Without money, what is the point of being a traitor?

Chapter 244: Soldiers are powerful and fast

Pei Yuan watched as the second team of cavalry briefly stopped where the first team of cavalry disappeared, and then began to retreat.

Pei Yuan was immediately alert and gave an accurate judgment.

It seems that the situation is still under control!

If the enemy cannot destroy the second team of scouts in the first time, it means that they have relied on ambush or other means before.

This prevented them from collecting the bodies and they were discovered by the second team.

But the second team was able to get a chance to retreat, which proved that the ambushing enemy was not that strong.

This is a great opportunity to show off your battlefield intuition!

Pei Yuan immediately glanced at everyone and said vigilantly, "Something is wrong!"

Then he shouted loudly, "Someone come! Someone come quickly!"

Cheng Leixiang, who was well prepared, immediately rode over with eight Jinyiwei soldiers wearing cotton armor, cover armor and carrying hard bows.

The reaction was so quick that even Xiao Yan was startled, and he suspected that the cup would be smashed as a signal.

Pei Yuan glanced around and decisively urged Xiao Yan and Xu Feng, "Quick! Bring people with me to check the situation."

As they were speaking, the Jinyiwei cavalrymen had arrived.

Cheng Leixiang even specially led an empty horse. Pei Yuan took out his armor from the package hanging on the horse and put it on with great effort. When he climbed onto the horse's back, he found that Xiao Yan and Xu Feng were still standing there in a daze.

Pei Yuan immediately said angrily, "Speed ​​is of the essence in war, what are you still thinking about?"

If you don't show your battlefield intuition now, it will be too late.

Xiao Yan gritted his teeth and decided to trust Pei Yuan's judgment.

He said to Xu Feng, "Choose a few people, and let's go with Captain Pei to take a look."

Xu Feng did not hesitate. He had also captured some trusted men in the past few days. Seeing that Xiao Yan had made up his mind, he immediately assembled a cavalry team of about forty or fifty people.

Pei Yuan urged Xiao Yan while looking at the map.

Looking at the second team of scouts gradually retreating, Pei Yuan felt secretly anxious.

The second team of scouts will be withdrawn to a safe area...

Pei Yuan simply didn't wait and rushed out with Cheng Leixiang and his own Jinyiwei soldiers.

Seeing this, Xiao Yan hesitated for a moment, then urged his horse to catch up.

Seeing that they had left first, Xu Feng anxiously cursed at the soldiers who were busy putting on armor. He finally managed to calm them down from their panic and then quickly chased after them along the road.

Pei Yuan had the map to guide him, and he knew that the route between the camp and the second team of scouts should be relatively safe.

He let his horse gallop, and after running for about a few miles, he saw three riders riding their horses in panic and running towards him.

Pei Yuan looked back and saw a dozen riders chasing the three men.

Seeing this, Pei Yuan took out the bow from behind without hesitation and shot indiscriminately at the pursuers.

Cheng Leixiang and others also reacted and went to get their bows, intending to block the pursuers behind them.

Unexpectedly, with the sound of Pei Yuan's bowstring "bang", one of the pursuers in the distance fell off his horse.

Pei Yuan was shocked.

Is it so accurate?
He hurriedly pulled the bow again, but this time, perhaps because of extreme nervousness or excitement, he pulled the bow in his hand so hard that it broke.

Pei Yuan was shaken, and his hands were unable to exert their strength. His tendons trembled wildly as if from excessive fatigue, causing his arms to feel sore and weak for a moment.

However, the pursuers in the distance were startled.

Pei Yuan's arrow just now hit one of the pursuers in the shoulder. It was not known whether it was the shock caused by the sudden attack or the severe pain caused by the arrow that made him subconsciously want to hide.

As a result, he couldn't keep his seat on the horse and was shot off by an arrow.

The pursuers were not very determined to fight to begin with, and this sudden change caused many of them to subconsciously slow down their horses.

Then they saw that the imperial general could actually break the bow and arrow with one hand, which made them even more shocked.

At this time, someone in the pursuit shouted, "We can't catch up, let's go!"

The cavalrymen behind immediately scattered like birds and beasts with a whoosh.

Xiao Yan and his son Xiao Tong, who followed closely, were deeply shocked when they saw this scene.

They had all seen Captain Pei fighting in the long street and smashing his horse's head with a door board before, but they didn't expect that this man had such accurate archery skills!
Captain Pei can be a tank, fight, and summon, and now he even has long-range skills.

Horror!
Xiao Yan and his son looked at each other, and they couldn't help but have doubts about whether they should use the power of Xuzhou Wei to deal with Pei Yuan.

It is hard to say whether such a fierce guy can be killed. If he is provoked into ferociousness, it will be questionable whether the father and son can protect themselves.

Instead of doing this, it would be better to wait until I return to the capital, use my background to slowly compete with him.

No matter how powerful Pei Yuan is, he can't do whatever he wants under the emperor's feet.

The father and son reined in their horses, thinking about this with mixed feelings.

Cheng Leixiang and others were cheering and shouting, "The thousand households are mighty! The thousand households are mighty!"

Pei Yuan's arms were itchy and painful, but he was too embarrassed to rub them at this time, so he could only force a laugh and told everyone, "Go and see if that person is dead!"

Cheng Leixiang immediately ran over to check the man that Pei Yuan shot down.

After taking a look, he shouted, "He's not dead, he just fainted."

The three cavalrymen who had fled back rushed to Pei Yuan with lingering fear and shouted in panic, "Report to Captain Pei, our brothers in front have been ambushed. There are no less than hundreds of bandits, and they are more than a mile away."

Pei Yuan endured the pain in his arm and asked, "Can you tell where those bandits come from? Are there many cavalry?"

The scout replied, "It should be a group of Bazhou rebels, because I saw a few of them wearing the official army's cotton armor. Ordinary thieves can't get this stuff. As for the cavalry, those just now were all their cavalry."

Pei Yuan knew that he couldn't ask anything more.

He looked back and saw Xu Feng rushing over with dozens of cavalrymen. He felt more confident and immediately said to the scout, "Take us to have a look."

With so many cavalrymen, including a certain proportion of selected servants, they would have no problem protecting themselves when dealing with the hundreds of Bazhou bandits who were already defeated.

Pei Yuan clearly remembered that he had mobilized the elite troops of the Bazhou Army to the front army. The Bazhou bandits who stayed behind were all those who originally served as auxiliary troops, and their combat effectiveness was completely poor.

These auxiliary troops were weak to begin with, and after being defeated once by Bai Yu and Lu Ting, their morale and fighting spirit became even lower.

After moving to Shandong, although a large number of young and strong men were added, the army looked much better.

However, these newly recruited young and strong men lacked both combat experience and fighting spirit.

If they are numerous and powerful, they can still come up and fight with double the courage. If it is just a small group of soldiers, then Pei Yuan has nothing to be afraid of.

Pei Yuan's few taels of silver really didn't play any role in buying the hearts of the troops. When the scout saw Xu Feng riding his horse and leading his troops, he decided to ask Commander Xu for his opinion first. After Xu Feng arrived, he was stunned when he heard Xiao Yan briefly explain the situation.

However, Xiao Yan was somewhat skeptical about Pei Yuan's battlefield intuition, and urged Xu Feng to lead his troops and follow Pei Yuan to the front to take a look.

When Xu Feng heard that there was indeed an enemy ambush and that the enemy army was estimated to have hundreds of people, sweat immediately broke out on his forehead.

However, everyone was watching, and Pei Yuan and Xiao Yan were waiting for him, so he had no choice but to bite the bullet and say, "In that case, let's go and see what's going on."

As he said this, he asked the scout to lead the way.

It was not known whether the three scouts were afraid of death or had received some hint, but by the time they finally arrived at the destination, the troops that were originally ambushing there had already retreated to who knows where.

There were three bodies on the ground, shot by arrows.

Pei Yuan looked around and saw nothing was happening, so he jumped off his horse and walked over to the three men to take a look.

Seeing the traces of heavy objects being dragged on the ground, he made a conclusion in his mind and said to Xiao Yan and Xu Feng, "I'm afraid the enemy's camp is not far from here."

Xiao Yan no longer had the arrogance he had before, and took the initiative to ask, "Why do you think so?"

Pei Yuan said, "They set up an ambush and killed the first wave of scouts, but were discovered by the second wave of scouts. Although they sent troops to chase and kill them, there is no doubt that the matter was exposed."

"Under such circumstances, they were able to calmly drag the heavy horse carcass away. This shows that they were not worried about our pursuit, nor were they afraid of the horse carcass being a burden."

"According to my guess, the bandit camp should be not far away."

After saying that, Pei Yuan looked at Cheng Leixiang, "Where is the prisoner?"

Cheng Leixiang replied, "He lost a lot of blood and is still unconscious."

Pei Yuan said to Xiao Yan, "Captain Xiao, now the enemy is in the dark and we are in the light, there is no need to be reckless. Let's go back and interrogate the survivor and see who the opponent is, and then make plans."

Xiao Yan agreed with this and said, "Yes, let's go back first."

As the group was about to turn back, Pei Yuan looked back and said loudly to Xu Feng, "Commander Xu, take your men with you."

Xu Feng looked around and said in surprise, "Everyone is following us."

Pei Yuan turned his head and gestured, "Those three."

Xu Feng looked and immediately noticed the three scouts dead there.

Xu Feng was not stupid either. He realized at this moment that he had made a mistake. This opportunity to win people's hearts was snatched away by Pei Yuan.

He tried to suppress his anger and ordered his men, "Bring your comrades with you. Do you need an order for this? What did the commander of Xuzhou Guards usually teach you?"

The soldiers who followed immediately divided into several groups and stepped forward, lifted the three bodies on the ground and put them on the horses.

On the way back, Xiao Yan and Xu Feng, who had not had time to talk, had a brief conversation.

No one is optimistic about the current situation.

For them, what happened yesterday could be considered an accident, but today's deliberate ambush was already a targeted act.

The other side obviously knew our whereabouts very well, so they were able to set up ambushes in the direction of their march.

Moreover, the other party's actions clearly showed that after they understood the strength of the guard team, they didn't care at all.

When we returned to the camp, Gu Dayong was already looking forward to it.

Seeing someone coming over, Gu Dayong hurriedly asked nervously, "How is it, what's the situation?"

Pei Yuan said a few simple words, and then said, "Fortunately, we captured a prisoner, so it's not a complete loss."

At this moment, Xu Feng took the initiative again, "I'll have someone drag the prisoner down to question him and see if we can get anything out of him."

Pei Yuan frowned and refused directly, "That person is too seriously injured. If he is not careful, he will die. Let my people do the work."

Pei Yuan also understood that this was not the time for internal fighting, so he explained more to Gu Dayong and Xiao Yan.

"I have a general under my command who used to work for the East Factory. He has tortured people for more than ten years without any mistakes. This prisoner doesn't look like he has much hope of survival. If someone else were to interrogate him, I'm afraid he would be killed after a few beatings."

Several people heard this in silence.

Pei Yuan then ordered Cheng Leixiang to call Chen Toutie over.

When Chen Toutie arrived overjoyed with a bag of torture instruments, everyone couldn't help but look at him a few more times.

The East Factory does have a bad reputation.

And those who are in charge of torture in the East Factory are the most perverted among the perverts in everyone's eyes.

Chen Toutie's face was filled with joy and he looked eager to try, which deepened everyone's thoughts.

Pei Yuan pointed at the prisoner and warned.

"You are almost dead. Ask carefully and don't kill them easily. Ask who they are, how many soldiers they have, and where they are stationed."

Chen Toutie said confidently, "Leave it to me."

As he said this, he looked at the prisoner for a few seconds, untied his bundle, and began to select instruments of torture.

Pei Yuan had seen Chen Toutie torture people several times before, so he deliberately looked away and looked into the distance.

It was the first time for Xiao Yan and his son, Gu Dayong, and Xu Feng to see such a scene. Moreover, it was the executioner from the notorious East Depot who did it personally. They couldn't help but steal a few glances from time to time.

The unconscious prisoner, under Chen Toutie's manipulation, quickly screamed and opened his eyes.

Chen Toutie didn't know what method he used to stimulate the prisoner's potential, but the prisoner struggled desperately as if he was not injured at all.

Several people held down the prisoner with great force, and then Chen Toutie chuckled and used the selected torture instruments one by one.

The onlookers glanced at it a few times, then their faces turned pale and they dared not look any further.

While they listened to the prisoner's hysterical curses, they also listened to Chen Toutie's methodical interrogation.

Amid those scattered and crazy words, everyone slowly outlined the intelligence.

The enemy that entangled them this time was a small group of rebels from Bazhou, with more than a thousand people, and their leader was called "Little Wusong".

Because his nickname conflicted with that of "Big Tiger", one of the two leaders, he was driven far away to this side.

Yesterday, they accidentally ambushed and captured the scout who was out exploring the way.

When they heard that these troops were actually escorting the evil official Gu Dayong back to the capital, the bandits in Bazhou became completely excited.

The evil eunuch Gu Dayong led the imperial army to strangle the Bazhou army for more than a year. It is unknown how many Bazhou soldiers died at the hands of these villains. In particular, the Bazhou soldiers often took their families with them. Sometimes, when the military situation was urgent, they had to abandon the old and the young.

Therefore, there were quite a few soldiers in Bazhou whose families were destroyed and their loved ones died because of Gu Dayong.

These people learned from the scouts that Gu Dayong had fallen from power and was about to return to the capital in disgrace, and they immediately made up their minds to kill him here.

For this reason, in addition to their troops starting to engage in entanglement along the way, the leader "Little Wu Song" also specially sent a letter to the two leaders, hoping that they could come and hunt the evil eunuch together.

(End of this chapter)