Chapter 128

He wasn't stupid either; while fighting Wu Shaoyi, he chewed over the situation and realized it was mostly that corrupt official He Chunhua who had pulled strings behind the scenes, which provoked Wu Shaoyi and Pei Xinyong to join forces against him. Wu Shaoyi had an old grudge with him and couldn't withstand the provocation; this sowing of discord didn't take much effort.

Lu Yao pointed to the hillside on the west road: "Pursue! Kill without mercy after catching up, except for the corrupt official!"

He sneered: "The corrupt official is to be left for me."

￥￥￥￥￥

Light suddenly appeared between heaven and earth.

Sweat dripped down, He Lingchuan rubbed his eyes, and suddenly discovered the faint light of dawn in the east.

The first ray of morning light hit the mountain wall and also shone upon him.

He Lingchuan gasped for breath, unable to believe that his thirty-some men, relying on a dozen broken carts, had held out for another hour! No, there weren't thirty-some men left; only nine remained. Those seriously injured couldn't walk either.

The long blade in his hand was still dripping blood, both from the bandits and from his own soldiers who had splashed it on him.

Watching his brothers fall one after another, a soldier had previously taken advantage of the others' inattention to quietly retreat to the rear, mount a horse, and try to flee.

Zhao Qinghe saw this and scolded him angrily, dragging him off the horse's back.

He Lingchuan rushed over from the rear, not even listening to his defense, and beheaded the man with one stroke!

When meeting on a narrow path, the brave wins.

If you don't kill deserters, there are no brave men.

Sure enough, as the head rolled on the ground, the atmosphere on the field changed, and the government soldiers looked at He Lingchuan with eyes full of awe. He, however, felt neither sorrow nor joy in his heart, and raised his blade to kill the enemy again.

Lu Yao had finished rounding up Wu Shaoyi's old subordinates, naturally bringing them over to pursue the government soldiers, and then was blocked by He Lingchuan and the others on the hillside.

This was terrain He Lingchuan had carefully calculated; as long as the cart formation was there, no matter how many bandits there were, only the front twenty or thirty could exert force, and the ones behind would all be blocked.

It was precisely because of this that the bandits' attack reached an unprecedented white-hot intensity.

These carts couldn't be moved, so the bandits tried to split them open.

After all, there was no shortage of strongmen in the team.

Who would have known that the He family's food, clothing, and daily necessities were all luxurious, low-key, and substantial; expressed in the carriages, this meant the materials were particularly solid, with the base selected from old rosewood on Knife Mountain, first soaked in medicinal water and then polished, going through over a dozen processes. Ordinary blades and swords would only chip a small notch when hacking at them, and if one wanted to pull them back, they were easily stuck.

These cart boards could even prevent wildfires.

After all, they were originally meant to carry the He family's abundant wealth for a thousand or two thousand miles; how could they not be sturdy?

Even if the horses pulling the carts were tired and lame, the carts themselves would be fine.

The bandits hacking at such carriages were on the verge of tears, not to mention that He Lingchuan and the others weren't pushovers; how could they let them hack at will and to their heart's content?

So the bandits had to hold an axe in one hand and a shield in the other, usually using the shield to block the rain of arrows and spears shooting from the gaps in the carriages, only finding time to hack a few times when they could.

There was no lack of smart people among them; once they saw the government soldiers' resistance was too fierce, they simply swung their axes half-heartedly to put on a show, just slacking off, not daring to really hack and chop, so the efficiency was truly too low.

Lu Yao watched with irritation, and after disciplining a few subordinates, he simply grabbed his giant axe and went up himself.

His strength was great, and his speed at hacking the carts was much faster than his subordinates, but swinging the axe made it easy to expose his weak points.

Actually, he had protective Qi and wasn't afraid of fighting Wu Shaoyi at all, but he was very wary of the government soldiers' long spears poking and stabbing randomly.

The reason was none other than that these government soldiers had spiritual power attached to their bodies! Spiritual power is specifically designed to break the opponent's true qi and divine abilities, unless the opponent also has spiritual power to contend with it.

Lu Yao was annoyed in his heart. If the Holy Master were still here, they could also use spiritual power; where would these weak-as-chickens government soldiers be a match for him in a single encounter with this toy-like obstacle? As his anger rose, his attack power rose along with it.

When the first cart formation was about to be hacked to pieces, He Lingchuan hurriedly ordered: "Retreat to the second formation!"

Yes, he again imitated the battle in the dream, taking advantage of the time Lu Yao was subduing Wu Shaoyi's remnants to build the second and third cart formations as well.

They could climb over nimbly, and when the bandits smashed the first cart formation and Lu Yao was the first to push aside the broken cart and rush over, they were all stunned: How is there another layer! And so it went, again and again.

He Lingchuan commanded in a capable manner, and the government soldiers all viewed him as their backbone. He personally went into battle, not forgetting to cheer everyone on, and the cart formation indeed greatly reduced the pressure on their side... that was how they barely held out until now.

Of course, the soldier's head he personally beheaded also extinguished the thoughts of others to flee.

Only by combining kindness with severity can one win over people's hearts.

But by the time the east turned bright, this third cart formation could barely hold on either.

Due to insufficient resources at hand, the government soldiers used the villagers' ox and horse carts to build the third cart formation. With different grades and different qualities, the villagers' carts were not as resistant to hacking and tearing as the He family's; they were much thinner and more brittle.

Some carriage bodies were only pasted with a layer of thin wooden boards, cutting corners so blatantly that the rebel army pierced through with a single spear, nearly opening a bloody hole in Mao Tao's arm.

He shrank his hand in fright and said to He Lingchuan: "Young Master, we can't hold it!"

Zeng Feixiong had clearly instructed him and Zhao Qinghe to preside over the battle, but somehow, the command had long since fallen into He Lingchuan's hands.

Driven by Lu Yao, the short and agile bandits climbed over like wild monkeys, engaging in close-quarters combat with everyone.

The corpses on the ground were scattered everywhere, some belonging to bandits, some to government soldiers.

Fighting like this, it was again the rhythm He Lingchuan was familiar with.

Across the carriage, Lu Yao's scarlet eyes stared fixedly at him: "You'd better run fast! After I catch up, I'll cut off your and your father's heads to use as wine pots!"

He Lingchuan touched his own head, then looked at the red sun on the mountain peak in the east, and sighed: "Mount up, retreat!"

Unlike in the dream, this time he didn't intend to hold out until the last moment.

A dream is a dream, reality is reality.

In a dream, one can have iron-blooded passion, but in reality, the dead cannot be resurrected.

Finally waiting for this order to retreat! All the government soldiers let out a long sigh of relief, nearly moved to tears, and scrambled to mount their horses. The sorcerer in the team ran five zhang forward along the way, squatted down, pressed his hands to the ground, and began to chant.

Under Zhao Qinghe's coordination, the spiritual power on everyone's bodies was transferred to him.

The light on the sorcerer's body suddenly became intense.

Immediately after, the ground he pressed began to freeze into a layer of ice, all the way down.

Yes, even if He Lingchuan wanted to retreat, he had to arrange a little more trouble for his opponent.

"Hurry, hurry!" He Lingchuan urged constantly, "This is the lakeside, the water vapor is very heavy, it should be faster!"

Seeing the cart formation about to be broken, the sweat on his back flowed even more freely.

"My true qi is limited, that's all I can do..." the sorcerer gritted his teeth. His sorcery was practiced to kill people, not to pave roads! True qi is limited? He Lingchuan was suddenly enlightened by him, and immediately took an object from his bosom and stuffed it into his mouth: "Can this thing be used?"

That was a dark green profound crystal.

At the critical moment, it was still he, Young Master He, who had the goods.

(End of chapter)