At midnight, Zhang Shun was suddenly awakened from his sleep by the sound of killing in the distance. When he stood up and looked outside, he saw that the dark sky in the west was actually dyed red by the firelight. This made him quickly recover from his confusion, and rushed out of the house without even bothering to put on his clothes.
At the same time, other people in the village also ran out, staring to the west with surprise and uneasiness, and kept talking. Zhang Heng also ran out with a knife in his back, shouting loudly to his men. Strictly guarding his post, he came to Zhang Shun and said, "Brother, is there something wrong with the Ruan brothers?"
Zhang Shun looked solemn, stared at the fire ahead and nodded: "That's probably it. The army should have launched a surprise attack on Xizhai and used fire attacks!"
"They are so brave. They actually dare to attack us from the water. With the skills of the three Ruan brothers, they should be more than enough to deal with them, right?" Zhang Heng was actually a little worried in his heart. He just said this to get a word from his brothers. Just comfort.
But Zhang Shun failed to let him do what he wanted. He pondered and shook his head: "It's hard to say. You and I have already experienced Sun Tu's ability before. Back in Jiangzhou, he could lead a group of villagers who didn't have much fighting power. The soldiers have wiped out the group of ferocious dragons. Today, he has strong soldiers and horses, so the threat to us will naturally be greater. What's more, we are completely unprepared, and the West Village is not optimistic. "
Zhang Heng's expression changed and he said anxiously: "Then how about we send troops to support right now?"
"It's inappropriate. Who knows if this is their conspiracy to attack the east and attack the west. We don't know the fighting situation in the west village. The best thing to do is to strictly guard the village and not give them any opportunity to take advantage of it." Zhang Shunke is much more stable than his brother. , and immediately stopped them. After all, their duty is to guard the Beizhai where they are.
Although Zhang Heng also agreed with his brother's view, he was still vague in his heart: "Then if the Xizhai is really broken, the consequences will be hard to say... Do we have to wait for the brothers in the village to go down the mountain to rescue?"
Before Zhang Shun could think of a countermeasure, a burst of shouts from his brothers came from the front: "A boat is coming... It's our brothers from the village..."
When the Zhang brothers heard the news and rushed to check, a small boat had already approached. Two men dressed as minions had stumbled over from the water. As they walked, they shouted: "Brother Zhang, help me quickly." Let’s go to Xizhai, the army is setting fire to the village, we will be unable to resist..."
"What did you say? Why can't Xizhai resist? What are the Ruan brothers doing?" Zhang Heng was so anxious that he grabbed one of them and asked loudly. Zhang Shun, on the other hand, was more gentle. He stared at one person and asked, "What went wrong?"
"The officers and soldiers were too cunning. They actually sneaked up on our western village at night, and then suddenly released rockets and set fire to the outer wall of our village. After the three leaders realized that something was wrong, they quickly led their brothers out of the village to meet the enemy. , Unexpectedly, the officers and soldiers were already prepared, and arranged for archers to ambush nearby, and actually shot and wounded the second brother and the seventh brother. Only the fifth brother led the big guys back to the stronghold. The brothers suffered heavy casualties, and they were about to be unable to hold on. , that’s why we risked our lives to come out of the stronghold to ask for help. Two leaders, our Xizhai stronghold can’t hold on for long, please send troops to rescue as soon as possible.” As this man said this, he almost knelt down and kowtowed.
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But Zhang Shun stopped him and said, "It doesn't have to be like this. We brothers should help each other. But let me ask you, did you find any other ships along the way?"
"No... After breaking out of the encirclement of the official army, we did not encounter any obstacles along the way. They should have concentrated all their forces on our Xizhai. It is no longer possible to arrange troops to intercept them elsewhere."
"That's good." Zhang Heng immediately rushed to say: "Brother, we will send people to the rescue right now. If it is too late, we really won't be able to save people."
Zhang Shun originally had doubts in his heart, but looking at the two people in front of him who were covered in fireworks and blood, as well as the eager reactions of the brothers around them, he finally put these concerns aside: "Okay, We will send troops to rescue them right now. However, someone still needs to be guarding the North Village, so you, brother, will lead the three hundred brothers here, and I will lead the other brothers to rescue the West Village."
Although Zhang Heng was also anxious to rescue Xizhai, he also knew that what his brother said was reasonable, so he nodded and said: "Okay, you must be careful. These officers and soldiers are much more cunning than their previous opponents, so don't fall into their trap." .”
"Don't worry, brother." Zhang Shun said, and he quickly ordered 300 men and horses, divided into more than 20 large and small boats, and quickly left Beizhai under the leadership of two helpers, heading straight towards Xizhai.
Saving people is like putting out fire. Now that Xizhai was attacked and on fire, they naturally did not dare to delay. Even if there was no wind on the lake tonight and the current was not flowing, more than 20 boats could still move. Very fast, in only half an hour, they had driven out more than ten miles, and the journey was already over half.
Just when everyone was preparing for a head-on battle with the officers and soldiers to rescue the Xizhai brothers, Zhang Shun, who was standing on the bow of the main ship, suddenly thought of a key question: "The time is wrong. It's only halfway through the third update. How could they come to my northern village to ask for help so quickly?”
Because according to common sense, if the officers and soldiers want to attack Xizhai in a covert manner, they must set off after dark. It would take more than half an hour to get from the shore where the officers and soldiers stationed their boats to Xizhai, and with the details of the arrangements in between, it would be impossible to start a battle before the second watch.
Then, with the fighting power of Xizhai and the Ruan brothers, even if they encounter a sneak attack and are a little out of control, they can still sustain it for a while. It will be after the third watch that they find someone to ask for help. But now, these two people actually appeared in front of their village just after the third watch. Unless they flew over, there was no way they could be so fast.
The flaw in this was not big, and the military situation was urgent. Zhang Shun and the others had not noticed the problem before. It was not until now that he noticed something was wrong. He immediately paid attention and turned to rush to the small boat not far away. The two of them shouted: "You two come here to talk, I have something else to ask you." When he said this, he had already made a signal secretly, asking his brothers on the same boat to be ready, and just waited for them to come over. Get your hands on people.
The two of them hurriedly agreed and made plans to row the boat over. But just when everyone was ready, the two of them suddenly stood up, jumped into the water with two plops, and abandoned the ship immediately. At first, everyone was stunned, but then, Zhang Shun quickly understood and shouted: "We have fallen into a trap, they are not brothers from Xizhai, they are from the army!
Everyone, be careful..."
But this reminder was too late, because before he could finish his words, the sound of bowstrings suddenly sounded in the darkness on the side, and then dozens of sharp arrows flew through the air, and they were immediately returned. The minions who didn't know the specific situation were caught off guard. Amidst the screams, many people fell into the water one after another.
At the same time, with the sound of several gongs, ships were surrounding them at the same time. From the sound of bowstrings, arrows rained down towards the ships of Zhang Shun and others.
On this unobstructed lake, to suddenly encounter such an encirclement and sneak attack would be a real disaster for all the navy brothers. Some people raised simple shields, some waved weapons, and some chose to jump into the water... But under such a large number of dense and powerful arrows, these people's struggles were obviously in vain. Except for those who jumped into the water, those who stayed on the boat fell down in large pieces like felled wheat.
Although Zhang Shun had excellent water skills, he could only protect himself at this time and was unable to save others and fight back. He could only angrily jump into the water to avoid the rain of arrows that met above the ships. With only one face-to-face meeting, the navy brothers in Liangshan North Village did not even see the enemy's face clearly, and without even knowing how many men, horses and ships they dispatched, they were defeated and suffered heavy casualties.
Zhang Shun regretted deeply. If he had realized this was a conspiracy earlier, it would not have led to such a tragedy. At the same time, there was a warning sign in his mind. Maybe his Beizhai was the key target of the army's attack! For a moment, he no longer cared about revenge and saving people. He immediately turned around under the water and swam quickly in the direction of Hokusai. He had to go back quickly to remind his brother to take precautions.
But in the end, when he had just swam a certain distance and was about to surface for air, several black shadows flashed in front of him, blocking his way - the other party had even considered this and had sent people to guard the water early in the morning. !
However, Zhang Shun was not afraid. His reputation as Langli Baitiao was not earned for nothing. Back then, in the Jiangzhou area, no one in the Yangtze River could compete with him in the water. Seeing that the enemy was blocking the way, he quickly moved closer, intending to kill him.
But before he could pounce in front of the opponent, the man suddenly revealed a strange weapon. It looked like a bow, but not a crossbow, and not a crossbow. It was half a man long, with a cold light shining on the front. arrow!
"What is this? Is it possible to use a crossbow underwater?" Zhang Shun simply didn't believe that there was such a thing in the world. He pushed hard and moved forward as fast as a fish. Then he He saw the weapon suddenly vibrate, and the thick arrow mounted on the front actually broke through the water waves and flew towards it. The speed was not much slower than on the water. He could even hear a sharp scoff in his ears. …
This move was beyond his expectation, and the arrow came too fast. Zhang Shun only had time to move his body to the side, avoiding the vital points of his face and heart, but he was still hit by a blow on his right shoulder. The "arrow" hit. The force of this "arrow" was so great that it shot him sideways and knocked him backwards.
The severe pain made Zhang Shun couldn't help but open his mouth and scream in pain. As a result, before he could cry out, a large mouthful of lake water was poured into his mouth, which made his vision darken and he almost fainted...