Yan Liqiang rode his horse quickly with the others. Even though it was completely dark, they did not stop because of the little light coming from the sky.
After the battle just now, there were less than a hundred people left in the entire team, and many of them were injured.
He was splashed with horse blood. He didn't feel anything during the battle just now, but now, Yan Liqiang felt his whole body was wet and sticky. The clothes soaked by horse blood stuck tightly to his skin, mixed with his sweat, with a restless bloody smell, which made him very uncomfortable.
The howling of wild wolves and night owls rose and fell in the wilderness, bringing with it a chilling chill. In the deserted wilderness, on the hillsides or among the bushes, from afar, one could always see some green or red eyes staring at the marching team. Some were running behind the team, even trying to get closer. They were all kinds of ferocious beasts in the wilderness, cunning and ferocious. If the team was not large enough, those beasts would have pounced on them long ago.
The passion and enthusiasm during the battle were slowly subsiding. Looking at the bodies of the guards tied to the horses in the team, Yan Liqiang felt heavy-hearted and could not be happy at all.
The person who really deserved to die was sitting safely on the rhinoceros horse, protected by a group of people, without losing a single hair, while those who should not have died left this world early.
Yan Liqiang felt complicated. For the first time, he began to doubt whether it was worth sacrificing so many people just to send Sun Bingchen to the capital.
These sacrificed guards were not Sun Bingchen's confidants, but ordinary soldiers of the Imperial Palace Ma Bu Division who were assigned to escort Sun Bingchen when he left the Imperial Palace as an inspector. They were just ordinary people, and had no deep relationship with Ye Tiancheng, Sun Bingchen, the prime minister and the emperor of the Imperial Palace. They served as soldiers just to make a living, but now, they died in the northwest of the empire, at the hands of a group of Black Wind Bandits who had little to do with them, just for sending a corrupt official who should have been cut into pieces to the Imperial Palace, and became a small bargaining chip in the game between His Majesty the Emperor and the Prime Minister...
Perhaps some of those who are alive now will die in the days to come.
Is it worth it
…
The team ran in silence. No one spoke along the way, and Yan Liqiang didn't speak either. Until they turned over one hill and slope after another, a bright light finally appeared on the road ahead.
"Huijiaji is just ahead..." Liang Yiji shouted, and everyone in the silent team breathed a sigh of relief. Then, everyone squeezed the belly of the rhinoceros horse and rushed towards Huijiaji.
When he arrived at Huijiaji, Yan Liqiang discovered that Huijiaji was actually an earthen fortress.
Outside the entire Huijiaji, there is a broken earthen wall that is more than two meters high and nearly three meters high. Inside the earthen wall, there are several simple arrow towers that are even higher. The torches on the earthen wall whistle in the night wind. On the earthen wall and the arrow tower, there are people patrolling and keeping watch. In the middle of the earthen wall, there is a gate. On both sides of the gate are two wooden cages. Inside the wooden cages are completely dried human heads...
In the northwestern states, many towns in the wild far away from the city are like this. Each one tries its best to become a fortress, with high walls and deep trenches, in order to guard against robbers and horse thieves. Of course, the people in these places are also very tough, which is completely the result of thousands of years of war.
When Yan Liqiang saw them rushing over, the people patrolling on the earth wall and the arrow tower seemed to be frightened. Someone on the earth wall imitated the howl of a wolf, and then in the blink of an eye, many people holding weapons and longbows rushed to the earth wall and the arrow tower.
When Yan Liqiang and his men rushed to more than 200 meters away from the earthen wall of Huijiabao, some of the people who appeared on the earthen wall shot arrows at them.
With a "swoosh", the arrow flew over 200 meters and hit the ground in front of them. Half of the arrow was embedded in the ground, showing its powerful force.
This obvious warning made Yan Liqiang and the others stop their horses immediately.
"Who are you?" A man wearing a dog-skin hat and dressed in gray stood behind the earth wall with half of his body exposed. He shouted loudly at Yan Liqiang and the others.
"We are passing officials and would like to stay overnight in Huijiabao. Please open the gate of Huijiabao." Liang Yiji responded loudly.
"It's dark now, and I can't see clearly. According to the rules of our Gray Family Castle, no outsiders are allowed to enter after dark..."
"Where is the head of your Huijiabao?" Liang Yiji's voice suddenly became louder, and he seemed a little angry. "Let your head speak out..."
"It's useless even if the head of the village comes. In the past, many bandits and robbers used this trick to sneak into our Huijiabao at night, so we have learned our lesson. See the heads hanging on our door? These are all those blind little thieves who dared to go wild in our Huijiabao and could only leave their heads behind in the end. Come again tomorrow. Now, don't say that you are officials. Even if the emperor comes, it will be useless..." The man standing behind the earth wall said in a vulgar tone.
"Li Qiang..." Sun Bingchen suddenly turned around and called Yan Liqiang.
Yan Liqiang immediately understood what Sun Bingchen meant. He took out his horn python bow, put an arrow on it, and shot the arrow. The hat on the man who was talking to Liang Yiji was shot off by Yan Liqiang...
"Ah, you want to use force? You think the men of Huijiaji are easy to bully..." Someone on the wall shouted, looking very angry. One of them showed half of his body, took out a bow, and wanted to shoot at Yan Liqiang and his men. But Yan Liqiang shot his second arrow in the blink of an eye. The sharp arrow broke the man's bowstring and bow handle. When the man pulled the bow, the whole bow broke into two pieces with a snap. The man who pulled the bow screamed...
At this moment, the earth wall fell silent. There was no sound at all, and no one dared to show their heads again. The second arrow shot by Yan Liqiang completely stunned everyone on the earth wall.
You have to know that it was night time and the distance between the two sides was not close. What kind of accuracy and strength would it take to shoot an arrow from two hundred meters away and break the bowstring and bow handle in the blink of an eye without hurting anyone? If such archery skills were used to kill people, who could stop it
After half a minute, another slightly hoarse voice finally came from behind the earth wall, "The people outside are all officials, not bandits. Everyone, open the door..."
As this voice appeared, the tightly closed wooden door was slowly opened...
(End of this chapter)