Chapter 60: The Iron Cavalry's Past (Part 2)

  The Hanmo Fortress has hundreds of thousands of disciples, and inside the fortress there are even thousands of iron-clad cavalry who have undergone rigorous training. These iron-clad cavalry were already highly skilled in martial arts, and with their strong armor, ordinary government soldiers, even if they outnumbered them several times, were no match for them. The master of the fortress was also granted the hereditary title of General of the Western Expedition by the imperial court. People in Jinzhou often say that the most powerful person in Jinzhou is not the governor, but the master of Hanmo Fortress. Although this statement is exaggerated, it can be seen from this that Hanmo Fortress has a great influence in Jinzhou.

  Although An Yuanwai was once a fifth-grade military officer in the imperial court, he also had a sense of high aspirations for the Guardian Prince of Hanmo Fortress, and naturally, he would be more than willing to marry into this family.

  Weizhen Yi had previously visited the Mazi Temple, where he had a martial arts exchange with An Yuxuan's disciples at her request. Therefore, An Yuxuan naturally knew Weigongzi and was secretly delighted when she heard about this marriage.

  The auspicious day is approaching, An Yuxuan bids farewell to her master's door, and returns home with two younger sisters and several close sister apprentices to prepare for the wedding. Along the way, the three sisters are naturally joyful. But unexpectedly, a disaster that destroys the family is waiting for them.

  Anjiazhuang was a tough nut to crack, but it was a piece of fat meat. The Iron Riders would send out thousands of horse bandits to attack in unison. Cao Tianhao, with his rich experience, ordered the horse bandits to launch an immediate assault on the city without stopping for a moment.

  Tie Ji Hui has been active in Jinzhou for over a decade, and many of its members are desperate outlaws who have no choice but to fight to the death. Cao Tianhao is extremely strict with his subordinates, which is why they have considerable combat strength.

  Anjiazhuang had 400 well-trained strong men and relied on its high walls, but these strong men had never seen blood. The Iron Riders divided into four groups to attack the village, with the most skilled leaders as vanguards, the experienced horse thieves, and the archers who suppressed the defenders on the wall. The leader of Anjiazhuang had no experience in battle and gave wrong orders. The Iron Riders seemed to have easily entered the village.

  Once deprived of the protection of the high walls, how could the half-farmer and half-soldier Zhuang Ding be a match for these ferocious horse bandits; however, within half an hour the horse bandits had swept away the resistance.

  When Cao Tianhao and his three brothers led their men into the An family's residence, An Yuanwai and the three An sisters stood at the forefront. The disciples of Mazi Temple escorted the An family members to break out from the backyard; Cao Tianhao simultaneously took action to capture the An sisters and the two guardians alive, but An Yuanwai was no match for him despite his decent martial arts skills and was killed by a single knife strike after just a few moves. The An sisters were also knocked down and captured alive by the two guardians.

  The crowd of Ma's family disciples saw that there were so many masters among the horse thieves, and they knew that continuing to fight would be futile, and they would only lose their lives. So they abandoned their homes and families and broke through on their own. Because all the fellow sisters who came down the mountain with Anjia this time were secular disciples, no one wore the Taoist robe of Magu Pavilion. Cao Tianhao had seen these people's martial arts skills in the wine building that day, but he hadn't seen their origin.

  Today, I made a move, but found that several people were using the martial arts of Magou Guan. In surprise and doubt, I missed the opportunity to intercept, and was broken through by several disciples of Magou Guan.

  After taking control of Anjiazhuang, Cao Tianhao eagerly interrogated the three An sisters. When he heard that they were not only inner disciples of Maziguan but also the unwed daughters-in-law of the Left Protector of Hanlai Fortress, he was both shocked and enraged.

  If these three were just disciples of Mazi Temple, it would be enough to release them unharmed and send a heavy gift to the high-level officials of Mazi Temple to make peace. However, among these three people is actually the daughter-in-law of the Left Protector of Hanmo Fortress. Regardless of whether he releases them or not, he has already severely humiliated Hanmo Fortress. With Hanmo Fortress's style of doing things, they will definitely annihilate the Iron Rider Association.

  Under Cao Tianhao's frantic and desperate situation, he actually issued a decree to exterminate the entire household; Anjiazhuang instantly turned into a purgatory on earth.

  The next morning, Cao Tianhao led the horse thieves back to their mountain lair. He sent out scouts in all directions to gather information.

  Cao Tianjie and Cao Tianyu, the two brothers, were also clever and quick-witted, but under Cao Tianhao's indulgence, they had long been reckless and lawless. Although they knew they had made a big mistake, they didn't take it to heart.

  In the next few days, bad news came one after another. The Hanmo Fortress sent out a thousand Hanmo Iron Riders, the Magu Temple sent out five hundred Red Scarf Riders to ambush the Iron Riders Association, and even the government sent three thousand iron riders to surround and wipe them out under the mediation of An Yuan Wai's former colleagues.

  Cao Tianhao immediately silenced the several horse thieves present after inquiring about the origin of the An sisters, and later sent out to investigate the news that the horse thief was also his confidant.

  As a result, in the mountain stronghold, except for Cao Tianhao and his brothers and their trusted subordinates, everyone else was kept in the dark, completely unaware of the danger they were in.

  After listening to the report from his subordinates, Cao Tianhao knew that the Iron Cavalry was doomed.

  Cao Tianhao pretended to go out on a business trip that day and ordered his subordinates to guard the mountain stronghold.

  He took two younger brothers and more than a hundred trusted subordinates to leave the mountain stronghold. When he left, he brought the An sisters along, planning to use them as hostages when necessary.

  The unguarded Iron Cavalry was ambushed by the thousand-strong Hanmo Iron Cavalry led by Wei Chenyi, who arrived first, and was defeated in less than half a day.

  Weidu Yi frantically searched the entire mountain stronghold, but couldn't find any sign of An Jia sisters. He brutally interrogated several leaders of the stronghold, who were clueless and naturally pretended to know nothing. After killing a few people, he finally learned about the situation from the mouths of the leaders who gradually understood what was going on, but by then another day had been wasted.

  Wei Chenyi was shocked to hear that the Iron Rider's leader had escaped, and even took An Jia sisters with him. At that moment, he almost spat out blood, and immediately led his men in pursuit. However, they were shaken off by Cao brothers at the intersection of Jin Gan, who utilized their familiarity with the terrain in the mountains.

  Wei Chenyi finally walked out of the mountains, but had already lost track of the Cao brothers. He returned to the Iron Rider's mountain stronghold and, consumed by hatred, ordered that all captured horse thieves be killed in a mass grave, to vent his anger.

  Hanmo Fortress and Magu Pavilion, as well as the government, did not give up. Hanmo Fortress and Magu Pavilion jointly issued a Jianghu manhunt order, offering a reward of 10,000 taels of gold for the heads of the three Chen brothers. The government also issued a nationwide arrest warrant, offering a reward of 10,000 taels of silver for the capture of the Chen brothers.

  The Cao brothers, who had escaped to Shuoan City in Ganzhou, were rescued by Xiao Ziyang under the cover of carelessness and took away the An sisters. They became startled birds, fleeing south all the way until they settled down in Nanba County deep in the southern mountains.

  After listening to this person's account, Xiao Ziyang recalled the stunning beauty of the An sisters that still lingered in his memory after many years, and upon learning that they had encountered such a tragic event, he couldn't help but sigh.

  That horse thief walked quietly in front of Xiao Ziyang, leading the way with a nervous and fearful expression.