Chapter Five: The Young Phoenix Draws Its Bow

  Even many years later, Ah Fei still believed that Shi Gongzi must have been scared out of his wits at the time, and yet he still wanted to open the city gates and go into battle? What's the difference between this and lighting a cigarette next to a leaking oil tanker?

  At this time, the young master himself explained that looking at the situation, the county town was definitely not defendable. The only way to do it now is to take advantage of the Goguryeo army's fatigue after coming from afar and go out of the city to rush them. If we are lucky enough to behead the enemy general, then there will be an opportunity to force them to retreat. If we can't behead him, then we'll take the opportunity to rush through the enemy formation and escape. If we wait for the Goguryeo people to rest overnight, on the second day, they won't need to attack the city. They just need to carry a wooden stick to knock open the door, and definitely no one except himself will dare to pick up their weapons to resist.

  But Ah Fei thought that if he were Zhao Gongzi, he would rush down the city, gather his own strong men, open one of the east, west or south gates and escape. He wouldn't directly face the enemy and charge out from the north gate. Are you kidding me? There are thousands of people, do you think you can kill the enemy general? You can't even break through. Who do you think you are? Guan Yu? Do you have a Green Dragon Crescent Blade? Do you have a Red Hare Pursuing Wind Horse?!

  Shi Gongzi went down the city with a "hong hong hong" sound, Ah Fei felt he should follow, but also thought it was better not to follow. Anyway, no matter how contradictory his heart was, the result was the same - he couldn't move his feet at all. He could only lean against the city wall, carefully looking out, and soon heard a "zhi ya ya" sound, then Shi Gongzi was like a dragon flying out of the water, like lightning, and suddenly rushed out of the city gate.

  At this time, Shi Gongzi had already put on the only two suits of armor in the county - the other suit was occupied by County Zunba, and even if he broke his head, he wouldn't hand it over. He rode a mediocre horse from his own family, holding a long spear for infantry use with his left hand, and holding his long sword with his right hand. For a moment, A Fei couldn't help but think of Zhao Zilong at Changshan before the Battle of Mount Dingjun...

  It's really hard to say, if Lord Guan were as brave as Zhao Siye, taking the head of a general in an army of one million would be like picking something from his pocket. With just a few thousand men, killing a big general wouldn't be difficult at all. Although Ah Fei knew clearly that the real abilities of Guan Yu, Zhang Fei and Zhao Yun lay in leading troops to fight battles, not in single-handedly charging forward on horseback. One against one hundred might be okay, but one against tens of thousands is something that only exists in fiction, not in reality.

  Just as he was thinking this, the sky had gradually darkened, although the city walls had long been lit up with torches and fire beacons, but for Ah Fei, who suffered from a condition commonly known as "sparrow blindness", anything more than ten meters away from the city wall was completely invisible. He saw Shi Gongzi charge out of the city gate on horseback, rushing into the darkness, and then heard a distant shout in his ears, but in front of him was just a vast expanse of blackness, no matter how hard he strained his eyes, he couldn't see anything.

  He originally thought that this time, the young master would definitely not come back. Either he was lucky enough to break through the enemy's formation and flee in a hurry, or he would simply give his head to the Goguryeo people. But he did not expect that just as the Goguryeo soldiers shouted out loud, before they could shout again, a figure rushed down from the city wall, stretched out his hand and yelled at the top of the city: "Open the gate quickly!"

  A Fei widened his eyes and took a look, oh, isn't this Shigu Gongzi? Only to see that this Shigu Gongzi had lost his horse, helmet, and spear, was covered in blood, and limpingly ran to the foot of the city. He knew that the ones guarding the gate were several old servants of the Shi family, even if he was scared half to death, as long as the young master returned defeated, they would definitely open the door to let him in. But just as he thought this, suddenly another black shadow shot over, and with a spear thrust downwards towards Shigu Gongzi's head.

  This was a Goguryeo cavalryman, whether he was a great general or not, even Ah Fei couldn't tell. All that could be seen was that this person had a high head and a large horse, with bright armor and a spear in hand, moving swiftly. At the time, Gongzi almost didn't dodge in time, so he had to roll on the ground eighteen times, barely avoiding the attack.

  A Fei stood on the city wall, and as if by instinct, he raised the bow in his left hand, with the arrow held tightly in his right hand. He took aim at the high-ranking Goguryeo cavalryman, drew back the string until it was taut like a full moon, and released the arrow which shot out like a thunderbolt. "Twang!" - The cavalryman retreated immediately upon hearing the sound.

  Before meeting the Goguryeo soldiers, Ah Fei was delighted and surprised to touch the bow and arrow allocated to him by Shi Gongzi. The bow was soft, the string was a bit loose, but compared to the branches and leather straps tied together, it was undoubtedly a divine instrument. As for those few arrows, although the arrowheads were all rusty, the arrow shafts were straight, the arrow fletching was glued on instead of being hard inserted, and when looking at them from different angles, the feathers were several times larger than those of quails!

  He was thinking at the time that if this city was lucky enough not to be broken and he himself was lucky enough not to die, how could he get this set of bows and arrows back home?

  So, despite his whole body trembling and almost unable to stand upright even with the support of the city wall, he still firmly grasped the bow and arrow in his hand. At this moment, it's unclear what happened, whether it was a sudden burst of courage or an instinctive reaction, or maybe he just had a mental breakdown, but he directly drew his bow and shot an arrow at the high-ranking Goguryeo knights below. Deep down, he probably thought that Shi Gongzi couldn't die, this person was reckless and useless, but at least he could still stand on the city wall, run and jump... Even if they retreated a million steps, following Shi Gongzi in his escape was at least a bit more reliable than following the county magistrate.

  But by this time, the sky had already darkened, and even though the torches on the city wall shone brightly like daylight, to Ah Fei's night-blind eyes, the tall Goguryeo cavalrymen, one man and one horse, were all blurry and unclear, just like watching a 3D movie without glasses, and the cinema had also turned down the brightness to its lowest setting. So the arrows flew in like shooting stars, straight into the ground, more than three feet away from the front hooves of the Goguryeo warhorse, and less than half a foot away from the fallen Shi Gongzi.

  The Goguryeo knight instinctively pulled his horse back, probably wondering who the man on the wall was aiming at.

  A Fei shot one arrow that didn't hit, and then he quickly shot the remaining six arrows in a flurry. This was his hunting habit, because with this bow and arrow that wasn't even suitable for shooting, the possibility of hitting the target with one arrow was lower than the Chinese men's football team making it out of the group stage. In general, he had to shoot many arrows at high speed before one would occasionally hit, or the target animal would be scared into running onto an arrow by itself.

  Six arrows were fired in succession, which really scared the Goguryeo cavalry and made them jump back. They couldn't help but pull their horses back "thud thud thud" for three steps, retreating one step to avoid two arrows. After retreating three steps, the six arrows fell empty. However, during this brief moment of distraction, the city gate had already opened a small gap. Shi Gongzi quickly slipped through the gap and returned inside the city like a fish. Immediately after that, the city gate closed again, and the Goguryeo cavalry, now fully alert, burst into loud curses - but they cursed in vain for as long as it took to drink a cup of tea, not another arrow or projectile was shot down from the city wall.

  The sky had completely darkened, and the Goguryeo people still did not take advantage of the night to attack the city. Shi Gongzi escaped with his life, and after climbing up the wall, he saw that only Ah Fei was standing alone, with a bow in his left hand and an empty arrow in his right hand. He immediately understood what had happened. He promised: "If I can escape with my life, I will surely reward you heavily!"

  Although the young master was covered in blood, he didn't actually suffer serious injuries - just an arrow to the buttocks and a shallow cut on his left shoulder blade. According to himself, he charged into the enemy formation, killing dozens of people, but ultimately outnumbered, retreated with injuries. However, Ah Fei didn't believe him at all - from when the young master left the light below until he returned to it again, wasn't there a two-minute gap? Even subtracting the time spent running back and forth, would that be enough time to slash or stab dozens of times if the Goguryeo people were waiting in line for him to kill?

  Of course, there's no need to expose Mr. Shi's lies at all. Ah Fei still looks forward to running out of the city with Mr. Shi together.

  As expected, Shi Gongzi returned to the city wall, gasping slightly, and soon had his family members come over to help him remove the arrow and bandage his wound. Immediately after, he looked down at the bottom of the city wall and saw that the high-ranking Goguryeo person was scolding until he was tired, and then turned his horse around and left. Outside, there were stars twinkling everywhere, indicating that the enemy was setting up camp, and it was estimated that they would not launch a night attack.

  Then, Mr. Shi returned to the city gate, called his family, and waited to go to the south gate - the horse had already been lost, so he could only walk with a limp. Ah Fei pulled up the old Wang next door who was sore and soft in the legs, and also rushed down the city, following Mr. Shi around. Mr. Shi glanced at him and smiled: "Indeed clever."

  A group of people hastily headed towards the south gate, with strong men occasionally joining the team. Ah Fei recognized them as the Shi family's strongmen who were ordered to defend the east and west gates. Someone whispered a report to the young master: "No enemy tracks have been found at the east and west gates. It seems that the barbarian thieves do not plan to besiege the city."

  "Very well," said the young master, nodding his head. Just as they were about to arrive at the South Gate, a cloud of dust suddenly rose up, and a soldier rushed over from behind, shouting: "Young Master Shi, don't go!" Young Master Shi was furious upon hearing this, and with a "clang" he drew out his long sword once again. It seemed that if this soldier dared to block his escape through the South Gate, he would be able to cut off the other's dog head on the spot.

  The soldier rushed to the front, panting and holding his stomach, bowing repeatedly, and stammered: "The barbarian thieves have retreated..."

  "How can this be?!" At that time, the young master didn't believe it at all. He thought to himself, "This trick to make me continue defending the city is too cheap," "Even if you don't want to attack the city, how can there be a reason to retreat at night?"

  "It's true, they really retreated," the soldier explained. "They were all carrying torches as they went, and from the city walls everything could be seen clearly..."

  It was only later that I found out that at the same time Goguryeo people invaded Nangnang Commandery, Liaodong and Xuantu commanderies in the west happened to have sent troops to attack, which is why the enemy army hastily retreated overnight. Life's encounters are just like this, often when you think it's all over, a brilliant dawn suddenly appears, while when you think the road ahead is smooth sailing, you might trip and fall into a pit after taking three steps...

  At this time, the young master was still a person who cared about his reputation - if it were Afly, I'd care whether the Goguryeo people retreated or not, anyway, I don't want to stay in this county town for another minute. Therefore, he temporarily stopped and sent his trusted aide out of the city to investigate. The crowd sat anxiously on the street all night, and only received news near dawn that the barbarian thieves had indeed retreated, and there was no one or horse within twenty miles around.

  A Fei didn't believe these reports either - you're just a few people, how can you possibly explore clearly one hundred square kilometers of land in one night?