My older brother said I'm invincible.

Chapter 120 A great victory
Even Zhai Rang hadn't expected that his mere harassment would have such a significant effect.

He had no intention of actually engaging the enemy; he merely intimidated them and then quickly withdrew.

He had prepared himself for the enemy to pursue him, but when he turned around, there was no one behind him at all.

They had all withdrawn, but the fires in the camp were growing more numerous, and the roars were getting louder and louder. They seemed to be fighting a war. Zhai Rang didn't care about any of this, nor did he stay to watch the show. He was a very content man. As long as the expected goal was achieved, that was enough. As for the rest, he would leave it to the officers to figure out.

The thieves came quickly and left quickly.

However, the camp was completely unsettled.

The militia members came from different regions and groups and were unfamiliar with each other. Even if they were familiar, they might have had grudges against each other. When they suddenly encountered this kind of chaos, the camp completely lost control and they even began to kill each other.

Their behavior was more thieving than that of thieves themselves.

The next day, the sky gradually brightened.

Zhao Puti stood before the tent with a dark expression.

In front of him were dozens of people, bound and trembling.

The camp was in complete disarray; the food and supplies they had brought were scattered on the ground. Some were cleaning up, and there were burn marks everywhere. The soldiers regrouped, and now only a little over a thousand men stood before Zhao Puti.
Yesterday, three thousand men came to attack, but after just one night, only this many remain in the camp.

Not all of them died; most of them fled out of fear.

People started returning gradually after the initial announcement.

Those who were tied up were the thieves who had robbed grain and killed their colleagues yesterday.

Neither the thieves' bodies were found inside nor outside the area, leading Zhao Puti to doubt whether his men had even engaged the thieves in battle.
Zhao Puti was furious.

Yesterday, I solemnly swore to the prefect that I would definitely capture the thieves and achieve great merit.

But they hadn't even seen the thieves' faces, and in just one night, their troops had become like this.

He took a deep breath and suppressed his rage.

"Chop off all these bastards and hang their heads up! Let them see what happens when they break military law!"

"Send men to bring back all those who escaped! Bring them all back!"

Zhao Puti was so angry he jumped up and down, and the officers also sprang into action.

After yesterday's events, the relaxed and carefree attitude of these powerful groups who had organized private armed forces was gone. Their eyes were filled with terror; last night, they had almost died at the hands of their own people.

They had fought many bandits in the past, but those people were easy to deal with; they would run away as soon as they saw them.

This was the first time they had encountered something like this. These thousands of people had come, and not only were they not afraid, they even dared to attack?
As Zhao Puti dismissed everyone to prepare, several group leaders cautiously approached him.

"Captain!"

"how?"

"Should we continue fighting?"

Zhao Puti said angrily, "What, do you still want to go back like this? The prefect gave us so much food and weapons to fight the bandits, and we haven't even seen the bandits yet. How can we back down?"

The gang leaders said helplessly, "Captain, this group of bandits is a bit different."

"What's the difference! If those night watchmen hadn't been negligent yesterday, how could they have succeeded?"

"But the thieves already know we're coming, and besides, we're currently short-handed. If we divide our forces..."

"My mind is made up. I will not go back until I have wiped out this band of thieves!"

"Go and prepare it for me!!"

The leaders of the group saw Zhao Puti's determination and dared not say anything more. They were originally going to go into the mountains to plunder today, but because of what happened yesterday, the army had to stop and gather the soldiers who had fled.

Zhao Puti also sent someone to report the matter to the prefect. He apologized to the prefect and said that he would definitely deal with the bandits! Zhao Puti wasted another three days at the foot of the mountain. More local militia arrived. Zhao Puti gathered enough men before ordering them to enter the mountain.

Zhao Puti's original plan had failed, and he no longer wanted to block the enemy. He wanted to fight his way to their hideout, burn it down, and force the bandits into the deep mountains. If necessary, he would borrow some more heads to report to the prefect.

Of course, the matter of borrowing people's heads cannot be made too explicit at the moment.

Borrowing a few is fine, but massacring an entire village is out of the question.

It wasn't that they were afraid of being punished, but that the soldiers wouldn't agree to it. Massacring a village usually only happened during marches and long-distance attacks, where some unrelated outsiders were slaughtered.

If you send the local militia to massacre the locals, they might rebel. They've lived here for generations; how could they possibly follow you to slaughter their own people?

Zhao Puti changed his strategy; instead of blocking them, he simply drove them away!

Three days later, Zhao Puti led the group into the mountains in a grand procession.

But both officers and soldiers seemed somewhat afraid at this moment. They had clearly realized that these bandits were capable of resistance and were not like the common people outside who could be easily manipulated.

Soon, Zhao Puti faced his first battle with the bandits.

After they passed through Chicken Horn Pass and officially entered Wild Buffalo Mountain, the bandits presented them with a greeting gift. The road was narrow and long. As soon as the soldiers entered the mountain road, many bandits appeared on the high ground on the left. Zhai Rang gave an order, and the men threw stones and logs at the enemy below.

He then directed the archers to draw their bows and shoot arrows.

In a short while, the local militia were thrown into chaos and scattered in all directions. After a brief exchange, the thieves fled again.

Zhai Rang didn't actually engage the government troops. Instead, he made full use of the terrain to launch surprise attacks time and time again. The local militia suffered increasingly heavy losses, and the leaders were unwilling to advance any further. Even Zhao Puti was finding it difficult to control the situation.

Seeing that the time was almost right, Zhai Rang suddenly led his troops out to attack when Zhao Puti's men suggested resting again.

This time, it wasn't a sneak attack followed by a retreat. Zhai Rang, spear in hand, charged ahead, determined to annihilate the entire force of soldiers before him.

The people behind him were not afraid at this moment. They were a group of people who had been driven to a dead end. Looking at the local militia in the distance, they seemed to remember the humiliation they had suffered in the past, the tragic deaths of their families, and the cruel forced labor. They roared and launched a charge.

Zhao Puti stood there, stunned. He hadn't seen such a fierce charge in a long time.

When the two sides met, the local militia collapsed at the first contact. It was as if their roles had been reversed. In comparison, the other side seemed more like government troops, while his men were a group of thieves with no military training whatsoever.

The guild leaders had long since given up on fighting, and seeing how fierce the other side was, they dropped their weapons and ran away.

As soon as they ran, the soldiers followed suit.

Seeing his men abandon their weapons and flee in panic, Zhao Puti did not hesitate and turned to escape!

Zhai Rang became even more valiant, killing several local soldiers in succession. He led the group in a relentless pursuit, killing with great gusto!
The mountain road was littered with the corpses of the enemy, and the warriors of Qingzao Village cheered, their morale soaring.

Looking at the discarded weapons, shields, flags, carts, grain, and so on, Zhai Rang couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Brothers, soldiers!! Clean up the battlefield! No need for beheadings, each unit tally its military merits! We can withdraw now!"

While the warriors were celebrating their victory, Zhao Puti staggered out of the mountains.

He looked around again and saw that only a few dozen trusted men had followed him out, while the rest were nowhere to be found, their fates unknown. Zhao Puti looked behind him in despair, his whole body trembling.

It’s over.

This time it was completely over.

After Zhao Puti fled, several other gang leaders also escaped. There were actually quite a few survivors, since they had started running away as soon as the two sides began to fight.

The people of Changwu saw the disheveled state of the fleeing militiamen.

News of Qingzaozhai's defeat of thousands of government troops quickly spread from Changwu, causing a great stir throughout Guancheng. The news then spread from Guancheng to the surrounding areas, attracting the attention of many interested people.

(End of this chapter)