Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 90: Killing Thieves and Night in the Garden
Deng Gui, who was a military candidate, already had extraordinary knowledge on how to defend the Huaiyuan military camp and the streets, and even on the subtle tactical arrangements. Moreover, there were people like Wang Bing and Lu Xiong around.
Xu Huai simply pretended to be stupid and sat aside to eat meat and drink wine, listening to them explaining to the ruffians; Yin Peng was eager to stand out, so he listened particularly carefully, and he often listened to Xu Wuliang talk about military affairs in the past, so his foundation was much better than Zheng the Butcher, Chen Gui and the other ruffians.
Of course, Wang Xuan and Tian Yanyan were present, and the ruffians pretended to listen quite seriously.
Finally, Lu Xiong saw Xu Huai put the saber bow in the corner, picked up the longbow and tested the string: "Brother Xu is born brave and strong, maybe this longbow is a little light?"
"It's light, but I wish I could tie the two bows together and use them together." Xu Huai said in a muffled voice.
"Xu Huai, do you really have the strength to pull two bows at the same time?" Deng Gui asked hesitantly.
Of course Deng Gui could understand the hidden meaning of Lu Xiong's words.
Guo Caoling was assassinated, and the swords, bows, spears, halberds and armor he carried with him were still sealed in the Inspection Office. He had thought about sending them to the prefectures and counties, but Cheng Lunying and Chen Shi disagreed, so he could only wait for Guo Caoling's family to come and take them away in the future.
He now knew clearly that Xu Huai was most likely the person who assassinated Guo Caoling, yet he still gave him Guo Caoling's sword and bow. Wasn't he worried that this would further anger the Guo family members and the master behind Guo Caoling?
Xu Huai rolled his eyes at Deng Gui and ignored his words.
"The Guanyue bow can be given to Brother Xu to try!" Jin Longquan suggested without any hesitation.
Deng Gui hesitated for a while, thinking that at this critical moment, if he didn't even dare to call upon Guo Caoling's troops, what was the point of talking about obeying the authority?
He nodded and signaled Jin Longquan to personally lead people to fetch all the weapons and armors that Guo Caoling had sealed in the military camp.
In addition to Guo Caoling's weapons and armor, Deng Gui also asked Jin Longquan to bring more spears and wooden shields. He couldn't let Xu Huai lead these scoundrels to fight to the death when the Inspection Office didn't even provide them with the most basic spears and shields.
Although the Inspection Office has a fixed number of weapons and armor, Deng Gui has incorporated many craftsmen into the military camp in the past two days. Spears and wooden shields are the most convenient to make and can be supplied in sufficient quantity.
He then took out another two strings of cash and asked Zheng the butcher's wife to prepare more wine and meat, and invited all the ruffians to sit down and eat and drink together.
After the spears and wooden shields were taken out of the military camp and distributed without any drill, Xu Huai, leading the horse and the tipsy crowd, walked out of the street in a noisy manner. Lu Xiong originally wanted to move with Xu Huai, but Xu Huai signaled him to stay.
Not to mention the soldiers in the patrol camp, there were more than 2,000 people stranded in the streets and unable to leave. There was actually no shortage of young and strong men, but what they lacked was the courage to fight against the brutal bandits.
If Lu Xiong accompanies him out tonight, even if he brings back three or five heads, people will only think that Lu Xiong is a top-notch powerful figure who came from Bian Jing with Wang Bing. It is normal for him to kill three or five bandits in a night battle. He is far beyond the bravery of the common people, and it will not help the common people to grow their courage.
Xu Huai and other ruffians have always been despised by the people in the streets. When people see that they can kill thieves, they will feel that they can do it too and that thieves are not to be feared.
Besides, it's not that they really can't spare the time for rehearsal. Xu Huai really knows that the courage in these ruffians' hearts is half caused by ignorance and arrogance, and half by being drunk.
If we really have to rehearse until midnight, when they sober up and realize the danger of night battle, most of them will probably back out. How can they still have the momentum to take the lead?
The sky darkened, the stars and the moon shone brightly, but everyone could clearly see the horse path moving eastward.
As the saying goes, ignorance is bliss. Yin Peng had some knowledge of military affairs. He saw Zheng the butcher, Chen Gui and other ruffians marching eastward along the road in a disorderly manner, with an arrogant and relaxed look as if they were taking a night stroll. He secretly felt that the enemy cavalry were coming to kill them, and he was afraid that a charge would scare these people so much that they would turn around and run away, thus exposing their backs completely to the swords and guns of the enemy cavalry, and they would be slaughtered like chopping melons and vegetables.
Yin Peng urged his horse to get close to Xu Huai and asked in a low voice, "Will this work?"
If it was Chen Zixiao, or Zhong Changqing and other bandit chieftains leading more than a hundred cavalrymen in Yingzizui, Xu Huai would not dare to take the risk of such a trick even if he had a little more courage. But now it was Pan Chenghu in Yingzizui, so the situation was different.
Pan Chenghu suffered a great loss in Lutai Village due to his carelessness and underestimation of the enemy. Not only did he lose his old nest, but also among the more than 300 bandits that he had accumulated over the past decade, only 30 or 40 of them fled with him. He was actually like a frightened bird.
In Zhongjiazhuang, Xu Huai saw that Pan Chenghu led his troops to fight very cautiously and conservatively, and the provocation this afternoon also proved this point.
They are now brazenly bringing a dozen hooligans to provoke us. It looks like a trap no matter how you look at it. If Pan Chenghu really dares to come with his few elite troops to attack, Xu Huai will have to look up to him from now on.
And if Pan Chenghu only dared to send the new bandits who had just joined the gang to test him, what would Xu Huai have to fear?
Let's take a step back and think about it. Even if Pan Chenghu is much more powerful than he expected, and really dares to lead his elite troops to attack, many ruffians will be defeated at the first touch. Fighting at night will also make it convenient for everyone to escape with their heads in their arms, so that more people can survive.
Unlike in bright daylight, the new bandits could ride their horses on the rugged slopes. Once the ruffians were defeated, it was almost impossible for them to escape from the enemy cavalry on foot.
Xu Huai had to rely on the cover of night to avoid being surrounded and killed by the enemy cavalry on the rugged slope and having no chance to escape.
Life is a gamble!
…
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At night, Pan Chenghu did not withdraw all his troops to Yingzizui. When Xu Huai and his men advanced about four miles to the east, they were blocked by a group of cavalry.
Xu Huai rode his horse to the slope on the side. Yin Peng, sweating profusely, tried to restrain the scoundrels who were in a mess and a little panicked when facing the enemy. They barely formed a battle formation on the dirt road which was more than two meters wide and the ditches on both sides.
At this time, they did not dare to hope that the ruffians could move forward and backward freely. Yin Peng imitated Lu Xiong's method and shouted at everyone to insert the wooden shields diagonally, with the butts of the spears in their hands against the ground, the poles leaning against the wooden shields, pointing diagonally forward. Everyone squatted as low as possible and hid under the wooden shields to avoid being exposed to the range of the enemy cavalry's arrows.
Wang Bing had just dipped his hands in wine and written and drew on the table about this tactical move, but he didn't take much of it into his mind. Fortunately, Yin Peng was a brave man, and even though he was not as good as Xu Huai, he was able to convince the other ruffians.
With the help of Zheng the Butcher and Chen Gui, it won't be a big problem to restrain everyone and form a simple formation on the spot.
The key is that the number of people is limited and we can take care of it.
No matter how cautious Pan Chenghu was, it was impossible for all of his men to remain calm. Soon, several riders armed with bows and crossbows broke away from the team and approached.
The shadows were looming, and even though the stars and the moon were bright, it was impossible for Xu Huai to see the faces of people two or three hundred steps away. But judging from the way the six riders were approaching on horseback, they did not seem to be veterans.
It was obvious that these were new soldiers who were pushed out for a tentative approach, and they would not be a pity to consume them.
Xu Huai held his ground and just held the Guanyue bow horizontally on the saddle. He watched the six riders slowly approaching seventy or eighty steps, then he opened his bow and shot at them randomly.
The hunting bows were small and soft, and only had a certain penetrating killing power within thirty to fifty steps. These riders were eager to shoot arrows from seventy to eighty steps away, and their arrows hit the wooden shields with a bang, and were bounced off.
Yin Peng tried his best to suppress the somewhat excited hooligans and ordered them not to move.
Two others tried to raise their wooden shields and charge back, but Yin Peng was afraid that he did not have enough authority and that violent suppression would cause an uproar, so he could only hold down the two impulsive guys.
Judging from these details, Yin Peng usually seems to have a rather impatient temperament, but when facing a battle, he is calmer than most people - with Yin Peng restraining the ruffians with the help of Zheng the Butcher and Chen Gui, Xu Huai was more relaxed as he sat on horseback and lightly tested the bowstring of the Guan Yue bow. It was much harder than the common bow. If he wanted to pull it to the full extent on horseback, his arm muscles would be strained after two or three times, and he had to dismount and use the strength of his waist and legs to be able to retract and release the bow freely.
Of course, the six or seven bandit cavalrymen were only seventy or eighty steps away, so Xu Huai only needed to pull the Guanyue bow halfway .
Xu Huai was not familiar with the bow, and his stability when shooting arrows with the bow half-string while sitting on horseback was also far from perfect. The four arrows he shot all went off target, causing the enemy to ride their horses up the slope and try to surround and shoot at him.
Xu Huai hung the Guanyue bow back on the saddle, changed it to a jujube wood longbow, and shot four arrows in succession. In a flash, he shot two bandits off their horses. Xu Huai then rode ahead, and the remaining four bandits fled in panic.
"Chen Gui, bring someone here to cut off his head and take it back to exchange for a reward!" Xu Huai shouted.
It was so relaxing to test the swords and bows on the new bandits at this time. Xu Huai could even send others to do the rough work of cutting off their heads.
Chen Gui ran over with a group of people, happily picked up two long knives that looked like iron sheets, cut off the heads of the two thieves, picked up two hunting bows, and led back a horse.
The bandits did not come forward again at night, and Xu Huai could not really take these scoundrels too far away from the street. When it was late at night, he left with two bandit heads.
The ruffians came back with their spoils in a triumph and were unwilling to leave. They went to Zheng the butcher's shop to drink and eat meat. They were all very good at bragging, attracting more people to come. This time, Xu Huai really called Tian Yanyan and the other five girls to come and sing some obscene songs to liven up the atmosphere.
Deng Gui ordered Jin Longquan to distribute the reward money in full on the spot. Xu Huai divided the money according to his merits. He took ten strings of coins for himself, Yin Peng, Zheng the butcher, and Chen Gui each took three strings of coins. They used two strings of coins to buy meat and drink wine, and the ruffians each got one string of coins, which made the onlookers extremely jealous.
Deng Gui, Wang Bing, Lu Xiong and others did not return to the military camp to rest. They stayed in the market with Jin Longquan, Tang Tiande and others, teaching the people how to make roadblocks such as chevaux de frise and antlers. They also organized people to dig trenches and block most of the alleys in and out of the market. At the same time, they also tore off the flammable thatched roofs and knocked down some houses to form a firebreak to prevent bandits from setting fire to the market...
