The mountain road is winding and winding, and I walk alone in silence without any trouble.
His mood at this moment was as complicated as the road in front of him.
A few days ago, the battle between him and Haicangfeng did not result in a winner, but... it was a "high and low" one.
He originally thought that most of the so-called heroes were exaggerated in name, so he didn't pay much attention to people like Haicangfeng at first.
However, as soon as they met, he realized that he could not win.
At least... not with a knife.
It didn’t take long for Haicangfeng to see through the secret of Xiao Wuji’s sword skills. He knew that there was no point in fighting anymore, so he stopped in time and said, “Your martial arts are good. " Then he walked away.
After the other party left, Xiao Wuji stood alone in the bamboo forest for a long time. Only when the sweat on his hands dried up did he put the knife back into its sheath.
"Is it just 'not bad'..." At that moment, he couldn't help looking up at the sky and talking to himself.
Xiao Wuji has practiced martial arts since he was a child and has extraordinary talent. He can be said to have been surrounded by comments such as "a genius" and "a brilliant person in the past" all year round - "not bad", To him before, it was almost like swearing.
But now it sounds like he can accept it.
Because he would rather be a "good" swordsman than a "genius" swordsman.
He would rather think that he is a bandit than to admit that he is Xiao Xuan, the son of Xiao Zhun, the young owner of Wujian Villa and the sword master.
…………
After walking the long mountain road, Xiao Wuji finally returned to his village.
"Open the door quickly! The boss is back!"
While still far away, he heard the man in charge of the lookout shouting at the village.
This shout also brought Xiao Wuji back to reality from his wild thoughts about the past.
"Yes...I am just a bandit leader now, isn't this martial arts enough?"
He was thinking as he walked into the gate of the village.
However, as soon as he entered the village, Xiao Wuji felt something was wrong.
He glanced over and found that all the minions under his command were all listless and yawning in broad daylight; there were inexplicably many shields placed in the village courtyard that looked like they were improvised. , dozens of sandbags and a dozen water tanks filled with water were also piled up.
"Hey, what's going on?" Xiao Wuji looked at one of the minions who stepped forward to greet him, pointed at the things in the courtyard, and asked casually.
"Oh! You don't know, Mr. Big Boss, something big has happened in the past few days when you have been away. Please go and talk to the second boss and the third boss." That's what happened. He looked anxious and worried.
Xiao Wuji felt a little happy when he saw it. He thought to himself: "If we break the stronghold, what big thing can happen?"
It was obvious.However, Xiao Wuji didn't really care about the situation in this cottage, so after seeing this situation, he was more curious than nervous.
To make a long story short, not long after, the "Second Sister" and "Lao San" also heard the news of Xiao Wuji's return, and they both came out to greet Xiao Wuji; Then he followed the two of them to the back hall.
After the three of them sat down and exchanged a few clichés, the second sister began to talk about the topic: "Brother, to tell you the truth, something has indeed happened in the past few days."
The third child also added: "Alas...we are in for a big deal this time!"
"What happened? Did you two get scared like this?" Xiao Wuji was confused. road.
The book here hints that the "second sister" and the "third child", one is named Yuan Zhan'er and the other is named Guisan. They were originally from a not-so-famous brothel in Jinling. Top card and turtle slave.
One day four years ago, Xiao Wuji spent some money on a whim, redeemed these two people, taught them some martial arts, and became three brothers and sisters with them. , and then they became bandits together with Luo Cao.
For Xiao Wuji, this is just a "play". He just wants to degenerate, so he keeps doing these ridiculous things.
However, for Yuan Zhan'er and Gui San, this is a major turning point in their lives. They regard Xiao Wuji, their eldest brother, as their reborn parent, and they cherish their promising position as the bandit leader. work.
On weekdays, Yuan Zhan'er and Gui Sanping practice martial arts very hard. In addition, their master is a master like Xiao Wuji who has only practiced high-quality martial arts since childhood. Therefore, in just a few years, the two of them have He has already touched the threshold of being second-rate in the world.
Of course, compared with Liu Wusheng and Zou Baiqiu who came up the mountain to fight a few days ago, they are still inferior.
"Brother, we have to start talking about this seven days ago." Yuan Zhan'er used to be the top one. Even if he was not a famous one, his conversational skills were definitely much better than that of Gui San. Okay, she told them in a few sentences that she had used a trick to kill Liu Wusheng and Zou Baiqiu.
"Oh..." After hearing this, Xiao Wuji groaned, and then continued, "Then you are currently fighting. Could it be that you have received news... Someone wants to go up the mountain to seek revenge for these two people? "
"It's harmful!" Gui San couldn't help but reply, "Who would have thought that we had just killed the 'Tiger Arm Ming King' and 'Yida Zhen Guanzhong', and not yet In the past two days, there have been two more people called "Eastern Harmony and Western Poison". Jiye's face changed slightly, "The names of these two people... I seem to have some impressions."
Just when Xiao Wuji was scratching his head and wondering why he had a strong impression on these two people. ...
"There is a legend in the world about a young hero who likes 'killing people in cesspits'... you know this, right?" Guisan took the opportunity to reveal the source of his biggest fear of double harmony, "That's right. It’s that ‘Western Poison’ Huang Donglai”
“Oh!”Xiao Wuji remembered the keyword, "Yes, no wonder it sounds familiar to me." He paused for half a second, "What? Are these two going to the mountain to avenge Liu Zou?"
"Not only do they want revenge, they also threaten... that all of us in the village will die, and they also have our ashes spread." Yuan Zhan'er said this with a hint of anger. Afraid, with a look of resentment still on his face.
"Ha..." Xiao Wuji was not afraid, he still smiled easily, "Do you know when they will come?"
As soon as he said this, Yuan Zhan'er and Gui San's faces were distorted with anger.
"Oh... don't mention it." Guisan said, "These two grandsons have been saying they would come every day since five days ago, but they haven't come every day, which makes us worried all day long. "Ye...Ye, what's going on?"
"I can't sleep at night!" Yuan Zhan'er answered with a look of disgust.
"Yes, I can't sleep at night." Guisan's culture is still poor, and he often needs reminders from his second sister before he can use idioms fluently.
Hearing this, Xiao Wuji still didn’t understand: “Isn’t there our spy in the village? Why hasn’t this matter been decided yet?”
“Brother, are you? I don't know..." Yuan Zhan'er replied at this time, "The earliest time was five days ago. Around dusk, our spies sent news that these two people bought a large amount of goods in several villages at the foot of the mountain. They bought saltpeter, sulfur, soap locust, and a mess of medicinal materials and iron blocks, etc. They also took over the entire blacksmith shop in Gengjia Village, saying that Huang Donglai was going to make a 'mechanism' for attacking the stronghold, called 'Flying Fire'. Meteor'... also said that this thing can be made in just one night, and they will use it to raze our village to the ground early the next morning.
"At that time, I thought, this is Dongxi. Xidu's reputation is far superior to that of Liu Wusheng and Zou Baiqiu, and his martial arts skills are probably not inferior to those two. Even if we go down to attack the village while his 'Flying Fire Meteor' is not finished, we may not be able to No matter what kind of bargain is obtained, it is better to stay in the stronghold and lay out a clever trap like last time... This way the chance of winning is greater.
"Then I thought again. Judging from the name and materials, the 'flying bolide' was probably something like fire arrow gunpowder, so I ordered the brothers to prepare sandbags overnight and put them All the water tanks in the village were brought out and filled with water, and various objects were found, tied or nailed, to make shields in preparation for the next day."
It says here. As a digression, why do these people make shields but not armor?
Both shields and armor can resist stray arrows and fire, but shields are basically not used during robbery, but armor can be used at any time in the future. Logically speaking, the village should always have it.
Here I will explain something that may also be used in later documents - in ancient times, whether you had followers or collected weapons, you could get away with it even if you had hundreds or thousands of them. ...But the matter of "hiding armor privately" is absolutely not allowed.
In large-scale battles in the cold weapon age, armor plays an extremely important role.It is so huge that three hundred "armored soldiers" can kill more than a thousand people without armor, and it is no problem for five thousand armored soldiers to disperse tens of thousands of unarmored soldiers.
The imperial court is not afraid of you who hide weapons privately and keep your followers. If you don’t believe me, you can bring them out to fight the regular army. If you want to win, Guo Jing and Huang Rong will worship you as their teacher; but if you make armor privately, then It must be treated as treason. There is no other explanation. Once discovered, it will be strangled in the cradle.
Of course, there are exceptions. For example, Brother Sun's "protective armor" is a soft armor. There is only one piece in total. He wears it himself, so no one will pursue it; there are also some bandits' The leader has thought about being a "general" and wearing a full-cover armor to show off, but no one takes him seriously.
But for ordinary people, if there is no soldier in your family, but you hide armor privately, even if you only have one set, it is a crime of rebellion; let alone the sects and organizations on Green Forest Road or Jianghu Road, If there are more than ten or twenty sets of armor inside the door, they will be immediately regarded as "rebels" and they will be wiped out with all their strength.
To sum up, at that time, it was impossible for ordinary bandit villages to consider acquiring armor. It would be more sinful and risky than robbing and murdering them. < /p>
"As a result...we waited until noon the next day, but they didn't come." Kame San interjected with an annoyed look on his face.
Yuan Zhan'er also answered: "So we sent a spies to find out... An hour later, the spies reported that the two people slept until noon and told the villagers , 'I was too tired from working on the agency last night and overslept, so I might as well wait until dinner before going, and I can take advantage of the cover of the night.'" She curled her lips viciously, "Brother, when we receive the report, It’s already Shen Shi, brothers, we haven’t slept for almost two days and a night, so we can only take advantage of the two hours before the sun sets to take a break and close our eyes, and then get up and be on guard again..." Speaking of this, she frowned again, "I didn't expect... they didn't come the next night either."
Xiao Wuji said: "Then why is it this time? ?"
"We waited all night, and asked the spies to check at dawn the next day..." Guisan added in time, "The spies reported that Huang Donglai had not eaten his dinner cleanly. I had diarrhea and diarrhea, so I took a rest in the middle of the night and decided to come back in the afternoon."
"Huh?" At this time, Xiao Wuji suddenly thought of a possibility," Could it be that these two were liars? It felt like they were deliberately trying to find excuses to procrastinate."
"At that time, we also began to wonder...could these two be playing tricks on each other? The banner of "Xie Xi Po" came out to deceive, "I didn't expect that they would come suddenly before the afternoon of the third day."
"Oh?" Ji Shi became more and more interested as he listened, "You fight them?"Already? ”
“What kind of hand do you want to hand over? Guisan looked depressed, "My brothers and I stayed up all night again and wanted to sleep a little longer before the afternoon. Unexpectedly, not long after we lay down, these two guys ran to the entrance of the village and connected to our village. Lost several 'flying fireballs'. ”
“What on earth is that?” "Xiao Wuji asked.
"We don't know either. Turtle San replied, "That thing looks like a small black ball before it hits the ground. It explodes as soon as it hits the ground. Once it explodes, it's a puddle of kerosene, accompanied by some scattered pieces of iron." ; At that time, all the brothers in the village were sleepy, tired, and relatively lax, so we only flew in a few, leaving us with seven or eight casualties. "
"What happened next? "Xiao Wuji said.
"Of course we got up to fight the enemy later. "Yuan Zhan'er said, "But when all the brothers in the village got up and put out the fire, the two Sha Qian Dao didn't come in. They just shouted outside, saying that they just came up with a few flying fire meteors. Let's test the power of the cannonballs. When they return to the village and push up the "fort", they won't just throw a few in with their hands, but they will blast "seventeen rounds per second" into our village. "
"What is "second"? "Xiao Wuji asked again.
"Who knows, but judging from what they mean, it probably only takes a blink of an eye. "Gui San said.
After asking this, Xiao Wuji had basically guessed what Shuangxie was up to, so his next sentence was: "Then if nothing else happens, on the afternoon of the third day And at night, you didn't sleep, right? "
"No. "Gui San said, "By daytime on the fourth day, we felt that it was not an option to continue like this, so the second sister came up with an idea to divide the brothers into two shifts and take turns sleeping; In addition to standing guard, he was also responsible for fetching water from the well in the back mountain and trying to save as much water as possible in the water tank for later use. In addition, a team of people was divided to go down the mountain to find sandbags and materials for making shields. "
After Xiao Wuji heard this arrangement, he couldn't help but sneer secretly in his heart: "Hmph... If these gangsters in the village are not lazy, why are they thieves? Are you asking them to work backwards to do this now? If they could conscientiously finish their work, would they still become bandits? Isn't it better to be a soldier? "
Yuan Zhan'er's next words also echoed Xiao Wuji's thoughts. She continued: "Oh, it's a pity that all the losers in our village are lazy and slippery. In front of the enemy, there were still a bunch of lazy ones. When I found out, I scolded them a few times and dared to talk back to me, saying that they were exhausted the past few days and hadn't recovered yet, so they really couldn't do the work.
"This made me angry. I thought that none of these bastards were tired when they were lying on women. When it was their turn to do something serious, they didn't even give them food. It felt like eating... I was so angry that I killed several of them on the spot, thinking that I was killing the chickens to show the monkeys.
"Brother, guess what? That night, more than twenty of these grandsons escaped in one breath. Damn it..."
"Oh... So, excluding those who were killed by the 'flying fireball', those who were beaten to death by you, and those who escaped on their own... there are only about thirty brothers left in the village now." "Xiao Wuji made an estimate and asked.
"That's right." Yuan Zhan'er replied in a helpless tone, but when she said the next sentence, a bit of excitement appeared on her face, "But now that you are back, brother, then We have nothing to be afraid of anymore, and we no longer need to stay in the village so fearfully. As long as you give the order, the two of us can immediately follow you to attack the mountain, skin and cramp the two children of Sun Huang, and dismember them. Eight dollars!”
“Yes, brother, I’m just waiting for you to say something!” Gui San also agreed, “You’ve been away for the past ten days, and you’ve just caught up with so many things. I haven’t gone down the mountain to hunt for more than ten days, and all the women captured in the village are dead. You see..."
"I see? Hehe..." Xiao Wuji smiled, even though he That face had always been smiling, but at this moment he really felt it was ridiculous and laughed out loud, "I see... you two are already on the verge of death. If I come back one day later, I'm afraid I won't have time to give you anything." You collect the corpses."
When Yuan Zhan'er and Guisan heard this, they looked at each other.
Guisan is stupid and can't think of any reason.
Although Yuan Zhan'er is smarter than Guisan, he still cannot see the overall situation of the matter clearly, so he asked: "Brother, how do you say this?"
"You guys We fell into someone else's trick..." Xiao Wuji replied, "If I'm not wrong, that 'flying fireball' was just a bluff. From the beginning to the end, they only made those seven or eight fire bombs. That’s all; from the very beginning, they have thought of using our spies and spies to create various illusions for you, defrauding you again and again, leaving you overwhelmed and exhausted..."
"This... No way..." Yuan Zhan'er said, "Even if they know to use our spies to defraud us, how can they be sure that we will stay in the stronghold and not kill people down the mountain?"
" That's right." Gui Sanye asked, "They didn't know that Liu and Zou were killed by our tricks. Could it be that they thought... Even if there were people with higher martial arts skills than those two leading the group? Even if the men and horses kill them, they will definitely be able to escape unscathed?"
"Huh..." Xiao Wuji chuckled again, "If their martial arts are so high, why are they doing this? They have already rushed directly into the stronghold." He paused, "Those two have been tormenting you for so many days, firstly, because they are not fully sure of the attack; secondly, because they are very capable. It may be inferred that Liu and Zou may not have died because their martial arts were not high enough... You two also relied on tricks and were very guilty, so you can achieve miraculous results by using tactics of suspicion."
After Xiao Wuji finished speaking, he raised his eyes and gestured in the direction of the door: "Look back and think about it. Seven days ago, you took down people like Liu Wusheng and Zou Baiqiu without using a single soldier. All the brothers also knew it. , they immediatelyYou can go down the mountain to make a fortune on the pretext of "settling accounts with the villagers". At that time, the village was full of strong people and strong morale; but after these few days, nearly half of the brothers in the village were lost, and the remaining People were tired and sleepy, and their morale was low... And what did Sun and Huang do? I just live in the village at the foot of the mountain, eat, sleep and sleep. From time to time, I will tell you some false news and harsh words to scare you. The only time I actually went up the mountain, I didn't even dare to enter the village gate. I just threw a few kerosene bombs in. , after throwing it away, he went back as if taking a stroll... Hehe, their method of attacking people's hearts is not unscrupulous. "
When Yuan Zhan'er and Gui San heard this, they were very angry. They also somewhat complained about their elder brother, how could he laugh at them in such a relaxed tone.
< p>At this moment, suddenly...A minion rushed to the door, stood at the door and shouted loudly: "It's not good! Village leader! Then Sun Yixie and Huang Donglai came to the gate of the village and were shouting outside, asking us to open the door and surrender. "
When Yuan Zhan'er and Gui San heard this, they immediately felt angry and evil in their hearts.
They said to themselves: Okay, there is a way to heaven. Come on, there is no way to hell, just come and vote! A few days ago, our eldest brother was not here, so you two made us fool around. Today, eldest brother just happened to be back. Let’s see what tricks you can do today! There is no place to die!
As for Xiao Wuji, he stood up calmly and said, "Oh, good time, I was just thinking about meeting these two people. ”