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Shibing chieftain Long Zaitian was already over fifty years old and experienced in battle.
To be specific, Long Zaitian knew Bai Wenxuan. Zhang Xianzhong recognized him as his godfather, and Sun Kewang and others called him godfather. Bai Wenxuan was once a general under Sun Kewang, and they had met several times.
However, the two sides did not have much friendship, and now they each served their own masters, so they could not care about many things.
Long Zaitian led thousands of men and horses, hiding in the dense woods. This is the remnant of Gaoligong Mountain, with undulating mountain mist and old vines and ancient trees blocking the sky and the sun. The mountain road winds up the mountain, with a slope on the left and a valley on the right. Long Zaitian's men were ambushed in the jungle on the left slope.
Due to the hot and humid weather, Bai Wenxuan's men seemed a little lazy and walked weakly.
Long Zaitian in the Fu Da jungle was waiting nervously, and his soldiers also held their breath, watching the Qin army on the mountain road moving step by step towards the ambush point.
"Hey, why did the Qin army stop? Big leader, did the Qin army discover us..."
"Don't make any noise, wait and see." Long Zaitian hurriedly stopped his men from making a commotion.
The Qin army at the foot of the slope stopped just fifty steps away from their ambush point. They staggered here and there, some sat in the grass, some took out water bags to drink water, some urinated while standing, and some complained and cursed the difficult mountain path. The sound spread into the forest, and Long Zaitian and others could hear it clearly.
"Captain, it looks like the morale of the Qin army is low. Why don't we kill them now? If we wait any longer, we'll be in trouble if we're discovered by the Qin army." His general Long Yinyue suggested.
Long Zaitian rejected the suggestion, "Don't worry, wait a little longer. The enemy hasn't entered the ambush area yet. If we attack now, we will only alert them."
Long Yinyue was in his thirties. He frowned and said, "Captain, I feel something is wrong. If we start now, we can at least blunt the enemy's edge. Chief, listen to me. It would be great if we can defeat the Qin army once. If not, we can attack several times to make the enemy panic. By then, Miao Xi and his men will definitely want to retreat. Once the army is in chaos and there is no food or grass, Cui Feng can only retreat."
Long Zaitian asked, "Do you think something is wrong?"
"Captain, I can't explain it right now, but the Qin army keeps moving here and there, and they just stop when they are about to enter the ambush area. This... Not good, Captain, we've probably been discovered by the Qin army a long time ago, let's retreat quickly."
Long Zaitian was hesitant and indecisive. Seeing that the Qin army was about to enter the ambush circle, he was reluctant to give up the fat meat in his mouth.
"Big boss!"
"Wait a little longer. Wait a little longer."
Long Yinyue had no choice but to give in and said, "Captain, how about this? I'll take some people to check around to see if there's anything unusual."
"Okay. Be careful not to make any noise and alert the enemies below."
Long Yinyue led his men, carefully crouching, using the dense bushes as cover, and went out. However, they had only walked twenty steps when someone next to Long Yinyue suddenly screamed. He quickly looked around and was also stunned for a moment.
I saw several "ghosts" suddenly appear about ten steps to the left front. They were covered with leaves and grass, and their faces were covered with mottled tree sap, just like mountain spirits and monsters.
Just when Long Yinyue was surprised, there were a few chirping sounds, and several dazzling flames flew over their heads and flew towards the place where Long Zaitian and others were ambushing.
The dazzling tail flame shuttled through the woods. In an instant, it fiercely stabbed down, and some directly hit the ancient trees. Boom! Boom boom boom~!
There were a few deafening noises, flames burst out in the forest, fireballs raged, and in the violent explosions, several trees were blown off, and fell down with a series of crackling sounds. The thousand soldiers who were ambushed by Long Zaitian and his men were blown to pieces, with flesh and blood flying everywhere, screaming incessantly, and were instantly frightened and fled in panic.
At this moment, almost everyone was stunned. Even Long Yinyue looked back intently for a while, until several flames flew towards Long Zaitian's ambush point again.
Boom! Boom boom boom... ... ... .
There were several more earth-shattering noises, trees fell down, mud and rocks flew everywhere, the soldiers in ambush were blown dizzy, and broken limbs flew everywhere.
"Hurry, the enemy is over there!" Long Yinyue screamed, drew his bow and shot, and those "ghosts" quickly hid behind the trees. Then a series of thunder bombs were thrown over, boom boom boom! Long Yinyue was knocked to the ground by the violent shock wave, his head buzzing, and the two soldiers beside him shouted, carried him and fled.
At this time, Bai Wenxuan at the foot of the mountain took advantage of the chaos among the enemy troops in the forest and led his troops to attack. The forest was like countless monkeys fleeing in panic, with branches and leaves shaking and rustling.
Bang! Bang! The Qin army's rifles kept firing, but in this kind of forest, rifles were not easy to use. The Qin army rushed in and threw a thunder bomb wherever they saw branches and leaves shaking, and the rumbling sounds continued.
The soldiers, terrified by the explosion, were running around in the jungle like countless frightened wild beasts running through the woods and across the streams. Long Zaitian's clothes were torn by thorns and there were holes all over his face and hands. He looked in a miserable state.
He regretted it so much that his intestines turned green. He should have listened to Long Yinyue and retreated earlier. Now he failed miserably and was ambushed by the Qin army. He was so embarrassed.
Fortunately, in this kind of forest, the Qin army could not pursue him closely. After running a few miles and climbing over another hill, the Qin army was no longer chasing him. Long Zaitian held on to a tree and gasped for air, his chest and abdomen heaving like a drum. It was amazing that for a man in his fifties, he could escape no slower than a young man in his twenties.
He looked at the dozen or so soldiers around him, all of them were in tattered clothes, covered in scratches and blood. A thousand men and horses, almost all of them were scattered. In such a jungle, it was not easy to gather the scattered men and horses. If he shouted loudly, he might even attract the Qin army to chase him.
Because of a mistake, he ended up in this situation. Long Zaitian was so sad that he could not even cry. He looked back unwillingly and continued to run back to Baoshan.
After Bai Wenxuan succeeded, he suddenly accelerated and advanced to the city of Baoshan in one fell swoop.
The topography in Baoshan is complex, with undulating mountains. The entire terrain slopes from northwest to southeast. There are nearly a hundred mountain basins distributed among the mountains. The locals call these basins "bazi".
Baoshan City is located on the largest Baoshan Basin in the territory. From afar, it is surrounded by green mountains. On the relatively flat basin, rice waves are undulating, villages are visible from each other, chickens and dogs can be heard, and clear streams flow around the mountains. It is a scene of a paradise.
Bai Wenxuan's thousand men were like uninvited guests who suddenly broke into this paradise. The people in the paradise looked at them with surprise and panic, and soon, they fled one by one and hid everywhere.
In Baoshan City, Mu Tianbo never expected that the Qin army would arrive so quickly. In his opinion, Long Zaitian was a veteran and could hold out for a while by relying on the dangerous mountain roads to block the enemy.
But who would have thought that Long Zaitian disappeared and the Qin army arrived first.
Wang Yangzu, the chieftain of Li'e, and Lu Yongming, the chieftain of Ningzhou, almost ran into the government office at the same time and shouted anxiously to Mu Tianbo, "My Lord, my Lord, it's bad. The Qin army is coming. We don't know whether Long Zaitian is dead or alive. What should we do?"
Mu Tianbo himself was also extremely anxious. The incident happened too suddenly and he was not mentally prepared at all. He had no idea what to do in such a hurry. The 20,000 reinforcements from Dongwu Country had just arrived in Mangshi Si, which was still some distance away from Baoshan. Distant water could not put out a nearby fire.
Wang Yangzu saw that Mu Tianbo was just spinning around but not saying anything, so he hurriedly said, "My Lord, I'm afraid that Baoshan can't be defended. Let's protect the prince and retreat south to Mangshisi to join the Dongwu army."
Lu Yongming also said quickly: "Yes, yes, Duke, the Qin army is less than 20 miles away from the city. If we don't leave now, it will be too late."
At this time, hurried footsteps were heard outside the government office. Long Zaitian, covered in scars and rags, ran in and shouted anxiously, "Duke, the Qin army's firearms are too powerful. Baoshan can't be defended. Go, go..."
Mu Tianbo had always relied on Long Zaitian. Seeing his embarrassed appearance, he could not help but greet him in astonishment: "Tell me quickly, what's going on? Why did the Qin army... "
"My Lord, now is not the time to talk about this. Hurry up and protect the Crown Prince and retreat to Mangshisi. Once we escape the pursuit of the Qin army, I will talk to you in detail."
The fire was about to burn his eyebrows, and Mu Tianbo had no choice but to bite the bullet and give an order: "Come here, protect the prince and retreat, retreat!"
*******(To be continued...)
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