Chief Armaments Master of the Ming Dynasty

The mountains in the north are deeper and more desolate.

The continuous loess plateaus were gradually replaced by more exposed rocks and deep gullies.

The vegetation is sparser; sometimes you can walk all day and not see many decent clumps of wild grass.

The wind howled through the jagged rocks, making all sorts of strange whistles, like the weeping of countless wronged souls.

Lin Fan followed the faint traces that the refugees might have left behind—

The occasional broken branch, the inconspicuous scratches on the stones, even the faint smell of smoke lingering in the air—proceed with caution.

He dared not walk too fast, constantly keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings.

The chestnut horse seemed to sense the danger of the environment, its steps were cautious, and its ears kept twitching.

On the third day, he discovered even clearer signs of human activity—

A pile of embers from a campfire that had not yet been completely extinguished, with small, cleanly gnawed bones and a few broken pieces of rough pottery scattered around.

The number of people seemed small, but they were gone for no more than a day.

Lin Fan's heart pounded. He didn't know whether he was about to face fellow refugees, vagrants who had become bandits, or... a small group of rebels.

He became more cautious, choosing high and concealed routes whenever possible, and keeping a safe distance from any possible traces.

After walking for two more days, their provisions were almost gone.

Water also became a major problem; the several leaks found yielded very little water, not enough for the people and horses to drink.

Lin Fan's lips cracked and peeled again, and his throat felt parched.

The chestnut horse snorted impatiently, its steps growing heavier and heavier.

That afternoon, as he was trying to find water by following a narrow crevice in the rocks, he suddenly heard the sound of weapons clashing and several short screams coming from ahead!

Lin Fan immediately reined in his horse, crouched down, and quickly led it behind a boulder to hide.

He drew his knife, bent over, and carefully made his way towards the source of the sound, using the rocks and withered grass as cover.

Climbing up a gentle slope, I lay down behind the rocks at the top and looked down. I saw a small-scale battle taking place on a relatively open gravel beach below.

One side consisted of about ten people, dressed in tattered mandarin duck battle jackets or uniforms, and carrying a variety of weapons—

A rusty waist knife and a long spear that had been broken and then reattached with a wooden handle.

Although they outnumbered each other, their formation was scattered, and they were all emaciated with a mixture of ferocity and bewilderment in their eyes.

The other side consisted of only six or seven people, forming a circle to protect two dilapidated mule carts piled with sacks in the middle, with women and children on board.

These people were dressed in a more haphazard way, like ordinary farmers, but their weapons were relatively better, mostly gleaming broadswords and spears. The leader, a burly black man, wielded a ghost-headed knife with great skill, cutting down two fleeing soldiers who rushed forward in succession.

But this group was clearly at a disadvantage, with people constantly getting injured, and their circle shrinking smaller and smaller.

It was defeated soldiers looting fleeing civilians!

Lin Fan instantly understood the situation.

Those defeated soldiers, probably border troops or garrison soldiers who couldn't survive, have now become a more terrible scourge than bandits.

He gripped the knife handle tightly, his palms sweating.

Go down and rescue them?

With my limited abilities, coupled with hunger and exhaustion, charging down would most likely be suicide.

What if they didn't care? The men escorting the convoy were about to collapse, and if the fleeing soldiers succeeded, the fate of the women and children on the convoy was predictable.

In a flash, he remembered the gunpowder in his arms.

There's not much left, but perhaps... enough to create a truly shocking chaos.

He quickly surveyed the terrain.

The fleeing soldiers had their backs to the gentle slope on his side, their attention entirely focused on the prey before them.

One side of the scree beach is a steep mountain wall, and the other side is a deep dry riverbed.

At the top of the slope where he was, there were several loose, weathered stones about the size of a human head.

An adventurous plan took shape in his mind.

He retreated to the horse's den, removed the small gunpowder pouch, and poured the last bit of gunpowder, about two fingers' width, onto a large piece of dry bark.

He then tore off the driest corner of his undergarment, twisted it into a thin fuse, and buried one end in the gunpowder.

Then, he picked up a piece of weathered stone, carefully filled the gaps in the stone with bark and gunpowder, and then filled and secured it with weeds.

He crept back to the top of the slope, spotted the most densely packed fleeing soldiers, who were also completely unprepared with their backs to the steep slope, and used flint and tinder to light the cloth wick soaked in gunpowder.

The fabric wick hissed and burned, rapidly shortening its length!

Lin Fan used all his strength to push the stone covered with gunpowder toward the designated spot!

The stones rolled and bounced down the steep slope, kicking up a trail of dust!

Just before the stone rolled to a point where it was about to hit the heads of the fleeing soldiers, the gunpowder was ignited!

"boom!!"

A much louder and crisper explosion than the one in the backyard of the post station rang out in the valley!

Flames and smoke erupted from the bottom of the stone, the shockwave and deafening roar of the explosion, along with the flying debris, created a stunning effect at such close range!

"Ouch!"

"My God! Is that thunder? Or artillery fire?!"

"There's an ambush! It's government troops! It's government troops!"

The fleeing soldiers were thrown into chaos! Already undisciplined, they were terrified by the sudden "explosion" and "rolling stones," thinking they had been ambushed.

Two fleeing soldiers near the blast point were thrown over by the blast wave, and were hit by flying debris, their heads bleeding profusely as they screamed in pain.

The others, no longer caring about the robbery, let out a shout, abandoned their injured companions and the valuables that were almost within their grasp, and fled for their lives like startled rabbits towards the dry riverbed, disappearing without a trace in a matter of moments.

On the gravel beach, only the terrified guards, the equally dumbfounded villagers from the convoy, and the two corpses on the ground remained.

Lin Fan lay on the hilltop, his heart pounding like a drum.

It worked!

He waited quietly for a while, until he was sure that the fleeing soldiers had indeed escaped far away, and the people below had gradually recovered from their shock and started to clean up the situation and treat the wounded. Only then did he take a deep breath, grip his knife, and slowly walk out from behind the slope.

His appearance immediately alerted the crowd below.

The guards immediately gripped their weapons and looked at him nervously.

The burly, dark-skinned man wiping the blood off his face squinted at him with sharp eyes.

Lin Fan stopped and, from a relatively safe distance, clasped his hands in a fist salute, trying to make his voice sound steady:

"Passing by this place, I saw the fleeing soldiers committing atrocities and had no choice but to intervene and disturb them. I had no ill intentions."

The burly, dark-skinned man looked at the man's tattered clothes, which were barely better than a beggar's, yet he was carrying a waist knife that was clearly a standard military weapon. He then looked up at the hilltop where the explosion had just occurred, his eyes filled with suspicion and uncertainty.

That sound just now was clearly a gunpowder explosion, something that ordinary people could never make.

"Was that noise just now...did you make it?" the man asked in a deep voice, with a heavy Shaanxi accent.