Tiger Owl

Chapter 14 Night Raid on the Armory
As night fell, the military camp by the river outside the city was very quiet. Just a few dozen steps away from the camp was a large, pointed-roofed building made of blue bricks. This was the small naval armory of Yuzhang County, but it had already been taken over by Sun Ce's army.

Five soldiers stood guard at the gate, and another five soldiers were sleeping next to the armory gate.

Around midnight, Gan Ning, along with Wang Ping and a squad of soldiers, marched toward them.

They were spotted by the guards a dozen steps from the warehouse gate, and the squad leader shouted, "Password!"

"A rare and precious treasure!"

With the password confirmed, the guards breathed a sigh of relief. Gan Ning led his men forward and asked with displeasure, "I am here to check the post on Lord Lü's orders. Why are there only a few of you? Where are the others?"

The sergeant, feeling guilty, pointed to the passageway inside the gate and explained to Gan Ning, "Our two squads of soldiers take turns on guard duty, and they will come to relieve us around midnight!"

Gan Ning turned to Wang Ping and said, "Go and take a look!"

Wang Ping understood and immediately led a group of soldiers into the gate passage.

At this moment, a gleaming dagger appeared in Gan Ning's hand. He swept it like a whirlwind, instantly severing the throats of three soldiers. The three soldiers clutched their throats and fell to the ground in pain, unable to scream.

The other two soldiers were shocked and turned to run, but Gan Ning pounced on them like a tiger, grabbed their heads and slammed them hard, shattering their skulls and causing them to collapse.

At that moment, Wang Ping and his men ran out of the passage, shouting, "They're all dead!"

Gan Ning pointed at the five corpses and ordered, "Drag them in!"

Wang Ping and his men dragged the body inside, while the other five soldiers changed into the enemy's armor and continued to stand guard.

Gan Ning quickly searched for an emergency door and soon found a small alleyway where, sure enough, there was a small door at the end.

At this moment, Wang Ping arrived with several of his men.

Gan Ning inserted an iron crowbar into the wooden door, stepped on the wall with his foot, and with all his might, pried it open with a "crack!" The wooden door was forcefully pried open.

"Go and tell the brothers to come over!"

Wang Ping turned and ran outside, while his three hundred men lay in ambush a hundred paces away, waiting for news from Gan Ning.

Gan Ning entered the warehouse, which was pitch black. Moonlight shone in through the ventilation openings above, bringing in a little bit of light. Before long, Gan Ning's eyes adjusted to the warehouse.

The warehouse was about 500 square meters in size and was filled with all kinds of weapons. Spears and straight swords were wrapped in straw bags, bows and arrows were packed in wooden boxes, and bundles of leather armor were piled up like small mountains. Shields were neatly stacked together.

Gan Ning quickly estimated that there were about two thousand sets of armor and weapons, which was exactly what Hua Xin had said.

At this moment, Wang Ping and Ding Feng led three hundred soldiers into the warehouse.

"Everyone, move quickly and retreat back to the ambush site!"

The warehouse was about half a mile from the river, but they couldn't go directly to the riverbank, as they would be spotted by patrolling soldiers. They had to be taken from the side to a grove of trees where they had been lying in ambush, and then from the grove to the riverbank.

The soldiers worked together, shouldering spears and swords, carrying bows and arrows, and bundles of leather armor, rushing out of the warehouse like ants carrying food.

Gan Ning looked around the warehouse and suddenly noticed a pile of items in the corner, covered with tarpaulin and left alone. Gan Ning walked over and lifted the tarpaulin, and found that the items inside were also tightly wrapped in tarpaulin, like armor.

Gan Ning's heart skipped a beat. He picked up each item and found them to be very heavy, weighing at least thirty pounds.

Gan Ning was overjoyed; it was indeed iron armor, two hundred sets in total.

Iron armor was the second most valuable item in all military supplies after warhorses, with each suit worth several hundred strings of cash. The key point was that it was not allowed to be made by civilians.

Gan Ning turned around and saw Ding Feng returning with his men. He quickly said, "Move this first!"

Ding Feng stepped forward, picked up a suit of armor, and exclaimed in surprise, "It's actually armor!"

"Move out now!"

The soldiers each carried two suits of armor and ran out.

Half an hour later, the three hundred soldiers had emptied the armory completely. Before leaving, Gan Ning 'accidentally' left behind a military tag, which belonged to Liu Yao's army.

Currently, both Zhang Ying's and Zuo Rong's armies have these kinds of military license plates.

.........

Forty warships were moored at the military dock on the river, each with two soldiers on duty. Suddenly, countless black-clad water ghosts emerged from the water, each with a knife in its mouth.

Gan Ning was not without reason to be called a water pirate. He did do a lot of such things when he was young. His men were all proficient in swimming and experienced. With a light leap, they would board the boat. Five men were responsible for each boat. Some were responsible for killing, some for keeping watch, and some for cutting the iron chains. Their cooperation was very tacit.

The soldier on duty was silently killed in his sleep, and his body was thrown into the river, followed by a series of clanging sounds.

This was the most dangerous moment for the boat theft. Sure enough, the soldiers cutting the chains alerted the patrolling soldiers on the shore.

A dozen patrolling soldiers rushed up to investigate and saw countless dark figures crouching at the bow of the boat, hacking at the iron chains, and soldiers' corpses being washed ashore by the river.

The patrolling soldiers were alarmed and quickly retreated, shouting, "River pirates! River pirates!"

The alarm bells rang on the watchtower, "Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!"

Gan Ning panicked, drew his twin halberds and slashed at the iron chains. "Crack!" The chains were severed. He leaped onto another ship and swung his halberd to cut the chains in half again.

"Come on!"

He cut the chains of more than a dozen ships in succession. At this moment, a large group of soldiers rushed out of the camp and began to fire arrows. The arrows rained down like lightning. Gan Ning swung his halberd to deflect the arrows, and with a flick of his left hand, "Crack!" the chains of the last ship were cut.

"Shoot that ship!" General Han Dang shouted, pointing at Gan Ning's ships.

Three hundred soldiers fired arrows at once, and a dense barrage of arrows rained down on Gan Ning.

Seeing the situation was dire, Gan Ning rolled into the cabin, and dozens of arrows instantly filled the deck. Several of his men rowed desperately away from the dock, and hundreds of Jiangdong soldiers rushed to the riverbank with spears in hand and shouts, but it was too late. They watched helplessly as the last warship sailed into the river under the cover of night and fog.

.........

As dawn broke, Lü Fan arrived at the armory with a grim expression. The surroundings were empty; two thousand sets of armor and two hundred suits of iron armor had vanished without a trace, along with forty warships.

"Strategist, this is the military license plate we found at the scene!"

A soldier presented a bronze plaque to Lü Fan, who looked it over and gave a cold snort.

"Does the strategist think this is a frame-up?" Han Dang asked from the side.

Lü Fan shook his head, "This was not done by Zuo Rong and Zhang Ying!"

“How come you see?”

Lu Fan said calmly, "I saw the scene. Someone slit the throats of three soldiers in an instant and smashed the heads of two others, preventing the five soldiers from uttering a single scream. Can General Han do something like that?"

Han Dang thought for a moment and said, "I can kill five soldiers, but I really can't keep them from making a sound."

"If General Han can't do it, how can Zhang Ying and Zuo Rong?"

Han Dang nodded. "The strategist is right. I saw this person leaping between ships with a halberd, wielding it with ease. Every strike that cut through the chains hit the joints perfectly. The strength and precision of his blows are beyond the capabilities of Zhang Ying and Ze Rong. Who could this person be?"

Lu Fan sneered and said, "Finding this person is actually quite simple. Just look at who got hold of those forty warships."

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(End of this chapter)