Chapter 791: Chaotic Situation

Moments before Jier shouted out that they had fallen for a trap, it was during that time he had led men from the edge of the Shulin, following the bow-wielding Bandit into the Shulin.

In the Shulin beside the Shanglu, the Bandit Leader said viciously to the young Bandits who were also lying prone on the ground hiding: "I'll ask one more time, who dares to raid the Refugee Team with me? The Knight guarding the refugees has been lured away by Bamian and his men, this is a rare opportunity!"

Although the young Bandits present had all gone through the "new recruit" ceremony hosted by the Bandit Leader not long ago and had no way to back out of their status as Bandits, bullying defenseless people who were tied up versus dozens of people raiding a Refugee Team of hundreds—no matter how you looked at it, those were not on the same level.

Many young Bandits were willing to continue working for the Bandit Leader, but they lacked the guts to just rush out and take such a risk in broad daylight.

This truly required too much Yongqi.

After all, the Refugee Team was not only large in number, but also had its own organized Armed Squads for protection; even if some of those people had been taken away by the Knight, the remaining people were still significantly more numerous than those present.

Hearing no response, the Bandit Leader was so angry that he snorted a puff of hot air from his nose: "Gutless gophers! I thought among you people, at least one or two would be capable, turns out you're all trash, good-for-nothings!"

Hearing this, many young Bandits lowered their faces, burying them into the fallen leaves of the Shulin where they lay.

However, at this moment, someone stood up.

A young voice stubbornly shouted in a low tone: "Leader! I am not trash! And I am not a good-for-nothing! I am willing to do this job with you!"

The Bandit Leader's eyes lit up: "Good, you have guts! Come here, I'll reward you with a fine weapon made of steel."

The young Bandit who spoke crawled over to the Bandit Leader's side; the Bandit Leader touched the young boy's hair with his rough, large hand, emitting a low, laughing sound from his mouth. After laughing, he pulled a steel Short Sword from a veteran Bandit nearby, which the veteran Bandit had been keeping as a spare.

The veteran Bandit, who was also lying on the ground, let out a wronged squeak: "Boss, that's my tool for earning a living..."

"Hmph, eat, eat, eat, all you know is eating. I'll compensate you later; let our brave new companion use it for now. Anyway, you %% only have two hands, you can't use three weapons. Come, kid, take it, this weapon is yours now! Kill the enemy fiercely for me in a moment; after the battle ends, I want to see you holding at least two heads!"

Although the demand made by the Bandit Leader was a bit difficult to handle, the young Bandit still took the new weapon, and naturally packed away his own old, tattered blade and sword, throwing them to his little companion from the same village.

Subsequently, with this person taking the lead, seven or eight more young people joined the raid intermittently. The Bandit Leader gave new weapons to the first few as encouragement; for those who joined later, he said they would talk about it after the battle ended.

Feeling that the number of people was enough to have a fighting chance, the Bandit Leader stood up and waved his hand to signal those who were going to follow him forward.

On the Shanglu not far outside the Shulin ahead, that Refugee Team happened to be walking past their eyes.

The timing was perfect; the vast majority of the Refugee Team's armed strength was gathered at the front of the team, and there seemed to be no one guarding the rear.

"Charge! Follow me with big strides!"

With a shout, the Bandit Leader strode out, and the others followed closely behind his figure.

They first walked quickly out of the Shulin, then arrived at the grassy field outside the Shulin, at which point they started jogging, quickly charging toward the end of the Refugee Team.

"Chi—"

At the rear of the Refugee Team, on the grassy field outside the team, the shrill cry of a long-haired lynx Beast suddenly rang out.

First it was one cry, then other Mao Maos screamed one after another.

The Bandits were somewhat puzzled while charging over, not knowing what kind of ghost thing was giving the Refugee Team a warning. And at the end of the Refugee Team, the civilians, hearing the warning cry of the non-human, turned their heads one after another to look in the direction the sound came from.

You wouldn't know until you looked, and one look gave them a fright.

Dozens of Bandits were charging over quickly from the side-rear of the team; many people had only been focused on walking, and only now discovered that the Bandits were less than a hundred meters away from them.

"There are Bandits! There are Bandits!!!"

Someone screamed, and then more and more civilians at the rear of the team saw the Bandits chasing over and also started shouting one after another. At the same time, some quickened their pace, wanting to get to the front of the team, while others threw down the supplies they were carrying, pulled out the Daggers, Short Swords, or Short Knives that everyone had been issued from their waists, determined to fight the Bandits to the death.

Others were panicked and didn't know what to do, so they just ran back and forth, shouting loudly, hoping to call the Armed Civilians at the front of the team back to protect everyone.

"Help! There are Bandits here! Brothers at the front! Come over quickly to guard us!"

The cries were shrill; those who didn't know better, upon hearing them, would have thought the person had been stabbed a few times to be able to let out such panicked shouts.

In the middle and rear of the Refugee Team, it fell into chaos in an instant.

"Stop! Stop!"

Xueya Site shouted as he stopped Jier's carriage, then grabbed the crossbow he had kept by his side and nimbly climbed onto the roof of the carriage.

He crouched on the roof of the carriage, skillfully pulled back the crossbow string, then placed the Crossbow Bolt he had been holding in his mouth into the groove of the crossbow body and pressed it into place. Then he lifted the crossbow and looked toward the rear of the team.

"Good fellows! Truly troublesome Bandits, are they crazy, daring to attack our team in broad daylight."

Saying that, he roughly aimed his eyes toward the place where the Bandits were numerous, then raised the height according to the approximate distance. Feeling it was about right, he pulled the wooden mechanism under the crossbow body, Bang!

His whole body shook, and the Crossbow Bolt flew out along a parabolic arc that rose then fell. Under Xueya Site's gaze, it hit the arm of a Bandit who was charging in a group, incidentally knocking that Bandit to the ground.

Some of the other Bandits bypassed their injured and fallen companion, while others didn't care at all, directly stepping on their injured companion as they continued the assault.

With Xueya Site starting the attack, naturally, others reacted as well.

Bataer, the Nongshen Believer riding on a grassland horse, turned around the first moment the non-human warning cry sounded at the rear of the team, discovering the Bandit Group that had rushed out of the Shulin and was charging straight at the rear of the team.

He was startled, searching all around, but only found the warhorse of the warrior Jier in the distance; the warrior himself and the Armed Civilians he had taken away seemed to have charged into the Shulin.

"Ah, lured away! Really, people of the Armed Squad! Bring two squads to support the rear of the team, no, three squads go over for emergency support! The remaining squad guard the front of the team. Also, all civilians please stop! Set up defenses on the spot, do not panic, the enemy is few in number, they are not our match! Repeat, all civilians stop, set up defensive measures on the spot, do not panic, the enemy is not numerous, they are not the match of the team's guards!"

The Priest urgently cast a Divine Art, letting his voice resound through this mountain forest.

The huge volume startled many birds in the mountain forest on both sides of the Shanglu, and also allowed the panicked civilians in the team to barely react.

However, because the team of hundreds was carrying things on their backs and horses, the entire team was very long; the four squads in the trapezoidal defense at the very front of the team would need some time even if the three closest squads rushed over.

And at this time, the Bandits had already reached the very end of the team and had already engaged with the civilians trailing at the back. Clearly, by the time the Armed Squads at the front rushed over, it would be too late, and it was bound to cause the Bandits to inflict no small amount of losses.

"Nongshen bless, give me Yongqi."

Priest Bataer muttered to himself; he didn't use Divine Art to increase the volume for this sentence. After speaking, he directly turned his horse's head, took the Amber Metal Long Staff from behind him, and held it high above his head. He made the grassland horse rear up to attract the attention of those around him, while shouting: "Believers of Nongshen! Please fight with me! Eat the food bestowed by the God of Food, and you shall receive the gaze and favor of Nongshen! Please follow me, fight with me!"

With a squeeze of his horse's belly, the grassland horse leaped vigorously from the spot, jumping directly out of the Shanglu and onto the grassy field outside the crowd. The Nongshen Believers who had been surrounding the Priest looked at each other; a dozen or so young male and female believers drew their own self-defense weapons, rushed out of the Shanglu, and followed the young Priest onto the grassy field to fight together.

However, among the total of sixty or seventy believing civilians, in the end, only those ten-plus people followed the Priest's figure. Others lowered their heads, each finding reasons to excuse themselves, and in the end, followed the Priest's previous instructions to defend on the spot.

Yongqi Maomao shouted in short bursts, using the language of its own kind that only they could understand, directing the other Maos that had scattered.

The powerful Human had given it the task of guarding the tail of the team, guarding against the enemy launching an attack from here.

According to Jier's expectation, when the enemy raided the end of the Refugee Team, as long as the Maos made a warning sound, he would be able to hear it no matter where he was in the team, and then ride to support them.

A large group of enemies could not hide their figures, and a small group of enemies could not be his match.

Therefore, not deploying Armed Civilians at the back of the team was both an estimation of the situation and his confidence in his own abilities.

But that was under the condition that he himself was present.

At this moment, no matter how shrilly the Maos warned when they saw the Bandits raiding out from the Shulin, the powerful Human they expected did not appear. This made Yongqi Maomao somewhat hesitant; it was hesitating whether or not to engage in battle.

The Mao Maos have very good eyesight; as soon as the Bandits rushed out of the Shulin, they roughly saw the number and equipment status of the Bandits.

Walking at the very front was naturally the Bandit Leader, tall and fat, wearing two pieces of local Soldier Armor modified into one, holding a huge and heavy Great Axe in his hand; a battle axe that others would need two hands to hold, this guy could hold and fight with it in one hand alone.

Because it was a surprise attack, the Bandit Leader's left hand was also holding an olive-shaped wooden Shield, on which a fierce skull pattern in red and gray was painted with human blood and bone ash, quite terrifying.

Of course, as an alien race, the Mao Maos could not understand human artistic expression very well; they were not afraid of things like skulls. It was just that they did not know whether they should go up and fight such a formidable group of Bandits.

After all, these human Bandits were not a small group of goblins or monsters acting alone; although the Mao Maos were confident in their hunting and fighting skills honed in the mountains and forests, they were only a few Mao Maos after all, and they were no match for the human Bandits who looked very fierce in both attack and defense.

It was just like before, when they were still working for a group of human Bandits, hoping that by doing things for the humans, the other party would reward them with some metal. As a result, after those Bandits finished using them, they did not give the metal reward originally agreed upon at all, but the small and short Mao Maos were no match for those tall human Bandits—those Bandits carried a lot of metal on them, and the Mao Maos mainly judged combat power by how much metal was on one's body.

But having said that, although Yongqi Maomao felt that it and its companions were no match for the Bandits, if they participated in the battle, the powerful humans might reward them with a lot of metal afterwards.

Thinking of this, Yongqi Maomao made a judgment; it meowed loudly several times, telling the melee Mao Maos among its companions not to engage in direct combat with the enemy, as the disparity in strength between the enemy and them was too great; for the four melee Mao Maos to go up and fight would be like mosquitoes flying onto a jumping frog's face to bite—it would be suicide.

Afterwards, it called out to gather the ranged Mao Maos by its side, and the group avoided the Bandits' surprise attack route, flicking their tails from the flank to strike out the small pebbles they had picked up and carried with them.

Pop, pop, pop, they continuously struck out the Stone, each one accurately hitting the human Bandits in the distance.

However, human Bandits were different from other monsters in the mountains and forests; they all wore various kinds of protective Armor, and although it was not all metal like that of powerful humans, it was still much stronger than many wild beasts.

The flying pebbles hitting the human Bandits could only injure and enrage those guys.

"Where did the Stone come from? Did anyone see it?"

"Over there, over there! A few upright cats are attacking us, take this!"

After speaking, a Bandit pulled a Throwing Spear from behind while running; he first rubbed the side of his waist where he had been hit by a stone, and then threw the Throwing Spear toward the upright cats vaguely seen in the grass.

Swish—

The Throwing Spear was extremely fast, but the Mao Maos, having seen the enemy counterattack after firing a round of Stone, had long since scattered in all directions.

Just one melee Mao Mao lay on the ground, and after the human's Throwing Spear pinned down a wild flower, it excitedly rushed up to pull out the Throwing Spear that was as tall as itself, and then together with another melee Mao Mao, the two little ones carried the Bandit's Throwing Spear and escaped away just like that.

This was extra loot, things that belonged to them.

Although the Throwing Spear was not of much use to the Mao Maos, there was some metal on the spearhead after all; the Mao Maos liked metal and could not let this metal go.

Yongqi Maomao led the others to the side and launched an attack on the human Bandits again, but this time the human Bandits had already quickly approached the end of the Refugee Team, and the two sides were mixed together in battle; the Mao Maos had to be careful not to hit their own people.

Ranged attacks were difficult to manage, so Yongqi Maomao's eyes rolled around, and it immediately led its companions to launch an attack on the scattered enemies who had fallen on the road after being injured during the Bandits' assault.

"Meow meow meow! Meow-yow—"

Under the leadership of Yongqi Maomao, the Mao Maos moved on all fours with their tails held high, and amidst the crisscrossing formation, they headed straight for those injured Bandits.

"Ah! Take this!"

At the end of the team, a young man roared and swung the Short Knife in his hand, killing toward the Bandits.

The Bandit Leader sneered, swung his axe down, severed the young man's arm, and then pushed the man, shoving the wailing and collapsing Refugee to the side, letting the other Bandits beside him kill the man.

He looked at the chaotic Refugee Team and roared excitedly: "Cut down the men, knock out the women and carry them away! Although it's a Refugee Team, they might be unexpectedly rich; chop open all the boxes they are carrying and see what good things are inside!"

"Wahahaha, kill!"

The Bandits swarmed up; even the young Bandit who had just joined was now showing a glint in his eyes, his face flushed with excitement, and he swung his new weapon fiercely, hacking down the Refugees who were as young as him and resisting.

"Still daring to resist! Still daring to resist! Die!"

The young Bandit who had been the first to step forward and join earlier now used his steel Short Sword to parry the weapon of the stiff-limbed Refugee, and then stabbed his sword through the stomach of the Refugee who was even younger than him, excitedly twisting the weapon inside the stomach and watching the painful expression on the person in front of him.

"Hahahaha, how about that? I'm not someone to be trifled with; I'll take your head!"

Pulling out the Short Sword, the young Bandit couldn't wait to kick the Refugee over, straddling the other person to alive-cut off the young Refugee's head before the other person was even dead.

But before he could act, a Crossbow Bolt hit his left arm, not only piercing through his entire left Upper Arm Armor but also hitting his left rib, making him cry out in pain.

"Who! Who is sneak-attacking..."

The young Bandit with a ferocious face looked left and right, but in such a chaotic situation, he could never imagine that the person who hit him was still on the carriage at the front of the team.

In fact, the Bandit Leader, who had some skills, had already seen Xueya Site in the chaotic battlefield. The resistance of the Refugees in front of him was not in his eyes at all; it was the sneak attack of the Crossbow Bolt from afar that made him feel unhappy.

Of his ten parts of attention, seven or eight were focused on whether that crossbowman was aiming at him.

As a Bandit Leader, bringing people to rush up had already fulfilled his job, and he did not need to do the looting of people and supplies himself, so guarding against sneak attacks and protecting himself was the most important thing for the Bandit Leader in every battle.

"Spit, looking at the appearance, is it a Caravan guard hired? A bit of skill."

The carriage where Xueya Site was located was still some distance from the end of the Refugee Team; being able to hit two out of three shots from such a distance was already a very impressive skill.

It was just over a dozen breaths, and the dozen or so young Refugees who were bravely fighting the Bandits at the end of the team were killed by these Bandits; seeing this, more people were even more panicked, throwing away their self-defense weapons and supplies, and running toward the middle of the team as if fleeing for their lives.

A Bandit wiped his blood-stained Cleaver on the corpse of a young Refugee girl, stepped on the young Refugee's delicate face with his foot, and then slashed open a small wooden barrel that the girl had been protecting with her life.

This wooden barrel looked to have some weight, and it was estimated that it contained quite a lot of things. As a result, after slashing open the barrel lid, the things inside disappointed him greatly.

"..., how is it just some grain? Could this group of Refugees be so poor that they only have these things left?"

He spat into the barrel and was about to complain to the leader, wondering if they had misjudged the wealth of the Refugee Team? Although these people had many bags and bundles and brought a lot of things on carriages, donkey carts, and Handcart, maybe they only had these things left to survive; otherwise, why would they be a Refugee Team.

But before he could speak, his eyes were attracted by the grain in the barrel.

The Bandit was stunned, wiped his blood-stained left hand, and scooped out the grain inside the barrel.

At first glance, this grain looked unremarkable, but it was actually plump in every grain, even more impressive than the grain grown with the best seeds on the most fertile land. This Bandit was a Farmer by origin when he was young, and he had farmed for several years in his youth, so he naturally realized the value of this thing.

And what made his heart beat even faster was that this grain was not only plump in every grain, as if it had been copied by Magic, but even now under the sun, one could see that this grain was faintly glowing.

"This, this thing. Boss! Come over and look at this thing! We've struck it rich! Struck it rich!!"

The Bandit shouted loudly.