#186 - So professional!

Whether the Freemasons can develop into a "mafia" in the future, and whether Wei Changtian can become the "godfather" of Shuzhou's underworld is still unknown, but the Thunderbolt Gate will indeed be destroyed today.

A quarter of an hour later.

Led by several fifth-rank experts, hundreds of Freemason members broke through the defense line and rushed into the Thunderbolt Gate's headquarters, followed by another fierce battle.

Hastily fighting back, and lacking top-tier combat power, the Thunderbolt Gate's members resisted for a while before finally being gradually defeated. Large numbers of members began to turn around and flee, but they were quickly stopped and killed by Freemason members ambushing in the forest.

Screams echoed in Mount Jiguan, and the scene of corpses strewn across the ground was as bloody and terrifying as purgatory.

Under such heavy pressure, apart from a small number of brave men who were still fighting to the death, most of the Thunderbolt Gate's members were unwilling to sacrifice their lives in vain and abandoned their weapons, wanting to surrender.

And Chu Xianping's way of dealing with these people was very simple.

Want to surrender? Okay.

First, kill those who are unwilling to surrender.

This request was a bit excessive, but most people, in order to save their lives, no longer cared about Jianghu loyalty, and turned their blades around, betraying on the spot, and raised their knives to chop at their companions' heads.

One second they were comrades, the next second they became enemies.

Although this kind of fence-sitter was undoubtedly despised, they greatly shortened the battle time and also greatly reduced the Freemasons' battle losses.

Another quarter of an hour later, the sounds of fighting gradually stopped, and a gang fight involving nearly a thousand people from both sides finally came to an end.

Corpses were scattered all over the top of Mount Jiguan, and the soaring bloody stench was extremely pungent.

The Freemason members carried out the aftermath work in an orderly manner, with a very clear division of labor, which was obviously a set of rules different from ordinary Jianghu gangs.

"Except for those who have surrendered, there are no survivors left in the Thunderbolt Gate. More than a hundred brothers have died, and dozens more are seriously injured, and I'm afraid they can't be saved."

"The Thunderbolt Gate's treasury has been found. In addition, a dungeon was also found, which held about a hundred people, mostly women, who should have been captured by the Thunderbolt Gate and brought to the mountain."

After listening to the general situation, Chu Xianping just nodded and said "Understood", without specifically instructing what to do next.

After all, he had already destroyed several forces, and his subordinates knew very well how to deal with the aftermath.

"Young Master, it should be relatively safe inside now."

Pointing to the mountain gate engraved with the two characters "Thunderbolt", Chu Xianping turned his head and asked Wei Changtian: "Do you want to go in and take a look?"

"Yes, let's go."

Wei Changtian didn't care about this. After dismounting, he walked into the blood-stained mountain gate with Chu Xianping.

Similar to those mountain bandit dens shown in TV dramas, the Thunderbolt Gate's lair was built against the mountain. The scale was not too large, but it was definitely not small.

The trembling prisoners had already had their weapons removed, and they were all standing together bare-chested, with dozens of fierce-looking men guarding them.

Corpses were dragged back and forth on the ground, and placed separately on the east and west sides.

The pile of corpses on the east side were people from the Thunderbolt Gate, and they would probably be buried in a pit later.

The neatly arranged corpses on the west side were the Freemasons, and they would definitely be taken back for a proper burial.

In addition, there were several wooden tables in the open space, and the people sitting behind the tables were all wearing robes.

"Brother Chu, what are these people doing?"

Looking at those people taking out pens, ink, paper, inkstones, and books from the boxes they carried with them, Wei Changtian couldn't help but feel curious.

"Young Master, they are specially responsible for statistics."

Chu Xianping explained in detail:

"This one is responsible for calculating battle merits, using heads as proof, so as to reward merits in the future."

"This one is responsible for calculating the brothers who died and were injured. Twenty taels of silver will be given to each deceased person. If they have family members, it will be sent to their family members. If they don't, a good coffin will be prepared."

"That one is responsible for counting the people who surrendered, and that one is for counting the money and things that were plundered."

"..."

Good fellow, are you opening a statistics company here? ? ?

We are a mafia, boss, is it really necessary to be so professional?!

Wei Changtian was stunned, and it took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence.

"Brother Chu... I'm afraid even soldiers can't do this."

"Young Master, without rules, nothing can be accomplished."

Chu Xianping said solemnly: "If we establish rules for them earlier, they will not become a mob in the future, and they will be able to help the Young Master do great things."

Do great things? What great things do I want to do?

Only rebellion requires this level of detail!

"Brother Chu, you are really thinking of me."

Wei Changtian "praised" helplessly, and stopped dwelling on this question, but followed Chu Xianping to the Thunderbolt Gate's treasury for a tour.

There were indeed a lot of gold, silver, and jewelry, but there was nothing else besides that.

Of course, Wei Changtian didn't care about these properties, but he finally understood why Chu Xianping had never asked him for money.

A single Thunderbolt Gate has a family fortune of tens of thousands of taels of silver.

The Freemasons have now destroyed six such gangs, and they have plundered at least hundreds of thousands of taels.

You must know that Chen Bo once told me that the total annual gross profit of all the industries of the Xuanjing Division's Shuzhou branch is only one hundred thousand taels!

Not to mention those small vendors who get up early and work until dark, and the farmers who work hard in the fields.

This really fulfills that sentence - killing and arson brings a golden belt, repairing bridges and roads leaves no corpses.

Not finding any treasures, Wei Changtian quickly lost interest.

When he came out of the treasury, the corpses in the open space had been almost cleaned up, and long queues had formed in front of the wooden tables, obviously the various statistical work had already begun.

Men carrying heads, trembling prisoners, boxes and boxes of silver ingots...

One of the teams was particularly conspicuous, because most of the people in the queue were scantily clad women.

They should be the ordinary people who were captured by the Thunderbolt Gate and brought to the mountain.

It goes without saying what these women suffered in the Thunderbolt Gate. Some still knew to cover the key parts of their bodies with tattered clothes, while others had long been numb like walking corpses, allowing large areas of skin to be exposed to the public.

Wei Changtian only felt sad when he saw this scene. Others may have different ideas, but at least they would restrain their gazes and try not to look in that direction.

Perhaps this is also one of the rules established by Chu Xianping.

"Alas."

Sighing, Wei Changtian asked casually as he walked out: "Brother Chu, how will these people be dealt with?"

"Give them a piece of clothing, record their names, and then let them leave."

Chu Xianping replied truthfully: "After that, their life or death has nothing to do with the Freemasons."

That's considered benevolent and righteous.

Wei Changtian nodded and said nothing, continuing to walk towards the mountain gate.

However, at the next moment, he and Chu Xianping suddenly stopped at the same time.

"..."

"What's your name?"

"Wang, Wang Qian."

"Hmm? Are you镖头 Wang (Wang the Escort)?"

"Good, good man, do, do you recognize me?"

"Escort Wang? Is it really you? Didn't you die three years ago when you were escorting goods?!"

"This, this is a long story. For the past three years, I have been imprisoned on this Mount Jiguan..."

Speaking of this, the ragged man seemed to have thought of something, and suddenly asked in a trembling voice with incomparable excitement:

"This, this brother, do you know if my wife and children are safe?!"

"Home, living in Fulu Lane, Li, named Suyue..."