For Yan Liqiang, such an ambush was more of a one-sided massacre than a battle.
To Yan Liqiang, who had a bow in his hand, the Black Wind Bandits in the valley were like animals locked in a cage. They were so helpless and huddled together. In the hustle and bustle and fear, they were named one by one by Yan Liqiang with the Horned Python Bow and killed cleanly and efficiently.
Human life was worthless at this time. The lives of those Black Wind Bandits were worth only 10 coins when Yan Liqiang performed four consecutive actions as smoothly as flowing water: stringing the bow, drawing the bow, aiming, and releasing the arrow.
Every time Yan Liqiang shot an arrow, a blood flower would bloom on the body of one of the Black Wind Bandits below.
There were also scattered arrows shot towards Yan Liqiang, but those arrows did not pose much threat to Yan Liqiang. Even if there were dangerous arrows, Yan Liqiang had already dodged them with his superhuman spiritual perception. Later, Yan Liqiang's counterattack made those Black Wind Bandits who wanted to compete with him in archery in the valley close their eyes forever.
On the other side, Liang Yiji and the other guards gnashed their teeth and poured arrows down to attack the enemy with great pleasure.
Although Liang Yiji's archery skills were not as strong as Yan Li's, at such a close distance, he was able to shoot and kill the Black Wind Bandits below one by one without any hesitation.
The targets Liang Yiji chose to shoot were the same as Yan Liqiang's, those Black Wind Bandits who were holding bows and could fight back.
Under the sniping of Yan Liqiang and Liang Yiji, the Black Wind Bandits' ability to fight back became less and less, and weaker and weaker.
Many Black Wind Bandits were very cunning. When they saw Yan Liqiang and his men on a high place, in order to avoid their arrows, they took the initiative to run to the bottom of the mountain wall where Yan Liqiang and his men were and hid themselves so as not to be shot by arrows. However, when the number of Black Wind Bandits standing under the mountain wall began to increase, a group of guards on Liang Yiji's side shouted and pushed down the piles of stones that everyone had piled up last night. The piles of stones fell down on the mountain ridge like walls. Some of the stones were as big as footballs, while others were as big as small millstones. Thousands of stones tumbled down from a height of seventy or eighty meters. Anyone who bumped into them would be injured, and anyone who hit them would die. The Black Wind Bandits hiding under the mountain wall were smashed to death and cried for their parents, and the valley became even more chaotic.
Amid the screams and panic, seven or eight Black Wind Bandits rode their Rhinoceros Horses and tried to rush past Yan Liqiang, which was in front of the valley. However, the one who ran the farthest had not even run 200 meters before he was hit one by one by Yan Liqiang with his Horned Python Bow. All of them were shot off their horses by Yan Liqiang, and none of them could run past. This scene completely frightened the Black Wind Bandits who were still in panic in the valley. They dared not rush forward anymore, and instead chose to retreat.
The Black Wind Bandits have already started to retreat!
Those people at the end of the Black Wind Bandits team did not suffer much loss at the beginning. They wanted to rush forward, but soon they realized that rushing forward would be useless except making themselves targets. So they began to retreat, wanting to leave this dangerous valley. Once the Black Wind Bandits at the back retreated, those in the front and middle who were being attacked by Yan Liqiang and his men naturally could not hold on and followed suit. Almost in the blink of an eye, the retreat turned into an escape. Those Black Wind Bandits who were lucky enough to be alive turned their horses around and fled desperately, running towards their own way.
Yan Liqiang was still using the Horned Python Bow to kill the Black Wind Bandits. After he killed sixty or seventy archers among the Black Wind Bandits by himself, Yan Liqiang began to change his strategy. He no longer only killed the archers among the Black Wind Bandits, but began to kill the Black Wind Bandits who were at the front of the team and closest to him.
Seeing their companions at the front of the team falling one after another like harvested crops in a sorghum field, the closer the Black Wind Bandits were to the front of the team, the more terrified they became, because no one wanted to be the next to die. In this situation, the Black Wind Bandits at the front of the team turned their horses around and started to flee...
Once this panic spread, the Black Wind Bandits would be hard to stop.
If the Black Wind Bandits were likened to dominoes placed in the valley, then Yan Liqiang's deadly arrow was the hand that pushed down the first domino.
Just below the narrow valley, the fleeing Black Wind Bandits stabbed the buttocks of the Rhino Horses under their crotch with the knives in their hands, causing the horses to bleed profusely. The mad Rhino Horses began to charge forward recklessly.
In this situation, many Black Wind Bandits who had just jumped off their rhinoceros horses to seek cover and fight back with bows and arrows were caught up in the surge of panicked men and horses and their screams. One of them was accidentally knocked to the ground by a rhinoceros horse, and then trampled by countless horses' hooves.
When the three quivers that Yan Liqiang had placed at his feet were almost emptied, none of the Black Wind Bandits in the valley were facing the direction where Yan Liqiang was. Those who were still alive turned their backs to Yan Liqiang and fled madly.
Yan Liqiang stood up, holding the horn python bow, and ran along the ridge chasing the Black Wind Bandits, shooting as he ran, killing the Black Wind Bandits that fell behind one by one...
"Quiver..." Yan Liqiang ran to the line of fire where Liang Yiji and many guards were lying in ambush and shouted. A guard threw a quiver full of arrows to Yan Liqiang. Yan Liqiang caught it, put it on his back, and continued to chase the Black Wind Bandits below on the ridge.
"Brothers, kill..." The other guards were also excited. Like Yan Liqiang, they jumped out from behind the rocks with bows, crossbows, and quivers. They followed Yan Liqiang, chasing the Black Wind Bandits while shooting arrows...
The Black Wind Bandits below were killed so badly that they cried out in fear and their souls were scattered.
The group ran for more than two thousand meters along the ridge until there was no longer a path for anyone to take and they came to a cliff more than thirty meters high. Then they watched the last Black Wind Bandit hide his head under the horse's belly, whip his horse, and disappear around the distant corner of the valley below.
Looking at the Black Wind Bandit who was beaten so hard that he didn't even dare to turn his head, all the guards were silent for a while, then turned around to look at the corpses shot by everyone along the road below the valley that looked like piles of black cow dung, and then they couldn't help but shouting wildly on the mountain.
"We won, we won..."
"Revenge, revenge for my brothers..."
"Those rhino horses in the valley are all money. Don't let them run away..." a guard shouted.
…
(End of this chapter)