Chapter 29: Hunter and Prey (Three)

  Yang Shuangfen nodded, her eyes fixed on the movements of the bandits while closely watching the actions of the Cai family sisters. After all, they were women, and it took them a full three or four minutes to crawl through this short section of road. However, when they finally crawled into the small woods covered in mud and water, everyone couldn't help but let out a deep sigh of relief.

  Suddenly, one of the bandits shouted in a hoarse and unclear voice: "Su Yunfeng, listen up! You'd better hand over the wealth of the Cai family immediately, otherwise I'll make you wish you were dead! Brothers, line up and get ready to enjoy the pleasure brought by that cheap woman! Whoever catches her first gets to go first!"

  Su Yun's face turned pale instantly, and her whole body began to tremble.

  Yang Shuang saw that Bing Xiang's face had changed slightly and couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Bing Xiang, who is he?"

  Cai Bingxi looked at him with a hint of fear, seemingly measuring whether he would be scared off. Her lips moved several times before she whispered: "I think that person is the bandit leader Watanabe Lang. He's the most notorious bandit leader around here, extremely cunning and cruel, having slaughtered many villages and killed countless people. He highly values martial power, loves to duel with others, and has a hobby of abusing women. His weapon is a crescent-shaped long knife, which he calls the 'Moon Curved Knife'."

  Yang Shuangfeng nodded and then said in surprise: "How can there be Japanese people appearing here?"

  "What Japanese? I don't know what you're talking about. Watanabe is a Han, one of those most detestable Hans, arrogant and bloodthirsty, with deep-seated inferiority complex, yet extremely eager to conquer others, their mentality is all abnormal."

  Yang Suofeng fell silent for a moment, not thinking of seeking the root cause. To him, whether the other party was Japanese or Han Chinese made no difference. His standard procedure was to send them all to hell. He raised his voice and coldly sneered: "Do you have the ability to catch her?"

  "That unclear voice over there said: 'Who are you? Your marksmanship is quite good, why don't we become friends? You want people, I want money. It's better than everyone wasting time here.'"

  Yang Shuang said lightly: "Cut the crap! I want both people and money!"

  The voice from over there said: "Is that a refusal to negotiate?"

  Yang Shuang said resolutely: "I will never negotiate with traitors and rebels, let alone with the Japanese."

  "That voice said: 'Are you Yang Suofeng? Yang Suofeng, come out, I'll fight you one on one...'"

  Yang Shuang said fiercely: "You come out first, I'll blow your head off with one shot!"

  On the other side, there was no longer any speech, and the surroundings were quiet, with only the sound of cold wind blowing over the treetops, making people feel even colder. The desperate expression of being in a predicament also gradually appeared on Cai Fengfeng and Cai Mianmian's faces, while Su Yunruo also showed an anxious and unbearable expression. Just thinking about falling into the bandits' hands and suffering what treatment made her shudder with fear. Only Cai Bingxia was still calm, carefully helping Yang Jirui clean up the remaining gunpowder in the rifle to ensure that there would be no malfunction during the next shot. However, the shadow of death loomed over everyone's heads, lingering for a long time without dispersing.

  Yang Shuangfeng said without hesitation: "You immediately retreat and go back up the mountain."

  "Look at the back, it's all thorny forest, can't go."

  Yang Shuang said resolutely: "The bandits have a new leader, they will definitely take the initiative to attack. If we don't pull back a bit, we'll definitely die in a very ugly way. The bandits may use horses to charge, we must retreat. We absolutely cannot let the enemy surround us."

  "Are we going to be surrounded if we retreat to the mountain?"

  Yang Shuang said confidently: "In the valley behind, I don't have to worry about being surrounded. As long as there is enough ammunition, who is the hunter and who is the prey remains to be seen!"

  At once, the group carefully made their way through the thorny forest, slowly retreating to a small hill. Su Yun was still hesitating, carefully pulling at her black long skirt, but was roughly picked up by Yang Shuang Feng and quickly carried through the thorny forest. The cost was that her black long skirt was scratched off halfway by the sprawling thorns, revealing her snow-white tender thighs. She was both ashamed and angry, stretching out her hand to slap Yang Shuang Feng, but as soon as she made contact with his cold gaze, she didn't dare move, and could only awkwardly withdraw her hand.

  Yang Shuangfeng coldly commended and said: "Miss Su, this is right. Now we are all on the same boat, working together to struggle for survival is the right way. If you have any opinions about me, bear with it for a while, let's talk after breaking out of the siege. If you don't want to live, maybe rushing out from here will be more refreshing, I think those bandits must hope you do so."

  Su Yun's lips were bitten to the point of bleeding, and she was clearly furious with Yang Shuangfeng, but she didn't dare to make a move due to his overbearing power. Cai Bingxia stood beside her, opening her mouth slightly as if wanting to comfort her, but couldn't bring herself to say anything.

  Yang Shuangfeng and Yang Jirui lagged behind. Yang Shuangfeng pulled out a sharp dagger from his boot, cut off many branches, sharpened one end of the branches, and inserted them into the ground at an angle, making many traps and mechanisms. This dagger was taken from Yu Huanjuan, and it was indeed not an ordinary product, extremely sharp, and compared to the 21st century's Type 65 Paratrooper Knife, it would not be much inferior. Yang Jirui looked on in a daze, secretly shocked, and finally couldn't help but ask: "Feng, where did you learn these skills?"

  Yang Shuang said casually: "I learned it myself!"

  Yang Ji's eyes widened in shock and he said, "How could you have learned this in the city of Niluo? This method of secretly calculating the enemy's position is only used by scouts from the front lines. Where did you learn it?"

  Yang Shuangfeng was stunned for a moment before reacting, realizing that he had unknowingly mixed up time and space again, bringing the basic field combat skills of the People's Liberation Army Marine Corps to this world. For a while, he couldn't explain it clearly either, so he just pretended to be confused and said: "I don't know either, I just do."

  Yang Ji Rui was speechless, wanting to say something, but didn't know where to start.

  After a while, they finally finished setting up and returned to the small hill, only to see Cai Bingyi somehow producing many sheepskin bags from somewhere, collecting rainwater from the leaves of the trees. Once they were almost full, he distributed them among the crowd. In fact, everyone had already drunk enough rainwater, now their bodies were icy cold, and even more so, they didn't have any desire to drink water.

  The hesitant person said: "With such a big rain, do we still need to prepare water?"

  Yang Shuang nodded in agreement and said: "It's always better to be prepared! We may not know how long we'll have to wait."

  As if to confirm Yang Shuang's words, the heavy rain slowly subsided into a fine drizzle, and then the sun unexpectedly peeked out from behind the thick clouds, casting a million rays of golden light. However, judging by the position of the sun and the intensity of its rays, it was probably around dusk now. The evening air wafted with a strong smell of gunpowder mixed with a faint scent of blood. Through the gaps in the trees, one could vaguely see the bodies of the bandits scattered all over the place, like a fictional Ashura battlefield. Yet everyone knew that this was not fiction, but cruel reality. And whether or not they themselves would become part of this real-life Ashura battlefield remained an unknown quantity.

  After an unbearable silence, the remaining bandits finally launched a stealthy attack.

  It was still drizzling when the bandits dispersed and launched their attack. They obviously had unified command, so they acted in an orderly manner without making a sound. However, as soon as they entered the small woods, mournful cries began to ring out one after another. The heart-wrenching cries made Su Yunfeng and other women turn pale, with trembling lips, and it was really hard to imagine what Yang Songfeng had set up in front. The timid Cai Mianmian even covered her ears, psychologically unable to bear the heartbreaking cries.

  However, Yang Shuangfeng's face didn't show any fluctuation, he just quietly gazed at the movement in front of him, his Türgesh rifle propped against a thorny tree. Yang Jirui and Cai Bingyi crouched on the ground, loading all the Türgesh rifles with bullets.

  After paying a considerable price, the bandits finally broke through Yang Shuangfeng's defense line.

  The muffled sound of the rifle began to ring out, and with each shot, there was always an accompanying groan or scream. Every bullet brought down a bandit, whether he had crept up, crawled up, or walked up. The deadly bullets pursued them relentlessly.

  The black smoke of the Yao slowly spread over the small hill, Su Yun and Cai Yunyun were choked to cough softly, only Cai Bingxia was still calm, silently reloading the rifle that had been fired. However, relying on their numerical superiority, the bandits approached closer and closer.

  Su Yunru looked at the bandits rushing from all sides in horror, and suddenly smiled miserably: "Forget it, let's just give them all our money."

  Yang Shuangfeng suddenly turned around and said viciously: "Shut up! What are you giving!"

  Su Yun said in despair: "After they kill us, the money will still be theirs, and we'll have to pay with our lives."

  Yang Shuang's gaze stared deeply at her, coldly saying: "Do you think they're doing well?"

  Su Yun remained silent.

  Yang Shuangfeng sneered: "There are still 360 bullets here, I don't believe they have 360 people."

  He paused, then said viciously: "Besides, even if they rush over and kill me, I'll tear everything to shreds and make them busy for nothing! They think they can rob me? No way!"

  Su Yun shook her head mournfully, and two lines of crystal tears welled up in her pitch-black eyes. She said sorrowfully: "The fish dies and the net is broken, what's the use of that?"

  Yang Shuangfeng raised his hand and fired two more shots, blowing the heads of two sneaky bandits who had crept up. He then said gloomily: "Even if I'm a fish, I'm a fish with thorns all over my body! If you want to eat me, you'd better have good teeth! As for competing with me for money and women, forget it!"

  Su Rongyu gazed at Yang Shuangfeng with an unprecedented gaze, saying weakly: "For the sake of money, for the sake of a woman, are you willing to give up your life?"

  Yang Shuang Feng didn't even turn his head back and firmly replied: "Life, money, women, I want them all! Whoever competes with me for these things will die a terrible death!"

  Su Yun said with a sarcastic tone: "It seems that you are really greedy beyond compare! You're simply insatiable!"

  Yang Shuangfeng laughed and said with a nonchalant tone, "Miss Su is overpraising me, I'm unworthy of such praise! However, there's a philosopher who once said that greed is the most fundamental driving force for human progress. It seems like I'm not wrong either."

  Su Yun's lips curled up in disdain, and she snorted softly, no longer speaking.

  Cui Yunyin and Cui Xianxian hugged each other, warming up with their body heat. Although the rain had stopped, the cold wind made them feel even colder, both of their faces were bright red, and their lips were pale blue, Su Yunruo's situation didn't seem to be much better either.

  Cai Bing Xiu suddenly said in a low voice: "Yang brother, let's think of a way to break through the siege. My sister-in-law and sisters can't hold on anymore."

  Yang Shuangfeng said angrily: "The front is full of enemies, the back is a high mountain forest, where can we break through?"

  "I'm worried that if we drag on for another hour or two, we'll all be frozen to death."