five 2
Fu Cha Tao grabbed Li Mingxin's wrist and shouted, "Get down!" Then he lifted her up from the horse's back. At the same time, he turned in the air, avoiding Liu Qingye's sword, and took Li Mingxin back to the horse.
Seeing his sister being restrained, Liu Qingye was extremely anxious, and he used a series of sword moves to block Fu Chatao's way with Songtao swordsmanship. However, Fu Chatao held Li Mingxin in one hand and fought back with the Flying Flower Palm with the other hand. The palm power was continuous and extremely sharp. Liu Qingye could only block him for a while. After dozens of moves, he felt exhausted.
Liu Qingye couldn't help but secretly groan in his heart, wondering where his master and other seniors were fighting - just at this moment, he caught a glimpse of the reckless man Kehai, shouting and charging at him, with a big knife in his hand, about to chop him down. His heart tightened, and he hurriedly slapped the black general on the buttocks, and ran diagonally for several feet to avoid the attack.
He heard Fu Chatao shouting behind him, "Don't panic, one assassin has been captured... Everyone keep moving forward... Don't panic..."
However, the army was in chaos, how could anyone manage it? Fu Chatao was holding Li Mingxin hostage, surrounded by the chaotic troops, and his horse was spinning in circles. Seeing this, Liu Qingye knew that the mission was accomplished, and the most urgent task was to rescue Li Mingxin, so he turned his horse around and rushed back to the battle group.
Ke Hai, who had been giving orders to the soldiers, saw Liu Qingye coming back, and shouted loudly, brandishing his sword to fight. Liu Qingye did not raise his sword to block, but hung diagonally on the horse, hid in the stirrup to avoid his block, and stabbed Fu Chatao's horse's buttocks with the long sword in his hand. The horse cried out in pain, raised its front hooves, and Fu Chatao was caught off guard and fell down holding Li Mingxin. Liu Qingye took the opportunity to jump forward, grabbed Li Mingxin's arm and pulled her onto his horse's back.
At this moment, a loud bell-like shout was heard in the night sky: "Everyone retreat!" It was Cao Mengsheng's signal. Liu Qingye kicked his horse's belly, and the black general also understood human nature and immediately galloped away, kicking over several soldiers blocking the front and rushing out of the encirclement.
The night wind was blowing, cutting across his cheeks. Several horsemen passed by. They were Cao Mengsheng and several members of the Lantern Festival. One of them captured a horse, threw the reins and said, "Mingxin girl, catch it!" Li Mingxin took it and jumped on the horse.
Liu Qingye heard a commotion behind him, and Ke Hai shouted, "Chase them! Don't let these assassins get away! Chase them!" But Fu Chatao shouted, "Don't chase them... Don't delay the march..."
The people in the Lantern Festival were afraid that Fu Chatao would not chase them and their plan would fail, so they all turned back to look. They saw that the Qing soldiers were attacked for no reason and were very angry. They did not take the general's words seriously and chased after them with loud shouts. Everyone was delighted and did not look back, but ran straight to the pile of rocks.
After running a short distance, I saw some strange rocks rising abruptly from the Gobi Desert. They looked like a group of wild beasts crawling on the ground, which made me shudder. They were the pile of rocks that Meng Hu had mentioned. Looking back, I saw the Qing soldiers chasing me relentlessly. Cao Mengsheng said, "Everyone, please slow down a bit and let them catch up so that we can lead them in."
Everyone understood and reined in their horses slightly to allow the Qing troops to gradually catch up.
After a while, the Qing soldiers were only five or six feet away from Cao Mengsheng and his party, but there was a loud shout from the army, and Fu Chatao rushed to the front of the formation on horseback, stopped his men and said, "Wait, don't chase us! Be careful of being tricked! We better hurry!"
The Qing soldiers could not charge the general, but they kept clamoring and refusing to retreat. Fu Chatao then changed his command to Manchu, loudly asking his men to retreat.
Seeing that the Qing soldiers seemed to be retreating intentionally, Cao Mengsheng said angrily: "It's all because of this little Tartar. Let's get rid of him first!" After that, he turned his horse's head and rushed straight towards Fu Cha Tao.
Before Liu Qingye and the others could react, they saw Cao Mengsheng and Fu Chatao fighting. The two sides fought for several rounds on horseback, and Cao Mengsheng suddenly kicked Fu Chatao's knee. When Fu Chatao jumped up to avoid him, Cao Mengsheng also jumped up and slapped Fu Chatao's pulse point in the air. Fu Chatao immediately felt half of his body numb and he stumbled and fell down.
Ke Hai, who came to help, just wanted to shout: "Thief, let go of my master -" but Cao Mengsheng had already fallen back on the horse, and quickly stretched out his hand and grabbed Fu Cha Tao and pulled him onto his horse.
"You Tartar dog, come and save your master if you have the guts!" After he said this, he urged his horse back to Liu Qingye and the others and said, "Hurry, get into the pile of rocks!" Several people simultaneously squeezed their horses' bellies and galloped away.
The Qing soldiers behind were left with only Ke Hai in command. He was a completely simple-minded guy. When he saw Fu Cha Tao being captured, he didn't even consider that this was a trick of the Lantern Festival. He just kept shouting and yelling, telling the soldiers to follow him to rescue their master. The Qing soldiers were already full of anger, so how could they hesitate at this moment? They shouted and killed, and approached in a black mass.
However, when Fu Cha Tao heard the words "into the pile of rocks", he completely understood the intentions of the people in the Lantern Festival. He turned around and shouted loudly: "Don't be fooled! Go back! Don't miss the big thing! Go back--" Before he finished speaking, Cao Mengsheng stretched out his finger and poked his mute point, making him unable to make any sound anymore.
The group rushed into the pile of rocks where the wind was howling.
When Liu Qingye entered the pile of rocks, he heard the sound of the wind around him, like the howling of ghosts and wolves, which was extremely miserable and terrifying, making people's hair stand on end and shivering. But after walking a few steps, he saw a flash of light, which was a person lighting a fire. He and Cao Mengsheng and others rode over and saw Meng Hu hiding behind a huge rock.
Meng Hu knew that they had accomplished their mission, nodded and chuckled, "Excellent, Brother Cao, we just need to wait for the Tartars to come in and see me start a fire as a signal!"
Cao Mengsheng and others followed Meng Hu and hid behind a huge rock.
After a while, there was a deafening shout of killing, and Kehai led the soldiers to attack. Liu Qingye saw Menghu pick up the previously prepared Elaeagnus angustifolia branch, light a fire, and a ball of flame suddenly jumped up - the torches of the Qing soldiers had long been lost in the chaos, and now Menghu lit it, it suddenly became the most dazzling spot in the pile of rocks.
Ke Hai screamed a few times, signaling his men to rush towards the fire and rescue Fu Cha Tao. However, he was not prepared for the sound of many hidden weapons flying through the air in the whistling wind. There were iron lotus seeds, copper coin darts, and hibiscus needles, which were as numerous as locusts, bees, and ants, leaving no place to hide.
Kehai cursed loudly. He knew there was an ambush, but he was unwilling to return empty-handed without saving Fu Chatao. He just shouted, "Master! Master! Where are you?"
Fu Chatao was unable to answer. He just stared blankly with Li Mingxin's knife on his neck.
The Qing soldiers were numerous and in the dark, so most of the hidden weapons hit them in the dead center. However, the people in the Lantern Festival were well-trained in how to use hidden weapons, so being hit by them was painful. For a moment, there were cries and shouts in the pile of rocks, and the injured Qing soldiers fled in all directions.
Ke Hai was still unwilling to give in, and shouted, "Don't run! Don't make a fuss! Young Master! Where are you, Young Master?"
There were still some Qing soldiers outside the pile of rocks. When they heard the chaos inside and realized that something had changed, they swarmed in to try to provide support.
The people in the Lantern Festival fought for a while, and when they had used up all their hidden weapons, they picked up the pebbles on the ground and continued to fight.
Meng Hu frowned and said to Cao Mengsheng, "There are about a thousand Tartars. I think they are the vanguard of the old thieves attacking the Uyghurs. If we delay like this, it will be bad if they wait for the reinforcements."
Cao Mengsheng said: "Yes, we need a quick victory. I will use the little Tartars to lead them to the gates of hell. Where is the 'Man-eating Flowing Beach'?"
Meng Hu pointed in the darkness and said, "It's behind that huge rock, about two feet away, but more than ten feet in radius. Brother Cao, you can use your Qinggong to get there. Just jump over the man-eating beach and you'll be safe."
Cao Mengsheng responded with "OK", picked up Fu Cha Tao beside him, leaped to the huge rock where he was hiding, and shouted: "Dog Tartar, your master is here, come and collect his body if you have the guts!" After that, he stepped on the head of a soldier in front of him, and ran up and down, straight to the direction pointed by Meng Hu.
Ke Hai directed his men, "Hurry - catch up -" As he spoke, he took the lead and followed Cao Mengsheng.
The soldiers behind rushed forward and followed closely. Only a few stayed to search for the people in the Lantern Festival. But they were not to be feared. They killed them one by one with their swords. Then they listened to the noise outside the pile of rocks. The shouts of Ke Hai and others gradually turned into wails, and then the wails gradually disappeared. A melee, in an instant, returned to dead silence.
The firelight beside him suddenly became brighter. Meng Hu lit a bunch of saxaul branches. Liu Qingye narrowed his eyes and saw Wang Chunshan, Wu Shuiqing, Chi Yunzi and others gathered together, all looking in the direction of the "Man-eating Flowing Beach". Not long after, Cao Mengsheng ran over from there, still holding Fu Chatao in his hand.
"The dog Tartar has been eaten by the desert." Cao Mengsheng threw Fu Chatao to the ground, "We can keep this little Tartar. If his father causes trouble for us in the future, we can use him to threaten him."
Fu Chatao opened his mouth wide, unable to say a word, and looked at Cao Mengsheng angrily.
Wang Chunshan said, "Little Tartar, what are you glaring at? I'll spare your life now, but in the future, I'll make your father be buried with our dead brothers!"
Meng Hu looked up at the horizon, which was already slightly blue, and was about to get bright. He said, "The Tartars have been eliminated. Big brother, let's harness all the Tartars' horses and get on the road!"
Wang Chunshan nodded in agreement and said, "That's right. We must meet Tashan before the Tartar reinforcements!" So he called everyone to walk out of the pile of rocks, harness the horses of the Qing soldiers who had not yet fled on the Gobi Desert, and each person rode on one horse, while the rest followed behind, and set out again on the journey back to Alebu.
Liu Qingye was eager to go home at this moment, and felt that the sun was smiling. The people in the Lantern Festival finally washed away the shame of the battle in Shanshan, and they were all in a good mood, talking and laughing along the way. Now everyone has enough horses, and the pace is much faster than before. The journey that was delayed a few days ago was caught up in a day, and it was calculated that it would be back to the territory of Ale in another day.
At dusk that day, everyone was resting at an oasis. Liu Qingye saw a few poplar trees standing tall on the Gobi Desert in the distance. He couldn't help but think of the red eagle he saw in the mirage on his birthday the day before. His heart was filled with sweetness and he couldn't help but smile slightly. He thought to himself: This time when I go back, I will never be separated from the red eagle again!
He lowered his head and thought about this, kicking the small stones on the ground with one foot. Suddenly, he heard a "ouch" in front of him. He raised his head in panic, and it turned out that the stone almost hit Li Mingxin. He blushed and apologized, "Senior sister, I'm sorry."
Li Mingxin walked up with a smile and said, "What happy things are you talking about? Why are you secretly having fun here? I've called you several times, come and have some dry food--" Then he handed over the bag of dry food.
Liu Qingye thanked him repeatedly. But he heard someone next to him laughing and saying, "Hey, what are you thanking me for? When you got her on the horse that day, she was determined to marry you——"
Liu Qingye and Li Mingxin both blushed. Li Mingxin turned around and chased after the man to hit him, saying, "Seventh Uncle, you're talking nonsense again!"
Liu Qingye saw at this time that the person who spoke was the seventh leader of the Lantern Festival, whose name was Chen Luohui. Because he loved to joke, people gave him a homophonic name and called him Chen Duozui.
Chen Luohui laughed loudly, dodged Li Mingxin and said, "Hey, young men and women are just shy, I'm not going to tell you - Mingxin girl, why don't you learn from your mother and your uncle Wang?"
"You——" Li Mingxin blushed and stamped her feet to chase after him, but Chen Luohui had already run away. She could only say to Liu Qingye: "Junior brother, Uncle Qi is just like this, don't listen to his nonsense——"
Liu Qingye smiled slightly, thinking: Maybe Senior Sister had some misunderstandings because of my rescue in the army that day, or Chen Luohui and the others would make fun of it, so what? In his heart, Liu Qingye could not tolerate anyone else except Dan Ying. All misunderstandings would be cleared up when he returned to Ale tribe and married Dan Ying.
"I won't listen to his nonsense." He sat down with a smile, looking at the poplar trees in the distance.
Li Ming was startled, sat down next to him, and asked, "Junior brother, you seem to like poplar trees very much?"
"Yes..." Liu Qingye said. That was his destined lover... But he didn't need to tell Li Mingxin. He changed the subject: "What did Senior Chen mention about Master and Hero Wang just now?"
