The Song Dynasty on the Sand Table

Chapter 290 Famous General Li Bao
The Jin soldiers dismounted and disappeared into the tall grass to search for the civilians hiding there.

Once he dismounts, Li Baoke will no longer be afraid of them.

"Hehehe!" A strange laugh came from Li Bao's lips: "The Jin soldiers will soon find out where the term 'jianghu' came from."

His men chuckled along with him.

For over a thousand years, the Central Plains regimes have been unable to deal with the bandit armies hiding in the Jianghu (江湖, the martial arts world), and there's a reason for that. The headstrong Jin soldiers lacked the experience and discipline that the Jianghu had instilled in them.

At this time, the Jin army had already split into several small teams and entered the bushes.

A group of about fifty people, led by a palanquin bearer.

Li Bao waved his hand: "Brothers, you know what I mean."

His rebel soldiers chuckled, nodded, exchanged glances, and crouched down, dispersing into the tall grass...

A group of Jin soldiers advanced while sweeping away the tall grass with their swords.

The ground by the lake was very slippery, and occasionally you would sink into the mud. If you stepped in, the mud would sink up to your instep, and you would have to pull your foot out with force. The Jin soldiers found this quite amusing and laughed heartily.

As they walked, the Jin soldier at the back of the column suddenly felt something hook his foot, his body swayed and he fell down. Just as he was about to cry out "Ouch!", a hand suddenly reached out and covered his mouth, and then a knife slashed down on his neck.

The Jin soldiers in front sensed something moving behind them. They turned around and saw only a patch of tall grass. Their comrades who had been following behind them were gone.

"Huh? Did we lose one?"

The Jin soldier in front was unaware of a terrible thing: he was now the last one left.

Half a minute later, the Jin soldier suffered the same fate. He was hooked down, his throat was slit, and his body was quickly dragged into the bushes.

As the carriage walked along, it began to feel that something was amiss.

Looking back, he realized that of his fifty soldiers, only thirty-odd remained: "Huh? Where's the other half?"

One of his subordinates laughed and said, "I don't know. Maybe they got lost. They should be able to reunite with them once they crawl out of the bushes and return to the village."

Pu Nian didn't think much of it, nodded, and turned to continue forward.

But to his surprise, as soon as he turned his head, he saw a huge face, no... a human head, growing larger at a rapid pace, meaning it was flying towards his face.
Pu Nian suddenly turned his head to dodge.

The severed head flew past his head, splattering blood all over his face.

He dodged quickly, but his men were slower. A head slammed into a Jin soldier with a loud thud. The soldier winced in pain, cursing under his breath, but when he saw what had hit him, he screamed, "It's Chagatai who was following me... Ahhh... It's Chagatai's head... Ugh..."

The last sound was a painful groan from the arrow in his throat.

Several arrows flew out from the tall grass on both sides.

These aren't powerful bows or crossbows; they're just ordinary hunting bows. These bows are practically useless on the battlefield—they have a short range and weak penetration. However, when used under the cover of tall grass at extremely close range, their power is considerable.

Several Jin soldiers fell instantly.

Someone shouted: "Enemy attack!"

The sound carried far... calling for help from the other teams nearby...

But no sooner had he shouted than several spears emerged from the tall grass on both sides, stabbing wildly at the Jin soldiers.

Pu Nian was furious. He drew his sword and, with a clang, deflected several spears. He was struck in the waist by a spear, but his armor was the best in the entire team, and the spear did not penetrate it. He was unharmed and not afraid at all. He reached out, grabbed the spear, and pulled it forcefully, dragging a rebel soldier out of the haystack.

Pu Nian was furious and swung his sword at the man, saying, "Hiding in the bushes to launch a sneak attack, you cowardly bastards only know some underhanded tricks."

"Clang!" A knife appeared from the side, blocking his long sword.

The man with the knife sneered, "Who are you calling a coward? Watch how I kill you. Remember my name, Li Bao."

Pu Nian swung his sword, but immediately realized that the man in front of him was clearly a cut above the average Han Chinese. He easily dodged Pu Nian's sword and even swung his sword back.

Pu Nian was startled and focused his attention to deal with the situation.

The two exchanged blows five times. Li Bao feigned an opening, tricking Pu Nian into launching a preemptive attack, but the attack missed its mark. Li Bao seized the opportunity and chopped Pu Nian in the neck.

Pu Nian's head flew up and spun in mid-air. Taking advantage of the last bit of blood flow to his brain, he quickly scanned the surrounding situation and discovered that his entire squad of men had also been knocked to the ground by spears that had emerged from the tall grass.

At that moment, everything went black before his eyes, and he knew nothing more.

The screams from the tall grass quickly alerted other Jin soldiers...

Several other groups of Jin soldiers rushed towards this side like lightning.

As a group of Jin soldiers were running, the first few of them suddenly lost their footing and fell into the water with a splash. It turned out that there was a bay in the middle of the tall grass, and a large number of phytoplankton were floating on the water, making the surface look like the ground. As soon as you stepped on it, you fell into the water.

The soldiers behind them scrambled to rescue their comrades...

Unexpectedly, several hoes emerged from the nearby bushes, hooked their feet, and pulled them in with a splash... those who hadn't yet fallen into the water were also pulled in...

Then the heads of several rebel soldiers popped up from the water, chuckled, and then disappeared back down.

Those Jin soldiers who fell into the water never rose again.

The surviving Jin soldiers were terrified and screamed in terror.

Now they finally understood why Jin Wuzhu had been so thoroughly defeated by Han Shizhong at Huangtiandang... When they heard about Jin Wuzhu's defeat, they had even mocked him behind his back, and thought to themselves, "So Jin Wuzhu is that weak, I could do better."

Only now did they realize that fighting in the martial arts world was completely different from fighting with cavalry.

The remaining pulian shouted, "Retreat! Get out of the tall grass! Everyone, get out!"

"Well!"

"what!"

As the Jin soldiers withdrew from the bushes, they continued to hand over heads.

With great difficulty, the remaining people escaped from the tall grass, and upon counting, there were less than two hundred people left.

In just that short time, they lost half of their men in the bushes.

"Damn it!" The last Jin soldier, Pu Lian, roared angrily, "Come out, you damned cowards, come out of the bushes if you dare!"

"Hahahaha, Golden Dog." Li Bao poked his head out from the tall grass: "Come in if you dare, come in then."

"You come out!"

"You come in!"

"Coward!"

"Golden Dog!"

The two sides started hurling insults at each other from a distance, but neither dared to go in nor dared to go out.

(End of this chapter)