Chapter Six Ambush

  "It's all over! The government soldiers are coming!" a bandit shouted loudly as he ran over.

  "What's going on?" The newly appointed bandit leader Yang Wu jumped up, and the surrounding bandits who were watching the comedy show also drew their weapons, and the atmosphere in the field suddenly became tense.

  "Just now, two suspicious men came to the village entrance and peeked around. We went up to ask them questions, but they turned their heads and ran away. One of them was shot in the leg with an arrow and we caught him. When asked, he said that the county lieutenant led more than 300 archers here and they are only two or three miles away!"

  "What? Over three hundred people?" Yang Wu was instantly shocked, his first reaction being to turn around and run. He only had over fifty men with him, although they were all robust and healthy, and there were also a dozen or so strong bows, but the six-fold numerical advantage was too overwhelming.

  "Big brother, run quickly! One of the scouts has escaped and the county lieutenant will definitely be here to kill us soon!"

  "What about these goods?"

  "Fool, now is the time to be clever! I heard they have horses, can you outrun them with your ox cart?"

  Listening to the quarrel around him, the leader couldn't help but feel annoyed and frustrated. He let out a loud roar: "Shut up, all of you! You're driving me crazy! Wang San, take two men to check what's going on at the village entrance. The rest of you, get ready with your belongings, whether we run or fight, it'll be on my orders!"

  "Ah!"

  The dwarf stopped performing, and from the chaos around him, he could easily tell that something was amiss. The bandits no longer cared about collecting the remaining half of the cattle, but instead began to hastily stuff their more valuable loot into their waist bags. This was a sign that the government troops were about to arrive. But this wasn't necessarily good news for him. As the saying goes, "Bandits are like a comb, soldiers are like a wash." He had also been traveling the world for some years and had heard of cases where people killed innocent people to take credit for their accomplishments. Who knows whether they would use his own head as proof of their achievement? It was better to find a place to hide and wait for the storm to pass.

  "Where are you going? Want to run?" A voice broke through the reverie of the little guy, he lifted his head and saw Yang Wu staring at him with a fierce expression.

  "Mercy, great lord! I'm just a weakling, no match for you. Even if the officials and soldiers arrive, we can't fight each other. Please spare my life!" The dwarf begged, falling to the ground.

  "You think you can run? Let me tell you, we can all run but you can't! The villagers have already seen that you're in cahoots with us. We can change our clothes and become good citizens, but what about you? I'm telling you, the only way you'll survive is if you follow Yang Da's lead obediently!" Yang Wu said with a smug smile.

  The dwarf was taken aback by Yang's words, and indeed his physique made him the most conspicuous in the group of thieves. Because he could perform some comedic tricks and was short in stature, the thieves did not bind his hands with ropes like they did to other captured scholars. Even eating meals was done together with the thieves, all of which would serve as evidence that he was one of them.

  "Heavens! I, Yang Shun'er, haven't even killed a chicken, how can I be a bandit?!" The dwarf wailed.

  "What's wrong with being a bandit? Eat when you want, sleep when you want, and no official can control us!" The leader of the gang wasn't annoyed, he smiled and patted the dwarf on the shoulder: "You're also surnamed Yang, 500 years ago we were from the same family! Everyone thinks I'll run away, but I won't. Just watch how I'll make that County Magistrate Zhu piss his pants!"

  As they spoke, Yang Wu summoned several of his subordinates and ordered them to untie the captured husbands one by one, letting them escape in the direction of the village east, threatening that whoever dared to look back would be killed. He also scattered the stolen goods, food, and cloth throughout the village, while he himself led the remaining thieves to hide in the thatched huts on both sides of the main road in the village, drawing their bows to wait for the pursuing soldiers to enter the village.

  Zhu Zhi waited outside for a while, then saw someone stumbling and running towards him from afar. Upon closer inspection, it was one of his scouts. He hastily sent someone to bring the scout over, who panted and replied: "General, the bandit is still in the village! Chen Er, who went with me, was shot in the leg by an arrow and taken captive by the bandits. Hurry up and rescue him!"

  "Everyone get up, go into the village and catch the thief!" Zhu Zhi immediately made a decision. He didn't want to save Chen Er, but was afraid that the thieves would know he had come and be scared away, escaping with their leader. The crowd responded in unison and headed towards Gaoping Village together. After walking for about two miles or more, someone with good eyesight suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted loudly: "Taoye, the thief is running away!"

  Zhu Zhi looked in the direction of the man's pointing finger, and indeed, at the other end of the village, in the fields where the crops had been harvested, there were dozens of people fleeing in a flurry. He was overjoyed, drew his waist knife, kicked the old horse's belly fiercely, and shouted loudly: "The thieves have lost their courage! Everyone, chase after them quickly, don't let one get away!"

  Everyone saw the situation and was overjoyed. Those with mounts kicked their horses' buttocks, while those without mounts quickened their pace towards the village, fearing they would miss out on the benefits if they fell behind. Even though one or two leaders loudly shouted at their subordinates not to run wildly, who listened to them at this time? These hundreds of people rushed into Gaoping Village in a chaotic manner.

  "Big brother, let's rush in too. Otherwise, the benefits will probably be taken away by those guys!" The person behind Liu Sheng couldn't bear it and asked.

  "What's the hurry? With our brothers' skills, are we afraid of not getting any benefits?" Liu Sheng scolded his younger brother: "There will be opportunities to get money and wealth in the future, but once your head is gone, it can't grow back. Look at the good soldiers brought by Old Man Zhu, even the shepherd from our village is stronger than them."

  The bowmen rushed into the village, only to see money and cloth scattered all over the ground. A head of cattle that had just been skinned was left by the well, with several large pots nearby that had already been boiled. It was clear that the bandits had been caught off guard and had escaped in a hurry. The bowmen who entered the village first jumped down from their mounts and scrambled for the goods on the ground. Zhu Zhi shouted loudly, wanting the bowmen to go after the escaping bandits first, but they didn't listen at all. Just as Zhu Zhi was getting angry, he suddenly heard a whizzing sound, felt a pain in his shoulder, and fell off his old horse.

  "Ptooey! He actually missed!" Yang Wu spat out a mouthful of saliva, turned his head and smiled smugly at the dwarf: "How's that? I didn't brag, did I?"

  "Yang Dazhang's skills are indeed impressive, I can only surrender completely!" Yang Shun'er hurriedly laughed and said. This remark was also his true feelings. Yang Wu had come up with such a clever plan in a short time, deliberately showing weakness to lure the enemy into an ambush, turning defeat into victory, which is absolutely considered wise and decisive among thieves.

  The village was in a state of complete chaos, with the bowmen who were fighting over the wealth on the ground being shot by arrows coming from all directions. The cries of agony were endless, and the people who were entering the village from behind had no idea what was happening, colliding with those who were fleeing from the front. The dense crowd became the best target. Even if there were one or two brave warriors who wanted to reorganize the resistance, their shouts were immediately drowned out by the chaotic crowd, and instead of getting a response from their comrades, they would get a fatal arrow.

  Zhu Zhi slowly got up from the ground, his shoulder wound was nothing to worry about, but the fall from the horseback was quite severe, and he still felt dizzy until now. Fortunately, his old horse did not run away in fright, but stood obediently beside its owner. At this time, the bandits had stopped shooting arrows and charged out with swords and spears, most of the archers had lost their will to resist and fled towards the village exit, even those who tried to resist were quickly knocked down by the enemy several times their number. Zhu Zhi shivered, stumbled onto his horseback, kicked the horse's belly twice, and galloped towards the village entrance.

  "Old Master, County Magistrate!" Just as Zhu Zhi had run a couple of steps, someone rushed over from the side and grabbed the horse's reins. Zhu Zhi took a closer look and it was Yue Fei.

  "Old master, order everyone to turn around and kill the thieves! The number of thieves is not many, only forty or fifty, as long as we all fight to the death, we can definitely defeat the thieves!" At this time, Yue Fei's face was full of bloodstains, it was unknown whether it was his own or the thief's. His usual warm and honest face now looked quite ferocious. Zhu Zhi swallowed a mouthful of saliva, suddenly whipped Yue Fei's hand with a whip, took advantage of the opponent's pain to loosen his grip and rode away, his voice echoing in the air: "It's all over, you can escape too!"

  Yue Fei watched as Zhu Zhi escaped in the distance, suddenly stamped his foot, picked up a long spear and fiercely charged towards the bandits.

  Outside the village, waves of shouting and killing sounds came out, and the wolf-like bowmen escaped, many people ran and fell to the ground, unable to get up, apparently already exhausted. On a small hill by the side of the road, Liu Sheng smiled triumphantly: "How about it? Isn't this readily available white meat delicious?"

  "It's a good thing Big Brother has vision, fortunately we didn't follow them in, otherwise we might have ended up the same way!"

  "Right, just look at Zhu Zhi, what a nerve he has to show his face in front of people!"

  "What kind of county lieutenant is this, so full of himself? He's not even as capable as our big brother, who would have caught all those thieves by now!"

  Liu Sheng's several brothers all voiced their praise, and Liu Sheng's eyes narrowed slightly as a smile spread across his face, feeling an inexplicable sense of comfort. He was just about to give the order to leave when a familiar shout came from afar.

  "Is it Liu Da from Guo Village?"

  Liu Sheng turned his head to look, and it was two riders on the official road who were rushing towards him. Behind them were seven or eight men on foot. The leader was Xue Liangchen, the second son of the Xue family, who had prepared to go hunting with Liu Sheng that morning. He hastily replied, "It's me!"

  As they spoke, the group of people had already arrived on this side. Xue Liangchen was wearing a coarse linen tight-fitting arrow robe, with a piece of gray cloth wrapped around his head. On the horseback were placed a bow bag and a quiver, and at his waist hung a horizontal knife. The person behind him was only sixteen or seventeen years old, with a similar build and physique to Xue Liangchen. However, on the horseback were placed two bow bags and quivers, filled with feathered arrows. Xue Liangchen bowed his hands to Liu Sheng: "Younger brother, I returned to the village and brought my younger brother and several villagers to the county town. When we arrived at the county town, we heard that you had already left, so we hurried along the way. How is the situation now? Have the bandits been captured?"