Chapter 10: The Village Ambush

  After Gong Sun Ce fell asleep, the statue of Lady Diao Chan that he carried with him slowly disappeared.

  In the dream, it was still that starry sky, with seven stars spinning above his head. At his feet, a piece of land about half an acre in size appeared, but he didn't know how thick it was, and it looked very barren. In the middle, there was a small pond with a diameter of one meter, and a water eye kept spouting out, but the pond never expanded. He looked around and found that Daji's statue had also appeared, and he couldn't help asking: "Sister, what's going on with this land under my feet?"

  Dai Ji didn't appear, only the bronze statue opened its mouth and said: "In the way of military, what is being fought for is land. The spirits of those you killed will transform into various substances according to their attributes in this place. Evil spirits with dark attributes will transform into land. That eye spring was transformed from the Qin army that you killed. Qin country is a water virtue country, and the Qin army belongs to water.

  "You continue to kill and expand, this is the foundation of the inheritance of the military family! As for the Tiger Symbol of Qin, it has always been a thing of Qin, closely linked with the fate of Qin, and it cannot be taken away."

  "When the five virtues are gathered, this place can circulate endlessly. At that time, my brother can establish a village on this land and recruit wandering souls." Dai Ji's voice was very excited. She and Gong Sun Ce joined forces for this purpose. With the wandering souls, she could become a god again and would be closely tied to Gong Sun Ce's growth. Only then would the two of them truly share weal and woe, prosperity and decline together.

  On the highway, one accident after another caused the jeep to fail to speed up until it stopped in the afternoon at a continuous accident scene that blocked the passage. Gong Sun Ce couldn't feel the jeep's trembling and woke up with his eyes open.

  "There's no true inheritance of a military family without war horses!" Liu Wei quipped, seeing Gong Sun Zhan wake up and continued: "From now on we can only proceed on foot. We've already left the Qin army's patrol range, and there will be many battles ahead." Gong Sun Zhan nodded, he was eager for battle now.

  "Only this little was collected from Xianyang. Many supplies were taken away by the Qin army, damn it!" Liu Wei took out several bags of food from the back row, half a bag of compressed biscuits and chocolate, a bag of walnuts, a bag of dried persimmon cakes, as well as four barrels of purified water and two bottles of Nongfu Spring.

  "These are all essentials, very effective in supplementing physical energy and convenient to carry. Unfortunately, the water belt doesn't work, can only go to the front village store to replenish. Hope there's still some left..." Liu Wei said while eating, Gong Sun Ce didn't speak either, covering his head and eating, after a while, the two of them were full.

  After getting off the car, Liu Wei took out two black metal boxes and opened them to reveal two sets of individual soldier equipment. He said with a smile: "I got these from the original warehouse, they are lightweight, durable, have good defensive capabilities, can carry quite a few things on your person without affecting combat, much more practical than multi-functional backpacks, what do you think?"

  "Not bad! Just what we need right now." Gong Sun Ce said, taking out a camouflage vest and trying it on, finding it just fit. Liu Wei started to put it on, laughing and saying: "Our builds are about the same, and our unit's equipment is all the same model. I'm in an elite unit, specifically responsible for showing off!"

  Gongsun Zan put on the military uniform and equipment, then Liu Wei started stuffing bottles of water and food into the pockets everywhere, also helping Gongsun Zan fill his pockets. Patting Gongsun Zan's shoulder, he said: "You come to our troops, with your appearance, you can be a vanguard!"

  Gongsun Ce just smiled, carrying the iron halberd around a car that had been abandoned, his feet were all dry bones and black bloodstains. There was not a single corpse, it seemed they had all been swallowed by evil spirits. Behind him, Liu Wei, holding the flag of Qin State, looked at the dry bones under his feet, gritting his teeth secretly.

  The two got off the highway and headed west along the township road, finding a usable car. Before long, they saw a village. Inside the village, there were intermittent shouts of killing, and the two looked at each other. Gong Sun Ce said: "Get out of the car and kill them all." Liu Wei nodded, his eyes no longer as gentle as before, with a fierce aura, like a tiger that had escaped from its cage, choosing people to bite.

  Gongsun Ce led the way, holding a spear and following the sound of killing. Liu Wei held the flagpole with his left hand, and in his right hand was a long gun that had just appeared, about 2.4 meters long, with a blade like a sword, 5 cm wide and 40 cm long.

  Turning a corner, I saw two groups of bandits fighting each other, with many zombies and villagers' corpses lying around. The remaining villagers were herded together, being guarded by scattered soldiers from both groups of bandits.

  The villagers looked at Gong Sun Ce and his opponent with a mixture of sympathy and schadenfreude. The two groups of soldiers also stopped fighting, separated, and each sent 7 or 8 men to attack Gong Sun Ce, then confronted each other.

  Gongsun Zan saw that the weapons in the hands of the rebel army were varied, but there was no long-range weapon, and he felt a bit relieved. With his twin halberds in hand, he charged forward. Seeing that he didn't retreat, but instead charged towards them, the rebel army's nerves were somewhat disordered, yet their blades still beckoned to Gongsun Zan.

  Gongsun Zan parried the two incoming spears with a single move, then swiftly counterattacked with a horizontal slash, beheading the two frontmost spearman and sending them crashing to the ground. A chaotic soldier behind them trampled over their still-twitching corpses, leapt up, and swung his blade at Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zan retreated one step, thrust out his halberd, and impaled the mid-air swordsmen. Seeing more chaotic soldiers approaching from in front, he used his halberd to lift the corpse of the swordsman and slammed it down fiercely, knocking three chaotic soldiers off their feet.

  Liu Wei followed up, and with one shot, he pierced the left side of a gunman. The gunman shook and swayed, desperately stabbing out with his gun, but it was no match for Liu Wei's spear. The gun tip stopped just a foot in front of Liu Wei, powerless to drop down, and the gunman began to rot away. Liu Wei's long spear quivered as he pulled it out again, slicing off the head of another knife-wielding soldier who was charging towards Gong Sun Zan. The beheaded soldier's body hadn't even hit the ground before it had rotted away into nothing but a pile of dry bones.

  Gongsun Zhan struck down the struggling soldiers on the ground one by one, killing them all. He and Liu Wei blocked the street together, coordinating their movements, and in just a moment's breath, these dozen or so rioting soldiers were hacked to death and transformed into yellow and white energy flows, with a small portion being absorbed by Liu Wei and the majority being absorbed by Gongsun Zhan and the tiger talisman in his arms.

  They saw the chaotic army being annihilated like cutting grass, and the villagers' eyes were filled with expectation. The two hundred leaders of the chaotic army nodded to each other, silently reaching an agreement. Then the chaotic army merged, killing together towards Gong Sun Ce and his men. This time they had long weapons in front and short weapons behind, forming a battle array, slowly pressing towards Gong Sun Ce and his men.

  "Liu Wei, fight while retreating, don't get surrounded!" Gong Sun Ce shouted as he stabbed a long spearman to death with his halberd and retreated. His iron halberd was three meters long, the long spears in the hands of the rebel soldiers were only two meters, even Liu Wei's long spear was longer than those of the rebels, as long as they weren't surrounded, the rebel army's formation could be easily broken!

  Because the overall shape of the battle formation needs to be maintained, the disordered army that forms the battle formation can only move at a normal walking speed. If it's any faster, the formation will become disorganized. This is also why two disordered armies of 100 people each are extremely fierce in close combat. The battle formation is used to counter other formations, and although the gun formation looks unbeatable on the streets, the guns are too short, which becomes a weakness!

  Liu Wei nodded, retreated while looking for an opportunity, and seized the moment to rush forward with a spear, killing one of the riflemen. The riflemen in the chaotic army died very miserably, one dying in front, the ones behind continuing to fill in. Before long, the two had already retreated to the entrance of the street, when suddenly two hundred-man commanders let out a loud shout, and the remaining chaotic army charged forward with large strides, disregarding life or death.

  Gongsun Zan and Liu Wei were momentarily unable to hold their ground, and as the chaotic army rushed past on both sides, they found themselves surrounded at a street intersection. Gongsun Zan swept aside several swordsmen with his spear and shouted loudly: "Hold your positions behind me, we'll charge forward again!" Being surrounded on three sides was no better than being surrounded on two; as long as one person held their ground at the head, they would be relatively safe. At this moment, Gongsun Zan deeply felt the inadequacy of his insufficient manpower and realized that he needed a large number of soldiers.

  Liu Wei let out a loud roar, indicating that he was fine. With his back to Gong Sun Ce, he slowly retreated, not seeking to kill the enemy, but only to force the chaotic soldiers who wanted to pass in front of him to retreat with a single spear thrust. Gong Sun Ce saw that Liu Wei could hold on for a while, and with both hands holding a halberd, he charged into the street, killing seven or eight chaotic soldiers along the way. He then saw two hundred-man commanders of the rebel army, as well as twenty gunners behind them.

  Two hundred men swung their large knives, these musketeers advanced in groups of five, stabbing wildly at Gong Sun Ce with their long spears. At this time, Gong Sun Ce could only advance and not retreat. The distance between him and Liu Wei was the only depth they had, if it was compressed cleanly, they would be chopped to death by chaotic knives.

  A hail of bullets came, he dodged and weaved to the side, charging forward in a flurry of gunfire. Another burst of gunfire came from the side, which he deflected with a single swing of his spear. Finally closing in on the gun-wielding soldiers, before they could retreat, he swung his spear wildly with both hands, sending nearby soldiers crashing down in an instant, leaving only three or four fleeing for their lives. When they charged again with guns drawn, Gong Sun Ce was not afraid, and killed two or three of them with a single swing of his spear.

  Two hundred soldiers saw that their subordinates were not very useful, so they swung their big knives and chopped over. Gong Sun Ce parried the blades of the two men with one spear, but his arm was numb from the shock. The two hundred soldiers rushed quickly, chopping with great force, and after being parried by Gong Sun Ce for a moment, they couldn't stop their feet and crossed paths with Gong Sun Ce.

  Gongsun Ce and the two hundred officials turned around at the same time, and as they did, they used their waist strength to thrust out with the iron halberds in their hands. One of the hundred officials was pierced through the chest and back by this single thrust, and his face, which had already returned to its human form, began to contort and rot. The black, viscous blood that flowed from his mouth also turned into dry powder and dissipated before it hit the ground. The other hundred official didn't even look back, dragging his large knife as he ran away.

  That Liu Wei was constantly being beaten back by the two groups of chaotic soldiers, suddenly saw the two groups of chaotic soldiers start to kill each other. He couldn't help but let out a big sigh of relief. But then he heard that the fighting sounds behind him had stopped, turned his head to look and first saw a hundred-man commander running towards himself, in an instant his heart cooled down by half, thinking that Gong Sun Zan and a hundred-man commander would both perish together.

  The hundred-man commander's body stiffened instantly, the large knife in his hand falling to the ground, one hand raised high. Upon closer inspection, an iron spear stained with black blood protruded from the hundred-man commander's chest. The hundred-man commander's mouth was also spewing black blood, thick and viscous, congealing into clumps that slid down his chin, over his chest armor, and onto the ground, where it began to rot and turn to ash.

  Gongsun Zhan confirmed that the hundred people were dead, and with a single pull, he drew out his iron spear. The crescent-shaped blade on the spear brought with it a cluster of rotting flesh and dry bones. The hundred people's bodies shook slightly before they fell to the ground, turning into powder and dispersing a large amount of light orbs that were completely absorbed by Gongsun Zhan and the Hu Fu in his arms.

  He smiled at Liu Wei, and Liu Wei's pale face regained its rosiness, starting to pant heavily. It wasn't just fear, but also exhaustion.