Chapter 305 - Bandits (1)
While sitting in the carriage, Yuxi mumbled, “It would have been nice if this weather could be like this every day.” They had already travelled more than a third of the way, and it had rained twice in their journey. Both times it rained, they were people who got colds and went down with a fever, so the herbs Yuxi had prepared came in handy.
Zijin said with a smile, “Didn’t Miss hear Chief Huang say that rain usually falls for a few days in a month? With our condition, we can be considered as lucky.”
Yuxi smiled a little, “The weather is getting warmer and warmer, and we no longer have to worry about eating cold food.” Since they could not cook at lunchtime, they had to eat cold food every day. Shiliu and Tian Ju both had diarrhoea, yet the journey could not be delayed. Fortunately, they had prepared a bucket in the carriage, but even so, the maids had to suffer a lot.
The caravan stopped for a quarter of an hour at lunchtime to eat. After Yuxi had eaten her fill, she said to Zijin, “I want to go down for a walk.” She had been in the carriage all this time and started to get suffocated.
Zijin looked at Yuxi and disagreed, “No. If Miss has to go, then Miss has to change Miss’ clothes.” Walking down the road in such nice clothes, the onlookers would surely take a second look.
A little frustrated, Yuxi said, “Okay then. When we get to the next town, we will go and buy two ordinary clothes.” Yuxi was about the same size as Zijin, but their figures differed. In comparison, Yuxi was a little more voluptuous, so she could not wear Zijin’s clothes.
The two were talking when they suddenly heard an ear-piercing sound of arrows. Before Yuxi could question it, she heard Chief Huang shout, “Horse thieves are coming. Everyone gets ready.” Chief Huang and his men had brought weapons with them. Some of which were on their carriages and some on their horses.
Luo Shuigui’s group even had bows and arrows ready, but they were all placed in the carriage and were never taken out regularly.
Yuxi was also shocked and lifted the curtain to take a look, but there was no one there. At this moment, Luo Shuigui went to the side of her carriage and said to Yuxi, “Miss, you should always stay in the carriage. No matter what happens, never come out. With us here, we will make sure that you will be alright.”
Hearing these words, Yuxi hurriedly called Mama Qu and several others over. Although Yuxi’s carriage was huge, it would still be challenging to squeeze nine people into it.
Seeing this condition, Mama Qu suggested, “Miss, it’s too crowded. We’ll take another carriage!” In fact, Mama Qu knew that the safest place was definitely to be with Yuxi.
Luo Shuigui glanced at Yuxi with admiration in his eyes. Yuxi’s standard of training her servants was indeed not ordinary.
Yuxi said, “Let’s squeeze a little! It will not be scary if we all stay together.” When Mama Qu and Mama Bai heard Yuxi’s words, they climbed into the carriage. As soon as they came up, everyone huddled together, and there was no place for a single person to turn around.
Soon, the sound of horse hooves could be heard, coming from far away. Zijin looked at Yuxi’s gloomy face and whispered, “Don’t be afraid, Miss. It will be fine.”
Yuxi coldly replied, “I am not afraid.” She just wanted to go and kill all these horse thieves who had done so much evil. She wanted all of them to die. Back in the day, these horse thieves had killed and burned down the hamlet where she was staying, sparing not even the older people and children. These people deserved to die for their evil deeds.
When Luo Shuigui heard Yuxi say that she was not afraid, he sighed in his heart. He had never seen a woman with more courage than Miss Han, who was not even scared to face the horse thieves.
Yuxi lifted the curtain of the carriage and asked, “How many people have come?” Yuxi asked this because they also had more than sixty men who could kill the enemy. Besides, they had rehearsed it before and were confident in dealing with them.
Luo Shuigui said, “There are more than sixty horse thieves.” Even though they had rehearsed, Luo Shuigui was still a bit worried.
Yuxi coldly requested, “If you can, kill them all.” It wasn’t enough to kill these people a hundred times as they were all evil people.
Luo Shuigui looked at Yuxi as if he was looking at a monster. He initially thought that Han Yuxi was just courageous, but he didn’t expect that she would even dare to take another human’s life. But right now, the situation was urgent, and it was not the time to think about that. “We’ll try our best!” They would try their best. Even if they couldn’t kill them all, they could still beat those horse thieves away.
At this time, Master Yang staggered over and said, “You, little girl, truly has a big mouth. How dare you ask them to kill over sixty horse thieves? Do you know that each one of these horse thieves has taken dozens of lives, and they will kill without even blinking their eyes?” Horse thieves would not keep anyone alive, except for women, gold and jewellery. It was equivalent to saying that the horse thieves would exterminate everything and everyone else as long as they had taken other people’s money and women.
Yuxi spoke with an even colder tone in her voice, “Then they deserve to die even more.” They should punish such people for killing innocents.
Hearing these words, Master Yang could not help but give Yuxi a serious look. Seeing that the other party was not frightened and only had anger in her eyes, he was overwhelmingly shocked. In his imagination, Yuxi was the kind of person who was very intelligent but only thought of herself and was selfish. But he did not expect this girl to hate evil deeds as if they were her enemies.
Yuxi said to Master Yang, “Master Yang, please help.”
This condition was the best time for him to make an offer, but Master Yang could not open his mouth for some reason. Perhaps it was because of the seriousness in Yuxi’s eyes, or maybe it was because of what Yuxi had just said. Anyway, he could not take advantage of the situation, so he just nodded his head as he agreed, “Okay.” After saying this, he said to Zijin, “Come down and take this opportunity to practise your skills and see if they have gone rusty or not.”
Yuxi nodded towards Zijin and urged, “You can go! Master Yang and your senior brother are here!” There was no harm in letting Zijin have a little more experience as it would not be peaceful when they were in the northwest.
However, Zijin was reluctant and disagreed, “No, I can’t just leave Miss.” Even when they told her to kill the thieves, Zijin was unwilling to do so. She would rather stand guard at the door of the carriage.
Master Yang, who knew Zijin’s stubborn nature, told Luo Shuigui, “Leave the people on the carriage to us. You should concentrate on dealing with the horse thieves.”
Luo Shuigui had been reminded by Yuxi much earlier, and when he heard Master Yang’s words, he nodded and said, “Okay.” Since Master Yang was so sure of himself, they could kill the horse thieves to their hearts’ content later on. [+]
As they spoke, the horse thieves had already reached the front of the caravan. Master Yang told Yuxi, “Girl, hurry up and put down the curtain.” Seeing that Yuxi did not move, Master Yang felt amused and annoyed at the same time. “You, yourself, are not afraid, but it does not mean that they are not afraid either.” This incredibly audacious girl.
After hearing this urge from Master Yang, although Yuxi was reluctant, she still closed the carriage window and lowered the curtain while Tian Ju and several other maids all huddled into a ball. Seeing this situation, Yuxi advised, “If you are afraid, put your handkerchief or clothes into your mouth and bite them, and never make a sound later.”
Hearing this advice, all of them immediately covered their mouths.
The horse thieves had been informed that a fat sheep was passing by, so they hurriedly came over. When they reached the caravan, the leader of the horse thieves spoke to Chief Huang, “If you are sensible, you can leave your things and women behind, and I can let you live.”
Chief Huang sneered. “What’s the point of talking so much nonsense? If you have what it takes, just try to grab the thing we’re escorting.” There was no use in reasoning with the horse thieves, so there was no need to talk more nonsense with them. At this time, the armed escorts formed a circle according to what they had rehearsed before. The group of people from the Han family, except those few younger ones, were also holding weapons in their hands, and they were inside the circle. Of course, the one carriage in the middle naturally belonged to Yuxi.
The leader of the thieves sneered, and without saying a word of nonsense, he directly called out, “Kill.” As soon as the words left his mouth, an arrow shot towards him. Immediately afterwards, a dozen more arrows were shot over.
Luo Shuigui had been on the battlefield and the same for the other eleven men with him. They were all first-class riders and archers. The bandits’ leader reacted very quickly, but this did not mean that the others were as quick. Seven of them fell off their horses, and three others were wounded.
Chief Huang shouted, “Go……”
However, the thieves’ leader shifted his direction and looked at Luo Shuigui, who held a bow and arrow with a murderous gaze flashed in his eye. “Baozi, you guys come with me.” He dared to kill so many of his men so he would take care of him first.
The horse thieves did not fight as Chief Huang Dart Head had expected, and he quickly broke up the formation. The leader of the thieves rushed towards Luo Shuigui’s group with more than twenty men as he looked at Luo Shuigui with a jeer and said, “Today, I will dismantle you into pieces.”
Master Yang looked at Zijin and said, “With your senior brother and me here, we won’t let anything happen to your Miss. You hurry up and help them.” With that said, in all the years that Zijin had learnt martial arts, she had yet to kill anyone.
If Zijin had known what Master Yang was thinking, she would probably have just laughed. She had slapped a few people to death in the wangfu, and she would even be less gentle with these horse thieves. It was just that she was still worried about Yuxi’s safety and was reluctant to leave the carriage.
Master Yang said with some annoyance, “Go quickly. These horse thieves have a powerful fighting capacity. If we don’t eliminate them at the fastest possible time, our damage will be enormous when the time comes. This is only halfway. What will happen to your Miss and the others for the rest of the journey without these people protecting them?”
Hearing Master Yang’s words, Yuxi quickly called Zijin out, “Zijin, listen to Master Yang’s words.” As soon as Yuxi’s words ended, a knife struck the carriage window. The curtains of the car shook and swung up. When Shiliu and Tian Ju looked at the bloodied knife, their eyes rolled back, and they fainted. The others trembled, biting their lips to death and didn’t dare to make any sound.
A thief saw a group of ladies through the raised curtain of the carriage and at once excitedly called out, “Leader, there are some beauties inside……” He had just uttered these words when someone cut his head off.
Master Yang took the knife back into his hand and said with a smile towards Zijin, “Don’t worry now! With me here, no one will get a step closer to the carriage.”
Only then did Zijin leave the carriage and join the fight.
Just after leaving the carriage, a man slashed towards Zijin’s head. Zijin ducked, dodging her opponent’s attack, and then slapped the horse in the stomach. The slap caused the horse to let out a miserable hissing sound. The horse was frightened, and the man on the horse was startled. In his carelessness, he was yanked off his horse and punched in the head by Zijin.
After finishing off one of the thieves, Zijin quickly snatched the large sword from the thief’s hand, then mounted an unoccupied horse and began to fight with the other thieves as well. The sword that Zijin usually used was over one hundred and sixty pounds, but now with a thirty-pound sword, it was just like holding a kitchen knife. She became invincible as she slaughtered six horse thieves at once.