Chapter 92 – Giving You All the Luck

At dusk, Su Yan and his group entered a small town along the bumpy yellow dirt road.

“This place is called Yokoliangzi, let’s go into the town to replenish food and water, rest for the night, and continue our journey in the morning ……” Gao Shuo rode slowly on his horse, and was explaining to Su Yan, who had lifted the curtains, when he suddenly raised his head to look around, and said doubtfully, ” Why is it so quiet at evening home time, not even any cooking smoke?”

Steadily, I heard one of the brocade guards call out, “Fireman! There’s a fireman!”

The burning figure that appeared at the entrance of the town was stumbling towards them, and before they could get close, they collapsed with a loud bang, their arms still stretched out in front of them, as if they were still pleading in pain until they died.

Brocade guards immediately went up to check the body, after extinguishing the remaining flames on the back, only to see a charred black knife slash from the shoulder slanting to the back waist, almost split the person into two halves. This person before the fire has been hit by a fatal knife, dying to run out so far, can be called a miracle after the explosion of human potential.

Chu Yuan used his hand to compare the angle of the blade, and changed color in a flash: “The scimitar …… is a Tatar cavalryman!”

“Quickly! All get on your horses and get out of here!” He barked at the brocade guards beside the carriage.

Before the words fell, a black feathered arrow broke through the air towards the back of his head. Chu Yuan rolled violently to the side, connecting the three arrows to snatch and nail him in place, the force and accuracy was amazing.

The sound of horses’ hooves and rough barbaric cries were sent by the wind. At the end of the dirt road, a small group of cavalry figures appeared, wearing rough cowhide armor and leather hats, holding hardwood composite bows and carrying curved swords at their waists, galloping and shooting as they sped.

Sure enough, it was the Tartar cavalry! I don’t know when they came behind them and blocked the way back. Fortunately, there were only twenty to thirty men, Chu Yuan hissed, “The front group will follow me to meet the battle! The rear group will escort your honor through the town and leave!”

He divided the nineteen guards into two teams before and after, the front team including himself fifteen people, responsible for the enemy. The back team of four was led by Gao Shuo, responsible for covering, together with Jing Hongchou and two boys, so that Su Yan had at least seven people around him to avoid falling alone.

At Chu Yuan’s command, the brocade guards took out their bird cannons from their horses and dismounted to find shooting cover.

As a nomadic people, the Tartars, unlike the Daming who belonged to a hierarchical imperial system, consisted of many clans. A cavalry unit was often a male member of a clan.

These nomadic ancestors grew up on horseback, each riding and shooting skills first-class, and even can not get off the horse for three days and three nights, eating and sleeping on the back of the horse, mechanical power is unrivaled.

Tatar light armor cavalry do not like to fight with the Ming army, the best at guerrilla attacks with bows and arrows, fifty or sixty feet away, start shooting arrows, once the enemy is close, then drive the horse to pull away and continue shooting arrows, annoying as hell. Chu Yuan knows that right now want to kill these rangers, is not easy, if you can not close combat, you can only rely on the same long-range weapons – bows and arrows or firearms.

The dozen or so bird cannons they carried, modified from Western fire-rope guns, became the most suitable weapons at the moment.

Su Yan was turned upside down by the wildly running carriage like a leaf falling in the wind.

He wrapped his arms around the two boys who changed color in fear, tightly grasping the window frame, listening to the sporadic sound of gunfire coming from the rear, the moment of crisis actually still have the heart to float: the fire rope gun range is short, the speed of fire is slow, the operation of loading is complex, and easy to go off, there is a chance to have to improve the improvement is not good. Remember this era there is a gun modification fierce man called Zhao Shizhen, also do not know out of this world, should not be his butterfly off it …… and so will come back to the capital, hurry to find out the people, sent into the days of the Academy of Engineering ……

The carriage braked violently, and Su Xiaojing shrieked. Su Yan’s forehead hit the window frame, and his eyes glazed over. The brocade guard who was driving called out, “The houses are spread out in front, the road is too narrow, the car can’t get through!”

“The carriage is too slow, it’s best to abandon the carriage for a horse.” Gao Shuo said, “It’s just that the carriage is full of Lord Su’s luggage ……”

“Outside of the body, lose it, just bring the holy decree, official seal and paperwork with you.” Su Yan covered his head and inhaled vigorously.

Jing Hong chased him into the carriage, carrying the bag containing the seal and helping him out of the carriage. Su Yan’s vision recovered from the darkness of the golden light swirling, see the surrounding premises have obviously been robbed, the ground is strewn with people’s corpses, one by one by the knife chopping and beheading, hit by arrows on the contrary, less, obviously abused and killed.

Not far away there was an old woman, naked and dead beside the well, blood dripping from beneath her, and the drooping toddler she had shielded from her chest was no longer moving.

After all, Su Xiaobei and Su Xiaojing were only thirteen years old little teenagers, and they directly cried out at the situation.

Su Yan also couldn’t help his eyes reddening, gripping Jing Hongchou’s arm hard, his throat terse and difficult, “It’s too tragic ……”

Even an indifferent killer like Jing Hongchou, who had seen life and death, couldn’t help but be shaken by this scene and gritted his teeth, “Tartars deserve to die!”

Gao Shuo urged, “Lord Su, hurry!”

“Which is the nearest garrison guardhouse?” Su Yan asked.

“It’s Tingbian! Going northwest!”

Su Yan had just mounted his horse when Gao Shuo suddenly sidestepped his ears and got down to put his ear to the ground again, calling out moments later, “There’s cavalry coming again! I can’t hear the direction of the hoof vibrations!”

Can’t hear the direction, which is in all directions.

Another party of Tartars, which had just left a short distance after the pillage, heard the sound of the guns and turned back to surround the town. This group of cavalry, numbering more than a hundred men, came roaring in like a soaring wind, and dozens of arrows were shot at them from every direction.

Jing Hong chased after drawing his sword to knock down the flying arrows, suddenly saw a few cold arrows shooting back and forth towards Su Yan on the horse, busy grabbing his belt and pulling him off the horse, holding him on the ground rolled a few times.

Su Yan’s crown and hat fell off, and his hairpin also fell off, and his long black hair was spread out around his waist, stained with a lot of dust.

Seeing that there were only six or seven people in the field, the Tartar cavalrymen put their bows away and drew their curved swords to rush up. The leader stared at Su Yan and called out in barbarian language, “Pretty woman with white skin! Don’t kill her, capture her and offer her to Lord Woodhallang!”

Jing Hong chased Su Yan onto the carriage, took a cold breath and threw out a flying knife, piercing through the eye socket of this wah-la shrieking Tartar.

The leader fell from his horse and died instantly. The cavalry froze, screamed like mad, and swung their swords.

Jing Hong chased the tip of his sword to shake out a ball of cold light, performing strange and weird stances, wandering around the carriage, any Tartar cavalrymen that approached were all stabbed off their horses by him.

Su Yan drilled into the carriage, and bundled into a dumpling, still trying to twist and probe Wang Chen touched a face.

Wang Chen: “Mmmmmmmmmmmm!”

Su Yan untied the cloth tied around his mouth. Wang Chen gasped and asked, “Surrounded by Tartar cavalry? How many?”

“Over a hundred.”

“This is going to die! Damn it, I never thought I’d die in such a shameful way, just like a lamb to the slaughter!”

Su Yan pulled the dagger for defense from his sleeve and approached him.

“You want to kill me …… or not, dying in your hands is better than dying in the hands of those Tartars!” Wang Chen closed his eyes to be killed, but he did not want the ropes tied on his body to suddenly break and regain his freedom.

Su Yan said, “Even if you have to die, you have to die by the king’s law, not by the beast’s sword. Go, run for your life!”

Wang Chen was stunned and asked offhandedly, “What about you?”

“With the brocade guards and Ah Chou protecting us, think of a way to rush out. If you can’t get out, you can only die with them.” Su Yan was calm and self-contained on his face, but in his heart, he was half as nervous and fearful, and did not dare to imagine his own death in the hands of the Tartars.

Wang Chen struggled with all his thoughts and finally gritted his teeth and said, “If twenty skilled brocade guards can’t rush out, how can I escape alone? I’d better follow you! Do you have any swords and arrows?”

Outside the wagon, a Tartar spurted blood and fell to the ground, his dead eyes looking at them through the slit in the curtain, his hand still tightly gripping his scimitar.

Suyan said, “Here.”

“Duck and watch out for yourself!” Wang Chen probed out and copied the knife, flipping out.

Chu Yuan and others at the mouth of the town repelled the small group of Tartars and rushed into the town to return.

Although these jinyiwei are well trained, but after all, fewer people, tartar cavalry ferocious brutal tough, under the two fight, each have deaths and injuries.

Chu Yuan saw the gradual attrition of his men, the enemy is still a huge dozens of people, see on the road to certain death, anxious as fire. He is loyal to Emperor Jinglong, ordered to swear to protect Su Yan, this time is their own arrows pierced through the heart, but also must not let Su Yan accident, immediately drank: “Jing Hong chase! You take Lord Su away, we’ll stop you!”

“With what stop? With your lives?” Jing Hong chased after the wheels and swept out, piercing through the two with a sword, then whirled back around and landed on the car, “Let’s go.”

At this time, the night sky thunder and lightning, heavy rain poured down, in the twinkling of an eye will help each other two people drenched into a soup chicken.

Mountain slopes are steep and slippery, many places until the foot on it, only to realize that there is no way to go ahead, had to turn around. Jing red chase seriously injured, a body of internal energy and exhaustion, pulling Su Yan climbing a small half hour, still not climbed out of the gorge.

Originally, the place where they rolled down was not so high, but after falling into the water, they were swept away by the rapids for I don’t know how many miles, and ended up stranded in this deep, untraveled valley.

Su Yan leaned on a boulder, holding the shaky Jing Hongchou, gasping in the heavy rain, “It’s high enough. I can’t climb up, it’s dark, if I fall down again, it’s even worse. Find a flat place to harbor for the night, and wait for the dawn to say.”

Jing Hongchou could no longer speak, but only nodded.

Lightning ripped through the dark canopy, and in the fleeting bright light, he pointed to a rocky depression not far away. Su Yan wiped the rainwater from his face and said, “There’s a cave!”

The two men climbed into that cave with great difficulty, and found that although it was not spacious, but it was more than enough to accommodate a few people to avoid the rain, and there was a piece of complete and flat rock inside, sticking out from the rock wall, like a natural stone bed, with the lower edge nearly two feet above the ground, so that it could be sheltered from insects and ants.

Su Yan realized that Jing Hongchou had fallen into a semi-conscious state again, and busied himself with laying him flat on the stone bed, looking at the entrance of the cave where the torrential rain was pouring down, and secretly fretting.

When the human body loses more than 20~30% of blood, there will be a drop in blood pressure, shock and other symptoms, and if the blood loss reaches 50%, it will be a serious shock and even lead to death. Su Yan does not know how much blood Jing Hong chased, and right now there is no fire, no food, no medicine, can he survive the night?

Are Chu Yuan and the others still alive, can they escape from the siege of the Tartar cavalry, can they find their way here?

Since wearing to the ancient times, this is Su Yan’s most helpless once, before even if the knife and axe plus neck, he felt that as long as not lose wisdom and courage, can find a ray of hope. But this time, he is almost desperate to realize that, in addition to relying on God’s creation, there is nothing to do.

“When I dragged you home from under the bridge hole, you were healed from injuries like that, and you’ll be fine now, right?” He touched Jing Hongchou’s face in the darkness and murmured, “I’ll give you the luck of the rest of my life, so you must get well ……”

The cheeks were unusually cold under the palms, a red flag, and the dampness accelerated the loss of body heat.

Su Yan touched the dark and took off all the wet clothes on Jing Hongchou’s body, and took off his own clothes, lying on the stone bed and hugging him tightly, as if the ice and snow had entered his arms, he could not help but even shivered a few times.

The good thing is that it was the height of summer in July, even if it was a rainy night in the mountains, the temperature was not very low, seventeen or eighteen degrees is always there. Su Yan endured the wet hard rock behind him, and wrapped Jing Hongchou in front of his body, so that his back wound was facing upwards, and tried his best to keep him from touching the stone surface.

He thought bitterly, “Fortunately, Ah Chui is not very large, or really want to crush me …… yelp, look at the thin, in fact, still quite heavy, in the end, is the density of the bones or muscles so high ah ……

At this time, Su Yan was so exhausted that he couldn’t even feel hunger anymore, and only felt that there was no place in his body that didn’t hurt. But he had no time to care for himself, only wishing to keep the ice on his body warm, and drifted off to sleep in the sound of the thunderstorm.