Chapter 53: The Horse's Might

  On the top of a small hill, Di Lie knelt on one knee, in a kneeling shooting posture, observing the rapidly approaching enemy through the sniper rifle's scope.

  If calculated as a straight line distance, the distance between the two sides is about three miles. However, due to a small forest at the foot of the mountain, the mountain path makes a "C"-shaped turn. This turn extends the road by at least one mile.

  However, what Di Lie wanted to utilize at this time was not the extended distance, but rather that the turn could effectively slow down the cavalry's speed. Moreover, in that small grove of trees, a killing machine was lurking in ambush.

  Suddenly, Di Lie's expression changed drastically, and he turned his head to shout at Ah Shu, who was weaving a "net bag" with branches and wild grass behind him: "Forget about what you're doing now, run into the woods as fast as you can and tell Zhang Rong to let the escaped knights go and deal with the pursuing soldiers."

  Ah Chu was taken aback, but quickly regained his composure: "So the master is saying that those people aren't after us, but are instead chasing after the fugitives in front? But if so, why must we intervene?"

  Di Lie suppressed his anger and stared at this guy who still lacked a bit of servant awareness: "Because the knights who escaped in front were dressed as Song people, while those who chased and killed them from behind were Jin soldiers! At this time, coming from this direction, being pursued by a large number of Jin soldiers, it is highly likely that they are the group that raided the Jin army's camp last night. Although they didn't know that their raid helped us greatly, we do. What do you say, what should we do?"

  Ah Chu hastily kowtowed and apologized: "I understand, I'll go now." He immediately turned around and ran down the mountain.

  Di Lie continued to observe through the scope, and through the hazy smoke, he could see that in front of him, there were more than twenty riders frantically galloping. These people wore large fur hats, wore right-buttoned blue cloth garments, held crude knives, guns, bows, and arrows, and desperately urged on their horses, which were already foaming at the mouth, to gallop wildly. The pursuing soldiers closely behind them, however, were clearly dressed in Jin army uniforms, and the golden tassels that fluttered like snakes in the wind were extremely eye-catching under the gradually clearing sky.

  The pursuers behind were indeed the Jin army, but the fugitives in front were covered in dust and smoke, their hair disheveled, and even with a magnifying glass ten times larger, it was difficult to distinguish their faces. And Di Lie's basis for determining that they were Song people was that they wore right-lapel clothing - this is the most fundamental difference in dress between farming nations and nomadic nations.

  The military strength of the two sides was extremely uneven, with only more than 20 riders escaping, while the pursuers had no less than 100 Jin soldiers and fine horses. Moreover, as some of the faster Jin soldiers approached the escapees, they continuously shot arrows, causing many of the escapees to fall off their horses. The gap in strength between the two sides continued to widen.

  Although there were also fugitives who turned back to reflect, and the downwind shooting also took advantage of a certain convenience. Unfortunately, in terms of horseback archery, they were far inferior to the Jin soldiers who had been playing bows and arrows on horseback since birth. As a result, not only did they fail to shoot and kill several Jin soldiers, but they also relaxed their control over the horse's speed due to turning back to respond to the enemy, and were quickly caught up by the Jin soldiers, who shot them down with a burst of chaotic arrows.

  In just a short while, at least five or six fugitives fell off their horses and died. The number of fugitives was now less than twenty riders.

  Di Lie sighed secretly in his heart, but under such circumstances, he couldn't help much either. He could only secretly wish them luck and hope they still had a chance to escape to that curved path.

  At this time, the grass at Di Lie's feet rustled, and A Shu jumped out with a bunch of grass clippings all over his body, panting and wiping away sweat: "It's done, Zhang Da has already figured out what to do."

  Di Lie nodded silently and continued observing.

  Ah Chu also cast his gaze afar, and at this moment, even without a telescope, he could see the faint outlines of galloping horses and people in the swirling yellow mist less than two miles away.

  When the fugitives had left a few more corpses behind, they finally escaped to the curved path at the foot of the mountain. At this time, it can be seen that the fugitives were obviously exhausted and swaying on horseback. The Jin army chasing behind was all elite vanguard cavalry, each equipped with two horses, which could exchange mounts, and this advantage was really too obvious.

  Di Lie estimated that if he hadn't intervened, the fugitives would have been caught and killed by the Jin soldiers within three or four miles.

  As the fugitives passed through the bend, the leading knights kept looking into the small forest, with some movement. But in the end, they gave up the idea of hiding in this small forest and continued to gallop.

  At this moment, the horse of the leading knight was perhaps too tired, or perhaps it turned too sharply, and suddenly lost its footing, throwing the leading knight flying.

  He fell off his horse first, and more than a dozen horses behind him stopped at the same time. One of them shouted: "Brother Guan, where are you hurt?"

  That Guan brother struggled to get up, his left foot slightly lame, shaking his head and saying: "I'm done for, my foot is broken, that horse... is probably finished too. Brother Gaohuang, you quickly lead the brothers to escape, I'll die to hold them off for you."

  That Guan Big Brother said, drew out his waist knife. The shape of the knife was curved, with a wide blade and a thick back, heavy and powerful, it was a hand knife from the eight-color Song military knife system.

  The knight named Gao Liang cried out in grief: "No! You are the second master, if you don't leave, who can escape?"

  That Guan Da Ge just wanted to say something, and immediately sighed: "Now it's too late to escape, let's all fight against the Golden Dog together!"

  It wasn't long before Jin's pursuing troops had charged to within twenty paces of the crowd. At this distance, even if they were not exhausted, it would be impossible to withstand the violent attack of the Jin army.

  The fugitives looked at each other, dismounted one after another, resolutely drew their swords and strung their bows, forming a semicircle, preparing for a life-and-death battle.

  The Jin army cavalry also slowed down their horses, gradually gathering together. Some held bows and adjusted the bowstring, while others drew out curved knives, extending their black, yellow, thick tongues to lick the blades. On each face full of scars, a playful expression like that of a cat catching mice was revealed.

  Just as the Jin soldiers on their tall horses were approaching with an overwhelming momentum, a sudden clap of thunder boomed in the clear sky, and the entire sky suddenly turned blood red.

  Along the winding mountain path, the Golden Army cavalry, like a long snake gathering gradually, was blown into two segments by a sudden burst of flames. Black smoke billowed, and broken limbs danced in the air. The blood of men and horses splattered everywhere, like throwing a huge stone into a foul ditch. The dying screams of men and horses were heart-wrenching, as if one had entered the realm of Asura.

  Artur, crouching in the bushes, saw this apocalyptic scene again, and his muscles couldn't stop trembling. No one knew better than him that feeling of doomsday, as if the sky was falling apart. He had also fought on the edge of this battlefield before, and fortunately, he survived. However, since then, he had a lingering symptom - one ear would buzz from time to time. Thinking of this, Artur couldn't help but glance in a certain direction, his heart filled with apprehension. Holding such a terrible thing in his hands, would this master be the end of the Jurchen people?

  Just this one explosion killed or injured more than 20 Jin soldiers, and the rest of those who were closer to the blast center, whether they were men or horses, were all in a daze. The outer Jin soldiers who were farther away from the blast were also frightened by the intense shockwave and lost their souls, dropping their weapons without even realizing it.

  People were frightened, the direct reaction was stunned, but the war horse received such a strong fright, and it became a startled horse, which was like running wildly. As a result, the entire Jin army's cavalry team was in chaos, with horses jumping around everywhere, kicking their hooves and swinging their buttocks. More than half of these Jin army elite riders, who were said to be able to sleep on horseback, were thrown off their horses.

  At this time, several Jin soldiers were thrown into a small forest by their frightened war horses, which had been injured by the sharp branches of the trees. This added insult to injury, and the violent war horses shook off their owners and rushed into the forest, disappearing from view in an instant.

  These several Jin soldiers who were dazed and stumbled, had just managed to climb up from the ground, when they were suddenly attacked by two figures emerging from the forest, who slit their throats and cut open their abdomens with sharp wrist knives, instantly ending their lives.

  There was a nimble golden soldier, who at the time of the war horse's frenzy, hugged a slanting branch that had grown out and wasn't thrown off. Due to being high up, this golden soldier witnessed this shocking scene. Extremely shocked, he jumped down from the tree and turned around to run wildly.

  Suddenly a wrist knife flew out of his hand and shot into the shoulder of that golden soldier. The golden soldier rolled over, struggling to get up. A figure rushed from behind and slammed the golden soldier to the ground with one move.

  Jia Hu!

  Jia Hu rode on the back of the Golden Soldier, throwing a flurry of punches at that shaven head. The Golden Soldier was also a fierce warrior, although he was beaten until his head was broken and bleeding, he did not pass out. Instead, he suddenly exerted force, pushing Jia Hu off his back. Then, gritting his teeth, he pulled out the curved knife from his waist and hacked down at Jia Hu, who was struggling to get up - but unexpectedly, a large hand stretched out from behind the Golden Soldier, grabbing his wrist, forcing it back and cutting open his carotid artery...

  Jia Hu's heart still had lingering fear as he glanced at the corpse, and he bitterly smiled: "I didn't think these Golden Dogs would be so hard to deal with, fortunately Da Lang intervened in time."

  Zhang Rong let out a long sigh, admiringly: "That ten-odd kilogram explosive pack was truly effective, taking out over twenty of the Golden Dog's elite scouts with just one blast. Even if someone were to wield a zhang-long spear on the battlefield, they couldn't kill that many... Moreover, it completely routed an entire mu of Golden soldiers, and now if we were to launch a charge..."

  Jia Hu was startled and hastily said, "Big Brother, it's not possible... If Yang Touling and the other brothers hadn't left, we could have joined forces with those good men outside Linzi to launch a surprise attack. But now there are only the two of us..."

  "I knew it, what a pity." Zhang Rong said as he picked up the curved knife of the Jin soldier and beheaded several dead Jin soldiers.

  At this time, Jia Hu took a bow and arrow from a Jin soldier, pulled out a feathered arrow from the quiver, broke off the arrowhead, then drew his bow and shot it at the one called Guan Dage who was outside the forest.

  Guan Da Ge and his group of fugitives, although not affected by the explosion, were also stunned by the earth-shaking roar. Just as Guan Da Ge was dazed, he suddenly felt a sharp pain, his whole body tensed up, and he finally came back to his senses. Instinctively checking his body, he found that nothing was wrong, then looked down at the ground, and saw that it was an arrowhead. His gaze swept towards the forest, and vaguely saw a man wearing a left-buttoned barbarian robe but with a Song Dynasty hairstyle waving at him.

  Guan Da Ge's heart moved, as if he had realized something, and immediately signaled to his brothers to retreat. In this way, one by one, the remaining dozen or so fugitives slowly retreated into the forest. Then, under Zhang Rong and Jia Hu's signal, they quickly withdrew to the foot of the mountain.

  At this time, the Jin army was busy calming down their war horses. Although they also saw their prey escape, they were unable to stop them for the time being. However, these elite soldiers of the Jin army were very confident that as long as their horses did not get lost and they regrouped, they could catch up with those barbarians from the south again. After all, this stretch of road was flat and open, leaving no place to hide, and their prey only had two legs while they had four legs, or even eight legs.

  It was under such circumstances that Guan Yunchang and his fellow escapees managed to withdraw safely, disappearing into the woods right under the noses of their pursuers, the Jin army.