Two hours later, Lin Bei was sitting in a dilapidated wooden house.
In a narrow corner, a bedridden man looked at Lin Bei in fear, his face pale.
"Master Jun, I don't have anything to eat at home, only this little rice porridge."
The old woman wrinkled her thin face and held up a broken porcelain bowl.
Lin Bei looked at the thin rice porridge with no visible rice grains in the bowl, and knew that the other party had probably used all the grain in the house to make porridge.
He didn't say anything, but drank with gusto.
Ah Yue was walking along the muddy path and when she entered the dilapidated wooden house, she saw Lin Bei sitting on the ground covered in mud, with an old man kowtowing in front of him.
Lin Bei looked helplessly at the old man who couldn't afford to kowtow. They just gave him some rice, and they were grateful. People here might not be able to eat polished rice.
"Thank you, Master Jun."
The man lying on the wooden board struggled to get up, but Lin Bei quickly pressed him down.
"No need to be polite, we are here under His Majesty's orders to provide relief to the people and suppress the bandits."
"I know there is a den of bandits near you. If you know their den, tell me and we will help you destroy these bandits."
"Master Jun, it's not that we don't want to say it, it's just..."
The man looked embarrassed. If the bandits knew that it was his village that was the informant, their whole village might suffer.
He carefully observed Lin Bei's face, fearing that Lin Bei's face would change in the next second.
But Lin Beifei was not angry, but stood up cheerfully.
"It doesn't matter, I know your difficulties, then just leave it to us."
"Old lady, I'm leaving."
Lin Bei glanced at Ah Yue who was leaning against the door and said goodbye to the old woman.
The old grandma held a small bag of polished rice and continued to express her gratitude to Lin Bei, her eyes filled with tears.
Lin Bei and the two left the wooden house. Bian Long waited outside for a long time and was a little stunned when he saw Lin Bei covered in mud.
"No soldier makes a mistake, right?"
"A soldier secretly beat a family's hens to death, and his subordinates asked someone to pay double the price to the family as compensation."
"Then what?"
Lin Bei patted the dried soil off his clothes and asked seemingly unintentionally.
"My subordinates don't understand."
Bian Long lowered his head.
"Did the soldier apologize to anyone?"
Lin Bei's voice became colder.
Bian Long quickly handed over his hands and left quickly.
At dusk, Lin Bei looked at the resentful faces among the team of a hundred people, with a calm expression on his face.
The soldiers looked at Lin Bei, who was covered in mud, with confusion in their eyes.
As elite soldiers of the Great Merchant Army, they had never had such a miserable day. They were either helping the common people repair their doors or moving their things.
Some people in the team were already dissatisfied with Lin Bei.
"Stay here, we will go to the next village tomorrow."
After Lin Bei said these words, he walked into the camp.
As Lin Bei's back disappeared, a small grumble suddenly erupted from the team.
At the end, the two soldiers listened to the complaints of these soldiers, with a smile of success flashing in their eyes.
They thought that Lin Bei would lose military morale after his failure in the crusade against the bandits, but they did not expect that Lin Bei would act like this from the beginning, making many soldiers dissatisfied with him.
"Zhou Jinwei is awake?"
In the tent, Lin Bei asked Ah Yue, who was silent.
Ah Yue nodded.
"I knew it."
Lin Bei was a little tired, so he casually took off his dirty clothes and fell asleep.
A night of silence.
Early the next morning, Lin Bei led his team to the next village. Throughout the whole day, the soldiers helped the people with their work, and the resentment in their hearts became even greater.
They were obviously here to exterminate the bandits, but Lin Bei led them to do dirty work for the people. How could they endure such contempt for them?
Suddenly, several soldiers violated the commandments issued by Lin Bei.
Lin Bei's approach was also very direct. If he violated that commandment, he would ask these soldiers to compensate them twice as much.
When the team was closed in the evening, large numbers of soldiers gathered outside the village with tired eyes.
The next few days were spent like this, with Lin Bei personally taking the lead and visiting the villages in the surrounding area.
In just half a month, all the villagers knew that there was an army dedicated to helping the people work.
At first they thought the army wanted to get information about the bandits from them, but the soldiers didn't ask a word and just immersed themselves in their work.
A month flies by.
Lin Bei looked at the large piles of melons and fruits beside the team gathered in front of him, and asked with a smile: "Didn't I tell you not to take the people's things?"
"Report! We didn't take it. They forced it on us. We don't even want it."
Bian Long said embarrassedly.
Lin Bei nodded, then waved his hand: "Then you can split up among yourselves. This is the end of the day. You can rest on your own."
"Tomorrow is a day off, and the day after tomorrow we will go up the mountain to suppress the bandits."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the team could not hide their excitement.
After half a month, they finally heard the order to suppress the bandits from Lin Bei, not to mention how excited they were.
On the ridge.
The bandit leader with a sinister face looked at the troops stationed below, with a disdainful smile on his lips.
For half a month, they could see clearly what Yamashita Lin Bei led the team to do.
"This group of officers and soldiers also want to get news about us from the mouths of those poor people. Brothers, do you think it's funny or not?"
The bandit leader's words immediately triggered unbridled laughter from all the bandits.
"More than a hundred people just want to eat us. I think this so-called General Lin is bullshit. Brothers, keep an eye on them. That kid can't find out the news for half a month. He must be getting impatient."
In the mountains and forests, the men responded casually.
Facing well-trained soldiers, they didn't have the slightest fear in their hearts.
To put it ten thousand steps back, even if the poor people below surrendered them, more than a hundred officers and soldiers would never be able to stop them on the mountain.
Ten days and a half later, they ran out of the mountains again and became their bandits.
One day later, Lin Bei looked at the fully armed soldiers and nodded with satisfaction.
Half a month did not diminish their determination to suppress the bandits, but instead made them look forward to it even more.
A dozen soldiers were panting from exhaustion carrying half-baked firewood.
"Overseer, are we going to burn the mountain to force them?"
The leader, Bian Long, wiped the sweat from his forehead and asked doubtfully.
Everyone also looked at Lin Bei, puzzled.
Although setting fire to the mountains has some effect, the mountains here are all connected together. If it is not controlled well, it is likely to cause a fire.
As long as the bandits on the mountain see a little fireworks, they will definitely run away.
"Who said I was going to burn down the mountain?"
Lin Bei took out the fire certificate, felt the direction of the wind, and smiled.
"Is the wet cloth ready?"
"Ready!"
Several soldiers carried large baskets of soaked cloth and responded.
The eyes of more than a hundred people fell on Lin Bei, waiting for Lin Bei to issue an order.
Lin Bei squatted down and lit the half-baked firewood.
Immediately, the large piece of firewood that could not burn fully emitted thick smoke and flew toward the mountain in the direction of the wind.
"Remember what I said, attack the mountain!"
