My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Jiang Li and Uncle Jiu looked at each other, and then Uncle Jiu said to the mayor, "Mayor, can you please invite those villagers from Teng Teng Town to come here so I can ask them some questions."

The mayor said, "Of course there is no problem with this," and asked someone to bring those people over.

Uncle Jiu saw the villagers, whose clothes were old and a little torn, and asked, "Have you seen those horse bandits? How many men and horses do they have? How do you know they are invulnerable?"

Upon hearing this, those people immediately started talking at once. Uncle Jiu couldn't hear clearly, so he directly called on a person who spoke somewhat coherently to answer.

The man replied, "There were more than a dozen of them, all on horseback. It was early in the morning, just after dawn, and they rushed into the town and killed anyone they saw. I saw them kill Er Gou with my own eyes."

"Ergou's father picked up an axe and rushed forward to avenge his son, but he ended up hitting the horse thief on the head with the axe, which only made him stagger, without any injury. When the thief came to his senses, he killed Ergou's father with a single blow."

"Later they rushed into the town, burning, killing and looting. I was so scared that I ran around and into the woods. Later I saw them driving pigs and sheep into the woods. I thought they were looking for me, so I ran to Tanjia Town to seek refuge with my cousin."

Uncle Jiu frowned and asked, "Then how do you know they will come to attack Tanjia Town?"

The man said, "That forest is ten miles away from Tanjia Town. I found along the way that I came here that there is only one road for horse racing besides that forest, so their next target must be Tanjia Town."

Uncle Jiu and the mayor nodded when they heard this, and then Uncle Jiu said, "In this case, we might as well organize young and strong people to ambush them on the road they must pass, so as to prevent them from rushing into the town to burn, kill, loot and cause greater damage."

The mayor and the wealthy family here heard this and discussed it for a while before making a decision, saying, "Then follow Uncle Jiu's advice and eliminate them on the road."

So the mayor organized most of the young and strong people in the town, and after a simple arming, he took people to set the trap. After the trap was set, they didn't know the specific time when the horse thieves would rob, so they could only have people guard outside the town day and night to monitor it.

During this period, Aqiang, who looked very similar to Awei, also became a registered disciple of Uncle Jiu, just like Ade.

And this wait lasted for two days.

In the evening of that day, Tan Baiwan invited a "Maoshan Taoist priest" who called himself Maoshan Ming to exorcise ghosts for him, but he didn't know that the guy was just a half-baked ghost-raising swindler.

After some operations, he successfully lured out a family of ghosts, who chased him away in a panic. Fortunately, this family of ghosts had no intention of harming people and were not killed.

When Mao Shanming finally escaped to the town, he found that there was no one in the town as it had just gotten dark. Curious, he went to a Baohe Inn and knocked on the door gently, only to find that it was not locked. He pushed the door open and saw a fire in the room.

A Qiang and A De walked up to him and chopped off his straw hat with a knife each. A Qiang then grabbed his neck with his backhand, making him unable to move.

Ah Qiang, who was already a little nervous after two days of waiting, asked him, "You must not be a good person to come into the town in the dark."

"Tell me, are you not a good person?"

But at this time, Mao Shanming's neck had been strangled and he couldn't speak at all.

But Aqiang ignored all this and continued to question, "Say it, if you don't say it, it's yes."

When he got no response, he continued to ask, "Tell me, are you from the Horse Thieves Gang? If you don't tell me, then you are."

"Tell me, are you here to investigate this town? If you don't tell me, then it's you."

At this time, Ade saw that the situation was not good and quickly reminded, "Captain, if you strangle him, he will die."

Before Aqiang could react, he continued to question her, "Tell me, if I continue to strangle you, will you die?"

But at this time Mao Shanming was unable to speak at all. He just stretched out his hands to try to pry Aqiang's hands apart. However, Aqiang was already extremely tense at this moment, and Mao Shanming could not pry them apart at all.

Ade couldn't bear to watch and persuaded, "If you do, let go. If you continue to strangle him, you will kill him."

A Qiang still didn't react and continued to strangle Mao Shanming to make him speak, but at this time he himself didn't know what to let others say.

So he asked Ade, "Where were you talking about?"

Seeing that he really couldn't listen, Ade spread his hands and said, "You ask and answer your own questions. It doesn't matter what you say."

When A Qiang heard this, he stopped asking questions and pushed Mao Shanming away, ready to execute him on the spot.

At this time, Jiang Li and Uncle Jiu had just opened the door and saw A Qiang was about to kill someone without asking any questions, so they quickly stepped in to stop him.

Seeing that Aqiang was in a bad mental state, Jiang Li quickly snatched the knife from him.

Seeing the man being rescued, Uncle Jiu said with a righteous look on his face, "It's too outrageous to execute him on the spot without any evidence."

When Ah Qiang heard that someone wanted evidence, he immediately stepped forward and rummaged through his bag, throwing away everything including the pomelo leaves and yellow paper. He then noticed an oil-paper umbrella on his waist, so he reached out to take it down and was about to open it.

Mao Shanming immediately shouted, "Don't open it."

A Qiang said nonchalantly, "What do you mean it can't be opened?" and then he insisted on opening it to check.

At this time, Uncle Jiu stretched out his hand to stop him and said, "Don't open the umbrella in the house." Then he used his magic power to sweep across the umbrella and found that there was indeed something inside.

So he returned the umbrella to Mao Shanming and asked, "Brother, why did you come at this time instead of earlier or later?"

Mao Shanming asked in confusion, "What happened?"

Ah Qiang replied arrogantly, "We have heard that a group of bandits are coming to rob our town in the next two days."

Just then, Ah Shou from the security team came over with a torch and reported, "The bandits are here. They just crossed the river and the mountains, and are almost at the big forest."

Uncle Jiu heard this and asked Jiang Li, "Are you ready?"

Before Jiang Li could speak, the nervous A Qiang immediately shouted, "We've been prepared for a long time. We're just waiting for them to die."

Upon hearing this, Uncle Jiu turned around and led his men away. Jiang Li ordered, "Young and strong men should follow us, and the elderly and children should stay behind and not go out."

...

Because they had practiced this countless times, the more than 200 young and strong men in the town quickly arrived at the ambush sites.

Soon, a group of more than a dozen horse thieves in black clothes and robes took advantage of the night to attack Tanjia Town.

Uncle Jiu gave A Shou, who was holding the trap rope, a look, and A Shou nodded in understanding.

As the horse thieves approached, A Shou decisively pulled the trap rope, revealing a row of sharp wooden stakes blocking the horse thieves' path. The horse thieves were frightened and turned to run away, mumbling something inaudible.

The same thing happened when he ran to the back, and he was blocked by a row of spiked wooden stakes. Then the people in ambush rushed out immediately, and they attacked with torches, spears, and hunting bows.

Seeing this, the horse thieves immediately turned their horses around and fled backwards, then repeatedly jumped over the spikes in an attempt to break out from the rear. The young and strong men who had been lying in ambush for a long time all rushed out with their weapons in hand to block their way.

My goodness, it was quite terrifying to see a hundred people rushing out with bamboo poles and pitchforks, but unfortunately these guys were invulnerable to swords and guns, so they couldn't cause much damage, but instead allowed the enemy to break out through a small path.