Ye Zi was sitting at the door of a small bungalow, wiping her gun with a piece of cloth. Although her leg injury was relatively minor and did not affect her movements, Wang Jiyuan still asked her to leave her post. After all, being shot was a very horrifying experience.
When she touched the gun tip, she suddenly had a premonition that the moment when this sharp gun tip would have to drink blood was approaching, but she didn't know whose blood it would be. Thinking back to the afternoon, if she had been more impulsive, perhaps those two people would have died first under her gun
She sat there asking herself the question over and over again, and each time she came up with a completely different answer.
"What do you want by locking us up here? If you want to kill us or cut us up, just say a word." Jiang Jie's sharp voice came from the house behind Ye Zi.
Ye Zi looked through the iron bars of the storage room window and saw a pale and distorted face. She sighed with some disinterest, "Stop arguing. Team leader Zhou from the committee will come to question you soon. You can ask him then."
"Hmph, what committee? They're all liars! Cowards! Murderers! They talk nonsense and let us students take the lead while they themselves sit in the building with their legs crossed. Why? Just because they were teachers? They were officials? No one is nobler than anyone else here? Why should I listen to their judgment?" The voice became increasingly shrill, like the cry of a crow in a dark forest at night.
Ye Zi ignored her, but Jiang Jie was unwilling to stop: "What's more, Niu Guangcheng and the others were killed by you executioners without even a trial. A month ago, we were all teachers and classmates, but now we have become butchers and corpses, all the same people from the same place. You... How could you do this? You, don't you feel guilty?"
"They are traitors. They should have thought of this possibility when they shot at us." Ye Zi pressed his hand on his chest, his heart aching.
"But they didn't want to hurt you, they just wanted to escape. You forced all of this. We are not soldiers. We are afraid and want to escape. So what? If there are bandits attacking, maybe everyone will be saved if they scatter and hide in big cities!"
"In such a strange and dangerous place, how can we not unite? Do you think unity means holding hands and singing songs? Do you think unity has no price?"
"Oh, killing people in the name of unity is really beautiful. Why are there always some people who can say the nicest words and do the most disgusting things?" Jiang Jie pressed her face against the iron railings, and the pale starlight made her look like a ghost.
Ye Zi was silent for a while and said, "Qin Mu, who fired the gun, went to be investigated as soon as he came back. If you have anything to say, you should tell Team Leader Zhou later."
"Qin Mu, Qin Mu! He is a beast! What right does he have to decide other people's life and death? Who does he think he is? Sooner or later he will get his retribution and die without a burial place!" Jiang Jie banged on the door. The banging sound was so loud in the night that it alarmed a passing patrol team.
Ye Zi saw a few people there leaning their heads and shining flashlights in this direction, and waved his hand in annoyance, asking them to go away quickly.
Jiang Jie continued to cry and knock non-stop, which made Ye Zi very depressed. Her heart felt like it was on fire. Just when she could no longer bear it and was about to scold Jiang Jie, Wu Qi's voice rang out in the room.
"We are guilty after all, so stop making trouble." Her voice was much calmer than Jiang Jie's, but it still contained sadness. "Ye Zi is just a puppet."
"Wu Qi, even if Li Qiuxin pushed you, you just stood on their side? Have you forgotten how much effort Li Qiuxin spent to bring you along?"
"He did it for himself, and so did you and I. No one owes anyone anything. You stole the gold coins, and I stole the clothes and tents. These sins are our own."
Jiang Jie was unable to reply for a long time. Finally, she stammered "But, but" for a long time without saying a complete sentence.
"We are now traitors who are hated by everyone. Since this has come to this, we should have some self-awareness." Wu Qi said quietly.
"Few people know about your affairs. In order to protect you, the school should ask everyone to keep it confidential." Ye Zi felt that these two women were pitiful after all.
"You don't have to pretend to be merciful." Jiang Jie said angrily.
"This... is useless. There are only so many people in the school, and bad news will spread sooner or later. Others must have thought so, but we were the only ones who did it. From the moment we escaped from the wall, we were outliers, and no one would sympathize with us. Even you, if you didn't see the two of them being beaten to death on the spot and felt guilty, would you sympathize with us?" Wu Qi asked back.
"I..." Ye Zi found that the other party was telling a fact.
Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, carrying a noisy sound from far away. Ye Zi listened quietly and found that there seemed to be such disturbing noises coming from all directions, and they were getting louder and louder.
At this time, she had no time to care about the feelings of the two prisoners. She left a sentence, "Something's happening," and climbed up to the roof of the bungalow along the pile of debris in the corner.
She looked around and her heart suddenly skipped a beat.
The school wall in this bungalow is not far away, and the view in front is very wide. From here, you can clearly see the plains and roads under the starry sky. Then, unlike the previous days, countless flames shone from the horizon. At first, they were like stars in the sky, but soon, they were the size of beans, and then you could see them split into several groups, like long red worms, swarming towards the school.
Ye Zi knew that she had been waiting for this day. As a member of the escort team, she thought she was mentally prepared. But when she saw thousands of flames coming towards her, she felt like she had fallen into a deep pool. Her body was stiff, and her hands and feet were cold. She wanted to shout for help, but it was as if her throat was stuck, and she couldn't make any sound for a while.
Fortunately, the sentinels on duty discovered these in time, and soon, the school was filled with the sound of anxious bells. Ye Zi looked down from above and saw many people rushing out of the houses in a hurry, carrying weapons and rushing towards the fortifications near the school wall.
Screams, shouts, and cries suddenly awakened the entire campus in the middle of the night, and everyone realized that the horse thieves had finally arrived.
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Sporadic gunshots had already been heard. Wang Jiyuan threw the telescope in his hand on the table and shouted angrily, "Assholes! Who told them to shoot so early? They were just scouts. Give a signal and let the third platoon of the first company hold the defense area! Don't shoot and expose your position before the large group of enemies enters the marking line."
So a communicator beside him picked up a flashlight, stood at the window, and turned on and off the signal light to the southeast defense position. The signal was sent several times, but the position was completely dark and there was no response at all.
The gunfire continued, and people in other positions could not help but fire at the bandits who were coming and going in front of the formation. Wang Jiyuan's brows were tightening.
"I guess they were a little nervous, and their communicator might not have seen the signal here in time." Ji Xun, who was standing aside, said.
He stuck his head out of the window and repeated Wang Jiyuan's order through the electric loudspeaker. Then several messengers rode their bicycles downstairs and ran to several main positions. This was the convenience of setting up the headquarters on the fourth floor of the administrative building. It could overlook the entire battlefield and was convenient for going up and down the stairs to report.
Wang Jiyuan had long seen that the bandits could not rush in from a distance to attack the city. They would at least form a team after reaching the school. Moreover, their horses would not be able to play any role because the school was much higher than the ground. The most feasible way for the bandit leader was to rush to the bottom of the school, then climb up to the school on foot, and then find a way to climb over the wall.
There is no doubt that the attack from the time they climbed up the high ground to the time they rushed to the wall was the most efficient. The school's original iron fence had been nailed with thick wooden blocks, and except for some shooting holes, it was completely airtight. In addition, there was a second line of defense ten meters behind the wall, as well as various fortifications on the roof, so the defense circle was actually very stable. The enemy could not advance without paying a huge price.
However, the team is too weak after all.
Ji Xun seemed to see Wang Jiyuan's worry and took the initiative to say, "I will go to each position to inspect and stabilize everyone's emotions."
Wang Jiyuan waved his hand and said, "Wait a little longer, first see the opponent's main attack direction, then you go there to watch the situation."
Ji Xun nodded in agreement. Wang Jiyuan could see that Ji Xun was very tired, so he consoled him: "I'm sorry for not asking you to go out and look for Ji Yijun. But this kid is just like a monkey. I don't think the horse thieves can do anything to him. Relax first."
"I know the importance of this." Ji Xun slammed his fist on the windowsill. "If we defeat the horse thieves, Xiaojun will be safe. This is the only thing I can do now."
The two men stood silently at the window and observed the movements of the horse thieves.
After a while, the ineffective gunshots finally stopped one after another. The horse thieves' cavalrymen let out strange and rough laughs, waved the torches in their hands, galloped arrogantly in front of the high ground for a while, and then turned their horses and galloped towards the horse thieves' group.
It was obvious that the bandits had no intention of rushing in all at once. They stopped less than a kilometer away from the school and divided into several groups, guarding the school from the east to the northwest, leaving only a gap leading to the Black Mountain behind. Judging from the number of torches, the enemy gathered at the main gate the most, and many bandits had already dismounted and started to build a simple camp.
Torches made of thick branches, more than one meter tall, were erected. The wooden chevaux de frise and fences were unloaded from the carriages and assembled to form the walls of the camp.
Ji Xun looked through the telescope for a while and sighed, "I didn't expect these bandits to be so methodical. They know how to surround three sides and leave one side open, and they also know how to set up camp."
"They can dominate the surrounding areas, they must have their own abilities," Wang Jiyuan said.
"If they were just a bunch of thieves rushing in, it would be easy to deal with them. But these people are obviously trying to take it slow, so this battle won't be so easy. I wonder if they will attack tonight."
Wang Jiyuan affirmed, "Of course they will. Otherwise, they wouldn't have chosen to come at night. It would be much more convenient to set up camp during the day. It seems that they know we have long-range weapons and want to reduce our accuracy under the cover of darkness."
"Look there!" Ji Xun pointed at the enemy troops in the direction of the main gate and handed the telescope to Wang Jiyuan. He saw a commotion among people holding torches on a slope in front of the main gate. A group of horse thieves holding shields surrounded a man in a robe and stood out from the crowd. The man looked in the direction of the school for a while and took out a scroll.
He unfolded the object with one hand and waved his other hand in the air. Yellow light followed his fingertips and slowly drew a set of complex runes in the air. After a moment, the light dissipated, and a three-story-high earthen slope rose from the ground.
Wang Jiyuan was surprised and asked: "Could this be..."
"Magician." A voice sounded from behind him.