Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 518 - 457: Bandit Suppression (Part 3)
If Wuyuan Mountain is truly an alkaline hot spring, then it is indeed a treasure.
"Magma?" The attendant continued to scratch his head, "What is magma?"
Yu Xiaolian couldn’t explain it to him in detail, so she changed the topic, "Do those bandits often come down to commit crimes?"
The attendant nodded, "They always come down the mountain to steal the people’s grain."
"Do they only steal grain? Do they kill and burn?" Su Jingchen asked further.
The attendant replied, "Yes, they kill. Some people value grain over life and refuse to hand it over, so they do kill. But they mostly don’t act near Wuyuan Mountain; they go a bit further away.
This time they probably got greedy seeing Cao Gen alone with a cart full of meat."
Yu Xiaolian felt somewhat guilty. It was her idea to have Cao Gen deliver meat to the cement factory at the last moment, otherwise he wouldn’t have suffered such a fate.
Su Jingchen clenched his fist. County Magistrate Qian never mentioned to him that Yangcheng County had such a large bandit group. Fortunately, he had disposed of County Magistrate Qian early; otherwise, who knows what trap the old man might have set for him!
"Exterminate the bandits!" Su Jingchen and Yu Xiaolian said in unison, exchanging glances.
Both of them agreed that exterminating the bandits was imperative.
After sending off several doctors, Su Jingchen called Li Wenyuan to discuss how to exterminate the bandits with them.
But wanting to exterminate the bandits is no easy task. Under Su Jingchen, the combined number of government officials, drivers, and night watchmen was only twenty-one.
The bandits numbered three times as many. Relying solely on Su Jingchen himself might not be enough to annihilate so many bandits.
Li Wenyuan suggested, "How about reporting this matter to the King of Linzhou and letting him send troops to exterminate the bandits?"
Su Jingchen pondered for a long time and then said, "No need, I have a plan!"
"Are you going for a surprise attack?"
Yu Xiaolian guessed that Su Jingchen intended to launch a surprise attack; otherwise, the chance of winning with fewer against many is very small.
Su Jingchen glanced at Yu Xiaolian as if to say that she was the one who understood him best.
"How to launch a surprise attack?" Li Wenyuan asked.
Su Jingchen slowly spoke, "To take the mountains as bandits, the greatest fear is the government siege.
To prevent the government from entering the mountains to besiege, besides strengthening the village’s vigilance and placing long-range scouts to gather military information, the bandits generally secretly associate with and bribe some local wealthy families and officials, colluding with them to jointly exploit and endanger the villagers.
It is precisely because of the collusion between officials and bandits that government extermination of bandits sometimes is just empty talk. Instead, the more they fight, the more they have; the bandits never get exterminated completely.
And because of the bandits, the government can justifiably levy maintenance fees from the villagers and more easily ask the upper levels for money and grain to expand local power.
The Village Chief in Wuyuan Town must be secretly colluding with the bandits.
We can start with him."
Li Wenyuan asked in doubt, "Are you talking about Cao Dewang?"
As far as he remembered, Su Jingchen had only met Village Chief Cao twice, so how could he conclude that Cao Dewang was colluding with the bandits?
Su Jingchen explained, "The population in Wuyuan is sparse, yet the crops are hardly unkempt. This indicates that those villagers who went up the mountain to become bandits haven’t abandoned their land. They return to the village to farm during busy seasons and follow the bandits to rob during more leisurely times. It can be said that half of the households in Wuyuan have produced bandits. Could it be possible that Cao Dewang, as the Village Chief, is unaware?" 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮
Li Wenyuan nodded, "This situation is very disadvantageous for us in exterminating the bandits. I wonder how you plan to start with Cao Dewang?"
Su Jingchen’s slender fingers rhythmically tapped the table—once... twice... thrice...
"Got it!" Su Jingchen’s lips curled up.
As soon as a well-off household comes to Wuyuan Town, the bandits will definitely hear about it. With such a fat sheep coming to the doorstep, why wouldn’t the bandits rob it?
When the bandits’ main force descends the mountain, we will trap them and simultaneously split our forces to attack the bandits’ main lair.
"But, who will pretend to be the wealthy household?" Yu Xiaolian asked.
Pretending to be a wealthy household and waiting for bandits to come knocking is extremely dangerous.
"Finding someone to pretend to be wealthy is easy. However, if too many bandits come, we might not be able to contain so many," Li Wenyuan expressed his concern.
Su Jingchen confidently said, "Don’t forget, our cement factory has over fifteen hundred people. Selecting a few hundred strong youths from among them is not a problem. As long as these bandits dare to come down from the mountains, however many come, we’ll eliminate them all, ensuring they never return!"
Su Jingchen smiled,
