After a week Ethan decided it was time to take care of the bandits. He took all his men and went to the area where the merchant described he found the bandits.
Ethan knew that the baron would set out day after tomorrow to kill the bandits. He had 2 days to get the bandits before him. He asked one of his men to go to a nearby village and find out about the bandits.
After the man returned from the village he said that there were three groups of bandits who work together. Each group had 70-100 people.
Ethan made a direct plan to ambush one group seperately. So he and his men searched for an hour stealthily before they found one of the groups. Ethan decided to have the leader killed immediately and give the others a choice to surrender or die.
So Ethan brought 5 people with him and walked towards the bandit group. The bandits generally stayed deep in the forest because the soldiers were not familiar with the forest and this helped them in hiding from them. Generally the bandits were left to do their own work because they never tried to challenge the authority of the soldiers.
The bandits only attacked some merchants to get the supplies for their survival. When Ethan and his people reached the bandits, The bandits were shocked to see people coming so deep into the forest. Generally the villagers were afraid of the bandits and wild beasts so they never came this deep in the forest. The soldiers would be found out beforehand by the scout as they would be easy to spot based on their number.
The bandits concluded that these people might be wanderers looking for a village to rest in. That was the only explanation that seemed acceptable.
The bandit leader saw that the group was small and they didn't have any weapons. So he cursed at them "what are you dim wits doing in the forest do you want to die?"
Ethan looked at the bandits and said "We are 'insurgents' we are here to recruit you into our ranks."
The bandits started laughing looking at the 8 year old boy. Immediately a bolt came and hit the bandit leader in the head killing him on the spot.
The bandits were shocked to see the sudden death of their leader. They didn't understand how their leader died so easily.
The arrows in this period were not as fast as the crossbow. The bandits were experts at sneak attacks so they had the training to spot an arrow and try to dodge it. But unlike the regular bow, the crossbow was a much faster and stronger means of weapon. It would make it harder to dodge.
Ethan said in a commanding tone " you have two choices either join us or die."
The bandits wanted to kill Ethan but they had no choice as they knew they would really die if Ethan wanted to kill them. Looking at Ethan's confident demeanor they thought he had a big army hiding ready to attack them at any moment. So everyone accepted to join Ethan.
Ethan had one of the bandits go to inform the other bandit groups of his arrival and told him to relay the same offer he gave them. He made the other bandits move to the outskirts of the village to prevent them from interesting in anyway.
Ethan specifically had his people hide in the bushes as this would help him in preventing the bandits from getting any information of his army.
If the bandits found out beforehand that he had only 25 people under him then they could device a plan to wipe him out easily.
But the absence of this information made it very hard for the bandits to try any ambush as they didn't know where and how many people Ethan had.
A few hours later Ethan saw a group as big as 200 people come towards him. The one of the leaders of the groups looked at Ethan and said" Kid give me the weapons you have and surrender and we will think about sparing your life."
Ethan calmly looked at him and said " Join me or die"
The leader along with his men started running towards Ethan. Suddenly 40 bolts came from within the forest and attacked the ones running towards Ethan. More than 20 people died at the moment including the leader. All the remaining bandits stopped in their track and stood astonished at their dead peers.
Ethan looked at the leader of the other group and said " Join me or die"
Looking at Ethan the leader understood that Ethan had not even considered then in his eyes from the start till now. He had the confidence to crush them any moment he wanted and he knew that they would not be able to do anything to him.
The bandits were very disorganised people who were only here for the money. Even if the leader asked them to fight Ethan he knew they might not follow him. So he decided to surrender to Ethan.
Seeing their leader die and the other group surrendering, the remaining bandits had no choice but to join Ethan.
Ethan told the bandits" You guys have seen the power of the weapons. I will make all of you stronger and give you good weapons to fight with and give you enough money to feed your family. In exchange I require you to give me your eternal loyalty."
All the people became bandits because either they didn't have enough money to feed their family or because they liked to fight. Ethan offered them both of that. So they readily agreed to join him.