Chapter 16: Ambush of the Bandits (1)

Zhao Zizhong took advantage of the light of the bonfire in the camp to carefully observe the surroundings with a telescope. As time passed, the camp gradually quieted down, and everyone fell asleep one after another. Suddenly, he noticed that there was a dark shadow about six or seven hundred meters away from the big tree in the northwest direction, slowly wriggling, gradually approaching the camp.

Zhao Zizhong slid down gently, his steps were as light as a tanuki, he bent down and sneaked in the direction of the black shadow, and it took more than ten minutes to come to five or six meters behind the black shadow. The black shadow was squatting in the grass and peeking into the camp, not noticing Zhao Zizhong behind him. Zhao Zizhong slowly leaned up, turned his right hand into a knife, and slashed at the back of the man's neck. The black shadow threw forward and fell to the ground, and Zhao Zizhong quickly knelt on his back with his knees, grabbed his hands behind his back, and pulled out a rope to tie him up strongly.

Zhao Zizhong picked up the man and saw that he was already unconscious with his head tilted, so he dragged him towards the camp. When there were still thirty meters from the camp, a tall figure stood there, it was An Dalang. Zhao Zizhong put down the man and said easily: "Fortunately, I caught a person who peeked into the camp, and it should be a spy of the bandits." ”

An Dalang said with relief: "Mr. Zhao is skilled, and An admires him." Let's not alarm everyone in the camp, how about going farther and interrogating the spies? ”

Zhao Zizhong and An Dalang dragged the spies to a tree more than a mile away from the camp and tied the spies to the trunk. An Dalang took out a short knife, covered the sponser's mouth with his left hand, and stabbed the spying thigh with his right hand. The spy struggled violently, making a 'whine' sound from his mouth.

An Dalang pulled out his knife and said to the spy: "Tell me, why did you peep at us." ”

The spy closed his eyes and said nothing. An Dalang laughed, and the knife stabbed down again. The spy writhed in pain, but he didn't speak.

Zhao Zizhong stopped An Dalang, "I have a good torture method, so I don't have to make it so bloody." ”

An Dalang was very interested, "Oh, then please try it sir, let me open my eyes." ”

Zhao Zizhong asked, "Did you bring a kettle?" ”

"Brought it." An Dalang untied the cowhide water bag around his waist. Zhao Zizhong took out a stack of papers from his arms, which was the item he used to solve personal hygiene. He untied the spy from the trunk of the tree, tied it with a rope, and laid it flat on the ground, covered the snout with a few pieces of paper, and slowly poured water on the paper.

After a while, the spy struggled violently, his head bobbing back and forth. After waiting for about two minutes, Zhao Zizhong uncovered the paper that was tightly attached to the spinner's mouth and nose. The spy gasped, Zhao Zizhong didn't speak, took a few new pieces of paper, covered his mouth and nose, and then poured water to wet the paper.

After repeating it three times, the spy broke down, "Please don't do it, I confess, I'll say anything." ”

An Dalang was convinced, "Mr. Zhao's method is really powerful, how did you come up with it, even the iron man can't stand it." ”

The spies confessed, it turned out that Cui's firm made too much noise in Huanglong Mansion, and was targeted by the eyes of this gang of bandits, and when they learned the news that the caravan was going south, the bandit leader sent two spies to take turns to keep an eye on the caravan when it left Huanglong Mansion. There were seventy or eighty bandits in this gang, seventeen horse bandits on horseback, and the rest on foot. It is expected that the attack will be carried out more than 100 miles to the south, and it should be carried out by night attack, because it is a sparsely populated place, and it is easy to escape after succeeding. The leader of the bandits was a Bohai man, called 'Wudashan'. He turned out to be a low-ranking officer in the Tokyo Unified Military Division of the Liao State, and fled for violating military discipline, gathered some deserters, bandits, and horse thieves, and robbed homes and caravans in this generation. The most combat-effective of this gang of bandits were seventeen horse bandits, and the remaining fifty or so were rabble.

After the two finished asking for confessions, An Dalang stabbed the spies in the heart with a knife, and the technique was very skillful. Zhao Zizhong was a little shocked, "Da Lang, just kill it like this." Although Zhao Zizhong was born in the army, he has never killed anyone, and he is very dismissive of this era.

An Dalang said nonchalantly: "This is nothing, a certain family killed hundreds of people in the battle array back then, and they slaughtered all the thieves casually." ”

Zhao Zi picked up the paper again, "Let's bury the body together." lest the bandits find out. ”

An Dalang nodded in agreement. Zhao Zizhong quietly returned to the camp, took two shovels, and began to dig a pit with An Dalang.

An Dalang exclaimed: "Mr. Zhao, this shovel is small and lightweight, very sharp, digging the soil effortlessly, I don't know where it came from?" ”

Zhao Zizhong said: "This is from the United States of America, the far west, if you like it, I will give it to you." ”

An Dalang was overjoyed, "How good is this, this thing must be worth a lot of money, and it is deserved." ”

Zhao Zizhong waved his hand, "Da Lang don't shirk it, I am very happy to meet such a character as Da Lang, and I am thinking about giving Da Lang some gifts, seeing that Your Excellency likes this shovel, I will give it to Da Lang." ”

An Dalang thought for a while, "Then a certain family will be disrespectful, and when I return to Mingzhou, I will give a family heirloom hundred refining treasure knife to Mr., please Mr. smile." ”

Zhao Zizhong thought, the smelting technology of this era is just like that, how about the hundred refining knives, when he sees our *, it is estimated that his jaw will fall.

After a while, the pit was dug and the two threw the body into it and buried it with earth. Zhao Zizhong carefully threw the remaining soil around and covered up the bloodstains.

When An Dalang saw Zhao Zizhong's actions, he thought to himself, this person is thoughtful, neat and neat, extremely sophisticated, and must be a scout in the army. It's just that some mothers-in-law and mothers-in-law make a fuss when they kill someone.

After finishing the work, Zhao Zizhong asked: "According to the spies, the bandits will do it after more than a hundred miles, what does Da Lang think?" ”

An Dalang said: "The guards of the caravan plus me have a total of thirteen people, there are seventy or eighty bandits, and there are some losses in the head-on battle, I want to set a trap and ambush the bandits, we have a few guys known as the 'Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow', their archery skills are good, and strive to kill the bandit leader and a dozen horse bandits first in the ambush, and the rest of the bandits will be leaderless and will definitely disperse in a hurry." ”

Zhao Zi nodded emphatically, and asked again: "We killed the spies, and the bandits found out that the spies didn't go back, so there won't be a problem, right?" ”

"The bandits are careless and will think that the spies have deserted, and this situation often happens in the gangs, and there will be no problem."

After discussing the details with An Dalang for a while, the two went back to the camp to rest.

August 11, 962 A.D

Early in the morning, everyone in the caravan got up one after another, busy preparing to set off. Zhao Zizhong quietly gathered the brothers together and told him what happened last night. Everyone was a little shocked, and even Du Dalei, who was nervous, didn't speak.

Zhao Zizhong comforted everyone: "There's nothing to be afraid of, just a group of turtles, An Dalang and I have planned, an ambush battle, and we will definitely wipe out all the bandits." Don't leave the convoy, I'll keep you safe. In addition, don't make a noise, the rest of the caravan didn't know yet, and An Dalang was afraid that they would be nervous if they found out, so the bandits' spies would see it, so he didn't tell them. ”

During the day, the convoy traveled more than 60 miles, and the wind and waves were calm along the way, and no situation occurred. After camping that night, An Dalang found Zhao Zizhong, came to a place where there was no one, looked around and said, "Mr. Zhao, it is estimated that the bandits will do it tomorrow night, when will we tell the people in the caravan?" ”

"Tell Steward Cui quietly today, advance as usual during the day tomorrow, and tell everyone when we camp, and mobilize everyone to set traps together."

"Okay, that's what Mr. said."

There was no word that night, and when I got up in the morning, the convoy set off. Steward Cui's face was a little solemn, and he looked around from time to time. Seeing this, Wei Hongye went over to chat with him to relieve his nervousness.

At about four o'clock in the afternoon, the convoy came to a river, and An Dalang ordered to camp by the river, and the guards circled the cart in a semicircle along the river, leaving a gap about three meters wide in the middle. Everyone got busy, and it wasn't until it got dark that they started to make a fire and cook, and the camp was noisy for a long time before it gradually quieted down.

In the middle of the moon, it was quiet.

The campfire in the camp was burning, and there were several figures around the fire, who were supposed to be the guards of the night watch. At this moment, the dull sound of horses' hooves sounded, and gradually became dense, 'thump' against the earth.

A dozen horses galloped towards the gap, and the knights on the horses silently carried their weapons and went straight to the camp. The first few horses suddenly fell to the ground, the horses neighed in pain, and the knight on horseback was caught off guard, and flew out under the strong inertia, breaking bones and tendons, and some feet did not break away from the stirrups in time, and were crushed under the horse, losing their ability to fight. The horses behind were tripped by the fallen horses and knights, and only four horses escaped the obstacle and rushed to the guards by the fire.

A knight swung his sword at the guard with the momentum of his horse, and felt that the knife had slashed through the guard's neck without the slightest hindrance. Grass clippings flew in the air, and it turned out that he had cut down a clothed straw man.

"Boom, boom, boom." At this moment, the bowstring sounded, and all four knights on horseback were shot, and some of them had several arrows stuck in their bodies. They fell to the ground one by one, and three of them died instantly, only one of them groaned in pain. More than a dozen figures came out of the dark night, firing bows and arrows as they walked, and in a short time they killed all the dozen knights. Zhao Zizhong and Boris carried crossbows, followed by An Dalang and the 'Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow', and fired only one crossbow, and before the second one was reloaded, the killing was over.

At this time, there were shouts outside the camp, and many people ran and rushed towards the camp. An Dalang shouted: "The 'Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow' will attack with me, and the rest will stay behind." ”

After saying that, he took a tall war horse, turned it over, and rushed out of the gap first. Three of the 'Eight Heroes of the Divine Arrow' got on horseback, and the other five walked with bows and arrows in their hands, and also followed An Dalang out of the gap.