After being wrongly married, I stabbed my husband to death and became famous throughout the world.

That evening, Li Shu began writing another letter to Cheng Mian.

These soldiers rarely appeared outside, so Li Shu found it difficult to get close to them. She finally found a kind-hearted person she could get close to, and it would be against her conscience to take advantage of him, but it would be against her own wickedness not to take advantage of him.

She wasn't completely unethical; the price of these warhorses certainly couldn't be too high.

After all, as the powerful, they could simply snatch what was in her hands.

The warhorses were secondary; the important thing was how to make the situation of Ganhe Town being coveted by bandits sound more serious...

With this group of bandits dead, Ganhe Town will surely be divided up by other bandits. The people of the border town have lived in fear for years, and it's time for the border troops to take charge. However, to get them to take charge, there needs to be a sufficient reason...

Simply put, she needs to frame the bandits for a major crime.

Li Shu thought about it all night, but still had no solution.

Early in the morning, she went to see Old Yu first.

Old Yu looked at his apprentice with a very complicated expression. He seemed to want to say something but hesitated, and the wrinkles on his old face deepened.

"Master, you used to serve in the army, do you know much about military supplies?" Li Shu paused, then became more direct. "I heard that the two months after the autumn harvest are the time to transport provisions, but this year the provisions were not prepared properly, which is why the war has not gone smoothly. Provisions include pay, grain, clothing, herbs, and even weapons and armor. According to past practice, are these all delivered together, or in batches?"

"..." Old Yu opened his mouth, somewhat bitterly, "It's hard to say. Sometimes they arrive in batches, but if the imperial court has sufficient funds, they will all arrive together."

"If that's the case, the convoy transporting the supplies must have been quite large, right? I was on the mountain this winter, and it was difficult to travel in the freezing weather. I thought the supplies couldn't have been delivered at that time. But after the weather warmed up a bit, I haven't heard of any large convoys passing by. Does that mean that this year's supplies haven't all been delivered yet?"

Old Yu was completely dumbfounded.

Why would a little girl like her ask so many questions?

"You robbed the bandits, fine, but you didn't even take the army's provisions..." Old Yu probed.

“Of course not!” Li Shu immediately retorted. “I think these bandits are bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong, so the army is too lazy to deal with them. But what if they are too greedy?” Li Shu frowned as he thought.

"..." Old Yu took a deep breath. "They're not stupid. They just want to rob, not to die."

“You’re right.” Li Shu nodded.

The matter of supplies was no secret at all; people inside the pass could actually observe it.

She has been keeping watch at the town entrance every day recently and has noticed that things in the town are not quite the same as before.

More people are staying at the town's inn.

The increase was even more noticeable in Yicheng, where there were more traveling merchants. When she went to exchange her silver notes, she took a closer look and noticed that many of the merchants smelled of medicine.

The military has a great need for medicinal herbs.

Most of the medicines were collected and sent from the capital, but the army's needs might not be met, so the border troops would also purchase some themselves.

Merchants are very well-informed.

So... if her guess is correct, some herbs should arrive soon.

Thinking of this, Li Shu stopped practicing martial arts and ran away.

Now that she has her own household registration, she can freely enter and leave Yicheng. Although she is still easily questioned, the chances of getting into trouble are much smaller.

After arriving in Yicheng, she found a suitable place, changed her clothes, took out fifty taels of silver, found an inconspicuous herbalist, and bought a lot of blood dragon.

She had seen the old doctor use this medicine when she went to the military.

She didn't know the purpose of this thing at first, but after hearing what the herbal medicine merchant said, she understood.

It disperses blood stasis, promotes new blood production, relieves pain, and promotes tissue regeneration; an essential tool in the military.

She put all of these into her spatial storage, and after returning home, she added a few more lines to the letter before having it sent out.

After she finished all that, she went to see Chen Ying and the others.

"Ah Li, where did you go so early in the morning? Why didn't you practice martial arts today?" Chen Ying found it quite strange.

"Since you're all here, let's split the bill. Also, I have a few things to say." Li Shu was very direct, leading everyone into the house and closing the door.

Everyone was very obedient, and their eyes were full of expectation.

"In this robbery...the capture of the horse bandits, we got 220 taels for their heads, 300 taels of silver notes for the bandit leader, 36 taels of loose silver, and about 60 taels of other loose silver. The clothes we looted that could be sold should fetch some more money if we sell them at the pawnshop. We'll leave the money from the warhorse aside for now..."

“This time, each person will be given fifty taels. After deducting the cost of medicine from the money earned from the warhorses, have my cousin make an account and record it so that it can be used when necessary in the future,” Li Shu added.

"Fifty taels?! Should we keep a little more? We haven't done anything, and we've made so much money all at once..." Chang Fa was embarrassed to take it.

"This is what everyone deserves, and don't forget you all signed a waiver of liability." Li Shu grinned, then began handing out money.

This money was a pleasant surprise for everyone.

They were young and occasionally went out to work, but there weren't many ways to earn money outside, and they were already quite lucky if they could earn a few dozen coins each time.

Holding this money, everyone felt a sense of unreality.

Li Shu also put away her share of the money, and placed the remaining small amount of silver into a box, which she locked, and offered to keep it safe without any hesitation.

Everyone trusted her completely and felt completely at ease.

“There is one more important matter.” After discussing the money, Li Shu changed the subject and said, “I spent fifty taels of silver today to buy some medicinal herbs. In the future, when you mention these herbs, you must all be consistent in your statements.”

"Cousin, what does this mean?" Chen Ying asked, puzzled.

“We caught some bandits. The bandit leader was captured and confessed in a panic, saying that in addition to robbing local rich people, he also robbed traveling merchants.”

"The bandits of Lingshan noticed the recent increase in the number of herbal medicine merchants and planned to launch a large-scale robbery once the merchants finished their business with the army. Some unscrupulous bandits had already attacked the herbal medicine merchants, but fearing to alert them, they did not attack the large caravans and only managed to steal a small amount of herbs..."

“The medicinal herbs we have are a small portion of the herbs that the bandit leader hid in the mountains and hadn’t had time to move into his lair,” Li Shu added.

"..."

Li Shu then recounted many more details.

"Cousin, do you mean to let the army deal with these bandits?" Chen Feiqing asked.

“Yes, it’s always been bandits who rob the people, but now so many bandits are dying at our hands. If some competitive people want revenge, it will be terrible. Now that we’ve shifted the conflict to the army, we’ll be much safer here.”

"The army will absolutely not tolerate bandits attacking grain and medicinal herbs. If something happens to the merchants who transport medicinal herbs, which merchant will dare to send things to the border in the future?"

"..."