In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 444 Black Tide

Therefore, Xie Cang would not want to escape into the Cangmang Mountains unless absolutely necessary. It would be easy to escape into the Cangmang Mountains, but it would be difficult to return safely.

After hesitating for a moment, Xie Cang asked the scout, "Are you sure the reinforcements from Taiping County only number a few hundred?"

"My subordinate is sure."

"it is good!"

A resolute look flashed across Xie Cang's face as he stared intently at the guards inside the room: "Are you really willing to flee into those desolate mountains and live a life of hardship?"

Upon hearing this, the guards all fell silent.

They'd never be willing to do that!

Living here, they can enjoy the service of the original villagers, with good food and drink, and women to serve them. But once they enter the Cangmang Mountain, not only will they lose their food, but they will also have to face wild beasts or even monsters that may appear at any time. If they had a choice, who would want to live such a miserable life?

"Hey, are you planning to fight the reinforcements from Taiping County?"

"A bodyguard who knew Xie Cang very well asked."

"Not bad!"

Xie Cang said firmly, "The reinforcements from Taiping County number only a few hundred, while we have several thousand soldiers, well-armored and well-equipped. Why should we fear the reinforcements from Taiping County?"

"What Xie Tou said makes sense!"

One of the guards chimed in, "Though the martial artists from Taiping County are formidable, they are not gods. We have several thousand soldiers; we may very well be able to defeat them!"

"Then we fought against the reinforcements from Taiping County."

"Damn it, I'm not running anymore. I've had enough of running. This time, I'll fight them to the death!"

"I've long disliked those people from Taiping County. This time, I'll make sure they all die in Ding'an County, so they'll never dare to mess with us again!"

"..."

The crowd inside the room cheered, forgetting their fear of Taiping County, and began shouting for the reinforcements from Taiping County to fight.

Looking at his personal guards who had regained their courage, Xie Cang smiled and said, "Pass on my order: everyone prepare to depart early tomorrow morning to meet the reinforcements from Taiping County. This time, we will make sure they don't return alive!"

"Yes!"

The guards responded in unison, then quickly left the house to gather soldiers in the village, preparing for a decisive battle against the reinforcements from Taiping County.

…………

…………

"Squeak."

The next day, just as dawn broke, the heavy west gate of Ding'an County was slowly opened. As the gate opened, Li Qingyun rode out first on horseback, followed closely by Liu Yi and three martial artists recruited by Li Qingyun.

Behind Li Qingyun were more than 300 members of the Chen family army marching in unison, each with a grim and murderous aura on their face, their steps steady and powerful.

As the Chen family army soldiers filed out of the city, many residents living near the west gate began to whisper among themselves.

Are these soldiers going out of the city to suppress bandits?

"It must be!"

"I heard that the bandits number in the thousands. Can these few hundred soldiers handle it?"

"It should work, right?"

"I hope it works out, otherwise with the city gates closed every day, it's inconvenient for us to do anything!"

"..."

Although the people in the county town had very few sources of information, they knew of the existence of the defeated army outside the city. Of course, they did not know that the defeated army was the former government troops; they simply regarded them as ordinary bandits.

The people naturally had no affection for the robbers, not to mention that the city gates were closed and prices in the city skyrocketed because of their presence.

Therefore, the people were happy to see Li Qingyun go out of the city to suppress the bandits, and many people even secretly cheered for the soldiers.

"We hope the county magistrate can successfully suppress the bandits, otherwise we will all be unable to survive."

"Damn it, my hometown is in the west. I wonder if my fellow villagers have been harmed by those robbers."

"Damn it, this world is unbearable! There are robbers everywhere who rob and kill for money. I don't know what that damned government is doing. All the grain taxes we handed over, I don't know which corrupt official embezzled them!"

"In any case, Magistrate Li certainly wouldn't be corrupt; he's a rare good official!"

"Yes! If it weren't for Magistrate Li, we'd probably still be starving!"

"Squeak!"

Amid the complaints of the people, the heavy city gates were closed again.

Outside the city gate, Li Qingyun rode forward silently, his expression serious. Behind him, more than three hundred Chen family soldiers marched silently. On the desolate official road, only the sound of footsteps and hooves could be heard.

"Stop."

When they reached an open area, Li Qingyun suddenly raised his hand to signal everyone to stop. Because he was riding a horse and had a higher field of vision, he could see a black shadow appearing at the end of his line of sight.

In fact, Li Qingyun didn't even need to remind them. All the martial artists in the Chen family army had already heard the faint sound coming from ahead and stopped in their tracks, staring intently at the horizon!

But then, tiny black shadows, no bigger than ants, appeared on the horizon. As they drew closer, the shadows became clearer in sight.

Those weren't ants at all; they were clearly a large army!

"Prepare for war!"

Chen Da drew his sword and shouted, and the Chen family soldiers did not hesitate, drawing their blades and preparing for battle.

Meanwhile, the army ahead became clearer, consisting of soldiers clad in armor. The standard black armor of the Xia Kingdom gleamed in the sunlight, sending chills down one's spine.

Xie Cang rode his horse behind the thousands of troops, his eyes filled with coldness. Thousands of troops might not have meant much in the great battle in Liangzhou, but in a small place like Ding'an County, thousands of troops were enough to dominate everything, and that was Xie Cang's "capital"!

Xie Cang was never satisfied with the status quo; occupying a few villages was merely a temporary measure to settle his soldiers.

In fact, Xie Cang had always harbored even greater ambitions!

Xie Cang, who came from the Xie family, had read many books and learned from some history books that neither the illustrious Xie family of today nor the royal family that now controls the nine provinces, were their ancestors who were just ordinary people hundreds of years ago.

Take the founding emperor of the Xia Dynasty, for example. His family was just a wealthy farming family. So why was he able to eventually ascend to the top and sit on the supreme dragon throne of the Nine Provinces?

It was the chaos at the end of the Zhou Dynasty that gave Emperor Taizu of Xia an opportunity!

At the end of the Zhou Dynasty, Emperor Taizu of Xia, who had suffered greatly from the exploitation of the court, took the opportunity to rise up in rebellion. After more than ten years of fighting, he restored the order of the nine provinces, sat on the throne, and became the supreme ruler!

Emperor Taizu of Xia came from a wealthy peasant family, and the Xie family, whose founding dukes were not much better off, were even worse off than Emperor Taizu of Xia!

Xie Canglan, the founding duke of the Xie family, was originally named Xie Niu'er. It is not hard to see from this name how poor Xie Canglan's background was, that he could even be said to be from the bottom of society!