lcionline Chapter 696 Night Raid by Bandits
Chapter 696 Night Raid by Bandits
As night fell, under Huang Gan's command, the team unloaded the boxes, arranged the carriages in a circle, with the drivers and accompanying personnel in the center and the special forces soldiers on the perimeter, forming a temporary fortification around the carriages.
After it got completely dark, all around was silent.
Liu Heizi asked the guide, "We have two or three hundred men, all strong and healthy. I guess the bandits won't dare to come, right?"
The guide shook his head: "Don't underestimate the greed and audacity of these bandits. If it weren't for these boxes, they might have let us pass and picked on other easy targets. But with over a hundred boxes here, it's hard to say. Who knows, some reckless group might come and test the waters..."
As if to verify what the guide had said, half an hour later, scattered torches slowly approached from afar, and the chaotic sound of horses' hooves also came over.
Liu Heizi spat: "Damn it, we've been traveling all day, and they won't even let us get a good night's sleep? They dare to mess with hundreds of us men? Are these people crazy with poverty?"
Huang Gan ordered his men to extinguish the fire in the middle of the wagon formation, making it harder for the enemy to identify their target. He figured he was already in a position of strength and didn't care about the lack of fire for illumination; the bandits, however, were attacking proactively and needed torches for light, otherwise they would be blind.
In this way, the attackers are in the open while the defenders are in the shadows, putting the bandits in an extremely disadvantageous position.
The torches hesitated for a moment at a distance of two hundred paces, then spread out to both sides, forming a semi-circle around them.
"Tsk tsk, these bandits actually know how to surround and attack. I thought they would be stupid enough to charge forward in a straight line!" Huang Gan sneered.
The guide warned anxiously, "Sirs, please be careful. Many of the bandits are former government soldiers who have fought in battles and seen the world. If they break in, we'll be in big trouble. I'm afraid none of us will survive..."
Huang Gan and Liu Heizi exchanged a smile, then told the guide, "Don't worry, they won't even have a chance to get close, let alone rush in. I've killed more government soldiers than these bandits. They're nothing to me."
A whistle rang out, and the bandits spurred their horses on, increasing their speed. The thunderous sound of hooves filled the air, and they quickly closed the distance to about a hundred paces.
The guides and drivers huddled together in fear, while the special forces soldiers remained remarkably calm, raising their pistols and aiming straight ahead, motionless. Although the darkness made shooting unsuitable, the torches served as a reference point, saving them a lot of trouble; they could simply aim at the torches.
Huang Gan stared at the torches, estimating the distance, but didn't give the order. Because the special forces didn't need to be executed in dense formations, they weren't equipped with the long Qionghai Type 3 rifles. Their standard issue was the Qionghai Type 5 pistol—actually a shorter version of the rifle—which was more flexible and suitable for urban warfare or skirmishes, but sacrificed range. The optimal firing distance was about thirty paces, so they had to let the bandits get close to fight them.
The torches drew closer, and the flames illuminated the bandits' faces so clearly that Huang Gancai gave the order: "Fire!"
"Bang bang bang..." A barrage of gunfire erupted instantly, deafeningly loud.
In the thick smoke, torches fell to the ground one after another, while screams and neighing of horses rose and fell from the opposite side. The bandits had clearly not expected to encounter such a tough opponent, and their formation immediately fell into disarray.
In the chaos, someone shouted, "These guys are tough! They all have shotguns! Get out of here!"
However, the bandits were clearly not a well-trained army. They were stunned by the volley of fire. Some retreated quickly, while others were too slow to react and crashed into the enemy. They were blocked by the wagon formation, their mounts crashed to the ground, the wagons were knocked off course, and the riders were thrown forward by inertia, falling heavily into the formation and landing right next to Huang Gan.
Huang Gan reacted swiftly, tossing his pistol to the ground, drawing his dagger, and plunging it into the man's chest. Blood splattered everywhere, and the man died instantly.
The thunderous hoofbeats echoed as the bandits arrived and departed swiftly, disappearing into the darkness in no time. In the still-burning torchlight, one could vaguely discern the haphazardly piled corpses of men and horses before the wagon formation.
Huang Gan wiped the blood off the corpse's clothes with his knife, then sheathed it, saying disdainfully, "Is this all the bandits are capable of? They're not even good enough to fill a tooth gap."
The guides and drivers were dumbfounded. The bandits had just retreated like that?
Liu Heizi said to Huang Gan, "We have to find a county town to stay in tomorrow, otherwise, if a few more groups of people come here, even if they don't bite, they'll still be a nuisance, and we won't be able to get a good night's sleep."
“Brother is right, I’ll listen to you,” Huang Gan nodded.
Fortunately, after this night raid, no one dared to approach and provoke them again, and the night passed peacefully.
The next day at dawn, the drivers and soldiers reloaded the boxes onto the carts and prepared to set off. Liu Heizi looked at the dozens of corpses on the ground, thought for a moment, and said to Huang Gan, "There will always be some fools on the road who will try to take advantage of us. Why don't we cut off these people's heads and hang them on the front of the carts to deter such scoundrels?"
Huang Gan grinned and said, "That makes sense." He then ordered his soldiers to cut off the heads of the bandits, prop them up on sticks, and hang them on the carriage so that they could be seen from a distance.
Although the lack of the nauseating smell of nitrated heads was unsettling, the effect was surprisingly good. Along the way, scouts from various factions kept spying on them, but upon seeing the dozens of heads, they all slunk away, and no large group of bandits dared to approach again.
After traveling over a hundred miles in one go, the surrounding area gradually became more populated, and by evening they arrived at a county town. The guide explained, "This is already within the territory of Kaifeng Prefecture; Fengqiu County is just ahead."
Liu Heizi waved his hand and ordered, "Let's go into town! Everyone get a good night's sleep tonight."
At the city gate, the guards came up to question him. Liu Heizi stepped forward and said, "We are men of Pingnan Marquis of Qionghai Town. We are on official business in northern Shaanxi and are passing through your county. Please do us a favor."
The reputation that worked in Guangdong, Guangxi, Shandong, and even the capital seemed to lose its deterrent effect in Henan. The soldiers didn't react much, but just stared intently at the box, their greed even stronger than that of bandits. Liu Heizi even suspected that if they weren't wary of the hundreds of soldiers accompanying them, they would have robbed the valuables on the spot.
After Liu Heizi reiterated his purpose, the leader of the squad withdrew his gaze from the boxes and said in an official tone, "According to the rules, you can enter the city by paying an entrance tax of twenty coins per box."
Huang Gan asked with a stern face, "What kind of rule is this? I've never heard of it before."
Xiao Qi snorted: "Once you're in our territory, you have to abide by our rules. If you don't want to pay, then leave. There's plenty of wasteland outside the city; we don't charge for it."