Sending off Fang Ke,
Yang Ge re-tied his apron and went into the kitchen, starting a fire to cook rice while he pondered every aspect of tomorrow morning’s action, looking for anything that might have been overlooked or needed fixing.
’Now, the biggest problem is not with the three major grain merchants.’
Sitting behind the stove, he gazed intently at the roaring flames and thought: ’But how to gather all of the townspeople to seize the grain!’
’The time must be short, for Fang Ke and his men to stay put like that, it doesn’t make sense.’
"There must be a lot of people, there are no less than four or five thousand stones of grain in the three granaries, too few people can’t take it away."
’And the scene must not turn to chaos, we can’t end up doing more harm than good...’
There were many issues, but after a moment of reflection, he still made some gains.
Firstly, after these two days of distributing porridge, "Zhang Mazi" had gained some notoriety in Lu Ting.
Whether it was a good reputation or a bad one, he had one nonetheless!
At least, when the townspeople got there and saw the Nine-Tubes mask, they should be willing to listen to what he had to say.
And not simply regard him as just another face in the crowd, which would require him to spend more time and saliva explaining himself.
Next, after these two days of distributing porridge, most of the townspeople in Lu Ting would be getting up at that time.
As long as he stirred up a big commotion, he could quickly gather these people together.
As for those lazybones who love to sleep in...
Those who are lazy enough to sleep in even when they’re starving like this, deserve to continue going hungry!
It’s not like he was supposed to seize the grain and cook it before personally delivering it to their beds, right?
Additionally, after he had raided two of the major grain merchants, those tasked with watching over the place had a clear understanding of his martial prowess.
Moreover, having backed down once, to do so a second time would offer even less psychological resistance.
Therefore, during the course of tomorrow morning’s action, there should not be many willing to risk their lives to confront him.
He guessed that those guards would most likely just put up a symbolic resistance...
From these three perspectives, his actions in the past two days of seizing grain and distributing porridge had laid the groundwork for tomorrow’s action.
And now for the most important and the most difficult point: how to convince the townspeople of Lu Ting to go into the granaries of the three major grain merchants to get the grain?
Yang Ge thought about it and realized that the three major grain merchants had already done it for them!
In Zhang Mazi’s words: what the three major grain merchants raised was not just the price of grain, but also the fury in the hearts of the people!
People dared not lay a finger on the three major grain merchants in the past.
It was just that things had not reached that point, and the people were still accustomed to being subservient and without a leader.
That Zhang Mazi, under absolute disadvantage, could still stir up the anger in the hearts of the people of Goose City.
He, as "Zhang Mazi," holding an absolute advantage, could certainly release the fury in the hearts of the townspeople of Lu Ting!
"Isn’t it burning now?"
Yang Ge prodded the fire with the poker inside the stove; a rush of oxygen poured in, and flames within the stove blazed even more fiercely at once.
...
"Dong, dong, dong, dong, dong."
"At the fifth watch, the hero Nine Cakes will distribute porridge!"
The distant time-telling call of the town crier almost made Yang Ge, stepping out with the Nine-Tubes mask in hand, lose his composure.
He held the Nine-Tubes mask in front of him and said to it with a smile, "How do you feel?"
The Nine-Tubes mask didn’t answer, and Yang Ge put it on his face, whispering to himself: "I think it’s pretty good!"
He grabbed his knife, leapt onto the rooftops, and dashed away with light and swift steps.
A quarter of an hour later, Yang Ge leaped onto the wall of Fuhhe Grain Store’s granary courtyard.
Inside, he saw a table set with wine and dishes and a portly middle-aged man dressed like a businessman sitting by it, with over twenty men wielding knives and sticks guarding around the table.
"Do we take it directly, or go through a charade first?"
Yang Ge seemed not to see the group of men in brown, crossing his arms in front of his chest and holding his willow-leaf saber as he asked indifferently.
The portly middle-aged man stood up, bowing with a smile: "I wouldn’t dare to trouble Hero Zhang, 3,808 jin, 8 liang, 6 qian of rice have been prepared, just awaiting Hero Zhang’s arrival."
Yang Ge chuckled lightly, leaped down from the wall, and walked slowly over to take a seat by the table: "You people at Fuhhe are quite amiable... bring out the grain!"
The portly man waved his hand, and a group of men in brown turned and surged towards the granary.
"No need to rush, Hero Zhang might as well have a few drinks, we shouldn’t neglect ourselves while saving people from dire straits, right?"
He poured a cup of wine for Yang Ge with a smile and gestured invitingly.
Yang Ge shook his head, "I won’t drink the wine, I fear you might poison me!"
The portly middle-aged man’s face remained unchanged as he smilingly picked up the wine cup and drank it all in one gulp, and at the end flashed the bottom of the cup to Yang Ge with an air of candor, "Although Zhao is but a lowly merchant, I would disdain to resort to such despicable tricks. Our Fuhe Grain Store sincerely wants to befriend Zhang, so why does Zhang refuse our friendship from a thousand miles away?"
As he spoke, he grabbed another cup, filled it to the brim with wine, and gestured to Yang Ge with an inviting ’please’.
Yang Ge stared at him, "Zhao? You are from the Zhao family?"
The portly middle-aged man clasped his hands together, "I am Zhao Yonggui, the manager of Fuhe Grain Store in Kaifeng."
Yang Ge gently set down his willow-leaf saber, and suddenly smiled, "Don’t the Wang family and the Li family tell you Zhao folks that you only have one chance to strike at me? After this one time, your Zhao family, including those behind you, will never know peace again?"
Zhao Yonggui’s gaze shifted slightly, but his face still bore a look of humble amiability, "Why does Zhang say such a thing? Has there been any negligence on my part?"
"You aren’t practiced in martial arts, so I don’t blame you for the shallowness of your knowledge."
Yang Ge slowly drew out his willow-leaf saber and gently flicked it onto the cup of wine on the table, "Considering this is a decent last meal, I’ll let you go. Leave before dawn, and go as far as you can!"
"After dawn, not a single Zhao family member in Luting County will be left alive!"
Zhao Yonggui’s face finally changed, and he scrambled back behind a plain-clothed Great Han, shouting loudly, "The bandit Zhang Mazi is here! I implore you, sir, to assist our Zhao family. Once the matter is settled, the Zhao family will surely repay you handsomely!"
"Bang."
As Zhao Yonggui’s cry ended, the granary doors crashed down, revealing a group of burly men in black standing inside, striking an intimidating pose.
The leader, his face half-covered by a menacing ghost mask, wore an embroidered flying fish robe and had a bronzed-mottled ox-tail saber slung at his waist. He stood tall and straight.
Yang Ge scrutinized him carefully and noticed that the rascal had even added lifts to his shoes and padding to his shoulders!
Fang Ke, watching his own captain wearing a nine-dragon mask, almost burst out laughing.
Thankfully, he had undergone professional training, so no matter how funny it was, he did not laugh, "So you are the bandit Zhang Mazi, huh?"
Bracing himself with the ox-tail saber, he stepped out of the granary. Behind him, a torrent of brocade-clad guards poured out, surrounding Yang Ge completely.
Yang Ge was of course undaunted, "Who would have thought that the emperor’s own guards would stoop to becoming the lapdogs for such greedy, unjust merchants who can’t even produce a son with XX. If word got out, wouldn’t it tarnish the golden reputation of your brocade guards..."
Upon hearing this, Fang Ke cursed inwardly. Captain, your combat strength is so strong? Are you even sparing your own unit from your sharp tongue?
"Sharp-tongued indeed!"
Not daring to give Yang Ge another chance to speak, he hurriedly drew his ox-tail saber, "I want to see if your blade is as sharp as your tongue! Brothers, attack!"
A row of guards drew their sabers, shouting loudly as they steadily advanced, "Lay down your weapons and live, surrender for leniency, resist and be exiled, kill an official and exterminate your family..."
Yang Ge was at a loss for words, ’Alright, alright, to return like for like, is it?’
It seems the regular training was too light!
He charged silently forward, swinging his saber like a hammer and aimed straight for the arrogant Fang Ke in front of him.
The violent explosion of air from the saber caused Fang Ke to brace himself quickly, raising his ox-tail saber to block the strike.
"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!"
Their sabers met, ringing out like a bronze bell.
The fierceness of the assault forced Fang Ke to retreat repeatedly, leaving him no chance to counter!
While battering Fang Ke with his saber, Yang Ge still had the presence of mind to repel the surrounding guards with his palm strikes, preventing them from getting close.
After just seven or eight strikes, Fang Ke felt his arms go numb and had difficulty parrying, so he yelled at the top of his lungs, "How dare you, ruthless bandit, take this official’s saber!"
Fang Ke thought, ’The script, sir! Stick to the script!’
Yang Ge ignored him and struck down fiercely with his saber once more.
Fang Ke quickly sidestepped to block.
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"Clang!"
The flimsily blocked ox-tail saber firmly caught the blow and instantly snapped in two.
Yang Ge paused, his heart aching, ’My saber!’
Fang Ke glanced at Yang Ge sheepishly, reacted quickly, and pretending to cough up blood, spat out a big mouthful of saliva, shouting, "The bandit is too fierce, we can’t fight him. Brothers, retreat!"
Before he had finished speaking, he’d already turned and fled.
Seeing this, the guards hurried to follow their leader’s footsteps.
Yang Ge picked up his saber to look back at the granary... and there was no sign of the Zhao family!
He picked up half of the ox-tail saber, looking at it over and over again with a sigh, then turned to open the large doors of the granary. Standing at the doorway swinging his half-saber, he shouted with all his Inner Strength, "Fire, fire! Quick, come and put out the fire!"
Lights flickered on one after another.
Countless figures, carrying wooden pails, hoisting water buckets, and raising torches, hurriedly rushed over in this direction.
Seeing the surrounding lights intensifying, Yang Ge turned and charged into the granary shouting, "One-tenth of the grain in your hands, nine-tenths in the Fuhe. Open the granary, save the people..."