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Among this group of hair-shearing thieves, only a dozen old thieves and about twenty child soldiers were the main force, and the rest were just servants and hungry people in the thief camp.

They had previously been carrying out the task of cutting off the Jialu River nearby. After completing the task, since there was no other task requiring them for the time being, they dug a cave nearby and settled down temporarily. It was difficult for people like them to enter the enemy camp, so most of them set up their own camps behind or around the camp.

The less than forty hair-shearing thieves and child soldiers naturally knew where they had set up camp, so they rode their horses to find them, disguised as fleeing villagers, intending to kill the government army scouts in one fell swoop.

However, they never expected that this group of scouts from the government army were not only well-equipped and powerful, but also extremely cunning. Although they were only twenty or thirty horses, they were divided into several batches, making it impossible for the shearing thieves to surround them in one fell swoop.

Don’t think that the fighting power of these hair-shearing thieves is rubbish just because Xing Jinyin and his men rode their horses and rushed over. In fact, that’s not the case…

They are also the fighting force in the bandit camp, especially these child soldiers. Almost all of them are orphans who were taken in by the bandits. They have nothing to do on weekdays but train in fighting skills on the battlefield.

When the bandits attacked a city, they would always make them hide in various places in the city first, and then they would be responsible for seizing the gates and breaking into the city. Even if they were attacking a city by force, these child soldiers would mostly be responsible for the task of attacking the city, and they would be the first to enter many cities, big and small.

As for the reason why Xing Jinyin and the others were able to escape just now, it was entirely because they seized the initiative and took advantage of the power of the galloping war horses. Otherwise, they would have been intercepted by these desperate hair-shearing thieves and child soldiers.

Of course, this was also due to the careful retreat plan formulated by Chang Zhengcheng. It was because he divided the twenty-odd cavalry soldiers into several groups for retreat that the bandits did not know which group was important and did not dare to go all out when the battle started.

…………

Now, they saw that although Chang Zhengcheng and others who came over from behind had only four riders, there were two people riding on one horse. This meant that one of them must be injured. Even if not, two people riding on one horse would definitely not be able to run fast. It would be a good opportunity to intercept them and gain some military merit for this trip.

When they saw the four riders coming slowly in a line, they knew that their identities had been exposed, so they no longer pretended to be wandering villagers, but lined up in a formation on the official road, heading towards Chang Zhengcheng and his group.

"Changtou, ask Dahanzi to escort you over first. The rest of us will stay behind to tie up this group of thieves and wait for Yanqiang and Xiaoduan to come up. After defeating this group of thieves, we will catch up and join you."

Although the third squad leader Zhao Xingguang was loyal to his master, Chang Zhengcheng did not appreciate it at all and angrily scolded him: "What are you talking about? Do you think I, Chang Zhengcheng, am a coward?"

Zhao Xingguang, who was sitting behind Da Hanzi's Niu Cheng Hu Ma, stuck out his tongue when he heard the words, but he still reminded him, "Boss, although we are not afraid of the bandits, there are too many of them. Should we retreat temporarily and wait until we meet up with Yan Qiang and the others before attacking?"

Chang Zhengcheng turned his head to look at Zhao Xingguang, who seemed a little depressed, and then looked at Zhou Xiaoshan and Yu Zhongtian on both sides. He sighed slightly in his heart and said, "How many explosive bombs and smoke bombs do we have?"

The explosive bombs were the small enemies of ten thousand people, and the smoke bombs were the small smoke bombs that the night sentries carried with them...

Zhao Xingguang and others turned their heads and looked at each other, and all fell silent. The three of them had used up their Ten Thousand Enemies and smoke cannons when they were attacked during the night reconnaissance. Moreover, these guys were too heavy, and each person could only pick one to carry with him every time he went out on patrol. Where could they get any spare ones now?

"Boss Chang, I have some explosives here."

The rough voice of the fool Niu Chenghu came, and everyone's eyes lit up. They heard Chang Zhengcheng said in a deep voice: "Everyone, get your pistols ready, urge your horses to advance slowly, and do not fire without my order."

He then looked at Zhao Xingguang and Niu Chenghu and said to them, "Fools, keep the bombs handy. When the bandits get close, after I fire my gun, immediately prepare the fire starter and light the fire when I give the order. Fool, light the bomb immediately and throw it far into the crowd of bandits for me."

"It's settled!"

After looking at everyone, Chang Zhengcheng gave another solemn warning: "Although there are many bandits, don't be afraid. Follow me and advance slowly. When I give the order, fire the first shot. Then Hanzi will throw a bomb, urge the horse to speed up and charge at the bandits. Fire the second shot, and then switch to cold weapons to kill the bandits."

"Boss, are you really not going to wait for the Smokers?"

"No, I won't wait. Xing Jinyin must have already rushed through the battle formation. Let's rush over and join them first, and then we can kill this bunch of evil thieves with a surprise attack."

…………

As the distance between the two sides continued to narrow, the gray cloth belts on Chang Zhengcheng, Zhao Xingguang and others became clearly visible, especially the dark red color that could be seen through the cloth belts, which was even more conspicuous under the rising sunlight.

"Damn it, there are wounded soldiers in front of us, they are not good at fighting, don't panic, we must stop these damn soldiers today, so that we can have meat to eat when we return!"

An old thief with a full beard in the crowd kept swinging his axe and shouting loudly. Another strong thief also shouted in agreement: "Listen to me, if you can't stop these dogs, you won't have food to eat today. If anyone dares not to work hard and retreats in the battle, I will be the first to chop him down."

It was obvious that the two of them were the leaders of this group of thieves. One of them was swinging a long axe, and the other was waving an iron bone sword. They kept urging the surrounding thieves and servants to rush towards Chang Zhengcheng and his men.

Especially the nearly twenty child soldiers hidden among them. They were extremely agile and could leap like rabbits. Even the old thieves were inferior to them, not to mention the other slaves and starving people who were cannon fodder.

With a whoosh, an arrow flashed with cold light and flew straight towards Chang Zhengcheng.

He was concentrating on staring at the bandits rushing towards him, and when he saw the cold arrow flying towards him, he instinctively dodged to the side. The arrow flew past his neck, causing a burning pain in his neck.

However, the pain was not a big deal for Chang Zhengcheng. He dodged too hastily and actually injured the wound on the right side of his back. It was so painful that the entire right side of his back was stained bright red.

Chang Zhengcheng endured the pain from his wounds, stared at the slowly approaching bandits with eyes wide open, and said in a low voice: "The crossbows of the bandits can't kill us, hold still, listen to my orders, and speed up and charge forward."

"Here!"

Hearing several people agreeing in unison, Chang Zhengcheng still felt a little worried, so he turned his head to look at Zhao Xingguang and Niu Chenghu, and said, "Old Zhao, your injury... can you withstand the galloping of the warhorse?"

"I can bear it."

"it is good."

After Chang Zhengcheng gave a loud praise, he told the fool Niu Chenghu, "Foolish boy, stay close behind me and don't separate. You must keep a close eye on Lao Zhao and don't let him fall off his horse." "Don't worry, Boss Chang. Even if I fall off my horse, I won't let Shichang fall off."

"Hahaha……"

Chang Zhengcheng suddenly burst into laughter and said, "Okay... boys, follow me to kill the bandits!"

At this moment, the bandits on the opposite side had already run more than forty steps away. If he didn't whip his horse, he would probably not be able to run as fast as he could in a while. After all, a war horse is not a chariot. He can't just step on the accelerator and suddenly accelerate and sprint out.

If a war horse wants to gallop, it needs a certain amount of acceleration. In the past, when two armies clashed, the cavalry on both sides would urge their horses to slow down when they were two or three hundred steps away, whip their horses when they were a hundred steps away, and gallop at full speed when they were fifty steps away.

  Today, Chang Zhengcheng was so arrogant because the bandits were all infantrymen and could not compete with his cavalry. Moreover, the five of them had sharp short-handed guns and the last "small bomb" in their hands!

"Whoosh... whoosh... whoosh..."

Crossbow arrows flew past Chang Zhengcheng and others, some up, some down, some left, and some right. Although some of them hit their burly bodies, most of them could not even penetrate their outer armor and fell to the dust with a "ding" sound.

But many crossbow arrows also pierced through their armor and shot into their flesh. In just a few breaths, the chests and arms of Chang Zhengcheng and others were already covered with crossbow arrows. As they galloped on their horses, they kept jumping around like running hedgehogs.

Although these crossbow arrows penetrated their armor, they did not cause much harm to Chang Zhengcheng and others...

Although the rebel army was more regular and rigorous than other bandits, and their clothing, armor, and weapons were more than one level better than those of the other big bandits, that was only after they entered Henan and captured Luoyang.

Moreover, during this year or so, although the rebel army gained great momentum and almost swept through all the counties in Henan Province south of the Yellow River, only the city of Kaifeng remained struggling and could not be conquered after two attacks.

However, Li Zicheng did not change his bandit nature. He was able to vigorously manage the army, but he did not care about the people. He did not set up officials in the captured counties and cities. As a result, although the rebel army expanded to hundreds of thousands of people, it did not have a stable rear base and foundation. In the final analysis, it was still a rootless tree like duckweed in the water.

This also resulted in the fact that although the armor and weapons of the rebel army were superior to those of other bandits and could even compete with the official army, most of them were old and damaged. For example, the crossbows and arrows used by today's hair-shearing thieves and child soldiers, although they were carefully selected and refined, were not as powerful as when they were brand new. It was difficult for them to penetrate armor from forty steps away, and even if they occasionally penetrated the armor, the damage was limited.

…………

"Shoot the horse...shoot the horse for me!"

The leading shearing thief finally reacted. He yelled at the others to shoot the warhorse first. The loud-voiced man next to him also yelled, "Shoot the horse that's carrying two people... Yes... Shoot that horse..."

It's too late, their reaction is too slow...

  At this moment, Chang Zhengcheng and the other four riders had already rushed in front of them, and the two sides were less than ten steps apart. When the war horses accelerated to charge, the force was more than a thousand pounds, how could a human body withstand it?

What's more, most of the bandit soldiers and servants were not wearing armor, and even their clothes were tattered. They were also skinny as skin and bones. There was no chance that they could escape the powerful impact of the war horses.

There were continuous screams and wails. It was really true that the fierceness of the charge just now determined how badly they were injured now...

However, the bandits did not gain nothing. They successfully intercepted a soldier who fell from his horse and surrounded him, but they were unable to capture him for the time being.

  It turned out that what the fool Niu Chenghu said came true - in order to protect the sergeant Zhao Xingguang from being brought down, he actually sacrificed his own life to protect him!

Just when they were speeding up their charge, in order to avoid the crossbow arrows shot by the bandits, Niu Chenghu supported the squad leader Zhao Xingguang and used the rhythm of the horse's running to sway left and right. However, the angle of a crossbow arrow was too tricky, and Zhao Xingguang was too hasty when dodging. In addition, Zhao Xingguang was injured and fatigued, so his body tilted sharply to the left, and he was about to fall off his horse...

How could the fool who was devoted to protecting his master tolerate the sergeant falling off his horse? He hurriedly lifted his feet off the stirrups, grabbed his tiger spear from the hook of his warhorse Desheng with his right hand, held the short gun in his left hand, and with just his arm resting on Zhao Xingguang's waist, he lifted up with all his strength and sent the sergeant back to the saddle steadily.

Until this moment, Niu Chenghu still shouted: "The bomb is in the bag..."

As a result, he lost the chance to get back on the saddle and fell directly onto the official road. He rolled forward twice before coming to a stop. But almost at the same time, he was surrounded by the bandits who had just rushed up...

…………

The fool Niu Chenghu remained calm. He supported his body with his knees on the ground, raised his left hand and used the cavalry badge on his forearm to draw a crossbow arrow. He shot it casually, and a hair-shearing thief in the front row fell to the ground.

The thief was still alive and screamed miserably. The other thieves were so frightened that they stood there in a daze...

"You're just a chicken feather... rush forward and kill these evil government troops..."

Amid the roar of an old thief, the other thieves finally reacted and rushed forward roaring, surrounding the big fool Niu Chenghu.

However, taking advantage of the moment they were stunned, Niu Chenghu had already jumped up and stood firmly. The short-handed gun had already been put back into the holster on his waist. He held the Dinghu gun tightly in both hands and stared at the bandits who surrounded him with a gaze as sharp as a torch.

"Kill! Kill! Kill..."

Niu Chenghu didn't wait for the bandits to get into formation, he immediately swung the tiger spear in his hand and launched the first attack. With a few hits and stabs of the spear, he knocked three bandits to the ground.

He was full of vigor and momentum, and although he was alone, he was not at all inferior to the dozens of thieves in front of him. In an instant, he forced the thieves back several steps, and they could not get within a few feet of him.

With a light "puff" sound, an arrow shot by an unknown thief hit the big fool Niu Chenghu right in the chest. Because the distance was too close and it was shot from the front, the force was naturally greater, and it penetrated Niu Chenghu's armor and went into his flesh about an inch, and a bright red color immediately stained half of his clothes.

"Don't shoot him to death... Catch him alive so I can ask General Bai for a reward!"

I don't know who suddenly shouted like this, but it was this shout that indirectly saved Niu Chenghu's life. Otherwise, no matter how brave and good at fighting he was, he would have no chance of survival under the chaotic crossbow attack.

“Ah…kill…kill…ah…”

Niu Chenghu roared to dispel the pain brought by the crossbow arrows. He was like a mad tiger coming down the mountain. He waved the tiger spear in his hand like a dragon coming out of the sea. He suddenly stabbed a bandit and lifted the bandit into the air with all his strength... (End of this chapter)