Aoyama

Chapter 280 Escape
In the darkness, Li Xuan walked quickly in the alley with the little girl on his back. Every time he walked a distance, he would stop to listen to the nearby shouts and horse hooves, quietly distinguishing the safe direction.

He stood in the dim alley, breathing heavily, and looked around at the rooftops, trying to find any sign of Chen Ji.

During the three-day siege, Li Xuan could only drink clear porridge. Today, the fighting lasted from noon to 10 p.m. Even a strong man could not bear it.

Li Xuan glanced at the elm tree next to him and couldn't help but peel off a piece of dry bark from the trunk, imagining that it was a piece of beef jerky and stuffing it into his mouth to chew.

The bark tasted extremely bitter, and no matter how hard he chewed, it was difficult to bite through.

The refugee behind him saw that he was in such a mess, and said cautiously, "Sir, the bark of the elm tree must be ground into flour before it can be eaten... How many days have you not eaten?"

Li Xuan forcefully swallowed the unbitten bark and casually explained, "I'm not hungry, I just haven't eaten it before and want to try it."

The little girl on his back suddenly put her hand to his mouth and said, "Grandpa, let me give it to you."

Li Xuan was startled, and looked down to see the two shrunken dates in the little girl's hand: "You..."

The little girl whispered, "My mother gave it to me. I ate one secretly when I was too hungry to bear it."

Li Xuan took another bite of elm bark and said with a smile, "You can keep it for yourself."

The little girl stuffed the saxaul into his mouth without giving a second thought: "I still have two."

Li Xuan chewed the sand date in his mouth and silently looked up at the narrow night sky above the alley, wondering what he was thinking.

One refugee asked tentatively, "Sir, where is your colleague? Where did he go? If he could come with us... We have no bad intentions, we just feel sorry for you working so hard."

Li Xuan glanced at the empty roofs nearby again, and after a long moment he said, "He must have something important to do."

At this time, a team of Tian Ce Army cavalry rushed past. They tied an iron chain around the ankle of a border soldier and dragged him to death.

Everyone in the alley covered their mouths in fear and shrank back for fear of being discovered by the Tian Ce Army outside.

After the Tian Ce Army left, Li Xuan set out to continue his advance northward, trying to join up with his colleagues in the Yulin Army.

On the roof of a tavern, the Tian Ce Army's sharpshooter leaned against the shadow of the second-floor eaves, silently stroking the bow in his hand, his eyes like an eagle as he looked down at his colleagues searching each room.

The marksman's ears suddenly moved, as if he heard a faint cough.

He lifted his back off the wall and stood up straight. He reached into his quiver with his right hand and silently pulled out a whistling arrow.

The next moment, Li Xuan led the refugees out of the alley and tried to cross Baosi Street.

The Tiance Army's sharpshooter bent his bow and drew his arrow like thunder. With a bang, the thick and flexible bowstring broke out with a terrifying sound. The whistling arrow made a sharp sound and flew straight behind Li Xuan, trying to kill Li Xuan and the little girl behind him with one arrow.

Suddenly, an iron arrow shot out from the darkness and shattered the whistling arrow that had just left the bow in mid-air, and the whistling sound stopped abruptly!

The Tian Ce Army's sharpshooter was startled and suddenly pulled out another whistling arrow from his quiver. Without even looking at it, he subconsciously bent the bow and shot the arrow towards the direction where the arrow came from!
late.

He had just let go of the bowstring when an iron arrow came in front of him. The iron arrow met the whistling arrow and smashed it, then pierced his throat and nailed it to the wall behind him.

The arrow's tail feathers were covered in blood and kept shaking.

Li Xuan turned his head and looked towards the balcony, just in time to see Chen Ji lightly climbing over the handrail and pulling away the quiver from the archer.

Chen Ji pointed silently to the north from the balcony.

Li Xuan immediately understood what he meant and fled to the north with the little girl on his back.

At the same time, the nearby Tian Ce Army stopped their horses after hearing two whistling arrows, ready to follow new instructions. However, the sound of the whistling arrows was too short this time, and for a moment they didn't know what had happened or where they were shot.

The Tian Ce Army's cavalry looked at each other in bewilderment. Before they could say anything, a whistling arrow flew from west to east, and they then spurred their horses to chase after it.

Arriving at the place where the arrow fell, a Tian Ce Army cavalryman frowned at the arrow nailed to the wall, and then looked around the empty street: "Why did the sharpshooter guide us here? There is nothing here."

A soldier wearing a black pheasant-tail helmet said coldly: "Someone killed the sharpshooter and took his bow! Go back!"

After saying this, he tightened the reins, turned the horse's head, held the lance upside down, and rushed towards the place where the whistling arrows first sounded.

Li Xuan hadn't run far when he heard the sound of iron hooves, which was getting closer and closer, and more and more urgent!
It's bad, the Tiance Army reacted too quickly and had seen through Chen Ji's tricks. Once the Tiance Army's cavalry arrived, these refugees around them would surely die!
He suddenly turned around to look at Chen Ji on the balcony, only to see that the other party was also extremely solemn.

Chen Ji hesitated for a long time, and finally pulled out a whistling arrow from his quiver and shot it into the sky!

Li Xuan was suddenly stunned, and then watched Chen Ji jump off the platform and run in the opposite direction of him on the roof. Immediately afterwards, another whistling arrow shot into the sky, guiding the direction of the Tian Ce Army.

He listened to Chen Ji using his whistling arrows to lead the Tian Ce Army further and further away, and he felt mixed emotions.

……

……

Breathe. Even breathing is the key to a balanced body.

When Chen Ji heard the Tian Ce Army's cavalry getting closer behind him, he pulled out an arrow from the quiver at his waist, pulled the bowstring to its full extent, and shot an arrow behind him without stopping or looking back.

The bowstring vibrated, and the whistling arrow pierced through the Tian Ce army soldier with a sharp sound, knocking him off his horse.

Chen Ji drew out another arrow and shot, and another Tian Ce army soldier fell off his horse, and his armor made a rumbling sound when it hit the ground.

One arrow, one life, but the cavalry chasing and intercepting him not only did not decrease, but increased instead.

Just as Chen Ji was about to shoot another arrow, an arrow shot out from a dark place and attacked him at the moment he was distracted.

In another darkness, another sharpshooter shot arrows from dozens of steps away. One, two, three, three iron-framed arrows in a row blocked Chen Ji's way.

The sharpshooters hiding in the dark watched quietly as the arrow got closer and closer to Chen Ji, but Chen Ji still had no intention of avoiding the arrow.

Just when they thought Chen Ji was dead, they saw the arrows approaching Chen Ji suddenly exploded into wood chips all over the sky and were smashed into pieces by an invisible weapon.

The two sharpshooters narrowed their eyes slightly, and neither of them could see clearly what was happening.

Chen Ji looked coldly in the direction of one of the men, then drew his arrow and shot back. The sharpshooter hiding in the dark had a pale face when he saw him pull the bowstring to its full extent, and dodged to the side.

With a sound of "click", the sharpshooter fell in mid-air. With lingering fear, he looked back at where he had just been. There was an iron arrow trembling continuously.

If I had been a little slower, I would have been nailed to the wall.

laugh!
An iron arrow pierced him with overwhelming force, and slammed him against the wall. Two arrows, it only took two arrows to kill a sharpshooter.

Another sharpshooter was shocked when he saw his colleague's death. He quietly retreated into the darkness and casually shot three whistling arrows in the direction where Chen Ji was fleeing.

This is not someone they can kill, they need to call more people!
As Chen Ji fled, he felt that the Tiance Army nearby was surrounding him from all directions, like a pot of porridge gradually turning into porridge, becoming thicker and thicker. Fortunately, the black sword could break the cold arrows under the cover of night, otherwise he would have been shot into a sieve.

The fire in Guyuan City has spread here. Thick smoke is rolling out from the houses. The long "fire line" is like a twisted red rope, dividing the huge Guyuan City into two.

Chen Ji ran towards the fire while wondering where to escape next.

The pocket of the Tiance Army's cavalry was getting tighter and tighter. Chen Ji fled while shooting and killing the Tiance Army that surrounded him. Suddenly, a team of Tiance Army turned out from the front, as if they had been waiting here for a long time, waiting for him to fall into the trap.

Chen Ji reached out to touch the quiver, but found nothing. He looked down subconsciously and found that all the arrows had been shot out.

He looked up again and saw several Tian Ce Army cavalrymen coming towards him. There was no way to avoid them.

Thirty steps.

Twenty steps.

Ten steps.

Chen Ji dropped the bow in his hand and pulled out the whale knife tied to his back!

At this moment, a figure flashed out from a side alley, and a few sword flowers flashed by, instantly disrupting the Tiance Army formation.

Li Xuan shouted: "Go!"

Chen Ji said in a deep voice: "Why are you here?"

Li Xuan hurriedly explained: "Just now, a group of armored infantry rushed out from somewhere in the city and were fighting with the Tiance Army. I have already sent the people to a safe place."

Chen Ji looked behind him, and saw the surging cavalry of the Tian Ce Army; he looked in front of him, and saw the surging cavalry in front of him as well.

Only on the left side was a raging fire.

Chen Ji gritted his teeth, covered his mouth and nose, and pulled Li Xuan into the billowing smoke in the south.

The next moment, the iron cavalry of the Tian Ce Army, which attacked from the east, west and north, gathered together like a black tide, but they came up empty-handed!
For a moment, the streets were filled with the sound of horse hooves, and the Tian Ce soldiers tightened their reins to prevent their horses from colliding with their colleagues.

A sharpshooter climbed up to the roof of a tavern and silently looked at the billowing smoke. The fire and smoke zone was more than 20 steps wide, like an abyss, running across Guyuan City.

Did he die in the fire?
Just when he thought that Chen Ji and Li Xuan had been burned to death, he saw two figures leaping out from the thick smoke, coughing and fleeing southward!

The archer's heart sank, he pulled out a whistling arrow and shot it to the south.

A Tian Ce Army soldier wearing a black feather frowned. He thought about how the other party had led hundreds of his men around in such a big circle, and shouted angrily, "Chase!"

After saying this, he covered the warhorse's eyes with a black cloth, squeezed the horse's belly with his legs, and drove the warhorse to leap up and step into the sea of ​​fire.

(End of this chapter)