Chapter 4: Where is the Road?

  "Sixth Uncle, didn't I scare you?"

  "Ah, not dead yet." He Zhonghou stuck his head out of the carriage, and just now during the fight, the old man's heart was in his throat, and his hands and feet were chilled with fear.

  "Lu Yong, why isn't Zhenhua here? Is everything okay with him?"

  "No, Sixth Uncle, if it weren't for Brother Gu, I'm afraid we would be in danger. Both bandit chiefs were killed by his hand, and now he's chasing after the last one."

  "What nonsense!" He Zhonghou's eyes widened instantly: "These bandits are sinister and cunning, Zhenhua is chasing alone, what if something happens?"

  "Sixth Uncle, I've already had Xue Biao lead a group of men in pursuit."

  "No way, you go take a look too."

  The old man spoke, and Lu Yong didn't dare not listen, so he quickly led the two of them to chase after him again. They had just run out for a short distance when they saw yellow sand flying everywhere in the distance, with several war horses galloping towards them. The one running at the front was Gu Zhenhua!

  He was chasing after Dazhai, the distance between them getting closer and closer. Dazhai also knew that if he didn't get rid of Gu Zhenhua, he wouldn't be able to escape. He quietly prepared his bow and arrow, suddenly turned around, brought out his signature move, and three sharp arrows shot out almost at the same time, forming a "pin" shape, sweeping towards Gu Zhenhua.

  Not a few people died at the hands of Dazhu, but he still underestimated Gu Zhenhua. The moment his shoulders moved, Gu Zhenhua keenly sensed it. His left foot kicked open the stirrup and made a beautiful move to dodge the arrows, all three of which missed their mark.

  "Coming but not going is impolite, take an arrow from me!"

  Gu Zhenhua returned to the saddle and shot out an arrow. In the past, Gu Zhenhua had only played with competitive bows and arrows, and had not experienced this kind of life-and-death struggle before.

  However, when he grasped the bow and arrow, it seemed to come naturally to him. The bowstring rang out, and an arrow shot out with a whizzing sound. A warhorse sixty paces away suddenly let out a painful cry, as if struck by lightning, and fell to the ground.

  A massive warhorse happened to pin down the leader of the bandits, and Xue Biao and his men also caught up at this moment. As soon as they saw the leader being shot down, they burst out laughing: "Brother Gu, great marksmanship!"

  The three fort leaders were all killed, and the small followers had long since scattered. A few people arrived calmly at the front of the big fort leader. This guy hadn't died yet, but his leg was crushed by a war horse and he couldn't move.

  "Brother Gu, shoot the man before shooting the horse, capture the thief before capturing the king. Brother Gu's arrow is shot beautifully!" Xue Piao's gaze fell on the horse's buttocks.

  Only a quarter of the arrow shaft was exposed outside, and the rest had all entered the flesh. The force was so astonishing that Xue Biao also looked at Gu Zhenhua as if he were looking at a monster.

  "Cough... Brother Xue, actually I was aiming at the person, didn't expect to hit the war horse." Gu Zhenhua's face turned slightly red.

  Xue Biao burst out laughing: "Luck is also a skill, like this guy, who can blame him for having no luck?"

  As he spoke, Xue Biao arrived in front of the leader of Dazhai, his gun fiercely stabbing downwards. The leader's chest was pierced with a hole, and after rolling his eyes, he died.

  A dead ghost Xue Biao didn't care, but lowered his head, picked up the bow of the leader of the Dazhai, padded it in his hand, and pulled the bowstring again.

  "This, this is a two-stone bow!" Xue Biao was also shocked and lost his color.

  Gu Zhenhua was still a bit unclear and smiled: "Xue brother, what's so special about these two stone bows?"

  "Brother Gu, you may not know that ordinary soldiers of the Ming Dynasty can only pull open a bow made of elm wood with a weight of about five dou. As for a one-stone bow, it's something that only a general can pull open, and this two-stone bow is even rarer. If someone can pull it open, he's either a great general or an archery master. Sun Cheng's archery skills are the best among us, but he only uses a one-stone bow. A two-stone bow is absolutely impossible for him to pull open."

  Xue Biao said, handing the bow to Gu Zhenhua's hands, smiling and saying: "Brother Gu, do you want to give it a try?"

  "Good!"

  Gu Zhenhua was secretly calculating in his heart, one dan in the morning is roughly equivalent to about 150 catties later on, two dan would be over 300 catties. Don't look at historical records of someone being able to draw a strong bow of so many dan, many are exaggerated, just like the records of city walls being hundreds of zhang high, which can't be taken literally.

  With a force of three hundred catties, and with multiple shots, it has actually almost reached the limit of human strength. Gu Zhenhua held the bow in his hand, let out a loud cry, and with both arms using force, he pulled the bow full in one go, just like a full moon.

  "Good!" Xue Biao suddenly shouted loudly: "Brother Gu is really powerful, if you join the army, you will definitely be a good fighter."

  He could pull open the two-stone-strong bow, and Gu Zhenhua was very satisfied. The dead bandit chief seemed to have failed to bring out the potential of the bow and arrow, but once it was in his own hands, he might be able to hit targets over a hundred paces away with just a bit of effort. At times like these, having an extra ounce of strength meant having an extra chance at survival, so Gu Zhenhua didn't hesitate to claim the bow as his own.

  They rode back on horseback, and it happened that Lu Yong brought people over. Seeing the joyful expressions on Gu Zhenhua's face, they knew they had won a complete victory, so they smiled and said: "Brother Gu, I really didn't expect your skills to be so impressive. Thanks to you, otherwise we would have been in danger."

  "Lu Ge, don't be polite, this place is not suitable for staying long, let's leave quickly."

  Lu Yong nodded and said: "That's right, many brothers were killed or injured. If there are more bandits, we'll be in trouble!"

  At the moment of turning around, Lu Yong noticed that two-stone bow and suddenly his face turned very bad!

  "Lu brother, what's wrong with this bow?" Gu Zhenhua asked in surprise.

  Lu Yong sighed: "Gu brothers, this kind of bow is not from the folk at all, most likely it's from the border army. These three village heads might be fugitives who escaped from the border and fled to these mountains, becoming mountain bandits."

  Gu Zhenhua couldn't help but shake his head and sigh, it was indeed a scene from the end of the world. A good army that couldn't protect its people, couldn't kill the Tartars, instead harmed its own people, truly pitiful and lamentable.

  Everyone returned to the battlefield, hastily counting the casualties. A total of four guards were killed in battle and five people were seriously injured, with two of them covered in blood and on the verge of death.

  He Zhonghou also sighed repeatedly, helpless. Lu Yong looked at them and couldn't help but shake his head: "Sixth Uncle, these two brothers are too seriously injured, the bleeding won't stop, and they can't withstand the jolting. I think it's better to give them a quick end!"

  "Alas, what a calamity!" He Zhonghou sighed: "A lively person has fallen like this, it's all because of my old age that I've implicated everyone."

  "Sixth Uncle, don't blame yourself, let me take a look!" The speaker was Gu Zhenhua. He walked a few steps forward and carefully examined the two people. Both of them had multiple injuries on their bodies, but there were not many fatal wounds. One person had a wound on his chest, and the other had one on his thigh. The bleeding was heaviest at these two spots.

  Gu Zhenhua checked and then said: "Give me a few pieces of cloth, and light another fire."

  As soon as he heard this, everyone was also unclear, but since there was no cloth strip, Lu Yong tore open his shirt and handed it to Gu Zhenhua.

  Gu Zhenhua took over and secretly shook his head. Without a tourniquet, he could only use this thing to make do. He looked at the wound on the thigh of the guard, the knife cut was about two inches long, and blood was still gushing out continuously.

  Gu Zhenhua took a deep breath, wrapped the upper end of the wound with a cloth strip, wrapped it twice, and then tied his thigh tightly with both hands. This can compress blood vessels and stop bleeding. As the force increased, the wound finally stopped bleeding. Lu Yong and others looked at each other, their eyes lit up.

  Gu Zhenhua took a look and saw that the bleeding had stopped, then hastily pulled out a dagger, heated it over the fire pit beside him, and applied the scorching hot blade to the wound. A smell of roasted meat wafted up, causing everyone's eyebrows to furrow in distaste. The injured guard let out a pained cry. However, astonishingly, the bleeding from the wound completely stopped. Gu Zhenhua then proceeded to staunch the blood flow of another guard according to the same method before bandaging them up.

  After busying himself for half an hour, he finally let out a sigh of relief, but as soon as he turned around, he found Lu Yong and the others staring at him with suspicious eyes.

  "Brother Gu, you still know medicine?"

  "This is hardly a medical skill." Gu Zhenhua smiled and said, "It's just a small trick for first aid, and now we also lack disinfection tools. Whether these two brothers live or die will have to wait for the real doctor."

  Old Sun, who had been silent all along, suddenly smiled and said: "Brother Gu, you're too polite. I think even the military doctor's movements aren't as skilled as yours. Whether this old arm can recover or not depends on you, little brother."

  Lao Sun had just been shot by an arrow, which was quite deep. Based on his experience in the army, this kind of wound was very likely to become infected, and most wounded soldiers died from it. He was also anxious, and as soon as he saw that Gu Zhenhua knew some medical skills, he quickly sought his help.

  Gu Zhenhua hastily examined it and found that the arrow had been pulled out, but the wound was more than an inch deep. Under current medical conditions, if the wound is not treated properly, it is indeed very dangerous.

  Lao Sun had just fought side by side with him, and could be considered a life-and-death friend. Gu Zhenhua helped him re-bandage his wound, then turned around to face Da Qing Ma. He pulled out an antibiotic from the small package, although it might not be effective against the specific disease, but people in ancient times didn't have much of a drug resistance problem, so it should have some effect.

  "Brother Sun, take two pills of this medicine at a time, twice a day, it should be able to prevent wound infection and suppuration."

  As soon as Old Sun saw what was in Gu Zhenhua's hand, he was also shocked. Although he had never seen such exquisite small pills before, he knew they were good stuff. So he hastily said: "Brother Gu, my injury is only skin-deep, it doesn't matter, you'd better keep them for yourself."

  "Brother Sun, we're sworn brothers, this medicine may be effective, but it also has an expiration date and side effects, I'm not sure if it'll work, so I don't dare guarantee it."

  "Medicine is three parts poison, I understand this principle, Gu brothers, this friendship I will remember!"

  Gu Zhenhua helped deal with all the wounded, and the survivors' views on him were greatly different. Everyone walked for another two days and arrived at Lingqiu, where they finally had a bit of a crowd. They all stayed in the store to rest and sent someone to invite doctors to treat the wounded.

  Gu Zhenhua was also somewhat tired, just about to rest when he suddenly heard a commotion outside. He hurriedly wanted to go out and take a look, at this time Lu Yong rushed over in a hurry.

  "Brother Gu, something terrible has happened! The Ningwu Pass has been breached by the bandits. Those who escaped all say that Zhou Yuji was captured alive by the bandit king using a human sea tactic, then hung on a bamboo pole and shot to death with random arrows. How tragic!"

  "Lu Ge, in my opinion, now is not the time for nostalgia. Shouldn't we think carefully about where our way out is?"

  (Temporary update twice a day, one chapter in the morning and one at night. Looking at everyone's excitement, I will explode if it gets too much...)