Chapter Forty-Five: Amidst the Blazing Flames

  In the valley of the bandits, there were less than ten robbers left. Most of them were guarding the entrance of the valley and they were all small-time thieves, basically old, weak, sickly or disabled people. In the past, when they failed in their robbery attempts and couldn't go out to commit crimes anymore, they could only do some odd jobs and hang around the bandits' den for food.

  However, these rascals are weak and not good-natured. Especially since they used to kill people and set fires as they pleased, but now can only barely survive, their minds are not quite normal. On the contrary, they are even more cruel, and when it comes to torturing captured prisoners, they often strike harder than ordinary bandits.

  These years, under the rule of Sha Luo Xiao, it has been quite prosperous, especially recently with a strong backing and support from a powerful Di tribe. It can be said that they are in their heyday, with an air of being the number one bandit group in Beidi County. The small thieves do not think that any official soldiers would dare to come and wipe them out.

  In the small sentry hut by the stream, several rascals were gathered around a fire basin talking. One of them said: "Today's affair is really strange, have the government soldiers gone mad? They even dare to arrest our young leader, aren't they afraid that we will attack the county town?"

  Another Lou said: "What's surprising is not that they dare to catch the young leader, but that they really caught him. It's really strange, I've never heard of Fuping Army being so fierce before!"

  Another rascal suddenly chuckled and said, "With so many women for the young leader, if he doesn't come back, will the big leader give them to us as a reward?"

  The men all chuckled quietly and started talking about the charming aspects of those women, but they also knew that it was just a passing fancy. Even if the young leader didn't return, those women would be rewarded to others, not to them, but to brave warriors like Bao Er.

  The Lüo people were chatting when they suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves coming from afar, and judging by the sound, it was heading towards the gorge, with at least twenty to thirty riders.

  The Lulos stood up together, thinking: "How did they come back so quickly? Did they bring back the young leader?" They were all people who mixed and ate in the bandit's den, usually being bullied. Seeing the large team return, they didn't dare to be slow, and hurriedly went out of the house to look outside the valley.

  Under the moonlight, a large group of knights rushed towards here. One of them ran ahead and shouted: "You piece of crap, aren't you going to come out and greet us? You're just begging for a beating!"

  The Loulous were stunned, and this person's voice seemed unfamiliar? But the horse team was galloping extremely fast, already less than a hundred steps away from the small stream. In the blink of an eye, they would arrive at their side. They didn't have time to think carefully, and hurriedly bustled about, putting down a large wooden board, just like a suspension bridge, spanning across the creek. Then they quickly turned back, opening the entrance to the ring-shaped mountain, and moving away the wooden barriers!

  They had just finished, and the several knights who were running at the front of the cavalry arrived. The Lüluos had just been busy, and before they could catch their breath, one of them suddenly shouted: "It's government troops, they're wearing military uniforms!"

  The gangsters turned around and looked back, only to see that the knight who rushed up onto the plank was indeed a government soldier, wearing a suit of leather armor and holding a long spear! The gangsters were shocked, they had never encountered such a situation before, even if they thought about it with all their might, they would not have expected that government soldiers would come to launch a surprise attack at night, and still have the nerve to ask them to come out and welcome them, this was simply an impossible event!

  Something impossible happened tonight!

  Wu Danzi was the first to rush over the wooden board, and saw a stupid and foolish robber standing in front of him. He shouted loudly and thrust his spear out, killing the foolish robber! Afterwards, Wu Danzi cheered loudly, thinking that he had finally killed a robber and made some merit for himself!

  The cavalry doesn't stop for a moment, charging forward in large numbers!

  The soldiers with shields also rushed past the wooden boards and in the blink of an eye reached the entrance to the circular hill!

  Li QIN shouted: "No captives, kill them all! Faster, faster!" At this moment, who dares to waste time? Of course, a quick battle is the best!

  The soldiers rushed in, the sound of gunfire rang out, and four or five bandits were knocked to the ground. The bandits didn't even have time to pick up their weapons, there was no resistance at all, and more than half of them were knocked down directly!

  The remaining two little rascals were so frightened that they ran wildly, familiar with the terrain, not taking the road, but rushing straight into the forest and escaping to the village inside!

  Li QIN shouted loudly and rushed into the valley, and in just one glance he saw the village. He called out: "Go to the village quickly! First take control of the horse enclosure, then we won't have to worry about them escaping!"

  The soldiers won the first battle, their morale was high, and they no longer had any cautious thoughts, shouting loudly and rushing straight to the village!

  Jia Xun led Xiao Ma Chao into the valley last, he glanced at the bandit corpses lying on the ground and shook his head: "Not even a match for a rogue, deserved to die quickly!"

  Ma Chao sat in front of his chest, his body constantly twisting and turning, shouting: "Xiao Chao also wants to kill the enemy, kill the ordinary man..." Suddenly, he exclaimed, turned his head around, and said: "Not even comparable to an ordinary man, is 'ordinary man' a curse word? Uncle Jia, then why did you call me 'ordinary child', are you cursing me too? Why do you love cursing people so much?"

  Jia Yan hummed, glared with his eyes wide open and said: "I've never scolded anyone, those I scold are not human. Are you a human? If you're a human, then that means I didn't scold you!"

  Ma Chao nodded and said, "I'm just a kid, but I'm also human!" But then he thought about it some more, and felt that Old Master Jia's words weren't quite right. However, no matter how smart he was, at his young age, he couldn't immediately figure out what wasn't quite right about them.

  Jia Rui rode into the valley like a big master inspecting his estate, commenting on all the arrangements inside the valley, saying this was not right and that was not right, nothing was to his liking, and he kept saying that even a matchmaker was not as good as him.

  Ma Chao looked at him with a "superior" attitude, and suddenly realized that in order to appear more powerful than others, one must constantly belittle others. No wonder Uncle Jia always said that others were inferior, it turned out to be for this reason!

  Li QIN led the soldiers not to go to the village where people lived first, but to rush straight to the horse enclosure. As long as they controlled this place first, it would be equivalent to destroying the mobile forces of the bandits, and then shut the door and beat the dog, slowly capturing them, which was completely feasible!

  A lone guard left in the stockade heard a great commotion outside and hastily ran out to see a group of government soldiers rushing in, whereupon he let out a loud cry and scurried back into the rear stockade.

  As soon as Xiaoluo entered the rear camp, he saw two companions rushing over. These two companions were originally guarding the valley entrance. He shouted: "It's bad! The government troops have occupied the horse enclosure, we can't escape!"

  The two men who rushed in thought to themselves at the same time: "We're done for, we're dead for sure! Look at the way the government soldiers are acting at the entrance of the valley, they don't want any survivors!"

  The two rushing in, one of whom was thinking of the young woman who had lost her head, knew he would die anyway, and suddenly shouted: "Even if I die, I'll have a good time before I die! Follow me, let's kill all the women in the stronghold, indulge ourselves and then die!" After that, he rushed to the place where Sha Luo and his son lived.

  The two men listened, their eyes red with rage, and they also shouted. They had suffered enough bullying in the past, and although there were some women in the village, none of them had ever paid attention to them. Now that death was imminent, they wanted to vent their anger once and for all! They felt that only by doing so would their deaths be worthwhile, and they couldn't take it out on the government soldiers or the women in the village, but this way was just as good!

  Three rascals rushed into the inner courtyard, starting their final crazy time in life!

  After occupying the horse enclosure, Li Qin almost fainted with joy. There were at least hundreds of horses in this enclosure, and they were all warhorses, not those castrated horses used for pulling carts. This was a huge fortune! No matter how he would split it with Tang Jie later, he could still make a big profit!

  Li Qin shouted: "Take them all away, don't leave a single one behind!"

  The soldiers were even more delighted, this bandit's lair was actually richer than the Fu Ping County government office, it was truly unbelievable, no wonder so many people became bandits, although the risks were huge, the enjoyment was also something ordinary people couldn't compare to!

  Feng Cheng led the Han soldiers to pull the horses, while Li Qin called over the Fu Jiao soldiers. They left the horse enclosure and rushed towards the main house in the camp. When they arrived at the main hall, they did not dismount, but instead rode their horses straight in.

  Having seen the layout of the main hall, Li Qin was even more delighted. It was almost as if Liu Sheng's home was richer than his own! Although it couldn't be described as luxurious and grand, there were all sorts of daily necessities and weapons, enough to equip a whole squad of soldiers!

  "Shen Yi shouted: 'What's going on, I've got experience with this kind of thing! Don't worry about the big stuff for now, just grab the valuables and take what can be loaded onto the horses first, then we'll talk about the rest!' After shouting, he didn't dismount, but instead looked at Li Qin, waiting for his orders."

  Li Qindao said: "You're used to being a lone bandit, you've forgotten that there are so many of us now, and we have big carts, why bother loading them onto horses, just load them onto the big carts!"

  Fang Jue and his men burst out laughing together, pointing at Shen Yi, loudly ridiculing him, saying he had no dignity, and still thought he was alone in the world!

  Suddenly, Li Qin heard a woman's crying and shouting from behind. He exclaimed, "I almost forgot that the robbers have female relatives! Brothers, go take a look and be polite. The women here must have been robbed and suffered at the hands of the robbers. We are government soldiers, we can't bully them, we can't add insult to injury!"

  The horned soldiers shouted in unison: "Understood!" and rushed towards the back house together.

  As soon as they entered the backyard, a big fire broke out in the backyard. The flames were soaring high, and it was clear that the robbers had set the fire themselves, using kerosene. In the current situation, this kind of fire could not be extinguished, and the wooden house would be burned to ashes!

  Flames are raging wildly in the house, and from inside can be heard a man's mad laughter and a woman's cries for help!

  Everyone looked at Li QIN together, and everyone thought: "Forget it, things have come to this, even if the women are rescued, they will be humiliated and may not be tolerated by their loved ones. It's better to die than to live!"

  Even Jing Qi, who had always dreamed of being a great hero, thought: "It's good that they've left like this. Life is bitter and cruel, I just hope they can be happy and free from suffering in their next life!"

  Ke Liqin, however, was not what they had expected. He jumped off his horse and saw a water vat in the yard. He rushed to the vat, picked up a bucket of water, and poured it all over himself. "The robbers are brutal," he shouted, "and don't need to be kept alive, but the women are innocent. If we can save one, that's one saved. We absolutely cannot abandon them to die. Brothers, follow me!"

  Drawing out his curved knife, Li Qin covered his face with his sleeve, took a deep breath and rushed into the fire!

  The soldiers shouted in unison: "What's wrong, Commander... Ah!" They all jumped off their horses and rushed to the water tank to fetch water, then they also rushed into the fire scene.

  If Li QIN shouted "Brothers, up!", everyone would have hesitated, even if they were flogged, they wouldn't have dared to rush in. But Li QIN shouted "Brothers, follow me!" and led by example, the effect was extraordinary, and the soldiers naturally followed him into battle!

  ——

  Chapter 2 is updated! In the first few days of the holiday, everyone must have had a great time, but in the last few days, you will be very tired. Take care to rest and take some time to read "Master", I wish you all peace and ask for your support, votes, and collection. Thank you very much!