Nanming Engineer

Chapter 20 The Praying Mantis is Ferocious
As the sound of horseshoes approached, the branches in the valley trembled first, groups of resident birds resting in the woods flew up in shock, and then the ground jumped like an earthquake, and the sleeping people were awakened one after another, looking around in the dark , at a loss as to what happened.

When the sound of horseshoes appeared at Taniguchi, someone finally noticed who was coming, and a mournful shout sounded in the night sky: "A horse thief! A horse thief is coming!"

This sound was like throwing a firecracker in a hornet's nest, and the valley immediately became chaotic, and the camps scattered around the bottom of the valley suddenly cried and shouted, people ran and horses neighed, women cried and men roared, but the campfires were basically extinguished. No one could see anyone, the black lights were blind, making the chaos even more intense.

Horse thieves, for ordinary people in this era, are terrifying existences, and their intimidation effect is equivalent to that of the Ming Dynasty army. They are different from peasant armies such as the Dashun regime or the Daxi regime. As before, they did not pay attention to the support of the people. On the contrary, in order to reflect the difference between themselves and the Ming government, they tried their best to reduce taxes and corvees, punish corrupt officials, develop production, and pay attention to people's livelihood. Now in the area ruled by the Dashun regime, the common people live and work in peace and contentment.But horse thieves are different. This is a group of robbers who rob for the sake of robbery. They have no goal. They kill purely for money. Wherever they go, there are corpses everywhere. Three to five hundred people are in groups, and they are as fast as the wind. If you can grab it, grab it, if you can't grab it, you have to pick up the skin.

Now that I suddenly heard that there was a horse thief breaking in, how could I not scare the family members of the surrendered army? Many of them have seen the disaster caused by horse thieves before. Stay alive.

The commanders and captains of each battalion are trying their best to gather people. They are all veterans of Liu Liangzuo's army. They know that in such a dark environment, only by gathering into a group, gathering people together as much as possible, and uniting outward can they possibly survive the attack. survive.But their hoarse roars had no effect in the chaotic crowd. People's panicked shouts and calls for their relatives drowned out this insignificant cry.

In the end, the commander and team leader themselves were knocked over by people running around. In this environment, tens of thousands of people crowded in the narrow valley, and if they fell to the ground, they would be stepped on by hundreds of people immediately. Quickly, the only attempt to restore some order in this chaos, was dashed.

There were also smart people among the crowd. At this time, the entire valley was in chaos. Only the hillside where the Qing army was stationed was still brightly lit, and nothing was affected by the rioters. There was hope for survival. A few of them reacted quickly and took the lead towards the mountain. After running, the people around him instinctively followed, and they led more people to rush up the mountain in a swarm.

Tu Hai stood inside the fence erected by rough wood, through the gaps between the wood, looked coldly at the crowd running down the mountain like ants, raised his right hand, and waved it down fiercely, with a deadpan expression on his face. Spit out one word: "Shoot!"

In the flames behind him, a hundred Qing soldiers held longbows and pointed arrows at the bottom of the hillside, waiting ready to go. When they heard Tu Hai's order, the hundred arrows seemed to follow With the same sound "咻", it flew out.

The arrow was shot from the back, and the arrow was a heavy arrow. It crossed the long hillside and landed right in the middle of the first wave of people rushing in. Blood splashed instantly, and dozens of people fell to the ground screaming.

The sudden attack made the crowd at the bottom of the mountain stop immediately, and there was a loud cry. People looked at the top of the mountain in surprise. The arrow was shot from above without any indication. There should be Qing soldiers protecting us. Protect the object of archery?

There was only one round of arrow rain, and there was no further shooting after landing. Immediately, there was a voiceless loud voice on the hillside: "It's getting dark, and the situation of the enemy outside the valley is unknown. You must not move lightly. Each battalion will return to the base camp by itself, and the commander will lead the team." Properly defend. Do not rush into the camp, trespassers will be killed without mercy!"

This cold voice was like a thunderbolt, shattering everyone's last hope. Some people were not reconciled and tried to run up a few steps. As a result, another rain of arrows rained down, leaving behind more than a dozen corpses.

So the people in front stepped back, and those behind didn't know why, but still rushed up. Tens of thousands of people crowded at the foot of the hillside, trampling and pushing each other, and countless people fell to the ground.

Beside Liu Liangzuo's carriage, the two soldiers reacted immediately. They took out their swords from the mezzanine and jumped on the carriage. They wanted to guard against rioters taking the opportunity to steal. As for the horse thieves, there were Qing soldiers here, so I forgive them for making trouble. There's nothing wrong with it.

Crowds were running around, and only figures could be seen swaying in the darkness. Through a few bonfires that had not been extinguished, they could vaguely see the sound of bowstrings in the Qing barracks on the hillside. The two of them were determined that as long as the Qing soldiers took action tonight, It's considered safe.

Not all the carriages were loaded with gold and silver. Three of them were occupied by Liu Liangzuo's family members. They were huddled in the carriages and shivering. The two of them didn't care. These family members were all Liu Liangzuo's wives and concubines. That was secondary. With respect to status, as long as the money is there, marrying several wives is not a casual matter, is it?

The two stood one behind the other, standing on the top of the cage on the car, looking down condescendingly. As long as there were rioters trying to approach, the two would sternly yell at them. Just push it to the horse thief.

A soldier in front was yelling at a group of rioters running by, telling them to get away, but he heard the thunderous sound of horse hooves coming from behind the crying rioters.

The soldiers were startled. Hearing the movement, the horse was coming towards him. The waist knife in his hand was tightened. He was about to look intently, but he heard the sound of piercing the sky, and a faint reflection in his pupils Zooming in sharply, before I could see clearly, I heard a "poof", and a feathered arrow hit my eyebrow.

"That seems to be the reflection of the arrow." When he fell to the sky, such thoughts echoed in the soldier's mind.

The guards standing behind witnessed the whole process, and also saw the person who shot the arrow. It was a rider wearing tattered leather armor and a felt hat. His entire face was covered with a black cloth and he had only one pair of eyes. Lulu showed up, holding a horse thief's usual riding bow in his hand, yelling and laughing wildly, just like a horse thief always does.

Horse thieves are used to riding and shooting, they come and go without a trace, and they dare to let go of the right bandits when they meet a small group of officers and soldiers. But right now, it's probably not a good idea to fight hard.

But if he ran away like this, would he still be able to mess around under General Liu? He was short-handed and soft-spoken, and Liu Liangzuo was not very good to outsiders, so he had nothing to say to his own soldiers. I have to fight hard.

The soldier's eyes were wide open, his hands were holding the waist knife tightly, his feet were firmly standing on the carriage, with luck in his arms, he was staring at the cavalry who was blowing like a gust of wind, watching the movements of his hands, ready to strike at any time.

However, to his surprise, the knight ignored him. As soon as he lifted the reins, the steed under his seat turned slightly nimbly, and walked around him without even looking at him.

The waist saber was too short, the horse would go out of the edge of the blade when the horse turned like this, and the saber would not be able to cut anyone. The soldier held the waist saber, full of energy and had nowhere to vent his strength, he couldn't help turning his head to look at the knight floating past in a daze glance.

At this moment, a second horse ran out of the darkness like a ghost, and sitting on the horse was still a horse thief in the same attire, holding a long-handled saber lightly in his hand, the sharp edge was bright and dazzling, and the horse thief held it horizontally On the saddle, when passing by the soldiers, the long knife stretched out lightly, and slashed across the necks of the soldiers like a lawn mower, and then swung away.

The soldier's face has not yet turned around, he still looks at the back, there is nothing there, but the man is still standing straight on the carriage, not moving, until the sound of the third horse's hooves shaking the ground , the soldier's head fell in vain, and the blood splashed from the broken neck like a fountain, and flew several feet into the sky under the action of blood pressure, and scattered in all directions with the wind.

"The heroes of Cangwu Mountain only ask for money, they don't take lives, and people who don't matter wait to avoid them quickly!" Followed by hundreds of cavalry, and the leader reined in his horse and shouted loudly.

Later, the cavalry also covered their faces with black cloth, making it difficult for people to see their faces. But in this case, who dared to look up?The reputation of the Cangwu Mountain Horse Thief was well known, and he was known to kill people without blinking an eye. The crowd either tried their best to flee, or squatted on the ground shaking, holding their heads, not daring to move.

There were hundreds of horse thieves, with a clear division of labor. They first killed a few people to establish their authority, and then divided up with fifty riders to clear the area, driving everyone out of the carriage team. The remaining people held torches, got off their horses, and took out Flat stick iron drill, jumped on the carriage.

There were piles of boxes and cages on the carriage. The horse thieves randomly dragged out a larger one. When the iron pick knocked the lock on it, the wooden box was opened. The horse thief holding the iron pick stepped back to let another tall horse thief Jumped up.

The later horse thief was not polite, and opened the box with his hand. Immediately, a dazzling golden light appeared under the light of the torch, which almost made several horse thieves who stood close couldn't open their eyes.The horse thief who opened the box greedily grabbed a gold ingot, couldn't hide the excitement in his eyes, looked at it carefully, then threw the gold ingot back into the box, closed the box lid with a "touch", and shouted behind him: "Drive all these carriages back, let's go!"

The group of thieves clearly saw the light of gold and knew that their trip was worthwhile. They all screamed and started to move together, driving and guarding, shouting and rushing towards the mouth of the valley.

As for the carriage in which Liu Liangzuo's family members were riding, these horse thieves left without even removing the curtain, and left with the gold and silver.

The horse thief came and went quickly, and the sound of rumbling iron hoofs disappeared into the vast night sky in a blink of an eye, and was never heard again.

The survivors of the disaster seemed to have had a nightmare, sitting or standing in a daze. If the body of the deceased was not still in front of them and the wails of the family members were still echoing in their ears, they would not be able to believe that what happened just now There was a robbery.

The commander and captains who came back to their senses climbed up from the ground, shouted loudly to their battalion leaders, slowly gathered the crowd, counted the number of people, gathered the victims together, and finished the aftermath.

(End of this chapter)