Chapter 128: Chapter 129: Setting Multiple Barriers
He wasn’t an idiot. While fighting Wu Shaoyi, he’d started to piece things together. It was most likely that damned official Hee Chunhua who had pulled some strings behind the scenes, provoking Wu Shaoyi and Pei Xinyong into joining forces against him.
Wu Shaoyi held an old grudge against him and was easily provoked. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to sow discord between them.
Lui Yao pointed to the Western Route up the mountainside. "After them! Kill them all on sight—except for the damned official!"
He gave a savage grin. "The damned official is mine."
***
Suddenly, there was light.
Sweat trickled down as Hee Lingchuan rubbed his eyes. He suddenly noticed the faint light of dawn in the East.
The first ray of today’s morning sun struck the cliff face, and him as well.
Hee Lingchuan gasped for breath, unable to believe that his group of some thirty men had held out for another double-hour with only a dozen broken-down carts.
No, it wasn’t thirty men anymore. Only nine were left. The heavily wounded couldn’t escape either.
The Long Saber in his hand was still dripping blood, from both the bandits and his own splattered soldiers.
Seeing his brothers-in-arms fall one after another, one soldier had taken advantage of the chaos, sneaking to the rear and climbing onto a horse in an attempt to flee.
Zhao Qinghe saw this, let out an angry shout, and yanked him from the saddle.
Hee Lingchuan rushed over from behind, and without listening to any explanation, lopped the man’s head off with a single slash.
In a desperate fight, the brave are the ones who prevail.
If you don’t execute deserters, you won’t have any brave men left.
Sure enough, as the head rolled across the ground, the atmosphere on the battlefield shifted. The soldiers’ gazes toward Hee Lingchuan were now filled with awe and fear. But he felt neither joy nor sorrow. He just raised his saber and returned to killing the enemy.
Once Lui Yao finished rallying Wu Shaoyi’s former subordinates, he naturally led them in pursuit of the officials’ soldiers, only to be intercepted by Hee Lingchuan and his men halfway up the mountain.
This was terrain Hee Lingchuan had carefully chosen. As long as the cart barricade held, no matter how numerous the Rebel Army was, only the front twenty or thirty men could engage. The rest would be stuck behind them.
And for that very reason, the Rebel Army’s assault reached a new, feverish intensity.
The carts couldn’t be moved, so the bandits tried to hack them to pieces.
After all, their ranks weren’t short on men of great strength.
But who would have known that the Hee Family’s style—in everything from food and clothing to daily necessities—was all about understated luxury and substance? This philosophy extended to their carriages, which were made from exceptionally sturdy materials. The base was constructed from old redwood from Sword Mountain, first soaked in a Potion and then polished. It was a process of more than a dozen steps. A normal sword or saber would only chip it slightly, and the blade could easily get stuck if one tried to pull it back.
The cart panels were even resistant to wildfires.
After all, they were originally built to carry the Hee Family’s vast wealth for a thousand or two thousand miles. How could they be anything but sturdy?
Even if the horses pulling them were worked until they went lame, the carriages themselves would be fine.
The bandits felt like crying as they hacked at such carriages. What’s more, Hee Lingchuan and his men weren’t just sitting back and watching. How could they let the bandits chop away freely and to their hearts’ content?
So the bandits had no choice but to wield an axe in one hand and a shield in the other. They had to use their shields to block the storm of spears and arrows coming from the gaps in the carriages, only managing to sneak in a few axe swings when they found an opening.
There were clever ones among them, too. Seeing how fierce the soldiers’ resistance was, they simply went through the motions, swinging their axes half-heartedly. They were just slacking off, not daring to truly put their backs into it, so their progress was terribly slow.
Lui Yao grew furious watching this. After disciplining a few of his men, he grabbed his giant axe and charged in himself.
His strength was immense, and he chopped at the carts much faster than his subordinates. However, swinging the axe left him wide open.
In truth, he had his Protective Gang Qi and hadn’t been the least bit afraid when facing Wu Shaoyi. But when it came to the soldiers’ Long Spears jabbing and stabbing wildly, he was extremely wary.
The reason was simple: these soldiers were imbued with Primordial Power!
Primordial Power specialized in breaking through an opponent’s True Power and Divine Techniques, unless the opponent also possessed Primordial Power to counter it.
Lui Yao fumed internally. ’If the Saint Master were still here, we could use Primordial Power too. This toy-like barricade, these few chicken-shit soldiers... how could they possibly be a match for me?’
His rage meter rose, and his attack power went up with it.
Just as the first line of the cart barricade was about to be destroyed, Hee Lingchuan quickly gave the order, "Fall back to the second barricade!"
That’s right. He had once again mimicked a battle from the Dream Realm. While Lui Yao was busy incorporating the remnants of the Wu Bandits, Hee Lingchuan had already set up second and third lines for the barricade.
His men could clamber over them nimbly. But when the bandits finally smashed through the first barricade and Lui Yao was the first to shove aside a broken cart and charge forward, they were all struck dumb.
There was another one!
And so it went, again and again.
Hee Lingchuan’s command was surprisingly effective, and the soldiers now saw him as their backbone. He fought on the front lines himself, never forgetting to rally everyone’s spirits, and the cart barricade had indeed greatly lessened the pressure on them... That was how they had barely managed to hold on until now.
Of course, the soldier’s head he had personally taken had also snuffed out any thoughts of escape among the others.
A combination of grace and might was the only way to win their hearts.
But by the time dawn broke in the East, this third line of the barricade was also on the verge of collapse.
Due to a lack of resources, the soldiers had used villagers’ ox-carts and horse-drawn carriages to build the third barricade. These were of a completely different quality and caliber; the villagers’ carts weren’t nearly as tough or durable as the Hee Family’s. They were much flimsier.
Some of the carriage compartments were only covered by a thin wooden board—a blatant example of cutting corners. A Bandit Army soldier thrust his spear right through one, nearly putting a bloody hole in Fuzzy Peach’s arm.
He yanked his arm back in terror and shouted to Hee Lingchuan, "Eldest Young Master, we can’t hold them!"
Zeng Feixiong had clearly instructed him and Zhao Qinghe to command the battle, but somehow, authority had long since shifted to Hee Lingchuan’s hands.
Urged on by Lui Yao, short, agile bandits began clambering over the barricade like wild monkeys, engaging the soldiers in close-quarters combat.
Bodies lay strewn across the ground in disarray—bandits and soldiers alike.
As the fight dragged on, it fell into a rhythm that was all too familiar to Hee Lingchuan.
From across the carriages, Lui Yao’s crimson eyes stared death at him. "You’d better start running! When I catch you, I’ll cut off your head and your father’s and use them as wine flasks!"
Hee Lingchuan touched his own head, then glanced at the red sun rising over the eastern peak. He sighed. "Mount up! We’re retreating!"
Unlike in the Dream Realm, he didn’t plan to fight to the bitter end this time.
A dream was a dream, but reality was reality.
One could be a stoic hero in a dream, but in reality, the dead don’t come back.
Finally, the order to retreat! The soldiers let out a collective sigh of relief, so moved they nearly burst into tears, and scrambled onto their horses. The Mage in their group ran about fifty feet up the path, crouched down, pressed his hands to the ground, and began to chant.
Under Zhao Qinghe’s direction, the Primordial Power from all the other soldiers was transferred to him.
The glow around the Mage instantly intensified.
Immediately after, the ground where his hands rested began to freeze over, a layer of ice spreading down the path.
That’s right. Even in retreat, Hee Lingchuan had to leave a little more trouble for his opponents.
"Faster, faster!" Hee Lingchuan urged him. "We’re near a lake! The air is thick with moisture; it should be going faster!"
"My True Power is limited. This is as much as I can do..." the Mage said through gritted teeth. ’My Magic is for killing people, not paving roads!’
Limited True Power? The words jolted Hee Lingchuan. He immediately pulled something from his robes and stuffed it into the Mage’s mouth. "Can you use this?"
It was a deep green Profound Crystal.
At a critical moment, it was Eldest Young Master Hee who had the goods.
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