Chapter 49, Close Combat

  The young men of the Zong family and the Zhang family brothers quickly lost their formation, forming small groups to fight against the bandits on the barren plain. The bandits were in a state of utter chaos, with everyone's heart racing, morale low, and each fighting for themselves, soon to be defeated one by one. Cries of despair and pleas for mercy filled the air, echoing across the entire barren plain. However, for those young men and wandering warriors who had just come of age, the current slaughter was no longer just about avenging past grievances.

  Deep in the forest, waves of torches were still approaching. It was Zu Ling's team, carefully crossing the forest from the south. They had heard the intense battle sounds from the north and naturally wanted to rush over to support, but the dense forest made it impossible to determine whether there were other ambushes or fleeing bandits hidden within, so they proceeded with caution.

  However, the flames deep in the forest did not go to waste. For those bandits who were trapped, the arrival of the "government army" was like adding fuel to the fire. It was as if they had fallen into a desperate situation.

  Zu Zhaole reined in his horse, halted, and gazed coldly at the person blocking his path. Under the starry sky, he could only vaguely see the outline of the other person, who held a long knife in hand, had a sturdy build, but sat on a rather small horse, which made him look somewhat out of place with the horseman. He put away the longbow and took back the short spear, thinking that even if the opponent was just making a desperate last-ditch effort, having such bravery was still worthy of being called a good man.

  "Bandits, surrender and spare your lives!"

  He only heard that man let out another roar, waving the long knife in his hand to slash several times at the horse's buttocks, and then charged forward on horseback.

  Zu Zhao did not show weakness, kicked a stirrup, and held up his spear to welcome the charge.

  The two were originally not far apart, and under the impact, they were suddenly imminent. The man shouted loudly, with a long knife like thunder, cutting out a horizontal plane in front of Zu Zhao, the range of injury was so wide that it was impossible to avoid. At this moment, Zu Zhao met his opponent on a narrow road, with no possibility of retreating or dodging, he swung his spear up with force, and heard a clear and crisp sound of blades colliding, the spear and long knife collided together.

  Each horse received the first shock, and with a great effort let out a neigh.

  Although Zhao Ping had been persisting in his training day after day, this first round of hard-hitting blows also made him feel a shock to the tiger's mouth, and his arm suddenly felt strenuous. He really hadn't expected that a bandit could have such great strength. It should be known that he originally thought he could match Han Dang's arm strength in a one-on-three battle for dozens of rounds, which was already considered exceptional. Now it seemed that the bandit in front of him had strength that was not inferior to Han Dang's, and couldn't be called anything but a good hand.

  The two men held each other for a while, their horses not stopping to turn around, until the thief's horse could no longer withstand the force of the two men pulling back and forth, suddenly showing signs of stumbling backward. If it were an ordinary person, they would immediately realize that the situation was unfavorable and quickly separate themselves to give their horse a chance to catch its breath. But that thief seemed to have never thought twice about it, even when his horse retreated step by step, he still used all his strength, not willing to yield half a step.

  Although the opponent's strength was not small, after the collision between Ma Jie and the big knife, most of the impact force had been absorbed. For Zu Zhao, since it was a prolonged confrontation with weapons at this moment, rather than explosive power, he still had some confidence in himself; otherwise, the martial arts training for the past few years would have been in vain.

  "Hum, you rascal, how dare you be so arrogant!"

  Gathering his strength, Zu Chao suddenly let out a loud shout, taking advantage of the moment when the opponent's horse was unsteady, and concentrated all his energy into the spear.

  All that could be heard was a neigh from the horse, and the bandit's horse was forced to retreat several steps, its hind legs bent, almost falling over.

  The thief had no choice but to hastily pull his horse back and with great difficulty managed to steady himself.

  Zu Zhaode took advantage of the momentum, lightly kicked the horse's belly with his foot, and closely followed the pursuit. He grasped the halberd with both hands, relying on the stirrup to maintain balance, and with a burst of strength, he stood up straight, presenting a majestic and condescending demeanor.

  "Bandits, take one spear from me!"

  With a loud battle cry, Zu Chao raised his halberd high and charged at the bandit, striking him down with a powerful blow.

  The thief was shocked, and in the darkness he didn't know how the young man had stood up. In his haste, he quickly raised the large knife in his hand to block. However, he was holding the reins with one hand, so he only had one hand to grip the knife. When the spear came crashing down, the force of the blow from top to bottom was too much for one hand to withstand.

  "Ah!" His wrist ached, the big knife was ruthlessly pressed down by the horse spear, and the back of the knife heavily struck his own shoulder.

  Zu Chao suddenly withdrew his hands, and the halberd blade hooked onto the large knife, pulling it off in an instant.

  That thief not only lost his weapon, but also suffered a severe injury to his wrist from the previous blow of Zu Zhao's, completely losing his combat effectiveness. However, unexpectedly, despite this, he still had no intention of escaping, and originally could have taken advantage of the opportunity to drop his weapon and run away, even if there was still a possibility of being caught up, but at least there would be a glimmer of hope. Not only that, he even turned his horse's head around, let out a tearing scream, and charged towards Zu Zhao.

  Zu Chao was astonished, this thief really did have a desperate determination!

  He pulled on the reins, forcing his mount to rear up and strike out with its front hooves directly at the bandit.

  The bandit's momentum had already died down, and there was no way to avoid it. All that could be heard was the horse's mournful whinny as it was kicked by Zu Zhao's mount, followed by a loud crash. The bandit's horse collapsed to the ground, directly pinning the bandit beneath its body. As the bandit struggled to push away the horse on top of him, a spear tip appeared right in front of his face.

  "If you want to kill me, then kill me." The scoundrel didn't struggle at all, turned his face sideways and assumed a fearless attitude.

  "Hmph, you're a real man after all, why help the tyrant?" Zu Zhao said coldly.

  "You are the ones who are helping tyranny." The thief retorted without any courtesy.

  "I won't argue with you. Today, it's not your fault that your horse is no match for mine, otherwise I'd really like to have a good fight with you. My ancestor would never take advantage of someone in distress, so tell me where Deng Mao is and I'll spare your life. Another day, we can have a fair fight." Zuo Zhao said magnanimously. He was not a pedantic person, nor was he acting out of temporary righteousness, it's just that the ancient Han Dynasty valued chivalry, and sometimes being a bit pedantic wasn't a bad thing.

  The thief was stunned for a moment and couldn't react in time.

  "You, you are Zu Chao, that... Dragon City Flying General!" After a while, the other party stammered and said. He didn't expect that with his youthful appearance, he would have such an extraordinary and open-minded attitude, and that he, just a low-ranking soldier, could receive such kind treatment from him, how could he not feel a few pangs of emotion in his heart?

  "I didn't expect you, a thief, to know my ancestor Zhao!" Ancestor Zhao said calmly, but was actually quite surprised. It's normal for Tian Xuan, a county official, to have heard the rumors, but he didn't expect these illiterate thieves to have also heard about it.

  "No matter what, you've already killed me. Although I'm a rough and unrefined person, I also know the importance of loyalty. I will never betray General Deng." The bandit puffed out his chest, assuming a posture as if awaiting execution.

  "Yan Mao, good, I remember you. You have guts and righteousness, today I won't kill you, another day I'll give you a good horse in exchange for your head." Zu Zhao said sternly, then put away his spear. He looked ahead, those mounted bandits had already escaped far away due to Yan Mao's delay. In his heart, he estimated that with the fine horses raised by the Zu family, it was still possible to catch up with them.

  Just then, Zu Qi, Gong Sun Long and Han Dang arrived from the rear. They first glanced at Zei Yan Mao who was still pinned under the horse's body, wondering why Zu Chao did not kill this thief. However, only Gong Sun Long, after being stunned for a moment, did not think much and rode forward to trample him.

  Fortunately, Han Dang was nearby and quickly pulled Gong Sunlong back.

  Gongsun Long looked back at Han Dang with a puzzled expression and asked: "What? Not killing the thief?"

  Han said bluntly with a straight face: "Do you think you can take this thief's life, Young Master?"

  Gongsun Long's face was filled with helplessness as he looked at Yan Mao and then at Zu Zhao.

  Zu Zhao didn't explain much, since Han Dang could understand him, this matter was already settled. He raised the spear in his hand and pointed at the bandits running towards the hills in front of them, saying loudly: "Among those bandits are Deng Mao and other main culprits of the horse robbery case. We must catch up with them and not let them escape." After finishing speaking, he patted the horse's back and galloped away.

  Zu Ji led two sons without hesitation and closely followed them up.

  Gongsun Long still hesitated, took another look at Yan Mao who was still struggling under the horse, glanced sideways at Han Dang, and finally shook his head with a pretentious air, looking puzzled, and rode away.

  Han Daqiang disdainfully stared at Yan Meng with a cold "hmmph", then urged his horse to gallop and chase after Zu Zhao.

  Yan Meng let out a long sigh, struggled to get up from under the horse's body, looked at the crowd still trembling in the back, and then looked at the increasingly dense riders in front, suddenly having a feeling of nowhere to hide. Helplessly, he got on his horse again, and reluctantly rode away in the direction with fewer people.