Sword drawn from the constellations, poison as its edge.

Chapter 157 Triumph at Yipintang
Outside the apricot grove, a desolate horn sounded suddenly, followed by the sound of a large number of horses' hooves. The sound seemed to come from only a few miles away, and the air seemed to freeze instantly.

Jiang Mingzhe exclaimed in surprise, "This Song Dynasty is truly remarkable. In such a remote and inaccessible region as Jiangnan, they allow large cavalry units of the Western Xia to rampage freely?"

Lu Zhang said anxiously, "The Xixia dogs are shameless. They actually brought a cavalry team to our meeting. If the cavalry charges, our disciples will suffer heavy casualties."

Jiang Mingzhe waved his hand and said, "It's alright! We can't deploy our cavalry formation in this forest. As for his charge, Chief Lü, you can immediately order your disciples to dig holes, about the size of a bowl and half a foot deep, just enough to sink a horse's hoof. The more the better!"

Lü Zhang exclaimed with delight, "Brilliant plan! Brilliant plan!"

He immediately issued an order for the Beggars' Sect disciples to dig holes in all directions.

There are over a thousand Beggars' Sect members gathered here today, all of whom are skilled in martial arts. Digging a hole would be a piece of cake for them.

Those with weapons used them, and those without weapons simply used their bare hands, employing various techniques such as Iron Palm and Tiger Claw Kung Fu, and in an instant, they dug out thousands of holes.

Bao Butong exclaimed in surprise, "Huh? You actually have the ability to lead troops into battle? This plan isn't bad!"

Jiang Mingzhe smiled slightly, thinking to himself, "Before I transmigrated, I read an online novel called 'Cao Cao Transmigrates into Wu Dalang.' Cao Cao and Li Jun both used this tactic. Do I really need to tell you about it?"
Just then, the sound of hooves drew near, and three horns sounded urgently. Eight horses entered the forest in two rows. The eight cavalrymen held their spears level, with small flags hanging from the spearheads. On the left, the four flags all bore the characters "Da Xia" (Great Xia), and on the right, the four flags all bore the characters "He Lian" (Helian).

Then came eight riders, four blowing horns and four beating drums, making a real show of it.

Upon seeing this, Azi laughed loudly, "What is this? Is this a private performance, or a way to ask for tips? Hahahaha."

Jiang Mingzhe glanced at him sideways, thinking that when our master travels in the future, he will be accompanied by music and singing, making it ten times more lively than this.

Ah Zi's words reminded the Beggars' Sect members, and Elder Wu shouted loudly, "When it comes to asking for rewards, who's better than us? Brothers, don't let them outdo us, follow me, one, two, three—please, sir and madam, have mercy!"

The beggars banged their wooden sticks on the ground, tapped their bowls with spoons, or stomped their feet, swaying their bodies as they began to sing a lotus flower ballad: "Please, sirs and madams, have mercy! I don't ask for gold or silver or treasures, but give me, a beggar, a single coin, and I'll sing you a lotus flower ballad!"

The sound was deafening, instantly drowning out the enemy's drums and bugles.

The first eight knights exchanged glances and spurred their horses to charge forward, hoping to intimidate the Beggars' Sect disciples. However, before they had gone far, several of their hooves almost simultaneously stepped into a pit and snapped with a crack. The knights were thrown a long way, tripping up all the horses behind them. In an instant, men and horses tumbled over, and the Beggars' Sect disciples burst into laughter.

The eight drummers behind them were also so frightened that they lost their composure, each holding their instruments blankly, and all the momentum they had created vanished.

At this moment, eight burly warriors rushed over, each picking up a fallen man and throwing him casually. Several apricot trees snapped in two with a crash. The Beggar Clan members were all taken aback. Lü Zhang frowned and said, "These eight men are incredibly strong and agile. In our clan, they would be at least at the level of a branch leader. The First-Class Hall is indeed not to be underestimated."

After throwing the toss, the eight warriors stood straight ahead, positioned to the left and right, and shouted in unison, "The Great General of the Western Xia Kingdom's Eastern Expedition has arrived!"

Then a man wearing a bright red brocade robe, with an arrogant expression, rode slowly towards them on a tall white horse, followed closely by a very tall man with a big nose, riding a black horse.

Following these two men were twenty or thirty men of various colors and ages, monks and laymen, some armed and some unarmed. Each one was full of energy and imposing presence, clearly a master of the First Rank Hall. Behind them were another one or two hundred Western Xia warriors clad in leather armor and carrying swords at their waists. Their faces were sharp and valiant; they were elite soldiers selected from the Western Xia army and assigned to the First Rank Hall as enforcers.

The group stopped, and the big-nosed man shouted arrogantly, "Where is the Beggars' Sect leader? Hurry up and pay your respects to the Great General!"

Lu Zhang stepped forward and said neither humbly nor arrogantly, "Since you challenge our gang to a duel using the etiquette of the martial arts world, why bother with the titles of Grand General and Junior General? If you want to play the official card, our Great Song Dynasty has plenty of princes and ministers. You are welcome to go and pay them your respects."

The man with the big nose sneered, "Hmph, you really are a bunch of lowly beggars. Don't you know that you are commoners and we are officials? Commoners bow to officials, which has been the principle since ancient times. It is clear that you beggars do not understand this principle at all."

Lu Zhang scoffed, "Want to talk about reason? Fine, the Crown Prince of Dali is right here. You should pay your respects to His Highness first."

He pointed at Duan Yu, and the general with the big nose looked at him, clearly slightly surprised. The big-nosed man rolled his eyes and suddenly laughed loudly: "We have long heard that the Beggars' Clan is a pillar of the Central Plains martial arts world. We never expected that they would actually collude with foreign countries. Colluding with foreign countries is one thing, but they actually pledged allegiance to a small country like Dali that is not worth mentioning."

Before Lü Zhang could reply, the man with the big nose glared fiercely at Duan Yu: "You're the crown prince of Dali? Your little Dali is weak and poor, yet you dare to oppose our Great Western Xia Kingdom? If your Duan Zhengming knew about your outrageous behavior, he'd be scared out of his wits, and you might not even be able to hold onto your position as crown prince!"

Duan Yu was stunned by his insults, but A Zi was furious: "What kind of bullshit Western Xia Kingdom dares to insult our Dali? I'll poison him!"

Jiang Mingzhe blinked, thinking that Duan Zhengchun must be quite good to Azi, otherwise Azi wouldn't have subtly come to regard herself as a Dali person. He smiled and said, "Why use a sledgehammer to crack a nut? If you dare to anger your senior sister, your junior brother will take care of it!"

After saying that, the Northern Darkness True Qi surged forth and shot out like a phantom.

The eight experts who had just thrown horses and men were startled at the same time. They all attacked at once, using palms, fists, knees, and feet to block their path. Jiang Mingzhe waved his sword, soared into the sky, and then fell straight down in mid-air, right in front of the Western Xia general and the two men with big noses.

Big Nose let out a strange cry and raised his whip to strike, but Jiang Mingzhe held up a thick cloud of red mist in his left hand, a wicked smile curling at the corner of his mouth. With a wave of his fan, wisps of red mist entered Big Nose's large nostrils.

The man's hand, which had been holding up the whip, suddenly froze, unable to fall again, and he died frozen on the horse's back.

The Western Xia general was terrified and frantically tried to draw his sword. Jiang Mingzhe laughed and said, "What's all this fuss about?" He closed his fan and slapped the sword, and the general screamed in agony, feeling as if his hand bones were about to break. Jiang Mingzhe grabbed his belt, dragged him off his horse, and carried him away.

The experts behind them were all enraged. Seven or eight of them leaped out at the same time, shouting, "Where do you think you're going!"

Jiang Mingzhe took a big step forward, dodging several heavy blows. He turned around sharply, opened his mouth and spat out a red mist. With a puff of air, the red mist dispersed and rushed towards the monk and layman at the front. They fell heavily like stones, rolled around and screamed, and then fell silent after a moment.

The others were horrified. Two of them reacted quickly and turned back, while the remaining three reacted a little slower. They inhaled a tiny bit of the red mist, screamed, and collapsed to the ground. They died in front of everyone shortly afterward.

The group of experts were all shocked and stood there dumbfounded as Jiang Mingzhe left.

The eight masters who had previously blocked the way retreated upon seeing Jiang Mingzhe approaching. The general roared in anger, but the eight ignored him, watching helplessly as Jiang Mingzhe carried the Western Xia general back to the Beggars' Sect's front lines, tossed him in front of Duan Yu, and loudly proclaimed, "General Helian of Western Xia pays respects to the Crown Prince of Dali! Pays respects to all the heroes of the Beggars' Sect!"

(End of this chapter)