Chapter 82: Bloodbath
Editor: Atlas Studios
As the sound of hooves was urgent and was about to reach them, Mu Yangling only had time to throw three ropes at Liu Xuan and the others. Seeing as she no longer had any hope of tripping the horses, she only wanted to do her best to stall them.
The people from Nearhill Village had already left most of their luggage behind. At this moment, they were retreating to Jialing Lake with little to no belongings.
Having long seen Mu Yangling and the others’ actions, corners of Ah Su’s mouth curled into a mocking smile. He spurred his horse forward and jumped over the rope that suddenly jumped up. With a wave of his saber, he rushed towards one of them. Mu Yangling shouted, “Into the forest, quickly!”
The Jin soldiers behind Ah Su drew their bows and shot arrows, killing five to six people in the blink of an eye.
With reddened eyes, Mu Yangling pulled out her saber and rolled on the ground. Sliding under the horse, she swiftly cut off the horse’s leg with one slash. The horse neighed in pain and raised its front hooves, throwing the person on the horse off. Mu Yangling rolled out from under the horse’s stomach and swung her saber at another horse’s leg…
Since horses were the best companions of the Jin soldiers, this undoubtedly made them furious. The others brandished their sabers and were about to kill Mu Yangling, but with Mu Yangling wandering among the horses, it was a little inconvenient for them to turn around. Mu Yangling knocked down five horses like a loach before rolling into the forest.
As the other horses were implicated amid the chaos, there were now only 12 of them still sitting on their horses. The Jin soldiers who were still alive after being thrown off their horses charged at Liu Xuan and company.
Although Liu Xuan and the others had fought a battle with Mu Yangling earlier on, they mainly relied on the power of the traps. Now that they were facing the Jin soldiers head-on, even if three of them surrounded one person, they would quickly be defeated.
Mu Yangling took the time to turn around and look. Seeing that there were less than 30 of her men left, she shouted, feeling alarmed, “Hide, quickly hide!”
Seeing that his clansmen were dead and Liu Xuan was severely injured, Liu Zhuang immediately roared and slashed at a Jin soldier crazily. He shouted at Liu Xuan, “Leave quickly!”
Liu Xuan held his stomach and turned to run. The Jin soldier who was stopped saw this and was about to slash at Liu Xuan when his raised hand was suddenly struck by a rock. His hand went numb and the saber dropped to the ground. Liu Zhuang raised his sword and chopped off his head.
Seeing that Liu Zhuang was out of danger, Mu Yangling turned around and stopped three Jin soldiers. Ah Su saw it clearly from his horse and gave up on chasing after the others. Turning around on his big horse, he charged over, roaring, “Kill her! She’s the leader!”
Mu Yangling turned around and glanced at him. With all her strength, she cut off the sabers of the three Jin soldiers with one slash and killed the three men with another. As she turned around and ran into the deep forest, she shouted, “Run in! Quickly escape!”
This was a signal, a signal to lure the enemy into the deep forest and use their lives to make the enemy stay.
Liu Yong and the others knew that they probably wouldn’t be able to walk out alive this time. Thinking of their parents and family members who were fleeing towards Jialing Lake, they roared and sprinted into the deep forest according to Mu Yangling’s instructions.
The Jin soldiers who had nocked their arrows could not aim accurately at all. Nine out of ten arrows that were shot out missed. They could only give up on using their bows and spur their horses forward to pursue.
However, the deeper they went, the denser the forest became. Eventually they couldn’t turn their horse around at all. Sensing that something was wrong, Ah Su waved his hand. “Let’s retreat and stop chasing.”
But it was too late.
Sharp rocks kept shooting out from behind the forest, hitting the horses’ butt and neck. The horses kept raising their hooves and neighing, throwing many Jin soldiers off. Furious, Ah Su jumped off his horse, raised his bow, and shot at the place from which the rocks were shot. However, the arrows missed. Ah Su rushed out with his men and realized that there were two traces. Gritting his teeth, Ah Su said, “Split into two teams. We must kill these Han people.”
“No,” Ah Su’s adjutant, Wu Lin, replied. “Captain, we’re eagles on the grassland and aren’t familiar with the forest. It’s not a good idea for us to be scattered.”
Ah Su snorted and said, “Our warriors can fight five Han Chinese alone. Since there are less than 30 of them, what’s there to be afraid of? We need to kill them all as soon as possible and chase after their clansmen.”
However, we just lost eight men. Wu Lin saw Ah Su’s cold expression and knew that his pride would not allow him to admit that his warriors had been killed by a few despicable Han Chinese.
Ah Su led the six of them in a direction, and Wu Lin could only bring the remaining six. “We definitely can’t split up later.”
Wu Lin’s subordinate responded.
Mu Yangling and Liu Yong ran in front with the remaining men. Seeing that they were a certain distance away from the Jin soldiers, she lowered her body and said, “Let’s ambush one team first, then deal with the other team.”
Seriously injured, Liu Xuan lay on the ground and looked at Mu Yangling. His eyes swept across everyone. Other than Mu Yangling, Liu Zhuang, and Liu Yong, everyone else was more or less injured. He was the most severely injured and could not even stand up now.
“Ah Ling, even if there are only seven people in their team, I’m afraid we’re no match for them.” The difference in abilities between the Jin soldiers and the Hus they met last night was like heaven and earth.
Liu Li crawled to Mu Yangling’s side and said in a low voice, “Why don’t we leave immediately? Since you’re so familiar with the forest, you can definitely bring us out.”
“But if they can’t find us, they’ll definitely go out and chase after my father and the others. Even if we’ve scared their horses away, they can catch up on foot quickly with their speed.”
Liu Zhuang continued, “When the time comes, it’ll be like wolves entering a flock of sheep. All our efforts will be in vain.”
“Therefore, we have to keep them in the forest. Even if we all die, we have to ensure they stay behind.” Mu Yangling gritted her teeth and said, “When they split up a little more, we’ll take action.”
At that moment, Qi Haoran had just arrived at Mingshui County with his men. When he saw the thick smoke billowing in Mingshui County and the corpses lying everywhere in the county, he was immediately furious. “Darned Tartars!”
“Little General, the commoners have all fled to the west and east. Those Tartars have all chased to the east.” The west of Mingshui County was their territory, the West Camp. The Tartars had chased to the east in order to plunder resources on the enemy’s land.
Qi Haoran gritted his teeth. “Let’s go save them.” As he spoke, he took the lead and ran out.
Riding beside him, Fan Zijin said, “We only brought 200 people and are severely outnumbered by the Tartars. Didn’t Cousin only let you guard the county?”
“The county’s defense has long been destroyed. What’s there left to defend? Saving people is more important. Damn Tartars, I’ll kill them all!”
“How are you going to do that when you’ve never killed anyone before?” Fan Zijin continued to dissuade him. Qi Haoran was skilled in martial arts, but it wasn’t as if his knowledge in military formations would be of any use under such circumstances, considering this fellow had never fought on the battlefield.
Qi Haoran was young and fearless, but Fan Zijin knew they had to be more strategic. Otherwise, they might not even be able to return alive to see his cousin.
Qi Haoran did not have as many considerations as Fan Zijin. He had always wanted to be a general. Now that he saw the Jin soldiers plundering, arsoning, and killing, he could not hold it in anymore. If not for the fact that there were no Jin soldiers in front of him, he would not have suppressed his temper and would have simply charged forward with his broadsword.
Qi Haoran led his men and gave chase. Soon, they caught up to Wu Shu’s battalion. They were surrounding the commoners and plundering, dragging out the young wives and young ladies among them.
Burning with anger at the sight of this, Qi Haoran shouted, “Wu Shu, let go of them. If you have the guts, come and fight me first.”