Chapter Fifty: A fine sword is forged in the fire of refinement, plum blossoms' fragrance comes from bitter cold.

  On this side, more than a dozen people were riding horses slowly in front, while the soldiers behind them were chasing after with all their might. They led them around for several laps, but said that the few horse-riding generals caught up and were instantly taken down by these green forest-born wolves. The pursuing soldiers also knew they couldn't catch up with these people, so they didn't try as hard either. In the end, they brought them to the mountain on the east side, and only then did they ride their horses back leisurely.

  ……

  But said to have been frightened by Cheng Yaojin, the soldiers inside the city gate were dispersed to other three city gates, which made the pressure on Shan Xiongxin, Luo Cheng and Shi Dainai's three roads increase dramatically. Similarly, when they opened the city gate and saw that the soldiers outside had lost hope, you know that among them there was no master like me who could fight against a hundred people or a thousand people, but after fighting like this, how many people can hold on?

  At this time, the leaders of the three routes all knew that one of the main culprits had escaped, so they knew that these three routes could no longer escape. If they didn't catch those people and find out their accomplices, their own lives would be in danger, and the rewards for capturing them would be great. So the leaders simultaneously ordered: "All soldiers, press forward and capture the culprits! Promotion and wealth are within reach. If you don't make an effort now, when will you?" The soldiers all shouted and rushed forward, but unfortunately, the leaders didn't understand one thing: Jia Xinyu (Ya) and Ma Jiaxue (Ma) were already dead, so they were doomed to fail.

  When the three routes of Duan Yuexin's men saw that all the soldiers had rushed up, they felt hopeless and desperate to escape. So they launched a fierce attack: since you soldiers won't let us live, we won't let you live either! One by one, the bandits emitted a deadly aura, and it often took more than a dozen soldiers to kill one or two of them who were slightly inferior in martial arts. As for those who were good at martial arts, how could hundreds of people work together? So they could only hope that these people would be exhausted, and then they could take advantage of the situation. Some soldiers began to have thoughts and retreated a bit, otherwise, they would lose their lives, and becoming officials and advancing in rank was just a dream.

  Just as the three routes' people were somewhat tired, suddenly there was chaos in the rear of the surrounding soldiers. Those generals still didn't know what had happened and only thought that after capturing these people, when they got their reward, they would go to which young lady's place to have some fun or go somewhere to gamble a couple of rounds.

  "Report!" A soldier suddenly rushed to the front of a general and shouted, at this time the general was thinking about exciting things, being interrupted, what good mood could there be, so he said in a bad tone: "If you have something to say, say it quickly, if you have fart, let it out quickly!"

  "Reporting to the superior officer, there seems to be some chaos in the rear, and something appears to have happened."

  "It's definitely those soldiers in the rear who think they can't get any benefits, so they come to the front. Don't bother with them." The general said impatiently, and the soldier saw the general say this, so he didn't care either, ran to the edge of the battlefield, and when the time comes, it's good to escape if there's a situation.

  "Report, sir!" Another voice suddenly sounded in the officer's ear.

  "What's going on?" he said, looking over, but only saw a gleaming long knife magnified in front of his eyes. Finally, the general only saw his own head seem to float into the air before losing consciousness.

  "Brothers inside, we're here to help you!" The man who had just taken down the commander shouted loudly, then mounted the commander's horse and charged into the encirclement.

  "Brothers, we have reinforcements! Take heart and fight back!" As soon as he saw the man on horseback, Dan Xiongxin shouted out loud, and the people around him, hearing that they had reinforcements, once again took heart and launched a fierce counterattack. Long knives flashed in the sunlight, long spears danced through the air, and the soldiers around them fell down in droves once more.

  "Brother, I've come to help you." It turned out that the person from earlier was Qin Shubao. As they were coming back to help, they coincidentally ran into soldiers pushing forward, and no one noticed the rear, so Qin Shubao decided to attack from the rear. Then he saw a general riding on horseback, and decided to take him down first, which led to the previous scene.

  "Qin brothers, you've run all the way here? Where are the others?" asked Shan Xiongxin strangely after the two groups of horsemen merged.

  "We had some people on our side divert the main force, with Li Fang's help, so there shouldn't be too much trouble. The others have all come back to help you three routes, and I happened to arrive at this route to lend a hand." Qin Shubao explained.

  "Alright, let's break out first. We can celebrate later." Shan Xiongxin shouted. Several skilled fighters led a few men to kill their way to the commander's location, taking advantage of the fact that they were still in shock, and killed several commanders. The soldiers saw their superiors die and some began to panic, so the counterattack was not strong enough. As a result, Qin Shubao and others easily broke out and ran away, while the other two routes also experienced similar events. Although it was more troublesome because they did not kill the commanders, fortunately, these soldiers were scared and saw that the bandits were desperate to escape. Some soldiers let them pass before they even reached their position, so everyone on the second route escaped. The commanders didn't dare to chase after them, fearing that if they were killed, there would be no place for regret. In the end, under the commander's orders, the soldiers half-heartedly chased for a while and then returned to report.

  But the three armies were already physically and mentally exhausted, if the reinforcements hadn't arrived in time, they would have collapsed long ago, let alone be able to escape, of course these generals wouldn't know about this situation.

  When the last of the crowd arrived at Xiaohuang Mountain, more than 60 people survived due to Li Jiancheng's presence, which also made Qin Shubao and others sigh. Originally, there were over a hundred people, but under the siege of soldiers, dozens of brothers died. However, now that they had escaped, it was not a time for sorrow, and they had to hurry to transfer, otherwise, when the imperial court sent troops to besiege them, they would be finished. Therefore, the crowd decided to head north, which made it difficult for the imperial court to discover their whereabouts, making it easier to escape. Qin Shubao and Cheng Yaojin went with Li Jiancheng to meet their mothers at the Ten Mile Pavilion outside Luoyang City.

  Walking on the road to Shili Pavilion, Qin Shubao looked like he wanted to say something but didn't. Li Jiancheng asked directly: "Brother Qin, is there something you want to say?"

  Seeing him shouting at Qin Shubao, Cheng Yaojin's eyes widened instantly. However, Li Jiancheng didn't need to worry that Cheng Yaojin would reveal his relationship with Qin Shubao; Qin Shubao would probably tell him himself. Since he shouted it out, that means he trusts him.

  "I, I..." Qin Shubao stuttered and stammered for half a day, but still couldn't get it out. Watching him, Cheng Yaojin became so anxious that he scratched his ears and cheeks, wishing he could speak on his behalf.

  "Are you wondering, if I had struck earlier, there wouldn't have been so many deaths?" Li Jiancheng said calmly.

  "Now that you've spoken out, I won't hide it from you either. Just now, I saw your skill in helping Jin Yu, and I know you have a way to reduce the number of deaths among these people. But, brother, I don't understand why you didn't take action?" Qin Shubao said with puzzlement.

  "It turned out that it was Jian Cheng brothers who made the move, I'm old Cheng was also surprised that the people who ambushed me from behind all fell down." Cheng Yaojin said with a silly expression on his face.

  "Qin big brother, you must understand that war is cruel. It's either you die or I perish, I can't always be guarding by your side, remember one sentence: A precious sword is forged in the fire of adversity, and a plum blossom's fragrance comes from its bitter coldness!" After saying this, Li Jiancheng didn't say another word and walked straight forward.