Chapter 104

On the evening of the twenty-first day of the first month, in the Suburban Area of Hefei County, Luzhou Prefecture City. A waning moon hung high in the sky, shining upon the thousands of civilian dwellings outside the city.

Hefei, like Tongcheng, had many civilian residences built along the Official Road outside the city, its prosperity no less than within the city walls, much like a new urban district of later eras. But now this new district lay in complete silence, broken only by the occasional barking of dogs.

Quite a few ox-carts, horse-carts, and pushcarts were parked along the street. Their owners, fearing robbery, dared not leave them for a moment. Many fleeing commoners who had found no shelter on foot were sleeping rough under the eaves.

After a burst of copper gongs, several clusters of torchlight appeared at a street corner. A group of people, bearing weapons long and short, swaggered over. The commoners sleeping rough on the street rose one after another to get out of their way.

In the livestock shed of an inn beside the Official Road, Jiang Fan stealthily poked his head out. He had arrived in Luzhou on the eighteenth, and after delivering his message, had continued onward on the nineteenth. Just as he reached Dianbu Town, the fleeing commoners on the road were already forming crowds and groups. The mounted courier traveling with him absolutely refused to go any further. Jiang Fan himself was also unsure, fearing that other Roving Bandits might strike Fengyang from the direction of Shouzhou or Lu'an Prefecture, which would cut off their retreat. So the two of them followed the fleeing crowds back to Hefei.

The weather was bitterly cold now. Most ordinary commoners lacked the means for long-distance flight; they generally fled short distances, either moving away from the Official Road into remote countryside, or entering county seats and prefectural cities. These places had City Walls for protection, highly concentrated supplies and population, and relatively stronger official forces, making their defensive capabilities far higher than villages and market towns.

Many of the commoners living in the Hefei Suburban Area had already entered the city. The Shopkeeper and staff of this inn had also fled into the city. The inn had been boarded up, but during the evening someone had broken in and looted it. The commoners who had fled here and could not enter the city surged in to take shelter. There was a livestock shed next to it, just right for tethering horses.

Fearing their horses would be stolen, Jiang Fan and his companion dared not sleep inside the building. They grabbed two quilts to wrap themselves in, ignored the manure and stench everywhere, and made do for the night in the livestock shed.

Jiang Fan raised his eyes and saw the Luzhou City Wall not far away. It was brilliantly lit with countless lanterns. On the battlements, human figures moved in clusters, and there were even patrols outside, looking fully prepared.

The armed group on the street was now walking along, questioning the commoners by the roadside one by one, demanding they speak loudly to determine if they had a local accent.

Jiang Fan craned his neck for a look, sighed, and cursed, "Those Yang Troops again. A motley mob."

The mounted courier following him huddled close and said cautiously, "Team Leader, anyone can see the Yang Troops are just city riffraff, naturally unreliable. Let's run at dawn. We've more or less scouted out the information."

"More or less what? We haven't even seen a single Roving Bandit. Coming out from Fengyang Prefecture, the routes toward Chuzhou and Yangzhou are all prosperous areas. The bandits might not necessarily head this way. Who knows what Gou Mazi said when he went back. He'll probably claim the Roving Bandits reached Luzhou on the eighteenth, and damn it, now it's the twenty-first and there's not even a shadow of a bandit." Jiang Fan thought for a moment and cursed again. "If our scouting isn't accurate, Tongcheng will have prepared for nothing. The head constable will get a tongue-lashing from the County Magistrate, and then he'll take it out on us. Think about it — that man chopped off over twenty heads alone at Yunji Temple. Want to test him?"

The mounted courier's face crumpled. "This afternoon, some people from the north said the Roving Bandits only entered Nanzhili from Henan on the seventh day of the new year, and broke through Yingzhou on the eighth. Not one in ten in the whole city survived. Others said they reached Fengyang on the fifteenth, fighting across several hundred li in just a few days. If they really come toward Luzhou, we're finished."

"So what if they fight across several hundred li? We have horses too."

"Their horses run faster! I've got three kids at home, all depending on me alone to earn silver. I can't die!"

"You're just a damn coward, and after all your years as an old mounted courier. Set your mind at ease. If trouble comes, I'll protect you first. That's the bond of comrades." Jiang Fan finished cursing and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, scanning the refugees outside.

The refugees who had fled to Hefei came not only from the direction of Fengyang, but also from Shouzhou and Lu'an Prefecture. Over these two days, questioning the fleeing commoners had yielded all sorts of swirling rumors. Based on that information, Jiang Fan roughly deduced that there were at least two groups of Roving Bandits. Around the seventh day of the first month, they had split up from Henan and entered Nanzhili, one group attacking Huoqiu, the other attacking Yingzhou.

The situation in Huoqiu was unclear, but regarding Yingzhou, the commoners from various places all said the same thing: the Roving Bandits had massacred Yingzhou; not one in ten in the city survived.

Around the twelfth day of the first month, one group of Roving Bandits reached Shouzhou — it was unknown if they took it — and on the fifteenth, they attacked Fengyang. In the days since, there had been no further news. But no one could say clearly exactly which Roving Bandits they were. Some said Chuang Wang, some said Chuang Jiang, Sweeping King, Shooting Down the Sky — all sorts of names. Most claimed numbers in the hundreds of thousands the moment they opened their mouths. As for whether more Roving Bandits would come from the direction of Shouzhou or Lu'an Prefecture, even fewer people knew.

Jiang Fan naturally had no certainty in his heart either. The entire northern part of Nanzhili was in chaos. News from north of Luzhou was cut off, and panic reigned everywhere. Apart from heading south, it seemed Roving Bandits could attack Luzhou from any of the other three directions.

That group of Yang Troops had already checked their way to the inn. Jiang Fan and his companion stopped talking and shrank back inside the livestock shed to sit, to avoid stirring up trouble.

They had just sat down for a moment when they heard some noise outside. Jiang Fan couldn't help but poke his head out again. He saw everyone on the street standing up, all looking toward the east and pointing incessantly in that direction.

Jiang Fan followed their gaze eastward. There was a patch of light on the horizon.

"A fire somewhere," one of the Yang Troops on the street said loudly.

"Looks like it's over by Dianbu Town. Seems like a big one."

"It's flaring up again. Look."

People on the street were buzzing with discussion. The glow on the horizon flickered unceasingly, the halo of light steadily expanding.

The mounted courier said in a low voice, "That is the direction of Dianbu Town. We were just there two days ago. How could they be so careless..."

Jiang Fan watched for another moment, then suddenly said, "Put the luggage on the horses."

"What's wrong?"

"That firelight is spreading too fast. It's definitely not an accident. Only deliberate arson would look like that. I'm afraid the Roving Bandits really are coming toward Luzhou."

Before his words faded, a distant clattering sound came from afar in the quiet night, drawing closer and closer along the Official Road from the east.

Everyone recognized it as the sound of horseshoes striking the stone slabs of the Official Road. Not knowing who was coming, they looked at each other for a moment, unsure of what to do.

"Pull the horses out. There's moonlight tonight. We leave immediately." Jiang Fan looked up at the waning moon in the sky and barked in a low voice at the mounted courier.

"The luggage is gone! It was clearly right here..." The mounted courier groped wildly in the darkness, the more anxious he got, the less he could find it.

"Forget it! Leave now!"

Jiang Fan stepped out and pulled open the wooden fence as he spoke. The sound of hoofbeats from the east was rapidly approaching.

The mounted courier said urgently, "Wait, let me look again. There's something inside I just bought this year..."

"Damn it, stop looking! Pull the horse and go!"

A sudden scream rang out ahead. Then, over a dozen dark figures leaped out from the nearby roadside. Blades rolled arcs of light under the moonlight as they hacked toward the Yang Troops and commoners. Unending screams of agony filled the marketplace.

Caught completely off guard, the Yang Troops let out a shout, threw down their weapons, and fled in all directions. The commoners were even more like headless flies. The livestock along the street, startled, bolted and jumped wildly through the marketplace, crashing into the pushcarts and hitched carts with loud bangs. In the blink of an eye, the Suburban Area was thrown into utter chaos. The drums and gongs on the Luzhou city wall sounded together in a cacophony.

In moments, a group of riders had arrived. Seeing the chaos in the street, they dismounted one after another, drew their swords, and charged into the street — an endless stream of them.

Jiang Fan grabbed the horse's reins and dragged outward, but the horse tossed its head wildly and refused to move.

The mounted courier, no longer caring about his luggage, also went to pull his own horse, but in the darkness and extreme panic, he couldn't even grasp the reins.

Several commoners ran screaming past the livestock shed. A dark figure quickly caught up and stabbed the last one through with a sword. The person was impaled clean through, and with arms outstretched and a scream, he toppled onto the wooden fence.

Jiang Fan yanked the mounted courier down to the ground, hiding among the forage.

The person who had fallen onto the wooden fence stiffened rigidly. The dark figure behind him suddenly yanked out the sword. Under the moonlight, a mist of blood sprayed into the air, shockingly vivid.

A stream of blood also spurted from the man's chest, spraying into the horse shed. Jiang Fan could feel tiny droplets landing on his forehead. The two men lay in the darkness on the ground, not daring to move a muscle. Jiang Fan's hand pressed on the mounted courier and he could feel the man trembling violently, clearly terrified to the extreme.

The horses in the shed whinnied. The dark figure who had done the killing glanced inside, then howled, "The horses in this shed are mine now! Someone come guard them!"

With that, the dark figure continued chasing the commoners ahead. This was their only chance. The moment that figure disappeared, Jiang Fan immediately jumped up, pulled the mounted courier over the Enclosure Fence, and sprinted into the inn.

A loud shout came from behind: "At this horse pen! Two ran off! Go kill them!"

Footsteps immediately gave chase. Jiang Fan had observed the inn's layout and the paths front and back during the day and had some impression of them. The route he was looking for was the woodshed behind the kitchen. From the woodshed, there was an alleyway, and beyond the alleyway was a pond. Once they circled the pond, they would enter the open fields. These Roving Bandits, unfamiliar with the country paths, probably wouldn't pursue relentlessly in the dark.

The footsteps behind were chasing very closely. Now, turning from the Corridor by the horse pen into the Main Hall, Jiang Fan's eyes hadn't yet adjusted to the darkness inside. In his panic, he took a wrong turn and rushed headlong into the guest room corridor — a dead end.

"Turn around!"

He spun around swiftly and found the direction of the kitchen. But this delay allowed the dark figures chasing from behind to catch up.

Jiang Fan shouted, "Guo, hold them off! I'll open the door!"

The mounted courier, Guo, stopped at his words. He mustered his strength and hurled a long bench from the floor into the Corridor. A pained grunt and an angry shout came from that direction as the bench struck someone and clattered to the floor.

That dark figure was quite fierce and tough. He had taken two hits from the bench with only a slight delay. Charging into the Main Hall, he swung his sword at Guo.

Guo cried out as he drew his Waist Saber, fighting while retreating. Two more dark figures burst out from behind. Guo fell back repeatedly in an instant.

Jiang Fan had already drawn the kitchen door bolt and pulled the Gate Leaf inward, ready to call Guo to run. Turning his head, he saw Guo had nearly retreated right behind him. Three dark figures were brandishing Waist Sabers, close enough to touch, and more footsteps were rushing up from behind.

Guo was flustered, shouting anxiously, "Team Leader, come help! I can't hold them!"

Jiang Fan's hand moved, but stopped before it even touched the Sword hilt. Only a moment's pause — then he suddenly spun around, stepped out over the kitchen threshold, and with both hands swiftly pulled the Gate Leaf shut. Guo's back happened to retreat right onto it, pressing against the Gate Leaf.

"Ah! Team Leader, come help, open the door! Ah! Jiang Fan, my family still has three, you can't..."

From inside came Guo's panicked shouts and miserable cries, mixed with the dull thuds of Waist Sabers hacking into the door planks. The Gate Leaf slammed against the frame, bang bang. Under the waning moon's light, Jiang Fan stopped before the door, let out a ragged breath, then turned his head and bolted toward the alley outside the firewood shed.