Chapter 1: National Chaos and Survival Section 51: Righteous Retreat from Bandits

  A sudden gunshot broke the morning sky, which was originally filled with only the sound of crowing chickens. A soldier from the escort agency at the front of the group let out a miserable cry and fell off his horse. The entire team was shocked.

  Liu Mingjiu coldly smiled and gave orders to Geng Jile, Han Zhen, and Pan Yueshuang beside him: "The third row of the second class on the left side of that row of big trees will dig trenches in place. The first squad of the sharpshooters' bureau quickly hides on the opposite mountain slope. The second squad digs a blocking ditch in front, and the third team guards the central army and sets up machine guns for me to prepare. Iron Fist, go control that old man for me."

  The crowd quickly responded with a "yes" and rushed to their respective designated locations. Just half an hour ago, after Jin Gui poked his head out for a casual chat, Liu Mingjiu saw the secret signal left by member No. 4 of the "Qianlong Xiaozu" on a tree by the side of the road. The signal was a special alarm sign of the "Qianlong Xiaozu". As he walked forward, he found two more signals in succession. Liu Mingjiu had already quietly instructed his subordinates. From the alarm signs, Liu Mingjiu clearly knew that this time it was those people on the Kalaqin grassland who could no longer bear to come and plunder.

  "Dada" in the front row of the second team of the escort agency's machine gunner had just set up his machine gun when he saw a group of horse bandits dressed in Mongolian costumes rushing to a distance of 50 meters. The machine gunner calmly picked up his machine gun, opened the safety catch and fired a burst of bullets at them. Several horse bandits fell off their horses, but did not stop the subsequent horse bandits from continuing their charge. Suddenly, on the road between Pingquan Erdao River and Yaoyingzi, gunfire erupted and horses whinnied.

  The sound of "boom, boom, boom" filled the air. The soldiers in the third row of the second battalion had just finished digging a trench that could hold half their bodies, and they immediately stood up and threw hand grenades at the bandits who were charging towards them. Every grenade that flew into the crowd would cause several arms and legs to fly into the sky before falling heavily to the ground. The war horses were also frightened by the flying black iron balls, and some of them began to throw their riders off and gallop wildly out of the battlefield. Those riders who were thrown off by the horses had not yet regained consciousness when they were shot again by the platoon leader, a skilled sniper, and his comrades, and nailed back to the ground.

  "Give the hand signal, let the first squad throw their explosive packs out too." Liu Mingjiu gave the order to Geng Jilei, who was crouching beside him. Geng Jilei immediately half-squatted up and gave the command to the first squad of the Biaoju on the eastern mountain slope. Ten seconds later, the bandits, still dazed from the grenade explosion, looked up in surprise to see large cloth bundles falling around them, with strings on them emitting a "hissing" sound as white smoke emerged. "Boom, boom, boom", just as the bandits were wondering what was happening, the strings burned onto the bundles and another round of deafening explosions erupted. The bandits were once again blown into the air in confusion.

  A gaudily dressed horseman escaped from the explosion area, turned around and shouted towards the merchant team: "Listen up, you merchants in front! We are people of Hasibala, the great leader of the Kharachin Grassland. We only want to rob your wealth, not harm your lives. If you resist like this, don't blame us for charging in with our cavalry and leaving none of you alive."

  "Haha, don't you even know who you've encountered? It's really 'heaven has a road but you don't take it, hell has no door but you insist on entering'. Tell Hasbara Dage, the leader of the Huns, to retreat quickly if he knows what's good for him. The little flying dragon of the Six Harmony Escort Agency is here in person! Qing Shan Road is open, let's go our separate ways and not bother each other, continue fighting and see who ends up suffering." Geng Jilei stood up and shouted loudly at the horse bandits across from them.

  Those bandits who had just escaped were clearly shocked. The bandit who had shouted earlier hastily patted the horse's buttocks and ran to a man wearing a black hat with a golden edge, his face covered with a black veil, and clothes that looked like those of a person of status, and said something in his ear.

  In a moment, the middle-aged knight who shouted returned to the front of the array: "Little Fei Long, our great leader said that you have no grievances with us in the past and no hatred recently. If you can leave behind a few boxes of those thirty-five cars of silver dollars and gold bars, we will retreat."

  Liu Mingjiu listened and looked at Jin Gui, who had been trampled underfoot by Han Zhen, and his other comrades beside him, and couldn't help but burst out laughing. The laughter echoed through the small hills on both sides of the road, startling several war horses in the bandit army to lift their front hooves, throwing their riders off and fleeing for their lives.

  The laughter suddenly stopped, and a cold smile appeared on Liu Mingjiu's face: "Hassbara, twice before you wanted to send me to the grasslands to destroy you, I held back my troops thinking of giving you brave warriors of the grasslands some space to survive. Today you dare to come and rob my convoy, and still want me to leave you a toll? Do you think Xiao Feilong is so easy to bully? Brothers, beat him up for me, beat him hard."

  Liu Mingjiu was laughing loudly, but his eyes were fixed on his subordinates. The bandits were caught off guard, and the people from the escort agency had all undergone rigorous training in the Eighth Route Army, so they naturally knew that at this moment, the most important thing to do was to build a good fortification. So Liu Mingjiu laughed, but their hands did not stop, instead they dug faster, set up simple wooden barriers. By the time Liu Mingjiu gave the order to attack, the four machine gunners from each squad and platoon had already rushed to the front line and were firing rapidly at the bandits.

  The bandits, upon seeing Liu Mingjiu's order to open fire, quickly formed their ranks. However, they did not charge again, but instead ran out for nearly a hundred meters before stopping far away. After the troops were reorganized, the middle-aged knight shouted again: "Little Flying Dragon, our great leader asked me to speak on his behalf. Thank you for not exterminating us in the grasslands, but we also had no choice this time, as the grasslands suffered from a snow disaster. It was Jin Zhanggui who saw that our livelihoods were difficult and came to rob this shipment, absolutely not intentionally making things difficult for the Liuhe Escort Bureau. The great leader said that he knows you attach great importance to the people's livelihoods, but we are also ordinary people, if it weren't for the numerous taxes and levies, we wouldn't have become bandits to cause trouble for you. I hope you can spare some road money for our two thousand families."

  "More than 2,000 families?" Liu Mingjiu's head spun around in a circle. If the other party was telling the truth, it wasn't anyone else's fault this time either. He turned his head and glared fiercely at Jin Gui, who had his head stepped on and was pressed to the ground: "You're very familiar with Hasbara's tribe? How many people do they have?"

  Jin Gui nodded slightly, forcing himself to open his mouth. After Han Zhen moved his foot to his back, he finally spoke up: "Tell Officer Liu, they were originally the imperial guards of the former Chahar Mongol king. Ha Si is the leader of their tribe. In the past few years, when Chahar was in internal turmoil, their tribe almost got annihilated. Leader Ha Si led his people into the Kharachin grasslands. They have around 400 cavalrymen and over 2,400 family members."

  "What's your relationship with them? Why are you helping them steal from your boss?" Liu Mingjiu asked, still half-believing and half-doubting, and added another sentence: "Don't you know that this is a capital offense?"

  Jin Gui smiled wryly: "Officer Liu, I was originally a member of the Hasu tribe. During the internal strife in previous years, it was the father of Chief Bara who sent me out of Ruihua City first, allowing me to escape disaster. My family is still in the tribe now, only I was taken in by our master five years ago when I was starving to death in Chengde, and that's how I survived."

  Liu Mingjiu understood everything after listening to him. Jin Gui was originally a member of the Hasse tribe, and now the father of this leader had spared his life, and Jin Yigui also owed him a debt of gratitude for saving his life. By reason, he should not have betrayed Jin Yigui, but people will do anything for their own benefit, even if it means betraying others. Those who shout loudest about righteousness and morality are often the first to abandon their principles when their family's survival is at stake. Jin Gui's family was in the tribe, and if he didn't help Hasse Bara with the looting, his family would starve to death.

  After understanding, Liu Mingjiu raised his head and looked deeply at the Mongolian cavalry in the distance: "Let Hasu leader bring only one follower out, I will also bring only one follower, to the middle to talk."

  In the Mongolian cavalry camp, after hearing this, there was a brief commotion. After a moment, only one person emerged from the Mongolian cavalry troops - a middle-aged man wearing a black hat with gold trim and a veil covering his face, dressed in attire that indicated he had status. He was accompanied by Liu Mingjiu, who exchanged a glance with Han Zhen before jumping onto their warhorses to meet him. Jin Gui spoke the truth, but was still bound like a rice dumpling by Geng Jilei and thrown into a horse carriage.

  Liu Mingjiu brought Han Zhen and soon met with the leader of the mounted bandits. The two first spoke a few words while sitting on their horses, then dismounted and sat down on two large rocks beside them to continue talking. After a while, the leader of the Mongolian cavalry took off his water bag from his waist and handed it to Liu Mingjiu. Liu Mingjiu opened the lid, tilted his head back and drank a few mouthfuls. After finishing drinking, he laughed loudly and continued to talk with the leader for about an hour before getting on horseback with Han Zhen. They turned around and bid farewell to the bandit leader by clasping each other's fists.

  When Liu Mingjiu brought Han Zhen back to the caravan, there were more than 300 Mongolian cavalrymen. However, after a horn sounded, they quickly disappeared from the sight of the people in the caravan. The crowd in the caravan couldn't help but turn their eyes to Liu Mingjiu in surprise, but this lieutenant officer didn't say anything and just shouted: "Pack up, let's continue on our journey."

  The people of the caravan saw that the officer didn't say anything, only gave this order, and no one dared to ask what he had discussed with the Mongolian bandit leader, they could only collect their things in doubt and set off again.

  At this time, Liu Mingjiu himself was still very strange. Who would have thought that the overlord of the Kalaqin grassland, Rehe, and Liaoning, all the beards who heard the name of the Green Forest gang's leader, would actually be a 20-year-old Mongolian beauty? After this joke about the bandits in Inner Mongolia, I believe those various green forest troops will not dare to come and mess with our Six Harmony Security Bureau again.

  This time, the attack by Ha Si Ba only killed one of the guards at the beginning and injured six of his own men. The loss was not severe. Most importantly, the thirty-five boxes of silver coins and gold bars were intact. Liu Mingjiu couldn't help but feel a little proud on horseback.