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

Chapter 247: Fighting Fast with Fast
Pei Yuan was still in a daze.

Ding Hong, eager to show off, quickly rushed past Pei Yuan.

No.

Pei Yuan hurriedly turned his horse around to look at Ding Hong.

Perhaps someone had been keeping an eye on Pei Yuan, because someone in the forest shouted, "Here he comes again!"

?

Pei Yuan quickly shifted his gaze away from Ding Hong and looked into the forest.

Then, I saw the trees shaking, as if someone was running away from inside.

What does it mean?
Pei Yuan had some guesses, but still couldn't believe it.

In a short while, Ding Hong, who had just escaped death and was eager to show off, had already led his men towards the forest.

Pei Yuan saw that they were so close to the forest and the bandits had not yet organized a counterattack, and the absurd guess in his mind was confirmed.

Then, the sounds of battle were heard in the forest.

Ding Hong obviously had some combat experience. He charged forward fiercely but fought cautiously.

After killing all the remaining enemies who had not retreated, they did not dare to advance too deep.

Ding Hong assigned his men to occupy the position from which they could ambush the road, and then he came out excitedly to ask for credit from Pei Yuan.

"It was all thanks to Qian Hu's arrow that defeated the enemy. The bandits were easily defeated and have been driven away."

Pei Yuan was speechless. Okay, there’s nothing much to say.

He said, "Send someone to find Commander Xu and ask him to send a team of armored infantry to replace you."

Ding Hong quickly arranged someone to do it.

Xiao Yan urged his horse to come over and exclaimed sincerely, "Captain Pei is indeed a man of extraordinary courage. Yesterday he defeated the enemy with one arrow, and today he defeated the ambush with another arrow."

Pei Yuan did not respond and took the initiative to change the subject.

"Captain Xiao, please help urge them to come here as soon as possible."

The development of the matter was beyond expectations, but it did not delay Pei Yuan from making the next judgment.

He said to Xiao Yan, "We defeated the enemy very quickly. It was beyond our expectations, and certainly beyond the expectations of the bandits. Now it depends on who can make a more sensitive response in the future."

"If I'm not mistaken, the bandits will definitely deploy other means of containment."

"If we advance quickly with cavalry and try to disrupt their arrangements, we might be able to gain the full initiative."

Xiao Yan thought for a moment and asked, "What does Captain Pei mean?"

Pei Yuan thought to himself, I have explained it so clearly, why is Xiao Yan still asking?

He frowned and said more clearly, "When Commander Xu's infantry catches up, let him occupy the main road first and escort the baggage. I will lead the cavalry and go ahead, and try to defeat them quickly and completely destroy their arrangements."

Xiao Yan looked at Pei Yuan and said, "Then, then...how about letting my son train with Captain Pei?"

Pei Yuan thought that this guy must be mentally ill. He didn't dare to bring Xiao Tong here just now, so why is he willing to let Xiao Tong follow me to disturb the enemy now?

Then, a thought flashed through his mind and he understood Xiao Yan's idea.

Now the most powerful and mobile cavalry in the team are all with Pei Yuan. Once the situation is not good, Pei Yuan can make very flexible choices.

Pei Yuan did not try to hide anything and directly said to Xiao Yan, "Captain Xiao, you don't think that I, Pei Yuan, am going to abandon those brothers who have been through thick and thin with me and run away, right?"

Xiao Yan was questioned unexpectedly by Pei Yuan, but his expression remained calm, "Absolutely not! I definitely trust my brother!"

Pei Yuan didn't care about it. "It's up to you. Go and arrange it."

After Xiao Yan followed the soldier who brought the message, Pei Yuan slowly rode his horse to the place where the bandits had ambushed before to observe.

Ding Hong was standing nearby, pointing at various locations and explaining, "When we rushed over, this wave of ambush troops was leaderless and had already shown signs of disintegration."

"When the fight really started, only seven or eight people dared to turn around and fight. The others fled with the injured leader."

Pei Yuan asked, "Can you give us a rough estimate of the number of people?"

Ding Hong seemed to be recalling something. He glanced around the forest and said hesitantly, "There should be about 200 people, with a variety of weapons in their hands, mostly swords and shields."

Pei Yuan silently corrected his judgment.

There are forty or fifty bows among more than two hundred people, which is a high ratio.

But it is also possible that all the bows and arrows of this group of bandits were concentrated in the hands of this group of people.

If the leader had not been good at catching arrows, if there were forty or fifty bows guarding the road, and one hundred and forty or fifty sword and shield soldiers supporting them, the guard team would definitely have to pay a heavy price to get through here.

Pei Yuan rode his horse around the place where the bandits had set an ambush twice, but found nothing more.

At this time, Ding Hong reminded again, "Commander Xu is coming with his troops."

Pei Yuan decided to follow his own ideas first, so he said, "Let's go, gather your people, and let's go to the front to take a look."

Ding Hong had a close call with death and now he was completely enlightened.

He immediately gathered his subordinates and prepared to continue the attack.

At this time, Xiao Yan also brought Xiao Tong and Xu Feng and rushed over.

Xu Feng must have heard about Captain Pei's magic arrows that defeated the enemy, so when he saw the defendant Pei Yuan, he actually flinched.

Xiao Yan stepped forward and said, "Captain Pei, the troops are already on the way. Commander Xu brought a team of 100 men to guard the road first."

"Yeah." Pei Yuan responded, and then immediately realized that the slowest team in the entire team was the ambush team transporting baggage. As long as the team transporting baggage could operate at the highest efficiency, the marching speed would be guaranteed.

He fine-tuned his plan again and immediately said to Xiao Yan, "The plan has changed slightly. Captain Xiao, don't follow my team for a while. I will take Ding Hong, Xiao Tong and others to disrupt the enemy's deployment. When the infantry behind catch up, Captain Xiao will take this team of 100 people to the front to protect the road and ensure that the baggage train has a clear path ahead."

"This way we will advance step by step, step by step, and try to get rid of this wave of enemies as soon as possible."

After hearing Pei Yuan's serious words, Xiao Yan hesitated for a moment but did not insist.

Pei Yuan and Ding Hong gathered the cavalry together, then immediately waved to Xiao Tong and went over to join the cavalry.

Xiao Tong originally had some dandy and unruly qualities, but after Pei Yuan released rats to bite him, he became completely obedient.

He followed behind Pei Yuan, not daring to make a sound.

After Pei Yuan and Ding Hong met up, they immediately led their troops to continue forward along the road.

This time there were no scouts to explore the way. In order to guard against surprise attacks, the cavalry ran in scattered groups and the team was very long.

Pei Yuan himself wore cotton armor, a cane armor, and a helmet. Even if the bandits were armed with powerful bows, as long as they could not advance to a certain distance, they would not be able to cause any harm to Pei Yuan by ambushing and shooting arrows.

Pei Yuan led the team and walked about two or three miles. Seeing that the journey was safe, he sent a cavalryman back to urge Captain Xiao to quickly bring the infantry to occupy this place. He also placed another cavalryman here to monitor to see if there would be any changes after they left.

After marching for more than half a day, Pei Yuan felt a little hungry. Looking back, he saw that the soldiers had begun to complain.

Pei Yuan was just about to order them to stop and rest for a while when he saw smoke rising faintly from behind a forest.

Pei Yuan waved his hand backwards to stop the cavalry from moving forward, then turned back and made a gesture for silence, pointing to the place where the smoke was coming out to Ding Hong.

Ding Hong understood and quickly stepped forward and whispered, "I'll send someone over to check it out."

Pei Yuan looked at the scale of the smoke and said in a deep voice, "It must be our enemy. If we rashly send someone over there, we will alert the enemy. If they are captured alive, it will expose our true strength."

Ding Hong took the initiative to suggest, "We have to quickly notify Commander Xu."

Pei Yuan thought for a moment and said, "No need."

Ding Hong looked at Pei Yuan's attitude and suddenly became uneasy. "The captain is not going to use us to deal with them, right?"

Pei Yuan thought about it while sorting out his thoughts.

"After we repelled the first wave of ambushes, they fled through the forest. If they want to join the bandits ahead, they can only take a detour. The leader of that ambush was injured, so their speed may not be fast."

"As for us, we came here directly along the road. We are all cavalry, so even if we are on guard all the way, our speed is not slow. Maybe we have arrived here before those fleeing soldiers."

Pei Yuan continued, "From the situation in the previous battle, the enemy army's fighting spirit is very weak. Once the leader was injured, they immediately began to disintegrate. If we take advantage of the fact that they are still unaware of the situation on the front line and attack the enemy when they are unprepared, it may be very effective."

"If we wait here for Commander Xu to come, I'm afraid those fleeing soldiers will meet up with this wave of ambush troops in advance. In this way, they will definitely be alert, and if we really fight head-on, it may not be very effective."

Pei Yuanke still remembered that the first wave of ambush troops still had at least forty or fifty bows.

The combination of the two ambush troops and the addition of these forty or fifty bows will surely cause a lot of casualties.

Seeing Pei Yuan's dangerous gaze, Ding Hong said, "I will do whatever the captain says."

Seeing Ding Hong's understanding, Pei Yuan couldn't help but praise him, "Great! I will commend you to Eunuch Gu."

Pei Yuan knew that the cavalrymen behind him were resentful of him, so he simply ordered Ding Hong, "Tell your men to dismount and bring their swords, axes and other short weapons with you, and come with me to take a look."

Ding Hong responded and went over to ask them to dismount one by one and prepare for battle.

Pei Yuan glanced at Xiao Tong and knew that this was not the time to deal with this guy, so he threatened him, "You are responsible for staying here and watching the horses. If something goes wrong, even if your father protects you, I will try to kill you!"

Xiao Tong's face turned pale, and he stammered, "I obey your command."

Seeing that Ding Hong had convinced the cavalrymen and they had already started to dismount, Pei Yuan also jumped off his horse.

Pei Yuan straightened the layers of clothing and armor on his body, checked his boots, and then checked the weapons in his hands one by one and put them back in place.

Pei Yuan brought the Xiuchun Sword, the Bazhou Sword, and the Golden Gourd Hammer given by Han Qianhu. These three weapons alone were very heavy.

The weight of the cowhide sewn inside the cotton armor is acceptable.

But the armor is made of thick iron sheets.

With just these three weapons and two sets of armor, a person of average size probably wouldn't be able to sustain the physical exertion for long.

Fortunately, Pei Yuan was not an ordinary person. Those Xuzhou guards worked all year round and often carried wood, so they were all very strong.

In order to be more mobile, they took off their cotton armor and only wore armor.

Even so, these forty or fifty strong armored warriors do not seem to be to be underestimated.

Pei Yuan knew that these guys were inadequately trained and could only fight when the wind was at their side. As a tough guy who had experienced countless fierce battles, he could only bite the bullet and stand at the forefront.

As long as he can open up this point, the morale of the entire team will be greatly boosted.

Pei Yuan decided to charge first, so he collected a hand shield from the weapons carried by the war horses.

Then he held the shield in his left hand and the Bazhou sword in his right hand, tried his best to control the sound, and led a team of soldiers to rush towards the back of the forest.

Juye County has been repeatedly flooded by the Yellow River in recent years, so the people are not very enthusiastic about reclaiming wasteland.

There are wild, dense forests in many places.

Pei Yuan saw that the light was dim and was afraid that there might be some hidden sentinels, so he moved his hand and several mice jumped out of the pocket on his waist and ran forward quickly.

Pei Yuan noticed the movement in front of him and saw that the noise made by the mice did not alarm anyone at all, so he slowly led his men over.

In this way, relying on the mouse's guidance, Pei Yuan quickly passed through the small forest.

When I reached the edge of the woods, I still didn't see anyone paying attention to this side.

Pei Yuan was somewhat suspicious that these bandits had no scouts at all.

He looked out carefully in the forest and saw a large camp scattered around in the sparsely wooded area ahead.

Many bandits were gathering in groups of three or five, making fire and cooking.

Some sat and chatted boredly, while others lay lazily in the sunshine leaking through the forest and rested comfortably.

Ding Hong came over and asked quietly, "Captain, do you want to go now?"

Pei Yuan estimated the distance.

This place is still some distance away from the center where the bandits gather. Although the soldiers of Xuzhou Wei are strong, they have been physically exhausted after walking all the way here in armor. If they charge through this last section, it will probably consume a lot of physical strength.

This will also lose the suddenness of the sneak attack.

Pei Yuan responded in a low voice, "I'll make some noise first, and you let the brothers have a good rest."

When Ding Hong heard this, he didn't ask any further questions and quickly turned around to give instructions.

Pei Yuan looked at the pots hanging over the fire and suddenly had an idea in his mind. Then he began to summon a large number of rats.

When Ding Hong reported back, he watched helplessly as many rats crawled out of Captain Pei's waist pockets and crawled everywhere.

Ding Hong had not noticed when Pei Yuan used mice to explore the way before, but now he suddenly saw it, which made Ding Hong's scalp numb. He said in a lost voice, "Captain Pei, this..."

Pei Yuan turned around and gestured for silence again.

Ding Hong swallowed hard and dared not make any sound.

Then, as if there was some silent command, the rats split into countless tiny branches like black flowing water and quietly circled towards the camp from both wings.

Ding Hong watched the rats disappear and noticed that Captain Pei seemed a little tired.

He called out again in a low voice, "Captain Pei."

Captain Pei ignored him and focused his attention on the camp.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion in the camp, and then someone yelled, "Where did the rat come from?!"

"Are you blind? They all fell into the pot!"

(End of this chapter)