The Little Lucky Girl

"If I lose this position from you," he snorted coldly, "you'd better think about how to explain it to the clan."

County Magistrate Mu was apprehensive when he heard this. "Then what do you think we should do? How about I go find Lord Tao and surrender to him?"

The clan leader was not anxious when he saw this. He pondered for a moment and said, "Wait a minute. Since things have developed to this point, if we give in, he will think that our Mu family is easy to control. What you said before is also true. We were able to hold on to the position of county lieutenant because of our ability."

The chief put his hands close to the stove and warmed them. "It snowed heavily this winter, and the weather is colder than in previous years. Those bandits in the grasslands and deep mountains are probably having a hard time. They might come here to rob before spring comes."

He paused, "When the time comes, you can find a reason to hide away first, and let the county magistrate and his men resist for a while. When he is defeated, you can lead your men to rescue him, and he will know our advantages."

The Mu family had been operating in Yuqing County for many years, and their assessment of the situation was quite accurate. Just a few days after the Chinese New Year, when the people were still immersed in the festive atmosphere, the bandits brought a large number of troops and prepared to enter the city to raid it.

County Lieutenant Mu was patrolling the periphery. In recent days, he had occasionally seen some unfamiliar faces lingering near the official road in a sneaky manner, and he immediately became alert.

Just thinking of the clan leader's words, County Captain Mu hesitated for a moment, and finally took his men to choose another route to leave, getting further and further away from where the bandits might appear.

When Chief Mu received the news from the county lieutenant, he immediately took all the young and strong men in the tribe out of the city in the name of the tribe's spring festival.

He planned to "accidentally" encounter a conflict between the county government and the bandits. Based on the county government's past combat capability, without the support of the Mu family, it would surely be at a disadvantage, and he could immediately lend a helping hand.

As long as the situation is under control in time, there won't be too many losses, and Chief Mu is reassured. He doesn't ask for much, but just hopes that Magistrate Tao will owe him a favor and return to the same cooperation model as the previous county magistrates.

Chief Mu carefully planned his plan, but unfortunately he didn't realize that he had underestimated the strength of the current county magistrate.

Not to mention that Magistrate Tao had high-level workers such as the Imperial Guards around him, who had already had a clear view of the bandits' whereabouts.

The reason why we did not choose to take the initiative was simply because we wanted to lure them to a flat area so that we could concentrate and annihilate them.

Even without these experts, Magistrate Tao had already asked the garrison in the city to upgrade the city gates and secretly added many mechanisms inside. It was almost impossible for a group of rabble to rely on the convenience of horses to come and go freely as before.

Chief Mu faced the biting cold wind, mobilized the youths, and then stood on the carriage to look around. As it was almost dark, he did not see any movement in the county town.

Thinking that his eldest nephew's information was wrong, he took the young men back to the county town with some disappointment.

As soon as I entered the city gate, I found that the street was very lively. A group of yamen runners were carrying boxes of things to the county government office. It was said that they were all seized from the bandits' lair.

The common people gathered around and were discussing enthusiastically. Every time they heard the news of the bandits coming, they would be frightened. The more cautious ones would quickly pack a package so that they could escape at any time.

Who would have thought that this time the bandits were captured outside the city before they even reached the city gate, and they also contributed a lot of horses and gold and silver to the county government.

Chief Mu stood nearby and responded to everyone with a smile, but he felt a little cold in his heart.

Not only because Magistrate Tao had not informed his nephew of these arrangements, but also because he saw that among the yamen runners carrying the boxes, there were several young men who came from the mountain village.

Many people were surrounding the young man named Yanhan. It was said that he overturned the bandit leader's carriage with just one hand and captured the guy alive.

Everyone looked at him with admiration, praising him without asking for anything in return, and in the past, such scenes only happened in his Mu family.

Chief Mu of the Yan clan stronghold knew about this. In fact, the two clans had some relationship as they both fled to Yuqing County from the same place.

It’s just that the ancestors of their Mu family were more far-sighted. Although the mountains were safer than the county town at that time and they didn’t have to pay for the land, their ancestors still chose to settle in the county town.

At that time, there were many refugees in the city who had not returned. Houses and land were much cheaper than in peacetime, but the money of their entire family combined was only enough to buy a small yard.

Fortunately, they were much stronger than the locals, so the men started out by carrying heavy bags at the docks and doing hard labor for wealthy families. Later, they began to work as guards for other people, and later entered the county government.

"Dalimu Family" became their characteristic, and the clan gradually gained a foothold in the county.

Now this advantage was taken by the Yan clan members who were stronger than them. They also had direct contact with the county magistrate. Clan leader Mu couldn't help but feel nervous.

County Captain Mu was also feeling uneasy when he returned home. He vaguely felt that County Magistrate Tao seemed to be able to guess his thoughts. If he pursued the matter, he was afraid that he would lose his official uniform. He could not help but blame the clan leader in his heart.

So he spoke with resentment, "Now it's all right. I'm afraid it will be even harder for me to survive in the county government after this. It's all because of you that I ended up in this situation. What do you think we should do?"

Chief Mu was also very upset. He snorted coldly, "I only resorted to this desperate measure to make your life easier. You should know Magistrate Tao better than I do. Can't you think of a solution?"

County Magistrate Mu couldn't sleep and actually figured out a way, but this method...

He took a deep breath and asked tentatively, "Uncle, do you still remember how we got into the county government office?"

Chief Mu's eyes widened instantly. "My goodness, you are so bold. You actually want the whole tribe to catch a tiger for you."

When they first arrived, although they earned money through physical labor, they also took jobs away from the locals, and for this they were often ostracized and bullied.

Seeing that they could no longer stay there, the tribe leader gritted his teeth and took his people to the mountains for more than half a month. Thanks to their good luck, they finally caught a tiger.

After sending the beast to the county government office, the Mu family gained the favor of the county magistrate and got a position as a minor official.

Also, because the Mu family members were strong and worked hard, they made contributions in several battles against the enemy, and thus they were promoted from minor officials to county lieutenants. Over the past few decades, although there have been constant personnel changes, this position has always been occupied by the Mu family.

Because of his family's advantage, Patriarch Mu was not very afraid of Magistrate Tao. As the county government may remain permanent, but county magistrates may come and go, when Magistrate Tao's term is over and he leaves, the next county magistrate will not have such a strong background, and at that time he will still have to rely on families like them for help.

But he was afraid that the people in Yan's stronghold would follow the same path as they did in the past. Those people had no accumulation of experience and were reckless in doing things. However, after all these years of good life, the new generation of young people no longer had the spirit of the older generation.

The old patriarch sighed and softened his tone, "Even if we still want to catch another tiger, there are more and more people in the county these years, and the beasts have long disappeared. Where can we find them?"