Spy Wars: I have space, but I choose to work alone

February 1938, Zhaojia Village, a lawless village at the junction of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

This small mountain village with only 54 households was like a paradise during the war years because of its remote location.

A group of simple and honest farmers live here, relying on the mountains for their livelihood, and lead a poor but peaceful life.

But in this era when the earth is sinking and the people are suffering.

Who can remain unaffected, keep themselves out of it and stay out of it?

Soon a gunshot was heard, and a scarred man on horseback, holding an old Mauser 1896 pistol, and arrogantly walked into Zhaojia Village with five or six of his men who were armed with various weapons ranging from Hanyang rifles to broadswords.

Ma Liang rushed into the house without saying a word, took out the Glock 45 that Zhao Laoba and himself brought back, replaced it with a full magazine, and began to put on his personal equipment.

Looking at Ma Liang who was packing his equipment without saying a word but with a murderous look on his face, Zhao Laoba remembered Ma Liang covered in blood that night and shuddered.

"Wu Song, don't use your gun!"

Zhao Laoba stopped Ma Liang's action, turned around and dug out a small black jar from under the bed, poured out thirteen silver dollars from it, and ran out quickly.

Ma Liang was stunned for a moment. Having always lived on the dark side, he immediately understood what Zhao Laoba meant.

The dark world also has its own rules, and some things do not necessarily require fighting and killing.

Thinking of this, Ma Liang put on Zhao Laoba's clothes and followed him out.

Sure enough, the village was not in chaos as Ma Liang had originally imagined. Instead, the villagers looked like they were used to the scene.

He simply hid the family's property and women and followed the village chief to wait for the bandits to arrive on the drying dam in the village where the grain was drying.

Soon, Li Heihu, the eighth in command of Black Wind Mountain, rode his horse triumphantly to the drying dam in the center of Zhaojia Village.

He was originally assigned to this unchallenging job of collecting grain from the poor Koreans, which made him, who claimed to be able to do great things, not very interested.

But today was different. He actually met a beautiful girl at the entrance of this broken mountain village. He was so excited that he wanted to eat the ringing bell noodles on the spot.

Li Heihu didn't even look at these poor Koreans who were submissive in front of him. His eyes were all on Xiu'er who was tied up and gagged, and he was almost drooling.

"According to the order of the leader of Black Wind Mountain, every household in Zhaojia Village must pay an additional 50 kilograms of security grain this year and send it to Black Wind Mountain within three days. Those who fail to pay will be killed."

A lackey announced the purpose of his visit in a proud and arrogant manner.

As soon as these words were spoken, the originally honest villagers of Zhaojia Village suddenly panicked. Regardless of the pressure from the bandits, they began to whisper to each other with miserable looks on their faces.

As the village chief, Zhao Deyi had to stand up and plead with the bandits on behalf of the whole village:

"My Lords, didn't we just pay for security grain not long ago? Why do we have to pay again?"

"Hahaha, we at Black Wind Mountain have decided to accept the Locust Army's offer of amnesty. We will soon be members of the Nanyuan County Guard, a legitimate government army."

"You paid grain from Black Wind Mountain before, and the grain you have to pay now is from the garrison troops." The bandit who shouted earlier explained proudly.

The village chief Zhao Deyi had only studied in a private school for a few more years, and was still essentially a mountain man, so he was unable to sort out the logic between the two.

But the bandits' meaning was very clear, that is, the grain must be handed over, no room for negotiation.

But at this time of scarcity, if every household handed over another 50 kilograms of grain, people would probably starve to death.

Thinking of this, Zhao Deyi, the village chief, still suppressed his fear and discussed with the bandits:

"My dear, at this time of year, every household has no surplus food. Can you pay less?"

The bandit who was shouting hadn't said anything yet, and Li Heihu, who had been watching Xiu'er, couldn't stand Zhao Deyi's nagging anymore.

He reached out and took the gun from his waist, then rode forward, put the muzzle of the gun to Zhao Deyi's head, and said with a fierce smile:

"Okay, hand over a human head and I'll reduce your village's grain by 100 kilograms. Your dog head is worth 200 kilograms!"

Feeling the cold, murderous gun barrel on his forehead, a stream of heat flowed out from Zhao Deyi's crotch, and he cried out in resignation:

"We'll hand it in, we'll hand it in!"

Li Heihu didn't shoot, because in his opinion, Zhao Deyi was not worth a bullet, and he just started to laugh at Zhao Deyi.

"Hahaha, are you scared to death?"

The five subordinates also began to laugh at Zhao Deyi unscrupulously.

Ma Liang, who was hiding in the crowd, did not take action. The reason was very simple. It would be easy for him to drive away or kill these people.

Not to mention his current three times stronger physique, even with his previous self, Ma Liang is confident that he can do it.

But what about the bandits’ revenge?

Martial arts novels only tell stories of heroes standing up for the weak in public, beating up bullies, upholding justice, and making people happy.

But no one mentioned the cruel end that befell the weak ones when the bullies took revenge on them after the heroes left.

Judging from the bandits' behavior of demanding food instead of robbing it, the bandits and the mountain people here have formed a relatively complete parasitic relationship, and everyone abides by it tacitly.

When Zhao Laoba saw that the negotiation for urging grain was over, he hurried forward with a dozen silver dollars, knelt in front of Li Heihu's horse, pointed at Xiu'er who was tied up, and pleaded loudly:

"My dear, this is my daughter. She has already been engaged. Please accept this little money, Your Majesty. Will you please let my daughter go?"

Li Heihu's eyes lit up when he looked at the dozen or so dollars.

How could this poor Korean have so much money?

Should I follow the rules and pay money to release the person, or should I break the rules and just rob the person?

At this moment he was a little hesitant.

It stands to reason that bandits would not cause excessive harm to a village like Zhaojia Village that is willing to honestly pay tribute.

Because bandits are a special profession, once their numbers increase, it is impossible for them to survive solely by robbery. This is determined by productivity.

At this time, the bandits under Li Heihu saw that their boss was in trouble, and stepped forward to remind him quietly:

"Eighth Master, we are now an official army. If you like a girl, you can marry her openly!"

Li Heihu's eyes lit up and he patted the sensible man hard on the shoulder.

This clever little bandit was so painful that he grimaced, but he still had to smile with great honor.

Li Heihu took out two silver dollars from his pocket, walked up to Zhao Laoba and helped Zhao Laoba up.

"My dear father-in-law, this is two dollars as a betrothal gift, and the rest is the dowry."

The damn Li Heihu actually took away the money in Zhao Laoba's hand along with his own two dollars.

"Hold!"

This unruly scene made the men in Zhaojia Village, who had been submissive for many years, unable to bear it anymore, and they actually started to make a fuss.

At this time, Ma Liang, who couldn't bear it any longer, stood up.

An old man behind Ma Liang thought that Ma Liang would go up to Li Heihu to reason, so he kindly pulled Ma Liang aside and whispered to him urgently:

"Wu Song, retreat quickly, these bandits won't listen to reason with you."

"Brother Wu!" Xiu'er, who had spit out the gag at some point, also shouted anxiously.

Li Heihu looked at Ma Liang who stood alone. He was initially wary, but when he saw Ma Liang's extremely pale face, he relaxed immediately.

"Where did you come from, you pretty boy? Are you the lover of this beautiful girl? If you kneel down and beg me right now, I can consider letting you go. But if you make me unhappy, Grandpa will kill people!"

As he said this, he prepared to point the gun at Ma Liang, wanting to repeat the scene he had done to the village chief Zhao Deyi before.

They wanted to see Ma Liang kneel down and beg for mercy in public, and it was also a good opportunity to kill a chicken to scare the monkeys and deter the poor Koreans from making some noise.

The five bandits were also laughing, and it seemed that they had Ma Liang in their grasp.

Ma Liang also smiled, and when Li Heihu was about to raise his gun, he calmly said to everyone as if chatting:

"What a coincidence. I'm not very good at reasoning. I can only kill people!"