On the road west of Bula Village, Art was leading the tax collection team, laden with goods, back to the Giant Stone Town Garrison Camp, filled with joy.
Suddenly, the sound of galloping hooves came from the road to the west, and after a while, the person on horseback finally became clear—it was Leide, a Cavalry from the Sentry Cavalry.
Art quickly spurred his horse forward. Leide pulled on the reins, not even having time to catch his breath, and urgently said, “Sir, something bad has happened. Boulder Town Camp is under attack by a group of bandits. Currently, Odo and Officer Ron are organizing Soldiers to defend, but there are nearly a hundred bandits, and they are about to collapse.”
Leide’s face was pale, and there was blood on his wrists and thighs. The warhorse beneath him also had several deep cuts from sharp blades, clearly indicating that he had risked breaking through to deliver the message.
“Damn it, I miscalculated!” Art thought, sensing trouble.
“Kazak, Tuba, you two unload and hide the grain and supplies on the spot, and have all Soldiers get into the carriages to quickly return to reinforce Jushi Town.”
“All Cavalry, follow me immediately to reinforce Jushi Town first.”
After giving the orders, Art kicked his horse’s belly hard and charged out.
Angus stopped Leide, who was about to follow, telling him to bandage his wounds on the spot and stay behind to guard the supplies. Then, he led Felix and the two other Cavalry behind him to chase after Art.
This sudden situation was indeed something Art had not anticipated.
Originally, ever since the bandit suppression mission in the southern Tinietz County had largely concluded, Art had spent the past ten days collecting provisions and security taxes in the central region of the county. One reason was to allow the army to rest and accumulate strength for the upcoming bandit suppression battles; the second was to take the opportunity to “scour” various places for money and grain for military use.
To facilitate matters, all collected provisions and supplies were stockpiled in the simple camp of the Jushi Town Patrol Team’s station, to be unifiedly transported back to the Valley Knight Territory by returning trade caravans after collection was complete. Bandits occasionally appeared around Jushi Town, so to be safe, Art also ordered Odo to lead the First Company Soldiers, most of the Sentry Cavalry, the newly formed Archery Squad, most of the Quartermaster Corps, and the Soldiers stationed at the Patrol Team’s station, totaling thirty-eight people, to stay behind and guard these supplies.
By common sense, at such a critical moment, no bandits would dare to openly provoke the official army, let alone this strong army specifically responsible for suppressing bandits.
However, things are unpredictable, and Art, who was accustomed to using all sorts of cunning tricks against his enemies, encountered such a bold, ruthless, and highly resourceful bandit group.
At the Jushi Town Patrol Team’s makeshift camp, the battle grew increasingly fierce.
After two rounds of attack and defense, three breaches had been opened in the ten-foot-high stone foundation and wooden palisade wall built around the Giant Stone Pile. Over a dozen fierce bandits had already dispersed and rushed in through the three breaches, engaging in close combat with the defenders.
Odo had Bas, Ron, and Lusignan each lead a few Soldiers to disperse to the three breaches to block them. He himself, carrying a short-handled heavy flail, led the remaining Soldiers and a few Patrol Team members under Obert to defend the main gate of the camp, where the enemy’s assault was most ferocious.
The main gate of the camp was the most open area. Five or six bandits were carrying a large log to ram the gate, and on both sides of the gate, several roughly made wooden ladders had been propped against the wall. Several fierce bandits, armed with sharp blades, disregarded the halberds and short spears extending from below the wall, and directly jumped over the wall, tumbling inside.
Odo surged forward. Before the fierce bandit on the ground could stand up, he caved in the bandit’s head with a single flail strike. He lifted the flail, still dripping with red and white blood, and turned to yell at the Archery Squad on the arrow tower in the middle of the camp: “Archers on the tower, keep firing desperately! Hold this wave of attacks, reinforcements will be here soon!” With that, he led the charge to another spot at the base of the wall where two fierce bandits had just jumped down.
At the breach on the rear side of the camp, Ron had already sustained two injuries. Although he wore a thick, iron-studded double-layered leather armor, the nail-studded iron hammer in the fierce bandit’s hand still smashed through his armor, and his inner thigh was also pierced by a short spear. A newly promoted Soldier behind Ron also sustained minor injuries, and being a Soldier experiencing such a desperate situation for the first time, he was clearly somewhat flustered. Seeing Ron being besieged and wounded, he actually forgot to step forward and cover him for a moment, and the rear breach was about to be torn open!
At the left breach, some twenty paces from the rear breach, under the strong defense of the formidable Lusignan, the breach had been largely blocked. He glanced over and saw Ron losing ground at the rear breach, with a large number of bandit Soldiers pouring in. He yelled at Doric, the squad leader beside him: “Drive the enemies out of the breach, then guard this place.” With that, Lusignan threw his broadsword, impaling a fierce bandit, then drew the flail from his waist, squeezed out of the breach-guarding formation, and rushed towards Ron and the others, who were unable to cope with the gradually surging bandit Soldiers at the rear breach.
“You few, keep leading people to scale the wall at the main gate!”
About two hundred paces outside the main gate of Boulder Town Camp, Jiali, the Big Boss of the bandits who launched this surprise attack on Jushi Town, the “Arrow of Satan,” was directing and supervising the battle from the rear.
Bandit leader Jiali would not have expected that the defending army they were besieging today was precisely the Patrol Team they had chased for an entire afternoon in the Birch Forest south of Laine Manor a year ago.
In the more than a year since that desperate chase, this bandit group led by Jiali had been active throughout the county, growing stronger and stronger by plundering manors and villages, extorting gentry and wealthy households, and annexing scattered bandit gangs. The number of bandit Soldiers under him once reached over sixty, and almost everyone was armed with iron weapons, with a few fierce bandit leaders even equipped with leather and padded armor.
Six months ago, they had already become the strongest bandit group in the entire Tinietz County.
A month ago, bandit leader Jiali encountered an excellent development opportunity, presenting both crisis and turning point. Due to Art leading his army to extensively suppress bandits in the southern part of the county in early May, many remnant bandits from the south began to move north, and the strongest force, Jiali, naturally became the best target for these remnants to join. After taking in and absorbing many scattered remnant bandits, he once again annexed several smaller bandit groups. Now, Jiali had an astonishing one hundred and twenty bandit Soldiers under him. Of course, among these bandits, the true elites (fierce bandits) capable of fighting were less than forty; most of the rest were coerced small fry (vagrants and farmers) used as cannon fodder, and their accompanying old, weak, women, and children family members.
Ten days ago, Jiali, feeling his forces were strong and well-equipped, finally decided to pull off a big one—to seize the ample grain and supplies, then continue to recruit and buy horses, and then occupy a stable territory to establish his own “free kingdom.”
After detailed reconnaissance and analysis, Jiali chose the Jushi Town Patrol Team’s stationed camp where Art was stockpiling supplies. Firstly, because grain and supplies scoured from various parts of the county were continuously stockpiled here, and the quantity was growing; secondly, most of the black-robed Soldiers were taken by Art to various parts of the county to show off their might, so the number of defenders here was not large; and thirdly, and most importantly, once this army responsible for bandit suppression was severely damaged, not only would it eliminate the biggest obstacle to the development of this bandit force, but it would also create immense prestige among numerous bandit groups.
However, Jiali was not a reckless person. To be safe, Jiali, while surveying the battlefield and devising his cunning plan, also sent people to contact two other relatively strong bandit groups.
One day ago, after careful planning and meticulous preparation, the notorious bandit Jiali had basically ascertained the troop deployment and travel arrangements of this bandit-suppressing army.
This morning, Jiali led over one hundred and seventy bandits out of the dense forest valley in the northwest and advanced towards the barren Jushi Town.
A bandit leader who had responded to Jiali’s call to join the battle returned to the rear from the camp attack, clutching his arm and carrying a dull-edged single-bladed sword. He immediately cursed, “Jiali, your men are all damn cowards! You’ve been attacking a wooden gate for half an afternoon and still haven’t taken it down. My men have been driven out of the breach again. If we don’t achieve a decisive victory from the front, I’ll have to take my brothers and retreat. Do you think those black-robed Soldiers collecting provisions are easy to deal with? Once they rush back as reinforcements, we won’t be able to retreat even if we want to.”
Jiali stood up, raised his cold, piercing eyes, and looked at the leader in front of him, answering coldly, “Reinforcements? Most of those who went with that fellow to collect provisions are infantry. Even if they gallop all the way, they won’t arrive here until evening. By then, we would have already taken this wretched place. Besides, they can’t even make it.”
“You still can’t take down a broken military camp? You few, come with me!” Although his tone was calm, Jiali still took down the ox-horn longbow from his back, deciding to personally supervise the battle, so that his bandit Soldiers would quickly occupy this simple military camp. As long as they occupied the camp, whether they left with the spoils or stayed to occupy it, they would at least have a place to settle.
Twelve miles northeast of Jushi Town, at the top of a hillside on the right side of a Valley Mouth where a road passed through the edge of the dense forest, several figures were peeking out from the lush green grass, looking at the road to the east. On the eastern road, the black bean-like silhouettes of five galloping riders were gradually growing larger.
“Father, some Cavalry are coming. Should we intercept and ambush them?” A half-grown boy in new linen clothes clearly saw the approaching figures from the east, then turned and quietly asked the Bandit Second Leader who was commanding the ambush.
The Bandit Second Leader, with disheveled hair, a face covered in mud, and a simple, sturdy build, looked up towards the east, pondered for a moment, and replied, “Tell the men below to remove the road barrier and let them pass. The Big Boss wants us to ambush and intercept the main force of the black-robed dogs. If we expose ourselves early, our ambush might lose its effectiveness.”
“Tell the brothers to hide well. Let these small fish pass, the big fish are still behind,” the Second Leader ordered the bandits around him.
The Second Leader then remembered something, flattened his plump face, and instructed the half-grown boy beside him, “When we ambush later, you stay at the very back. If we win, then you go up. If we lose, you run back quickly to report to the Big Boss. Remember, no risks. If something happens to you, your mother will kill me.”
The half-grown boy looked unconvinced.
On the other side of the Valley Mouth, the anxious Art, leading the Cavalry behind him, rushed towards the Jushi Town Garrison, his heart burning. The sooner they arrived, the more hope the defending Soldiers in Jushi Town would have of winning.
However, even the wisest person makes a mistake.
As he rode through the Valley Mouth, Art, whose heart was preoccupied with the safety of Jushi Town, did not at all consider whether there might be bandit Soldiers in ambush in this place. He just kept kicking his horse to gallop, and quickly rushed through the Valley Mouth.
Perhaps it was because he had been involved in too many schemes and tricks, or perhaps it was because he was not as anxious as Art, but as Angus rode out of the Valley Mouth, he subconsciously glanced at this Valley Mouth, which was very easy to hide ambushes. With this subconscious glance, Angus indeed discovered a path of trampled green grass leading straight to the top of a small slope on one side of the Valley Mouth, and several pieces of timber suddenly appeared in the grass beside the road.
“Sir, something’s wrong! There might be an ambush on the hillside at the Valley Mouth!” Angus caught up to Art ahead of him and reported urgently.
Art heard this and violently pulled on the reins. The warhorse beneath him neighed, its hind legs bent, scraping the ground as it came to an abrupt stop. He turned his horse’s head to look back at the top of the Valley Mouth slope behind him, and a cold gasp entered his chest and lungs.
“Damn it, we’ve run into a tough one!” Art had already seen the bandits on the Valley Mouth slope. The bandits, realizing their plot was exposed, simply stopped hiding.
“What should we do? Should we rush back to warn the team behind us?” Angus was also a bit flustered.
“No, we can’t rush back. The enemy must be prepared. If we enter the Valley Mouth again, we’ll be in trouble.”
“Then what do we do? The Soldiers behind us must pass through here.”