Volume 2: The King's Way Chapter 189 Crossing the River
Since the Pan Zhang case, Ma Zhong, who had not been punished because he was able to stick to the bottom line, was transferred to the royal guards. He had already become a gilded general. At this time, he rushed back into the courtyard from outside.
"My lord, there are at least hundreds of rebel soldiers outside. Some of them are coming from the east of the village, and they all have war horses!" Ma Zhong shouted.
"Hundreds?" Bai Tu did not expect that he would encounter such a large group of rebel soldiers, who were even rich enough to have war horses.
In fact, if Sun Ce or his generals were present, they should be able to recognize the two leaders of the rebels. They were Chen Lan and Lei Bu, who betrayed Yuan Shu when they were released by Sun Quan.
There were two other bandit leaders, Mei Qian and Lei Xu, who became bandits after Yuan Shu left...
Lei Bu and Lei Xu were brothers from the same clan. After Chen Lan and Lei Bu became bandits, they relied on the money extorted from the Sun and Zhou families and their soldiers to cause chaos in the Huainan area. After Yuan Shu left, they expanded even more unscrupulously.
Mei Qian and Lei Xu were the generals who did not leave with Yuan Shu. Due to the close relationship between the Lei brothers, the two sides joined forces, which is considered the largest wave of rebel troops in Huainan at present.
Originally, because of Bai Tu's raid, Lei Bu and his four companions had decided to leave Huainan, not daring to touch Bai Tu's tiger's whiskers. However, due to the instigation of Yuan's assassins, they mistakenly believed that the person passing by here today was the son of a local prominent family. In addition, Bai Tu's energy has been concentrated in Shouchun recently, so they plucked up the courage to make one last big move before running away.
Unexpectedly... it turned out to be the boss by mistake, and the white map was directly pressed here, becoming the trump card of Yuan's assassins!
"What about the thing I asked you to do?" Lu Lingqi asked.
"No, our lord has a great reputation and they don't believe him at all." Ma Zhong said bitterly.
"Huh? What's the matter?" Bai Tu asked puzzledly. He didn't give Ma Zhong any other orders.
"This, this..." Ma Zhong hesitated.
Just now, Lu Lingqi quietly told him to go out and test the waters, and to discuss conditions with the bandit leader, such as... letting them retreat, and then the General of Chariots and Cavalry's Mansion could recruit them.
Anyway, it was Lu Lingqi who made the promise to them. Whether Bai Tu really surrendered or killed them all afterwards, it had nothing to do with Bai Tu!
As a General of Chariots and Cavalry and a great sage of the time, Bai Tu must keep his word, and given his personality, he cannot do such a thing as compromising with the rebel army. However... Lu Lingqi does not have such high demands on herself.
However, Bai Tu had a reputation of "killing one man is like killing my father". How could Chen Lan and Lei Bu dare to believe Bai Tu's offer of amnesty?
Seeing this, Bai Tu probably guessed something and didn't want to ask any more questions. He continued to give orders, "If that's the case, then break out to the west! My personal guards are all warriors who can fight ten enemies at once. How can a mere bandit stop us?"
There were already hundreds of people in the village, and there were more coming from the east...
If Cheng Lian and Cao Xing's 500 cavalry were there, even if there were twice as many of these trash, they would be defeated after a few charges. However, now... they can really pose some threat to Bai Tu's personal guards.
"My lord, General Cheng and General Cao should be back soon. Why don't we hold on..." suggested Du Bo, a member of the imperial guards.
The lowest-level official position in the Imperial Guard is Dubo, and ordinary members are treated as sergeants.
"No, it doesn't matter whether this small earth wall built by the farmers themselves exists or not, and we don't know how many rebel troops are rushing in from outside... Break out immediately!" Bai Tu ordered.
The number of the rebel troops ambushing in the village was limited, but no one knew how many were outside!
It is even more unknown how long it will take Cheng Lian and Cao Xing to come back.
Upon hearing this, the guards immediately carried out Bai Tu's order. Two gilded warriors directly broke through the earthen wall on the west side, and then held up large shields. The people behind them fired shots in succession, and they cut a path through hundreds of people!
There is a saying that is true, Bai Tu’s guards... are worth ten of their own, not to mention that the other side is just a handful of disorderly troops.
Moreover, Bai Tu had immediately notified the surrounding counties through the official seal, so that as soon as the troops arrived, he would immediately teach these rebel troops a lesson - the official seal of the General of Chariots and Cavalry, like the official seal of the Governor, could be used to communicate directly with the counties under his jurisdiction without going through the city princess.
Unfortunately, when Bai Tu's guards broke out of the encirclement, it was too late to get their horses, and they could only gallop using the basic power of their armor.
The basic power of the wood and stone armor is not weaker than that of a warhorse in a short period of time, and it is more flexible, but its durability is very poor.
At the same speed, a group of personal guards escorted Bai Tu to evacuate. Chen Lan, Lei Bu and the others were desperate. Today's mess had already been made bigger. They had to capture Bai Tu to save the situation...
In the end, one chased and the other fled all the way to the vicinity of the Qin River.
The Pi River is a tributary of the Huai River and the most important river in Lu'an County. However, due to the drought, the water level is not high and has not yet reached waist level.
You can wade across, but... once you enter the water, those who are slow will become sitting ducks, and the pursuers behind are getting closer and closer.
Bai Tu was also a little hesitant, whether to fight to the death or force his way across the river.
Ma Zhong said at this time: "My lord! I will take half of the brothers to cover your retreat, my lord, please cross the river!"
"My lord, please don't forget our families. Only those who leave their names in the Temple of the Protector of the People are good men."
"The world can do without us, but it cannot do without the Lord..."
The other dubos also urged him.
"No, we are few in number now. If we separate... we might as well fight!" Bai Tu said, pulling out a long sword from his waist that was only used for decoration in the past.
But at this moment, there were several sounds of breaking wind on a mound not far away, and at the same time, the light of a laser arrow flashed - it just flashed. The arrows of this man were very special. They should have been shot from armor, but they were not as ostentatious as ordinary laser arrows and were very concealed.
Then, several of the leading soldiers in pursuit fell down, and... they all looked like human warriors!
It was already dark at this time, but the men's archery skills were still the same. It seemed that there were only three or five of them, but they never missed their targets, which made the pursuing soldiers lose their momentum.
This also shows the weakness of the disorderly soldiers. If it were the Bingzhou Wolf Cavalry, the death of a few sergeants and squad leaders would not have disturbed them at all .
In comparison, Bai Tu's personal guards have weaker geographical advantages and shooting range. What's more... even if the enemy really enters the shooting range, they cannot "name" the human generals among them so accurately.
The pursuers had to send some of their men to approach the mound.
"Which brave man is willing to help? Come back to the battle formation, and let's fight the enemy together!" Bai Tu shouted loudly when he saw this.
However, in response to Bai Tu's invitation, several arrows were shot from the mound and hit right in front of Bai Tu's personal guards. Moreover, three arrows were closer and closer than the last, as if forcing... no , driving away!
When Bai Tu saw the arrow, he confirmed that the person who came here and the person who had previously warned the village should be in the same group.
Although I shot a whistling arrow before, the overall style is very similar, and the materials of the arrow shaft and feathers are also the same...
"My lord, the people who came to help us should want to... urge us to cross the river." Ma Zhong said.
It is better to say "hurry up" than "urge"...
You have a bad temper?
But no matter what, the other party should be helping him, so Bai Tu chose to believe the other party and immediately ordered to cross the river.
With this group of mysterious people holding them back, Bai Tu and his group finally managed to reach the center of the river without any external threats. However, judging from the movements of the pursuers, they should have already withdrawn...
This time the chaotic soldiers chased to the riverside and were about to attack with arrows, but at this moment, they heard the sound of hooves on the other side of the river. In the moonlight, they could see that in the smoke and dust, there seemed to be a large group of horses rushing over!
At the same time, someone on the other side of the river shouted, "The bandit commander Cao Jiaoqing from the Lujiang prefectural government is here. Don't be so arrogant!"
Bai Tu was also surprised when he heard this. Logically... he had indeed recommended Lu Kang to be the governor of Lujiang again, but he had not yet taken up the post. And his third brother was indeed in Shucheng, and he was smart enough, but... he could never have expected that he would be attacked, right?
Judging from the speed of message transmission in Lujiang County, Zhou Yu had at most just received his own letter. How come the support came so quickly?
But then I thought - what did the person say? ?
The Menxia Duzeicao, also known as "Menxia Du", is different from military ranks such as sergeant and wuzhang. It is an official position with a rank of two hundred stones. It is an official position in the prefectural governor's office, responsible for eliminating bandits in the country. It is also a military officer... insignificant!
Logically speaking, if they really came to greet me, it couldn't be just a supervisor of my subordinates, right?
It seems that Bai Tu was really lucky, as he met the governor who happened to be on patrol here... Fortunately, this governor of Lujiang was really energetic and was still patrolling outside in the middle of the night.
He sounds quite young. Bai Tu has already made up his mind to promote him well in the future.
The pursuers behind them, seeing the anti-bandit troops from Shucheng coming to support them, did not dare to continue shooting arrows. After hesitating for a while, they turned around and retreated. Since it was hopeless to capture Bai Tu alive, they could only "escape" before Bai Tu made any real move. If they were lucky, they might be able to escape to Nanyang.
As for Yuzhou and Xuzhou? Cao Cao and Liu Bei's control over the two places is definitely much stronger than Liu Biao's control over Nanyang. As for Jiangdong, it is even more of a dragon's den and a tiger's lair for them.
As soon as Bai Tu got ashore, he saw the young man who shouted loudly to drive away the pursuers.
Bai Tu took a look and was a little puzzled that he was not wearing armor, but he still laughed and went to greet him, "Hahaha, Lujiang County is indeed full of heroes. How many soldiers does Jiao have? If there are enough, I will charge back!"
Why laugh?
nonsense!
It's so embarrassing to be chased for such a long distance, isn't it?
At least in front of his subordinates, Bai Tu had to pretend that he was not frightened at all and that this was just a small problem...
In short, it’s definitely a good idea to smile first to ease the embarrassment!
"My dear sir, I am only a clerk in the prefect's mansion. I just saw the bandits committing atrocities, so I tried to trick them across the river. I don't have any soldiers... You'd better escape before they can react." The young man who called himself Jiao Qing said anxiously.
Bai Tu's face froze, and at the same time he realized that the smoke and dust were clearly a dozen or so workers transporting silk cloth, fanning themselves with large pieces of silk cloth, and desperately driving the oxen and horses pulling the carts, raising their hooves on the spot...
At this moment, the young secretary looked at Bai Tu and others with some hesitation - it was dark just now and he couldn't see clearly, so he thought it was just a small caravan of wealthy families. Now he saw clearly that these people were fully armored and were obviously generals, and he didn't know any of them, so he couldn't help feeling worried... Could this also be a chaotic army, and what just happened was an internal fight or a gang robbing each other?
Bai Tu now understood that the petty official had just cheated, but... when he thought about it carefully, this "cheat" was a little too shallow.
It's just bragging anyway, why not just say he's a higher-ranking official? Isn't it better to just call him a cavalry captain?
In addition, no one really chased after them. When the thieves realized what was going on, they would definitely find something wrong after careful consideration...
"Then we can't escape... defend the river!" Bai Tu gave the order decisively.
At this time, the power of Bai Tu's personal guards' armor was almost exhausted, and they could not escape far. It was better for them to rely on the terrain and fight with the enemy. Although they were just a bunch of random soldiers and had a large number of people, Bai Tu really didn't believe that the enemy could withstand the damage and force their way across the river!
And if nothing unexpected happens, as long as they hold on for a while, reinforcements including Cheng Lian and Cao Xing will also gather here. After all... it is a bit chaotic, but Lujiang is already Bai Tu's home court!
