Chapter 22: The First Battle

  The extermination team set out as scheduled, and Zhang Zhen played a significant role in this. To say that Zhang Zhen was actually very interested in the extermination of bandits, perhaps because she had been captured by bandits before, and she wanted to take revenge in her heart. However, Wang Da Hu Zi was eliminated by Liu He, not even a single hair was seen by her, so naturally she hated other bandits instead.

  "Li Lu." "Arrived." Not bad, some basic military knowledge was taught by Zhang Zhen in two days, just the responding voice was not loud enough.

  "Li Lu, now I'm assigning you as a scout. You can bring one person and lightly move forward to investigate the bandits' trail." "Yes, Captain." Li Lu found that he had received a task and also gained strength, so his response was much louder this time.

  "But Li Lu, do you know what a scout is?" "I know, isn't it just like those reconnaissance people in the plays and storytelling?" Li Lu said with a pleased smile, and indeed he was right, scouts were doing reconnaissance work. "Alright, see who goes with you." "Let's go with Liu San, our gestures between each other are unmatched by others." Liu He noticed that usually Li Lu got along quite well with Liu San, often the two would compare some hand gestures, which others didn't understand, but they understood each other.

  "All right, Liu San has a gun. Liu San only brought one rifle, don't bring anything else. You go and come back quickly, don't engage with the bandits. If you gather good information, I'll give you credit."

  "Great...!" This kid really thinks this is some kind of opera performance.

  Li Lu thought Liu He was agile, but unexpectedly Liu San, who usually didn't make a sound, ran at a speed that wasn't slow either. He carried a rifle on his back and closely followed Li Lu.

  Before coming out, Liu He indeed neglected the detection of the bandits, only knowing their general direction, and really didn't know the specific location of the bandits. It's not too late to make up for it now.

  Since that's the case, this group of people can't walk on the main road anymore. Once they encounter bandits, it won't be good. Liu He's plan is to launch a surprise attack, so he naturally wouldn't clash head-on with the bandits.

  It's a big road, but it's just wider than the mountain path and the country path. The road surface is still bumpy, but it's relatively straight. Liu He led everyone to the mountain by the roadside, walking through the trees.

  In this way, a day passed, and Li Lu sent someone back to report the situation from time to time. The bandits had raided several more villages in front, and several people were killed by the bandits. Moreover, the specific number of bandits was also known, they had a total of twenty people and twenty guns, among these twenty guns, there were two muzzle-loading guns, ten rifles, and eight earth cannons. The so-called earth cannon is an old-fashioned gun that shoots iron sand, it takes a long time to load bullets, it's just something to intimidate people.

  Liu He and Li Shu, along with Zhang Zhen, analyzed that the bandits might not be far from them, and perhaps by dawn they would receive news of the bandits' exact location. Then everyone would have to get ready.

  "Now, let's arrange the division of labor. We all know how many people they have and what guns they have. So, we need to arrange who should deal with whom. First, the two bandits with rifles will be taken care of by me and Zhang Zhen. Li Shu, can you take care of three bandits with rifles at the same time?"

  "Alright, I'm using a rifle with ten bullets inside. I can fire quickly, so taking care of three people is still easy."

  Li Shu agreed with Liu He's arrangement, "And you eight people, discuss among yourselves that seven of you will fire at those with rifles, and one person will be on the side to move freely, prevent any leakage, and also guard against those with mortars. I estimate that once we open fire, first of all, those with mortars will be frightened out of their wits. However, we must also pay attention to them not being too scared, they are not very worrying, when we enter the range of their mortar fire, this battle should have been settled."

  Liu He specially instructed the crowd, they were sneaking up, naturally it was about not making a sound. These people had experience with this when hunting, so Liu He didn't need to say more.

  "I'll say it again, when you shoot, don't treat those bandits as if they were honest men, just treat them like a wild boar." Li Shu interjected, he had a deep understanding of this, at the time when Wang Dahuizi came down and was killed by Liu He, he had vomited profusely, so he specially added these few sentences.

  After Liu Hebo finished arranging the task, they found a place to rest for a night. Li Lu and Liu San didn't know how they rested, but before dawn, Li Lu came to report that the bandits were still sleeping on the big road five miles away from here, and it was estimated that when everyone arrived, they would wake up.

  Unexpected news is that there were five young people caught among them, and also several horses and carts. It was because the number of people didn't match up that Li Road delayed until now to report back. The two of them didn't rest for a whole night.

  "Well done, Li Lu. You two have made great contributions. Take us there first, and you can rest after we've won this battle. I'm troubling you too much already." "Master, it's nothing. If we can eliminate these inhuman beasts, I wouldn't mind not sleeping for three days."

  It's not clear where the bandits made Li Lu so angry, but there was no time to ask, and everyone packed up quickly and set off. Before setting off, each person checked their own weapons and ammunition again, just in case they couldn't fire when needed.

  The five-mile road was quickly reached, "Shh." At this time, Liu San appeared in front of everyone, "The bandits have started to set off, they just finished eating, their team is like this, two carrying box guns in the middle, five carrying rifles in front, in the middle are several large carts, those five captured young people are driving, behind them are two carrying box guns, and then five carrying rifles, and finally there are people carrying earth cannons. Also, during this time, I have already looked around, at a distance of five miles ahead, there is an earthen ridge, on the ridge there are some deep grasses, we can turn over from the side, and set up an ambush there."

  "Alright, let's do it as Liu San said." The time was tight, five miles away, those with quick feet could make it in forty minutes, but the bandits would be slower because they had a large cart, maybe taking over an hour.

  In order not to attract the attention of the bandits, everyone quickly ran away. They were running far from the main road, fortunately Liu He let them go up the mountain to hunt, which had trained a pair of iron feet.

  When the crowd arrived at the ambush site, they could vaguely see the bandit's team. "Quickly, hurry up and hide, everyone will take my gunshot as a signal, once I shoot, you'll each put down your own target, be careful not to hurt those young people who were captured, otherwise we won't have anything good to say. That would cause big trouble."

  The bandits slowly approached, and the crowd was still taking their guns to shoot people for the first time. Everyone's heart was pounding, and the sound was so loud that Liu He could hear it from the side.

  "Bang, hit." Liu He fired the first shot and then shouted.