Chapter 21: Kill Those Who Flee in Battle

  Xiao Tianjian closed his eyes tightly, slowly slid down the earth beam, and his body involuntarily trembled slightly. This was all due to anger. His hands tightly grasped the hilt of the knife at his waist, suddenly opened his eyes wide, gritted his teeth, and said in a low voice to the people beside him: "These officials and soldiers are beasts, they all deserve to die!"

  Others also took a look, and the tiger who was in a hurry to catch the bus looked at it and immediately covered his mouth with tears streaming down his face.

  "Go ahead! Go out and slaughter those sons of bitches!" Tie Tou came down immediately after, drew his waist knife, and said to Xiao Tianjian with red eyes.

  "Alright! But all of you, remember this: we can't charge in like a swarm like before. They may be undisciplined soldiers, but doing so is just asking for death! Remember, we must follow the way I've taught you. Whoever disobeys and messes up our formation will have no one to blame but themselves when they face my blade!" Xiao Tianjian struggled to calm down his anger, his eyes blazing with fury as he spoke to everyone.

  Jing Fuzi was still muttering to himself, and everyone looked at him with disdain. Xiao Tianjian asked Shi Yan, "Where are the men you found in the village?"

  "He pointed with his finger at a withered forest south of the village and replied in a low voice: 'There!'"

  "Jiang Fuzi, go find those people and tell them that we'll avenge for them! Tell them not to run!" Xiao Tianjian ordered Jiang Fuzi.

  Jing Fu's husband hastily responded, crouching down and moving stealthily towards the withered forest, while everyone else grasped their knives and guns tightly, tensing up their bodies.

  It's ridiculous to say they're not nervous, this is after all their first real confrontation with government troops. As bandits, they naturally have a certain fear of the authorities, and there are even more outside than their own numbers. How can these people who were just holding hoes two months ago not be nervous?

  Even when Xiao Tianjian really wanted to take action, he felt a little nervous, let alone others.

  Xiao Tianjian took a few deep breaths, then stretched his head to observe the distance between them and those officers and soldiers. He lowered his body and instructed the others: "Those beasts are indeed careless, we are now about 200 steps away from them, outside there is a ditch extending to the village entrance, you all follow me, first crawl through the ditch, be quiet, listen for my signal, then jump out together, and push forward in unison, catch them off guard! Don't fear these beasts, they are just a mob!"

  Everyone nodded at Xiao Tianjian, indicating they had heard clearly.

  Xiao Tianjian said, then turned around and led the way into the shallow ditch leading to the village head, as low as possible, using his hands and feet to drag his shield forward. The others followed one by one, crawling into the shallow ditch, closely following Xiao Tianjian's back, slowly crawling past.

  Two hundred steps isn't too far, and they only took a few minutes to climb to within thirty steps of the village entrance. Meanwhile, those beastly soldiers had no idea that a group of killing gods was approaching them, still eating and drinking as usual, and harassing women, without hearing the rustling sounds coming from the ditch.

  Their voices grew clearer and clearer, entering the ears of Xiao Tianjian and his group. Some people couldn't help but tense up, trembling slightly. But at this point, fear was useless. If they stood up to escape, they wouldn't be able to continue mixing in afterwards. Everyone still tried their best to restrain their nervous emotions, clenching the objects in their hands tightly.

  Xiao Tianjian stopped crawling and looked back, seeing that his subordinates were all tense, but at least they had followed up without anyone fleeing in panic to expose their position. This made Xiao Tianjian feel somewhat reassured, as it seemed that through this period of training, the psychological quality of these people had improved somewhat; otherwise, who knows, maybe someone would have jumped up and run away just now.

  When he confirmed that everyone was following, Xiao Tianjian took a few deep breaths, tightened his left hand on the shield handle, firmly controlling the shield, and slowly drew out his waist knife with his right hand. Suddenly, he let out a loud shout: "Damn it!"

  As soon as the voice fell, Xiao Tianjian jumped up and the others also picked up their weapons after hearing Xiao Tianjian's angry shout, following him to jump out of the shallow ditch.

  "Form ranks!" Xiao Tianjian leaped out of the shallow ditch and immediately gave a loud order.

  The results of more than 20 days of training finally appeared at this moment, and a dozen or so guys were tense, but after hearing his command, they instinctively quickly gathered together, forming a horizontal team, with nine riflemen in the middle. Xiao Tianjian held a knife and shield on the left side of the formation, accompanied by two knife-shield soldiers, while Tie Tou held another knife-shield soldier on the right side of the formation, ready to cover the riflemen at any time.

  "Rifles at the ready, march in step! Left... right... left..." Xiao Tianjian looked at the troops lined up and immediately followed with a loud order.

  A dozen or so people immediately followed Xiao Tianjian's order, taking fairly uniform steps in a horizontal column towards the village head.

  Their sudden appearance frightened the twenty or so government soldiers who were reveling at the village head, turning their heads to look in the direction of their emergence, and staring wide-eyed.

  Several soldiers blinked their eyes vigorously, as if they didn't dare to believe their eyes. They were all stunned, but some of the quicker-witted ones immediately began to frantically search for their weapons or scramble up from the woman's body and put on their own pants.

  Two officers were clearly frightened, and as soon as Xiao Tianjian and his party appeared, they immediately ran wildly towards the south of the village, apparently these two guys were habitual runners, not even having time to see how many enemies there were.

  A military officer-like man reacted quickly, soon understanding the situation in front of him. He immediately shouted and grabbed his waist knife: "Don't be afraid! They're just a dozen or so bandits! It's perfect timing, let our brothers cut off a few more heads! When we get back, it'll be easy to find an excuse to ask for a reward! Don't you all run, follow me and slaughter them! Whoever dares to run will be slaughtered by me first!"

  Although these officers and soldiers were startled, under the command of their leader, they calmed down a bit. Looking at Xiao Tianjian and his men, they were indeed a group of beggar-like people, only holding some knives and guns, dressed in the standard attire of bandits, which somewhat reassured them.

  The little head of the officer and soldiers was commanding his subordinates to get up and resist, but after all, they were somewhat caught off guard. Before they could form a line, Xiao Tianjian shouted orders and led his dozen or so men to push forward to within twenty paces of their faces.

  To be honest, the government soldiers were somewhat trained compared to the bandits. The difference between being trained and not trained is huge. Generally speaking, a similar number of government soldiers would win more often than lose against the bandits! When they saw that Xiao Tianjian's group was not as numerous as theirs, especially after seeing their tattered clothes, they were even more certain of Xiao Tianjian's identity. These government soldiers became somewhat more at ease, and several brave ones, although unable to prepare properly, still took up knives and guns under the command of their officer and confronted Xiao Tianjian and his group.

  "Damn it, you scared me to death! With just this few of you, you think you can capture us? Well, let's give them a show and earn some military merit! Brothers, don't be afraid of them, they're just over a dozen people, not our match! Let's kill them!" The officer cursed at Xiao Tianjian and the others, and then led the remaining soldiers to join in.

  At first glance, the number of officials and soldiers seems to have some advantage, at least more than ten people compared to Xia Tianjian's side. The saying "more people, more courage" still makes sense. Even though the officials and soldiers were suddenly surprised, they still plucked up their courage after seeing the numbers and shouted to welcome them. However, some officials and soldiers seem to have noticed something wrong, as the dozen or so bandits who appeared suddenly today seemed different from the ones they usually saw. In the past, they saw bandits who were in a state of confusion, but today's dozen or so bandits formed a horizontal team, with a bit of momentum. Therefore, some smarter officials and soldiers deliberately fell behind a few steps, wanting to see what would happen next. Originally, the officials and soldiers were somewhat caught off guard, and now they each had their own thoughts, making them appear even more chaotic.

  As the officers and soldiers on that side began to understand, Xiao Tianjian's side also started to tense up again. A rifleman standing in the team, who had originally followed Xiao Tianjian's orders with a bit of courage, found his legs shaking uncontrollably as he saw several officers approaching with swords drawn. He involuntarily slowed down his pace, causing an opening to appear in the otherwise neat horizontal formation, and the column became somewhat disordered.

  Xiao Tianjian was shouting orders and leading the crowd forward, but his eyes were fixed on his own team. He immediately spotted the straggler and bellowed: "Li Ma Zi, get back in line! If you dare to run away, I'll kill you!"

  Li Mazi, who was under Xiao Tianjian's command, was a mediocre person. He was usually timid and only followed Xiao Tianjian out today because of his initial anger. However, by the time they reached this point, he couldn't hold on anymore. Although he heard Xiao Tianjian's roar, he couldn't suppress the fear in his heart, especially when he saw several ferocious-looking soldiers approaching them. He was so scared that he suddenly dropped the long gun in his hand and turned around to flee back the way they came, amidst Xiao Tianjian's roars.

  Xiao Tianjian was already on guard against him, and Li Mazi had just turned his head to escape. He immediately switched the single knife to his left hand holding the shield, stretched out his hand and pulled out a short axe from his waist, raised his hand and threw it out.

  Li Mazi only felt a sharp pain in his back, and his body immediately flew forward, let out a loud cry, and then fell to the ground. When he looked again at Xiao Tianjian's short axe, it was deeply embedded in his back.