Lin'an Never Night

Chapter 675: Hit Wherever You Point
After all, they were elite warriors who crawled out from a pile of dead bodies. Yang Yuan's guards were shocked but remained calm. They immediately protected Yang Yuan's car in the middle.

In the canyon ahead, huge rocks rolled down and large trees fell down, hitting the mountain path, startling the birds and causing the beasts to spread their wings and run away.

Several scouts sent to the front of Yang Yuan's team were separated from the rear team. They immediately looked for cover on the spot and looked around vigilantly.

Obviously, Yang Yuan's scouts searched too thoroughly, and the people ambushing in the valley could no longer hide, so they launched the attack prematurely.

Otherwise, when Yang Yuan's troops entered the ambush circle, they would inevitably suffer casualties due to the huge rocks and trees.

Some people stood up one after another on the mountains on both sides, wearing hats woven from branches with fresh green leaves on them. They blended in perfectly with the dense forest.

"This group of people is well-trained. They don't seem to be ordinary soldiers."

The bandit leader was a scarred man in his thirties. When he saw the reaction of this group of people, he felt something was wrong.

His name was Guan Boliang. He was originally an escort officer in the Guang'an Army, the most junior officer.

Because he violated military discipline, he simply ran away and joined a bandit gang.

Relying on the little military skills he had accumulated in the army, he later killed the leader with a hidden arrow and became the leader of the village himself.

In fact, even ordinary armies would not normally plunder.

After all, he was just a group of ordinary bandits with broken weapons and no armor, so he would be at a disadvantage in a fight.

Besides, what would he gain by robbing the army?
If it was a caravan, he would still take action even if the escort was strong.

After all, once successful, the rewards will be greater than the death or injury of some brothers.

This time, it was because when Guan Boliang personally led people to "step on the plate" in Shanwai Town, he accidentally saw the two women accompanying Yang Yuan.

One of them was wearing a revealing top, so his appearance couldn't be seen, but just looking at her graceful figure was enough to make his bones soften.

The other one who was not wearing a shallow mask had a charming face that made him even more frightened.

If he could get a woman like this, he would be willing to live ten years less.

So, he came anyway.

Standing on the hillside and seeing the reaction of the Song army, Guan Dazhaizhu felt something was wrong.

But when he thought of those two beauties, greed overwhelmed his vigilance.

"Kill them all. Whoever can bring back the two beauties in the carriage will be rewarded with all the four wives I have now!"

After hearing what Guan Boliang said, the eyes of those bandits who had not tasted meat for a long time suddenly lit up, and they rushed down the mountain with howls.

Since Yang Yuan's troops had not yet entered the narrow area, his guards had enough space to deploy their troops and protect his chariot in the middle.

The bandits shot at them from a distance with their hunting bows, and the Song army raised their shields and formed a formation to resist.

Because they were on the road and in the inland of the Song Dynasty, the soldiers were not wearing armor. However, with the help of a shield formation, only six or seven unlucky guys were injured by stray arrows.

Then the bandits rushed down in a panic.

General Yang Yuan was originally very nervous, because the people he was escorting were extremely important. If anything happened to them, he would not be able to chop off enough heads even if he had ten.

But when he saw the bandits rushing down, the general was a little stunned.

I saw more than a hundred bandits, holding steel knives, steel forks, bamboo spears, waving messy flags, and without any charging formation, they just rushed down yelling.

They have so few people, their equipment is so poor, and they don't look like they have been trained. Who gave them the courage to attack the Song Dynasty's imperial guards?

These are the best-equipped and most frequently trained elite troops of the Song Dynasty!

Moreover, every soldier present had crawled out of a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

Yang Yuan finally walked out of the carriage, shook his robe, and stood proudly on the shaft.

When Yang Yuan saw the appearance of those bandits, he was also shocked, not because they were too strong, but because they were too weak.

"Lure the enemy in and try to destroy them!"

At Yang Yuan's command, the general immediately adjusted the arrangements.

As soon as the two sides came into contact, the Song army was defeated. The bandits rushed in and rushed straight to the left side of Yang Yuan's car.

At this time, the Song army seemed to have considered the consequences of their commander being killed, and they launched an attack in panic.

The leader of the village, Guan Da, led a reserve force of more than 40 people and watched the situation in the mountains and forests.

Seeing that the Song army was about to collapse, Guan Boliang breathed a sigh of relief.

When he saw the reaction of the Song army just now, he thought that this Song army was well-trained and that the reason they had never fought a battle was that they were frightened.

When he saw his men rushing to the dog official's carriage accompanied by two beauties, Guan Boliang's heart was so excited that it almost jumped out of his chest.

At this time, the Song army was afraid that their commander would be killed and they would be punished, so they bravely fought back. However, they fought without any plan. Although they outnumbered the bandits by a large margin, they fought like headless flies.

However, although the bandits seemed to be able to attack the car at any time, they were always one step away, which made him very anxious.

At the front of the carriage, the curtain of the sedan chair was lifted, and Liu Yanran and Fujiwara Tako both walked out.

Liu Yanran has already started wearing a "shallow exposed" headpiece, which is a habit she developed when she was in the palace.

The imperial concubine's face naturally cannot be seen by common people.

Now that I’m following Yang Yuan, I still have the same habits.

Her beauty belongs only to her husband, so it cannot be seen by others.

Yang Yuan said, "You two don't know martial arts, what are you doing here? Be careful of sneak attacks."

"I am not afraid. My husband is both civil and military, and he will definitely protect me."

Liu Yanran said this and moved closer to Yang Yuan.

Duozi said softly: "Everything I have belongs to the master. I am willing to take the blame for the master."

Guan Boliang saw the two beauties appear from afar. Looking at their graceful figures and thinking of Duozi's captivating face, his heart felt hot.

Seeing that his men were only one step away from breaking through this seemingly splendid Song army, Guan Boliang stomped his foot, raised his sword, and shouted, "Come and kill. Whoever can kill that bastard official, I will make him the deputy leader of the village, and give him half of the two beauties."

A bandit was surprised and asked: "Brother, how can we share half of it?"

Guan Boliang licked his lips and said, "One of them, I will share with him."

As soon as Guan Boliang finished speaking, the two small bandit leaders who had accompanied him to Shanwai Town to scout the area rushed down with a howl.

When the others saw this, they were afraid that someone else would get there first, so they also hurriedly chased after him.

Yang Yuan showed weakness to the enemy and fought for a while, which resulted in the emergence of more than forty bandits.

That's it?

Guan Boliang underestimated the strength of the Song army, while Yang Yuan overestimated the power of this group of bandits.

The relationship between soldiers and bandits is like that between cats and mice.

Therefore, Yang Yuan really couldn't understand how such a weak group of mice had the courage to challenge cats that were much stronger than them.

Seeing that this group of bandits was nothing special, Yang Yuan no longer had to play games and ordered, "Destroy them all!"

At this time, a group of more than 20 people came from behind Yang Yuan's group.

Suddenly, he saw a fierce battle between officials and bandits ahead, so he immediately reined in his horse and stopped.

The Song army was teasing the bandits when they suddenly saw more than 20 riders coming from the rear. The horses were majestic and the riders were all wearing riding clothes, leather waist guards, swords at their waists, and bows on their shoulders. The Song army immediately sent out a group of men and horses to form a defensive formation.

The knight in his twenties hurriedly turned his horse to the hillside and watched the battlefield from a distance, obviously not intending to intervene. The Song army saw that the bandits had come out in full force and their strength was only so limited. In addition to leaving more than a hundred people to guard the twenty-something people on the hillside behind, the remaining four hundred people went all out.

The confused soldiers in the front row quickly formed a formation, with spears and halberds as dense as a forest.

Sword and shield soldiers were interspersed among them.

The soldiers in the back row quickly loaded their crossbows with arrows.

With just a shout, the spearmen in front changed their formation, and crossbow arrows shot out from the empty spaces between them.

Even if both sides have equal strength, a team with a reasonable combination of long-range and short-range weapons, long and short weapons, and tacit cooperation can form an overwhelming advantage over the enemy, not to mention that the number of this Song army is far greater than that of the bandits.

Originally, the bandits fought against the larger force with a smaller one, which shook the Song army's formation. Now, the chaotic Song army camp was suddenly organized neatly and turned into a meat grinder for the bandits.

"We've been tricked, retreat!"

Seeing that the situation was not good, Guan Boliang immediately gave up the idea of ​​kidnapping the beauty.

Another reason why he was not afraid of the soldiers was that this was a mountainous area.

When he cannot be defeated, he will run away into the dense forest, and even if you have 100,000 soldiers, you will not be able to do anything to him.

Because he had absolute initiative, he dared to do such an arrogant thing.

However, the illusion created by the Song army before made his men fall too deeply into it.

When they wanted to escape, they found that a Song army had surrounded them from behind without them knowing.

With the close cooperation of the Song army's spearmen and sword and shield men, the bandits fell down one after another with screams.

For these soldiers who had just participated in the Battle of Lingbi, they had never fought such an easy battle.

On the hillside in the distance, the twenty or so men in green couldn't help but look awed when they saw the Song army slaughtering the bandits as efficiently as cutting vegetables and melons.

The leader was a man in his thirties, with a short moustache and sharp eyes.

"Whose troops are these? They are so brave!"

A knight nearby replied, "Could it be the Wu family army?"

The short-bearded man frowned slightly and asked, "Why did the Wu family send people here?"

Seeing the Song army advancing like a hot knife through butter and killing the bandits in a flurry, Yang Yuan turned his gaze and said to Duozi, "Bring me my bow and arrows."

Duozi immediately bent down and entered the carriage, taking down the carved bow and quiver on the wall of the compartment.

Yang Yuan held the bow in his hand, with three arrows on his fingers at once, and his eyes were fixed on Guan Boliang in the distance.

After his observation, he had already discovered that this man was the leader of this group of bandits.

Yang Yuan bent his bow and drew his arrow, aiming at the back of Guan Dazhaizhu.

With the help of several trusted men, Guan Boliang tore a gap in the Song army's formation and was about to escape to the mountains.

As long as he hid in the woods, he would be safe immediately.

"Whoosh!"

Yang Yuan shot an arrow, and a bandit next to Guan Boliang screamed and fell to the ground.

Duozi clapped his hands and exclaimed: "General, the shot is amazing!"

Yang Yuan's face turned red. In fact, his archery skills were really good. He had practiced seriously in the archery club.

However, he was better at using a crossbow, which was easier to aim than an arrow. As for the bow and arrow, he was indeed a little rusty.

Yang Yuan did not explain the wonderful misunderstanding caused by this arrow.

Duozi praised out loud, and although Liu Yanran didn't say anything, when she looked closely, she could see that her eyes and brows under the thin veil were full of admiration.

Yang Yuan drew his arrow again and aimed at the back of Guan Dazhaizhu.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow was shot out, Guan Boliang cried out in pain, and fell heavily to the ground.

The two bandits running beside Guan Boliang hesitated for a moment, then left him alone and ran away.

At this time, it is natural that "Dad dies, mom remarries, and everyone takes care of themselves."

Yang Yuan's eagle feather arrow pierced Guan Boliang's thigh.

After I take office, I will have to practice my archery skills well.

Yang Yuan silently reflected on himself and calmly ordered the guards in front of the car: "That man is the thief's leader, bring him to the front of the car for questioning!"

The guard in front of the carriage then realized that General Yang had intended to keep the man alive.

Immediately, two guards holding knives rushed over.

After the leader of the stronghold was captured, the bandits lost their fighting spirit and immediately collapsed and fled in all directions.

In the end, only about ten people managed to escape.

There were more than thirty bandits who knelt down to surrender or were captured and injured, and the rest all turned into heads hanging on saddles.

While the battlefield was being cleaned up, three knights approached the twenty or so knights who had been "watching from the sidelines" on the hillside and asked them their identities.

The short-bearded knight hurriedly bowed and said, "We are travelers. We came here on the road and saw the soldiers arresting thieves. We didn't dare to disturb them, so we avoided them and waited."

After saying this, he dismounted, hung his knife on the victory hook, and took out the "Guosuo" from his arms.

He took the "pass" in his hand, raised his hands high, and walked towards the three cavalrymen.

When he got closer, the knight with a short beard presented the "pass". The knight immediately leaned over to take it, opened it and was slightly startled.

There were actually three "official notes" sandwiched in the "pass".

The knight with the short beard smiled and said, "You are all very brave and heroic, but I wonder which general you are under?"

The knight frowned and carefully checked the "Guosuo" to make sure it was correct. He held three of the official coins between his fingers and threw the "Guosuo" back.

He held it between his fingers so that he could share it with his two comrades later.

If you put it away first, you won't be able to tell exactly how much they gave you.

He returned the favor and said, "My general Yang is the Right Counselor of the Song Dynasty, the Governor of Tongchuan Road, and the Governor of Tongchuan Prefecture."

When the knight with short beard heard this, a strange light suddenly flashed in his eyes. He had hurried back because he heard that Yang Yuan, the new commander of Tongchuan Road, was about to take office.

I didn't expect to meet you here.

Although it was heard that Yang Ziyue was expelled from the capital because he had offended the emperor, he was still an important figure whom he could not easily curry favor with.

But I didn't expect to meet you here by chance.

The knight with a short beard hurriedly put the "Guosuo" into his arms, and when he took it out, there were a few "official coins" inside.

He presented the "pass" to the Song army knight again, and said with a smile: "I am Wu Yuan, the head of the Wu family in Pengzhou, and I am a native of Tongchuan.

General Yang is the governor of Tongchuan, and he is the parent of the people of Tongchuan. When parents are here, how can children not pay a visit to them and ask how they are doing?

Please tell General Yang if I can allow Wu to pay my respects to him and express my admiration for him!"

(End of this chapter)