Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 108

Chapter 108 Mountain Forest Night Battle (1) First Watch
Because they didn’t want to cause any unnecessary trouble, Lu Zhen and his group came out of the inn early in the morning and directly left Gushan Town. Although the townspeople were discussing this, they didn’t dare to stop them. They were all honest peasants, and they had been bullied by the Guo Clan. Who dared to make things difficult for these soldiers?

However, there was a faint killing intent flickering in the pair of eyes that watched them leave, and Lu Zhen and the others were completely unaware of this.

The journey after that wasn’t much different from the previous few days. It was the same monotonous journey, and there weren’t many pedestrians on the road. In addition, the sun above his head was getting hotter and hotter, so it wasn’t very comfortable to travel.

When it was almost noon, Lu Zhen had his men take refuge in a forest for a while, and only after it was slightly cooler did he continue on his way. But in this way, they would inevitably miss out on the lodgings in front of them, so they decided to take advantage of the darkness to make more journeys.

Thus, they continued to move forward until dusk. Unknowingly, he even entered the Five-Hui Mountain, which truly belonged to the intersection of Shanxi and Hebei. Fortunately, the road in the mountain had been smoothed out by people using their feet and vehicles for many years, and it was not too difficult for them to walk in it. On the contrary, it was rather interesting because of the accompanying stars and moons, so it was almost impossible for an adult with the status of Jinshi to write an impromptu poem in response to this situation.

But very quickly, the person who broke through this state of mind appeared. Two or three black shadows suddenly appeared on the high slope not far away and looked down at the actions of this group of people. “They moved quite quickly. They actually took advantage of the night to travel. This was because they thought that they didn’t die fast enough.”

“I’ll follow them. Go back to the stronghold and ask the stronghold master to send his brothers down the mountain.” A long and thin man said casually as he stared at everything in front of him.

The person beside him hurriedly agreed and quickly disappeared into the night. A net had slowly descended from beneath the pitch-black sky.

@ @ @ @

Half an hour later, looking at the rising moon, Lu Zhen finally decided to rest for a night in this fairly open flat land. After he gave the order, the soldiers quickly moved and set up the tents they were carrying with them. There were also people with bows and arrows, searching for prey and water in all directions.

Most of these people came from scouts. This was something that they were completely familiar with, so they didn’t need to be instructed. Everything had already started in an orderly manner.

Seeing this, Lu Zhen unconsciously wore a satisfied smile on his face. At the same time, he felt a little regretful. After all, they could only follow him to the capital, and then they would each go their separate ways. Otherwise, if there really were so many people under him, he would be much more relieved in the future. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but laugh. He was really a little inflated. A small county magistrate actually had such a delusion that there were so many soldiers who could be dispatched at any time? This was a goal that even ordinary fourth-grade magistrates could not achieve!

Just as he was thinking, Li Xian walked over with a freshly baked steamed bun and said, “My lord, please use it.”

“Thank you.” Lu Zhen nodded at him and looked around. After discovering that the two women and the other soldiers had something to eat, he picked up the somewhat dried steamed buns and took a bite.

However, Li Xian did not leave. Instead, he suddenly said with a serious expression, “My lord, I noticed that there is something strange nearby. It seems that there is some danger approaching us.”

“Ah?” Lu Zhen looked at the other party in confusion. They all said that the experts who had been in the battlefield for a long time had a premonition of danger that surpassed ordinary people. Could it be that this person was also ordinary?

Li Xian’s gaze was very vigilant as he looked at the pitch-black forest around him. “My lord, listen carefully. Did you hear anything?”

Lu Zhen listened to his words calmly, but he didn’t hear anything. He shook his head blankly, “I can’t hear anything. Could it be that I overlooked something?”

He didn’t want Li Xian to nod his head forcefully, “Nothing is the problem. It’s hot summer now, and there should be bug cries even at night. But now, not a single bug sound can be heard in the surroundings.”

Lu Zhen finally understood, “What do you mean?”

“I’m afraid that there’s something that insects are afraid of in the surroundings … As far as I know, those bandits in the mountains have always had the habit of applying insect repellents because they’ve been in the mountains for a long time!”

“You mean … we have these people watching us?”

“Exactly! I’m afraid those who come are unkind.” “We have twenty soldiers here. They should be able to see us, but they still dare to come over. That means they are confident in eating us,” Li Xian said with a startled expression.

Lu Zhen’s expression also became serious, “Then what should we do?” Although he had once commanded the war at Guang Ling City, it could only be regarded as encouraging at most. When it came to the use of troops, he obviously wouldn’t.

“We can only defend. As long as we don’t reveal any flaws, those bandits shouldn’t dare to attack so easily.” Li Xian looked at Lu Zhen hesitantly as he spoke. Originally, he wanted to persuade Lu Zhen to leave immediately, but in the end, he gave up on this idea. After all, the terrain here was complicated, so it would only be more dangerous to leave alone.

“Fortunately, I sent someone to look for Wu Kui and the others after yesterday. With their feet, they will definitely arrive here at dawn tomorrow. At that time, they won’t be afraid of these thieves.” Li Xian seemed to be comforting.

Lu Zhen glanced at the other party. He didn’t expect that he actually had such an arrangement. Even he didn’t know about it. However, he wasn’t angry. He, as a county magistrate, really didn’t know as much about this kind of security as a scout captain. But then he frowned again, “Passive defense may not be a good idea. If there are enough of them, how long will you two be able to defend it?”

“Then what does Sir mean?” Li Xian asked doubtfully.

Lu Zhen’s eyes lit up as a plan floated into his mind and he slowly spoke to Li Xian.

@ @ @ @

As Li Xian had guessed, in the forest less than a mile away from Lu Zhen’s camp, there were hundreds of robust men dressed in different clothes and armed with various weapons, but all of them had fierce expressions.

This group of people was precisely the experts of Crouching Tiger Village who had been entrenched in the Five Returns Mountain, and who had borrowed the authority of the two local governments to grow stronger and stronger.

Of course, this expansion was also an explanation. Although the numbers sounded like they were bluffing, numbering around two hundred, there were actually only a hundred of them who could really fight. Moreover, half of the weapons in these people’s hands were simple hoes and sticks, let alone horses that could be used to run wild.

In order to further expand his influence, Liu Hei Hu, as the Stronghold Leader, did not think too little about getting horses and weapons. As a local tyrant, Guojiazhuang had a lot to do with Crouching Tiger Village. Now that he offered to get them a batch of horses, Liu Hei Hu immediately agreed to their request and sent out his brothers to intercept and kill Lu Zhen and his group who had entered the mountain.

When Liu Hei Hu received the return of his subordinates’ scouts, he knew that Lu Zhen’s group had more than twenty people, and most of them were wearing weapons, he knew that this matter was indeed a bit troublesome. But for that benefit, he could only give it a shot. As for the identity of the other party, he hadn’t even considered it carefully. There weren’t even a hundred or eighty people who had been killed by his Crouching Tiger Village and buried in the mountains between the two provinces, and he didn’t care how many more lives were lost.

However, Liu Hei Hu hesitated when he saw the soldiers set up camp in an orderly manner. From the looks of it, the other party’s actions were all well-trained. If he directly killed them, I’m afraid that the casualties of his brothers would definitely be indispensable. That was the fundamental reason why he was able to establish himself here. Unless he had no other choice, he really did not want to cause too many casualties.

Therefore, after thinking for a while, Liu Hei Hu decided to temporarily lie down and wait for these guys to fall asleep before launching a surprise attack on them, killing all the people inside in one fell swoop.

Liu Hei Hu’s wish quickly became reality. After being busy for a while, due to the arduous journey, those fellows all returned to their seats and rested. What made him even happier was that the other party had actually drilled into the tent, and there wasn’t even a vigil outside.

“You’re courting your own death! Otherwise, we’ll have to find a way to silently deal with the vigil guard first. Now, we’ve saved ourselves a lot of effort!” A trace of cold killing intent flashed from the corner of his scarred mouth.

After waiting for another half an hour, it was almost three o’clock. After feeling that the fat sheep should go to sleep, Liu Hei Hu pulled out the knife stuck in the soil and pointed at the camp below. “Quietly lean over and kill them all! Remember, only men are killed, and the women inside have to change horses for us.”

The surrounding bandits all smiled sinisterly and nodded their heads. Holding all kinds of weapons, they quickly rushed towards the camp below.

The mountain path here was actually quite steep. Moreover, there were tree roots and vines everywhere. Any careless person could trip over. However, these fellows treated this as if they were flat ground. Soon, they rushed down the mountain and rushed into the camp.

Only when they rushed to the front of the tents did someone shout, raised the long pick in their hands and chopped it inside.

However, at this moment, a strange change occurred!

A sharp arrow flew out of the low curtain with the whistling sound of the wind, shooting the bandit to the ground head-on.

As the bandits were stunned, arrows flew out of the other tents. These arrows were extremely powerful, and with only a short whistle, they pierced into a person’s vital point. In the blink of an eye, no fewer than ten people fell under the cold arrow that suddenly flew out.

‘”Not good, we’ve been tricked. This is a trap!” The screams echoed in the camp.

Accompanied by this cry of alarm was an even denser rain of arrows, and several more people fell into a pool of blood. This result clearly exceeded the expectations of these bandits. After a moment of shock, they retreated like reflexes …