Chapter 1082: Not Roving Bandits, But Displaced Civilians
Gu Tianxing declared, “My brothers speak wisely. We’re already lost and can’t get out anyway, so why don’t we just make our home here? With this strange mountain to shelter us, the government troops will never find us, ha ha ha!”
“What are we waiting for? I’ll go out and start digging a plot!”
“I’m coming too!”
The bandit-turned-refugees scurried out, nearly a thousand of them in no time. Their only weapons when they first rebelled were hoes, and now they swung those same hoes into the earth, clearing land for cultivation.
With many hands, the work was light. The large expanse of land in front of Lingwu Cave was quickly turned over. Large rocks were thrown aside, weeds were cleared, saplings were cut down—forest giving way to fields.
When hunger struck, they gnawed on tree bark and grass roots to make do. As long as there was no government oppression, eating a bit of bark and roots was barely enough to survive.
And so...
Several days passed in a flash.
Returning to the present moment.
His laughter had not yet faded when a scout suddenly rushed in from outside, reporting breathlessly, “Boss, this is bad! Someone’s coming!”
Gu Tianxing was startled. “What the hell, who’s coming?!”
The scout replied, “I don’t know who they are, but it’s a huge army. They’ve stopped in the distance to the north and haven't moved, but they’ve sent out a scouting party, heading this way.”
Gu Tianxing was profoundly impressed. “They can find their way so precisely in these mountains? Could it be the local Sichuan army?”
“No! The Chuǎng Wang already killed the Sichuan Grand Commander; the local government troops are a disorganized mess. Now, only the White Pole Soldiers are still active, and this clearly isn't them,” a slightly more knowledgeable bandit leader chimed in.
Gu Tianxing nodded. “You’re right!”
The junior bandits all looked at Gu Tianxing. “Boss, what do we do now?”
Gu Tianxing turned to glance at Lingwu Cave behind him. “What’s there to fear? This cave is winding and deep, big enough for tens of thousands. Five thousand of us will be sparse in there. Everyone, retreat into the cave and find some nooks and crannies to hide. This strange army definitely won’t find us. Once they circle around and leave, we’ll just come back out to farm.”
Everyone heard this and agreed. The bandits quickly called out to each other. Those clearing land outside Lingwu Cave immediately put away their tools and dashed inside. In an instant, everyone had vanished into the cave.
Their campfires were inside. Using the dim firelight, the bandits found hidden corners to conceal themselves, then covered the fires with dirt. Suddenly, the entire Lingwu Cave went dark.
Just then...
Li Daoxuan, leading a team of scouts, arrived outside Lingwu Cave.
The cave entrance hung halfway up the mountain, while they stood at the foot, looking up. They could see a gaping, dark maw in the cliff face, like the mountain’s open mouth.
“Report! There are signs of people clearing land here.”
A scout reported to Li Daoxuan, “It’s large-scale reclamation, at least a thousand people involved.”
Li Daoxuan nodded. “Someone wants to farm here? This is incredibly desperate. They must have been driven to their wits’ end to come here and farm.”
His gaze swept over the Scissors Gorge next to them. The Daning River flowed slowly at the bottom of the gorge, seemingly untouched by disaster, with ample water. Streams cascaded down the nearby mountain peaks, rushing through the valleys—irrigation water didn’t seem to be an issue...
But the terrain here... alas...
Li Daoxuan couldn't help but sigh. “Our industrious people truly strive to survive no matter the desperation. I don’t know who cleared this land, but they must be incredibly diligent. The only pity is that this is karst terrain; traditional Chinese crops won’t yield much.”
A scout whispered, “With so many fields below the mountain, there must be many people hiding in Lingwu Cave. We can’t rule out the possibility of them being roving bandits.”
Li Daoxuan nodded. “They must be roving bandits. Ordinary, scattered villagers wouldn’t have the capability for such large-scale reclamation, nor would the government organize people to clear land in karst terrain. There’s no other possibility besides roving bandits. Perhaps, even now, roving bandits are hiding in the cave, cautiously observing our every move.”
He wasn't wrong. At that moment, Gu Tianxing and his most loyal subordinates were indeed peeking out of the cave entrance, secretly watching Li Daoxuan and his party below the cliff.
From a distance, they couldn’t hear Li Daoxuan speaking, only saw him leading a group of people, pointing things out below. Gu Tianxing felt a knot of anxiety in his stomach: “Finally found a place to settle down, so how did they find it? If these people stay at the foot of the mountain, his men won’t be able to farm, or even leave the cave to dig for tree bark, pick wild vegetables, or unearth grass roots. Wouldn’t that be the end of them?”
Li Daoxuan's gaze fell upon the freshly cleared fields.
The scout beside him whispered, “Heavenly Lord, there’s probably nothing in that cave. We don’t even need to scout; just block the base of the mountain, and the people inside will be trapped to death.”
Li Daoxuan nodded. “Yes, tactically, you’re right. I’m just thinking about another problem.”
He pointed at the pathetic, meager fields carved into the barren karst terrain. “You see, these are just small, triangular patches of land, with only a thin layer of soil, a mere few tens of centimeters thick. Below that, it’s all rock.”
The scouts nodded.
Li Daoxuan asked, “If it were you, would you clear land in this kind of terrain?”
The scouts shook their heads. “No, this is even harder than the Loess Plateau.”
Li Daoxuan pressed on, “Do you think the new Chuǎng Wang would clear land in a place like this?”
The scouts unanimously shook their heads. “He’d rather just raid.”
Li Daoxuan nodded. “Can roving bandits, forced to clear land on such barren ground, truly be called roving bandits?”
The scouts paused, then suddenly understood.
“These aren’t roving bandits! They should be called displaced civilians,” one scout declared. “They are ordinary folk, suffering from disaster and weary of war. They saw us, feared us, and abandoned their newly cleared fields to hide in the cave. This action shows they are averse to fighting and dare not engage. It also shows they are foolish and inexperienced; hiding in a cave like this means they’re finished if we simply garrison the foot of the mountain. If they were truly experienced roving bandits, they wouldn’t have hidden in the cave; they would have fled far away.”
Li Daoxuan gave him a thumbs up. “Excellent analysis! So, we can’t define them as roving bandits anymore; we must define them as displaced civilians.”
The scouts chorused, “For displaced civilians, a different policy is needed!”
Li Daoxuan smiled. “Very good! You few, hurry back and inform the main force: don't send soldiers, send a rescue team. As for me, I’ll go up the mountain alone to talk with them.”
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