Chapter Seventeen: Fierce Battle

  "Form ranks!" With Xue Liangchen's slightly tense voice, the panting Zhuang Ding formed three rows of horizontal queues, with archers on both sides. The first row of Zhuang Ding crouched down, their long spears pointing towards the sky at an angle, while the second and third rows held theirs horizontally. Xue Liangchen only deployed forty people, mainly consisting of Zhuang Ding from his own household, for a simple reason: he didn't believe that the other archers, who had only been trained for four or five days, could do much good. If they were sent into battle, they might be easily defeated by the bandits, which would hurt morale and disrupt their formation. So he left these people behind the mountain ridge, planning to have them suddenly shout and make a ruckus when the two armies clashed, startling the bandits or attacking them from the side, and defeating them in one move.

  Zhou Ping's small team was also under the mountain ridge, he was whispering to his men, telling them to keep quiet, while occasionally looking at the large flag on the mountain ridge with expectant and slightly tense eyes, which marked the commander's order and the victory or defeat of the battle. For his first battle, Zhou Ping's heart was full of anxiety.

  "Zhou Tan Yue, what do you think the thief will do?" asked Zhi Shan in a low voice.

  "I don't know either, but it's probably best to escape!" Zhou Ping replied in a less certain tone.

  "Indeed!" Zishan sighed: "In any case, Xue Shi's master has six or seven riders in his hands. The bandits will definitely not be able to escape. Even if they want to go up the mountain, it's too late now. It's a bit troublesome to rush over and fight."

  Just then, a shout came from the opposite side, and Zhou Ping and Zhi Shan exchanged a glance, knowing that the battle had begun. "What to do?" The thieves' eyes gathered on Yang Wu's body, no matter whether they were obedient in their hearts or not, this was not the time for internal strife.

  "The enemy has cavalry, we can't outrun them!"

  "That scattered and fled, there were only a few cavalrymen from the government office?"

  "No, if we scatter and run away, we'll be like vegetables in the village, anyone can catch us and take us to see the officials!" Yang Wu gritted his teeth and shouted loudly: "Set fire to the cattle's tail, we follow the cattle and charge forward, as long as we kill the leader, there will be no problem!" After that, he stabbed the mule's buttocks fiercely with the gun tip, the mule let out a painful bray and rushed towards the nearby mountain ridge. Yang Wu shouted loudly, waving his iron spear and charging forward, the rest of the thieves followed their leader, driving the cattle to charge forward.

  Facing the dozens of mules, horses and donkeys rushing towards them, the mountaineers were somewhat flustered. Xue Liangchen hastily shouted: "Let the archers on both sides shoot arrows, aim at people not livestock, infantry form a square, leave an exit, the livestock will pass through the gap!"

  As the banner fluttered, the archers on both sides began to shoot arrows at the bandits behind the cattle according to orders. Due to their higher terrain and side position, the cattle in front could not block their line of sight, and flying arrows continuously fell into the group of bandits, with blood and mournful cries splashing out simultaneously. At the same time, the farmers changed from three rows of horizontal teams to six rows, forming two small square arrays, with 16-foot-long long spears protruding outward, just like two angry hedgehogs. The frightened cattle instinctively avoided the array, escaping through the gap behind the mountain ridge, and some simply turned around and ran away, which instead disrupted the formation of the bandits. When all the cattle were gone, following the dancing of the large banner, the farmers resumed their three rows of horizontal teams, blocking the way for the bandits, and a cruel blood battle began.

  "Kill!" Yang Wu shouted loudly, charging towards the enemy formation first. His idea was simple: based on his past experience in battles, the enemy would scatter; more importantly, the enemy used long spears over ten feet long, while the bandits only had short swords, clubs, and short guns, no longer than six or seven feet. If they couldn't get close to each other for a fierce battle, the bandits would only be able to passively withstand the beating and wouldn't be able to hold on. The only way was for him to open up a gap, let the bandits rush in, and with one effort, break through the enemy formation, kill the enemy leader, or capture the big flag, which was the only way to survive.

  "Beat the drum!" Xue Liangchen shouted in a deep voice, and the drummer behind him hurriedly beat the drum loudly. The loud drumming suppressed the robbers' cries of killing, and the farmhands took a step forward with the rhythm of the drumbeat, simultaneously thrusting their long spears forward and making rhythmic "Hehe" sounds. Confronted with the farmhands' tight formation, the robbers' charge was quickly shattered like waves crashing against rocks, leaving behind several incomplete corpses.

  "Up! If we don't kill our way out, none of us will make it!" Yang Wu's voice was already hoarse, his hair had been scattered all over his head, and his shoulders were covered in bloodstains - he didn't even know if they were his own or someone else's. His eyes were a deep red, like those of a trapped beast. He drew out his waist knife, holding it in one hand and his long spear in the other, and charged at the enemy lines once more. The remaining bandits saw their leader's bravery and followed suit, but their momentum was far weaker than the first time.

  But the drumbeat after the array became more urgent, and Zhuang Ding's long spear was like a dense forest, stabbing at the thieves in front of him. Almost every thief had to deal with two or even more spears. They instinctively wanted to avoid the attack of the spears, but as a result, they were getting closer and closer to the sides of the horizontal team, trying to bypass the enemy's flank to avoid being stabbed by the spears.

  "Beat the gongs and drums! Let the cavalry come up, the rear team makes a loud noise, don't let the thief leader escape!"

  "Ah!" As the flag bearer swung the large flag again, the remaining teams of archers hidden behind the mountain ridge shouted loudly, and Xue Liangyu's cavalry also charged from the side. The thieves were already frightened, seeing many more enemies rushing out, they turned around and ran away in a hurry, with many being stabbed to the ground by the pursuing soldiers, their heads cut off to claim rewards.

  Yang Wu saw the situation and knew that things were no longer possible, so he hastily turned around and escaped. Fortunately, the farmhands were afraid and their formation was in disarray, so they couldn't catch up to him. He had just run a dozen or so steps when he suddenly heard a whistling sound coming from behind him. Instinctively, he dodged to the right, and immediately felt a chill on his back. Then, a sharp pain started, and when he reached out to touch it, his hand was covered in bright red blood.

  "This guy's hands and feet are quite agile!" Xue Liangyu put down the bow in his hand, kicked the horse's belly fiercely, raised his knife to urge the horse to rush over, and shouted: "Leave your head here!"

  Yang Wu wanted to fight, but when he touched his waist, he found that there was only an empty scabbard. The sword had been lost somewhere, so he threw the scabbard at his opponent's face and jumped into a nearby thorny bush, escaping up the steep and uneven mountain slope. Xue Liangyu brushed aside the scabbard, squeezed his legs tightly around the horse's belly, and drove the horse to chase after him, but on the steep and uneven slope, he was able to ride as if on flat ground.

  At this moment, a yellow weasel was startled and rushed out from the nearby grass thicket. Xue Liangyu's four-year-old colt was frightened and jumped up wildly. Xue Liangyu was caught off guard and fell off his warhorse, hitting his head and becoming dizzy. His scabbard even fell several meters away. Yang Wu, who was not far away, saw this and was overjoyed. He quickly turned around to pick up the scabbard and was about to kill Xue Liangyu.

  Suddenly, a loud cry was heard, and the dagger in Yang Wu's hand fell to the ground. His right hand had been shot by an arrow. It turned out that Zhou Ping saw Xue Liangyu fall off his horse on the mountain slope, and the bandit leader was about to kill him, so he hurriedly shot an arrow at the bandit leader.

  Yang Wu covered his bloody palm, gritted his teeth and broke the feathered arrow. He saw Xue Liangyu had already sat up, and several archers were rushing towards him from a distance. Since he was injured, if he didn't escape now, he feared that even he would fall here too. He could only turn around, grab the reins of the green-maned horse, jump onto its back, let out a loud shout, and gallop away swiftly.

  At this time, the battle had already ended. Thirty-nine thieves were beheaded on the spot, seventeen of them were killed, and the remaining twenty-one were captured. Only Yang Wu escaped. The official side was injured with only five people, no one died. If you say the biggest loss, it is still the cyan-haired horse taken away by Yang Wu. The archers happily tied up the captured thieves with ropes, strung them together, and used bamboo guns to lift the first level as a certificate of merit. Thinking of County Master Xu's generous reward, everyone's face was full of joy.

  But among these people was not Xue Liangyu, who had won many victories before, but in the last battle, he not only lost his own Qingfeng horse, but also let the thief leader go, and more importantly, he was actually saved by Tian Keweizhou, whom he had always looked down on. To make matters worse, this guy's archery skills were even taught by himself. Just thinking about it made him feel very depressed.

  "Fourth brother, are you alright?!" Xue Liangchen looked around and saw that the battlefield had been cleaned up for the most part, then came to see his younger brother.

  "It's nothing, just lost the Qingfeng horse and let the thief escape!" Xue Liangyu shook his head dejectedly.

  "What's the big deal!" Xue Liangchen laughed and said: "The leader of the thieves is only one person, and he's injured. As long as the government issues a wanted poster, it will take at most ten days, or at least three to five days, to capture him. Can your green-haired horse fly into the sky? This time, if we talk about achievements, you are the first. I will report it to County Magistrate, and he will definitely reward you heavily!"

  "Really?" Xue Liangyu was still young after all, and he was overjoyed upon hearing this.

  On the battlefield, Zhou Ping looked at the archers who were being captured and searching for valuables on the bodies of thieves with some emotion. He didn't do so, firstly because he still had a bit of modern people's cleanliness habit left in him, secondly because he knew that he was also a team leader now, even if he didn't take action himself, there would be no lack of his share in the thieves' convoy later. Although he had spent a lot of time practicing archery and sword fighting since he crossed over, it was still his first time facing dozens of people in a life-and-death battle like this, at this moment he even had a question in his heart, were all these things just an illusion? At this time, the voice of Shi Shan came from behind him.

  "Zhou Tan Yue, how does it feel?"

  Zhou Ping hesitated for a moment before answering: "I'm fine, just a bit dizzy!"