The three parties eventually parted unhappily. The relationship between them was already incompatible like fire and water, each taking their own team to disperse into distant corners, guarding against each other.
At dusk the next day, the harassment suddenly stopped. The bandits were greatly surprised, wearing dark circles under their eyes and pale faces, gathering on the wooden wall to observe one after another.
However, they saw a group of people appearing under Offshore Cliff. They were not soldiers, but a group of commoners.
There were women holding babies, old people leaning on wooden canes, and some children not yet of age.
Huck stood behind them, driving these people. His face still showed shock as he turned to look at the expressionless Lord Solomon standing by the cliff.
He had just executed an order that made him doubt life: to find the relatives in the territory of some bandits on the cliff. It was simply an impossible task, so much so that he suspected Solomon was actually just feigning forgiveness and actually wanted to kill him.
But when he met the Administrative Officers, Military Officers, and Tax Officers of the Military Forts and announced Lord Solomon's order to them, he was shocked.
These Administrative Officers were like combs, quickly combing through every household under their jurisdiction, accurately finding the relatives of some bandits on the cliff.
He couldn't figure out at all how these Administrative Officers knew the information about their relatives.
He turned back to look at the driven crowd, deciding not to think about these things anymore. There was even a trace of fear. Lord Solomon's rule over the territory was like an invisible giant net. Within just half a day, he had accurately fished out these fish with blood ties to some bandits on the cliff top from the rivers of various Military Forts.
The fearful crowd was driven before Solomon like a flock of sheep by Huck. People looked at their Lord Solomon with fear and trembling.
Solomon didn't speak. He waved to Lauchlan, signaling him to step forward and speak. Lauchlan straightened his back, stepped forward, and shouted loudly:
"Your relatives! Are coerced by bandits! Trapped on the mountain!"
"Lord Solomon believes their armed resistance is by no means their intention but due to coercion!! He has no intention of hurting the innocent! Only wants them to go home! As long as they are willing to come down the mountain! The past will be forgiven!"
In the crowd, an old woman holding her little granddaughter broke down first. She had reported her son earlier, but didn't expect him to be such a bastard, not coming home to live a stable life.
Refusing Lord Solomon's mercy, watching men from other families return home one after another to obtain public land for farming, she and her granddaughter had almost run out of tears waiting for him to come home.
She rushed to the front of the formation and cried heart-wrenchingly toward the cliff: "Toke!! My son!! Can you hear me!!"
The old woman pushed her granddaughter to the front. The girl cried loudly.
"Please! Put down your sword! Come home! Lord Solomon will forgive you!!"
"Look at your daughter!! How long has it been since you saw her!! Seven years!!"
The bandit named Toke dropped the sword in his hand to the ground with a clang. He knelt on the ground, tears gushing out, sobbing silently.
The cries of the old woman and the little girl drove emotions. People stepped forward one after another, crying and wailing miserably.
This time, what rang out on the mountain was not annoying noise, but heart-wrenching cries.
"My son! You are such a bastard! Come down here!!" A white-haired old woman knelt on the ground, beating her chest, crying out her son's name, hating iron for not becoming steel. "Come down here!!!"
A young woman holding a baby boy in her arms cursed angrily: "Orr! You dog! Come down the mountain! Look at your little dog!!"
The young woman's cursing was like a sharp knife, accurately piercing the heart of a certain bandit on the cliff top.
"I haven't been back for three years!!" The bandit named Orr flushed, chest heaving, cursing angrily, wanting to rush down, but was held back by people on left and right. "Is that my child!!"
"You bitch! Who is it!! I'll come down and hack you to death!!!"
Name after name was shouted out. Cry after cry of sorrow echoed in the valley. The bandits on the wooden wall had different expressions.
These sounds were more lethal and destructive than the previous horns and any other sounds. They accurately seized the most fragile weakness of the dozen bandits on the cliff.
They couldn't figure out how Solomon knew their family's information. They thought they had hidden well, thought their families were safe, so they dared to risk their lives confidently, gambling for a chance at destiny.
Now, all fantasies turned into bubbles. The fear that their families might be harmed flooded their hearts like a flood. In their view, if they didn't go down the mountain, that Black Lion would definitely push their families off the cliff one by one in front of them. Their will was completely destroyed.
Crying sounds also rang out on the cliff top. A dozen people knelt on the ground, sobbing silently.
Bolin watched all this silently, clenching his fists, without a word.
His gaze passed over those collapsing bandits and landed on the back of one of his partners. That usually resolute man was now shrugging his shoulders, tears streaming down his face. Down the mountain, his old father was crying out his name.
Yes, they were not his subordinates or inferiors. They were his friends and partners.
Down the mountain, Solomon stood with hands behind his back, looking at the commotion gradually coming from the cliff top, revealing a trace of a strange smile. Is this not an advantage of the "system"?
When night fell again, the wailing below still hadn't stopped. In the camp of Offshore Cliff, the atmosphere was depressed to the extreme.
Bolin stood in front of the camp gate, looking at his crying partner. Colin stood up and walked slowly in front of him.
"Bolin." Colin lowered his head, not looking at his friend's face, his voice choked with guilt. "Open the door. My road ends here."
"My mother was knocked down by Knight Terry's horse and whipped to death by his servants. My only relative in the world is my father. I can't sit by and watch him be killed by the Black Lion."
Bolin remained silent. The fingers gripping the sword hilt turned white from force, but he still didn't move away from the camp gate.
More and more people gathered. Several more bandits whose names were called walked out.
"Open the door! I beg you!"
"I want to go home!"
"My family will be killed!"
"Let me go down and kill the bitch and the bastard!!!!"
"I will leave all the robbed things here! Take nothing away! Let me out!"
"I beg you!"
The pleading voices grew more and more numerous and louder. Bolin's face was pale, almost unable to stand steadily. His hand holding the sword trembled constantly, but still didn't move a bit.
Thornhead and Broken-Tooth rushed over upon hearing the news, their expressions changing drastically. These people were the key to whether they could survive.
Thornhead drew his longsword and shouted sternly: "No!"
"None of you can go!!!"
He looked at the Blacksmith and Broken-Tooth, shouting angrily:
"Can't let them go!!"
"If they go!! What do we have to negotiate with the Black Lion!! We will all die!!"
"He dared to bury noble knights alive! How will he treat us!!"
Broken-Tooth also drew his sword, staring fiercely at those kneeling people:
"Whoever dares to take another step forward, I'll slaughter him first!"
Some trusted aides of Broken-Tooth and Thornhead also drew their swords. The atmosphere at this moment was tense as a string about to snap.
Bolin the Blacksmith looked at the faint firelight down the mountain, listening to the intermittent crying in the night wind, a trace of painful struggle revealing in his eyes.
That crying reminded him of many years ago, when he was told by a neighbor running over that the Lord had rushed into his hut and harmed his wife. But when he returned home, he could only hold his heavily injured and crying eldest son as he slowly died, his vitality cut off.
He remembered it again. In the once warm and cozy hut now covered in blood on the walls and floor, listening to his eldest son's sobbing slowly disappear.
Bolin, who had been silent, finally spoke. His voice was low but unusually clear:
"Let them go."
Thornhead looked at him in disbelief.
"Are you an idiot!!!" Thornhead's anger accumulated over two days exploded completely, cursing angrily. "You piece of shit!! The one who didn't let us negotiate was you!! The one who said to resist resolutely was you!! Now it's you who wants to let them go??!"
Bolin slowly raised his head. There was sorrow in his eyes, but a kind of seemingly unshakable will. He finally roared out, as if venting accumulated emotions: "I went up the mountain!! Because nobles don't treat us as human beings!!!"
His voice roared like an angry bear, shocking the whole audience.
"I won't learn from those nobles!! Using swords to force other people's husbands and sons to die!! Torturing and killing their families in front of husbands and sons!!!!"
"Fuck your mother!!!!" Broken-Tooth roared. "No one thinks of leaving today!!"
Before his voice fell, Thornhead already swung his sword at a bandit nearest to him who wanted to leave. The bandit was unprepared and closed his eyes in fright.
A cold light flashed. Thornhead's sword was parried by a heavy sword, making a clang, numbing Thornhead's arm.
Bolin stood between Thornhead and that bandit like an insurmountable wall.
"I said!" Bolin said word by word. "Let them go!"
"Fuck you!!!" Seeing this, Broken-Tooth completely tore off the mask and ordered his men. "Kill Bolin!!!"
Colin stood up first, drawing the longsword at his waist. Bolin's nine loyal partners also immediately drew their weapons, surrounding Bolin.
Atop Offshore Cliff, amidst the crying of families down the mountain, a tragic internal strife broke out with a bang.
Sword light and blade shadows intertwined instantly.
Thornhead roared and pounced on Bolin again, slashing his longsword at Bolin's head, but was blocked by Bolin's backhand and kicked away.
The heavy sword in Bolin's hand opened and closed widely. With just a sweep, he forced back three or four bandits besieging him. He struck back with a backhand sword, the blade hitting Thornhead's blade. The huge force made Thornhead stumble back, arm in severe pain.
Bolin was tall and majestic. The heavy sword seemed to come alive in his hands; every swing carried the sound of wind whistling.
A bandit was swept in the chest by the blade, sternum shattering, flying backward screaming.
Another bandit's spear was just thrust out when it was cut off by Bolin, along with a few fingers holding the spear.
Fighting many alone, he firmly protected the dozen bandits behind him who wanted to leave.
The entire camp was completely in chaos. Bandits fought their own battles. Roars, screams, and the sound of weapons colliding resounded through the night sky.
In the chaos, unknown who, took the opportunity to pull open the bolt of the camp gate, quickly running down the mountain to surrender. The heavy wooden door opened a crack amidst creaking sounds.
Under the cliff, an arm was raised high!
No words.
Solomon turned his head to look at the soldiers holding torches, killing intent long unbearable, trembling constantly with excitement.
The arm swung down!
The soldiers, who had long wanted to rush to the slaughterhouse, ran wildly like a tide, laughing loudly and strangely, surging toward that gate of slaughter.
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