"Retreat! Fall back! ”

"Withdraw the same way...... Damn it, don't crowd! ”

In the chaos, hundreds of villagers and rangers rushed down the mountain, and a group of bandits chased after them, killing the backward people with weapons in their hands.

Nearly 600 village warriors and rangers recruited with bounties were killed so badly by a group of bandits of less than 200 people?

How could this be?!

At the foot of the mountain on the east side of Yingshan Mountain, Kunyang County Wei Ma Gai couldn't believe his eyes when he looked at the villagers and rangers who retreated down the mountain in embarrassment.

As the so-called heavy reward must have brave men, the nearly 600 village warriors and rangers, is the brave men he spent nearly 120,000 money to recruit, he thought that these brave men who were inspired by money and fighting spirit could level the Black Tiger Village for him, and there was no need for more than 200 county soldiers behind him to use, but he never thought that these more than 600 brave men actually suffered heavy losses on the mountain.

In less than an hour, nearly half of them were lost, and the other half fled down the mountain without permission, which made Ma Gai shocked and angry.

What the hell is going on? Nearly 600 people, can't solve a group of bandits with less than 200 people?!

At this time, the village warriors and rangers who had retreated back from defeat about 300 had also returned to the vicinity of Ma Gai's location one after another with their heads drooped, either checking their injuries or bandaging each other.

Seeing this, Ma Gai held back his anger and prepared to call someone to ask him to find out what was going on.

He looked around, looking for the six county guards he had appointed as captains of the hundred before his trip, but he looked left and right, and there was no trace of the six county guards.

"Is it ......?"

Ma Gai had a bad premonition in his heart, and immediately sent someone to ask those townsmen and rangers, and only then did he get the answer.

As he had guessed, the six county guards he sent as captains were all killed in the mountains.

And just when he was getting more and more angry, a ranger came to him, clasped his fists and said, "County Lieutenant Ma, in Shimoshihara, can you disturb the county lieutenant for a moment about the matter of the bandits?" ”

Ma Gai turned his head to look at the man who called himself Ishihara, and saw that the other party was holding a spear, a sword at his waist, and a wooden shield and crossbow arrows behind him, so he concluded that the other party was definitely not an ordinary ranger, nodded and said, "Can you tell me, what happened on this mountain?" ”

Ishihara nodded, and told Ma Gai what he had witnessed after going up the mountain, and Ma Gai was full of surprise when he heard it.

What did he hear?

A gang of thieves actually used bamboo strips and vines to set up ingenious roadblocks on the mountain, and used the complex terrain to divide the villagers and rangers who went up the mountain, and took the opportunity to break them one by one?

Even the bandits have learned to use tricks these days? And is it such a clever strategy?

"Really?" Ma Gaihu asked suspiciously.

"Absolutely." Ishihara hugged his fists, pointed to the nearby group of villagers and rangers whose morale had plummeted due to the defeat, and said, "Captain Ma, I think that your county seems to have underestimated this group of bandits. First of all, there are quite a few bandits in this gang, and according to my estimates, there are at least 300 bandits on the mountain; Secondly, this gang of bandits is not simple, they seem to have guessed that we will come to fight for it, so they have prepared early. …… I saw with my own eyes, the barricades set up by the bandits, each of which is more than a hundred zhang or even hundreds of zhang wide, at least I didn't see two at the time, and there is more than one such roadblock, this time we have broken through three, in the fourth lane, because of our sacrifice of the number of people and morale and retreat, such a roadblock, by no means overnight can be completed, I think this gang of bandits should be prepared for at least ten days and a half months, or even longer. ”

“……”

Listening to Ishihara's words, Ma Gai frowned and looked at Yingshan in the distance.

When he led the Kunyang officers and soldiers to encircle and suppress these Ying bandits last time, he clearly remembered that there was no roadblock on the mountain as Ishihara said, and the Ying bandits used all kinds of traps to repel them.

Of course, there are also several powerful bandits among them, who have caused them huge casualties.

For example, Chen Mo, such as Wang Qing, Ma Gai set a reward of 5,000 yuan for this, as long as someone can take off the heads of these two people, they can get a bounty of 5,000 yuan.

It was precisely because he knew that the gang of bandits in Black Tiger Village was fierce that Ma Gai recruited nearly 600 villagers and rangers, intending to use the advantage of numbers to defeat this gang of bandits.

He thought so before, first let the nearly 600 townsmen and rangers fight with the gang of bandits on the mountain, consume the opponent's number and physical strength, and when the time is ripe, he will personally lead more than 200 county soldiers to kill the mountain in one fell swoop, and break through the cottage in one fell swoop.

That kind of bandit, can only be broken as soon as the cottage is breached, that is, the situation of the trees falling and scattering, and then he will send people into the mountains to slowly hunt down those bandits who have lost their nests.

However, he never imagined that his strategy, which seemed to have no problems, was greatly inferior to his expectations, and that the gang of bandits on the mountain had skillfully repelled nearly 600 villagers and rangers with some roadblocks, and even killed nearly half of them.

"Underestimated."

Margay frowned in annoyance.

He had expected that the bandits would repeat their old tricks and set all kinds of traps on the mountain again, but he did not expect that the bandits would adopt a more clever strategy.

"Ishihara, right?"

He turned his head to look at Ishihara and asked in a deep voice, "If we send you and others to attack the thief village again, can you be sure of breaking through the resistance of that group of bandits?" ”

Ishihara thought for a moment and said, "It's difficult, county lieutenant. …… The county lieutenant did not see that those bandits used bamboo sticks and vines to set up obstacles between trees, so that the mountains that could be climbed everywhere became trails, at this time, if the command was not consistent, just like today, some people cut down those bamboo sticks and vines and continued to move forward, and some people followed the path deliberately left by the bandits, our manpower was scattered, and the bandits could break us one by one. …… But if everyone crowded in front of those obstacles and tried to cut down those obstacles, those bandits would shoot cold arrows with bows and crossbows in the distance, and one of his companions would die under the cold arrows of this gang of bandits, who had been hired by the local garrison in Jiangxia to fight against the rebels who crossed the river, and survived the fight of thousands or tens of thousands, but he never thought that he would die today by the cold arrows of a bandit......"

Ma Gai was also a little surprised that the other party turned out to be a ranger who had fought with the Jiangnan rebels, nodded silently, and said with good words: "I, Kunyang County, will remember the contribution and sacrifice of that companion under my feet." ”

"Thank you, Lieutenant."

Ishihara smiled reluctantly, and then said: "What I said below is not to win the sympathy of the county lieutenant, but to tell the county lieutenant that although the slope of the mountain on this side of the mountain is not steep, the thieves have set up layers of obstacles in the mountain, making this side of the hill easy to defend and difficult to attack, I suggest that the county lieutenant set fire to the mountain and burn those annoying obstacles." ”

"You want to burn those bandits?" Magai looked at Ishihara in bewilderment.

"Of course not." Ishihara shook his head and said, "Those bandits have hands and feet, and when they see a fire under the mountain, they can't stop it from spreading, so they will naturally run away, and where can they burn them to death?" What's more, this gang of bandits has long been on guard. ”

As he spoke, he glanced at Ma Gai, who was a little surprised, and explained: "Maybe the county lieutenant doesn't know, when I and the others attacked the mountain, I found that there was a tree on the mountain that had been cut down, I thought that those bandits were cutting wood to build houses, but later I found out that it was not, they were on guard against someone setting fire to the mountain, and cut down a tree in advance to prevent the fire from spreading to their cottage......"

“……”

Ma Gai frowned, and immediately turned his head to look at Ying Mountain in the distance, squinting his eyes for a long time, only to realize that just as Ishihara said, a circle of trees on the mountain had been cut down, but because there were trees above and below, it was not conspicuous.

At this time, Shi Zheng suggested on the side: "Set fire to the mountain, although you can't burn these bandits to death, but you can burn down the obstacles they have set up for many days, these obstacles are the biggest obstacles for us to break through that cottage, as long as these obstacles are burned, with the rest of our manpower, we may not be able to break through the thief village." …… Of course, for the sake of prudence, it is better for the county lieutenant to inform your county seat to recruit some more men. ”

"Hmm."

Magai nodded thoughtfully.

After a while, he ordered the two hundred county guards to fetch some thatch and oil from the camp, and ordered the mountain to be set on fire.

In the blink of an eye, the fire was burning brighter and stronger, and the gray-black smoke was blowing in the southeast wind, heading towards the top of the mountain.

At this time, Zhao Yu stood on the top of the mountain and looked down at the mountain, although because of the distance, the crusade army under the mountain was only the size of an ant in his eyes, and he didn't know what those Kunyang officers and soldiers were doing, but when there was suddenly smoke drifting to the top of the mountain, he immediately understood.

"Burn the mountain...... Do you want to burn those obstacles? It's a pity it's late. ”

He muttered.

He didn't feel sorry for the obstacles that had been prepared in the mountains for a long time, because in his opinion, they had already served their role, and had helped them kill nearly three hundred brave men of the crusading army, and to think that the other party would run into them stupidly would be to think that everyone else would be foolish.

Since it has already played a role, even if it is burned down by a fire, what is there to feel sorry for?

Anyway, he had already guessed that the other party would take a fire attack, and asked Guo Da to cut down a large area of the trees under the cottage early to ensure that even if the enemy set fire, the fire would not spread to the cottage.

"But...... In this case, when the officers and soldiers under the mountain come to attack next time, won't the cottage have no power to resist? Jingnu asked with some concern.

She didn't care about the life or death of the vast majority of thieves in the cottage, after all, in her eyes, nine out of ten people in the cottage were not good people, and they deserved to die, she was worried about whether this matter would affect Zhao Yu's plan, after all, she also knew that her little master was deliberately trying to subdue this cottage.

Hearing Jing Nu's worried question, Zhao Yu shook his head slightly: "How could it be?" …… This battle is over. ”

"Huh?"

Jingnu's face was puzzled.