Zhao Maiji, the actual commander of the men in black, was indeed a trusted confidant of Zheng Xin. He was very knowledgeable and responsive. He immediately saw the advantage on the battlefield and shouted at the top of his voice, "Listen, brothers. The government troops are useless. We have twice as many people as them. If two kill one, isn't it like 'pinching a snail with three fingers'? Listen to me, brothers. Kill a soldier and you will be rewarded with 100 taels of silver. Kill an officer and you will be rewarded with 500 taels of silver. Kill Yuchi Lianghong and the position of Wulin leader will be yours!"
The morale of the black-clad bandits was boosted by him more and more. The muscles on their faces were about to burst with excitement, and they were ready to fight with bare teeth and howling.
Because everyone also had to protect the Third Prince Zheng Miao, they were unwilling to fight the enemy head-on, so they could only fight and retreat, slowly retreating.
At this time, Qiu Yi's personal soldiers and militiamen, who had experienced countless hard battles and never lost a single person, had caused twenty to thirty casualties to the enemy, but fifteen or sixteen of their own people had been killed, and the casualties were still increasing. Only with the support of Yuchi Lianghong and Yuchi Jiming, father and daughter, could the situation be barely maintained.
Seeing this situation, Qiu Yizi felt distressed and helpless. Thinking that this was not a solution, he discussed with Zheng Miao beside him: "Third brother, it seems that it is not a long-term solution for us to retreat blindly like this. We must find a way to get out of this."
Zheng Miao had just been injured, but he had not received medical treatment. His injuries were getting worse and worse, and he was getting weaker and weaker. He said, "Brother, you are right, but the enemy has many people, high morale, and strong fighting power. How can we escape?"
Qiu Yizhi retreated under the protection of the crowd, thinking, but he could not think of a solution: "It's a pity that we came too hastily. We didn't bring bows and crossbows, horses, spears, and giant shields. Can we only fight the enemy head-on?"
But Zhao Chengxiao suggested in his ear: "Capture the leader first, and see if you can kill the leader named Zhao. The enemy will be leaderless and will surely collapse."
"Great idea!" Qiu Yizi didn't expect that a mature and down-to-earth man like Zhao Chengxiao could come up with such a great idea at such a critical moment. He was about to deploy the action, but when he looked up in the direction of Zhao Maiji, he couldn't help but frowned again.
It turned out that Zhao Maiji was very insidious. Although he kept urging the men in black to fight forward, he himself was hiding steadily behind the soldiers. Even his location was vague and looming. It was not easy to catch his whereabouts, let alone a sneak attack on him.
But seeing his own casualties increasing, and Zheng Miao's injuries becoming more and more serious, Qiu Yizi had no choice but to grit his teeth and said, "There is no other way. Even if it can't be done, we have to do it. Where are Yuchi Lianghong and Yuchi Jiming?"
When the father and daughter heard Qiu Yizi's call, they hurried over and asked if she had any instructions.
The two of them were already sweating profusely from the killing, and their clothes and trousers were stained with blood. Especially Yuchi Lianghong, whose foot injury had not yet healed, was still staggering when he walked, and it was obvious that he was struggling to hold on.
Qiu Yizi felt sad when she saw the two top martial arts masters, father and daughter, in this state today, but she could only say cruelly: "Now we have been forced into a desperate situation. Only by risking everything to capture the enemy leader can we save our lives. Do you have any way to kill the bastard named Zhao in front?"
Yuchi Lianghong was injured and had been fighting for a whole day and night. His vision was a little blurry. He glanced in the direction of Zhao Maiji and was about to answer, but Yuchi Jiming said in front of him: "This man is too far away, and there are many experts guarding him. It's hard to be sure of success if we use hidden weapons. If we alert the enemy, we will lose the opportunity."
Yuchi Lianghong raised his eyebrows and said, "How difficult is it to kill him at close range? I only ask you to borrow a precious sword from the Western Regions, and I will definitely be able to kill this thief."
Qiu Yizhi was overjoyed when he heard this, and immediately handed the black sword in his hand to Yuchi Lianghong, saying, "Brother, if you can kill him and rescue the Third Prince, let alone lend it to me, I will give you this sword, so what's the harm?"
Yuchi Lianghong took the opportunity, looked him up and down, and laughed out loud, "In the beginning, you and I became brothers because of this precious sword. Today, for the sake of this precious sword, I will show you my ability again!"
After that, Yuchi Lianghong was about to walk forward, holding the knife and dragging his injured leg. But before he took two steps, he was grabbed by Yuchi Jiming.
Yuchi Jiming said, "Dad, you are seriously injured. Let me handle this matter. My Qinggong skills are no worse than yours."
Yuchi Lianghong sneered, "Then I won't use Qinggong today. Open your eyes and take a good look at your father's hard work. You stay here first and protect the Third Prince and your uncle. Don't move. Got it?"
As he said this, Yuchi Lianghong flicked his sleeves lightly, shook off his daughter's hand, shouted "Watch out!" and rushed into the crowd.
A giant among the men in black, holding a broadsword with a golden ring, saw Yuchi Lianghong charging at him from the front, and suddenly remembered Zhao Maiji's promise that "whoever kills Yuchi Lianghong will be the leader of the martial arts world". He felt warmed in his heart, took a step sideways, raised the broadsword with both hands, and chopped towards Yuchi Lianghong's forehead.
Unexpectedly, Yuchi Lianghong did not dodge, but shouted "Hey", raised Qiu Yizi's Western Region sword, and cut off the blade of the sword in the man's hand like cutting tofu. However, he did not slow down the sword's momentum at all, and stabbed the sword forward again, piercing the giant's throat squarely and killing him on the spot.
Before Yuchi Lianghong finished his moves, a bowl-thick stick suddenly came from behind him. Yuchi Lianghong heard the sound of wind, glanced sideways, and saw the direction of the stick clearly, but still did not dodge, and stretched out his left hand to grab the stick head in his hand.
Seeing this, the man in black at the other end of the stick tried to pull the stick back with all his strength, but unexpectedly, Yuchi Lianghong's hand was very strong, and the man was sweating profusely but could not move at all. This man was not slow to see the opportunity, knowing that he could not get the stick back, so he simply changed his strength, pushed forward with both hands, and wanted to use the stick head to poke Yuchi Lianghong's chest.
Yuchi Lianghong had been prepared for this move, and immediately let go of his left hand and stepped aside, allowing the man to stumble and come to him without any defense. Seeing that his middle door was wide open, Yuchi Lianghong had no sympathy at all, and raised his precious sword and stabbed the man in the chest. The man immediately bleed and fell to the ground.
At this moment, another sledgehammer came towards Yuchi Lianghong's head. Seeing the fierce momentum, Yuchi Lianghong refused to take it head-on, nor did he want to block it with the Western Region sword in his hand. He dodged to the side and let the sledgehammer hit nothing.
Unexpectedly, the black-clad man who used the hammer was using two hammers. When one hammer missed, the other hammer came down from above. This time, Yuchi Lianghong had no way to avoid it. He gritted his teeth and stretched out his hand to support the hammer, and he held the hammer, which must have weighed at least 40 to 50 kilograms, tightly.
Since the big man made his debut, no one has ever been able to withstand the power of the hammer in his hand. Today, his proud martial arts were broken head-on, and he was stunned for a moment and forgot to use his back-up plan.
Just as he hesitated, Yuchi Lianghong loosened his raised hand, moved half a step to the side, and slashed the big man's neck with the sword in his hand, almost cutting off his round head from his neck, leaving only a piece of skin still dangling without being cut off.
When everyone saw Yuchi Liang suddenly killed three black-clothed men with strong martial arts skills with just three moves, they all cheered and their morale was boosted. It seemed as if they had strength back in their hands and the wounds on their bodies no longer hurt. They gathered their strength and fought to the death with the enemy in front of them.
But Yuchi Jiming could see clearly from behind. His father Yuchi Lianghong's leg injury was serious. Not only could he not use his erratic light skills, but his lower body was also shaking. The three moves he had just used to kill three people seemed easy, but in fact, he had used his father's most profound martial arts. Life and death were only a matter of a blink of an eye. It was extremely dangerous.
Although Yuchi Jiming was usually a little afraid of her father, she respected and loved him in her heart. Seeing her father in danger, she had already forgotten what her father had just said and rushed towards her father to kill him.
The black-clad men's attention was all focused on the extremely brave Yuchi Lianghong. They didn't notice the little girl Yuchi Jiming at all, who easily killed her way into the core of the battle formation.
Yuchi Lianghong was somewhat angry when he saw his daughter coming, but he was now surrounded by so many enemies that it was difficult for him to save his life, and it would be extremely difficult to go deep into the crowd and kill Zhao Maiji. Now he had a good helper like Yuchi Jiming by his side, which was like a timely help and added strength.
So Yuchi Lianghong did not blame her, winked at his daughter, said "go", and rushed towards Zhao Maiji. The father and daughter were indeed in sync, and in the blink of an eye they killed three or four masters in front of them...
Qiu Yizi watched the father and daughter gradually disappear behind the iron wall formed by the group of men in black. He wanted to go up to help, but without the support of Yuchi Lianghong and his daughter in his formation, it was even more difficult to resist the opponent's attack. The casualties were getting heavier and heavier, and he had no spare energy to help.
The enemy's attacks became more and more urgent. More than half of Qiu Yizi's personal soldiers and militiamen had been killed or wounded, and most of the remaining people suffered varying degrees of injuries.
As the casualties grew, Qiu Yizi became more and more anxious. He really wanted to leave Zhao Chengxiao to resist on the spot while he and his third brother Zheng Miao retreated first. But he thought carefully - Zheng Xin was determined to take Zheng Miao's life as soon as possible. If Zheng Xin had any tricks up his sleeve besides Zhao Maiji, he and Zheng Miao, two commanders without any troops, would be doomed.
Therefore, Qiu Yizi could only protect Zheng Miao, whose injuries were getting more and more serious, and continue to fight against the black-clad gangsters, hoping that Yuchi Lianghong and Yuchi Jiming, father and daughter, could kill Zhao Maiji quickly and successfully, so that they could be out of danger.
After a while, Zhao Chengxiao slowly retreated to Qiu Yizhi's side and said to him: "Sir, many of the enemy were killed by our army, but our army also suffered heavy losses. As time went by, the gap between the enemy and us became even greater. I dare to ask you and the Third Prince to withdraw quickly. I can lead my brothers to hold out for a while!"
Qiu Yizi rejected it immediately and said, "No! You and I have been brothers through thick and thin for so many years. I can't do such a thing as crossing a river and then destroying the bridge!"
The enemy had already attacked Qiu Yizi. Zhao Chengxiao heard the shouts of killing behind him and hurriedly turned back to block the swords of several men in black. He had no time to turn his head back again, but said: "My lord, don't hesitate. When you get out, quickly gather the army to avenge us. Our brothers' blood will not be shed in vain!"
Qiu Yizi said, "Why don't you lead your personal guards to retreat for a while? We can at least hold out here for an hour, which is enough time for you to mobilize the local military to come to reinforce in the name of the regent."
Zheng Miao was a little drowsy due to excessive blood loss. He said with drooping eyelids: "No, I can't abandon my brother. Things will definitely turn around..."