Xie Ming

Chapter 24: Profiting from Chaos (I)

The bandit river patrol team bombarded the small fishing village, shocking Liu Wenbing and others so much that they jumped out of their huts to find out what was going on.

boom! boom!
"Qi Yun (Liu Wenbing, courtesy name Qi Yun), what's going on?"

When Liu Wenbing heard the sound of artillery fire, he ran out of the hut first, and Gong Yonggu followed him out and asked loudly.

"Damn it, how would I know!" Liu Wenbing felt that something bad might happen, so he replied unhappily.

"My Lord, it's likely that something went wrong, someone leaked the news and attracted the enemy!"

"Hurry, let's retreat quickly, gather our troops and leave quickly, the sound of the artillery fire is a death warrant!"

"If you're any later, you'll be made into dumplings!"

Qiu Zhizhong was one step behind the other two. When they came out of the house, he quickly advised Liu Wenbing to retreat with his team.

"Ah, what Brother Zhizhong said is very true!"

"Come here, quickly gather the servants and soldiers scattered in the village and gather at the front entrance of the fishing village!"

"Let's go, let's retreat quickly!"

Liu Wenbing was quite surprised and unwilling, but he had no choice but to do so as the situation was urgent.

After a while, Liu, Gong, Qiu Zhizhong and others rushed to the village entrance.

At this critical moment, Gu Changting also led his troops to meet them head-on, and the two armies collided head-on.

"Changting? Why are you here?!"

When Qiu Zhizhong saw someone leading a team into the village, he was frightened at first, thinking that the bandits were very fast and had already started to charge into the village. But when he looked closely, he saw that it was Gu Changting, so he breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly asked what had happened.

"Mr. Qiu!"

"The general was worried about the safety of the three of you, so he sent me to lead the team to support you from behind!"

"As soon as I arrived, I saw the bandits shelling the fishing village, so I quickly brought people in to help with the retreat!"

Gu Changting stepped forward in front of Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu. It was difficult for him to say that he was only here to save Qiu Zhizhong, so he tried to soften his words.

"Good, good! General Xiao is thoughtful!"

"We can't stay here for long. Let's leave this fishing village first. We can talk later if we have anything else to say!" Liu Wenbing took over the conversation and urged them to get out of the danger as soon as possible.

"Yes, let's go!" Gong Yonggu said.

"Okay, let's go!"

"go!"

As he spoke, Liu Wenbing, with fifty servants behind him and dozens of Gu Changting's soldiers, walked out of the village and quickly retreated towards the mountains and forests north of the village.

At the same time, other patrol teams of bandits who had come following the sound of artillery fire nearby also arrived one by one!

As soon as Liu Wenbing and his companions entered the woods, they heard the sound of gunfire behind them. Some servants were not familiar with the battle and those with slow steps were shot to death on the spot!

The enemy continued to pursue and attack, all the way into the forest. The gunfire was intensive, and the casualties among the servants and soldiers increased.

After running for a while, Gu Changting was afraid that the enemy would catch up too fast and he would be unable to return to report if he injured Master Qiu. So he shouted to Qiu Zhizhong while running, "Master Qiu! The enemy is chasing too hard. You go first. I will lead the team to block them for a while. When you run far away, I will look for an opportunity to retreat!"

Hearing Gu Changting's words, Qiu Zhizhong hurriedly retorted.

"no!"

"There are dense gunfire sounds behind us. There may be a large number of enemy troops chasing us. You won't be able to hold out for long or you will be surrounded!"

"Changting, listen to me. We are about to reach the mountain ridge in front of us. After the mountain ridge, there is a foggy area behind it."

"As long as we get there, we can shake off the pursuers behind us!"

"Don't hesitate, go!"

As Qiu Zhizhong spoke, the casualties of the soldiers behind him increased!
By the time they arrived in front of the foggy area, two-fifth of the fifty servants they brought with them were gone, leaving only about twenty or thirty people. Seven or eight soldiers from Gu Changting's Shenji Camp were also killed.

"Haha, we've reached the foggy area. Let's go, everyone, head east and speed through it! Hurry!"

In this area, the thin mist before has now increased in concentration as the water vapor evaporates and the temperature drops, and has turned into thick fog.

When Liu Wenbing saw the fog, he finally took a breath. He hurriedly urged the team behind him to go into the fog to avoid the enemy chasing him!

At 18:, Liu Wenbing and his group of soldiers fled all the way and finally managed to escape back to the place where Xiao Jingchuan's troops were staying.

At this moment, Xiao Jingchuan had heard the sound of artillery fire from the direction of the fishing village more than a quarter of an hour ago. He was worried about Qiu Zhizhong's safety, so he was restless and paced back and forth around the big rock in front of him.

"Report——"

"Report!"

"General, Changting and the others are back!" Wang Chuanwu reported.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Lang could no longer stay there and immediately left his place and ran towards Qiu Zhizhong, Gu Changting and others who had escaped.

"General!"

"General, the fishing village has failed. The enemy may have known our location. Take your troops and evacuate immediately!"

Gu Changting was injured in the shoulder by a stray arrow. He knelt on one knee and bowed to report.

After saying this, Xiao Jingchuan paused and looked up at Liu Wenbing, Gong Yonggu and Qiu Zhizhong who were running back in a panic behind him.

When he saw that Qiu Zhizhong and Gu Changting were able to return safely, and heard the news that the investigation in the small fishing village had failed, he was actually very happy, because this showed that his plan had been successfully completed for the most part.

But he couldn't show such emotions at the moment, so he suppressed his emotions, became angry and cursed.

"Bastard!"

As he spoke, Xiao Lang kicked Gu Changting in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

When Changting just reported, Xiao Jingchuan realized that this kid had not told everything and must know some other inside information, so he quickly seized this breakthrough and tried to pry more information out of Gu Changting.

"Tell me, what's going on?!"

Xiao Jingchuan's face was ferocious and he was furious. Liu Wenbing and Gong Yonggu beside him were also frightened and did not dare to step forward to say anything.

"General, general!"

"This" Gu Changting hesitated.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Lang drew his sword out of its sheath.

"Fuck it, tell me!"

"Yes!" Chang Ting continued.

"When I arrived at the small fishing village, I had just followed them to the mountain ridge outside the fishing village when I saw from afar two families at the entrance of the village running away!"

"It looked like he was from Lord Liu Wenbing's residence. I wanted to arrest him, but it was too late."

"After a short while, the bandits who were patrolling the river and blocking the river arrived. They had cannons in their hands and immediately attacked the fishing village!"

"The sound of artillery fire was very loud, and there were other enemy squads nearby, so... to avoid being surrounded, we hastily fled back. We lost many servants and soldiers on the way. Please punish us, General!"

Having said that, Gu Changting straightened his body and knelt down again.

"You said that the servants in Lord Liu Wenbing's mansion defected?" Xiao Jingchuan grasped the key point at the right time.

"Yes! One of the two men is the doorman of Lord Liu's mansion. I have seen him many times and I will not make a mistake!"

"General, if the bandits can find the small fishing village so quickly through the defected servants, they can definitely find this place too!"

"Those two deserters will probably be tight-lipped. Let's leave as soon as possible!"

Gu Changting's worries are not without reason, but Xiao Jingchuan has been planning for a long time, and the real show has not yet begun, so how could he give up halfway?

"Withdraw? Humph!"

"Wang Chuanwu!" Xiao Lang shouted.

"exist!"

"Capture Liu Wenbing, Gong Yonggu, and Qiu Zhizhong!"

"Yes!" Wang Chuanwu did the job efficiently.

"Gu Changting, go tell Sun Peizhong to gather all the men together!"

"I'm going to kill a general as a sacrifice today!"

(End of this chapter)