The prince is more stable

Chapter 481: Literary Master Kills the Enemy
When the reinforcements arrived, half of Zhang Rong's 500 soldiers had been killed.

If Zhe Keshi had arrived a step later, Zhang Rong and his generals would have all died here.

The corpses lying on the ground, the broken limbs everywhere, and the blood that gathered like a river all tell of the tragedy and cruelty of this encounter.

A banner embroidered with the word "Zhang" was covered with arrow holes and stained with blood, and it was stuck weakly in the mud beside the mountain path.

Zhang Rong and Zhe Keshi had no time to clean up the battlefield. They looked anxious and ordered everyone to search for Su Shi's whereabouts.

Su Shi was their mission, and there could be no mistakes. If Su Shi also died in this battle, no matter how many Liao soldiers Zhang Rong and Zhe Keshi killed, their mission would be declared a failure.

Zhe Keshi brought 5,000 soldiers and horses, all equipped with firearms. At Zhe Keshi's command, the soldiers quickly dispersed along the mountain road in camps and went into the dense forest next to it, searching while shouting Su Shi's name.

Zhang Rong sat exhausted on the side of the road, not bothering to clean up the blood all over his body, with a look of anxiety on his face.

"This is the last time I shuddered. Could something have happened?" Zhang Rong looked a little panicked.

He was not afraid of the enemy with thousands of troops, but at this time he was extremely worried about Su Shi's life and death. Not to mention Su Shi's status and position in the Song Dynasty, just talking about the personal relationship between His Royal Highness the Prince and Su Shi, if he had not protected Su Shi, how could Zhang Rong have the face to go back to see His Royal Highness the Prince?

Zhe Keshi squatted beside him and handed him a leather bag.

The leather bag was filled with rice wine. Drinking was not allowed in the army, but Zhe Keshi was a man from the northwest and could not live without wine. Whether he was marching or fighting, he would secretly carry some with him.

Zhang Rong took the leather bag, tilted his head back and took a big gulp. As the wine entered his chest, a refreshing warm current spread through his internal organs, making him feel extremely comfortable.

As the rice wine entered his stomach, Zhang Rong's uneasy mood gradually calmed down.

"Let the brothers continue searching. If he's alive, we must see him. If he's dead, we must see his body. If he's really gone..." Zhang Rong sighed with a complicated expression and said, "If he's really gone, Old Zhe, you must bring my head back to His Highness. I can't face him alive."

"What nonsense are you talking about! I came all this way to save you, and I only brought back two dead men, you and Scholar Su? Do you think I have the nerve to see His Highness? You are both damn well alive. If Scholar Su unfortunately dies in the chaos of the army, it can only be blamed on his bad luck. You and your brothers have done your best."

The two looked around with heavy hearts.

On the mountain road, the Song army soldiers turned over the corpses one by one and carefully identified their faces. More of them went into the dense forest and searched inch by inch for Su Shi's whereabouts. The scope of the carpet search gradually expanded, and the sound of shouting Su Shi's name echoed throughout the valley.

…………

Su Shi is not dead.

He was running desperately in the dense forest. He didn't care about the direction ahead, whether there was an ambush by the Liao army, or whether there were wild beasts in the deep mountains.

He held the long sword tightly in his hand, and all he could hear was the whistling wind. Under his feet was the soft, muddy ground and weeds. His arms and thighs were cut countless times by the thorns in the dense forest, but he was still running desperately.

Running is not to escape, but to seek revenge.

When the two young soldiers, whom he had never met before, pushed him into the dense forest and then joined the battlefield without hesitation, and were killed by the Liao army in a moment, Su Shi was furious and for the first time in his life felt endless and violent murderous intent towards the Liao people.

He originally planned to join the battle, but the situation on the battlefield suddenly changed. Zhe Keshi's reinforcements arrived and quickly ended the battle.

Countless Liao soldiers were killed on the spot by the soldiers of the Longwei Camp, but some Liao soldiers fled in panic and went into the dense forest.

At the same time, Su Shi also went into the dense forest.

Su Shi himself had no idea why he went into the dense forest, what his purpose was, or which direction he was heading. It was a completely subconscious action.

He is already in his sixties and always wants to do something.

Whether it was for the Song Dynasty, for the two young soldiers who died in battle, or for his own lifelong ideals as a scholar who had been frustrated by his own failures...

In short, Su Shi wanted to do something.

Throughout their lives, scholars have always longed for the battlefield to defend their country and expand territory. Their poems and essays all express their desire and praise for making achievements on the battlefield.

The same is true of Su Shi.

He longed for "the masts and oars to be reduced to ashes in the midst of laughter and conversation."

He longed for "holding Huang on his left, Qing on his right, wearing brocade hats and sable coats, and riding a thousand horses across the plain."

For half his life, his desires and ideals could only be expressed in poems and essays, but today, when the enemy appeared before his eyes, he had a long sword in his hand.

So Su Shi went into the dense forest and ran through the thorns. He held his breath and ran hard towards the fleeing Liao army soldiers.

From then on, his life was no longer lived in poetry and prose, and he was no longer dreaming the beautiful dreams imagined by literati.

He wants to use the three-foot-long sword in his hand to live out a different life.

At the age of sixty, he was no longer young. After running for a while, Su Shi was sweating profusely and panting.

Sweat streamed into his eyes, blurring his vision. Su Shi strained to keep his eyes open and stare forward. Deep in the thicket, a group of figures in leather armor fled in panic. Several seemed lost, spinning around like headless flies, looking up to barely identify their position before, for some inexplicable reason, running towards Su Shi.

Su Shi took a deep breath, squatted quietly in the bushes, held his breath, and stared quietly at the panicked figures, holding the long sword in his hand tighter and tighter.

After a while, the fleeing Liao soldiers were getting closer and closer, and Su Shi's expression became more and more nervous. He was still lying in the bushes, leaving no trace.

When several Liao soldiers approached, the distance was very close. Su Shi stared at the neck of a Liao soldier and silently calculated the location and order of attack.

In the quiet bushes, Su Shi suddenly jumped up, shouted loudly, and a white sword light flashed. A Liao soldier was caught off guard and his neck was cut open. The sword blade left a bloody mark on his neck.

Then the bloodstain grew bigger and bigger, and blood gushed out. The Liao soldier's eyes widened in horror, and he wanted to fight back, but he found that he had lost all his strength. Finally, he collapsed to the ground powerlessly, twitching all over until he was silent.

The other three Liao soldiers were also stunned by this sudden change and did not react for a long time.

The long sword in Su Shi's hand did not stop. After wiping across the neck of a Liao soldier, the sword light immediately pointed to the abdomen of another person and hit him with one sword. The sword blade pierced through the heart of the Liao soldier very accurately. When he wanted to retract it, he found that the sword blade was stuck in the ribs on the chest of the Liao soldier.

A trace of panic flashed in Su Shi's eyes. He pulled hard again, but still couldn't pull it out. He simply gritted his teeth and kicked him hard in the chest. The sword was finally pulled out. The Liao soldier who was stabbed by the sword fell to the ground and died.

The remaining two Liao soldiers finally reacted, became furious, and chopped Su Shi's head with their swords.

Su Shi no longer had the demeanor of a swordsman. Seeing the knife coming towards him, he didn't know how to dodge, so he subconsciously squatted down and rolled out quickly.

Before he could stand up, the sword lights of the Liao army came like a shadow, and Su Shi had to roll over again. This time he looked extremely embarrassed.

How could an old man in his sixties, a weak scholar with no battlefield experience, fight against the strong and young Liao army?

Su Shi saved the lives of two Liao soldiers through a sneak attack, which was a great advantage. Now that the remaining two Liao soldiers had reacted, Su Shi would be in trouble.

While dodging and rolling around in a panic, he subconsciously swung his sword randomly with no pattern in his moves, but Su Shi's mind was clear at this moment.

He might die here today, but he felt very happy.

To die in the battlefield and return home wrapped in his horse's hide is what a real man should be like.

When the last flash of the knife swept towards his neck like a ghost, Su Shi finally gave up resisting.

He had tried his best, but he was powerless.

When the knife was only a few inches away from his neck, he suddenly heard a gunshot. The Liao soldier in front of him opened his eyes wide, then fell to the ground with a scream. Then another gunshot was heard, and the last Liao soldier was killed.

A group of Song soldiers surrounded him. The young general looked Su Shi over and asked politely, "Are you Scholar Su?"

Su Shi looked confused and nodded subconsciously.

The general happily put away his flintlock rifle and saluted Su Shi. "I'm honored to meet you, Scholar Su. I've finally found you. General Zhe and General Zhang are extremely anxious. The entire army is searching for you. Come back with me!"

Su Shi was in a very confused mental state at the moment. His hands and feet were so weak that he didn't even have the strength to stand up. He didn't know when the long sword had slipped out of his hand. His legs were shaking like he had the hiccups and his face was frighteningly pale.

The young general glanced casually and found four bodies of Liao soldiers at the scene. Two of them were killed by firearms, and the other two...

"Were these two killed by Master Su?" the general asked in surprise, pointing at the corpses.

Su Shi finally came to his senses, glanced at the corpse, and nodded calmly: "Yes, although I am old, I still have the strength to swallow tigers and drive away wolves. Today, I will cut off two enemy heads in the battle..."

Before he could finish his words, for some reason he felt a surge of nausea in his chest. The nausea was like waves that kept churning in his chest and abdomen, like waves crashing against the shore, one after another.

Su Shi originally tried to hold it back. This was the only highlight in his life and also the most pretentious moment. He really couldn't afford to embarrass himself.

But the feeling of nausea came in waves, almost bursting out.

Su Shi endured for a long time, but finally couldn't bear it anymore. His face turned blue, he turned around and bent over, and vomited continuously with a "wow" sound.

The generals and the soldiers of the Song army immediately showed strange expressions. The general stepped forward to help pat Su Shi's back with a look of pity on his face.

"Master Su is indeed a man among men, he speaks so clearly..."

"vomit--!"

The general continued to pat his back and sighed with a smile, "You are a civil servant, a man of noble character. Why do you want to steal our jobs? It's so much easier to play with a pen. Why play with a sword?"

Hearing General An dare to belittle his fighting ability in such a way, Su Shi immediately became dissatisfied and stood up in the middle of spitting and glared at him.

"...I killed two enemies in my formation! Ugh—"

"I know, I know. You are really awesome..." The general patted him on the back and praised him.

(End of this chapter)