Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 78: Seizing the Horse
"That man is Chen Zixiao! He is an excellent archer and rider, and he was quite low-key when he joined the Tiger Head Village. I didn't expect that he would be instigated by Zheng Hui and others this time to kill Tang Biao, the Wind Breaker, and seize power."
Chen Zixiao was an outsider. It was said that he had committed a crime in Dengzhou or somewhere else. He fled to Tongbai Mountain and stayed in Huaiyuan Street for some time. Xu Wukun met him and saw Xu Huai staring at the man in a daze, so he said to him.
However, Xu Wukun did not know that what Xu Huai was deeply shocked about at this moment was not Chen Zixiao in front of him, but the short piece of text memory that flashed in his mind.
It's really amazing.
"In the first year of Jianhe, the emperor wanted to flee to Nanyang to avoid the invaders. At that time, the Huaishang bandit Chen Zixiao gathered troops and blocked the Tongbai Mountain Road. The general Han Shiliang defeated him..."
What year was the first year of Jianhe?
Xu Huai was quite far away and it was difficult for him to see Chen Zixiao's appearance clearly, but he heard from others that he looked to be around 45 or 46 years old.
Xu Huai thought to himself that the power in the mountain strongholds was based on the law of the jungle, and the bandit chief would either die a violent death or give up his position and hide away in a corner to live out his life. He had never heard of any big bandit dying of old age on a sickbed in a mountain stronghold.
If we follow the original historical trajectory, no matter how Chen Zixiao rose to prominence, he would still be famous in the first year of Jianhe, which means that the first year of Jianhe should not be too far away from now.
Of course, what really shocked him was the number "The emperor wanted to go to Nanyang to avoid the invaders."
What kind of earth-shattering changes happened in the first year of Jianhe that forced the emperor to flee from Bianliang and seek refuge in Nanyang?
In order to sort out the short fragments of memory that flashed through his mind from time to time, Xu Huai recently read a few history books. In similar texts, "Lu" mostly refers to barbarian enemies.
But he couldn't figure out, were the "barbarians" who made the emperor tremble in fear and avoid them the Dangxiang people or the Khitans?
He got along with Wang Bing and Lu Xiong, and from time to time he heard them discuss state affairs. Although they were superficial, Xu Huai did not feel that Wang Bing and Lu Xiong considered the Dangxiang and Khitan peoples to be a major threat to the court.
As for the Western Army, Wang Bing was dissatisfied with Cai Ying's management of the Western Army for nearly twenty years, which had caused repeated border conflicts but had not gained an inch of territory. But not to mention Wang Bing and Lu Xiong, even Deng Gui and Xu Wujiang generally praised the Western Army's ability to fight when they talked about border affairs.
Another thing is that the shortest and most convenient way from Bian Jing to Nanyang should be to start from Bian Jing, cross the Ying River through Xuchang, take the road on the western foot of Funiu Mountain, and go straight into the Nanyang Basin through Fangcheng, which is today's Dengzhou, Tangzhou, Xiangzhou and other places.
However, this short text memory said that the bandits blocked the Tongbai Mountain Road.
This indirectly shows that after the emperor escaped from Bian Jing, he did not flee directly to Nanyang along the post road on the western foot of the Funiu Mountains, but first went to the Huainan West Road.
Tongbai Mountain Road is the only way for the Huainan West Road to go to Tangdeng and other important towns in Nanyang, just like Wang Bing and Lu Xiong went from Xinyang to Biyang before...
Xu Huai thought about it in a messy way, but found that he could not analyze anything from this short passage of only forty or fifty words, which was similar to the records in historical books.
The only thing he could be sure of was that in the near future, the entire Central Plains would undergo earth-shaking changes due to the invasion of barbarian enemies.
The disaster may be a hundred or a thousand times more severe than what is happening now!
"What's wrong?" Seeing that Xu Huai seemed to be possessed by some evil spirit and was stunned for a long time without coming to his senses, Xu Xin'an couldn't help but pull his clothes and asked.
"Nothing. I think I may need to go to the military camp to see Mr. Wang now!" Xu Huai came back to his senses, suppressed the turbulent waves in his heart, and said to Xu Xin'an, Xu Wukun and others, "You go back to Xiema Mountain first!"
"Go see Wang Bing at this time?" Xu Wukun was stunned and said, "Deng Gui is a man who values his life and has some ability. He has long been on guard against Hutou Village. He will know everything that happens here soon. There is no need for us to inform him."
Xu Wukun thought that Xu Huai was worried that the Inspection Office was unprepared and wanted to report it, but he thought Deng Gui didn't need them to do anything unnecessary.
Apart from this, he could not imagine any reason why Xu Huai would go to see Wang Bing at this critical juncture.
"I have a lot of confusion in my mind, and probably only Mr. Wang can answer them. I will go there and come back quickly, it won't be a problem." Xu Huai said.
When he was in Tongbai Mountain, although he saw that the lower-class people had a hard life, he always felt that the world was relatively peaceful and that there would be no hope of success if he became a bandit.
He was not very concerned about the struggles in the court and the situation in which Dai Viet, the Dangxiang and the Khitan had been in a stalemate for more than a hundred years and neither side could swallow the other.
Wang Bing and Lu Xiong had talked about these things before, and he listened to them in his heart, but he did not ask about many minor details, let alone analyze them.
This also made it impossible for him to interpret much from the dozens of words that suddenly flashed by.
However, the situation was so serious that the emperor had to flee south to escape the disaster due to the barbarian enemies. It was absolutely impossible for such a disaster to break out suddenly without any warning.
Before this, Dai Viet had border defenses garrisoned by hundreds of thousands of imperial guards, which meant that they had been badly beaten; before this, the defense system garrisoned by 100,000 elite imperial guards, which meant that it was no longer sufficient to resist the threat of invasion by barbarian enemies.
How could such a drastic change happen suddenly without any warning?
Xu Huai believed that he could not see clearly now because he had too little and superficial understanding of the overall situation in the world; when he regained his consciousness, he paid more attention to the disputes and turmoil in this corner of Tongbai Mountain.
And who in Tongbai Mountain has the deepest understanding of the overall situation in the world at this time can compare to Wang Bing?
Xu Huai didn't know whether Zheng Hui and Chen Zixiao had any plans to storm the military camp of the Inspection Office at this time, but when the time was right, they would probably do so.
He couldn't wait until the military camp of the Inspection Office was besieged by the enemy soldiers, or until Wang Bing was killed by the enemy soldiers, before thinking of looking for someone to consult about the general situation of the world.
However, there was no way to explain these things clearly to Xu Wukun, Xu Xin'an and others, so he could only let them go back to Xiema Mountain first, and he would find an opportunity to sneak in to meet Wang Bing.
"I'll go with you." Xu Wukun said.
Xu Huai said it was no problem, but he left without saying goodbye last time and went alone to assassinate Guo Caoling. How brave must Xu Wukun be? I really felt that when Xu Huai went to the military camp of the Inspection Department, he suddenly thought of meeting Wang Bing.
He had long known that Xu Huai was a man of strong opinions and determination. He had no intention of stopping him and just wanted to go with him so that he could take care of everything.
"I'll go too; but I can't show up. You go meet Wang Bing and I'll hide outside the military camp. I'll be able to take care of anything if anything happens." Xu Xin'an said excitedly.
He was thinking that if Xu Huai really wanted to assassinate someone this time, he couldn't be absent again, and he had to leave his name in the blood letter - yes, he had to come up with a loud name that people would remember after hearing it, and preferably a name that would stop even a child from crying.
Xu Huai didn't know whether to laugh or cry, but seeing that he couldn't get rid of Xu Wukun, Xu Xin'an and the others, he thought that the bandit problem would not spread to the mountains east of Baijian River for a while, so he decided to go directly to the military camp of the Inspection Division with Xu Wukun, Xu Xin'an and Han Qi.
…
…
Xu Huai, Xu Xin'an and his companions walked out of the dense forest on the west foot of Mopanling Mountain. From afar they saw three scouts from the Taibaiding Black Scarf Army on guard there, but there were no thieves around.
There are fifty or sixty miles of mountain roads to Huaiyuan Town. Without mules or horses, they can only walk there overnight. But now the Black Scarf Bandits have delivered horses to their doorstep, so Xu Huai and his men will certainly not be polite.
Xu Wukun, with Han Qi, who had just resumed practicing the Fu Mang Fist, led the attack from the back, while Xu Huai and Xu Xin'an took advantage of the cover of the trees to get closer.
Xu Xin'an wanted to compete with Xu Huai, so he tiptoed and hid under a big tree. When he saw Xu Huai's gesture indicating that he could take action, he suddenly jumped out. As his body suddenly jumped up, he stabbed the thief under the armpit with the pouch knife in his right hand.
This time they were lurking near Hutouling to scout the movements of Zheng Hui, Chen Zixiao and others. It was impossible for them to carry bows and crossbows that would reveal their identities. Apart from the pouch knife, their main weapons were just special stick knives hidden in wooden sticks and carrying poles.
The thief was wearing leather armor, and Xu Xin'an knew that the blade of the bag knife was short, and stabbing him under the armpit might not be a fatal blow.
As he suddenly jumped up and drew his knife, he also jumped onto the horse's back, grabbed the thief's neck with his left hand, and threw him to the other side. While the two were still in mid-air, Xu Xin'an pulled out the knife from his bag and stabbed it into the thief's chest.
There was a shortage of horses in the Tongbai Mountains. Those who could ride horses and be responsible for guarding the periphery were mostly good fighters among the bandits. They had been fighting each other for years and were always on the edge of a knife. Even if they were stabbed in the armpit, they reacted when Xu Xin'an pulled them off the horse and attacked them quickly with fists and palms, not daring to give Xu Xin'an a chance to use his knife.
Xu Xin'an was hit several times in the face and chest before he stabbed the man's left shoulder with the second blow. He didn't know how long it would take for other bandits to come to the rescue if the sound of fighting spread out. He didn't dare to relax for a moment. He tensed his muscles and exchanged dozens of moves with the bandit who was seriously injured but fighting hard with his left fist and right knife in an instant. Finally, he stabbed the bandit in the throat and ended his life. His clothes were splattered as if they were soaked in blood.
Xu Xin'an gasped and withdrew his hand, but saw that Xu Huai had already wiped the blood off the knife with a piece of torn shirt. The two bandits were not dead yet, one on the left and one on the right, lying at his feet, twitching.
Xu Xin'an was exhausted and sweating profusely. He took out clean clothes from his bag and changed his bloody shirt. Then he noticed that Xu Huai had killed two people in a row, but his body was not stained with blood. He asked in confusion, "The two people you picked were both weaklings. You were asked to kill them without any resistance?"
"Next time I'll let you choose the person first." Xu Huai said with a smile.
Xu Wukun and Han Qi led the frightened horses back; Xu Huai, Xu Wukun and Xu Xin'an each had a horse.
In order to kill the enemy quickly, Xu Xin'an had just exerted all his strength in an instant, which consumed a lot of energy. He rode on the horse and Han Qi led the horse for him.
Han Qi has not yet mastered martial arts, but his muscles are strong and his bones are strong. He has been living in the deep mountains and old forests since he was a child, hunting animals and fishing. He has strong legs and is good at climbing high and low. At this moment, he is helping Xu Xin'an lead the horse and walking fast on the mountain path, but he can't breathe heavily. Xu Xin'an exclaimed:
"You are really strong, kid. Could it be that Xu Huai brought you out here just to broaden your horizons? I can't count on you for anything else, but you are much faster than others when it comes to crossing mountains and ridges to deliver a message. You will be the leader of Xiema Mountain in the future, and you can be called 'The Speedy Guardian'. By the way, the thief I just killed was quite skilled. If you practice hard for a few more days, you can find such a good fighter to practice with. It will definitely improve your martial arts. Don't be like Xu Huai, who only picks on weak people and is boring to fight with."
"The two thieves picked by Master Xu are more powerful than the one you killed; I think the one you picked, Master Xiaoan, is a weakling." Han Qi said in a muffled voice.
"You are a kid who doesn't have good eyesight, and your words are not pleasing at all. Fortunately, I sent you to Jinshagou, otherwise you would be irritated to death all day long," Xu Xin'an asked Xu Huai, "Is this kid angry with you?"
Xu Huai was thinking about the catastrophe that would happen in the first year of Jianhe. When he heard Xu Xin'an's question, he forced a smile and said, "I've always been the one who makes others angry..."
