Liu Xitong, who had just left, stood in the courtyard of Wanhua Courtyard with a nervous look on his face. When he saw Yan Liqiang coming out of the hall, he quickly came over and reported, "Sir, there are so many rioters outside the Deer Courtyard?"
"how many?"
"When I came just now, there were already more than 200 of them, and there are some following behind..." Liu Xitong said while swallowing nervously. Facing a group of zombies who were like wild beasts and turned the Imperial Capital City upside down last night, it was impossible to say that Liu Xitong was not nervous at all.
"Okay, got it. Let's go over there and take a look!" Yan Liqiang said as he walked. "By the way, ask the kitchen manager at Luyuan to get some Qi-replenishing and calming food and other things to Wanhuayuan. First, settle the people in the courtyard and make sure they don't cause any more trouble. Also, keep an eye on the kitchen and make sure there aren't any problems with the food that people eat in Luyuan..."
"Don't worry, sir. I've already asked someone to watch over the kitchen. Now everyone knows what's going on outside, so they're all being very careful and not wanting to cause any trouble!"
"Um!"
…
Yan Liqiang and Liu Xitong soon arrived at the high wall near the main gate of the Deer Garden. At this time, almost all the soldiers in the Deer Garden had gathered at the main gate. Hundreds of soldiers stood in a line, holding spears, swords, bows and other weapons in their hands, staring at the door of the main gate with nervous faces. Outside the main gate, there were faint howls of the walking dead and the sound of nails rubbing against the wall, which sounded particularly harsh and frightened the people inside. It was not until they saw Yan Liqiang coming that the tense expressions on the faces of the soldiers relaxed a little.
Several special ladders were set up inside the yard. Those ladders were made overnight by the craftsmen in the Deer Garden. They were like simple siege vehicles, with wooden boards and handrails on both sides of the ladders, and several wheels and brackets underneath. They could be moved flexibly inside the courtyard wall and were stable when placed on the ground. There was a small platform on top of the ladders, and there were iron shields on three sides of the platform to protect against arrows, just like a watchtower. Two people could stand on it at the same time to observe the situation outside and shoot arrows.
“Greetings, young master…” Seeing Yan Liqiang coming over, Yan Qing and Yan Hong, who had also gathered here, walked over directly and greeted Yan Liqiang with the etiquette of master and servant. They even changed their address to “young master” instead of “sir”.
The two men had already taken off their palace guard uniforms and were each wearing an ordinary green warrior uniform, looking like servants in the Deer Park. However, the horn python bows and bow bags they carried on their backs, as well as their tall stature and mental temperament, made them stand out among a group of ordinary soldiers, attracting many soldiers nearby to look at them frequently.
Yan Liqiang glanced at the two people's faces, and seeing that they were calm, he nodded secretly, "How is it, are you used to it?"
"It's a habit. As long as I'm with the young master, everything is fine!" Yan Qing said, and Yan Hong nodded.
"Well, how many people are outside now?"
"There are probably more than 400 of them. If we really have to fight, we can wipe them out. My two brothers can exchange two 5-stone bows. At this distance, we can kill 200 people..." Yan Qing said calmly.
"Don't rush to fight, let me take a look first..." Yan Liqiang said, and he went up a long ladder and climbed to the small platform at the top of the ladder. He looked down through the observation hole on the upper shield...
As expected, there were four or five hundred zombies outside the Deer Park, including men, women, young and old. Judging from their clothes, they should be villagers from nearby. Most of these zombies gathered near the main gate of the Deer Park, with red eyes, bare teeth, and most of their faces covered with congealed blood. They howled like wild beasts, and scratched the walls outside the Deer Park and the iron gate of the Deer Park with their fingers, making rustling sounds and leaving shocking blood marks on the walls and the gate. Some zombies were wandering aimlessly around the high walls of the Deer Park. In the woods not far away, there were also hundreds of zombies wandering around.
In terms of quantity, there are not many zombies, and their strength is not very strong. If Yan Liqiang has a gun in his hand, he can even clean up all the zombies by himself. The problem with the gate is that if the ones in front of him are killed, those in the distance and farther away will most likely be attracted. A few hundred will be no problem, but what if there are thousands or even tens of thousands? I'm afraid that by that time, the wall of Deer Garden will no longer be safe.
Yan Liqiang did not move, but patiently observed the reactions of the zombies. He found that the place where the zombies gathered most outside the wall was basically facing the soldiers gathered in the deer garden inside the wall. The two sides were a few meters apart, basically separated by a wall. The zombies were not very smart. They climbed up the ladder by themselves, but there was no reaction from those below. They seemed to have confused the ladder and the wall, and did not notice that he was observing them.
Yan Liqiang had an idea and waved to the people below, asking Liu Xitong to climb up from below.
Liu Xitong's footsteps were a bit heavy. As he climbed up, the ladder creaked twice. Hearing the sound, Yan Liqiang noticed that more than a dozen zombies outside the courtyard wall, not far from the ladder, suddenly gathered under the outer wall of the ladder as if they had received some signal, and began to howl softly and grab the wall with their hands.
Liu Xi came up with him, and Yan Liqiang first made a shushing gesture, then he took out a copper coin from his pocket and threw it out...
The copper coin flew silently from Yan Liqiang's hand and landed on a stone in the grass twenty meters away from the courtyard wall, making a pleasant tinkling sound. When the zombies under the long ladder wall heard the sound, they turned their heads and rushed towards the grass quickly. After they found that there was nothing in the grass, the dozen or so zombies slowly dispersed and began to wander around, and never returned to the wall under the long ladder.
Just like that, Yan Liqiang became more certain.
"Did these zombies gather outside the main gate when they came just now?" Yan Liqiang asked Liu Xitong in a low voice.
"No!" Liu Xitong shook his head and answered in a low voice, "When they came just now, they were circling the wall of the Deer Garden!"
"The soldiers in the Deer Park weren't gathering there just now?"
"No, I saw them coming, so I asked them to gather at the main gate just in case!"
"You go down first and watch my gesture. When I give you this gesture, you lead the assembled team twenty feet to the east!" Yan Liqiang gestured to Liu Xiyi, "When I give you the gesture again, you tell everyone to be silent and not make any sound. Everyone retreat twenty feet. Do you understand?"
"Understood!"
"Okay, go down..."
Liu Xitong nodded and quickly went down the ladder.
When Yan Liqiang saw Liu Xitong arrived at the team, he made a gesture to Liu Xitong. Seeing Yan Liqiang's gesture, Liu Xitong directly led the assembled team and walked twenty feet to the east, then stopped again.
Sure enough, just as Yan Liqiang expected, as the team inside moved, the walking corpses outside the Deer Garden also quickly followed suit, walked about twenty feet to the east, and began to grab the wall again.
After a while, Yan Liqiang made another hand gesture, and Liu Xitong led the team to keep silent and retreat twenty feet. The walking dead that had gathered outside and howled while grabbing the wall only grabbed for a while. Within two minutes, they slowly dispersed. Except for some who remained in the same place, most of the others began to wander around the outer wall of the Deer Garden.
Yan Liqiang jumped down the ladder, and as his body rose and fell, he landed directly in front of Liu Xi and the other soldiers in the distance.
"From now on, except for the observation post on the long ladder beside the wall, no one else is allowed to approach within ten feet of the outer wall of the Deer Garden. When you are on guard, guard ten feet outside the courtyard wall and don't get close to the courtyard wall. Even if you must get close, try not to make any noise. The quieter the better!"
"Ah, sir, what's going on?" Liu Xitong didn't fully understand it at once.
"Because the zombies outside can't see us through the wall, they can only rely on their ears. If we don't make any noise or movement inside, they won't know there are people in the Deer Park, and they won't be so manic, and they won't attract other zombies. It will buy us some time. Do you understand..."
"Ah, I see!" Liu Xitong suddenly realized and looked at Yan Liqiang with admiration. At this time, it is not difficult to fight to the death, but Yan Liqiang can still keenly discover the characteristics of those zombies and use them to avoid the situation from worsening. This vision is indeed admirable.
"Are there any live sheep or pigs in the kitchen?" Yan Liqiang asked another question.
"have… "
"Go to the kitchen and get some live sheep and pigs..."
"yes!"
…
More than ten minutes later, five live sheep, two live pigs and several chickens were quietly lowered from under the wall of the courtyard near a small woods on the west side of the deer park gate. The animals made quite a noise as they landed on the ground. A pig fell to the ground and started screaming. Hearing the noise, more than a dozen zombies rushed over immediately. Within two minutes, all the hundreds of zombies that were wandering outside the deer park rushed over and chased the living creatures outside the high walls of the deer park. Once they caught up with them, they would swarm up and eat them alive.
Two hours later, outside the high wall of the Deer Park, there were several pools of blood, messy and smelly traces and the bones of several living creatures. Most of the zombies that had been circling here before had left, and only a small number were still wandering outside...
Seeing that the crisis was resolved so easily, Yan Liqiang breathed a sigh of relief. However, he also secretly reminded himself that this was not a place to stay for long and he must leave Luyuan and the capital as soon as possible...
Just after finishing dealing with things here, news came from Wanhuayuan that Concubine Rong has woken up and wants to see Yan Liqiang!
Before going to Wanhua Court, Yan Liqiang went back to his own courtyard and took the child he had rescued last night out of the courtyard and handed him to Manager Wen, who took care of the child and prepared a meal for him. After working all night and early morning, Yan Liqiang was also very hungry. After drinking a bowl of meat and mushroom soup specially made for him by the Luyuan kitchen, he felt that he had regained some energy. Yan Liqiang came to Wanhua Court to see Concubine Rong again...
(End of this chapter)