Chapter 37: So It Really Was Zhang Erlang

As a military garrison specifically tasked with guarding against the Tibetans and Uyghurs on the Qilian Mountains, the ordinary soldiers of Shouchang Garrison might not be very familiar with Ge Duo, but elite troops like Ma Yaozi and Deputy Commander Yan were quite familiar with him.

Correspondingly, Ge Duo's relationship with the Shouchang Garrison was not entirely one of cat and mouse.

Under normal circumstances, when Ge Duo came out to do some no-capital business and encountered the elite Youyi cavalry of Shouchang Garrison, he would usually toss some of the plundered goods from passing merchants onto the ground. After the Youyi cavalry collected this road toll, they generally would not choose to keep up the hot pursuit.

At the same time, many of the things Ge Duo plundered that he had no use for — porcelain, silk, and the like — would be fenced through the Shouchang Garrison.

Of course, the lion's share went to the higher-ups, the Commissioner and the County Magistrate; Ma Yaozi and the others only got to sip the broth.

This was also the foundation of Ge Duo's confidence in rampaging across Shazhou for decades. Certainly the bandit gang's formidable fighting strength and hidden lair played a part, but the Shouchang Garrison's turning a blind eye was also a major factor.

Heh! A low-ranking officer like Deputy Commander Yan earned less than a string of cash a month in pay, and the soldiers below him even less. With that kind of income, anyone who risked his life to wipe out Ge Duo would be a fool. Take a little tribute from the horse bandits and everyone stays out of each other's way — isn't that better?

"Who in the world got there first?" Deputy Commander Yan was still hung up on the matter — wealth stirs the heart! "Was it infighting? Could it have been a few of Ge Duo's own men?"

Who did it? A name surfaced in Ma Yaozi's mind, but he immediately shook his head hard twice. How could that be! Young Lord Zhang Erlang's ancestors showing divine power, one man against a hundred — wasn't that pure nonsense?

'Twang!' Just as Ma Yaozi was shaking his head, the sound of a bowstring vibrating came through. Though the sound was very faint, to battle-hardened veterans like Ma Yaozi and Deputy Commander Yan, it was still clearly audible.

Ma Yaozi immediately darted to the roadside and dove straight into the low brush!

Deputy Commander Yan was a bit far from the brush, so he could only hurriedly hide behind his horse. He gave a whistle, patted the horse lightly, and the horse carrying his bronze maces and round shield lay down, perfectly screening Deputy Commander Yan.

'Thwack!' The arrow did not fly at the two men, but at Ma Yaozi's horse behind them. A suit of ring-locked armor was also tied to this horse. Whether intentional or a stray shot, the arrow lodged directly into the ring-locked armor.

"Neigh! Neigh!" The horse was not actually wounded, but the tremendous impact scared it badly. With Ma Yaozi not holding the reins, the beast let out two panicked cries and bolted off in a flash.

The two of them reacted fast, and the soldiers behind them were no slower. No one asked what was happening, and no one looked around wildly. These thirty Shouchang Garrison troops displayed extremely high military discipline. Under their squad leader's command, they swiftly extinguished the torches and, in groups of ten, quickly formed a circle with spear points facing outward.

"Clop! Clop-clop! Clop!" The urgent sound of hoofbeats rang out — at least thirty riders or more. Ma Yaozi looked up and saw a column of cavalry with armored front ranks charging down the small path. The leader was actually wearing a suit of dark-gold mingguang armor.

Who's this flashy bastard? The thought had just risen in Ma Yaozi's mind when he suddenly shuddered, because he abruptly remembered what the people in Qi Xiahu's mountain stronghold had said: the Grand Guardian manifested his divinity and bestowed golden armor.

The cavalry came fast, clearly not aimed at the two of them. Ma Yaozi was about to reach for the hard bow that had fallen on the road, but the moment he moved, whoosh — an arrow grazed past his right arm and flew off.

You motherless whoreson, there's a sharpshooter! Ma Yaozi quickly shrank his whole body behind a rock and did not dare move!

Zhang Zhao's horsemanship was quite mediocre, because in the later era, playing with armor actually wasn't expensive — a few tens of thousands of yuan could get you started.

But in the later era, practicing horseback riding, especially riding at full gallop, was expensive. Riding grounds were few, and raising your own horse was out of the question — there was nowhere to keep one; even an ordinary villa couldn't stable a horse.

However, after several days of crash training plus his old foundation, Zhang Zhao still barely managed to complete this charge.

One squad of Shouchang Garrison troops had not yet managed to withdraw from the road when Zhang Zhao and his men arrived. Seeing a group of armored cavalry charging at them, the dozen or so men in the middle of the road let out a howl and simply scattered in all directions.

What a joke! A squad of infantry who hadn't even had time to put on armor, going head-to-head against armored cavalry already at full charge — no one was that stupid!

"Twang! Twang! Twang!" Just as this squad scattered, the charging armored cavalry reined in their horses, then pulled short recurve bows from their horses' sides and gave them a volley of arrows from horseback.

Ma Yaozi closed his eyes in pain. Who knew how many men would be lost now!

"Ow! Ow!" But to everyone's surprise, what reached their ears was not the screams of men struck by arrows, but rather cries of pain as if they had been beaten with clubs.

"Fuck their mothers! These bastards are using blunt arrows — made of bone and wrapped in cotton cloth! Where did these thieving slaves come from? Are they here to toy with your granddaddy?"

Deputy Commander Yan, curled up by the roadside, quickly noticed something off. An arrow flew over and struck the ground beside him. Deputy Commander Yan was very familiar with this thing and recognized it at a glance.

In the cold-weapon era, arrowheads came in many varieties. There were crescent or fishtail shapes specifically for shooting down flags and ropes, expensive armor-piercing triangular cones, and heavy arrows with broad blades that could sometimes shear a wrist clean off with a single hit.

Blunt arrows, on the other hand, were a type used for training and as a warning. In the Central Plains they were generally made of wood; the Tibetans and the frontier peoples used blunt bone ones. These arrows had little killing power, but they hurt terribly when they struck a person.

Deputy Commander Yan recognized these as blunt arrows, and of course the Shouchang Garrison troops howling in pain knew it too. Therefore they did not resist fiercely, nor did they think about forming ranks and fighting to the death. Instead, they wailed and scrambled into the low brush.

These fellows were elite troops, but elite sometimes also meant slippery.

These battle-hardened old foxes sensed that the attackers bore no great malice — at the very least, they didn't intend to kill them.

Moreover, they had come this time to handle private business for Commissioner Luo. Who would be foolish enough to risk provoking the enemy by fighting to the death? Everyone ran if they could.

Once the volley of arrows was complete, Zhang Zhao was the first to jump down from his horse. The newly risen morning sun showed half its face behind his back.

Catching the sunlight, the mingguang armor on Zhang Zhao's body instantly reflected a dazzling golden radiance. His vajra face mask looked majestic and solemn, the red tassel on his helmet swayed gently in the breeze, the long lance in his hand was sharp and perfectly straight, and the willow-leaf-shaped spearhead possessed a destructive beauty. His whole figure looked —

Truly, fuck his mother, magnificent!

Was this a divine general descended from the ninth heaven? That was the truest thought in Chen Huo'er's heart. As squad leader, he stared blankly, forgetting even to organize resistance or retreat.

Then the golden-armored divine general actually smiled at him. Although the face mask covered the other's face, Chen Huo'er somehow knew he had smiled.

"I've come looking for Ma Yaozi, and it's no one else's concern. Behind the mountain, sesame flatbreads are baked, and mutton soup with pepper and dogwood is stewed. Any man whose balls are still in his britches, stay and eat your fill!"

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