Chapter 29: The Official's Murder

  After getting close to the constable again, Li Wenjun shook the whistle in his hand and pointed it at the chest of a constable. He aimed at the middle of the constable's chest, where the target was large and easy to knock him off his horse.

  This bailiff is Li Tou, one of the best fighters among the twenty-three bailiffs in Sanshan County. Yesterday he was driving a horse cart, now he has switched to riding a horse.

  As soon as he heard the sound of horseshoes, he hastily moved his hand from rubbing his eyes to squinting at the outside. He saw Li Wenjun rushing over with a horizontal whistle rod and was startled. He quickly dodged to the side and pulled out his wooden sword, chopping towards Li Wenjun's whistle rod.

  Li Wenjun's bat was shaken off at this grid.

  Li Wenjun hastily pulled back his whistle and swung it again, sweeping it horizontally towards Li's head.

  Li Tou was about to counterattack, but his horse suddenly let out a long whinny, stumbled, and fell to the ground with a thud. It had eaten a lot of mung bean flour, and at this moment it really couldn't hold on anymore.

  Li Wenjun's whip did not hit Li Tou, but rather whizzed past his head from above. However, the fact that the whip didn't hit him doesn't mean Li Tou was unscathed - when the horse fell over, it pinned one of his legs under its body. Li Tou cried out in pain.

  Another official's eyes were even more severely affected than Li, and he had only just managed to rub out some of the sand from his eyes, barely able to see things outside.

  As soon as Li fell to the ground, he hastily pulled out his wooden sword and pointed at Li Wenjun with the tip of the blade. "Where did you come from, you scoundrel?" he shouted. "How dare you rob us? Be careful or we'll take you to the San Shan County prison and make you taste our eighteen cruel tortures, so that you can neither live nor die."

  Li Wenjun had a bad impression of the yamen runners in Sanshan County from the very beginning, he strode past the sentry post and pointed at the yamen runner.

  This official also knew the severity, if he really lost the wild mountain spirit, when he returned, County Magistrate Wu Tao would have to skin them. The consequences were too severe, and he couldn't bear it. He had no choice but to summon his spirits, stand on the carriage, and fight alongside Li Wenjun.

  County Magistrate Wu Tao of Sanshan County has sent out his two best deputies this time, doing so because he is worried that they might encounter bandits and have Ye Shan Jing kidnapped. The two deputies are quite skilled, most importantly, they often catch thieves and have plenty of practical experience.

  Li Wenjun's skills were good, but he seriously lacked actual combat experience. The constable had plenty of actual combat experience and was willing to risk his life. The two fought evenly matched, if the constable hadn't been standing on the horse carriage with limited mobility, Li Wenjun might have lost.

  However, as time went on, Li Wenjun grew rapidly and began to gain the upper hand. With just a little more effort, he would have been able to overturn the yamen who was fighting him onto the ground.

  But at this moment, Li Wenjun suddenly felt a bad wind behind his brain, a cold light flashed by, and something was cut heavily on his back.

  With a thud, Li Wenjun fell off his horse and fresh blood quickly flowed all over the ground beneath him.

  "Li Tou, you truly deserve to be the number one master of our San Shan County. With just one knife strike, you knocked down this evil-doer." Another constable flattered him.

  "He's not dead yet, go take a look. If he's still alive, give him another stab and cut off his head. This damned thief actually dared to launch a sneak attack on us, we absolutely can't let him off. Bring back his head, maybe we can even get some reward money from the old master. I'll go see Kong Yao Shi." Li Tou ordered.

  "Yes, Li Tou, you just watch out." Another official said.

  Li Wenjun fell to the ground, feeling a sharp pain in his back, as if his body had been cut in two. He couldn't see what was happening behind him, but if he could, he would have been shocked. There was a large gash on his back, from the right shoulder blade to the left waist, about one or two feet long, with even the bones inside exposed. Fresh blood flowed out of the wound, gushing out like a fountain.

  When he fell off the horse, Li Wenjun realized that he was outnumbered and wanted to snatch the wild mountain essence from their hands, but the difficulty was beyond his imagination. He was a bit too optimistic and overestimated his own abilities.

  The two bailiffs were both seasoned veterans of catching thieves and bandits, having spent many years on the edge of life and death. Their skills may not have been particularly high, but their moves were extremely practical, each one deadly. Furthermore, they were worried about being punished by the county magistrate, so they would certainly risk their lives to protect the mountain spirit. As a result, their combat strength had unknowingly increased significantly. Given the opportunity, they would make sure he was beheaded and sent to report to King Yanluo.

  As soon as Li heard that he was to be beheaded, how could Li Wenjun let them have their way? He endured the severe pain on his back and took advantage of the two bailiffs' conversation to bend down and crawl under the horse's belly.

  When he climbed to the other side of the horse's belly, the two constables happened to separate. Li Tou went up to the carriage to check on Kong Yao Shi's situation and see if Ye Shan Jing had any news. The other constable, holding a knife, prepared to come over and chop off Li Wen Jun's head.

  At this moment, the sky was still dark. The horseback riding official originally held a torch, which had long since fallen to the ground and gone out. The only light source left at the scene was a lantern hanging from the carriage.

  Taking advantage of the faint light, the yamen runner who was ordered to behead Li Wenjun walked to the side of the horse and found that Li Wenjun was gone. He was quite surprised and said: "Hey, you scoundrel, you're still capable of crawling. It seems that it's not so easy for me to cut off your head."

  His words had barely fallen when a whistle rod shot out from under the horse's belly, swift as lightning, and struck him right on the calf.

  This rod, Li Wenjun used all his strength to eat milk, he was seriously injured, and the time left for him was not long, he had to fight quickly.

  With a thud, the yamen runner let out a miserable cry, his legs unstable, and fell to the ground. He clutched at what felt like a broken leg, wailing incessantly. "I'm going to die! Li Tou, hurry up and save me, this damned bandit isn't dead yet, he's still got a lot of strength left!"

  "What?" Li raised the curtain of the sedan chair, came out from the carriage compartment, with a wooden sword across his chest, eyes blazing with anger, looking at the yamen runner lying on the ground, then looked at Li Wenjun.

  Li Wenjun had originally intended to take advantage of the situation and end the life of the yamen runner, but now that he saw Li Tou coming out, he knew he no longer had the opportunity. He grasped both ends of his staff, one end pointing directly at Li Tou.

  "Bandit, come and meet your death!" Li Tou leapt down from the carriage, his wooden sword held high, chopping down towards Li Wenjun.

  Suddenly, Li Wenjun and Li Tou fought together in one place.

  Li's head was extremely cunning, Li Wenjun had such a big mouth on his back, fresh blood gushing out non-stop, he saw it with his eyes and rejoiced in his heart. Based on experience, he judged that only by delaying for a while, Li Wenjun would bleed to death from the wound alone. So, he just entangled with Li Wenjun without using all his strength, as long as there was an opportunity, he would turn around and bind him again, anyway, just holding down Li Wenjun and not letting him go.

  Li Tou was up to something, Li Wenjun knew it in his heart, although he hated him so much that he wanted to beat him to death with a stick, but Li Tou was even more slippery than a loach, and didn't give him the chance.

  This won't do, Li Tou can drag on, but he can't drag on, not to mention that he has injuries on his body, and there is still a yamen runner on the ground. As long as the latter's leg injury gets slightly better, they will be able to attack him from both inside and outside, which will be enough to make him drink a pot of wine.

  We must end this quickly and decisively, we absolutely cannot delay any further!

  Li Wenjun thought of this, and a plan formed in his mind. He remembered the heroic characters in the novels he had read, who often used the "dragging knife" tactic. The situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to think of a better method, so he decided to use this strategy.

  When Li Tou retreated again, Li Wenjun turned his head and ran towards Ma.

  "Little kid, you think you can run? The door isn't even open!" Li shouted as he chased after him.

  Li Wenjun reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver ingot, throwing it at Li's head. He said in a hoarse voice, "Look at my hidden weapon."

  Li dodged to the side and swung his knife at the silver thing, only to find that it was heavy but lacked power and speed, much like a pebble thrown by a child in a fight.

  Li's head secretly rejoiced, thinking that this person didn't have much strength left and wouldn't last long.

  At this time, Li Wenjun took out another thing and threw it at Li's head.

  Li Tou thought it was another similar hidden weapon, so he swung his wooden sword and chopped at the supposed hidden weapon. But he didn't expect that this time Li Wenjun was playing for real.

  Li Wenjun threw out the hidden weapon, which was a broken dagger with a handle like a whip. This was a fragment of a sharp blade, and compared to ordinary iron, it was extremely sharp.

  With a whooshing sound, like a knife cutting through fabric, the broken dagger instantly pierced the wooden sword and continued to stab towards Li's head with undiminished force.

  Li's head dodged and weaved but was too late, the dagger stabbed fiercely into the spot between his shoulder and chest, Ah, Li let out a mournful cry.

  Li Wenjun, who had been pretending to retreat, suddenly turned around and took a step forward. The head of the whistle rod heavily struck his groin, and with just this one strike, he felt as if something inside him had been shattered.

  Suffering a severe blow, Li's head went dark in front of his eyes, and immediately, he fainted from the pain.

  Li Wenjun took advantage of the situation and didn't spare Li Tou. He rushed forward, first using his whistle rod to take away the wooden knife in Li Tou's hand, then pulled out the broken dagger stuck in Li Tou's body. With a swing of his arm, he cut off half of Li Tou's neck, causing him to die instantly.

  "It's murder, it's murder!" Another official didn't expect the situation to turn around. Originally, their side had the upper hand, but in the blink of an eye, Li was killed. Although he usually looked quite fierce, like when he whipped the owner of the mule shop with a whip, as if he were a malevolent spirit, when death really loomed over him, he too became afraid.

  He forgot that Li Wenjun was a seriously injured person and didn't dare to fight with him. He limped, mounted his horse at a speed faster than a rabbit, pulled the reins, and galloped back along the way he came.

  Just as the yamen runner was riding away on horseback, a shout of "Drive!" came from inside the carriage and it began to move. It turned out that Kong Yashi, who had been hiding in the carriage, saw that things were not going well and wanted to drive the carriage to escape.

  Li Wenjun didn't have the energy for this, and he couldn't bear to engage in another game of cat and mouse with Kong Yaoshi. Taking advantage of the fact that the horse carriage had just started moving and wasn't going very fast, he took a deep breath, grabbed the whistle rod, and sprinted forward with an arrow step. He thrust his hand forward and inserted the whistle rod into the hub of the carriage wheel.

  The carriage suddenly encountered an obstacle, and the resistance increased greatly. The horse pulling the cart was caught off guard and was violently jerked forward, standing up on its hind legs and letting out a long whinny. As a result, Kong Yao Shi fell into a bloody mess, rolling around in a ball inside the carriage. If not for the rear wall of the carriage blocking him, he might have already rolled out of it.