C5

Chapter 5 - Withdrawal of Mountain Temple

There was no way to hide the fact that such a large group of people could break out of the encirclement. Now, they could only make use of the time gap between them and the bandits to rush into the Mountain Temple. Relying on the protection of the terrain, they might have a slim chance of survival.

The bandits never thought that the caravan would abandon their goods and break out of the siege. The intelligence said that the caravan had brought a total of 110 thousand silver taels this time. It was this slight hesitation that allowed the merchant caravan to find an opening and rush forward as soon as they opened fire.

It was difficult to walk on the mountain road, Xiao Letian was as tired as a dog right now. Even though he was also in the assault team of four, he could only be considered as an ordinary person. The sky grew darker and darker, and the stones beneath his feet were all heavy. Xiao Letian had already tumbled a few times, and at the start, there were some people who were helping him up, but after that, the situation became even more chaotic and no one paid any attention to him.

It was still a dark night when more than a hundred people had gathered together to run up the mountain. In just a short while, the circular formation had already disappeared. It dragged its way towards the north like a bug and almost everyone was listening to the footsteps of the person in front.

On both sides of the line, bandits would rush in from time to time. Many of the employees were hacked to death by the enemies in the dark, and miserable screams could be heard incessantly. Fortunately, the dark night also restricted the bandits' movements, so these scattered attacks couldn't stop them from moving forward.

"Aiyo, fuck …" Xiao Letian's stomp on the air again, and he already could not remember how many times he had fallen, and even his forehead was bruised. Just then, two women's low voices came from behind him, "A Chou, is your leg still painful? Can you still walk? "

Isn't this old shopkeeper's daughter, Hu Niu? She quickly turned her head to look carefully, and under the faintly discernible light, he vaguely saw that Hu Niu was beside a rock, supporting his little girl with yellow hair. 'This is bad, how can I stop now? The two little girls are looking for death! '

"Quick, quick, quick..." What are you two doing? "I don't want to live anymore. Even if my leg is broken, I can't stop …" Xiao Letian lowered his voice and touched it.

"Is that Brother Xiao?" Hu Niu was extremely excited, "A Chou might have injured his leg when he fell down, but can you carry her on your back?" Xiao Letian was anxious and angry at the same time. He thought to himself, my head has already been smashed into a third in India and I haven't seen anyone carry me. Do you really think this is your home?

But there was nothing he could do, it was not Xiao Letian's personality to refuse to help when he was about to die. He did not say anything and squatted down. In the end, he did not expect A Chou, this little girl, to be so bashful towards his. "Miss, he is a man ah …"

F * ck, thinking about this at this time? You undeveloped ugly monster at the age of thirteen or fourteen, you actually want to think about the matters of men and women? However, in this moment of hesitation, a figure suddenly flew out from the darkness to the right.

"There is a woman here, she must be the young lady of Fan family! "Grab him alive …" The black shadow pounced towards A Chou like a hungry wolf. At that time, it scared A Chou so much that his head tilted and he actually fainted. Xiao Letian was so angry in his heart. You little girl didn't come to my back because you were waiting for a man to push her down? You have a heavy taste.

The bandit miscalculated. He thought that the one being served was the young miss, but instead, it was a maid. Hu Niu was standing at the side. This girl was definitely the most barbaric of the Qing Dynasty's young miss, and before Xiao Letian could even see her clearly, a cold light flashed in her hands, and a silver hairpin pierced into the back of the bandit ruthlessly: "Let A Chou go, you villain!"

Xiao Letian was dumbstruck, the sweet one was the servant, the heroic one was actually the young miss? The heavens were too good at playing with people. But now was not the time to be lost in thought. The north side of the Mountain Temple had already lit up with the light of torches, Qing San Ye and Louis had definitely reached there, with the bandits' encirclement army not too far away, wasting more time would only be courting death.

Xiao Letian clenched his teeth, and with all his might, he pulled out his dagger and pounced towards his: "You want to kill me? In your next life … " Just now, he had definitely killed them by accident. But this time was different, it was Xiao Letian's brain that was controlling his hand, stabbing a cold iron weapon into the enemy's body.

Although he couldn't see it, Xiao Letian could feel the sticky feeling in his palm. The dagger stabbed into the back of the bandit's heart, piercing through his heart. The bandit kicked several times, but before he could even scream out, he had already vomited a mouthful of blood.

Xiao Letian was already on the verge of collapsing, but he was still persisting on, he flipped over the corpse, picked up A Chou and bellowed "Rise!" He carried A Chou on his shoulder like he was carrying a sack.

Hu Niu was already dumbstruck, he realised that the man in front of him was as imposing as a mountain, his black figure emitting an undefeatable temperament under the starlight. Hu Niu's eyes suddenly turned red, she used her sleeves to wipe the corners of her eyes, and followed along with large strides, closely following Xiao Letian.

Poor Xiao Letian, in his previous life, not to mention carrying a person, he didn't even carry gas canister and rice. Despite his muscular body, he had been trained in the gym. He had the typical muscles of a chick. If he was allowed to carry a living person up the mountain, he would probably sweat profusely just thinking about it.

But one's potential in desperate times is limitless. Looking at the torch over fifty meters away, that was life's hope. Then hearing the battle cry behind him, that was the threat of death. Xiao Letian actually managed to hold on, with both of his legs moving like a meteor, he managed to walk forward with incomparable steadiness.

When Xiao Letian walked into the range of the torch's light, Qing San Ye, old shopkeeper and even Louis was dumbfounded. At this time, Xiao Letian was truly a hero. Carrying the unconscious A Chou on his left shoulder, with his right arm under Hu Niu's armpit, he couldn't even walk after falling down.

For a man to carry a woman while carrying a woman, who had ever seen a western mirror before? This was three years for Tongzhi ah, when the Confucianism was at its harshest, when a woman lost her reputation, would she still be able to live?

Manager Fan was so angry that he almost fainted. He jumped out and pounced towards Xiao Letian, "Bastard, you bastards …" The old shopkeeper rushed towards Xiao Letian, but he was not scolding Xiao Letian, the old man was beating the shop assistant around him up like a fierce tiger entering a flock of sheep.

"I've supported you all for nothing. If Miss is in trouble, you all actually won't help her. It's a waste of food …" It was only then that Xiao Letian realised that she was not the only one who rushed over. There were actually five or six employees beside him.

Stunned, exhausted, and terrified. It really couldn't be blamed on these guys. In this life or death situation, how could they have the energy to pay attention to what was happening around them? Even Xiao Letian did not expect to have comrades in his surroundings. At that moment, his eyes were only filled with the light of Mountain Temple and torches.

However, it was not wrong for the Manager Fan to be anxious. At that time in that society, if someone from their clan saved the young miss, although there was gossip, there would be people from the upper class protecting the young lady. It was not against etiquette for an assistant of his to save his young lady, but it was impossible for an outsider to cuddle and hug him like that.

old shopkeeper did not dare to lose his temper at Xiao Letian's head, so he could only punch and kick this bunch of useless fellows.

After Xiao Letian settled the two girls in the temple, he shouted at old shopkeeper, "Alright, just hit him twice. Since this place is your shop assistant, and Qing San Ye is not an outsider, what are you afraid of? If they split the money later on, who would still be able to talk about it? "Right now, the most important thing is to stop the bandits. Listen …"

The scene immediately quietened down. At this moment, from the darkness at the foot of the mountain, a tsunami like sound could be heard, startling all the birds in the wilderness and causing them to flee in all directions.

"These are bandits mobilizing before the war. From the sound of it, there's at least 200 of them …" Qing San Ye's face immediately turned bitter, he looked at the fearless shop assistants and soldiers and sighed, "Right now we don't even have a hundred men under our command, how can we defend against that …"

Xiao Letian looked around, only to realize that there were close to 20 more merchant caravans members missing from the break out of the encirclement. It seemed like they had died on the hillside, and half of the remaining merchant caravans members had died, and most of them had sprained their legs.

"Mr. Louis, what should we do if your Americans encounters such a predicament?" Xiao Letian asked.

"I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand your fighting habits. I have just counted: aside from the five Colt's in our hands, the rest of you only have ten muskets called birdguns. "Since there are 200 bandits on the other side, I can only gloomily believe that we will lose …"

"But don't worry, as a Americans, I will resist until the very last moment. If you don't finish my last bullet, I will not surrender …"

Whatever, your Americans loves to dream. Every day, you dream of becoming a personal hero and you still want to surrender? Do you really think bandits like you, who don't follow the rules of the underworld, would want you as a prisoner? Xiao Letian shook his head and did not speak his heart.

But right at this time, a burst of bowstring sounds came out from the hillside. Qing San Ye had rushed towards old shopkeeper at that time, "Get down, quickly hide, the bandits are shooting …" Before he could finish his sentence, a hail of arrows was shot onto the ground.

This was the first time Xiao Letian had ever shot arrows at the same time. He was hiding on the inside of the mud wall to avoid being hit by arrows.

"The enemy actually has more than 100 bows and arrows?" "Just what kind of bandits are these, why are there so many strong bows …" The Qing San Ye knew what was good for it, the Qing dynasty's government's ban on archery was the same as the ban on firearms in the later generations. Even hunters who depended on hunting for a living would at most only have a bamboo bow. It was already heaven-defying for a bandit to have a few of these long ranged weapons that were used in the era of cold weapons.

But today, Qing San Ye suddenly found out that this group of bandits had more than 100 strong bows.

The arrows continued to shoot at the same time for only four rounds, the more than four hundred arrows had already pierced through the Mountain Temple like reeds. Just as the arrows stopped, a fierce shout came from the darkness outside the mountain gate. The bandits finally started charging.

"The bandits have made their way up! Shoot! Shoot! Beat them back!" Qing San Ye let out a loud roar and stood up while leaning on the short wall. Woosh! Woosh!

Now, no one in the caravan was afraid. They looked at the bandits rushing over in the dark and knew that if they didn't risk their lives, they would die. However, it still did not stop the tide of bandits. When a few muffled sounds and flames came from the group of bandits, Manager Fan was about to go crazy.

"This is bad, bandits don't only have bows and arrows, they also have bird spears …"