101 Borrowing the Granary

Night fell over the desolate wilderness of Longyou. Within a makeshift campsite, over a hundred bandits gathered around a bonfire, reveling in boisterous cheers, gulping down mare's milk, and challenging each other to wrestling matches.

The bandit leader, Pei Yuanshao, was among them. Cheng Jian and Wang Laohu, two of his subordinates, fawningly offered him meat and wine. Pei Yuanshao took a lamb leg, tore off a large chunk, then suddenly spat it out and threw it to the ground in a rage. "How was this roasted? It's half-burnt and half-raw! Who is this supposed to be for?"

Startled, Wang Laohu scrambled to grab a trembling farmer hiding nearby. He dragged the man over, threw him before Pei Yuanshao, and said with a fawning smile, "Big Brother, this fellow roasted it. Since we caught him, he hasn't done a lick of honest work—he just eats and loafs. I thought I'd give him a chore, so I told him to roast the lamb. I never expected him to be so useless that he couldn't even manage that. I’ll slaughter him right now and turn him into tomorrow’s snack!"

Terrified, the farmer kowtowed and wailed, "Spare me, my lords! Spare me, great chief! I am but a humble tea farmer, skilled only in brewing tea. How about I brew some tea for the three of you? My tea is exceptionally fragrant."

"Pah! We’re drinking wine, who wants your tea? You useless waste of space!" Wang Laohu spat, gave the man a vicious beating, then barked at the bandit lackeys, "Come here! Drag him away and chop him up."

Pei Yuanshao waved his hand to stop Wang Laohu’s antics. "Don't kill him. We have enough food for now. Keep him to do the chores—cleaning up horse manure and grooming the horses."

The lackeys obeyed and dragged the terrified farmer away.

Cheng Jian brought over another platter of meat and said with a grin, "Big Brother, we’ve had quite a haul these past two days. We’ve collected two thousand catties of grain from various villages in one go, and snatched twenty-odd sheep from the Di people. Following you, Big Brother, we eat well and live well—it’s infinitely better than the miserable, pathetic lives we led before!"

Pei Yuanshao nodded. Ever since Xiaobai Village had proactively offered grain to avert a crisis on the last day of February, he had grasped the secret to extorting food. Instead of raiding villages during the harvest, he now coerced them into offering between two hundred and five hundred catties of grain based on their size. If they refused, he would harass them day and night, preventing anyone from leaving the village. Since most villages had just finished their harvest and had a surplus, offering a little grain for peace was not difficult, making his collection efforts remarkably smooth.

However, a new problem had arisen. His band of over a hundred men could only carry a combined total of twenty-five hundred catties. With the daily intake of grain increasing, they were reaching their limit.

This caused Pei Yuanshao a great headache. Giving up on collecting was out of the question; twenty-five hundred catties would only feed his group for five or six days. If he waited until the end of the month when villages were short on supplies, he would have to struggle to squeeze grain out of them again. He was determined to stockpile as much as possible while the villages still had a surplus.

But where could he store the grain? He couldn't rest easy without a secure location. When Cheng Jian and Wang Laohu saw his distress, they asked what was wrong. Pei Yuanshao explained the dilemma.

Wang Laohu jumped up excitedly. "Is that all? Why can't we store it at my Hutou Stronghold? We can store as much as we want! Big Brother, let’s head to the stronghold tomorrow and re-establish our base!" He was tired of the constant jolting on horseback and longed for his old life in the mountains.

Cheng Jian retorted mockingly, "Forget it. Look at you, Wang the Third—you’re a born loser destined to rot in a mountain den. Big Brother, we can't go to that hellhole. Once the government troops surround it, there’s no way out."

Wang Laohu glared, "Who are you calling names!"

Cheng Jian dismissed him with disdain; he didn't think much of Wang Laohu’s meager skills.

Pei Yuanshao interjected, "We certainly cannot go to Hutou Mountain. We are bandits roaming the wilderness, not rats scurrying in mountain caves. Besides, Hutou Mountain likely has a new master by now. Enough, both of you stop offering such dim-witted ideas. I’ve already thought of a plan. We might be able to give it a try. Cheng, send someone to Xiaobai Village and tell them that I, Pei Yuanshao, want to borrow their granary."

"Store the grain in the village?" Cheng Jian and Wang Laohu were both shocked.

Wang Laohu urged, "That won't work! What if they refuse to hand it back? We’ll lose everything."

Pei Yuanshao sneered, tapping the blade at his waist. "Heh, if the grain is in their warehouse, it isn't going anywhere. If they dare to misappropriate it, we’ll just have to go into the village and take it ourselves. I doubt a tiny village has the guts to cross us. It’s settled. Cheng, send a brother to notify Xiaobai Village immediately. I want to talk to their village chief about borrowing their warehouse."

"Yes, Big Brother!"

Cheng Jian took the order and found a sharp-witted bandit. Fearing the man might not explain clearly, he found a scrap of cloth and wrote a message on it in sheep's blood, instructing the bandit to take it to Xiaobai Village.

...

In Xiaobai Village, after the research on standardized light spears proved successful, Zhan Xiaobai gave the first batch of ten to Jian Ba to test the market's reaction. Jian Ba inspected the weapons and couldn't stop praising them. When he sold them at the village market, they were snapped up in less than ten minutes, with many customers demanding to pre-order such affordable weapons.

The overwhelming response left Zhan Xiaobai and Jian Ba stunned. They had no choice but to speed up production at the weapon workshop, prioritizing supplies for the village’s honorary players.

By the afternoon, Jian Ba found Zhan Xiaobai and reported that ninety percent of the raw materials had been collected. They were voluminous, filling two side rooms of the administrative courtyard. Prices across the villages remained stable, and even if market prices were to skyrocket now, it would have little impact on their collection.

Zhan Xiaobai nodded; the rest should be collected by the end of the day. The raw material task was nearing completion. However, there was one problem he hadn't found a solution for: Xiaobai Village was nearly a hundred miles away from Jiang Village. How could he transport such a massive quantity of materials? The village lacked heavy transport carts for long-distance bulk hauling. If he organized hundreds of people to walk with the cargo, news would surely leak. Given the long journey and the many villages along the way, they would inevitably be targeted by malicious raids, and all their goods would likely be looted.

Renting government post horses was an option, but the cost was unbearable—seventy copper coins just to get from Xiaobai Village to Jiang Village.

Zhan Xiaobai racked his brain, but couldn't find a solution. The quest to obtain the village upgrade blueprint was being thwarted by the challenge of long-distance transport.

"Report! A bandit shot an arrow into the village with a strip of cloth tied to it. Please take a look, Chief Bai!" a player reported.

Zhan Xiaobai took the scrap of cloth and read:

"Third watch. Meet at the ferry. Pei!"

Zhan Xiaobai frowned. What business did Pei Yuanshao have with him?