Chapter 124: Chapter 125: Can You?
Lui Yao roared in fury, "Fire the Command Arrows! Fire the Command Arrows!" He couldn’t worry about anything else; he had to summon his ambush troops to hold the line.
Two Command Arrows shot into the sky, one red and one green, exceptionally conspicuous in the night.
But Wu Shaoyi just laughed. "Trying to call for reinforcements? Hahaha, General Pei has already taken care of them for you!"
Lui Yao was aghast.
Of the three generals who had gathered at Xianling Village, Pei Xinyong was the calmest and most reliable. If he hadn’t been so intent on arranging the meeting, Lui Yao and Wu Shaoyi would have been like two kings on one mountain—at worst, they would have fought to the death upon meeting; at best, they would have avoided each other for the rest of their lives.
How could Pei Xinyong have completely sided with Wu Shaoyi in just half a night?
It didn’t make any sense!
Or had the two of them conspired long ago to deal with him together?
If that was true, then the nine hundred men he had brought into the mountains weren’t too many—they were far too few!
The combined Wu and Pei Alliance Army numbered a full two thousand six or seven hundred men.
Cold sweat broke out on Lui Yao’s back. He said hurriedly, "I just wanted to hold that damn official in place and wait for you to come up so we could consecrate our banner together! He’s on his way to Xiazhou to be promoted to Chief Steward. If we seize his Document and Official Seal, we can live freely in Xiazhou and never have to hide again! I can swear a blood oath on my ancestors that we’ll split the benefits equally from now on. I harbor no ill intentions!"
Wu Shaoyi chuckled. "Kneel and surrender to show your sincerity. Once we’ve taken down the damn official, we’ll naturally give you your due!"
Lui Yao flew into a rage. "Bah! Don’t push your luck!"
He had given ground again and again. When had he ever been humiliated like this? That bastard Wu still didn’t know what was good for him! His eyes darted, and he shouted again, "Lads, get to the lake and untie the boats!"
As the two groups of the Rebel Army started fighting amongst themselves, the officials’ soldiers immediately pulled back, fearing they would get caught in the crossfire.
Fortunately, once Wu Shaoyi spotted Lui Yao, he latched onto him and attacked relentlessly, not even bothering to spare a glance for the officials’ soldiers. Apparently, in his eyes, an internal traitor was ten times more hateful than an external enemy.
Besides, the two had a deep-seated grudge from the past; the more it was suppressed, the more explosive it was when it finally erupted.
He had also given the order to "kill the Lui Thief on sight," so his men singled out the Lui Family Army for combat, largely ignoring the officials’ soldiers.
Of course, this had a lot to do with the fact that the officials’ soldiers retreated without a fight.
Hee Chunhua had already ordered everyone to sleep on their arms, ready for battle. Now, before dawn, all the carriages, horses, and luggage were packed and secured. Some had never been unpacked, while others had been reinforced and repaired overnight. Even the utensils Madam Ying had just used were packed back in their boxes and tied securely to the large carts.
Even the horses had been fed with fodder and fresh water, their strength replenished, and were already hitched to the large carts.
The moment fighting broke out in the village, Hee Chunhua gave a decisive order: "Retreat to the west!"
More than four hundred people immediately set off with their horse-drawn carriages, heading for the West Mountain Road.
The officials’ soldiers, of course, tried not to draw attention to themselves, but the villagers weren’t blind or deaf. The moment they saw the officials preparing to leave, they immediately crowded around, crying, "Lord Official, take us with you!"
Hee Chunhua was prepared for this. His soldiers pointed ahead and announced, "Retreat with us! Everyone form lines, front to back! No more than three people per row!"
"You can ride horses, but no carts!"
Despite the repeated warnings, some villagers still threw all their belongings onto carts and tried to head west with them, only to be stopped by the soldiers. An argument broke out between the two sides, which then escalated into a physical confrontation.
Hee Yue, Zeng Feixiong, and the others were swamped. Hee Lingchuan had no choice but to stride over and declare, "Abandon your carts and proceed on foot, or stay behind with them! Don’t stand here blocking the road!"
These horse-drawn and ox-drawn carts were bulky, and the mountain road was narrow, wide enough for two carts at most. By blocking the way, they were preventing the Official Family’s carts from passing, leaving no room for the commoners.
A cart owner yelled angrily, "The Official Family gets to take their carts! Why can’t we?"
"Exactly! Our entire lives are on these carts! You want us to leave and live on air?"
The two sides started shoving each other again.
Hee Lingchuan reached out, yanked the man at the front off his cart, and hauled him close. "The soldiers can cover the retreat! Can you? Whoever among you can pick up a weapon and cover the retreat can take their cart!"
He demanded of the man in his grasp, "Can you?"
The man froze, his neck seeming to stiffen. He didn’t dare to nod, but he was unwilling to shake his head.
’They were all law-abiding people. What right did they have to fight against bandits who killed for sport? And let’s not forget, the bandits had just brutally slaughtered a hundred villagers in broad daylight, and among them were many strong men from the Village Guard Team!’
’That’s right, these weren’t ordinary bandits. They were the remnants of a rebel army that had fought the officials’ soldiers for years, conquering cities, plundering lands, and killing people like scything wheat! Their combat experience was vast; what did they have to fight them with?’
"Those who can’t fight, get off your horses and walk! Those who can fight, your families can take the carts, but you stay behind!"
With Hee Lingchuan’s shout, coupled with someone behind them screaming "The bandits are coming!" while pushing forward, the commoners on the carts didn’t dare argue any longer. They jumped off and started running.
If they didn’t run now, by the time the bandits caught up, they would just be meat shields for those who ran faster.
The soldiers pushed all the villagers’ carts to one side, clearing a path for the commoners to run. With half the road for people and half for carts, things were relatively orderly.
Soon, Hee Lingchuan also saw bandits running toward the west side of the village, smashing down doors to enter homes.
He couldn’t tell if these men belonged to Wu or Lui, but either way, looting during a crisis was their specialty. Wu Shaoyi’s subordinates, in particular, saw that their side far outnumbered the enemy and that victory was only a matter of time. So, some of them started getting ideas, wanting to get a head start on the plunder.
When it came to robbing, the spoils went to the swift.
The previous evening, Lui Yao had just killed his way into the village and occupied it, but he hadn’t had time to ransack it before the officials’ soldiers arrived right after. To avoid giving himself away, the Lui Bandits hadn’t turned the place upside down. They figured it wouldn’t be too late after defeating the soldiers. As a result, the furniture and livestock that the villagers couldn’t take with them in their haste were still in their homes.
Seeing this from the mountain, the group felt not anger, but joy.
While the bandits were busy breaking into houses to loot, they could buy precious time to retreat.
But things rarely go as planned. More and more bandits began to fix their sights on the mountain road to the west.
Some of them were following Lui Yao’s orders to capture Hee Chunhua, but a larger portion had been ambushed by Wu Shaoyi’s men and were forced to retreat while fighting—some retreated east, but others fell back to the west, which happened to be the same escape route used by the officials’ soldiers and the commoners.
Zeng Feixiong and the others rushed back and forth to give commands, but it was incredibly difficult.
But no one made any demands of Hee Lingchuan. Even Madam Ying had just told him, "Go to the front and give your father a hand."
The front of the column was the safest place. After seeing the terrible omen the Water Spirit had given him, no one would blame him.
Hee Lingchuan watched Zeng Feixiong’s back, clenching his fists in secret.
The Water Spirit’s prophecy lingered in his mind. ’If my great calamity is truly meant to befall me tonight, then I shouldn’t try to be a hero at a moment of life and death.’
’But what if it isn’t?’
’The next time, and the time after that, will I still have to shrink back?’
’If the calamity isn’t coming for another ten years, do I have to shrink back for ten years first?’
’Hiding behind others is certainly easy, but are you so sure the executioner’s blade won’t fall on your own neck in the end?’
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