Chapter 12: Murder

  This is a thicket not far from the grass slope, with the cold wind of the morning, Zhe followed Xiao's words and went deep into the Tumu River grassland for more than 200 miles, and then stayed here for almost a whole day.

  When the sun sets in the west, the two of them were ready to return. Xiao Zhiyan said: "You see clearly, the Chahar people's patrol cavalry must pass through the bottom of that grass slope twice a day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon. There are no Mongolian tribes grazing nearby either. Such patrols should be regular sentry duty and won't change easily!"

  "What should we do!"

  "Do you see that grassy slope? We can lie in wait at the top of the slope and spot the patrolling cavalry very early on. By following along the top of the slope, we can avoid their line of sight. When they get close, we'll charge down from the top of the slope and ambush them!"

  Di Zhe swallowed and asked: "When?"

  "Tomorrow! We'll make our move in the afternoon, by the time the Chahar people find out it will already be evening. Among the Mongols there are many skilled trackers, to avoid bringing trouble to the Jichu, after the ambush we can't immediately return, tomorrow night we need to spend the night on the grasslands!"

  "Good!"

  "Four people, you only need to deal with one!" Xiao Zhiyan said while fiddling with the bowstring in his hand. "Remember, when killing someone, you must relax, relax! Once you get used to it, you'll find it's no different from eating and sleeping!"

  Di Zhe certainly cannot agree with putting murder on a par with eating and sleeping.

  The second day was overcast, and the north wind grew stronger with each passing day after the beginning of winter. The fields were already frozen, and both men wore soft armor under their fur-lined clothes. Early in the morning, they left the village and hid in the mountain forest where they had stayed the day before yesterday.

  The waiting time was very boring, Di Zhe rubbed his hands to relieve the cold and said: "Will it snow today?"

  "If it snows, today's plan will be cancelled. On the snowy ground, we can't escape the Mongols' pursuit!" Xiao Zhiyan leaned against a poplar tree, with a dry grass in his mouth.

  "Do you know what's most important in an ambush?"

  "Patience!"

  "Patience is important, but the most important thing is to be unexpected!" Xiao Zhiyan listened carefully on the ground for a moment, then stood up and said: "The first wave of patrol soldiers has arrived."

  The north wind mixed with some sand and dust, greatly reducing the visibility of the grassland. In Zhai Zhe's line of sight, everything was a blur. Of course, it was even more impossible to hear any sounds in such winds.

  Zhai Zhe looked puzzled, Xiao Zhishan lowered his head and said: "This is not something you can learn, when I was in Yulinwei..." Suddenly realized he had misspoken, stopped.

  With such a skilled speech, Di Zhe had already seen the outlines of four Chahar cavalrymen in the wind and sand. The Mongolian soldiers moved quickly, and no one wanted to wander around in this bad weather. Di Zhe's hand involuntarily grasped the hilt of his sword, and Xiao Zhisheng gently patted his shoulder, lowering his voice to say: "Take a deep breath! Relax!"

  Di Zhe smiled self-deprecatingly and loosened his grip on the knife handle. It turned out that waiting to kill someone was more unbearable than killing itself.

  Seeing the Mongolian soldiers leave, Xiao Zhiyan found a sheltered spot and lay down on the soft earth, saying loudly: "Tension will consume too much of your spirit and physical strength, when waiting, you should relax your mood."

  Dí Zhé knew that Xiao Zhi's words were meant for his own demonstration, in the domain of war, he was still an apprentice.

  On a cloudy day, without the sun, it was impossible to accurately identify the exact time. They estimated that the hour was about right and the two of them gnawed on two dry biscuits, drinking a few mouthfuls of cool water from their leather pouches before climbing up to the top of the opposite grassy slope early. Xiao Zhiyan changed his previous lazy image, his whole body seemed to be wound up like a spring in the withered yellow soft grass, and the two horses also quietly leaned against the grass under their master's soothing.

  All I could hear was the howling wind, and it was quiet for a long time, I didn't know how much longer to wait. The sky grew darker and darker, when suddenly Xiao Zhi's voice called out in a low tone: "It's here!"

  Di Zhe climbed up the slope and looked into the distance, four moving cavalry silhouettes were blurry.

  Xiao Zhiyan looked up at the sky, took down his longbow and said: "What a great day for an ambush!"

  The two retreated to a distance of about twice their height from the top of the slope and began to move cautiously, using the slope to cover their figures.

  The Chahar cavalrymen were getting closer and closer, the two of them circled around the grassy slope for about a week, the top of the slope was only three or four hundred paces away from the Chahar patrol route.

  "I'll count one, two, three. You and I will mount our horses at the same time. Attack the second to last person! Don't bother with anyone else!" Xiao Zhiyan's voice was low and seemed to come from the bottom of his throat. "Remember, relax!"

  "One, two, three!"

  The two almost simultaneously mounted their horses, urging them to climb up the slope. In their line of sight, they saw the backs of the Chahar cavalry just a short distance away. Di Zhe urged his horse on with his legs, and it charged straight down along the top of the slope. The sound of the wind covered many things, and by the time Di Zhe was less than fifty paces from the last cavalryman, the Mongolian cavalry had only just managed to turn their heads around.

  Di Zhe didn't know where Xiao Zhīyán was, he only saw the last Mongolian cavalryman closest to him open his mouth and just had time to let out a strange sound, a long arrow hit his face, and then fell off his horse like a giant stone falling into water.

  Within fifty paces, the distance was nothing but an instant for the rapidly advancing warhorse. Zhai Zhe tightly locked onto the second-to-last patrol soldier, his long knife chopping down in a frontal assault. The Chahar man barely had time to draw out his curved blade, and in his panic, he stretched it out to block. A sharp metallic collision rang out. However, the Chahar man's curved blade could not withstand Zhai Zhe's massive charging force, and it fell from his grasp. Zhai Zhe's knife did not lose any momentum, its sharp edge directly chopping off the man's arm. Blood sprayed everywhere, immediately dyeing Zhai Zhe's left chest a deep red, with several drops even splashing onto his face. The smell of blood assaulted his nostrils. This one strike had used up all of Zhai Zhe's strength, and after landing it, he stumbled on the horse, unable to sit steadily. Once he adjusted his posture, he saw that a Chahar cavalryman's curved blade was already in front of him, and dodging was no longer possible. In his panic, Zhai Zhe only managed to hold his knife up firmly, pointing it at the man's chest and abdomen. The knife felt like it had stabbed into soft sponge, and in his panic, Zhai Zhe could only desperately swing his knife. It wasn't until much later that he realized the blade that was supposed to strike him down had not fallen.

  As he slowly regained his senses, Di Zhe only then realized that the abdomen of the man in front of him had been twisted into a pile of mush, with a small arrow lodged in his right arm. He looked around and saw that Xiao Zhiyan and the last Chahar cavalryman were nowhere to be seen. On the ground lay two corpses of Chahar people, and a Mongolian man with a severed arm was lying on the ground, covering his wound with one hand, looking at him with fearful eyes.

  The fight was almost over in an instant, Di Zhe felt that all his strength had been drained from his body, he was so tired that he just wanted to lie down. He propped himself up with his long knife, and his eyes happened to sweep across the person he had just stabbed to death, whose intestines were already completely outside of their body, it was unspeakably disgusting. He could no longer control himself, his chest felt like a huge stone was pressing on it, he opened his mouth and let out a "wa" sound, vomiting up all the pancakes he had eaten at noon.

  The Chahar man on the ground saw his chance and immediately endured the pain to get up, rushing towards the nearest war horse. Di Zhe's legs moved like lead, not listening to commands.

  "Relax!" Di Zhe muttered to himself: "Relax!"

  With such great kung fu, the one-armed Chahar warrior had already climbed onto his warhorse. Within a distance of less than ten steps, Di Zhe grasped the hilt of his knife and threw it with all his might, directly inserting it into the back of that Chahar warrior. The body of that Mongolian soldier shook on the horse before falling to the ground.

  Di Zhe sat on the ground with a loud gasp. After a while, his ears picked up the muffled sound of horseshoes, and Di Zhe turned his head to see Xiao Zhiyan riding back from the east on another warhorse, with a corpse slumped across its back.

  Xiao Zhi's words reached his eyes as he scanned the battlefield, and at a glance, he saw Di Zhe spitting out filth, with a wicked smile on his face, asking: "How does it feel to kill?"

  Di Zhe just shook his head there.

  "It's getting used to it slowly!" Xiao Zhiyan walked over, stretched out one hand and pulled Di Zhe up, saying: "This place is not suitable for a long stay, we must leave as soon as possible. The Chahar scouts are not easy to mess with."

  Two men dragged four corpses into a previously hidden mountain forest, and one man led a war horse southwest.