Chapter 52 Officials and Thieves
"What kind of dog world do you think of the soldiers to watch out for the thief?"
After dawn, the officers on duty in the camp started to curse. They waited for the middle of the night and didn't even see a ghost.
Li Da listened to the whispers from the official army in the distance, sneered and looked at Zhang Dadao beside him, "Together, we will fight to the death for the 100-households, what we get is..."
"Okay, the poor guys are talking nonsense. What are you thinking about? The adoptive father said that this deal will be done and you will be beneficial."
Zhang Da was the head of the Baihufu family. He knew that the government troops below could not fight. At most, they would gather numbers to sway flags and shout when fighting in the wind. They were really not as good as Li Da and his group of horse thieves.
"Just say this to you, brother, I won't bother with them."
Li Da said this and since he went to the tent to shout his hands. Today, when he met the Tartars of Aji's tribe, Zhang Gui brought five servants and asked him to pick twenty good men to follow him, always guarding against him.
Just as dawn, after dinner, Zhang Gui took his servants and Li Da out of the camp. Before leaving, he left Zhang Da to guard the camp. All the horse thieves were good at leaving, and there were many officials and soldiers. Zhang Da was here to protect him.
Facing the rising sun, Gao Jin stood on the high ground, looking at the horses driving out of the camp not far away, and frowned slightly after clicking the number of people. Zhang Gui only brought twenty-five riders to trade. There were nearly eighty people left in the camp, which was more than them.
"Second brother, when will we do it?"
Behind Gao Jin, his friends asked one after another. After resting in the middle of the night, they had endless strength to vent the hatred and anger that had been accumulated in their hearts for a long time.
“Wait a little longer.”
Gao Jin waved his hand and signaled that he would wait until Zhang Gui and the others left further before launching an attack.
Observing the camp ahead, Gao Jin had to admit that Zhang Gui was not a good meal. At least he was very disciplined when he was camping. He was backed by the Caye River, which was convenient for water collection and prevented the enemy from surrounding the back. On this empty river beach, they could only attack from the front.
The servants began to line up, holding the spear in their hands. Everyone was nervous and somewhat expectant. Whether they were the former clerks of the Li family caravan or the young and strong who escaped from Hekou Fort, they were actually brave people in this era. Few people were afraid of the upcoming battle.
"Remember my words, those who obey orders will be rewarded, and those who do not obey orders will be punished."
Before the team set off, Gao Jin sternly said to the servants again, whether they can take down the enemy's camp in one fell swoop depends on whether these servants can follow up in time.
Gao Jin handed over the command of the servants to Dong Bufang. Compared to the Ma Jun, he had an older experience in the army and had seen big scenes and knew what to do.
"Zhang Xiong is mine." Ma Jun was also left behind. He walked to Gao Jin with a resentful look on his face, "This is what you owe me."
"He must be yours." Gao Jin said in a deep voice in response to Ma Jun's fierce eyes, "I will never go back on my word if Gao Jin said."
The horse army was leaving the side. Behind Gao Jin, all seventeen partners turned over the horse with murderous intent, with a look of fierceness.
"drive!"
Gao Jin shouted lightly and rushed towards the camp ahead. The place where they hid was less than three miles away from the enemy's camp. For the running cavalry, it was just a matter of drinking a cup of tea.
...
Zhang Da did not inspect the camp. His adoptive father said that the Tartars in Aji's army were not worth worrying about, not to mention that he still didn't know what kind of virtues the government troops below were. It was already good to be able to be on duty all night last night.
When Zhang Da felt the ground tremor and then realized that the horse team was approaching, he was still a little stunned and did not realize the enemy's attack at all. He even thought it was his adoptive father who brought people back.
In the van in front of the camp, several officials in charge of keeping watch leaned against the baffle and chatted, but no one was on guard. When they heard the sound of horse hooves getting closer, they got up and looked out of the car, and they also thought that their own people were back.
"I'm not leaving, why are you..."
"No, that's not the Hundred Houses, but the Tartars... they're Tartars, hurry up and knock on the iron horse."
In the official army, there was a strong eye and saw clearly that the horse team on the opposite side had already rushed to less than two hundred steps, and shouted in panic. At this time, the other people rushed to knock on the iron bells hanging on the van.
The sound of "Clang Dang" was not loud, and at this time the horse team opposite had already rushed within a hundred steps.
Gao Jin, who was riding on the horse, straightened his upper body, clamped his horse's belly with his legs, took the bow from the saddle with his left hand, and directly tapped the bow and arrow on the back of the horse. The figure of the official army became clearer in his sight. Gao Jin adjusted his breathing and recalled the riding and shooting skills that Lao Chen once taught him.
The most important thing about shooting arrows on the back of a running horse is that people must adapt to the rhythm of the horse. Only by finding the right rhythm can they not deform the movements when shooting arrows.
A scene of Old Chen teaching himself to shoot archery flashed through Gao Jin's mind, and then he suddenly released the bowstring, and the two-foot-long carved feather arrow shot forward, hitting the chest of the official army who was hitting the iron horse.
In the van, looking at the commander who was caught in an arrow on his chest and vomited blood, the other officials were frightened. Only then did they realize that the Tartars who were good at riding and shooting were killed on the other side.
"Run!"
I don’t know who shouted, and then several officials jumped out of the van and fled to the camp.
"The Tartars are coming."
"What are you shouting!"
Zhang Da slapped the escaped officers who were running around and screaming, and then shouted at the messy officers and horse thieves around, "Don't be messed up, the captain and sergeant should take care of their own people."
As Zhang Da roared, the captains and sergeant commanders in the official army hurriedly called on their subordinates and barely gathered the team together. The remaining horse thieves followed their respective leaders together.
Outside the camp, Gao Jin stopped the horses and stopped. The van ahead blocked the road. If they rushed in from the corridor left by the van, they would fall into the siege. So he jumped off the horse and said loudly, "Yang Dayan, Chen Sheng, Shen Guang, Fang Shi, you guys come into the car with me to block the enemy with bows and arrows, and the others pull the van away."
Gao Jin lifted his horn bow and turned over and jumped into the van. The other people followed one after another. The remaining friends put ropes on other connected vans and rode horses to free up space for the servants behind to attack.
Zhang Da and Zhang Wu, who had just barely gathered the team, were about to lead people to the van to defend, but they saw several Mongolian Tartars climbing on the van, holding bows and arrows, and shouting in shock, "Shield player, hurry up, shield player."
"Don't worry about those shield players, pick up confident shots, as long as they can kill the enemy."
Looking at the shield player who was driven out in a panic in the official army, Gao Jin's eyes were very cold, and he lowered his voice and said to Yang Dayan Chen Sheng and others, "These are all the best shooting skills among their partners, but they lack practical experience."
After hearing Gao Jin's words, the few people woke up and stopped pursuing and insisted on shooting the enemy. For a moment, several people and Gao Jin shot arrows in succession, and even shot down more than ten people.
"The Tartars have great bows and arrows, don't stand together."
Someone among the horse thieves shouted. They did not like the official army, with shields to cover the rear, and could only scatter. In the chaos, Wu Yan held his bow and arrow and hid everywhere in inconspicuous places, pretending to be a maintenance site and fired arrows towards the direction of the van, quietly waiting for the opportunity.
After experiencing the initial panic, Zhang Da and Zhang Wu stabilized the official army, let the shield hand push in front and press onto the van. At this time, the two saw a large group of Mongolian Tartars coming outside the van that was pulled away.
After the horse thieves and the archers in the official army fought back with their bows, Gao Jin was not afraid to fight back, and shot at a distance of fifty steps, and his torso was seriously injured if he was hit by an arrow.
Seeing that Wang Dou and the others had already pulled five or six vans, enough for the servants to set up a strait, Gao Jinchao, who was still shooting arrows at the camp from time to time, said, "Get out of the car, get on the horse, and let the servants take it."
When Gao Jin shouted, Chen Sheng and Yang Dayan and others who were rushing to the front with some blood were calm down, and quickly jumped out of the van and followed Gao Jin.
"The archers all went on the vans on both sides."
Zhang shouted. At this time, he had seen at least dozens of Tartar teams coming in outside the gap where the car formation was pulled open. He drove the formation to the gap and then led to the dozen archers left in the camp to go into the van and use bows and arrows to snipe the enemy.
"No, open your head, the Tartars' bows and arrows are too fierce."
As soon as several official archers climbed into the van, Gao Jin and Chen Sheng and others called each other hard with their bows and arrows. As a result, one of the four people was killed and three injured. The dead one was penetrated by Gao Jin's throat with one arrow.
“There are sharpshooters in the Tartars.”
Zhang Da's forehead was sweating. There was a sharpshooter among the Tartars, which made the archers on their side dare not appear at all. Now the two sides were going to fight each other. He was really not sure that he could resist the rushing Tartars from the opposite side.
Dong Bufang looked at the formation of the official troops in front of him. The two sides were less than twenty steps apart. He could even see the panic on the faces of the shield players. The brave ones won when they met on the narrow road. These official troops were obviously closer to the gap than them, but they rushed over first.
"Ah!Ah!Ah!"
Dong Bufang waved forward, and then the servants shouted, and stabbed the official army shield in front with a long spear in their hands. For a moment, the spear thumped on the shield.
The official army at Hekou Fort was not prepared for a tough battle. There was a shield player in front, but the killer team with guns behind him did not dare to fight back, but just stabbed outside in a manner.
Gao Jin led his friends around the right side of the van formation. At this time, he saw scattered horse thieves riding horses and escaped from the camp, knowing that the situation was settled.
In the camp, looking at Zhang Da who was still resisting the commander army, Wu Yan felt that the opportunity had come. He pointed his bow at Zhang Da's back and shot him with an arrow.
Zhang Da never expected that someone in the camp would shoot black arrows at him, and then fell to the ground after being shot, which became the last straw that crushed the courage of the official army.
"Zhang Tou is dead."
"The Tartars are coming in."
Chapter completed!