Traveling through the mountains and farming

Chapter 123 Valley Ambush

Upon hearing this, Uncle Li hurriedly asked, "Hasn't the markings leading to our cave been cleared?"

Li Chongwu panted and replied, "Yes, it was cleared. Did they notice anything unusual?"

"Don't panic, keep exploring and see which direction they are heading." Uncle Li hurriedly tried to calm everyone down.

Li Chongwu turned around and ran towards the fork in the road.

Everyone was waiting anxiously, and every second seemed extremely long.

A moment later, Li Chongwu came running back, "They are coming towards the valley, they will be there soon!"

Everyone was on high alert, waiting for this group of people to completely step into the valley.

A quarter of an hour later, the bandits appeared at the entrance of the valley.

The people hiding on the slopes on both sides clenched their weapons, their heartbeats quickened, and their eyes were fixed on the bandits below.

When the bandits had completely entered the valley, Uncle Li gave the order: "Attack!"

Arrows rained down and rocks rolled down. The bandits were stunned by the sudden attack and screams rang out one after another.

Fortunately, most of the arrows used by Uncle Li and his men were bamboo arrows, otherwise this group of bandits would have suffered heavy casualties.

"Oh no! There's an ambush." ​​A bandit shouted in fear.

"Retreat and break out!" roared another bandit who looked like the leader.

"Quick, rush to both sides of the hillside and kill them!" The bandits shouted, trying to find the opponent's weakness.

The people on the hillsides on both sides had already made preparations. The continuous falling of boulders and arrows made it impossible for the bandits to get close.

Some of the bandits were seen retreating and preparing to evacuate.

Li Chongwu led a team of people to attack from the rear, cutting off the bandits' retreat.

"Don't let them run away!" Li Chongwu shouted loudly.

Faced with this group of bandits, they fought hard, trapped them firmly in the valley, and continued to attack.

Seeing that their own family members were also at the bottom of the slope, the children on the slope shot arrows more carefully, trying to avoid their own people.

Because they were attacked suddenly and the children had been practicing hard recently, their hit rate was very high. The bandits gradually found it difficult to resist and more and more people were injured.

Their fighting capacity dropped sharply and their morale became increasingly low.

"Uncle Li, please spare my life! I am Zhang Daniu," one of the bandits shouted at the top of his lungs.

"I am Erniu, don't kill us!"

When Uncle Li heard the bandits calling him and claiming to be Zhang Daniu and Zhang Erniu, he did not order them to stop fighting. Instead, he carefully identified them and found that they were indeed two young men from their village.

He searched for Li Changren in the crowd, but did not find him, and even Li Chongbai was not seen.

Didn’t they flee to Jiangbei County together?

How come Zhang Daniu and Zhang Erniu became bandits?

Not with Li Changren and the others?

A series of questions swirled in Uncle Li’s mind.

Seeing that the group was about to be defeated, he continued to issue orders without hesitation:

"Quick, take down all these people, don't let any of them go!"

After receiving the order, everyone became more courageous and quickly subdued the bandits, preparing to tie them up one by one.

He Lizheng and his men did not just stand by and watch, but rushed down as well. Perhaps because they had not received as much training as the people living in seclusion in the cave, two or three of them were injured by the bandits. Doctor Zhong hurried over to help with treatment and bandaging.

When Fang Xuewen and his son saw them fighting for the first time, they were so shocked that it took them a long time to recover.

They quickly found a suitable job for themselves. When Li Chongwu and his men knocked down one of them, the father and son worked together to tie up the man.

Seeing how well Fang Xuewen and his son worked together, He Lizheng and his son He Yunzheng learned how to tie up the knocked down bandit.

Unexpectedly, they encountered a bandit who pretended to be unconscious. He took advantage of He Lizheng's inattention and suddenly stood up to attack. He Lizheng was almost stabbed in the chest. Fortunately, He Yunzheng reacted quickly and pushed him, saving his father's life.

He Yunzheng's arm was cut with a big gash.

"Yun Zheng, how are you?" He Lizheng immediately stood up, ran over and shouted anxiously.

"Dad, I'm fine, I just hurt my arm." He Yunzheng said gritting his teeth.

Upon hearing the sound, Li Chongwu immediately came over and subdued the bandit.

Uncle Li also rushed over after hearing the noise: "Quick, Doctor Zhong, there are injured people over here."

Doctor Zhong came over and treated He Yunzheng's wound. "The puncture was too deep. The bleeding has stopped now, but we have to see if there will be infection or inflammation later. Rest well during this period, and be careful not to get wet."

The cleanup of the battlefield nearby is coming to an end.

From these people's intermittent pleas for mercy, we learned that this group of people were ordinary people who had heard the news and fled to Jiangbei County. They were chased and intercepted by the soldiers sent by the King of Chu on the way. They escaped during the capture and were forced to gather together to rob the villagers hiding in the mountains due to their living conditions.

Uncle Li quickly ran to Zhang Daniu and asked anxiously:

"Daniu, where are Li Changren and the others?"

After hearing Uncle Li's question, the two brothers looked at each other secretly, and Li Daniu whispered:

"We got separated on the way to Jiangbei."

After saying this, he lowered his head and didn't dare to look Uncle Li in the eye.

Uncle Li continued to ask: "You left together, how did you get separated?"

"When we were escaping from Xiaoshan, we were intercepted by soldiers. We fled in all directions and got separated."

They didn't dare to say that they pushed Li Changren out to resist the soldiers, which led to him being stabbed in the vitals by the soldiers and captured. He is probably dead now.

The situation was chaotic and they were the only ones who knew the inside story, so he was not afraid of being exposed when he told lies.

"Where are Zhang and the children?"

"They are all separated and we don't know where they have gone."

After answering, Zhang Daniu realized that the "children" that Uncle Li was asking about also included Li Chongbai. Wasn't he also here? How come he wasn't caught? He was clearly with them the whole time.

He looked around and found that Li Chongbai was indeed not among those arrested, and why were there fewer of them?

Where did those people go? Did they run away secretly?

He had a series of questions in his mind. Li Changli also noticed his abnormality, so he glanced at the group of bandits and found that there were only about twenty people, which was less than the nearly thirty people reported in the previous investigation.

He hurriedly said loudly: "Dad, they are fewer in number, and more than ten people are missing."

Uncle Li's face darkened and he stared at Zhang Daniu: "Tell me, what happened? And where did those missing people go?"

Zhang Daniu hesitated for a long time and couldn't say anything.

"Could it be that they didn't all come this way at that time, and only a dozen people went towards the secluded cave?" Li Changli guessed.

When everyone heard this, their faces changed drastically.

Uncle Li hurriedly asked others if they knew where those people had gone.

At that time, they were all rushing forward and no one knew where the others had gone.

Li Chongle, who was on the hillside, heard that the group of people might be heading towards the secluded cave, and he became extremely anxious and worried about his elder sister-in-law and younger sister.

He remembered that his sister-in-law had told him that everyone has weaknesses, and if he could make them feel afraid, they would tell the truth.

He hurried down the hillside, took out a pottery bottle, and poured it on the nearest bandit.

The man immediately began to rub his hands on the ground, groaning in pain: "It itches so much, it itches so much!"

"If you don't tell me, I will use all this itching powder on you. If this medicine doesn't work, I have other poisons and you can help me try them out." Li Chongle threatened.

He continued to threaten, "This powder will not kill you instantly, it will make you scratch your whole body and die in agony."

Li Chongle knew that this itching powder would not kill people, but in order to force the truth out of him, he could only deliberately make it sound more serious.

When the bandits saw this, they turned pale with fright.