The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

From the very beginning, Li Chengye had no intention of defending this military city to the death.

The city walls were dilapidated and had not yet been repaired. The people in the city regarded them as bandits. The city was unstable both inside and outside, and it was impossible to defend it.

So he told Master Qin and Yang Chongwang to be prepared from the beginning, thinking that if things didn't go well, they could escape as soon as possible.

Although he had this idea for a while, Li Chengye still did not expect Wang Er to be defeated so badly.

The entire army of tens of thousands was scattered, and everyone scrambled to escape.

In fact, the number of government cavalry was not large, probably less than five hundred in total, yet they managed to defeat an army of over ten thousand with such a small force.

Li Chengye ordered the south gate to be opened, letting the bandits who had fled to the city gate in. He wasn't doing this out of kindness; he just wanted to use it to fend off a possible attack by the government troops.

When he arrived at the North Gate, Master Qin was still loading the cart. Seeing this, Li Chengye couldn't help but want to slap himself.

When Wang Er stormed the government army's camp, he had Shi Tou order the carts to be unloaded. However, when the government army attacked, Qin Ye had to re-hitch the carts, which caused the delay until now.

"Stop pretending!" he said directly to Master Qin and the others. "The government troops are coming soon. Get the carts that are already harnessed and move on. Let the animals carry everything else. Stop the hassle and hurry west towards Huanglong Mountain!"

As soon as Li Chengye said this, the previously somewhat chaotic crowd erupted into a cacophony of cries and urging, but there was nothing they could do now.

With a creak, the city gate opened, and a stream of people surged out.

More than ten miles west of Yijun City, the ravines connect to the towering Huanglong Mountain range. Li Chengye sighed and said: After all the twists and turns, I still have to go into Huanglong Mountain.

The group, supporting the elderly and carrying the young, left the city. They had only gone about two miles when someone at the back of the group exclaimed in surprise:

"Cavalry—on the eastern plateau!"

Li Chengye looked back and saw a group of government cavalry, more than thirty riders, who had already charged into the rear of the column.

The once somewhat orderly ranks collapsed in an instant, just like Wang Er's army before.

The situation was the same, the only difference being that Li Chengye's troops numbered only a little over a thousand, while the government troops numbered only thirty-odd cavalry.

Li Chengye charged towards the government cavalry, shouting at Yang Chongwang and the others, "Don't panic! Form ranks!"

The newly recruited soldiers, who had only donned their armor a few days earlier, were initially panicked by the government cavalry's surprise attack, but now, seeing Li Chengye heading straight for the government cavalry, they seemed to have found their backbone.

Following the training of the past two days and under Yang Chongwang's command, they all lined up in formation, and the archers took out their bows and arrows. However, seeing the government cavalry wreaking havoc in the middle of the ranks, they hesitated for a moment.

Li Chengye realized that they were worried that if they fired now, they might accidentally hit other members of the team.

But this was no time to hesitate. Li Chengye shouted, "Fire arrows, or we'll all be killed by the government troops!"

Upon hearing this, the archers no longer hesitated, drew their bows, and fired more than twenty arrows. Only one or two of the cavalrymen were hit, while the rest fell on the rest of the troops.

But Li Chengye still ordered them to fire their arrows.

Several volleys of arrows brought the cavalry back to their senses.

Lu Bingzhong looked at the enemy soldiers who had already lined up in ranks, and the forty or fifty men in the front row were even fully armored, something he had never seen before in Wang Er's army.

Who exactly are this band of bandits?

But he had no time to think about it, as the bandit army was about to press forward.

He decided to retreat temporarily, as he had fewer men and it wasn't worth fighting the enemy to the death.

Lu Bingzhong blew the bone whistle hanging around his neck, and his subordinates understood immediately and followed him in retreat.

After repelling the cavalry, Li Chengye felt no relief whatsoever.

He looked around and saw that the sudden attack by the government troops had completely scattered the troops.

Master Qin and Old Man Wang were protecting dozens of women and children huddled under a embankment, their faces ashen. Cheng'en and Shi Tou were shouting as they tried to gather the scattered livestock, their voices trembling with sobs. Further away, countless figures disappeared into the ravines and hills, their cries carried away by the wind, clearly indicating that they could never regroup.

"Brother! There's another plume of dust to the southeast!" Cheng'en said to him, his voice trembling.

Li Chengye looked southeast and indeed saw a large plume of dust, which seemed to indicate that the government cavalry pursuing Wang Er had returned.

For now, we can only continue to retreat.

The team was quickly reorganized.

Li Chengye then led his men to continue retreating into the mountains.

He traveled quickly, and if there were women walking slowly, he would help them up and put them on the cart. When the cart could no longer pass when they were about to enter the mountains, he would carry them on his back.

With his personal example, the others in the team helped each other, and they finally made it into the mountains.

Entering the mountain pass wasn't enough; they walked another two or three miles, and seeing that the government troops couldn't catch up immediately, they finally let everyone sit down to rest.

At this point, Li Chengye counted his men and found that only five or six hundred people remained, most of whom were women and children from the same village who had come together from Qingshi Village.

The others either ran away during the government troops' surprise attack or secretly left with their belongings during the subsequent retreat.

There was nothing Li Chengye could do about it; he could only say, "Let each of us accept our fate."

From the moment he left the village, he knew that this was something that was destined to happen.

However, he couldn't keep running around aimlessly, so Li Chengye went to find Yang Chongwang.

"Brother Yang, let me and two others go ahead and scout ahead. We can't just wander around in the mountains like headless flies."

"That's how it should be, but I can take two people with me. This team still needs you for now."

Yang Chongwang had no objection to scouting the way, but he felt that it was enough for him to go himself. The whole team was in a state of panic and needed Li Chengye, the recognized leader, to act as a stabilizing force.

Li Chengye understood Yang Chongwang's meaning and nodded.

So Yang Chongwang, along with Zhu Yao and a few other quick-witted young men, took off their armor and went off carrying only a knife.

After waiting for about half an hour, the people in the group had caught their breath, and some people returned from the front, but Yang Chongwang was nowhere to be seen.

"Team leader," the speaker was Li Sheng, who had joined Li Chengye's team when Wang Er was assigned to it. He looked a bit young, and his teammates called him "Master." "Yang Tou found a mountain village ahead and said we could camp there for the night. He'll keep watch there, so he sent me to deliver the message first."

Mountain village?

"How big is the village?" Li Chengye asked.

"There are about a dozen households. The village doesn't look very big; it's just in a ravine," Li Sheng replied, counting on his fingers.

With that in mind, Li Chengye called to everyone and they set off.

At the same time, Zhang Shixiong also entered Yijun City.

"So, the bandits in the city ran straight into the mountains after seeing Wang Er's defeat?"

"Yes, Commander Zhang." Lu Bingzhong stood with his hands at his sides, respectfully reporting to Zhang Shixiong.

"Among those bandits were over a hundred armored soldiers, while my men numbered less than thirty, and all of them were wounded. It was truly difficult to stop them."

Zhang Shixiong waved his hand, signaling Lu Bingzhong to stop.

"I'm not blaming you for not stopping that bandit army. After the great battle, our army was severely damaged, and the two bandits, Wang and Er, had already fled for their lives. A few remaining bandits are not worth worrying about."

"Right now, I just want to know where Commander Han is in pursuit of Wang Er."

Upon hearing this, Lu Bingzhong, Han Chengju's confidant, was speechless. Han Chengju had borrowed 300 cavalrymen from Datong Town and galloped all the way, which showed his bravery. However, in contrast to his bravery, this commander was also a stubborn person. He vowed not to withdraw his troops until he saw Wang Er's head. At this moment, he did not know where the other party was.