Chapter Thirty-Eight: Sudden Encounter

  Li Qin hastened his steps to welcome them, calling out: "Brothers, how did you all come?" He looked around at the crowd, but didn't see Tang Biao; there were eleven soldiers who had come to support him.

  A group of soldiers ran over, one of whom was slightly older, named Feng Cheng, an old soldier, who had much more seniority than Li QIN.

  Feng Cheng arrived in front of Li Qian and said, "Li Lang, we came out together. How can you fight the bandits alone? I couldn't bear to leave you behind, so I followed." He briefly told him what had happened.

  It turned out that after Tang Biao was beaten, he was not angry in his heart and kept scolding Li QIN, saying bad things about Li QIN. The soldiers listened more and more angrily, and finally couldn't bear it anymore, and quarreled with him. They all said that Li QIN was a good person, no matter what had happened between him and Tang Biao in the past, but they came out together to do chores, and when eating, he even shared dried meat with everyone, including Tang Biao. How could someone be so kind? But as soon as Li QIN left, look at how Tang Biao scolded him, was it really necessary?!

  After a quarrel, everyone went to sleep. As soon as it dawned, Tang got up and continued scolding, not caring about the safety of his comrades, but instead wanting to return to the city. The soldiers couldn't take it anymore, even if he was their superior, they told him to get lost. Under Feng Cheng's leadership, they rushed over to support Li Qin.

  Li Qin listened and asked, "Did he come back alone? Was the body of that brother properly arranged?" He was referring to the Han soldier who had first contacted Wu Dalang and was killed.

  The soldiers who came to support were moved in their hearts, and Li Lang was indeed a man of his word. He didn't ask what Tang Biao had scolded him for, nor did he care about his own affairs, but instead cared about the fallen comrades. This kind of good character is countless times stronger than Tang Biao's.

  Feng Chengdao said, "We had no choice but to entrust it to Tang Biao. As we were about to leave, we placed the corpse on the wounded horse of the Jing brothers and asked Tang Biao to send it back to the city. Who knows whether he will really send it back or not? I suppose he won't be willing to ride the same horse as a corpse!"

  Jing Qi heard this and angrily said: "Tang Biao this bastard, if he dares to ride my horse, I'll settle the score with him when I get back!"

  Everyone was talking, Ma Chao ran out of the woods and shouted: "Uncle Li, Guangtou Uncle asked me to ask you, are those corpses buried or thrown into the forest to feed the wild dogs?"

  Although he is just a little kid, he gets along extremely well with Shen Yi and the others. He already calls Wu Xiaosan "Long Hair Uncle", and as for Shen Yi, of course, he has become his Bald Uncle!

  "Nothing can be taken away, I see they are wearing leather boots, take them off, and collect other things..."

  Feng Cheng and the Han soldiers who came to support him all surrounded his body, no one entered the forest, but suddenly heard Li Qian and Ma Chao's conversation, and were shocked. Feng Cheng said: "What? What did you say, Li Lang? What corpse?"

  Li QIN smiled and said, "Of course they are the corpses of those Di bandits. Yesterday night and just now, we killed eleven of them. The bodies are all in the forest. You've come at the right time, cut off the heads of the bandits and count it as a merit for you!"

  Feng Cheng was shocked and exclaimed, "You killed eleven bandits? Those were the Di people's great thieves! You're just six people..." As he spoke, he ran into the forest, with the Han soldiers following behind him. Everyone was in a state of disbelief that Li Qin and his men could have killed eleven Di bandits, it was too unbelievable!

  Li Qinchao smiled and shook his head. If this had happened a day ago, he might not have believed it himself, but it only strengthened his confidence. He must train his men well, practice their gun formations to perfection, and also practice archery and other skills. He continued to lead the horses, gathering them together.

  A burst of astonishment came from the woods, and the Han soldiers shouted loudly. Feng Cheng ran out of the woods, shouting: "Li Lang, what's going on? Why did you kill so many powerful Di bandits?"

  Without waiting for Li Qin to respond, he said to himself: "I understand, they must have had internal conflicts due to uneven distribution of organs, and happened to be taken advantage of by you. It's also good this way, just say it was your doing and the credit is yours!"

  Li Qin let out a sigh of relief. He had intended to explain things, but then heard Feng Cheng come up with his own "answer", and so lost interest in saying anything more.

  Ke Jingqi shouted: "I said Feng Shilong, how are you talking? What's called infighting among robbers? Have you ever seen infighting that results in everyone dying? It was clearly us who killed them!"

  Feng Cheng waved his hand repeatedly and said: "Impossible, this is impossible. You are all new recruits, don't talk big to deceive me, I'm not a fool!"

  "You're just a fool..."

  Li QIN shouted: "Shut up, don't talk nonsense!"

  He stared at Jing Qi for a moment, then turned to Feng Cheng and said: "Feng Shilong, although we have made some small achievements, the Sheng Tie has not been found back. That is an important thing for our Fuping. Losing the Sheng Tie, killing more bandits will not make up for it. I plan to lead people to move forward and search again. What do you think? Do you want to follow?"

  Feng Chengyi was stunned, Li Qin's words made sense, but he didn't dare to think that way. What's the point of being a soldier if not to get a steady meal from the government? Why be so serious and responsible? Besides, they already had the bandits' corpses and plenty of spoils, which would be enough to cover their mistakes. There was no need to go after the raw iron again; it belonged to the government anyway, not to them personally!

  Li Qin saw him dazed and said, "Take the bandit's head and horses back, the responsibility is greater, can't afford to make a single mistake. Feng Shalei, otherwise you help me take over this bitter errand, send things back to the city how? I'll pick up a light one, bring people to find living iron!"

  Feng Cheng's face suddenly turned red, and he said: "Li Lang speaks with consideration for others' faces, Old Feng thanks you. But as you said, we all came out to do business together, if the business is not done well, how can we go back? I'll just follow you on a trip, and if I can see bandits fighting again, I'll pick up a few heads and return to ask for credit!"

  Having more helpers is always good, Li Qin actually didn't want them to leave, smiling: "Alright, let's go together. Feng Shilong will definitely get the first prize, when the time comes, we'll have made a contribution and can invite everyone for a drink!"

  Ma Chao ran over again and shouted: "Uncle Li, you haven't said yet, what to do with those corpses, should we behead them now?"

  Li QIN thought for a moment and said, "Don't behead the scar-faced thief from last night, let's take his body with us. The leader this morning was the same, behead all the others and bring their heads back. Put the bodies in the forest first, we'll deal with them when we get back."

  Ma Chao responded with a loud shout and rushed back into the forest again.

  Before long, everything was packed up. There were twelve horses in all, with two men on each of the ten horses ridden by Han soldiers and Fu Jiao soldiers, Feng Cheng rode one horse, Wu Danzi rode one horse because he had to go scouting ahead, while Li Qian carried Ma Chao on a black horse, and the remaining horses carried the bodies of the two bandits and their spoils.

  Wu Danzi ran ahead one mile away, Li QIN led the main force, following far behind.

  Twenty miles from the battlefield by the bonfire side.

  Baoyu sat in the large carriage, looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting late, soon to be noon. He jumped down from the carriage, somewhat anxiously saying: "Why hasn't he come yet? Could something have happened?"

  There were sixteen Di people standing beside the four iron carts, not counting Bao Fen. When they heard Bao Fen's question, one of the Di people said: "The young leader is usually cautious in his actions, and at this time he still hasn't caught up, so it must be that something unexpected has happened, perhaps being surrounded by Han soldiers and unable to escape!"

  With a twitch of his eyelid, he said: "If we can entangle the Shiro War with them, at least twenty cavalrymen will be needed if they are cavalrymen, and hundreds if they are infantrymen. And they must bring hard crossbows to succeed. But where does Fuping have such strong soldiers?"

  The Di people nodded in agreement, thinking that with the cleverness of the Zhalo war, even if they couldn't defeat the Han army, they should at least be able to escape, and shouldn't still be unable to break free at this time!

  The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. After all, Sha Luo Zhan was the son of the great leader Sha Luo Xiao, and if anything happened, he wouldn't be able to return to the tribe to explain himself. He glanced at the four iron carts, and although his heart ached slightly, he had to prioritize Sha Luo Zhan's safety above all else.

  Mounting his horse, he shouted: "Unload the poor horses and lead them away, hide the carts in the woods, we'll go support Zhe Luo first. As long as he's fine, everything else will be easy to say."

  The Di people obeyed the order and hid their carts in the woods by the road, unloaded the weak horses that pulled the carts, followed behind Bo Zhou, and returned along the original route to support the battle at Zhe Luo.

  The cavalry moved swiftly and soon they had gone over ten miles. Suddenly, a Di tribesman at the front shouted: "Han soldiers are coming! Han soldiers are approaching!"

  Bo Ya was shocked, a vague premonition rose from the bottom of his heart. The Han army had already arrived here, which meant that the battle of Che Luo had unexpected results. What kind of Han army could defeat Che Luo?

  Up until now, the worst premonition that Bo Luo had was that Sha Luo would be defeated and at most, injured. He never expected that Sha Luo would already have become a corpse.

  Not far away, Wu Danzi also discovered the large group of Di bandits. He didn't immediately turn his horse's head around, but instead rode forward a short distance to get a clear count of the Di people's numbers before rushing back to report the news. From this point on, he was much stronger than the Di people.

  Wu Danzi galloped back, shouting: "What's wrong? Ahead of us are seventeen bandits rushing towards us. Each one is riding a horse and leading three war horses and four inferior horses. They're all armed with curved blades and equipped with horn bows."

  Li Qian restrained the black horse and looked around. The terrain he was in at this time was not particularly advantageous to him. On one side of the road, there was a forest, while on the other side was a plain. If they were to engage in battle, either the cavalry would charge forward, which would be a sure loss for him with no chance of winning, or they could dismount and fight on foot, which would greatly increase their chances of victory.

  Feng Cheng heard that the Di people had actually brought seventeen, all fully armed riders and archers. He suddenly became anxious and shouted: "Li Lang, what can we do? The number of bandits is the same as ours!"

  The Di people are strong and fierce in single combat, and when fighting against Han soldiers, they often win with fewer numbers. If it's a small unit engaging in a skirmish, one-on-one, the Han soldiers wouldn't have much hope of escaping alive, which made Feng Cheng anxious.

  Li Qin nodded and said, "Yes, their numbers are the same as ours. If we want to annihilate them completely, it's a bit difficult. The key is that I'm afraid they'll escape. Our riding skills are not as good as theirs, and I'm afraid we can't catch up with them."

  Feng Chengyi was stunned, and Li Qin wouldn't have gone mad, would he? To say such a thing! The Di people fled? How could it be them who fled? And yet they were all annihilated... Had he said the opposite?!

  ——

  The streets are for strolling, "Master" is also for watching, after finishing watching, it's for collecting, seeking support, peace and gratitude!