Chapter 724: This is Our Territory
Shi Jian chuckled inwardly. You think I'm just stumbling through these gullies by chance? The Heavenly Lord himself is guiding my every step. But of course, I'd never tell you that.
Out loud, he just smiled. "Well, what a happy coincidence. Though, with such luck, I'm not sure we can guarantee saving the Governor, sir."
Chen Qiyu cut him off. "This is hardly the time for pleasantries! Behind me—"
Shi Jian nodded crisply. "Governor, please fall back behind our lines and keep an eye on those surrendered rebels."
At that moment, Vice Commander Luo Xi, moving with surprising speed, outpaced even Chen Qiyu. He seemed to flash to the side of the surrendered rebels with his personal guard, unleashing a torrent of shouts, curses, and kicks, knocking them flat to the ground.
Chen Qiyu spared a glance for Luo Xi, then another for Shi Jian.
One is a fifth-rank garrison commander, the other a third-rank vice commander, he mused. By all rights, the vice commander should be the more formidable, yet this one is utterly useless. It's the garrison commander who proves dependable. Aiya.
Chen Qiyu, knowing his own limitations as a civil official unsuited for front-line command, very pragmatically retreated behind Shi Jian's forces.
Shi Jian's militia immediately surged to the forefront.
Flintlock rifles roared in rapid succession, and a swathe of rebel soldiers in the gully ahead instantly crumpled.
The rebel leader, Xue Hongqi, cast a quick glance his way and bellowed, "Government reinforcements! Too many rifles, this is getting dangerous! Disperse, disperse..."
The rebel forces had never truly formed battle formations, and certainly couldn't in the confines of this gully.
They turned tail and bolted towards the heart of the valley.
Shi Jian's contingent, lacking automatic rifles, couldn't press a continuous assault. They were forced to advance gradually, their riflemen reloading, firing, and moving forward in a rhythm that was necessarily slow.
They pushed deeper into the valley, following the winding gully towards Gadu Monastery.
From the rear, Chen Qiyu called out, "Garrison Commander Shi, be wary of ambushes! The terrain here is treacherous, rebels could spring out from any side at any moment—"
Before he could finish, the Miniature Heavenly Lord, depicted in cotton thread on Shi Jian's chest, murmured, "Fifty paces ahead, to your right, the cliff face."
Shi Jian's hand shot out, pointing. A volley of flintlock fire erupted, "Crack! Crack! Crack!" Several rebel archers tumbled from the cliff face, bows still clutched in their hands, their lives extinguished before they hit the ground.
Chen Qiyu gasped, "Astonishing! Garrison Commander Shi, how did you know rebels were lying in wait there?"
The Miniature Heavenly Lord continued, "Eighty paces ahead, the bend in the gully."
Shi Jian roared, "Focus on that bend, eighty paces ahead!"
The soldiers understood instantly. As they reached the bend, no one recklessly charged forward. Instead, they swiftly hurled several hand grenades behind the cluster of rocks.
"Boom!"
A scattered heap of bodies was blasted into the air from behind the rocks.
Chen Qiyu exclaimed, "Incredible! Garrison Commander Shi, how do you keep knowing these things?"
"Gadu Monastery! We've reached Gadu Monastery!"
A shout rang out.
The terrain ahead suddenly opened up, revealing the central expanse of the valley.
Just moments ago, a fierce battle had raged here between government troops and rebels. Numerous corpses of garrison soldiers lay strewn across the ground. The bandits, unwilling to become targets for the flintlocks, had already pulled back from the valley, scattering into the myriad gullies surrounding it.
Shi Jian's militia swiftly reached the entrance of Gadu Monastery.
Chen Qiyu followed close behind, a palpable sense of dread clinging to him. "Garrison Commander Shi," he warned, "this location is far from secure. Gullies crisscross in every direction; there's no telling when rebels might erupt from any of them. This official, myself, was just ambushed here—"
Shi Jian merely nodded. "Understood."
Unbeknownst to Chen Qiyu, even as he spoke, Xue Hongqi—who had just dispersed his main rebel force into the very gullies they discussed—was giving similar instructions to his own subordinates. "The government troops are utter fools," he scoffed, "stopping again at Gadu Monastery. That accursed place is ripe for ambush, and they haven't even deployed scouts. Soon, you'll follow my command: we'll rotate, emerging from various gullies to strike the government soldiers."
"Haha, there's no one who knows this terrain better than us."
"Boss Xue, look to the sky! Why is there such a peculiar sky lantern floating above us?"
"To hell with it! What kind of time is this, and you're staring at lanterns?"
Xue Hongqi, enraged, waved his hand dismissively. "Prepare for another assault."
The rebels, hunched low, scurried rapidly through the gullies, shifting positions in the blink of an eye, reappearing in another ravine.
"Charge!"
With a furious roar, a large contingent of rebels burst forth from the gully.
But Shi Jian was already prepared. A company of riflemen lay in wait. The moment the rebels surged from the gully mouth, a deafening "Crack! Crack! Crack!" erupted. Before the rebels could even glimpse the scene outside the gully, a devastating volley cut down a significant number of them.
Those behind, utterly terrified, scrambled backwards, retreating pell-mell into the gully once more.
"Where are our scouts? We should be far more aware of the enemy's movements than these government soldiers!"
"Crack!"
His answer was a solitary gunshot. A rebel scout tumbled from a distant cliff face, already a lifeless corpse by the time he reached the gully floor.
"Damn it! So many of our scouts are dead, we have no idea what's happening around us anymore."
"How do they know exactly where our scouts are hidden?"
"They ambushed their scouts!"
"But we saw nothing! They haven't sent out any scouts themselves!"
"Impossible! It simply cannot be!"
A squad of rebels, still hunched low, darted across a narrow ditch, hoping to reposition themselves.
Mid-crossing, at the very bend of the small gully, a detachment of government soldiers lay in ambush. A swift "Crack! Crack! Crack!" of gunfire, and every rebel in that squad collapsed to the ground.
The rebel soldiers suddenly found that the terrain they knew so intimately had, inexplicably, turned alien. Their enemies, that detachment of government soldiers, seemed to possess an uncanny knowledge of every twist and turn of these gullies, far exceeding their own.
Xue Hongqi wiped a bead of sweat from his brow. "What in the blazes is happening? Why is this occurring?"
"Boss," a subordinate stammered, "the sky lantern above... it has a human face painted on it, and it looks like it's smiling right at us."
"You're spouting utter nonsense!" Xue Hongqi roared, "How can a painted face smile? Quickly! Ascertain the situation around us!"
The words were barely out of his mouth when a furious crackle of flintlock fire erupted from the gully behind him. A large portion of his rear guard instantly toppled.
Xue Hongqi felt every hair on his body bristle. "Are you telling me... government troops have outflanked us and are now behind me, and I had no inkling?"
"Boss, run for your life!"
Under the desperate protection of his remaining men, Xue Hongqi turned tail and fled.
Just as escape seemed possible, a sizable force of riflemen burst from a gully diagonally ahead, unleashing a hail of "Crack! Crack!" fire directly at his face.
Another swathe of Xue Hongqi's personal guard fell, forcing him to scramble frantically into yet another gully, burrowing desperately through its depths.
He burrowed and ran, putting several hundred paces between himself and the enemy. Finding no government soldiers, he let out a relieved sigh. "Hmph, I thought these government troops were so formidable," he scoffed, "yet they still can't catch me. I laugh at their utter lack of foresight—"
From a gully to his right, another detachment of riflemen suddenly materialized. Leading them was a burly general, none other than Zheng Gouzi, who burst into a hearty laugh. "Let's not allow Xue Hongqi to slip away!"
"Crack! Crack! Crack!"
Once again, the flintlock rifles barked, without a shred of doubt.
The hardened bandits around Xue Hongqi crumpled to the ground, one after another.
He was so enraged, he felt himself teetering on the edge of madness. With a guttural roar, he drew his blade and lunged at Zheng Gouzi.
Zheng Gouzi didn't even flinch. From behind him, a dozen flintlock barrels extended, a pall of acrid smoke billowed, and Xue Hongqi collapsed to the ground with a thud.
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