Chapter 10: Being robbed
It was a clear day, a perfect day for... robbery, probably.
Chief Escort Mo escorted Boss Jiang on a trip and they had a safe journey. However, they did not expect to encounter robbers on the way back. Surprised, they quickly deployed their men to be on guard.
This place was a gourd-shaped canyon. As soon as they entered the valley, they found a team surrounded by bandits. The servants accompanying them were all dressed in fine materials and were pulling several large carts of things. A corner of the oilcloth that was lifted up by the bandits revealed a camphorwood box with copper-wrapped corners on the cart. No one knew what was inside. The wheels left a shallow rut on the ground.
Not to mention the overly gorgeous two-horse carriage surrounded by servants. In addition to exquisite carvings on the walls of the carriage, it was also inlaid with gold and jade. The only thing missing was the four big words "I am a rich man" on the roof to show off in the city.
If I don't rob him, who else can I rob?
What was even funnier was that the group of servants were surrounded by 70 or 80 bandits, but they didn't know how to live or die, and they arrogantly shouted and scolded: "Do you know who my young master is? He is the only son of the richest man in Pingzhou. He is going to Beijing to take the imperial examination. He might be the top scholar this year. How dare you stop him?!"
The bandit leader had a broad forehead and a prominent nose, and his eyes were filled with ferocity. He rode on his horse and performed a very perfunctory salute, then smiled and said, "I didn't know that the number one scholar was coming. I'm very sorry!"
The other bandits almost laughed their bellies off. Among them, the bandit with a purple face laughed the loudest: "Brother, the brothers in our village are illiterate, so why don't we invite the number one scholar to stay in the village for a few more days, so that the brothers can smell the scent of his ink. Wait for his family to pick him up, and then send him home?" This meant that they were not only planning to rob but also kidnap.
After saying so much, the "future number one scholar" didn't know whether he was afraid or for some other reason, but he just stayed in the carriage without making a sound, let alone showing his head to respond.
Instead, several of his accompanying servants were extremely annoyed: "How dare you?!"
During the stalemate, Boss Jiang's caravan crashed into the valley.
The bandit leader took one look and was immediately delighted: "Oh, you know our brothers are short of supplies for the winter, so you come to deliver them yourself?" He whistled, and the bandits split off a group of men and headed straight for Boss Jiang's caravan.
Chief Escort Mo bowed and saluted: "I am sorry for being so rude. I didn't know how to pay respects when I passed by your precious place. I hope you won't blame me, Boss!"
The bandit leader slowly glanced at the convoy and saw the flag of their escort agency stopped for a moment, but when he saw so many goods, he showed his greed again: "It doesn't matter if I was rude before, since they are all delivered to our door, why don't we follow this number one scholar into the village and have a cup of wild tea?"
A thin and dark bandit next to him leaned in and whispered, his lewd eyes swept over Tang Ying, teasing her in a low voice with a hint of vulgarity.
Zhang Qing couldn't help but take a few steps closer to the cart where Tang Ying was sitting, clenched the stick in his hand, and whispered: "Why don't we fight later, and I'll protect you while the chaos is going on?" Even for the sake of the flesh and blood of the Marshal's Mansion, he couldn't meddle in other people's business.
Tang Ying stretched out her body and held out her hand to him: "Brother, give me a hand."
Zhang Qing thought she agreed to his proposal and helped her out of the car, but he saw her moving slowly towards Boss Jiang's carriage.
"Girl, what are you doing?"
"We have to repay Mr. Jiang for taking us in before we can leave." The two of them have been staying with Mr. Jiang for the past few days, which has saved them a lot of trouble.
Tang Ying wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible, but since they were the only two siblings in the entire caravan, it would make it easier for the bandits to notice them.
The dark and thin bandit pointed at her and laughed: "Big brother, this little girl seems to be trying to escape."
The bandit leader bared his teeth and moved his tongue, pulling out a piece of meat stuck between his teeth and spitting it onto the ground. He immediately ordered, "Drive them all up the mountain and count them slowly. Arrest the men and dress up the women. I'm going to be the bridegroom tonight!"
There were only one woman in the two train convoys, Tang Ying.
The robbers all burst into laughter. Some of them went to capture the only son of the richest man in Pingzhou, while the other part headed towards Boss Jiang's convoy.
Chief Escort Mo knew that if the goods were lost, the reputation of the escort agency would be destroyed, so he did not bother to make friends with these bandits. He hurriedly led the other escort leaders to protect Master Jiang's men and goods, and had already fought with the leading bandit.
On the contrary, the servants under the only son of the richest man in Pingzhou, although they were shouting fiercely, were all cowards. When they were surrounded by the bandits, they were so scared that they huddled together with their heads in their hands and allowed themselves to be tied up before the fight even started.
Several of the bandits who were separated ran straight towards Tang Ying. One of them was riding on a horse, half bent over and wanted to grab Tang Ying's arm. No one knew what happened, but he heard a scream, and the bandit's right wrist was cut off at the root. He screamed and rolled off the horse.
Chief Escort Mo also assigned two other escort captains to protect Master Jiang's carriage, one of whom was Geng Ming. He saw clearly that when the bandit went to catch Miss Zhang, a white light flashed from the girl's sleeve, and the bandit's right hand disappeared.
His eyes were fixed as he stared blankly at Miss Zhang holding a small dagger in her hand, wiping it on the oilcloth covering the outside of the truck with disgust. He suddenly felt a chill on the back of his neck and could not help shivering. In a flash, he figured out something in his mind.
There is no such thing as a wild man!
The one who beat him that night was Miss Zhang herself!
The bandit's screams were so tragic that they attracted a lot of people's attention. The crowd even slowed down the fighting and asked each other about their companions.
"what happened?"
"What's wrong?"
Except for the four or five people who were close to the scene and saw what happened, the rest of the people only heard a scream and saw the bandit rolling on the ground holding his bloody right wrist. An accomplice who followed him laughed at him: "Qi Er, you didn't hold the knife properly and you accidentally cut off your wrist. It seems that I am the only one who can catch this girl."
Qi Er was blocking his view in front of him, so he didn't see what happened.
Tang Ying just stood there prettyly. Ever since the city was broken, her complexion had never recovered. Although her face was still pretty and fair, she always looked abnormally sick. No one knew whether it was because of her damaged body or her difficult-to-heal heart disease.
The second bandit rushed up and tried to grab her waist when he got close to her, but the people next to her saw that she had already spun away and twisted the bandit's arm with her backhand, dragging his body off the horse alive, but his feet had not yet left the stirrups and his head was hanging down on the ground.
Tang Ying raised his knife and stabbed the horse's butt hard. The horse couldn't bear the pain and dragged the bandit towards the valley entrance, neighing. The others couldn't react in time and watched the bandit's head bouncing on the rocks at the bottom of the valley. Some people couldn't help but touch the back of their heads.
It hurts so fucking much!
Mr. Jiang paused as he was about to lift the curtain.
Escort Chief Mo paused with his knife in hand, and even the bandit leader who was fighting with him looked at him twice in disbelief. He regarded human life as worthless, but he also felt that this young lady was ruthless and not a good person.
"Damn, where did this little girl come from?"
After a few words, another bandit risked his life to rush up. This time, the man came prepared and did not dare to grab Tang Ying's waist. He rushed over with a machete and met her fair face. It was a bit of a pity that this young lady was going to be killed by his knife.
When he rushed over, Tang Ying rolled on the ground and crawled under the horse's belly like a monkey. Then both she and the saddle were thrown off the horse's back and fell to the ground. The machete had already fallen into Tang Ying's hands.
Chief Escort Mo had a complicated expression and didn't know what to say.
He had been wandering around the world for so many years, but he failed to recognize the great man and almost made a big mistake.
The bandits suffered heavy losses one after another at the hands of Tang Ying, which made them very ferocious . They no longer cared about Boss Jiang's goods. Five or six of them surrounded Tang Ying, and also took Zhang Qing, who was very close to her and was determined to protect his master.
Both of them had fought their way out of the mountains of corpses and seas of blood in Baicheng. They remained calm in the face of several bandits and fought back to back. Although they were tall, strong and sturdy bandits, more than half of them were killed or injured before they could last five rounds at the hands of these two men.
The bandit leader had never seen such a capable girl, so he abandoned Chief Escort Mo and went to meet Tang Ying.
"I've never seen such a tough girl before." He ran over with his knife in his hand, looking down at the girl in a coarse cloth dress: "Hey, little girl, if I defeat you, why don't you come up the mountain and be my wife?"
Tang Ying leaned on the knife and looked up at him. She was obviously very thin, but her aura seemed to be no less than that of the bandit leader. Chief Escort Mo, who was watching the fight, even felt that the frail girl who had come with him all the way was not the same person as the radiant woman in front of him.
"What if I beat you?" the little girl asked back in a strong and clear voice rarely seen in women.
The bandit leader had never seen such a young lady before. The more he looked at her, the more he thought she was to his liking. He ignored his dead and wounded brothers and said with a smile, "If you lose, will you let me follow you?"
Tang Ying shook her head: "You are too ugly. I am afraid I won't be able to eat if I look at you every day. It is better to kill you." She was obviously a young girl, but her words were cold and ruthless. Her expression was extremely serious, and she didn't seem to be flirting with the bandit leader at all. Based on her previous behavior, people felt that she was speaking from her heart and that she really wanted to kill this man.
"You little bitch, don't be so shameless!" The bandit leader was furious and had no mercy on the girl anymore. He picked up his knife and chopped down. He had amazing arm strength and was the third in command in the mountain stronghold. He had never encountered such a tough guy when he went down the mountain to rob.
"Stop! Stop!" At the critical moment, Tang Ying unilaterally announced to stop.
The bandit leader's knife was halfway through, but it was amazing that he could stop: "Little girl, are you scared?"
"I like your horse. You're going to lose to me eventually, so why don't you get off and have a fight to avoid hurting my horse." The journey to the capital is long, and she has to find a means of transportation. Ordinary good people can't do it, but robbing bandits is not illegal, right?
Not far away, the curtain of the carriage of the "number one scholar" was quietly lifted, revealing a jade-like chin and a slight laugh.
