Chapter 8: Fled in Panic

  "Strange, what's going on today, so many riders..." Yang Bo hadn't finished speaking when his face changed color, he suddenly remembered the lonely mount that had broken through below.

  "Tiě niú, shì qíng yǒu diǎn bù miào! Kuài, wǒmen zǒu le……" Yáng Bō yǒu xiē huāng zhāng de fēn zuò dào, yuán běn xiǎng zài zǐ xún xià shī tǐ de xīn qíng yě méi yǒu le.

  Translation:

  "Tiě niú, things are a bit off! Quick, let's go……" Yang Bo somewhat anxiously instructed, his original intention to carefully search the corpse had also disappeared.

  Fortunately, the two of them had recovered a lot of strength and soon ran in front of the horses left behind by the soldiers.

  "Will Iron Bull ride horses?" Yang Bo asked

  "This... " Iron Bull rubbed his head "I've only ridden a few cows"

  "That's okay, it's still better than me" Yang Bo didn't care anymore, he propped up Tie Niu's half-body onto the saddle and then got on the horse under Tie Niu's pulling.

  "Get out of here quickly!" Yang Bo shouted loudly while hugging Tie Niu's foul-smelling body.

  The two riders behind saw the abnormality, and Yang Bo's flustered movements obviously aroused their suspicion. After exchanging a few words, they drew out their waist knives and rushed towards the two of them with a whip.

  Tie Niu gave a fierce tug on the reins, and the horse let out a long, mournful whinny, rearing up on its hind legs and galloping off, almost throwing Yang Bo off his own horse.

  "Don't take the main road, head towards the mountain area!" Yang Bo didn't forget to frequently turn his head to observe the pursuing soldiers' situation.

  Those two military men were chasing after them at a very fast speed, and in just a short while, they had closed the distance to within 100 meters. Yang Bo, who was sitting behind, could almost see their faces clearly. Tieniu was desperately pulling on the reins, while Yang Bo would occasionally kick the horse's abdomen with all his might, and each time he kicked, they would manage to open up a little more distance.

  "Hurry, hurry! Go that way!" Yang Bo said, pointing at the distant and blurry mountain range.

  Iron Bull pulled the reins, and his mount spun around in a half-circle before taking off down the rugged path. Fortunately, this road had few obstacles other than some thorns, so Yang Bo and the others could maintain a certain distance from their pursuers.

  After running for a while, Yang Bo silently calculated his own speed and the speed of the pursuing soldiers. He sadly found that he would be caught up halfway through. Earlier, he had walked too quickly, and hadn't even had time to pick up the waist knife of the dead soldier. If he hadn't been caught up, he could have barely struggled on for a while...

  Yang Bo is now unable to think, the inferior horse originally ran a lot of distance, and with two people's weight on its back, no matter how Yang Bo urged it, it was about to be overtaken!

  In a moment of urgency, Yang Bo picked up an arrow from the quiver on his horse's saddle and threw it backwards. The two soldiers were startled by this unexpected move, and when they saw the arrow fall weakly to the ground, they couldn't help but burst out laughing, which only made them speed up even more.

  Seeing the two military men staring at his head with ill intentions, Yang Bo's heart was racing. He drew another arrow and inserted it fiercely into the horse's buttocks!

  "Good thief, stop!" The soldiers chasing from behind saw it clearly and couldn't help but shout loudly. In this world, a poor horse can be worth several dozen taels of silver, and Yang Bo was so ruthless that even if he carved the beggar's head into a wooden puppet, it wouldn't be enough to make up for the price of the horse.

  "Hiss..."

  The horse let out a long whinny and took off in a frantic gallop, quickly leaving the pursuing soldiers far behind.

  But the good times didn't last, after running for a while, the speed of his mount slowed down again. Yang Bo held the feathered arrow and searched for half a day, this kind of instantaneous acceleration was undoubtedly a case of quenching thirst with poison, but he couldn't accept the fact that his own head would be hung on the horse by these bandits to take credit, however, the cruel reality told him that his own fate might be just like that.

  "What should I do?"

  Yang Bo looked at the numb refugees on the road, and they seemed to have not seen what happened under the bright sky. These ordinary people, they work hard day and night, but even in a good harvest year, they had never eaten their fill, and in a disaster year, they would sell their children, struggling to survive. Especially in recent years, with great disasters, poor people ate all the bark and grass roots, and even resorted to eating clay and cannibalism, while those in power continued to indulge in luxury and gluttony day and night, who would they ask for fairness?

  As he stared at the approaching Yan Luo, Yang Bo's mind once again conjured up the faces of his loved ones, thinking of his kind mother...

  Yang Bo was furious and slapped his own forehead heavily. "How long has it been, can't you just calm down a bit? Why come out to make trouble?"

  "You scoundrel, leave your horse behind and I'll spare your lives!" one of the soldiers shouted at Yang Bo from a distance, pointing his sword.

  Yang Bo's face suddenly floated up with a cruel smile, he beckoned to the two desperate soldiers, and again brutally inserted the feather arrow into the horse's buttocks, and when it was pulled out, it brought countless blood beads flying!

  In the midst of the military Han's loud cursing, Yang Bo once again pulled away from the pursuing soldiers. However, this horse's strength had long since reached its limit, and after running for a short while, the horse's legs suddenly stopped, followed by a neigh, and its pace slowed down. No matter how much the two urged it on, the horse refused to take another step forward.

  "Mother's, didn't I just poke you twice?" Yang Bo jumped off the horseback in anger, looking at the arrow shaft dripping with blood in his hand, and then looked at the horse's big eyes filled with tears. He sighed and casually threw the feathered arrow to the ground.

  "Hurry up and go, we're entering the mountain!" Yang Bo picked up a clod of earth and threw it heavily at the horse's buttocks. The horse suddenly broke free from its restraints and, driven by Yang Bo's action, spread its hooves and galloped wildly in another direction.

  Yang Bo didn't have time to feel sorry, turned around and rushed towards the foot of the mountain with Tie Niu.

  Before long, the sound of horseshoes echoed again. The two pursuers in the back saw this scene from a distance and leaned over to talk for a few words. One of them swung his reins and chased after the direction of the running horse, while the other chased towards the direction where Yang Bo and others were escaping. It seemed that they were determined not to let go of either the people or the horses, and the situation was very critical...

  Yang Bo panted heavily as he ran wildly, not forgetting to turn his head and shout "Tie Niu, let's split up and run, try to get into the bushes!"

  The road under his feet slowly became steeper, Yang Bo tightened his toes and tried to minimize the damage of the stones to his soles. He also had to make every effort to control his body's balance to avoid falling.

  Similarly, although the army urged the horses to hurry up, a heap of messy and sprawling bushes blocked the direction of advance, and the speed of the horses slowed down.

  The soldier stopped reluctantly, his eyes lingering on the backs of the two black shadows in front for a few seconds, and it was unclear what he was thinking. After a while, the soldier suddenly turned around abruptly and left.

  In Yang Bo's opinion, these soldiers had already gained a lot from getting a horse for free. Although he and Tie Niu, two strong young men, were also worth some money for their heads, there were still many refugees on this road, so they probably didn't want to bother too much.

  "They probably didn't think that the inferior horse was actually a military horse, I don't know how they will deal with this hot potato after getting it." Yang Bo speculated without malice.

  Looking at Jun Han turning and leaving, Tie Niu fell to the ground and refused to get up. Yang Bo had the heart to run another section of the road, but after losing pressure, his body softened again, and he could only hide behind a bush to continue checking the movement below.

  Far away, the soldier who was chasing after the horses had returned. The runaway horse was tied behind his mount, with a cloth strip still wrapped around its buttocks. After the two men converged at the foot of the mountain and gestured to each other for a while, they turned around and disappeared into the dust.

  "Ah, finally safe!" Yang Bo, who had been observing the situation all along, couldn't hold on any longer and fell back onto the ground.

  After resting for a while, the two of them finally calmed down.

  "Damn it... things are really going downhill!" Yang Bo cursed towards the sky and got up with the help of a bare tree.

  The mountain isn't very high, but behind it are countless other mountains that stretch on endlessly, most of which are desolate and barren, without a speck of green or vitality. Now the biggest problem they face is whether to continue down the mountain and follow the official road or change direction and head into the mountains?

  Yang Bo started to get a headache...