Chapter Thirty: Downfall

  Several black shadows appeared at the valley entrance, and those who killed Er Gou and his men were Wang Huai and Liu Yunhong. At this time, Qiao Yu also led a group of people to appear at the valley entrance. It turned out that when Qiao Yu had not thought of how to deal with Tian Gang Village, Wang Lao Han's grandson Wang Yongyi said that there was a secret path that could lead directly to the mountain village.

  Originally, Wang Yongyi accidentally entered the territory of Tian Gai Village while cutting firewood. Afraid of being caught by mountain bandits, Wang Yongyi kept walking in the mountains and forests until he found a valley to hide his body and ensure safety. Later, Wang Yongyi discovered that along the edge of this valley, there was a large stone seam, which could be climbed up to reach the back mountain of Tian Gai Village, but the terrain was extremely dangerous, even villagers who often walked in the mountains might not be able to pass through.

  Qiao Yu was overjoyed when he received the news and immediately decided to lead a team of 40 elite soldiers to sneak into Tian Gai Village, rescue the people, and then have Wang Tianhe lead the rest of the men to guard the mountain pass. As soon as the bandits were in chaos, they would attack and wipe them out at once.

  After the arrangement, Wang Yongyi served as a guide, and Qiao Yu and others prepared ropes. Following Wang Yongyi's lead, they directly approached Tian Gang Village. The journey was not long, but it took Qiao Yu and others three hours to enter the village. At this point, everyone's hands, feet, and knees were injured to varying degrees, including Qiao Yu. Fortunately, these sharp soldiers were all carefully trained by Qiao Yu, with excellent physical fitness. Moreover, they had been specially arranged to eat a month's worth of pig liver, which proved effective today.

  At night, the mountain road marched without anyone dropping out. It's worth noting that due to malnutrition, people in this era of China generally had nyctalopia, making nighttime battles extremely difficult. It was likely that even before they reached the battlefield, half of the troops would have dispersed. Qiao Yu led the vanguard and successfully entered Tian Gai Village, which can be seen as a test of their training results.

  They killed the two dogs and others, Qiao Yu quickly dispatched a few people to put up sentries around them, then led the group into the valley. The valley was not big, with only dozens of houses in size. Inside, there were no defenses, only a few old and dilapidated houses that seemed to be used for imprisonment. Several guards arrived at the door, opened it, and Qiao Yu followed them inside. He saw that the room had only one dim oil lamp, and in the corner, two people were huddled together - an older woman and a younger girl. They were Zhang Xia, the elder sister-in-law, and her daughter Ling'er. The two women looked like they had suffered a great shock, their eyes dull and lifeless, but fortunately, there seemed to be no injuries. Qiao Yu was relieved.

  "Sister-in-law, how are you?"

  Xiao Ling'er opened her eyes and stared for half a day, then suddenly burst into tears: "Third Uncle, Third Uncle!"

  Qiao Yu looked at his niece's pale face, feeling heartbroken, and suddenly hugged her in his arms. At this time, Zhang Xia seemed to have recovered as well, a delicate dagger fell to the ground, it turned out that she had been secretly hiding this object, preparing for the worst, if the bandits had evil intentions, she would take her own life on the spot. Who knew that just when she had lost all hope, Qiao Yu suddenly arrived with his men, how could she not be overjoyed? However, Zhang Xia had received strict family education after all, and quickly regained her composure.

  "Third brother, how did you get here? Where are those thieves?"

  "Sister-in-law, don't worry, I've brought people here not only to rescue you but also to take down this gang of thieves. You and Ling'er stay here for now, when the gunfire starts outside, don't be afraid!"

  The two women were arranged properly. Coincidentally, Zhang Zili and Li Jingyuan caught a middle-aged man with a cunning face and brought him in front of Qiao Yu.

  "Director, this little guy sneaked into the valley and was caught by us!"

  Qiao Yu took a look at this man, about forty years old, with a shifty appearance, a few scattered whiskers on the corners of his mouth, and an insufficient spirit. He looked like a big smoker. When Zhang Zili and Li Jingyuan brought him in front of Qiao Yu, he suddenly saw so many neatly dressed soldiers and was immediately frightened out of his wits.

  "General, I beg of you, don't kill me! I'll confess everything, just spare my life!"

  "What's your identity? What are you doing here? If you don't tell the truth, you also know how I'll deal with you!"

  "General, I must tell the truth, I am the military advisor of this mountain, and I have two hobbies in my life, one is opium smoking, and the other is women. Our great leader has captured a mother-daughter pair, that young daughter-in-law is really beautiful!" This person was about to continue speaking when Qiao Yu kicked him in the chest.

  "Never mind those useless things, talk about the cloth on the mountain!"

  "Alright, General, these two days the mountain has been celebrating catching a big fat sheep, so the defense isn't very tight. Only fifty guards are arranged at the front of the mountain, while the back of the mountain and surrounding areas only have around ten people patrolling, the rest are all drinking."

  "Is there an arsenal on the mountain?"

  "Yes! I'll take the military officers over right now!"

  Qiao Yu left twenty people to guard the valley entrance and rushed to the arsenal with Gou Tou Jun Shi. After leaving the valley, they didn't go far before a large rock wall appeared in front of them. On the rock wall were several caves, which was likely where the military equipment was stored. Several Lao Lao came and went patrolling, Qiao Yu whispered a few words into Gou Tou Jun Shi's ear.

  "Brothers, the boss says everyone has worked hard, and he asked me to bring a few brothers to replace you guys to go ahead and have a drink!"

  "Still, it's a pity for our military advisor, we're all waiting with bated breath!"

  These few rascals were completely unprepared, and the young guards rushed forward, deceiving them. These people had just realized something was wrong, but it was already too late. Blood flowed from their necks, and they all died with their legs kicking wildly. Qiao Yu led his men into the cave, where he saw that it was very large, about the size of several rooms. The largest room was filled with guns, another had bullets, another had gunpowder, and there were also some large knives and spears scattered around. These guns were basically all junk, and Qiao Yu didn't think much of them either.

  "Director, look at this, how can there be machine guns?"

  Qiao Yu hastily walked into the depths of the cave and saw two Maxim machine guns placed there. Qiao Yu had come to launch a surprise attack and hadn't brought such deadly weapons with him. Seeing that this small mountain stronghold actually had two machine guns, he was overjoyed. Originally, Qiao Yu had been worried that his manpower was somewhat insufficient, but with the machine guns, he feared nothing.

  Then, from another cave, they found a machine gun and bullets. After searching carefully, they even discovered a bronze cannon, but it was already full of rust and they didn't know if it could still be fired. There were also some gunpowder left.

  "Are all the military supplies here?"

  "They're all here. Usually when there's nothing going on, the leader would also collect some of the small-time henchmen's guns for safekeeping and put them here. Now more than half of the hundreds of people in the mountain stronghold don't have guns!"

  "That's the best, take everything away!"

  Qiao Yu had everyone bring out the machine guns and artillery, and they returned to the original valley. After leading the crowd to retreat to the valley, Qiao Yu ordered people to leave gunpowder along the way. Everyone lay down, and immediately ignited it. Before long, a loud explosion was heard, and the entire valley shook. A huge firework lit up in Tian Gang Stockade, with flames shooting out in all directions, illuminating half of the sky.

  The bandits in the village were immediately thrown into chaos, with many people rushing to the back mountain to grab guns. However, they soon found themselves under the hail of bullets from the two Vickers machine guns, which formed a crossfire that sealed off the area between the front and back mountains. In an instant, more than a dozen bandits lay dead on the ground.

  At this time, the front mountain also responded with intense gunfire. Wang Tianhe had led his men to charge up, and these thieves were stunned by the sudden explosion. When they realized it was an explosion on the back mountain, they all knew they were in trouble. The terrain of Tiangong Village was proud of its ease of defense and difficulty of attack. If it was once breached, there would be no leverage left. The old thieves who had been there for years all wanted to find a way to escape, while the younger ones didn't know what to do and were killed by Wang Tianhe, with no resistance at all.

  ;