Chapter 48

As the smoke signals rose, they quickly ascended to over a hundred meters in the sky. There were no tall buildings around, and the area was on a plain, so even from a distance, everything was clearly visible.

Zhao Futu was now truly feeling disheartened. Having received modern education, he understood very well that these undisciplined Yellow Turban soldiers were of little use, and he did not have enough time to train them properly. It was impossible to make them understand orders and prohibitions in just a day or two!

Thus, he quickly made up his mind. He drew the fine steel longsword from his waist and said to a somewhat older Yellow Turban squad leader beside him, "You command them to take the village. The others come with me."

The situation had reached this point, and the mission had already been activated; there was no turning back. He couldn't suddenly switch sides and help the villagers, as that would make him unpopular with both the Yellow Turbans and the villagers. He realized that sometimes, one's actions are not entirely under their control. Now, with deaths on both sides, there was no turning back. He had to see it through.

He hoped that the reinforcements coming soon wouldn't be too strong, so he could at least recover some of his losses!

"Move! The smoke signals have risen. Reinforcements might arrive soon. Follow me to the woods and set up an ambush," Zhao Futu said to those around him.

There were still two squads left with him, about twenty to thirty people, all of whom had received some formal military training. The squad leaders mostly didn't rush forward in a frenzy. These people had some discipline and were the ones who had fought their way out of the camp with Zhao Futu. They had a higher level of trust in him compared to the other Yellow Turbans.

After saying this, he left a few people to command the frenzied Yellow Turbans and led the others to hide in the woods.

The environment at this time was not much damaged, and the Central Plains were covered with dense forests. Outside of human settlements, one could see forests along the roads, mostly low shrubs, and further in, there were old trees. In this era, even a thousand people hiding in the dense forest would not be noticed.

Therefore, in the wars of the cold weapon era, ambushes were a common occurrence.

About a quarter of an hour later.

Some commotion came from the south of the village, and soon a group of well-armed Han dynasty soldiers arrived. There were not too many, about two hundred in total. These soldiers were different from the ones Zhao Futu had ambushed; they were ordinary soldiers, mixed with some constables, looking like patrol troops from a nearby county. The leader was a bearded man, likely a county military officer (Xianwei) responsible for law and order in the county.

This was an eighth-rank military position, equivalent to a modern police chief, and a powerful figure in a small place.

The county military officer saw the Yellow Turbans attacking the village from a distance but did not immediately charge in. Instead, he ordered his men to rest briefly and form a group of archers to ambush from the side. He then divided another group to block the Yellow Turbans' retreat, and finally, led the remaining hundred or so soldiers to charge at the Yellow Turbans at the village gate.

It seemed he intended to completely crush this group of Yellow Turbans!

"This is what an army should look like!" Zhao Futu looked at the people around him and sighed softly.

The soldiers under the county military officer were not elite, far from it, but their coordination was much better than the frenzied Yellow Turbans. Zhao Futu suspected that, except for a small part of the Yellow Turbans, the rest had not received any formal military training since the uprising.

"Charge!"

"Promotion and wealth are at hand! Follow me to crush these Yellow Turban rebels!"

The county military officer shouted and led his men to charge. After Zhang Man's defeat and death in Wancheng, the morale of the Han soldiers in the Nanyang region had greatly improved. The Yellow Turban remnants who had joined Zhang Man were scattered and defeated by several armies. Now, there were Yellow Turban rebels everywhere. For these lower-ranking officers, it was a good time to take advantage of the situation and gain some easy victories.

This was why they immediately rushed to the scene after the smoke signals were lit. The county military officers from nearby counties were all eager to take the heads of the Yellow Turban remnants to boost their military achievements. If they could cut off a portion of the heads of these two hundred Yellow Turbans and exaggerate their achievements a bit, with his connections to the county magistrate, he could report a victory over a thousand Yellow Turbans.

If this achievement fell to him, his position would certainly be elevated.

Thinking of this, the bearded county military officer felt a surge of excitement. He did not pay attention to the nearby woods, not believing that the peasant-born Yellow Turban rebels would set up an ambush.

When the soldiers arrived, the situation in the village stabilized. Seeing the reinforcements, the local hunters and militia were encouraged and managed to block the Yellow Turbans at the gate. The Yellow Turbans were now caught between two forces, and in the first clash, over ten of them were killed by the county military officer's personal guards. These guards were tall and strong, trained from a young age, and far superior to ordinary soldiers.

To reach the position of county military officer, one's background was usually not low. This county military officer was from a wealthy family, the Zheng clan.

With no support from the front, the morale of the Yellow Turban leaders recruited by Zhao Futu was the first to break. These people were originally part of a defeated army and were bandits, with little morale to begin with. Seeing so many soldiers arrive, they lost all fighting spirit. They found an opportunity to break out of the encirclement and fled, leaving the other Yellow Turbans to their fate.

This further lowered their morale!

The Yellow Turbans had not gone far when a group of soldiers charged out and intercepted them. Caught off guard, seven or eight of them were hit by arrows, and the rest were quickly killed by the charging soldiers.

"Charge!"

"Follow me!"

Zhao Futu sighed and led the charge. This was not the best time for an ambush, but if he did not act, the Yellow Turbans' morale would collapse. He led a dozen men straight into the rear of the soldiers, leading the charge. His silver cross sword technique, which excelled in chaotic battles, was used to full effect, and over ten unprepared soldiers were killed by his sword.

On the other side, the Yellow Turban strongmen, wielding flat short axes, led a group to charge at the archers.

With only two or thirty men ambushing over two hundred, Zhao Futu had no choice but to unleash his full potential. He charged into the enemy ranks, his fine steel longsword flashing, cutting down the unprepared soldiers like slicing through melons. The Yellow Turban squad leaders behind him were also encouraged, and their weapons seemed to gain more power.

Charging with a dozen men against ten times their number required great courage on the cold weapon battlefield. If they could not quickly break the enemy, they would be surrounded and annihilated, even by an elite force. In ancient cold weapon battles, once surrounded, even famous generals could be overwhelmed and killed. Zhao Futu understood this, so he used his most lethal moves, aiming to break the enemy's morale and stabilize the Yellow Turbans.

"Zzz!"

A sharp pain shot through his abdomen, and Zhao Futu, who had been charging like a hungry tiger, suddenly stopped and quickly fell to the ground. Several crossbow bolts narrowly missed his head.

"Damn! Military crossbows!" Zhao Futu cursed, using all his strength to lift a corpse and use it as a shield. More bolts hit the corpse, and he threw it away, then leaped forward, covering over ten feet in the air, and delivered a powerful slash at the soldier who had ambushed him.

His eyes, red with blood, showed the strain of battle. He roared, "You are courting death!"

In cold weapon combat, a loud roar was a powerful weapon. A sudden roar could terrify the timid and make them lose their composure, even drop their weapons. After a fierce battle, Zhao Futu's body was covered in blood, and he had unknowingly developed a real, grim killing aura, despite it being his first time on a battlefield.

The roar stunned many nearby, and the soldiers closest to him felt their heads buzz, slowing their reactions.

This half-second delay was the difference between life and death. A flash of cold light, and several heads flew into the air!

Zhao Futu was about to charge and kill all the crossbowmen when he suddenly felt a chill down his back. Without thinking, he instinctively turned and blocked with his sword, hearing a loud "clang" and feeling a powerful force. He was pushed back several steps. The county military officer, seeing him kill over twenty men, could no longer hold back and charged back.

The bearded county military officer, eyes wide with rage, exuded a powerful killing aura and shouted, "Rogue! Return my cousin's life!"

It turned out that Zhao Futu's earlier charge had killed his cousin.