Chapter 62: Pursuit

  (Collection, recommendation... ... Today, Word had a problem again. As soon as I opened it, an error occurred. After restarting and recovering, I was frustrated. I reinstalled Word and the input method before it worked properly, so it's been delayed until now. Sorry, everyone...)

  "Tell me, what's going on." Zhao Shi finally spoke up after everyone had sat down in the house.

  Shang Yan Zu said in a low voice: "More than two months ago, these mountain bandits appeared and attacked the post station. The number of mountain bandits was not many, only more than 20 people, but this is just one of them. It is said that there are several groups of mountain bandits wandering around our Gongyi County, constantly attacking villages, killing a few people each time, whether you resist or not, they will kill a few people, as if it's a kind of intimidation...

  They all have horses, coming and going like the wind, and they are very fierce. They seem to be horse bandits from the border, but they must not be of horse bandit origin. I had dealings with horse bandits before, and they generally don't come out often. They do big business, or else they won't take action. You'd better hand over all your things, or it's hard to say if you'll have a way out if you resist. This group of people is much more ruthless than that. They generally wouldn't attack villages, let alone our place, which would never attract horse bandits. And yet they attacked the imperial relay station - their nerve is quite big indeed...

  "There are already several villages around us that have encountered them, and they've harmed many of our daughters......" As he spoke, Shang Yan Zu slammed the sea bowl in his hand onto the table with a loud crash, splashing water everywhere, revealing the anger in his heart.

  "They are just like the bandits on the Green Forest Road, and the government has already sent troops to surround and capture them. But with only a dozen or so thieves on fast horses, it's hard to track them down. Stone, what do you think we should do? Looking at their appearance, although their tracks are uncertain, they won't let any village go."

  Zhao Shi furrowed his brow, recalling the experience of clearing out drug traffickers on the Yunnan border. It wasn't an ordinary difficulty, but these people had a thief's mark on their heads and acted with too much impunity. Zhao Shi didn't know if all the mountain bandits here were so bold, but that was unimportant. What Green Forest Way? What Horse Bandits? This place was his home now, and anyone who threatened it would have to die.

  Suppressing the fierce killing intent in his heart, he smiled on his face, "Fortunately, we just came back, and the knife is still sharp. Uncle, you go and gather everyone together. Old and young are all here, can't we just watch others kill our own relatives in front of us?"

  "What else did they loot from the post station? Why did they set fire to the house? Did they kill all those who resisted?"

  Looking at the smiling young face, people in their hearts feel a bit uncomfortable, subconsciously shifting their gaze away. Shang Yan Zu replied: "They snatched some food and money, as for setting fire to the house, it was because there were several retired soldiers from the Imperial Guard who happened to be returning home at the relay station, taking advantage of the house to kill one of them. Counting these few old soldiers who were burned to death, two people died in total, all of whom were weak scholars who didn't even have time to run away, where would they dare resist? This group of killers is truly despicable."

  Zhao Shi sank into thought for a moment, then said: "These days everyone should be vigilant, prepare all the weapons, and have someone keep watch outside the village at all times. Send someone to the saltworks to find my third brother, if they have enough manpower there, see if he can send some salt workers over..."

  "Tell them that under no circumstances should those mountain bandits be allowed to rush into the village. Uncle, I'm going to take a look at the post station, you keep an eye on things here first, and wait for me to come back..."

  "Go ahead and let Da Niu and a few others follow you, it's better to have someone to take care of you."

  Zhao Shi waved his hand, "No need, there are originally not many people in the village, they all stay behind, I can come back in a few days..."

  。。。。。。。。。。。。

  Zhao Shi's gaze swept across the ground, and some hoof prints and broken branches fell into his eyes. He sat on the ground and drank some water. At this time, Zhao Shi was covered in dust all over his body, as if he had just rolled out of the ground. His face looked a bit tired, but his eyes became even more sharp and bright. Rubbing his slightly sore legs, Zhao Shi stood up and checked everything on him again, continuing to track along the faintly visible marks.

  This was already the second day he had left that relay station. Due to incomplete and delayed information, from Shang Yan Zu's words, he could only draw one conclusion: this group of people would not go too far and must still be within the borders of Gongyi County. How big is Gongyi County? Even if they have fast horses, how far can they leave? Of course, there are not just one group of mountain bandits, but it's hard to imagine that they started attacking villages at the same time without any connection between them. In this case, as long as he finds one of the groups, he will be able to get more information. Moreover, most importantly, this group has only twenty or so people. If there were hundreds or thousands of people, Zhao Shi would have immediately taken all the villagers to Niutou Village and wouldn't be tracking alone like now.

  He didn't share these thoughts with Shang Yan Zu, tracking, lurking and then attacking was his specialty as a special forces soldier. Moreover, the mountain bandits were also bolder, all the traces clearly showed their tracks and direction, making it effortless for Zhao Shi to follow them.

  On the fourth day, the trail was still clear, but Zhao Shi's physical strength had dropped to a dangerous level. If he didn't find those people within two more days, he decided to turn back, because even if he found them, with his current physical strength, it would be impossible for him to engage in high-intensity combat. These mountain bandits were clearly circling around, they were very familiar with the terrain, and they attacked another village along the way, gradually moving closer to Zhaojia Village. Zhao Shi knew that he was getting close to this group of people.

  On the fifth evening, Zhao Shi stood on top of a tall banyan tree. Not far away, the occasional neighing of war horses could be heard. There was a sparse forest there. According to Zhao Shi's estimation, this place would not be more than ten miles away from Zhaojia Village. He had set out from the north side of the village. If his direction was correct, he should now be on the east side of Zhaojia Village, having circled around for a quarter of the way.

  He carefully curled up his body, slowly chewing and swallowing the last few pieces of meat with his mouth, then drank some water. Zhao Shi gazed at the distant figures swaying back and forth, his eyes narrowing slightly before he fell asleep. Whether they were assassins or seasoned warriors, their favorite time to launch an attack was always after midnight. Zhao Shi was no exception. Now all he had to do was conserve his energy and wait for the moment when his prey let its guard down, then launch a fierce attack.

  Zhao Shi opened his eyes to find himself surrounded by darkness. The sky was overcast, and the moonlight was blocked out. He slowly got up, carefully moving his numb limbs. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he silently climbed down from the tree, leaving his extra belongings at the base of the trunk. In his hand, he gripped an unsheathed broadsword, while a hunting knife hung at his waist, one that he had obtained from Shang Yan Zu.

  After waiting quietly for a while, making sure there was nothing unusual around, Zhao Shi slowly got up and then silently slipped away towards the woods like a lynx.