Ming Dynasty: Summoning game players at the beginning

Chapter 106: Spit Out Everything You Ate
After collecting grain, the "official appointment team" set off to return. All the carriages that originally transported silver were replaced with grain, and they took the opportunity to steal a lot of carriages from the post station in Shangcheng Gushi.

Thanks to the escort of Li Mu's troops, the grain transport officials did not encounter any robbers before leaving Gushi.

They could have reached Runing quickly by walking in a straight line, but the "occupied area" cut the direct official road in half, so they could only take a detour to the north and then west to enter Runing.

As the team took a detour and entered the territory of Southern Zhili, more and more refugees and starving people fled eastward. Some officials felt it was unlucky, some felt pity, and some felt uneasy.

When the team found an open space to sit down and rest, the refugees with their families stopped fleeing the famine and stared blankly at the team of officials and the bulging straw bags on the carriage.

More and more disaster victims gathered hundreds of steps away. Although they did not dare to approach the grain transport team, they did not want to leave.

The victims looked over eagerly, and the mournful pleas, the howling, the low roars of those who were unable to defecate due to eating firewood, the chaotic and noisy sounds seemed to freeze the air around them.

The officials were scared.

They ordered the guards to drive away the refugees.

The guards approached with knives and yelled at the refugees to get out, and even made threatening gestures of hacking at them at close range. Thousands of refugees immediately ran away.

Although the threat was very effective, the refugees only ran away a hundred steps or so and then stood there, staring over eagerly. Their eyes showed numbness, cowardice, and a deep desire for food.

The governor's staff, who were leading the team, felt that these sights were frightening and said, "We should not stay here for long. Let's continue on our way."

The governor's staff were helped into the carriage by the guards.

The carriage was closed on all sides, isolating him from the scorching gazes of the victims, and he felt much better.

The grain transport team suddenly stopped after walking several miles. The staff fell forward, rolled several times and fell off the carriage, covered in mud.

He raised his muddy face and cursed angrily, "You bastard!"

But just as he was about to curse, he saw an arrow flying past him, as if the Ox-Head and Horse-Faced Demons were greeting him.

The person who was shot by the arrow was one of his guards. The arrow pierced his neck and blood rushed out of his neck.

"Ahhhh!" The staff member screamed in shock and crawled towards the carriage on all fours like a defeated dog with a broken spine.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

"Where did the bandits come from?"

Hundreds of bandits on horseback and mule-riding surrounded the grain transport team on all sides.

The leader of the platoon and the guards on both sides drew their swords, but were shot by the bandits who dismounted and fell to the ground.

So a group of veteran soldiers who had been through many battles pulled down their food bags as cover, or got into carriages and crowded with the civil officials.

A guard quickly hid under the carriage and shouted to the people shooting arrows in the woods, "We are the grain supervision team of the Henan Governor. We are blocking the road and robbing the official army's grain team. If you find out..."

With a puff, the arrow hit the face, and the sound that was just making stopped instantly.

"what!"

The governor's staff felt as if they had sunk into an ice cellar. It seemed that the attackers were not ordinary horse bandits, but were actually coming for the government army's food convoy.

Their whereabouts were kept secret. How could anyone know that a government army grain transport team would take this official road during this period of time?
Even if it was the refugees who informed the bandits, it wouldn't have come so quickly after all the communication, right?
Almost all of the hundreds of horse bandits carried bows and crossbows. Even if the staff hid in the carriage, they could still see arrows flying back and forth through the curtains.

Even though some guards used armor and other items as cover and rushed to the horse bandits, they were beaten back in three rounds by the bandits who quickly threw away their bows and drew their swords, and were then killed by crossbows shot from all sides.

The clanging sounds of arrows raining down from all directions gradually died down, and the staff finally gained a tiny sense of security.

He wondered if the bandits' show of force was over and whether it was time to discuss the ransom.

But the next moment, he heard a strange howling sound, "Waaaaagh!" followed by the sound of rapid charging footsteps.

The horse bandits are about to rush over for close combat!
The governor's staff looked through the gap in the curtain in front and saw a man wearing a horn helmet holding two short hammers, frantically beating a begging provincial governor, smashing his face into a pulp.

"Fighting is awesome!" The horse bandit roared to the sky, then swung the bloody hammer at the guard beside him.

The unfortunate man's blood splattered into the carriage and landed on the face of his staff.

"Ahhh!"

The feeling of blood falling on his face caused goose bumps all over his body, and the governor's staff screamed like a screaming chicken with its neck pinched.

He and several fellow officials tried to hide in the corner of the carriage as much as possible, but one of them was accidentally squeezed by a crossbow arrow that pierced the carriage. The sharp arrowhead pierced his back, causing him to scream in pain.

The staff member's back was sweating, his eyes were red, and he almost cried.

The cracking sound of the helmet being smashed, the sound of blood spurting as the blade entered the flesh, and the screams that suddenly stopped tormented him one after another.

The sounds of fighting outside the vehicle gradually died down, and the guards protecting the grain transport team seemed to have been killed.

Suddenly, a bandit with a bloodied face lifted the torn curtain, holding a meat-stained mace. He pressed against the crack in the door like a horror movie hero, a ferocious smile on his face.

"Hey, the officials are hiding in the carriage!"

The joking tone and the terrifying expressions formed an extreme contrast, pushing the officials' fear to a climax. They desperately let out a final scream, "Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" The governor's staff was terrified, gasping for breath, tears streaming down their eyes. "I'm the staff of the Henan Governor. Don't kill me! I can send any money you want, even if it's from my family!"

Other officials also begged for mercy, claiming that their families were wealthy and willing to pay the full ransom, and only asked that they not be killed.

Just as the tough guy was about to swing his club to kill someone, a voice came from behind him, "Spare his life, we need a few alive to do the job."

"Tsk, you guys are lucky, get out here!" The tough guy who failed to gain any merit in the battle spat out in dissatisfaction, then turned around and complained to his comrades, "I have a mace in my hand, not a knife."

The staff staggered out of the carriage, and all they saw was devastation. Many officials and guards had been killed.

Of the grain transport team of one or two hundred people, only twenty-one people were left alive, including him.

The staff and other survivors were forced by the bandits to kneel in a neat row. The faint sounds of the bandits searching corpses, tearing off clothes, and picking up silver and copper coins echoed in their ears.

"Hand over all the valuables on you! Hurry!" The bandits looked ferocious and questioned the surviving guards and officials one by one.

Before the captives paid, some players could no longer control their temper and started beating people. Fists fell like raindrops. The survivors did not even have the courage to struggle and resist. They could only hold their heads and beg the other party to stop hitting them.

"I'll give it to you! I'll give it all! Stop hitting me, stop hitting me."

The aide endured the pain and took out a banknote from Jiangnan Bank from his pocket, which was worth one thousand taels of silver. The other officials and guards also handed over their banknotes and money.

Part of it was gifts from the wealthy gentry of Shanggu, totaling more than five thousand taels of silver.

"Great! You guys just casually paid out thousands of taels of silver. It seems like being an official is really comfortable. You can just stretch out your hands and get more silver than other common people can earn in their entire lives."

"These are all gifts that the governor wants to receive. I am just in charge of them on his behalf." The aide grinned and smiled apologetically, but in the suppressed fear, his smile was uglier than crying.

He turned his head slightly and glanced around, and saw the bandits stripping off the clothes of the guarding official's body and then putting them on themselves.

A bandit held up a piece of clothing covered in blood, complaining, "I told you to be more careful when fighting. How can you wear your clothes if they're soiled?"

"There are still a bunch of people alive, right? Just strip them naked."

The staff was shocked when they heard this. What were these horse bandits planning to do by wearing the clothes of the guard officials?

Are they going to use disguise to trick their way out of Runing City?!
At this moment, the only people in this area who are still interested in the city where the government troops are gathering are definitely not the horse bandits.

It's a beggar thief!

Beggars have always hated officials and gentry, and will never spare their lives after using them up!

Several other officials had figured this out, and one of them immediately stood up and cried, "You damned beggar thief, you want us to earn money for you to open the city? You're just foolish..."

Before the official could finish his words, he was stabbed through the throat and fell backwards.

The aide had neither courage nor integrity, but he clearly felt that an official next to him was shaking his body and almost stood up.

After the first person who tried to take the risk died tragically, the officials around the staff became obedient again.

At this time, the staff suddenly had a doubt. Since the other party was confirmed to be beggars, why didn't they torture them to collect intelligence?

The garrison, reinforcements, and city defense layout in Runing City must be what the beggar thief wants, right?

But the beggar thief not only did not ask, but instead walked dozens of steps with the banknotes and money, and a group of people gathered together and whispered.

"Here are 5,457 taels of silver. Who can deliver it back to Shangcheng County as fast as they can?"

"I'm not going. If I go, I won't be able to catch up with the Ru Ning battle."

"I'm not going either. If the disguise operation succeeds in deceiving Runing, we'll be the first to enter the city."

"The main purpose of this attack is to rob the silver. Cheating the city is just a side dish. Even if it fails, it's okay."

The players argued endlessly, and no one wanted to miss the final battle due to accidents and special missions like in the previous times.

So the players decided to use a "duel" method to decide who would deliver silver and food.

The players who were raiding the grain transport team were divided into groups of more than ten people and formed a circle, shouting passionate duel slogans.

"Rock...Scissors...Paper!"

After several rounds of fierce "fighting", dozens of sighing losers were finally decided.

They accepted the loss and had to drive some of the carriages back to transport food and silver.

The remaining 300-odd players drove carriages and took the captives to Runing.

The camouflage team walked and stopped, adjusting their pace to match the speed of the main battle group.

On a clear winter day, the camouflage team arrived at the city of Runing.

A dozen players accompanied them on the surface, but in fact they threatened the staff and officials with swords and forced them to go forward and talk to the guards on the city wall.

(End of this chapter)