Chapter 26: Annihilating Redstone Valley

  A mountain valley a hundred miles outside the seat of Youzhou in Ji County is called Red Stone Valley. It is named after the giant red stones that are piled up everywhere here.

  A winding mountain path, curved and twisted in front of the Red Stone Valley, with sturdy maple trees on both sides. It was early winter, and the bright red maple leaves had long since disappeared, replaced by deep red with a hint of yellow, scattered on the ground, intertwined with the stones near the Red Stone Valley, giving people a mysterious feeling.

  At this moment, the bright and beautiful light poured down, illuminating the entire valley. Two shabbily dressed big men, however, did not feel the warmth of the sun, standing behind a huge stone near the entrance of Red Stone Valley, hiding from the early winter north wind.

  "Niu Wa, why are we so unlucky, having to drink the northwest wind at this valley entrance?" one of the big men said to another.

  The man known as Niu Wa shivered, pulling his wind-leaking collar tighter before saying: "What's so strange about this? The chief is afraid the government troops will attack, besides, it's not like we're on duty every day, what's there to complain about?"

  The big man who spoke earlier also learned from Niu Wa's appearance, pulled his collar tight and asked: "Government troops? Where did the government troops come from? In this world now, soldiers can't even get their military pay, otherwise who would be hiding in this ghost place as a mountain bandit?"

  Niu Wa was silent for a moment before saying, "That's right, our leader used to be an official soldier, didn't he? Yet he still led everyone in hiding in this mountain valley, worrying about food every day. If we had grain and land, I wouldn't want to be a bandit." Turning around, she saw the big man ignoring her, staring at something in front of him with a look of shock. She pushed him gently: "What are you looking at?" As she spoke, she followed his gaze.

  This doesn't seem to be a big deal, but Niuwa saw dozens of government soldiers quickly approaching in his direction. What shocked him the most was that these government soldiers were all wearing fine willow leaf iron armor and holding shiny steel knives! Niuwa and others were originally farmers, and it wasn't until they had no way out that they followed a group of defeated government soldiers from the front line to occupy Red Stone Valley together. When have they ever seen such an array? Even their leader, the man who claimed to be a general in the past, didn't have such fine armor and weapons at first!

  Niu Wa came back to his senses, pulled a big man who was still in a daze, and shouted loudly: "Run quickly! Go back to the valley and report to the leader!" The big man finally reacted, and the two of them rushed into the mountain valley.

  The elite troops who came were the vanguard led by Ao Lie. The war horses trampled the ground at the entrance of the valley, causing a tremor. When they were about 100 steps away from the entrance, Ao Lie raised his long spear and shouted: "Halt! Set up the crossbows!" Following Ao Lie's dozens of elite cavalrymen simultaneously reined in their horses, formed a goose-wing formation, and raised the hand-held crossbows in their right hands.

  Not long after, a burly man wearing a school lieutenant's uniform rushed out of the valley, followed by more than 100 mountain bandits. These bandits were armed with various weapons, some of which were knives and guns issued by the imperial court, while others were homemade spears, and even farming tools such as rakes and hoes. Looking at their uniforms, a small number of people wore the standard uniforms of county soldiers, but they were also mismatched. Upon closer inspection, it was not difficult to discover that their uniforms were from at least four or five different counties. The majority of people didn't even have uniforms, rushing out in just ordinary clothes, and many were even tattered and worn out.

  The burly man dressed as the leader of the mountain bandits shouted: "Who are you, and what brings you to our mountain valley?" According to plan, Ao Lie was supposed to first greet them with his crossbow, but looking at the group of mountain bandits before him, he changed his mind. He said loudly: "I am Wei Yuan, a general under Liu Gong, the governor of Youzhou. You are gathering in these mountains, harming the common people - why not surrender early?" The leader of the bandits sneered and said: "You think you can come to our territory with just a few dozen men? I was fighting battles when you were still wearing split pants! Brothers, let's go!"

  As soon as Zhuang Han gave the order, more than a hundred mountain bandits behind him swarmed out and killed towards the valley. Ao Lie sighed at the sight, waved his hand and made a downward chopping gesture. The elite cavalrymen behind Ao Lie saw his gesture and immediately pulled the trigger, firing the crossbow arrows on their hands towards the incoming mountain bandits.

  In an instant, the valley entrance turned into a hell on earth. Those mountain bandits without armor to protect their bodies let out miserable cries as they were shot down to the ground. In a short while, blood spread all over the mountain path. Seeing his brothers being shot down, the leader of the group hastily ordered one of the mountain bandits beside him: "Quickly go into the valley and call out all our brothers, prepare for battle!" The mountain bandit took orders and left.

  After a round of simultaneous shooting by the elite under Ao Lie's command, more than 100 mountain bandits who had rushed up were already gone six or seven out of ten. The face of the sturdy bandit leader twitched for a moment, and then revealed a series of ferocious expressions: "You don't give us a way to survive, then no one can survive!" After finishing speaking, he held up the big knife in his hand and led the remaining mountain bandits to charge towards Ao Lie.

  Ao Lie calmly gave the order: "Withdraw the crossbows, form up!" It wasn't that Ao Lie didn't want to continue using his hand crossbow to sweep away the mountain bandits. The truth was that he had more than enough strength to spare. During the Eastern Han period, hand crossbows were a powerful deterrent in this era of cold weapons. However, they also had their weaknesses - after firing one shot, it took some time to reload the crossbow bolts before being able to fire again. Of course, if it was infantry, especially well-trained infantry who could alternate shots with each other, hand crossbows were still very deadly. But Ao Lie's elite troops were all cavalrymen. Although they had learned Ao Lie's Blood Kill Knife Technique and could also be used for close combat, what about their warhorses? Warhorses were extremely scarce military equipment in this era, so Ao Lie had no reason to give up the speed of his warhorse to engage in a melee with a group of mountain bandits.

  Watching the bandit leader fiercely charge towards him, Ao Lie raised his long spear and shouted: "Charge!" Then he led the way, urging on the Snow Dragon Horse to rush out. Dozens of elite cavalrymen closely followed behind Ao Lie, brandishing their steel blades that had yet to taste blood at the mountain bandits!

  Whoosh! Ao Lie's long spear pierced through a mountain bandit's shoulder, and then swung the spear to throw the injured bandit aside. He moved on to his next target. A group of mountain bandits rallied their remaining strength, trying their best to inflict harm on Ao Lie and his men. However, not one of them succeeded in achieving their goal. The elite under Ao Lie's command were already quite formidable, and after undergoing rigorous training for some time, they had mastered the Blood Kill Blade Technique, becoming even more powerful. Facing a disorganized group of mountain bandits, these elites formed small six-way arrays, with some holding up their blades to block the bandits' weapons, others chopping down with their steel knives, cutting into the bandits' bodies. Those standing in the back row, whose steel knives couldn't reach the enemy, would urge on their warhorses, using their hooves to trample and injure the enemy. As each small six-way array rotated, advancing and retreating with precision, they were like a grinding wheel, heavily crushing the mountain bandits.

  The bandit leader was also shocked at this moment. No matter what, the bandit leader was originally a Han military officer who had been to the battlefield and seen blood, but how could he have ever seen such elite soldiers? What's even more frightening is that his own large knife had chopped onto the bodies of the enemy cavalry several times, except for splashing up a burst of sparks and making the knights on horseback sway their bodies twice, there was no effect at all. Without a doubt, the willow leaf iron armor on these knights' bodies was incredibly effective, it was simply not something that could be cut through by the weapons in his hands.

  The bandit leader scanned the battlefield and finally fixed his gaze on Ao Lie. Ao Lie was the commander of these government troops, wearing no armor, just ordinary robes. The bandit leader mistakenly thought he could capture Ao Lie first and use him as a hostage to force this elite army to retreat.

  Under such consideration, the bandit leader shouted loudly and charged towards Ao Lie with all his might. Ao Lie had already stabbed more than a dozen mountain bandits in a row, but he didn't kill them after all. A group of mobs wasn't worth killing himself. Seeing the bandit leader raise his big knife to chop at him, Ao Lie exerted a slight force and pointed the long spear forward, colliding with the bandit leader's knife. Although this bandit leader was fierce and brave, he was no match for Ao Lie. The big knife tightly held in his hand was knocked flying by Ao Lie's single spear thrust, spinning through the air to who-knows-where. Ao Lie continued to swing his long spear, turning the spearhead around, using the spear handle to heavily strike the bandit leader's shoulder, and that bandit leader let out a miserable cry, being directly knocked to the ground by Ao Lie's immense strength, unable to get up again.

  Just then, a shout came from the valley, Zhang Liao led his troops to kill the small road in the valley, and the crowd of mountain bandits who were unprepared were killed by Zhang Liao, crying and screaming, and fleeing in disarray.

  After the battle at the valley mouth was completely settled, Zhang Liao also led his troops out of the mountain valley and arrived at the valley mouth to meet with Ao Lie. Later, Xun Yu and Tian Chou, who were observing from a distance, rushed over to clean up the battlefield. Without even greeting Ao Lie, Xun Yu and Tian Chou took a team of soldiers to count the spoils of this battle.

  Not long after, Xun Yu returned first and said to Ao Lie: "Report to the lord, in this battle our army did not suffer a single injury, beheading more than 50 mountain bandits, the rest were all captured, without letting one person escape. As for the spoils of war in the valley, Zi Tai is still further checking."

  Ao Lie nodded and turned his gaze to the leader of the bandits. The robust bandit leader, seeing Ao Lie looking at him, struggled to get up, but just as he managed to prop himself up a bit, he fell back down again. Although Ao Lie's blow hadn't used full force, what kind of power did Ao Lie possess? He had struck the robust man with enough force that half his body was numb and couldn't exert any strength, making it impossible for him to get up.

  This burly bandit leader was also a straightforward man. Seeing that he couldn't get up, he stopped struggling and lay on the ground, half prostrate and half sitting, looking up at Ao Lie and saying: "Whether you want to kill or rob is up to you, but I beg of you to let go of the brothers in the valley. Most of them are poor commoners who have been forced into a desperate situation."

  "Ah, this... I can naturally see it, but if someone's hands have been stained with the blood of innocent civilians, I will surely behead them to comfort the spirits of the dead in heaven."

  Before long, Tian Chou led the captured mountain bandits to the open space in front of the valley. Tian Chou leaned into Ao Lie's ear and whispered: "There is no stored grain in the valley, only enough for 500 mountain bandits to eat for one day. There are no gold, silver or jewels, only some old, weak, sick and disabled people." After hearing Tian Chou's report, Ao Lie also believed the words of the bandit leader somewhat. This shows that these mountain bandits were not ruthless and lawless, they did not plunder the nearby villagers, nor did they abandon the old, weak, sick and disabled.

  Looking at the more than 400 mountain bandits who survived with their hands tied behind their backs and their heads hung low in shame, Ao Lie said loudly: "I know that the world is not peaceful today, and many people are forced to become thieves. But have you thought about your parents and relatives? Have you thought about your children and grandchildren? Do you want to let your parents, your children and grandchildren bear the name of a thief's family for generations to come, and never be able to hold their heads up high? A good man should fight on the battlefield and establish a great reputation that will last forever. Why become thieves?"

  The group of mountain bandits, who had been hanging their heads in despair, seemed to see a glimmer of hope as they listened to Ao Lie's words. However, due to the long-term oppression they had suffered, they were unwilling to believe Ao Lie from the bottom of their hearts, or rather, they were unwilling to believe the government. As a result, they looked at each other in dismay, with no one daring to speak up.

  That bandit leader laughed loudly and said: "Conquering the battlefield? Establishing a great reputation for generations to come? Haha, you're fooling yourself! I used to be a soldier too, I was even a centurion. But how did it end up? During the suppression of the Yellow Turban Rebellion, many brothers under my command died in battle, and I myself suffered countless injuries. In the end, the dead brothers didn't even get any compensation money! We fought bravely on the front lines, shedding blood and sweat, but our military pay wasn't issued for a whole year! But those generals and ministers, they were having a good time drinking and enjoying themselves in the rear. What kind of world is this? Who still has hope?"

  "Indeed, what you said is true, but the great Han dynasty is not all about being greedy for life and afraid of death, seeking only pleasure! You have campaigned against the Yellow Turbans, surely you should know the great names of Generals Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun? Are they also as you described?"

  The bandit leader naturally knew that the two generals, Huangfu Song and Zhu Zan, who had resisted the million-strong Yellow Turbans, were strict in governing their troops and never withheld military pay. The soldiers under their command were all willing to follow them into battle, and they eventually quelled the Yellow Turban Rebellion. For a moment, Ao Lie was speechless when questioned by him.

  "Look at the elite troops behind me! Perhaps you are not convinced of your defeat, thinking that they only relied on their armor and sharp blades, aided by the power of war horses to defeat you. But I tell you, they are all seasoned warriors who have fought countless battles to defend the borders of Great Han. They once clashed with the Xiongnu in a great battle, beheading tens of thousands of Xiongnu! They are the true men! They are the true elite troops of Great Han!"

  Zhang Liao and over a hundred elite Blood Kill Camp soldiers shouted in unison: "The soul of the blood kill, has conquest without war!" With just over a hundred men, they shouted out the momentum of thousands of troops and horses. Even Xun Yu standing beside them was startled by that forward charging momentum.