Chapter 341: The Cave of Heat and Smoke — Different Choices, Same Result

"How is it? At the vertical shaft?" Duan Tou Zhe Delang had just led his men back into the lair when another Bandit Leader asked him about the situation.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang glanced at his trusted subordinates and saw that half of them were missing. He was extremely reluctant to speak of what had just happened, but since it concerned everyone's lives, he pointed to a subordinate and had him tell his fellow leader what had occurred.

As for himself, he returned to his room with a gloomy face.

Inside the room, his woman was trying to amuse their child, but the entire Shandong was filled with smoke; both she and the child were coughing incessantly from the choking fumes.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang set down the weapon in his hand and sat casually on the wooden floor of the hut.

His woman carefully glanced at the bloodstains on Duan Tou Zhe Delang's axe and handed the coughing child to him.

The child kept coughing, stimulated by the choking smoke; the child's little face was flushed, and their eyes were filled with pain.

"This won't do, the child is being choked like this." Duan Tou Zhe Delang threw a tantrum at the woman.

Yet his woman could only say aggrievedly, "Master, what exactly is going on? Is everyone saying we are all going to die? Sob sob sob." As she spoke, she began to cry.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang's expression changed repeatedly, and finally, he had to stiffen his throat and squeeze a sentence out through his teeth: "No matter what happens, I will make sure we survive."

After speaking, he instructed the woman to find two pieces of fine cloth, soak them in clean water, and hang them over their faces; this could slightly block the smoke that was everywhere.

"How is it?" Duan Tou Zhe Delang carefully rubbed the child's hair and asked softly.

"Mm." The child, who did not like to talk much, hugged Duan Tou Zhe Delang's fleshy face and gave a heavy nod.

Jier returned to the entrance of the Bandit lair via the makeshift wooden ladder.

The flames and burning debris at the entrance were actually increasing; the Militia were throwing all sorts of trash and unwanted items inside, and the smoke and scorching air near the entrance were being sucked into the Bandit lair.

It was already nearing noon, and Knight Kela was arranging the remaining Melee Militia, preparing to use them to strengthen the perimeter search and patrol. The Bandit lair could be considered finished; they had no other outcome but to escape through the Vertical Shaft at the back.

Knight Kela did not intend to block the Bandits inside and roast them all to death; he wanted to resolve these Bandits finally using a method that was not time-consuming and resulted in very few casualties.

Jier came over to report the situation, and the Knight had Jier lead men to loosen the guard at the Vertical Shaft. After all, he had already learned from Jier's description that behind the smoke-exhausting Vertical Shaft passage, there was a smaller cave. It had been burned by fire when Jier was saving people earlier, but now, it might instead be the last place the Bandits could hide.

The Knight did not intend to give them a chance to unite and resist stubbornly, but rather to give them one more seemingly possible choice for escape.

"I understand, I will take the few men under my command. Where would be best for us to guard?" Jier asked.

Knight Kela waved his hand: "I have already arranged all the other Melee Militia; you and the few men under your command can choose a spot as you please. It won't be long before those Bandits hiding in their turtle shell will have to run if they don't want to die. You understand the specific situation and what needs to be done, right?"

Jier nodded. He knew that they were to let the Bandits who wanted to run do so, and then, through the steep cliffs and a wide-ranging encirclement, kill the exhausted Bandits from a distance in the wilderness.

The Militia could then wait at their leisure for the final fleeing Bandits to finish running, and then resolve the remaining Bandits who were still hiding.

Knight Kela would deploy men to ensure that the Bandits coming out of the Vertical Shaft would not affect the fire at the cave entrance.

"Don't stop, the Bandits are about to be finished! Find anything that burns, anything that can burn and produces a lot of smoke, get plenty of it." Knight Kela walked among the Militia, encouraging them to find more combustible, smoke-producing materials.

Jier once again went through the makeshift wooden ladder, called the few Militia who had been following him for the past few days, and they packed up, came down the ladder, returned to the camp in the rear to replenish their supplies, and then, under Jier's lead, left the place and sat on a hillside where they could see the outside of the Vertical Shaft, waiting for the Bandits to emerge.

The Bandits could not endure the increasingly thick smoke; everyone was coughing incessantly, and their eyes were red, filled with bloodshot veins from the irritation. But this was not the worst of it.

In the passage at the cave entrance, high-temperature air heated by the flames kept pouring in. That air was invisible, but if one dared to take a breath there, the inside of one's throat and lungs would be scorched by the hot air.

The cave lair was no longer habitable.

Therefore, the Bandit Leaders hurriedly had all the Bandits and their families hide deeper inside.

Some felt that there was an Underground River at the Shitan, so the temperature could not be very high, and since it was a slightly lower area, they should be able to hide there, so a portion of the people went that way.

A smaller portion hid in the higher cave where the Wuziku and Jianlao training grounds were previously located.

Although the passage there was also a place where smoke was exhausted, once they ran past the section under the Vertical Shaft, the smoke, while still present, was much less, and they could barely endure it.

Tie Gebo chose the Shitan, while another Bandit Leader who was usually calm and steady led his men to choose the warehouse.

As for Duan Tou Zhe Delang, he took the remaining large group of Bandits and their families who did not want to hide in the lair and wait for death, intending to exit through the Vertical Shaft.

This group of people all felt that only by escaping from this death trap would there be a possibility of living.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang handed his woman and child to his trusted subordinates to protect, while he himself took the lead to prepare to climb up.

The previous crushing defeat made him furious, so only by personally defeating the enemy and cutting off the enemy's head could he regain his dignity.

"Get ready, follow me and climb up! Whether we live or die depends on us!" Before starting to climb, he roared to boost the morale of the Bandits who were willing to take this path with him.

"Oh!"

"Up!"

At this moment, the Bandits no longer distinguished whose subordinates they were; disaster was imminent, and it seemed the leaders could not defeat those Militia, so the Bandits followed the Bandit Leader they felt was most likely to help them survive, seeking a way out together.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang had astonishing strength, so he carried his weapon directly on his back, and behind him, he also carried a large roll of Rope and a well-made Mudu.

As the first person to lead the way, he also wore a piece of Metal Ring Armor on his upper body, made of large iron rings linked together in circles.

Unlike standard, formally crafted chainmail, his set was severely overweight, and its defensive effect was not very good; it could only defend against some slashing blows from knives and axes.

But at least it was much better than the ordinary Bandits who had no defense at all.

The Bandits had a poor reputation, and it was hard to find armor-making Craftsman who were valued everywhere; those Craftsman rarely went out to do business or travel, so it was impossible for them to rob one.

Therefore, the set on Duan Tou Zhe Delang's body was something he had specifically ordered his subordinates to go to various remote Cunzi to find unskilled village blacksmiths to forge iron rings, which were finally brought back and pieced together in the Bandit lair into a crude, partial Metal Ring Armor.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang put on a Glove and specifically looked for the largest rock crevices to climb up; behind him, another Bandit followed closely. They all wrapped their mouths with moist fine cloth to ensure they would not be affected by the scorching, choking smoke around them.

But it was impossible not to be affected. As Duan Tou Zhe Delang climbed up, two Bandits fell from the climb due to a continuous fit of coughing.

Fortunately, they had not climbed high, and the bottom was crowded with people, so they were caught and then climbed up again.

Duan Tou Zhe Delang moved quickly, but when he reached the top of the Vertical Shaft, he paused, gripped a rock crevice with one hand, and took his double-edged axe from his back with the other.

He gripped only the end of the axe handle with his right hand and swung it upward, waving it a few times along the edge of the Vertical Shaft.

He didn't hit anything, which made Duan Tou Zhe Delang suspicious. He guessed that the Militia should be nearby, each holding bows and Crossbows, waiting for people to come up.

Thinking of this, Duan Tou Zhe Delang threw the double-edged axe upward, and then he himself leaped quickly out of the thick smoke of the Vertical Shaft.

While leaping, he took the well-made Mudu he had specifically prepared from his back and held it in the center of his body in mid-air to protect his main torso from being shot by crossbow bolts.

But when he landed on the ground beside the Vertical Shaft and opened his eyes, Duan Tou Zhe Delang discovered that there was not a single Militia member around the Vertical Shaft setting up a killing formation to wait for them, the Bandits.

Although this made him extremely suspicious, he still took the Rope from his back and lowered it into the Vertical Shaft.

A Bandit who was climbing right behind him felt the Rope hit his body, so he immediately grabbed it, letting Duan Tou Zhe Delang pull him up.

In this way, seven or eight Bandits soon gathered at the top.

After the Bandits below confirmed that the top had been occupied by them, they immediately connected a large wooden barrel to the lowered Rope, letting their respective women and children climb in one by one.

The Bandits nearby who had originally decided to hide in the high rock caves, seeing them go up, also split off more than half and ran over, scrambling to join the ranks of those leaving.

The steady Bandit Leader and his trusted subordinates did not go over; if they really went over to run with Delang now, and everyone survived later, they would likely be eliminated by Delang, who was more trusted by the Bandits.

And hiding here, it was not certain they wouldn't survive to the end; after all, with so many people following Delang, the Militia would surely focus the vast majority of their energy on them.

And here, it might actually be the place where one could truly survive.

Standing at the edge of the Tianjing, Delang pulled off the thin cloth covering his mouth and nose, then took a deep breath of cold air. He had never felt that simply breathing a mouthful of air like this could be so wonderful.

Although he did not know why those insidious Militia had withdrawn, since a large number of Bandits had come out, those Militia could only deal with them through brute force.

Delang directed the Bandits who had joined his ranks to bring the people below up trip by trip. Unfortunately, because they had gathered in the passage where the smoke primarily circulated, many physically weak women and children had fainted and suffocated to death, and the Bandits who had been injured in the fighting over the previous days were also roasted alive by the heat waves that pressed in step by step within the lair because no one paid them any mind.

Half of the remaining people stubbornly hid in the corners of the Shandong with two other Bandit Leaders, firmly believing that they could barely survive there.

Delang shook his head, not believing that holding out there would ultimately lead to survival.

He immediately had the sharp-witted Bandits scout the surroundings of the mountain top.

But soon, the Bandits heading toward the entrance of the Shandong were all shot dead by a wave of Crossbow arrows; there wasn't a single tree here, and there was nowhere to hide.

But Delang knew that it wasn't as if there were no other places to go from here.

Soon, having lost two careless Bandits, they found a steep mountain path that was barely passable.

There were many climbing and walking footprints on the mountain path, presumably left by Bandits who had fled this place before.

There was nothing else to say; Delang immediately sent people down to scout it out.

In the end, the number of people who could escape with him was only a little over a hundred, half of whom were women and children the Bandits had seized. Some cold-blooded and ruthless Bandits had not cared at all about the families left in the lair, only concerned with saving their own lives, but after all, the Bandits were only a bit more ferocious, and they possessed what ordinary people had; many still risked their lives to bring their respective women and children out.

Seeing that there were no more people below willing to come out, Delang thought for a moment and directly had his subordinates pull back those Ropes.

"Since you like staying here, then stay here honestly." He left this sentence toward the Tianjing that was still gushing thick smoke, then spat, and proceeded to lead his people away from here.

The Bandits carried various things, a motley collection, mostly various valuables they had hoarded during their raids, while the women, whether they had children or not, carried large bags of food and furs as the survival supplies for all of them to escape this place.

Many who had not climbed steep mountain ridges often fell off the cliffs while walking down; fortunately, they were fleeing this place in the afternoon, unlike the previous Bandits who had all snuck away under the cover of night.

Those Bandits had only cared about the concealment of the night, but had not thought about how difficult the mountain path, which had accumulated much snow, was to walk in the dark; at least half of the people had died on this small mountain path that usually did not attract the attention of Bandits.

After losing more than ten people, the Bandits finally made it down with lingering fear.

Once down, they looked at the various Bandit corpses that had fallen to their deaths around them and were scared to death, one after another demanding to leave here quickly, because they did not know when those Militia would discover their tracks and track them down.

After several days of fighting, the Bandits at least had a clear realization; they knew that in a normal fight, they could not beat those farmers who had only heard to have trained for half a month.

This realization brought a major psychological blow to these usually ferocious Bandits.

It turned out that their previous dealings with various Caravans and migrants were not because they were good at fighting, but simply because they had more people.

Facing Militia that outnumbered them and possessed combat abilities far exceeding their own, these Bandits had lost the confidence and courage to engage the Militia head-on.

Facing the Bandits' demands, Delang felt they should all gather together and head toward the Forest where they had heard the Bandits spent the winter. It wasn't impossible to settle down there, or for everyone to split up and join other Bandit Groups.

However, once the Bandits were no longer under the intense threat of death, and coupled with the fact that Delang, who had not performed well in the previous battles against the Militia, had lost the Bandits' trust and prestige, the Bandits who had escaped immediately gathered into several scattered small groups.

Those subordinates of Tie Gebo still could not be commanded by Delang, and the subordinates of other Bandit Leaders also quickly gathered together, and before Delang could react, they immediately headed toward the surrounding Forest. No matter how he shouted, they would not look back.

"Forget them! We're going this way!" Delang felt that their escape process had been surprisingly smooth, not at all corresponding to the Militia who had been ambushed at the Tianjing before. A bad feeling couldn't help but well up in his heart as he looked at the quiet mountain forest and the large patches of pure white snow on the ground.

He swallowed a dry mouthful of saliva, bent down to scoop up some snowballs, ate them in small bites, and after thinking for a while, decided to take a route that others would likely never think of.

"Move! Go east, take the mountain ridge by the Shikeng." After giving the order, his subordinate Bandits could not understand why their boss wanted to go in the opposite direction of the Forest where the Bandits spent the winter.

"Boss, why are we taking that road? Did we go the wrong way?" A trusted subordinate asked after hesitating for a long while.

He knew it was impossible to use force to suppress these guys like before; after all, those who were willing to follow him here were truly trusted confidants who had passed various tests of loyalty.

"The situation isn't looking good. Will those numerous Militia anticipate our escape?"

A Bandit immediately said: "Even if they don't anticipate it, they will probably send people to guard nearby. Are we being watched? Boss?" By the end of his sentence, the Bandit's expression appeared somewhat broken.

Delang knew he couldn't make it sound too terrifying, otherwise these guys who had repeatedly failed against the Militia would likely lose the last bit of heart to resist and fight: "Maybe. But just now those guys split up from us, and we are heading in a direction that is hard to pursue; those Militia will definitely focus on dealing with the others who escaped. Haha, so I want to go east against the norm, just to separate from those who are all going north and west."

With Delang saying it this way, having a comparison, these subordinates felt that following a Bandit Leader with rich experience was still very beneficial.

"Moreover, there is a Shikeng in the east. I don't know if those Militia know about the place where we usually dispose of corpses; it's best if they don't. If they do know, they will likely be too afraid and terrified to send anyone over."

"If any Militia catch up, we will shake off the Militia's pursuit there!" Delang said finally.

"The boss is actually the smartest of all the leaders!"

"We all think so."

In their whispered conversation, their team of less than fifty people stared at the darkening sky, walked along the edge of the Forest, and slowly headed toward the east.

"See that guy? That person is one of the leaders of the Bandit Group; we'll deal with him. With the twenty-some Bandits under his command, they're worth quite a bit of money." Jier said to the few Spear Militia beside him.

"Jier, can we do it with just a few of us? I don't think it's possible at all; after all, it's not that very advantageous terrain like before." A Militia member questioned.

Jier nodded and continued: "Of course not; even one-on-two is impossible. But the Bandits are also carrying women and children, so their movement speed is slow. Let's move fast, go first to invite a squad of Melee Militia from the east direction, and deal with this group of Bandits together. Once these people are dealt with, this Bandit Group will have no more combat power."

"Then let's go!"

"Go!" Jier took the lead, and they quickly overtook Delang's Bandit team from the Forest to go find those Melee Militia patrolling and surrounding the perimeter.