Chapter 48: Necessary Annihilation

  "Never mind why, the robbers have returned so quickly, it's very unusual, and we're in trouble!"

  Everyone looked at each other in dismay, they were now right behind the bandits' house, and the escape route had not been explored yet. They would inevitably be discovered by the bandits... A fight was unavoidable... No, it wouldn't come to a fight, because their only option now was to flee!

  Just as they were in a state of panic, Qiao's daughter spoke up again and said: "Master, if we can rush back to the valley now and trigger the bandits' mechanism, then we can burn them all to death inside!"

  Li QIN exclaimed: "Mechanism? Is there a mechanism in this valley?"

  Qiao Nu nodded and said, "Yes, after Zha Luo drank too much, he would say anything. He told me that if the village was raided by government troops, we wouldn't need to be afraid. As long as he led everyone out through this exit in the back mountain, and then smashed all the oil jars in the valley, setting them on fire, then no matter how many soldiers came in, they would all be burned to death, and the whole valley would erupt in a huge fire!"

  Xialuo Xiao had been preparing for many years, and everything was ready. In case the old nest had a problem, he would rather not have it than leave it to the government soldiers. So, in the valley, he had long prepared many oil tanks, and invited skilled craftsmen from the Western Regions to create a mechanism. As soon as the government soldiers entered the valley, he only needed to lead his men to escape from the back mountain, trigger the mechanism, and a great fire would erupt in the valley, burning all the government soldiers to death. Not one of them would be able to escape. He told his son Xialuo Zhan about the mechanism, but Xialuo Zhan then told Qiao Nu.

  Li Qindao said: "The village inside has already caught fire, if the mechanism is triggered again... but they will return from where they came, and still can't burn them to death!"

  The woman said: "The big fire triggered by the mechanism started burning from the front, and as long as you enter the valley, there is no way to escape. The only way out is this road behind the valley."

  Li QIN shouted: "Good, let's do it this way. The robbers dug their own grave, and now they can bury themselves! Wu Danzi, you carry the young lady on your back and enter the valley to trigger the mechanism."

  Wu Danzi shouted loudly, picked up Qiao Nu and ran towards the valley. Shen Yi smiled wryly behind him, wanting to carry Qiao Nu himself, but Li Qin didn't say anything, so he didn't dare take action on his own, and for some reason, his face suddenly became thinner.

  Li QIN shouted from behind: "Safety first! If there's no way to trigger it, just escape and don't try to force a fight!"

  Turning around, Li Qian said to the women: "We are about to go into battle and may not be able to take care of you completely. You should hide in the forest. If we encounter trouble, ride your horses quickly and escape as far as possible. Under no circumstances should you look back."

  He then said to Jia Yu: "Brother-in-law, you take care of Xiao Chao and these girls, I don't have enough manpower, I can only rely on you now!"

  Jia Yan nodded and said, "It's okay, if we can't win, we'll just run away. Victory or defeat is a common occurrence in war, as long as we're alive, there will be a day for revenge!" He was advising Li Qin not to take things too hard, if they couldn't win, they might as well retreat and escape, the bandits wouldn't have the energy to chase them anyway.

  Li Qin waved his hand and shouted: "Brothers, follow me to the exit to ambush!" He picked up his long spear and was the first to rush out, with the soldiers following closely behind!

  They hid outside the exit, and soon they heard the sound of people in the valley, Li Qian looked inside along the tunnel, and saw that the valley was brightly lit with fire, it must have been triggered by the mechanism, the whole valley was on fire, which also meant that the robbers would escape from here!

  But the simple thing to say, the process is long, and it took a full two minutes for someone inside to speak up. Li Qin held his spear at the entrance, and then he heard someone inside shouting: "What's going on? It's me! Don't shoot arrows!"

  As they spoke, Wu Dangzi carried Qiao Nu out of the tunnel. As soon as they emerged from the cave, he burst out laughing and said: "It's great! It went even more smoothly than expected. The bandit chief must have spent a lot of effort making that mechanism, but he didn't think those flames would end up burning himself!"

  Li Qin brought them out and said, "After this, the name of Zhu Gong Gorge can be changed to Coffin Gorge!" He waved his hand and gave an order: "Feng Shilong, you lead your brothers away from the cave entrance a little further, just pick up the leaks and capture the prisoners. The brothers who support the horn, line up, block the cave entrance, kill one as soon as they come out!

  The horned soldiers responded in unison, holding up their long spears and blocking the entrance of the tunnel.

  In the valley, flames shot up to the sky, thick smoke billowed, it was already a sea of hellfire. The horse under Sharlo's saddle was frightened, throwing him off, he could only retreat to the rear mountain valley with the help of his men.

  Today he had a bad start, and with the robbers, they rushed all the way to Fuping. At that time, the sky was already dark, and he blocked the city gate, first with courtesy and then with force, saying that he wanted to ransom his son with money, but instead encountered a rain of arrows.

  Tang Biao had long escaped back to the city, and told Tang Jie about what happened. Tang Jie was naturally shocked, and immediately gathered his troops. However, gathering the Fuping army would take a lot of time. A whole day passed before all the soldiers were assembled, but by then it was dark, so they could only set out to find Sheng Tie the next day. Unexpectedly, the bandits came knocking on their door!

  The soldiers of Fuping are lazy, but that's when nothing is happening. In this small border town with few soldiers, they haven't been bullied by the Xiongnu people, there must be a reason for it. For the soldiers, what happens outside my family's door, I can pretend not to see, but if anyone dares to hit my family's door, I'll fight to the death!

  Tang Jie had no idea who Sha Luo was, of course he couldn't hand him over. Sha Luo's emotions were urgent, and he immediately ordered the attack on the city gate. This stirred up a hornet's nest! The Fuping army saw that the bandits wanted to enter the city and desperately resisted, firing arrows wildly, and rolling logs and stones crashing down!

  The robbers ran for dozens of miles to the outskirts of the city and fought so fiercely that even if they were strong, they were still human and couldn't resist. After two charges, many people died and their vitality was greatly injured!

  She Lao Xiao had no choice, if he continued to force his men to attack, the team would disperse. He didn't dare stay on official land for long, it would be even more dangerous, so he could only lead his troops to retreat and return to Zhu Gou Gorge. This back-and-forth rush made the bandits suffer heavy losses again, they were already exhausted, but just as they approached their lair, they saw flames soaring into the sky, a huge fire was raging in Zhu Gou Gorge!

  This year is not auspicious, and now I'm in big trouble! Today for Xiao Luo, it's really a case of misfortunes never come singly. His son was captured and his life or death is unknown, he led troops to attack the county town, but ended up losing many soldiers and generals. When he returned to his lair, what awaited him was that his mountain stronghold had been burned down!

  The eagle-like bandit leader let out a loud cry and led his men in an immediate charge into the valley, but just as they were about to put out the fire, a large blaze suddenly erupted at the entrance of the valley. He took one look at the situation and knew he was doomed - there must have been a traitor in their midst who had triggered the trap that he himself had set, not realizing how deadly it would be. The trap was meant to annihilate any government soldiers who entered the valley, but instead, it ended up being turned against them, and they were caught off guard, with the stone weights crushing them mercilessly. Hadn't he just set a trap for his own men, determined to wipe out his own troops?

  The robbers had all become infantrymen by now, their horses having run so far that they could no longer support them. Moreover, with fires raging everywhere, it was impossible to ride out of the valley on horseback, and they could only flee on foot. The robbers followed Shi Luo's lead and rushed towards the back of the valley, where there was an exit - the only path by which they could escape the sea of flames!

  Li QIN and his five subordinates stood in a row along the direction of the cave entrance, not blocking the entrance horizontally to avoid shooting arrows inside. After waiting for a moment, they heard footsteps coming from inside the cave, and a bandit carrying a curved knife ran out!

  Li QIN shouted: "Kill!"

  Six long spears shot out quickly, all of them hitting the first bandit who ran out, and with a miserable cry, the bandit fell to the ground dead. The bandits behind shouted: "There's an ambush! There's an ambush outside the cave!"

  With the shout, seven or eight arrows shot out of the cave, all of them shooting into the air!

  Li Qinchong gave Wu Danzi a look, and Wu Danzi immediately understood. He let out a loud cry: "We've been ambushed! Ah——" The drawn-out tone was mournful beyond compare!

  After a brief pause inside the cave, the robbers rushed out in a flurry!

  Li QIN shouted: "Kill!" The six long spears stabbed again!

  A cave connected with rushing out bandits, while a long spear connected with swift stabs!

  Li QIN kept shouting: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  The long spears kept thrusting out, although it was hard to keep them in order, but every time a bandit ran out, there were two or three long spears thrusting at him, each one aiming for his life!

  Kill!

  Kill!

  Kill!

  Under the intense thrust, Li QIN and Fu Jiao Bing's arms were sore, if the robbers continued to rush out like this, they would not be able to hold on for much longer!

  But they killed more than 20 robbers who rushed out with one breath, and each robber died instantly, being ambushed, without any resistance!

  A corpse was lying at the entrance, and the robbers inside also temporarily stopped their escape, not daring to rush out again!

  The big fire in the canyon is getting more and more fierce, the robbers' retreat has been cut off, and some people have already fainted from the thick smoke. At this moment, the robbers can't even take care of themselves, let alone rescue each other. Once they faint, it means death. It's not just being burned by fire that will kill you, inhaling thick smoke and scorching hot air will also be fatal!

  "Boss, the exit is blocked by government soldiers! We can't escape!" The voice was already trembling with tears.

  Don't look at the robbers who are usually quite ferocious, killing people can be done without blinking an eye, but now once they become the sheep to be slaughtered, they have experienced the fear of death before, they are just like ordinary people, also afraid of not being able to do anything, they can ignore others' life and death, but facing their own, they can't ignore it, instead they are even more afraid!

  He turned his head to look at the raging fire in the valley, then turned back to gaze at the dark cave entrance in front of him. The entrance was like a giant beast's mouth that devoured human flesh and blood, with unknown numbers of hateful government soldiers lurking inside.

  "Fire burns the eyebrows, how can we care about what's below? Send more people to rush out. There must be traitors outside, otherwise the government troops wouldn't have blocked us here!" He thought of his own treasure cave and didn't know if it had been discovered by the government troops. As soon as he thought of this, he became anxious and couldn't bear it. That was his and his son's last hope. If it was taken away by the government troops, they would be completely finished.

  The robbers cursed loudly, the government soldiers blocked here, it must be that there was a traitor in the stronghold, this is to force them onto the road of death! In the midst of loud shouting, three of Shi Lang's most trusted subordinates, wielding curved knives, charged into the mountain cave!

  Hearing the footsteps, Li QIN said to Fu Jiao Bing: "First let them out, then kill them again. There are too many corpses, and the cave entrance is blocked. Wu Danzi, get ready to howl twice more."

  Wu Danzi hastily agreed, thinking: "It's me again, why is it always me!"

  As soon as the words fell, three big thieves rushed out of the cave, all of whom were tall and strong. The three thieves jumped over the corpse and escaped more than one zhang away from the entrance. The last one shouted: "We've broken through!"

  "Kill! Kill! Kill!"

  Hiding to one side, the halberdiers' long spears shot out together, with a lightning-fast thrust, three loud thuds were heard, and the three robbers were stabbed to death together. In front of the spear formation, there was no survivor, no one could escape!

  Wu Danzi drew out his spear and cried: "Alas, the bandits have killed our three brothers! Alas, they are escaping, chase them quickly, chase them quickly!"

  ——

  The first update is delivered. I wish you a safe collection, and if brothers and sisters can conveniently click to add to the bookshelf and collect "Master", it will bring great surprise to Ping An, thank you all, Ping An thanks!