Chapter 72 Night Battle at Gao Family Fortress
Bai Yuan: "Alright, everyone, to your positions. Once they reach our designated courtyard, we'll wipe out these idiotic bandits."
"May the Heavenly Lord protect us," the others murmured in response.
"After we take them down, you must rescue Brother Wang Er!" a faint voice spoke up. It belonged to Bai Mao, Wang Er's subordinate who had brought the message.
"Naturally."
Zheng Yanfu, leading over two hundred bandits, quickly rushed to the fortress gate and met up with Zhong Guangdao. "Brother San, your wall-climbing skills are truly impressive."
Zhong Guangdao chuckled, "Heh heh, after we pull this off, you can call me Brother Er, and I'll call you Big Brother instead."
Zheng Yanfu was overjoyed. "Hahahaha, exactly! Charge!"
The two bandit chiefs led the way, surging into the fortress. Immediately upon entering, they found themselves in a labyrinthine network of passages, with solid iron-plated walls on either side.
After a hurried dash along the passage, they found not a single living quarter, just passages, one after another. Turning a corner in the passage, they saw a courtyard ahead, and another path branched off from the courtyard.
"All the rooms are empty!"
"This village only has a hundred or so people, but the fortress has so many rooms. Of course, many would be empty; that's not strange."
"Keep pushing further inside."
At the end of the courtyard, a path diverged to the left and another to the right. The two men could split up this time, each leading a hundred subordinates down a separate passage.
To their surprise, traversing these passages only led to two more courtyards.
Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu both began to feel that something was amiss.
Just then...
The surrounding rooftops burst into light with numerous lanterns, illuminating the courtyard where they stood.
A middle-aged man in a white long gown appeared on one of the rooftops, holding a folding fan, which he snapped open with a flourish. On its surface were two large characters: "Gentleman."
It was Bai Yuan. With a theatrical gesture, he pointed at the bandit soldiers in the courtyard and declared loudly, "You scoundrels..."
Before he could finish his pretentious declaration, a fierce middle-aged woman on an adjacent rooftop heaved a large stone and hurled it directly down.
"CRACK!"
A bandit was struck by the stone, his head splattered with blood, and he collapsed.
Bai Yuan exclaimed, "Hey! I hadn't even finished speaking!"
But it was already too late. With that first stone, the others couldn't hold back. Each seized their prepared stones, hurling them wildly into the courtyard. In the blink of an eye, large stones rained down from the rooftops on both sides.
A few villagers with bows also drew their light bows, firing indiscriminately below.
The bandits were caught completely off guard, and a wave of them fell.
Only then did Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao realize they had fallen into a trap. Both were aghast, grabbing pot lids to shield their heads.
Several bandit archers among their subordinates immediately drew their bows, retaliating against the rooftops. However, Li Daoxuan's hand immediately reached down, deflecting the bandits' arrows, but allowing the villagers' stones to fall unimpeded.
He was simply playing favorites and making exceptions.
Zheng Yanfu, a fierce bandit after all, surprisingly didn't think of fleeing first. Instead, he wanted to scale the rooftops and attack. But when he touched the nearby wall, he found it impossibly smooth, without a single crack or handhold, making it utterly unclimbable.
A sudden panic seizing him, he had no choice but to break through and escape.
Just ahead, at the corner of the courtyard, there was a small passage, seeming narrow enough to squeeze through. Zheng Yanfu, with a great stride, darted towards it.
Just as he was about to enter the passage, a burly figure suddenly leaped out, blocking Zheng Yanfu's path, grinning foolishly.
Gao Chuwu stood there.
Zheng Yanfu roared, "Take this blade, you oaf!"
He brought his blade down on Gao Chuwu. His swordplay was lightning-fast, yet to no avail. The blade merely struck with a sharp *clang*, deflected by the iron plates covering Gao Chuwu's chest.
"Armor!"
Zheng Yanfu was stunned speechless. They have armor? Are they government troops?
Gao Chuwu swept his axe horizontally. The sheer force of the axe's swing terrified Zheng Yanfu. In his haste, he dropped to the ground and rolled several times, just barely dodging Gao Chuwu's attack.
But though Gao Chuwu was simple-minded, his physique was top-notch—a classic example of all brawn, no brains, but possessing top-tier strength and speed. Zheng Yanfu had only rolled a couple of times on the ground when Gao Chuwu's foot followed swiftly, delivering a powerful kick to his abdomen.
The kick carried such immense power it sent Zheng Yanfu flying sideways, knocking down two of his subordinates with a heavy thud.
"Damn it, what kind of monster is that?" Zheng Yanfu groaned, clutching his stomach as he struggled to his feet and ran in the opposite direction.
In the other courtyard, Zhong Guangdao was in an equally sorry state. Stones rained down from the rooftops on both sides, occasionally interspersed with an arrow. How the hell was he supposed to fight like this? Like Zheng Yanfu, he also tried to slip into a small passage.
But the passage was guarded by a group of men, each wearing cotton armor. At their head, a man wielding a lumberjack's axe, was Zheng Daniu.
Zhong Guangdao charged and landed a single chop, but Zheng Daniu swept his axe, nearly taking off his head, terrifying him so thoroughly he almost soiled himself. He didn't dare make another move.
How can everyone in this Gao Family Village have armor? Damn it, are government troops hiding in this village?
In truth, only a few leading figures actually wore armor. But in the pitch-black chaos of a night battle, the bandits couldn't see clearly. Seeing only a handful of armored men at the front, they assumed everyone in Gao Family Village was armored.
Anyone with armor these days is a government soldier!
At the mere thought of "government soldiers," their courage shattered, all desire to fight vanished, and they only wanted to escape with their lives.
The bandit soldiers tried to run back the way they came, but the entrance they'd used had already been silently blocked off with large stones by several villagers, completely cutting off their retreat.
Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu pushed through the passage, reuniting, and glanced around. There was still one path open...
A narrow, winding passage.
This was their only escape route.
Both men simultaneously surged down the path...
Bai Yuan called out loudly, "Li Da, Gao Yiyi, prepare yourselves! The bandits are coming your way!"
The two blacksmiths perked up, standing behind the "Celestial Grand Cannon," clutching their massive hammers, their faces alight with fervent smiles.
"Come on!"
"You rogues!"
"Let us show you the power of celestial treasures!"
Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao arrived. The passage was narrow, but two people could still run abreast.
The bandit soldiers behind them also squeezed in after them, desperately scrambling to keep up.
As they rushed into this passage, to their surprise, no stones rained down from the rooftops.
This filled Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao with wild joy.
They thought, "We must have found a gap in their defenses, right?"
"If we keep running this way, we might just escape with our lives."
But it wasn't just the two of them thinking this; every bandit behind them harbored the same hope. Following their two leaders, they ran desperately. The narrow passage became so crowded that people were packed shoulder to shoulder.
The narrow passage became like a giant sausage stuffed with meat.
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