YM778.TV Chapter 306 - Bandits (2)
Compared to Zijin’s high-profile attack, Master Yang’s side did not attract much attention. After all, Master Yang didn’t actively kill people unless they hit the people in the carriage. Furthermore, Zijin drew the thieves’ attention.
The thieves’ leader looked at Zijin and asked, “Who are you?”
Zijin looked coldly at the leader of the thieves and said, “I don’t need to tell you who I am, but if you want what’s here, it depends on whether you have the life to take it?” Her words were quite domineering.
The thieves’ leader laughed a few times and smashed the wolf bone stick in his hand towards Zijin. Zijin used the knife in her hand to block it, but it cracked instead. Making an instant decision, Zijin threw the knife away and then immediately jumped off her horse. The crowd thought she would flee. Even the leader of the bandits thought the same. However, instead of running away, she slapped the thieves’ leader horse in the stomach.
The leader of the thieves was also swift to react. He leapt off the horse and then smashed the wolf bone stick towards Zijin’s head once more. As long as it landed on Zijin’s head, she would surely die.
Chief Huang didn’t have time even to scream.
“Dingdang……” There was a shower of sparks, and only then did the crowd see clearly that a knife had blocked the thieves’ leader’s wolf bone stick.
After retrieving the knife, Master Yang looked at Zijin and said, “When I said you lack experience, you stubbornly wouldn’t admit it. Now you know, right?” Zijin would not have escaped this calamity had it not been for him.
Zijin gritted her teeth and did not say anything. Just now, she was so sure she could avoid the wolf bone stick but could not guarantee that she would not be injured.
The thieves’ leader looked at the thin old man standing in front of him and asked, “Who are you?” Although it was only one move from that older man, an expert would know that it was authentic martial arts as soon as he made his move.
At this time, the thieves’ leader secretly cursed the eighteen generations of ancestors of the person who inquired about this information. It was not just the daughter of a high-ranking official in the capital who married out with a generous dowry. There were not only a dozen guards other than the armed escorts of Xinglong Escort Agency, while the others weren’t worth much to be mentioned. But why would there be such experts mixed in with them? Darn it! When he returned, he would definitely clean up those rice buckets.
It was just a pity that this idea was not destined to come true, as he, himself, could never go back. Master Yang only made one slash, and the thieves’ leader collapsed into a pool of blood. [T/C]
After killing the man, Master Yang still had time to lecture Zijin, saying, “See? To get to my level, you still need to practice more.”
Zijin had no time to listen to Master Yang’s lecture and continued to kill the enemy.
Chief Huang bellowed, “Kill.” Because of the wind, the water wheel had turned, and it was their turn to be the killer.
The horse thieves saw that all these armed escorts had murderous expressions on their faces. On top of that, the ones on Luo Shuigui’s side were also looking more formidable, and as for Zijin, needless to say, she was simply the goddess of killing.
The horse bandits did not want to fight anymore. They would only die if they continued to do so, and some of them even started to run away. In the end, only a few of them managed to escape. Of course, it didn’t mean that all the horse thieves were dead, as some were injured and currently lying on the ground moaning.
Luo Shuigui called out, “Chase.”
Chief Huang was just about to say that they should not pursue the poor bandits, but before he could say anything, Luo Shuigui’s team had already chased after the rest of the bandits. After thinking about it for a while, Chief Huang didn’t dwell on it anymore but led the other armed escorts to finish off all the injured horse thieves.
After killing all the horse thieves, Da Mao exclaimed, “Darn, that was a good kill!” In the past, when he encountered a large group of horse thieves, he was lucky to escape with his life. He never thought he could kill a bunch of horse thieves this time around. It felt extremely fantastic!
Chief Huang said in a loud voice, “Count the wounded,” and the results were soon available. This time, the losses were not particularly heavy, with six lightly wounded and two seriously injured on the armed escorts’ side. Eight people were lightly injured, four seriously wounded, and five died on the Han family’s side. As for Luo Shuigui’s side, only two were lightly wounded while the remaining chased after the fleeing bandits.
After the scene was cleared, Luo Shuigui returned with his men and brought back five horses. Apparently, the ones who had escaped had also been killed.
When the horse thieves came out to rob, they couldn’t have brought anything extra on them. The only things that were worth anything were their horses and weapons. Excluding the few horses injured by Zijin, they got a good haul of 60 horses, which was kind of a profitable deal.
Yuxi got off the carriage when she knew the horse thieves were gone. Zijin rushed to her side, just in case something happened to Yuxi.
Master Yang just looked on and then grunted coldly.
When Yuxi got off the carriage, she immediately turned towards the people in the carriage and instructed, “Zisu, Tian Ju, a few of you stay in the carriage and don’t come down.” Yuxi was worried that they would have nightmares after watching this scene.
A few people, such as Mama Qu and Mama Xi, came down. When Mama Qu noticed the corpses and blood all over the ground, her face instantly turned white. But seeing Yuxi standing there calmly and composed, everyone felt slightly more at ease.
Yuxi walked forward, inquired about the situation, and after a moment of silence, she asked Chief Huang, “Can we cremate the dead people and bring their ashes back?”
Chief Huang shook his head and said, “No, we must leave this troubled place as soon as possible.” It wasn’t that he was worried about these people returning for revenge. With so many horse thieves ending up dead, the rest must have been badly wounded. It was just that this place was not safe, so it was better to leave quickly.
Luo Shuigui, however, thought it was acceptable to do so. “Leave a few people to cremate the dead people, while the rest will continue the journey.” If they did not take the ashes of the fallen people away this time, there would be no more chances.
Once they took care of this, Yuxi asked Chief Huang again, “How are the six seriously injured people?”
Chief Huang’s expression was somewhat heavy as he answered, “Four of them are still conscious, but two of them are in a coma. I don’t know if they can make it.”
Yuxi said, “Let me take a look.”
Of the six seriously injured, four were still sober, so there would not be in any danger to their lives. Of the remaining two, one was still unconscious, and the other was having trouble breathing properly.
Yuxi said, “I still have ginseng slices here. Let’s see if using them will help somehow?” The ginseng slices could help one hang on to one’s life. As for the rest, one could only leave it to fate.
When Chief Huang heard Yuxi’s words, his eyes lit up, and he turned towards her as he praised, “Miss Han is very righteous.” If it wasn’t for the people around Miss Han this time, there was no way the loss would be this small.
The crowd saw Yuxi picking out more ginseng slices from the large wooden box and knew that she probably filled the carriage with medicinal herbs. Yuxi wasn’t being petty either. Each of the seriously wounded ones had a piece in their mouth. As for the lightly wounded, there were given none.
Master Yang watched Yuxi’s movements and said nothing. After Yuxi and Zijin had re-entered their carriage, Master Yang handed Zijin a green bottle.
Zijin regarded it with disdain.
Yuxi hurriedly took it and said, “Many thanks, Master Yang.”
Master Yang grunted twice and said, “It’s not for you. What are you thanking me for?” He was secretly annoyed with Zijin. This darn girl had wasted his hard work.
When the caravan was about to leave the incident’s location, Yuxi called for Mama Qu and the others to get in first. “You guys can go inside first. I’ll come back up later after I put some medicine to Zijin.”
Naturally, they had no objection.
Zijin’s arm was slightly injured, not to the bone, but both of her inner clothes had turned red. With her eyes already red, Yuxi gave Zijin the medicine, and when she noticed the way Zijin gritted her teeth and endured it, she hurriedly said, “Bear with it. I will finish it soon.”
After putting on the medicine, Zijin looked at Yuxi as she wiped her tears and comforted her with a smile, “Miss, it’s just a small injury. It won’t be a problem, and it will quickly heal.”
Yuxi nodded with a forced smile.
It was already dark when the group arrived at a small town. Chief Huang was familiar with the area and quickly found an inn to stay.
Han Ji came over and reported something to Yuxi, “Miss, on the way here, the armed escort who was too badly injured had passed away.” The carriage was so bumpy, and there was no physician around that the armed escort couldn’t make it.
Yuxi sighed and said, “How come the carriage didn’t even stop just now?”
Han Ji said, “Chief Huang said he couldn’t delay the journey, so he left a few people behind to deal with it.” The men who had dealt with the corpse had also returned.
Yuxi said after a moment of silence, “I just hope the rest of the road will be peaceful.” She hoped that no more people would die. It was just that the world was in such a mess that it was not easy to keep people from dying. [+]
After dinner, Chief Huang looked for Luo Shuigui and Yuxi, telling them, “Miss Han, we can’t take the sixty horses along with us. It’s better to sell them here.”
Yuxi didn’t have much opinion on it. “It’s up to you, Chief Huang.” After a pause, she added, “Don’t use any money from the sale of the horses. Save them for those who are seriously injured and for the families of those who have lost their lives!”
Chief Huang expressed his gratitude, “Thank you very much, Miss.” Generally speaking, if the employer had paid the armed escorts for their service, they would then be responsible for delivering the goods to their destination. The employer was not responsible for any casualties that happened in between. But to their surprise, Yuxi would even share the spoils of war with them.
Luo Shuigui didn’t care much about the money, but after hearing Yuxi’s words, he suggested, “Miss, don’t sell all the horses either. Just leave three or four to use as spares.”
Yuxi nodded and said, “You two should discuss this.” She was more concerned about whether the horse thieves would come back for revenge and whether there would be another group of horse thieves ahead of them.
Chief Huang shook his head and comforted her, “Don’t worry, Miss. We’ve taken care of over sixty horse thieves with this one-shot. Ordinary bandits won’t dare to hit on us again.” With a few experts like Master Yang, Chief Huang had a little more confidence in his heart.
Yuxi did not have the same confidence as Chief Huang and reminded, “But we still have to be more careful.” The ordinary bandits wouldn’t dare to hit them, but if they did, then it meant they were no common bandits, which was not good news for Yuxi.
When Da Maotou heard that the horses were for sale, he said, “Chief, it’s hard to find these kinds of horses. Since they’re for sale anyway, why don’t you sell the one I’m riding! I’ll pick a new one from these good horses.” The horses of these horse thieves were of good quality, two grades higher than the ones they rode on.
Seeing that Chief Huang disagreed, Da Maotou tried to reason out, “Are Chief worried about the price difference? We’ll just make up for it.” No matter what, both sides still earned from it.
The other armed escorts also had the same opinion. It was hard to find a good horse. All of them requested for one, and Chief Huang could only nod his head in the end.
How the horses were dealt off was unknown to Yuxi. All she knew was that she rested for the night and set off again early the next day. Seriously injured ones were placed in the town by Chief Huang to recuperate. With such severe injuries, they would not survive another bumpy ride.