Seeing that there were more and more villagers on the defensive, the bandits did not know the details, and did not dare to attack rashly, but they were not willing to retreat, so they stopped outside the woods, gathered together, and faced the villagers across the forest, and the two sides formed a confrontational situation for a while.

Su Xiaotong, Lao Bai and others pushed the arrow cart and held the fire crossbow, and they also arrived, Shi Suo's heart began to settle down, and Su Shichang also said with satisfaction: "Now we can defend in one go." Su Shilong was supported and came to the outside of the village, and he said to Shi Suo and Su Shichang, "Who are these bandits? Isn't it Ling Haibo's gang of bastards? ”

"I don't know, when it is dawn, you can see clearly."

Tan Heng also came on crutches, and he said to Su Shilong: "Brother Su, why don't you send someone to move the rescue soldiers in my name?" ”

Su Shilong didn't answer, looking at Su Shichang and Shi Suo, Su Shichang refused, "No, your rescuers can't quench their thirst, and as long as our whole village works together to deal with these thieves, there is no problem." ”

"Yes." Shi Suo agreed with Su Shichang's words. In their hearts, they all understand that if they invite the Hunan army or other armies to help, they are afraid that it will be easy to invite God and difficult to send God, and it will be difficult to be independent in the future.

The villagers behind the ridge gathered hundreds of people, Su Shichang and Xiao Wu and others ran forward and backward, cut out the old and weak, women and children, and sent them back to the village to do logistics, and the remaining young and middle-aged people, more than 200, stayed outside the village to deal with the bandits, and at the same time sent sentries to closely monitor the surroundings of the village to prevent the bandits from sneaking up on other places. Xiao Guo reminded: "Especially the cave where the stream flows out of the back of the village, you have to send people to watch it." ”

After a busy while, everyone settled down and prepared to defend in sections, but the bandits did not attack again, on the edge of the woods, behind a few dense large laurel trees, gathered without moving, looking through the gap in the woods, under the moonlight, the bandits were like a bunch of wild beasts living in groups, gathered together, and there were flashing lights, did they camp and eat?

When bandits attack a village, they often fight quickly, so as not to have too many dreams at night, and generally do not camp on the spot and attack for a long time. If we wait until dawn and then contact other nearby villages to jointly suppress the bandits, then the bandits will be in danger.

It has been a long time, and the bandits on the edge of the woods have not moved. Cheng Dashan was a little impatient and said, "Now that we are more than them, let's kill them quickly, the robbers must be asleep." ”

"You play the piano again," Su Shichang said: "At the moment, we have the advantage of numbers and terrain, and the best way is to wait for them to attack, and then let's release guns and arrows to kill and injure them more, as soon as you run out to attack, these advantages are gone." ”

"I agree with the mountain." Shi Suo said.

"Huh?" Su Shichang looked at Shi Suo in confusion. Shi Suo smiled: "Of course, I don't agree with him going out to attack, right now, we have the advantage of having a large number of people, and we can't give up our strengths and mess around." I mean, the robbers suddenly stopped, and gathered together, certainly not sleeping, they must have been fighting ghosts, and I wanted to take the mountains and go there and scout to see what was going on. ”

"Haha, that's great." Cheng Dashan grinned.

Su Shichang felt reasonable, so several backbones discussed it and decided to send Shi Suo, Cheng Dashan and Lao Sun to wear black clothes and quietly touch the side to reconnoiter the enemy. Su Shichang instructed: "Don't get too close, you'd rather not be able to detect than be in danger." As long as we defend here, they won't be able to attack the village. ”

"Okay." The three men each took a dagger, changed into black clothes, walked into the osmanthus forest, made a detour from a distance, and touched the bandits' flanks and backs.

The moon moved overhead, a bright moon in the sky, and in the woods, the dappled moonlight sprinkled on the ground, forming a small pattern. The noisy battlefield just now was cold for a while. It seems to be quietly waiting for the next battle.

The three of them sneaked around, using the grass and tree trunks as cover, and quietly approached the side of the bandits.

There are still dozens of meters away from the place where the bandits gathered, and the three of them all smelled a strange smell, at this time they were in the direction, it was the downwind outlet, the more they touched it, the stronger the smell, Shi Suo suddenly whispered: "It's not good, it's the smell of kerosene." ”

At that time, kerosene was used to light lamps, also known as "foreign oil", mostly from foreign countries, because China could not produce its own oil, so it was quite precious and scarce, but the bandits quietly fiddled with kerosene, apparently there was a conspiracy, and Dashan said puzzled: "What do they do?" Do you light it up? ”

"Ignite the fire," said the stone lock, "and they will attack with fire." ”

Osmanthus Villa is lush with vegetation, outside the village, there are trees everywhere, if it is attacked by fire, it is indeed quite dangerous, if this large osmanthus forest is on fire, then the whole village may be burned. Thinking of this, Shi Suo and the other three were all sweating in a hurry, and Lao Sun asked, "What should I do?" ”

"Withdraw first." Shi Suo said.

The three of them bent over and quickly retreated around the bend.

The people who were lying in ambush behind the ridge were ready with bows and arrows, fire crossbows, and bird guns, and they were ready to fight, and the stone lock would detect the situation, and said to Su Shichang and others, everyone was also anxious, not only the osmanthus forest was afraid of burning, the houses in the village were mostly brick and wood structures, and firewood and grass were piled up along the street, and the most feared was the fire attack, these bandits were vicious, deliberately set fire, and the villagers were angry and scolded.

Now, obviously can no longer be passively defended, if the bandits set fire to run, it will be a huge loss, Su Shichang and Shi Suo, Xiao Guo, Xiao Wu and others urgently discussed, decided to take the initiative to attack, Su Shichang said: "We are more than them, we can set a pocket formation, frontal onslaught, and then outflank from both sides, so that the siege on three sides, forcing them to flee along the road to the mountain pass, their fire attack plan, will not be used." Burning a handful of grass and trees beside the road is not a big problem. ”

Everyone quickly assigned manpower, Cheng Dashan pushed the arrow cart, followed behind Shi Suo, and led a group of young men with weapons in their hands to kill from behind the ridge and attack the bandits in the woods in front. Su Shichang and Xiao Wu each led their men and horses to outflank them from both sides, and everyone did not shout, but scattered the formation and pounced on the bandits.

The attack on this side had just started, and the bandits didn't know if they had noticed it or if they were ready, and at the same time, from the densely planted gathering place, they scattered like hornets and launched an attack on this side.

"Kill." The shouts suddenly sounded in the woods, and the osmanthus forest in the middle of the night, from the silence just now, suddenly turned into a battlefield of fighting. (To be continued.) )