Chapter 36: Three Arrows Eliminate Future Troubles (Part 2)

Han Gang did not know that at this moment, there were people in Qin Prefecture and Gangu who intended to kill him. Even if he knew, he would have no power to deal with it, because right before him, there was a group of people with knives and swords, wanting to take his life.

"There... there are so many!" A young civilian laborer was frightened to the point of stammering. The fact that he could speak at all was already a good sign; the other civilian laborers were speechless, their faces ashen, like frogs stunned by thunder, unable to utter a word. They all carried bows and arrows like Han Gang, but at this moment, with the bandits attacking, they had all forgotten to raise their longbows.

"What if there are many 'trees'? If there are many trees, we cut them down! If there are few, we plant them!" Wang Shunchen joked casually, holding his longbow and dismounting to step forward alone.

After walking twenty steps, Wang Shunchen stood with one foot forward and one foot back, hanging his bow on his arm, and shouted loudly, "But Grandpa doesn't plant or cut trees, he only inserts flowers!"

Han Gang finally understood where Wang Shunchen's confidence came from and why he didn't ask anyone else to come forward. Han Gang had never thought that one person with one bow could shoot a cascade of arrows!

About fifty bandits emerged from the mountains, with the seven at the front looking the most fierce. Wang Shunchen's target was precisely them.

He drew his bow and nocked an arrow, and the arrow left the string.

The first arrow pierced the left eye of the first bandit, the second arrow blossomed a flower of blood on the face of the second bandit, the third arrow passed through the throat, and the fourth arrow pierced the heart of the fourth bandit. By the time the first bandit fell to the ground, the next three turned and fled. Wang Shunchen shot three more arrows in quick succession, piercing their backs and felling them one by one.

The copper thumb ring on his thumb flashed, and the hemp bowstring, as thick as a little finger, became a blur. The sharp whistles of the arrows breaking through the air were continuous. The sound of the bowstring resonated, creating a symphony of slaughter. The claim of being able to defeat ten thousand was an exaggeration, but Wang Shunchen could easily handle a hundred with the ease of eating and drinking.

The longbow Wang Shunchen used was not a powerful one, with a draw weight of perhaps one hundred and twenty pounds. Although the minimum standard for the top four military units in the imperial army was to draw a nine-stone bow and a two-hundred and seventy-pound crossbow, a military officer using a bow with less than one hundred and fifty pounds of force, unable to pierce the enemy's armor, would be ashamed to face others. However, the one-hundred and twenty-pound war bow in Wang Shunchen's hand, though it might not pierce the fine iron armor of the Tangut, its extremely accurate aim meant the arrowheads did not need to contend with the solid armor plates.

Groans of pain echoed everywhere, and wherever the arrows landed, death or injury followed. The white-feathered arrows trembled on the bodies of the bandits, like white iris flowers swaying in the wind.

What a fine insertion of flowers!

Wang Shunchen, with one person and one bow, prevented the bandits from advancing a single step. However, he was only one person, and the bandits' counterattack soon followed. A bandit in the rear shouted, and a dozen bandits stopped and shot arrows at Wang Shunchen. A dozen arrows shot at him in unison, forcing Wang Shunchen to retreat to the side of a tree, with an arrow piercing his shoulder.

Hiding behind the tree, listening to the thuds of arrows hitting the tree in front of him, and seeing the arrow trembling on his shoulder, Wang Shunchen gritted his teeth in pain, regretting not wearing armor. If he had armor, he could have withstood the bandits' arrows, killing more of them and completely breaking their fighting spirit. But now, he was pinned down by the bandits and couldn't even show his head.

"Damn it!" Wang Shunchen gnashed his teeth, "So many battle achievements..."

With Wang Shunchen at a disadvantage, the civilian laborers began to panic. Seeing the situation, Han Gang pointed forward and said to Xue Erba and Dong Chao, "A single tree cannot support the sky. You two must quickly go to assist the military officer! Otherwise, we will all die today!"

As expected, Han Gang saw a thick sneer on the faces of Xue Erba and Dong Chao. Dong Chao touched the scar on his face from Wang Shunchen's whip and sneered, "Scholar Han, the bandits are too numerous. While Wang the military officer is blocking them, we should escape first!"

His voice was full of satisfaction, but Han Gang's response was even more straightforward. Raising his eyebrows and lifting his hands, he shot an arrow from five steps away. Dong Chao had no time to react, and the arrow instantly pierced his abdomen.

"Those who disrupt our morale will die!" Han Gang's loud shout echoed with Dong Chao's scream.

The civilian laborers were stunned, and Xue Erba was also speechless, "You..."

Han Gang said no more, and again drew his longbow. Internal strife always favors the first to act. He only had the element of surprise, and he was not a match for either Xue Erba or Dong Chao. The second arrow shot out like lightning, piercing Xue Erba's not-so-thick neck, and a bloody arrowhead appeared at the back of his neck. Xue Erba immediately clutched his throat and fell to the ground.

At that moment, he finally understood why Liu San and the other two had failed to kill this consumptive scholar:

'This scholar acts so quickly!' This was Xue Erba's last thought in this world.

"Those who disrupt our morale will die!"

Han Gang shouted again. With Xue Erba's life as proof of his command, the civilian laborers dared not move recklessly. But Dong Chao, enduring the intense pain in his abdomen, struggled to his feet, his face contorted, and pulled out his waist knife, desperately slashing at Han Gang.

Han Gang hurriedly sidestepped, barely avoiding the whistling blade, but his right hand smoothly drew another arrow and nocked it on the bowstring, drawing the bow for the third time. The bowstring vibrated, and the arrow shot out like lightning, heading straight for Dong Chao. However, this arrow did not fulfill Han Gang's wish, as Dong Chao timely swung his curved knife, forcefully deflecting the arrow.

The last-ditch counterattack was the most terrifying. Dong Chao roared and charged like the wind. Han Gang had no time to draw another arrow from behind, so he dropped the bow and rushed forward, blocking Dong Chao's right wrist with one hand and gripping the arrow shaft in his stomach with the other, ignoring the fact that Dong Chao's left hand was already choking his neck, and used all his strength to twist.

Face to face, less than half a foot apart, they could hear each other's breath. Han Gang clearly saw the pupil of this subordinate of Chen Ju dilate, his eyes gradually losing focus, and the hand choking his neck gradually loosening. All his strength drained away with the intense pain inside, and Dong Chao finally collapsed softly on the ground.

The internal strife was like a sudden rabbit or a falcon, and the outcome was decided in a moment. Han Gang picked up Dong Chao's waist knife from the ground, stabbed the two men in their vital points a few more times to confirm their deaths, and then stepped on the bodies, pointing the blood-soaked blade downward, and said coldly, "Whoever does not obey my orders will meet the same fate!"

The thirty-seven civilian laborers dared not look directly at Han Gang, lowering their heads and obediently following his orders.

Han Gang breathed a sigh of relief. This was an opportunity. He knew the identities of the two men and their purpose in accompanying him to transport supplies to Gangu City. With Chen Ju's experience, he would not have only one plan. An ambush on the way was one plan, and there would likely be others waiting to deal with him in Gangu City.

But with the deaths of Huang Daliu and Liu San, and now the deaths of Xue Erba and Dong Chao, if the plan to incite the tribal bandits to ambush them also failed, Chen Ju's group would lose much of its cohesion. Even if there were still some trouble in Gangu City, Han Gang, who had gathered intelligence, knew who would come to cause trouble, but he was prepared to deal with it.

With the internal situation stabilized, Han Gang turned his attention back to the front. Wang Shunchen was still facing off against the bandits, and he had not noticed what had happened with Han Gang. The bandits, fearing Wang Shunchen's divine arrows, did not dare to charge too quickly. However, a dozen of them were still shooting arrows to suppress Wang Shunchen, while the remaining seven or eight were moving closer under the cover of the arrow rain.

The situation was not good!

"Turn the carts sideways! Quickly, turn them sideways!" Han Gang gave urgent orders. "Block the road behind us! And block the side by the mountain!"

The civilian laborers were somewhat confused and unwilling to cut off their own escape route, but with Han Gang having just killed two men, his authority was strong, and no one dared to oppose him. They hurriedly arranged the mule carts side by side to block the road behind them and the side by the mountain, without any delay.

Han Gang kept urging them, directing the civilian laborers to form a cart barricade around their position.

Although the bandits were not as intelligent as the Han people, they were not lacking in cunning. The crime of ambushing and robbing military supplies was something no tribal group in Qin Prefecture could afford to bear. No matter what, Han Gang and his group had to be eliminated. If even one person escaped, it could bring disaster to the entire tribe.

But if they could successfully annihilate Han Gang and his group, they would not only obtain enough supplies to make their tribe prosperous for a year but could also set up a trap to frame an enemy tribe. The tribal groups in Qin Prefecture were not united, especially those living close to each other, often fighting over water sources, fields, and pastures. If Han Gang's guess was correct, there would certainly be more bandits lying in wait on the retreat route, ready to attack when they tried to escape, to ensure a complete annihilation without any survivors.

As if to confirm Han Gang's guess, just as the cart barricade was taking shape, shouts of battle cries erupted from the road behind them and the hillside to their side.

The bandits lying in wait behind Han Gang had planned to attack when the supply convoy was engaged in a fierce battle with the blocking group. The Han people who had contacted them had said that there were two insiders in the supply convoy. They could easily rob and kill them without a fight, so they had been waiting for the signal from the insiders.

But seeing the supply convoy only momentarily disordered and then quickly regaining calm, and even starting to form a cart barricade, they had no choice but to attack prematurely.

"Do not panic!" Han Gang confidently shouted to the civilian laborers, "The bandits are just making a show of strength. Their numbers are definitely not many! Otherwise, they would have attacked together with the bandits in front, instead of hiding behind us waiting for our weakness! We are in the cart barricade, and they won't be able to break through for a while!"

Han Gang was just making it up as he went along. He had little understanding of the bandits' plans. However, the civilian laborers he led were all men from Guanxi, many of whom had been conscripted and had seen battle, with tattoos on their hands and faces, and their archery skills were excellent. As long as they could remain calm, defeating a group of bandits one or two times their number would be easy. What they needed now was not the truth, but the unwavering confidence of a leader and accurate and effective orders.

Han Gang could give them all of that: "Pick up your bows, nock your arrows! Follow my commands! Shoot!"

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