"Hand over all your valuables!"
Before Liu Feng could reply, a rude male voice came from outside.
Xiao Lin lifted the curtain and looked outside, where he saw Liu Feng draw his sword and say to him, "Young master, judging from their appearance, they should be bandits from this area. Should we kill them?"
Xiao Lin's gaze fell on that group of people.
There were ten men in total, riding skinny horses and wearing patched hemp clothes. The leader looked imposing; he was a tall man with a scar across his face. The rest of the men were mostly thin and short.
If a real fight broke out, Liu Feng could kill them all without him even lifting a finger.
"Put the knife away," he whispered to Liu Feng.
Xiao Lin stepped out of the carriage and said, "Brave warriors, I am just a poor doctor passing through, and I really have no money on me. I hope you can spare my life."
He was tall and slender, with a handsome face and such a pleasant voice.
Standing there like that, he attracted everyone's attention.
The bandits gasped for breath, then looked at their leader and asked, "Boss, what do we do now?"
The tall man blushed after Xiao Lin came out.
He had never seen such a beautiful person before.
"You say you're a doctor?" the man said sternly. "We happen to be short of doctors. If you don't have any money, come back to the village with us and help treat people!"
Seeing that they were about to come up and tie Xiao Lin up, Liu Feng frowned and wanted to draw his sword again, but was stopped by Xiao Lin once more.
In the end, they had no choice but to give up.
The two were thus tied to the back of the horse and forced to go up the mountain with the bandits.
Yu Tang popped out of Xiao Lin's arms and teased him in a low voice, "Your Majesty, did you see the way they looked at you? They practically wanted to tie you up and give you to that bandit leader to be his wife!"
Xiao Lin raised an eyebrow: "What? Has the general already grown tired of me? Are you in such a hurry to push me into the arms of another man?"
"Haha, how could I bear to?"
"If you can't bear to part with it, why say such things?"
"Just kidding." Yu Tang kissed his cheek. "Your Majesty, don't be angry."
Xiao Lin snorted through his nose in a pretentious manner and said seriously, "After we cross this mountain, we will reach the epidemic area. Previously, some ministers reported that bandits in this area had stolen disaster relief grain."
If they're in the same group, we can take this opportunity to investigate.
“Your Majesty and I are thinking the same thing.” Yu Tang sat on Xiao Lin’s shoulder and whispered in his ear, “But since Your Majesty is putting yourself through so much trouble to investigate the case, I have to put in some effort too.”
After saying that, he chuckled and said, "Your Majesty, please rest assured, if that boss tries to do anything to you, I will be the first to object!"
"What can he do to me?" Xiao Lin glared. "Can't you wish me something good?"
Little Jin chimed in, "Master, you're so stubborn! If you say a few more words, Xiao Lin might break free of the ropes right now and swallow you whole!"
Yu Tang laughed: What do you know? This is just a bit of fun between the two of us.
I'd really like to see this beautiful woman tied up with ropes, crying and begging me for help. Then I'd descend from the sky and be the hero who saves the damsel in distress.
"Master, you've become bad!" Little Gold exclaimed, then gave a thumbs-up: [You've become just as bad as me! You truly are my master!]
Yu Tang responded without any modesty: "You flatter me, you flatter me."
After teasing Xiao Lin a few more times, once they arrived at the mountain stronghold, Yu Tang leaned into Xiao Lin's hair and peeked out through the gap.
Because he was wearing the underpants that Xiao Lin had sewn for him himself.
So even when surrounded by hair, my skin didn't feel prickly.
This allowed him to observe the entire village environment smoothly.
It's called a mountain stronghold, but it's nothing more than a bunch of dilapidated houses huddled together.
There was a long queue outside the largest room, and several people were standing there scooping a ladle of grain from their bags and putting it into the tattered sacks of the people in line.
Each person received only one scoop of grain and five scoops of bran.
If cooked into porridge, it can last for three or four days.
They just wouldn't starve to death.
"Boss! Boss is back!"
Someone shouted.
The others gathered around and, seeing that they had brought back two people instead of food, couldn't help but become curious.
One of them asked, "Boss, who are they?"
The scarred man, addressed as "Boss," fixed his gaze on Xiao Lin's face, coughed lightly, and spoke.
“They are doctors, and they don’t have any money to hand over, so I arrested them and made them treat patients.”
"Are all doctors this good-looking these days?" A man approached Xiao Lin, looked him up and down, and finally slapped his thigh and laughed: "I think we should keep him here. He would be a good male wife for you, boss!"
Chapter 19
The villain was resurrected for the fourth time (19)
"Pfft, hahaha..." Yu Tang covered her mouth in Xiao Lin's hair, but couldn't stop the rustling laughter.
Hearing this, Xiao Lin's forehead veins throbbed.
He couldn't understand why his general was so happy that he was being treated as a bandit's wife.
Of course, he had no idea that Yu Tang was actually planning to play the hero and save the damsel in distress. So, all he could do was sulk with a cold face.
"What male wife! Sanzi, don't talk nonsense!" The scarred man shoved him and shielded Xiao Lin behind him.
"What do you mean I'm talking nonsense?" Sanzi scratched his head. "Boss, didn't you say before that you like men? Wouldn't it be perfect for you to marry this guy?"
The scarred man's expression turned cold, and he said, "That depends on what he wants."
"And I'm not trying to criticize you, but instead of having the energy to make a scene here, you should go into the woods and dig up some herbs to take to Cuihong and help her treat her patients."
The scarred man was quite intimidating when he got serious.
The men dared not cause any more trouble and quickly obeyed his words, running off to help Cuihong.
The scarred man looked at Xiao Lin: "Can you promise me that you won't run away after I untie you?"
Even though Xiao Lin felt wronged that Yu Tang didn't care about him at all, he still had to put on an act with his boss.
He then said, "I never intended to run away."
"After all, I'm a wanderer, I can settle down anywhere."
“As long as you don’t harm me and my coachman, I can stay here and help you get treatment.”
The scarred man felt pity for him when he saw his frail appearance.
In her heart, she became even more convinced that he was a doctor who was completely powerless.
"My name is Gu Dashan." The scarred man drew a dagger from his waist and untied Xiao Lin and Liu Feng.
"Everyone usually calls me 'Boss,' but you can call me 'Big Mountain.'"
As he spoke, he walked forward: "Let's go to Cuihong's place too, she's short-handed."
On the way, Gu Dashan told Xiao Lin that they were all from Nanliu City before.
Gu Dashan had served as a martial arts instructor under the prefect. After the flood, the people and the imperial court demanded that the prefect of Nanliu City open the granaries to provide disaster relief.
But when the granary was opened, they found that there was very little grain inside, which was far less than the amount usually reported.
There was no food due to the flood, so the matter was reported to the imperial court. However, just then, Liu An secretly gave the grain he had collected from the south to Beijiucheng to defend against foreign enemies.
In addition, the rampant corruption among officials in the area led to the people not only going hungry but also facing the plague.
It was an extremely difficult time.
Despair gripped everyone's heart.
Some people were waiting for the imperial court to rescue them, while others, like Gu Dashan, went up the mountain and became bandits.
In their hearts, the battles in the north were the straw that broke the camel's back.
If it weren't for the war in the North, they might not have suffered so much.
Just as Qian Zhiyuan said, ordinary people don't care who sits on the throne; they only care about who can feed and clothe them.
After all, the Kingdom of Xiao was too large.
The northern border and the southern city are too far apart.
They did not see the devastation of the battle; all they saw were cracked dikes, floods that claimed lives and food, and brought plague and famine.
In this situation, the princes were still vying for power and didn't care about their lives at all.
After listening to his story, Xiao Lin's expression darkened.
He asked Gu Dashan, "But I heard that the imperial court recently distributed disaster relief grain, didn't you receive it?"
“I worked for the prefect, and I know very well that after the disaster relief grain arrives, it will be divided up layer by layer, and very little of it will actually reach the disaster victims.”
Gu Dashan, harboring resentment, said, "That's why we became bandits in the mountains, gathered the disaster victims of Nanliu City together, and worked together to seize all the disaster relief grain, truly helping more people!"
At this point, they arrived at Cuihong's residence.
Far from those dilapidated houses, there was a large shack.
The roof was covered with straw, and underneath were straw mats, where people with sores on their bodies and red faces coughed.
“If you have handkerchiefs, take them out and cover your mouth and nose.”
Gu Dashan took out a piece of cloth from his pocket, covered his face, and told Xiao Lin and Liu Feng about it.
The two exchanged a glance and did as instructed.
Cuihong, a young woman, walked over and said, "Brother Dashan, I heard from Sanzi that you brought back a beautiful doctor? Is this her?"
Xiao Lin cupped his hands and politely introduced himself: "I am Yu Lin, and this is my coachman Liu Feng. He has met Miss Cui Hong."
Xiao Jin mocked mercilessly: "Xiao Lin is using your surname, haha. Yu Lin, why isn't he called Yu Lin (Fish Scale)?"
As he said this, Cuihong laughed and said, "Fish Scales? Doctor Yu's name is very interesting."