Chapter 9: Capture of the Bandit King

  Wu Yue led the army to retreat westward for a thousand miles, thinking of going to the White River. This loss of soldiers and generals, losing the city, would lose face, and would be scolded by the Emperor, and whether he would be dismissed from his military post, and his whole family would be executed!

  At this thought, Wu Yue was startled and raised his head. No way, can't leave. I still have so many soldiers, there's still a chance to fight! - Wu Yue had indeed become somewhat possessed.

  The rain stopped, and the sky above revealed a crescent moon and a vast expanse of stars. It seemed that the earlier rain was unrelated to the heavens, leaving behind only the refreshing night breeze, the muddy earth, and the faint moans of wounded soldiers drifting through the night: Alas...

  Wu Yue ordered the whole army to stop and rest in place, summoning all the generals. After two days of continuous fighting and insufficient rations, the soldiers were mentally and physically exhausted, and as soon as they stopped, they leaned against trees or each other's backs and fell asleep one after another.

  Wu Yue and eight leading generals gathered on a harder and higher grassland under the starlight, Wu Yue said in a low voice: "Brothers, this time we fought, we lost soldiers, generals, and cities. When we go back, I'm afraid we'll lose our heads..."

  The crowd fell silent, slightly lowering their heads, unsure whether it was grief or each lost in thought.

  Wu Yue continued: "I estimate we still have more than 20,000 troops. Twenty thousand! Either way is death, I don't want to die in vain at the imperial court, I'd rather die on the battlefield!"

  The crowd lifted their heads, as if there was still some sparkle in their eyes.

  Wu Yue saw the generals lift their heads, even more spirited, and analyzed: "From the previous fight, we still have hope. Our soldiers rushed up, at the city gate, their masters didn't dare to rush up!" After finishing, he swept his eyes over the generals.

  Li Heng murmured a response, while the other generals either nodded or looked thoughtful - considering the possibility of being surrounded.

  "I know everyone thinks this person is too formidable and hard to surround, but if we launch a strong attack on their commander, he'll have no choice but to stay there!" Wu Yue had an idea.

  "Why don't they just stay inside the city and not come out?" a general questioned.

  "They have fewer people, and if we attack the city from both sides at the same time, they won't be able to hold the gate." Wu Yue immediately responded, "Also, order someone to cut down some large trees nearby and use them to ram open the city gate. We underestimated them earlier."

  Wu Yue's analysis was spot on, and all the generals couldn't help but nod in agreement.

  Then Wu Yue ordered the whole army to rest in place and sent people to cut down big trees.

  The next morning, the sky was slightly bright, and the ground was still wet. The soldiers of the Imperial Army had slept in their damp clothes for half the night, and finally dried them with body heat, dispelling their fatigue. However, many of the soldiers' bodies seemed somewhat weak, as if some were about to fall ill.

  Wu Yue's order: The whole army is on high alert.

  After a burst of chaotic noise, the heavenly soldiers trampled the wild grass on the ground and stood up, although they were not standing in a neat formation, but very quietly, all waiting for Wu Yue to speak whether they could go back, few soldiers are willing to fight again when the battle is unwinnable.

  "Wu Yue shouted to the heavenly soldiers: 'Brothers, we have lost the battle and lost the city. If we go back like this, it will be a shameful thing. Going back may also lead to imprisonment.'"

  "Hmm..." The soldiers of the Imperial Guard began to whisper among themselves.

  "What's going on?"

  "My god, it's not like I didn't try my best to kill..."

  ……

  Hearing the hubbub of discussion, Wu Yue also got a headache and hurriedly shouted loudly: "Quiet, quiet!"

  The murmurs gradually subsided and soon died away.

  Wu Yue said again: "Now we have a way out, that is to fight to the death!"

  "Wow!" Another commotion below.

  "Silence! Hear me out!" Wu Yue shouted angrily, his voice dropping again.

  Wu Yue said, "Their masters are mainly good at assassination and killing generals. We're not afraid of them, what are you guys afraid of? Moreover, they have fewer soldiers, the damage caused by one or two of their masters is far less than the casualties of a large army fighting to the death! So we still have hope!"

  The soldiers listened, thought about it and seemed to make sense. The possibility of dying in such a battle was smaller than others, what's there to be afraid of? So they all looked up, their eyes shining brightly at Wu Yue. At this time, the early sun shone over, and everyone felt that everything before them was bright and clear.

  Wu Yue was satisfied in his heart, and loudly passed on the order: "Listen to my command! Li Hun leads 10,000 soldiers with battering rams to attack the east gate! The rest follow me to attack the west gate! Set off!"

  "Yes!" Li Heng responded loudly, leading 10,000 Haotian soldiers, carrying two giant logs with a diameter of half a meter and a length of eight meters towards the east gate under the sunlight.

  After more than ten minutes, Wu Yue also led his troops out, carrying two giant logs.

  Soon, Wu Yue led the troops to a place two hundred meters outside the west gate and stopped, looking at the corpses all over the ground, occasionally there were still people who had not died yet groaning on the ground, the soldiers couldn't help but feel sad and shed tears, who knew if the next one to fall would be themselves?

  Wu Yue ordered the whole army to stop, and sent out 200 people to lift the corpses. At this time, Jin Yuan's soldiers were already cleaning up the bodies, but the uniforms of the two armies were too similar, or there was no distinction, they all wore rough linen clothes, and they all moved the bodies to one side and piled them up.

  Tong Dashuai and Qin Hao, among other generals, also heard the report that the Hua Tian Bing had arrived again. They hastily climbed up onto the city walls to look out, gazing at the ground littered with corpses and flowing with blood, and couldn't help but shed tears. But who were they crying for? No one knew.

  Half an hour passed, and all the corpses were carried out of the city and piled up not far away, forming a small hill. The soldiers looked at it with even more sorrow...

  The sun shone more fiercely, dispelling some of the sorrow in his heart.

  The young marshal ordered the city gates to be closed tightly.

  Tong Yuanshuai looked at the still-preparing Haotian Army and the two giant trees, listening to the report. The East Gate also had such military strength and was preparing to attack the city. His heart trembled, not knowing which pile he would be outside the city?

  Knowing that the military strength was vastly different and that the Crow Army could no longer hold on, General Tong asked his grieving generals: "What are your views on the Heavenly Emperor's siege?"

  The crowd fell silent. General Tong scanned the room with his eyes, and everyone he looked at lowered their eyelids - except for Lei Meng and Yang Tian.

  Tong Dashuai was about to ask for advice from Lei Ming when Mr. Wen spoke up: "General, why don't we retreat? Let's abandon the city and pull back. We can't hold out any longer."

  Qin Hao looked up and said, "Mr. Wen, we only have more than 6,000 people left. If we are pursued all the way, I don't know how many can escape."

  "That... that's going to..." As he spoke, Mr. Wen turned his head to look aside, and the crowd followed his gaze to see Lei Meng staring at the mountain of corpses, and Yang Tian looking around nervously beside him.

  The crowd bowed their heads, and General Tong sighed and shook his head.

  Yang Tian Zhang looked up, seeing the Huan Tian army about to charge over. He was self-sufficient but lacked the strength to rush and kill, and he also found that the atmosphere around him was gloomy. He asked in doubt: "General, the Huan Tian army has arrived, why haven't you decided whether to stay or leave?"

  Mr. Wen sighed and said in a low voice: "It would have been better to retreat in the dark last night, but unexpectedly Wu Yue had a death wish to attack!"

  Tong Dashuai was shocked in his heart, yes, whether to go or stay? Should have gone!

  Tong Dashuai's eyes became determined, and he shouted: "Pass on my order! All generals prepare, gather at the East City Gate, we will withdraw from the East City Gate!"

  The troops will execute the order very quickly because they all know that staying here and fighting again with them is a dead end; leaving, there is still a thread of life.

  Wu Yue watched as the corpses were cleared, and loudly gave the order: "Archers, listen to orders! Cover the battering ram squad! The whole army, listen to orders! Charge forward! Kill!"

  "Kill!" The tens of thousands of soldiers under Haotian's command let out a deafening shout, with a momentum that seemed to overturn mountains and seas.

  Tong Dashuai stared at the charging Haotian soldiers, and was actually stunned into a daze.

  "General! The Imperial Army is attacking!"

  The young general nodded and replied, "Got it. You guys go ahead, I'll stay here and keep watch."

  "No! You're the backbone, without you they can't go on!" Mr. Wen insisted.

  Lei Meng glanced at the vanguard of the Haotian Army and said to Tong Da Shuai, "You all go ahead, I'll stay here and hold them off for a bit. We'll meet up again later."

  Then Lei Meng said to Yang Tian, "Yang Tian, protect the general well. Be careful!" After finishing speaking, he jumped down from the city wall and rushed towards the charging Haotian Army.

  Tong Dashuai saw that things had come to this, and felt guilty in his heart. He shook his head and sighed heavily: "Let's go!" He led the way running towards the corner of the city wall. Mr. Wen and Yang Tian hurriedly followed him. The guards on the city wall also put away their bows and arrows and quickly retreated from the city wall.

  Wu Yue saw someone falling from the city wall in the distance, and after a while, he saw that person rushing towards the Huatian Army. This is bad, Wu Yue thought to himself, this person is Lei Ming, who had left a deep psychological shadow on him.

  He hastily ordered: "Release arrows! Quickly release arrows and shoot him!"

  "Whoosh, whoosh!" The arrows shot out in a flurry of 708, and many were seen flying off in all directions. It was clear that the archer's aim was quite off while running. Those that flew near him saw him draw his "sword" and lightly brush them aside. Before long, the arrows stopped.

  "Wu Yue shouted: 'How did it stop! Fire quickly!' At this time, the Thunder was still about 50 meters away from the Haotian Army."

  A general reported: "Commander, we've run out of arrows."

  "Fool! Fool!" Wu Yue pointed at the general and scolded, then shouted: "Vanguard Liao Yun! Surround him heavily and kill him for me!"

  Liao Yun led two thousand riflemen, charging forward, and Mang Gao responded: "Yes!"

  Then, the sound of thunder was heard as the army of Haotian clashed with them. The Haotian army was like a river flowing into a pillar in the middle of the current, and with a loud crash, it split into two streams on either side. Those closest to Lei Meng were Liao Yun's gunners, who charged forward and immediately rolled back, each executing the order to surround Lei Meng; those farther away continued to charge towards Wujicheng - this was a city wall with no one on it, and as long as they used giant logs to smash open the city gate, they could occupy the city.

  "Hah!" The main force of the Huāntiān Army rushed excitedly towards Wūjī City. But those who were blocked by Léi Hóng's pillar were in a pitiful state. Léi Hóng activated his light skill, which he called "Phantom Steps", and suddenly five or six versions of him appeared, holding guns and about to thrust forward. The vanguard soldiers were stunned, wondering which one to stab? Never mind, they stabbed randomly at one of them, thinking that with so many people stabbing, they would definitely hit one!

  Just thrusting forward fiercely, empty, the figure gradually disappeared, leaving the soldier stunned.

  Suddenly, the soldiers felt a gust of wind coming, feeling their necks getting hot, and when they touched it, they exclaimed: Oh no! Blood! They only thought about it in their minds, unable to shout out loud, as their throats were slit. Next, they felt the sky spinning around, and fell down unconscious.

  It turned out that Lei Meng used 80% of his strength to perform a light skill, suddenly opening up his body, swinging the Tang knife and poking at the necks of the nearby soldiers, then darting past from the gap between them.

  Then he saw the soldiers coming to stab, saw the guns and blocked them, all the way upstream, and the soldiers in front of him fell down behind him. There was no shouting, only struggling, because they were all killed with a single knife to the throat.

  Wu Yue stood firm in the rear, directing the battle. Seeing Lei Meng being surrounded and the rest of the soldiers about to crash into the city gate, joy overflowed on his face. Liao Yun rushed over anxiously to report: "General, hurry up and retreat! That Lei Meng is not human, he can't be surrounded at all. He's now rushing straight towards you!"

  Wu Yue's face was a picture of changing emotions, first a joyful smile, then furious anger, followed by shock. Without saying another word, he turned and ran. After running ten meters, he wiped the nonexistent sweat from his forehead and said to Liao Yun, who was still standing there in a daze: "Have your vanguard troops heavily surround him on all sides in the direction he's heading! I'll go take a look somewhere else! Guards, follow me!"

  At this time, two battering ram teams from the vanguard troops arrived at the city gate, shouting slogans: "One, two, three, charge!"

  "Bang! Bang!" The two teams both slammed into the city gate according to their slogan.

  "One, two, three, crash!"

  "Bang! Bang! Clang!" The city gate shook a bit loose.

  ……

  "One, two, three, crash!"

  "Bang! Bang! Clang!" The city gate opened halfway.

  The collision team cheered, and the leader shouted: "Come on! One two three, crash!"

  "Boom! Boom! Bang!" The two city gates fell with a loud crash.

  "Hey! The city gate is open! The city gate is open!"

  The soldiers rushed in with joy, but what they saw was the location of the granary in the city emitting thick smoke and the surrounding empty houses. The soldiers were stunned. The soldiers behind didn't know what was going on, seeing that the front wasn't moving, hurriedly shouting and squeezing in, seeing the thick smoke at that location, also petrified on the spot - their stomachs were growling with hunger.

  It turned out that Tong Dashuai was determined in his heart, he couldn't escape himself, and he also wanted to make them have nothing to eat, so he ordered people to set fire to the grain they didn't take away...

  The thunder heard the "thud" sound of knocking on the door from that side, knowing that continuing to entangle would be meaningless, so he gritted his teeth and exerted 100% of his strength, rushing out diagonally to the right. He saw a gun and took it with him, saw a person and pushed them away, and in one minute he ran out of the encirclement. Panting for a breath, he used 70% of his strength to run around the city, leaving shallow footprints on the damp ground.

  The living Haotianbing looks back and sighs lightly, fortunately I was not on his way...

  Wu Yue, still in the midst of transferring, saw smoke rising from Wujicheng and cried out, "Damn it!" He then saw Lei Meng fleeing far away from the siege and shouted to Liao Yun, who was staring blankly at Lei Meng's back, "Liao Yun! Follow me straight to the East Gate! The rest of you put out the fire!"

  Liao Yun ordered the troops with guns to closely follow Wu Yue up, without daring to make a sound.

  The thunder rumbled quickly and came to the east, looking from a distance at the Huāntiān army blocking the eastern city gate, who were engaged in a fierce battle with the Jìn Yuán army trying to come out. It turned out that the city gate had been guarded for not long before it was also smashed open by giant logs, and the Huāntiān soldiers wanted to rush inside, where there was still food; The Jìn Yuán soldiers wanted to run outside, escaping would be a new life. The two armies were at a stalemate here, Tóng Dàshuài and Qín Hào, Wén Xiānshēng, Yáng Tiān and others were all commanding on the city wall.

  Lei Meng saw it and secretly cursed that things were going badly. If they didn't charge out now, the troops of Huan Tian entering from the west would be stuck in a pincer movement.

  Looking again at the Huāng Tiān army, I only see a few generals behind Huāng Tiān pointing and gesturing. Hmm, capturing the bandits and the king is the best way to quickly settle this, let's just chop them down. Léi Míng made some calculations, then ran another 100 meters east, dodging and hiding until he reached a point 100 meters behind Lǐ Hún's army.

  Li Heng and the four main generals were in the rear, seeing that the city gate had been broken through, but the expert had not appeared yet. They thought he was being held back by Wu Da's army at the west gate, and they were discussing with several generals how to proceed after entering the city, completely unaware of the danger approaching them.

  Lei Meng took two deep breaths, then raised his energy and charged forward with the Tang knife in his left hand. When Lei Meng was still fifty meters away from Li Hun and the others, Li Hun's right eyelid suddenly twitched, and a strange chill rose up from the bottom of their hearts. The general standing on the far right felt goosebumps all over his body and couldn't help but shiver as he said, "Why isn't this sun warm?" As soon as he finished speaking, he looked back to see a figure rushing straight towards them. Before anyone could react, a loud shout pierced the air, followed by an eerie silence. The others only saw a black shadow appear on the ground, rapidly moving and changing direction. In an instant, they felt the sky tilt to the left, and then all color drained from their vision, plunging everything into darkness.

  The guards who were closer to the scene heard the shout, turned their heads around, and saw that the five leaders' heads fell to the left and dropped to the ground. Then blood spurted out from their necks more than a meter high, followed by the collapse of the five bodies to the ground.

  He was stunned for a moment, then shouted loudly: "Ah!... Commander Li is dead!" and ran away while shouting.

  The soldiers nearby heard it, turned their heads and saw that he was indeed dead, and they also shouted "ah" and ran away...

  This fear spread like a plague from the rear to the front, spreading the news of Li Tong's death, and the entire attacking army was like a volcano on the verge of eruption.

  Lei Meng sheathed his sword and stood still, shouting out a sentence: "The leader is dead! Why don't you all disperse!" This was the fuse that ignited the explosives!

  "Ahh! Run away!" The loud and impressive roar came from behind, the numerous heavenly soldiers could confirm that their leader was already dead. This demon was unstoppable. The entire heavenly army was in disarray, scattering in all directions - unable to squeeze through the city gate, with demons on the east side, they could only run to both sides.

  Tong Dashuai and others heard the roar, looked at the scattered birds and beasts of the Huatian Army, knew that Lei Ming had come to reinforce, and the joy in their hearts burst out on their faces. Tong Dashuai gazed into the distance, saw a person standing alone in the sunlight in the far east, and smiled: "Fortunately, there is Lei Ming! The whole army will go out of the city!"

  Yang Tian muttered under his breath: "Stinky!"

  There's no time to clear the corpses on the ground, Wu Yue still has more than 10,000 soldiers! The Jin Yuan army quickly exits from the east city gate.

  Wu Yue emerged from the southeast corner of the city wall when half of the Jin army had exited the gate, and charged straight at the Jin army.

  It turned out that during the process of Wu Yue surrounding the city, they encountered the scattered Haotian Army and asked to find out that Li Hun and other generals had already died, so they retreated in defeat. Wu Yue thought to himself, his martial arts skills were better than Li Hun's, and he had dodged Lei Ming's pursuit three times, escaping was not a problem. Jin Yuan leaving the city was exactly the best opportunity for an ambush, they didn't have any cover. Hmm, let's do it this way, success or failure depends on this one strike.

  He led the mighty army of Haotian straight to the East Gate.

  Tong Dashuai heard the momentum of the attack coming from the south, his pale face, which had already lost blood and energy, turned even whiter. If they were to be rushed up, everything would turn into mud.

  "Charge into the city!" General Tong yelled wildly, waving his short sword and ignoring the pain in his chest.

  Mr. Wen was about to start running towards the city, and saw General Tong standing still, with no intention of leaving, so he hurriedly pulled General Tong's right arm, which was holding a sword, and said: "General, quickly enter the city! Hiding for a while is just hiding for a while. As long as we have our lives, who cares if we don't have firewood to burn?"

  Tong Da Shuai didn't want to leave, and Mr. Wen pulled him but couldn't pull him away.

  Lei Ming saw that retreating into the city would not solve the problem, so he thought it was better to drive Wu Yue back. He quickly ran a few steps to the foot of the city wall, jumped up, and ran south for a few steps. Seeing the Wu Yue army shouting and approaching, he used 80% of his energy in his throat and roared: "Huang Tian Zhi Bu!" Everyone present stopped when they heard this thunderous shout.

  "Hao Tian stop!" A faint echo came from afar.

  "If you don't retreat immediately, I'll kill all of your generals!"

  The heavenly soldiers all looked at each other in dismay, unsure of what to do or where to go.

  Wu Yue was enraged: "My army of 10,000 men can be driven back by just one little yellow-mouthed brat like you? Impossible!"

  "Wu Yue bellowed: 'All troops listen to orders! Charge for me!'"

  At this moment, two generals shouted: "We retreat!" The voices were like some other kind.

  Haotian army was at a loss.

  "Liao Yun, you dare to disobey orders!" Wu Yue was furious. "Guards, behead Liao Yun for me!"

  Liao Yun was enraged upon hearing this and roared: "Wu Yue is absurd and unscrupulous! He is incompetent in leading the army! He has lost many soldiers and generals! If we go back, we will also be dead! I am willing to surrender! Vanguard army, follow me!" After finishing speaking, Liao Yun led most of the vanguard army to head east, leaving behind a few soldiers who refused to surrender, not knowing what to do.

  Wu Yue was so angry that he almost choked with rage, and had to swallow his anger back down. He pointed at Liao Yun, unable to speak.

  "Kill! Kill these traitors first!" Wu Yue ordered in anger.

  Only, the Heavenly Army didn't move, and their respective commanders hadn't given any orders. Suddenly, "Withdraw!" The other three generals shouted in unison, and the sound of footsteps echoed as all the Heavenly Soldiers ran away except for the two hundred guards. Wu Yue saw this, pointed his finger in a half-circle, and asked, "You...". Then with a "plop" sound, he spat out a mouthful of black blood! — It turned out that it had been pent up for a long time.

  The guards also took advantage of Wu Yue's distraction and ran away in large numbers. Wu Yue sighed, "Guards, you can all disperse." The guards heard this and dispersed even more, leaving only five people who refused to leave. Wu Yue looked at the five men, nodded, then suddenly drew his sword with a "brush" sound, laughed maniacally twice, spat out a few mouthfuls of blood, and shouted: "Lei Meng, come over here and let's fight to the death!"

  Lei Meng saw that most of the Wu Yue army had retreated, and took advantage of the situation to press forward. When there were only five guards left around Wu Yue, he was only twenty meters away from him.

  The thunderous sound was heard, and he knew that General Ning would rather die on the battlefield than take his own life. He shouted, "Good general! I'll help you achieve your goal!" With a swift movement, he charged forward, drew his sword, and made a diagonal slash. Wu Yue instinctively raised his sword to block, but all he heard was a "clang" as his sword broke, followed by a "thud" as the knife sliced from his shoulder to his waist. Wu Yue smiled slightly, closed his eyes, and his body split into two segments, falling to the ground.

  The five guards saw Wu Yue die and immediately drew their swords to commit suicide. They fell down with their faces up, convulsed twice, and then stopped moving.

  At this time, the sun was half way up in the sky, still some distance from noon, but it shone brightly enough to cast a shadow of Lei Meng on the ground about half a meter long.