When the burly man bent over in pain, Henry struck his back hard with his left elbow, forcing the bearded man to fall flat on the ground, unable to move. Then Henry picked up a weapon and pressed it against his throat...

The whole process took only a moment. With smooth and fluid moves, Henry swiftly and cleanly took down three bandits!

Edward was so shocked that his mouth hung open. The bandit confronting him, seeing this, had already fled in panic...

Henry, holding down the bearded man, was already panting heavily. He knew that his situation just now had been very dangerous, far from as easy as it looked.

In Qin, martial prowess was valued, and men would carry weapons when going out. His short sword was just over a foot long, about the same length as a modern armed police combat dagger, and reverse-grip dagger fighting happened to be the skill Henry had practiced the most. Moreover, in both his past and present lives, he was left-handed, so his moves were different from most people’s, making them hard to defend against.

The two bandits who had recklessly charged at him had been starving for a long time, their bodies weak and thin, so of course they were no match for Henry and were quickly knocked to the ground.

The trouble was, when Henry's short sword stabbed into the leg of the bandit with the short spear, the bearded man was also attacking him, forcing Henry to abandon his sword and retreat, and his elbow was cut open in the process.

Fortunately, he had another trump card: the “enemy-capturing fist” he had learned at the Armed Police Academy in his previous life! After coming to this era, he would practice a few moves whenever no one was around, and unexpectedly, it came in handy today.

The enemy-capturing fist had sixteen moves, using both hands and feet, combining grappling and throwing, and could adapt to different situations to fight on all fronts.

Frontline police officers often faced not trained martial artists, but thugs with brute strength or armed criminals. So the enemy-capturing fist was perfect for dealing with small-time bandits in ancient times.

As for the “bare-handed blade disarm” that seemed miraculous to Edward, it was just the fourth move of the enemy-capturing fist, “wrist grab and elbow strike,” the best move for dealing with armed criminals. Then, with a “leg trip and swing throw,” followed by a “side kick and downward smash,” he subdued the bearded man.

These bandits, though desperate, mostly preyed on unarmed merchants and fishermen and had never seen such professional moves. Plus, they were a bit careless, taking turns to attack three against one, giving Henry the chance to defeat them one by one. If they had all rushed him at once, Henry felt he might not have won.

“What are you standing there for? Hurry and help me tie them up.”

At this moment, the bearded man beneath him began to struggle desperately. Henry quickly restrained him. Seeing Edward still standing there in a daze, he called out a few times before Edward finally snapped out of it and hobbled over to help—he had twisted his ankle during the fight.

“Henry, I never knew your martial skills were so impressive. No wonder you’re not afraid to face many with few.”

Edward took off his belt and found some vines to help Henry tie up the three bandits tightly, all the while praising his skills.

“Then why did you stand with me?” Henry had seen Edward's clumsy fighting skills, but he didn’t look down on him. The fact that he didn’t immediately turn and run was already pretty good.

“I was just afraid the officials would come after us later.”

Edward explained helplessly, “You were right. The law says that if someone robs or kills on the main road, and passersby within a hundred paces do not help, they are to be fined two ‘jia’!”

A “jia” was a unit of money, meaning a fine. Henry knew this rule, and it was one of the reasons he respected Qin law. In later times, helping others was merely a “virtue,” but in Qin, it was explicitly protected by law and made into a duty—an obligation every Qin citizen had to fulfill!

“If only it could be like this in later times…”

Henry sighed. He wasn’t just romanticizing the past; the bizarre phenomenon of the 21st century, where people were afraid to help fallen elders for fear of being blackmailed, was truly disheartening. All he could say was, “People’s hearts aren’t what they used to be.”

If this were Qin, would you dare not help a fallen old lady? Would you dare to blackmail someone for helping you up?

Qin officials would use the law, not just morals, to teach you a lesson in no time!

“Do you know how much the fine for two ‘jia’ is?” Edward asked, tying the last knot and looking up.

“Well…” Henry was new to this era and didn’t know the prices very well.

Before he could recall, Edward rattled off, “In Nanjun, one ‘jia’ is 1,344 coins, so two ‘jia’ is 2,688 coins!”

“That’s expensive!”

Henry exclaimed. He at least knew that in Anlu County, the price of rice ranged from forty to one hundred twenty coins per ‘shi’ depending on the year. Taking this year’s price of eighty coins per ‘shi’, a fine of two ‘jia’ was equivalent to 33 ‘shi’ of millet—enough to feed a man like Henry for a year and a half. Not a small sum.

If you had to sum up the characteristics of Qin law in one word: meticulous—even trivial matters like a mouse biting a grain sack were regulated. Another word: severe! The severity of Qin’s punishments could be seen from the fines alone.

This meant that just failing to help a fallen old lady could cause a not-so-wealthy soldier to suffer a huge financial loss. No wonder people later said Qin law was harsh.

But on the other hand, where there are heavy penalties, there are also great rewards!

After tying up the three bandits and finding some herbal leaves to treat Henry's hand wound, Edward asked mysteriously, “Do you know how much the government rewards for capturing a group of bandits?”