Tianli sheathed his rapier, slowly stroked it, and sat back at the Eight Immortals Table, saying softly, "What else? Let you guys control me, and then, along with Old Li, I will work like a slave for you, and let you guys exploit me?"

"I can roughly guess the evil tricks of you gangsters."

"If we take one step back, you take ten steps forward. If we take ten steps back, you take nearly a thousand steps forward. Sooner or later, the two of us will be eaten up and even our bones will be squeezed dry. Maybe we will even be thrown out by you to be scapegoats!"

"It would be better to cut off the roots at the beginning."

"You want to play, we'll do our best to accompany you!"

Xing Tianli looked at the bearded man with a smile: "You are thieves, we are soldiers, do you think we are afraid of you?"

The bearded man bared his teeth and said, "You sent away those people who were involved with you...Aren't you worried about the other villagers in Xiaolongqiu Town?"

Xing Tianli was silent, with a strange look on his face.

After a long while, he put his face in front of the bearded man and pointed at his own face seriously: "Is there any writing on your face?"

The bearded man shook his head vigorously, and then he suddenly realized that Xing Tianli was a blind man. He said hurriedly: "No, my nephew has a handsome face and looks like Pan An. How could there be words on his face?"

Xing Tianli sighed: "So, the word 'Saint Mother' is not written on my face!"

"Since I am not a saint, it is already a great achievement for me to be able to protect those who I am somewhat attached to." Xing Tianli sighed: "In such a huge Yu Dynasty, there must be hundreds of thousands of people dying every day due to natural disasters and man-made calamities. Could it be that all of them are blamed on me?"

The bearded man stared at Xing Tianli blankly, and was speechless. Xing Tianli clapped his hands lightly, and two patrol soldiers rushed in with a damp smell. Xing Tianli ordered them to find bandages and wound medicine, bandaged the bearded man's wound, and then let him collapse on the ground.

Time passed little by little.

The sound of roosters crowing could be heard in the distance. Xing Tianli slowly stood up and said, "I won't keep you here any longer. Take the dead man outside and go! Even though I didn't leave him a complete body, he still needs to be buried in peace."

The thin bamboo pole gently poked the center of the bearded man's forehead. Xing Tianli chuckled and said, "By the way, there is the only coffin shop in Xiaolongqiu Town. I am not familiar with their boss at all, but they are said to be a century-old shop and use real materials. I suggest you go there and buy a good one for your brother."

Xing Tianli waved his hand, and the bearded man gritted his teeth, struggled to his feet, staggered out of the door, carried the headless body of the black-faced man with difficulty, and fled out of the yard in a panic.

"That's rude!" Xing Tianli waited until the bearded man left before he said quietly, "There's brain matter and blood all over the floor, and there's even an arm on the ground, and they didn't even leave any money for cleaning up. That's really rude!"

Putting the double-barreled shotgun on his back and stuffing more than twenty shotgun shells into his belt, Xing Tianli tapped the thin bamboo pole and walked out of the door: "Brothers, thank you for your help. Come with me. I'll take that guy with me."

The stupid patrol inspector said in shock: "Little Li, didn't you let him go?"

Xing Tianli chuckled and tapped the inspection man's forehead with the thin bamboo pole: "Brother, you are such an honest man. Your sister-in-law must be blessed."

The group of patrol officers who stayed in the courtyard burst into laughter, and started to talk dirty words like "virgin chicken", "greenhead", "sooner or later he will find a red aunt to help him" and so on.

The Inspection Office has its own well-trained and ferocious hunting dogs, which are used in night patrols or in catching bandits.

Li Kuisheng was a man who had no shortage of money and was willing to spend it. In Xiaolongqiu Town, a small inspection office, he raised more than twenty fat, strong and extremely ferocious wolf mastiffs.

At this moment, eight wolf mastiffs that looked extremely mean and sinister were walking in front with their tails between their legs. They raised their heads from time to time, sniffed the bloody smell in the air, and trotted behind the bearded man.

Xing Tianli brought the hundred or so people he had gathered, holding umbrellas and all armed with guns, and followed the group of wolf mastiffs.

In this way, the group passed through the town and found the headless body of the black-faced man in a bush on the side of the road.

I continued to follow the bearded man, heading straight to the south of Xiaolongqiu Town, and walked along the mighty Jing River for more than ten miles. In front of me was a small hill that stretched for more than twenty miles, covered with black pine trees. The bearded man, who had fallen dozens of times along the way, rolled and crawled into the hill.

Everyone quickened their pace and followed the bearded man in. They walked around a few small mounds of earth and saw a few simple shacks made of branches and tarpaulin under a few black pine trees in front of them that were so thick that several people could hug them.

It was already bright outside, and fire pits had been lit in several shacks, with the faint aroma of barbecue wafting out.

Towards the direction of Xiaolongqiu Town, under a big pine tree, there was a crude shed that could barely keep out the wind and rain. Two soaked men were huddled in the shed, peeking in the direction of the shed and sniffing from time to time.

The bearded man seemed to have exhausted all his strength. He took a few heavy steps towards the shack and fell to the ground with a thud. He struggled hard, making a mess of the thick pine needles on the ground, but he was unable to get up. He screamed hoarsely, "Asshole, get out of here, it's over, Lao Luo and I are both dead."

Under the big pine tree, in the small shed, two men rushed out in a panic and hurriedly helped the bearded man up: "Brother Qian, what's wrong with you? Ouch, why are you missing an arm?"

From several shacks, more than twenty men of different heights came out one after another. Some of them opened their arms involuntarily and yawned as they came out. Some of them hurriedly ran to a big tree, untied their belts and urinated. Some of them rubbed their eyes desperately, looking as if they had not woken up yet.

At first glance, the twenty or so men looked like 'scattered guerrillas' and 'remnant soldiers'.

A tall man with a bulging belly pushed through the crowd and strode towards the bearded man who was crying and shouting, "Old Qian, you lost an arm? Li Kuisheng, you really don't give face to your old brothers? Do you really want to end up in a bloodbath and break up?"

The bearded man was supported by two other men and staggered to the fat man. "Boss Sun, Li Kuisheng doesn't dare to offend our old brother. We can see that if we force him more, he will definitely give in."

"But his nephew is really a cruel little beast!"

“Lao Luo, Lao Luo…” The bearded man shuddered and cried, “Lao Luo’s head was blown up by that little bastard, and my arm was also cut off by that little bastard himself!”

About twenty men surrounded them, some of them were shouting loudly, some were cursing loudly.

Xing Tianli held an umbrella in his hand, listened to the unbearable curses, and waved his hand gently. The leader of the patrol department asked in a low voice: "Little Li, what about us?"

Xing Tianli said calmly: "As soon as I heard the noise, I knew they were all bandits. There's no need to hold back, just wait for their fate!"

More than a hundred patrol officers immediately formed a short arc and slowly moved forward. With the cover of the black pine forest and the sound of wind and rain covering up the noise of their movements, they approached within five meters of the shack.

Over a hundred long and short guns made dull noises at the same time, and more than thirty of the long guns were double-barreled shotguns firing shotgun shells. The dense bullets tore through the rain and hit the group of men hard.

On the spot, more than a dozen men spurted out large amounts of blood, fell to the ground wailing, and twitched wildly while struggling for their lives.

The obviously fat Boss Sun reacted very quickly. Even before the gunshot, he had already spotted the figure approaching in the woods. He grabbed the bearded man and held him in front of his body. Then he turned around, swooped down, and was about to throw himself to the ground, then crawled and rolled backwards to escape.

This is a set of standard battlefield technical and tactical actions.

However, his body no longer supports him to do such actions.

He did pick up the bearded man and blocked him in front of him, but just as he turned around, before he could fall down, his ankle made a terrible tearing sound. His movements were too big and his body was too heavy, so his ankle could not withstand his movements and the ligaments were torn.

The bearded man was targeted by at least ten men from the Inspection Office. With bullets flying everywhere, eight of their bullets went nowhere, but two lucky men's bullets hit the bearded man in the chest.

Blood splattered everywhere, and the bearded man staggered back two steps. His first reaction was to turn around and look at the fat man who was holding his ankle and crying. He fell heavily to the ground, spitting out large mouthfuls of blood, and stretched out his right hand to tightly hold the fat man's ankle!
"Brother, we swore an oath that we don't ask to be born in the same year and month..." The bearded man opened his mouth and his breath stopped suddenly, but his fingers clasped the fat man's feet even more tightly.

With just one volley of gunfire from the Inspection Office, most of the twenty or so men in the shack fell down. The remaining men had no intention of resisting at all. They raised their hands and knelt on the ground obediently.

Everything was ready, and the surrendered men were tied up tightly with hemp ropes. Xing Tianli, holding an umbrella, slowly walked to the fat man.

"Boss Sun? Are you their leader? Not likely!"

Boss Sun raised his head and was about to spit at Xing Tianli, but Xing Tianli kicked him in the mouth, smashing his teeth to pieces and knocking his lips to pieces on his teeth.

"A chance for a sentence. Where is the person above you and how do you find him?"

Boss Sun bared his teeth and looked at Xing Tianli, laughing miserably: "I..."

With a flash of sword light, both of Boss Sun's arms were cut off.

Amid the blood splattering, everyone present, whether they were from the Inspection Office or the men who had surrendered, turned pale with fear.

Many of the men from the Inspection Office looked at Xing Tianli with inexplicable awe in their eyes.

They almost watched Xing Tianli grow from such a well-behaved little kid to his current age.

They never dreamed that Xing Tianli, who was usually gentle and polite, spent all day in the study and teahouse, and would blush when talking to little girls, could have such cruel means!
"You wasted half a sentence, I'll give you another chance to say half a sentence!" Xing Tianli sighed faintly, "With the next sword, I will definitely chop off your head!"

Boss Sun cried out a few times and said urgently, "Dalongqiu County, Sihai Old Inn!"

(End of this chapter)