Three days later is a gang day. This kind of day is not suitable for weddings and happy events, but for going on an expedition, this kind of day is the most suitable. Therefore, Cao Zhen set the departure date three days later and asked the soldiers to be fully prepared in these three days.
However, on the day of the expedition, everyone was surprised not to see Cao Zhen, and the leader of the army was deputy commander Sima Chi. The number of soldiers was not the two teams Sima Chi mentioned before. There were only more than a hundred people left in the camp, and everyone else participated in this operation.
Even so, the number of local soldiers is only a little more than half of the number of bandits in Zeyun Village, but this is normal. As one of the most elite teams in Daning, it still has an advantage against a group of bandits without formal training. .
What's more, these bandits claim to number a thousand, but in fact most of them are old people, women and children. The real combat personnel are only four to five hundred. The inclusion of family members is just to exaggerate their strength.
Ye Ying asked some people he knew well and found out that the reason why Cao Zhen did not lead the troops in person was because he suddenly received an order to go to the army headquarters to participate in discussions.
Although Cao Zhen was not present, he asked his soldiers to send a message to Ye Ying, which only contained four short words: "Be careful."
The sudden appearance of officers and soldiers by Miyunze Lake made the people living by the lake very confused, because the officers and soldiers had not come here to suppress bandits in recent years after many failed attempts.
What no one noticed was that in a small courtyard by the lake, a man dressed as a fisherman released a few pigeons into the sky. These freed birds immediately flew towards the lake.
"Sir, I found a few fishermen who are making a living here. They all have small families here, and asked them to lead the way for the army." Ye Ying, who was in the vanguard, pointed to a few people behind him and bowed to Sima Chi.
"There are brains in Xiaoye. There is no guarantee that there won't be one of them among these fishermen. Let's find more people, especially if there are families and small children, so they won't dare to cause trouble." Regarding Ye Ying's arrangement, Cao Zhen obviously Very satisfied, he said with a smile on his face.
The arrival of the army must not be hidden from the Zeyun Village bandits, so Cao Zhen was not in a hurry and let the army stationed on the spot by the lake so that the soldiers could fully rest and participate in this operation in the best condition.
It was getting late, but Sima Chi's military tent was still brightly lit. As the commander of this operation, Sima Chi was still discussing the final details of the upcoming battle with several troops leading the team. Ye Ying, who was the vanguard of the battle, We were also notified to attend this meeting.
"Chief Ye, the success or failure of this operation depends on you. After it is completed, I will personally go to the army to ask for credit for you!" When Ye Ying left, Sima Chi personally went to the door of the camp. He patted Ye Ying on the shoulder and said sincerely.
But what Ye Ying didn't notice was that after his figure disappeared, the smile on Sima Chi's face immediately disappeared, replaced by a coldness that was rare to see on his face.
At the second watch of the next day, people were still sleeping in their sleep. No one noticed that several small boats quietly left the shore of the lake and rowed quickly towards the depths of the lake.
On each small boat, there were several people wearing black night clothes. All of these people said nothing and just worked hard to row the oars to make the boat move forward as fast as possible.
With the cover of night and thick fog, these small boats arrived on the water under the cliff behind Yunze Village before the fourth watch.
"You guys wait here, I'll go up first, and you can go up when the rope is lowered later."
At this time, a man in black gave instructions to a few people around him, then put a bundle of ropes on his back and climbed up the steep cliff. The strange thing is that even the cliff that is difficult for monkeys to climb up and down does not trouble the man in black at all.
"Brother Fu, why is he so powerful? He can climb up such a steep cliff." A man in black on the boat asked the fat man next to him.
"Of course! The boss is omnipotent, and Hu Zi and I both learned our kung fu." After hearing what the man in black said, the little fat man said proudly.
The man in black who climbed up the cliff was Ye Ying, and the fat man was none other than Ye Ying's good brother Shan Fu. The mission of Ye Ying and his party this time was to climb up from this cliff and reach Yunze Village. Behind, go and cut off the bandits' retreat.
This task is not easy, not to mention that climbing up this steep cliff will break into pieces if you don't pay attention. Even if you climb up, once you are discovered by the bandits above, there are countless ways to kill them.
The upward cliff is about a hundred meters high. Although there are protruding stones and some vines on the cliff, it is extremely difficult to climb up from here, not to mention having to bring a large bundle of rope.
Everyone below looked closely at Ye Ying who was climbing all the way up. They saw him using his hands and feet to get as close to the cliff as possible and moving upward quickly. The steep cliff that was so daunting to ordinary people actually did not cause him any trouble. .
Ye Ying climbed all the way and reached the top of the cliff in less than half an hour. At this time, he could already hear the voices on the cliff.
The last time he visited Yunze Village, Ye Ying knew that there were several bandits patrolling on the top of the cliff, so he did not dare to go up rashly. Instead, he decided where to go up after listening clearly to the movements above.
Fortunately, Ye Ying was cautious. As soon as he climbed under the top of the cliff, he heard footsteps coming from above. He immediately held his breath and moved his body tightly closer to a slightly concave place in front of him.
The footsteps got closer and closer, and soon reached the top of Ye Ying's head, and then stopped.
"Have they been discovered?" Ye Ying thought nervously.
Before Ye Ying could recover, a stream of water came down from the cliff. Fortunately, Ye Ying's body had sunk into the cliff, otherwise the water would have poured on him.
It turned out that a bandit had an urgent need to urinate at night and didn't want to go to the toilet, so he settled on the top of the cliff.
"Bad luck!" Ye Ying thought in his heart, but he didn't dare to make any noise. He could only wait quietly for this guy to be dealt with, and then he heard the footsteps getting farther and farther away.
After the footsteps went away, Ye Ying quickly climbed up, raised his head from the top of the cliff, and looked in the direction of the bandit's stronghold.
Seeing that there was no one else in this position, Ye Ying quickly climbed to the top of the cliff, then quickly found a hidden location near the cabin and hid.
There was a hut near the cliff, where the bandits who were responsible for guarding the cliff lived. With the help of the lights inside, Ye Ying saw five figures, which made him worried.
The last time he came here, Ye Ying discovered that there were always two bandits guarding the cliff. Unexpectedly, more people were sent today. It seems that the bandits have already received news of the arrival of the officers and soldiers, and have specially strengthened their defenses.
If you want to lower the rope and get the people below to come up, you must deal with the bandits guarding the hut. According to previous predictions, it would be easy to handle if there were only two bandits, but now there are five people who want to deal with them silently. , it’s really a bit difficult.
From the sounds inside, it seems that these bandits are gambling in the hut. Now they are in a state of excitement. It is almost impossible to go in and solve them one by one.
While Ye Ying was thinking about a solution, there was movement in the hut again. The door of the hut opened gently, and a bandit slowly walked out of it.
"You guys wait a minute, I'll follow my example and go pee on the cliff."
"You kid, be careful, don't fall and die unjustly."
"Fart, I'm not as bad as you!"
Along with the sound of conversation, the bandit staggered toward the cliff.
As the bandit spoke, he walked towards the cliff, but when he was still a few steps away from the cliff, he suddenly fell to the ground.
"Haha, you kid said that if you are not unlucky, you will fall down on a flat road. It seems that I can make up for it later." Seeing the bandit lying on the ground, the bandit in the room did not feel anything unusual, but laughed loudly. laugh it out.
But the strange thing is that the bandit who fell on the ground didn't get up for a long time, which immediately aroused the vigilance of the other bandits in the house.
"Lao Kui, what's going on with you kid?" A bandit shouted outside the house, but the bandit lying on the ground still showed no sign of getting up.
"Er Niu, go and take a look. Is this kid knocked unconscious?" A voice sounded in the hut again.
Not long after, the door of the hut opened again, and a thin bandit walked out and walked step by step in the direction of the fallen bandit.
Unexpectedly, an accident happened again. The bandit who had just walked out of the house fell to the ground softly like the previous bandit.
"Something's wrong, please sound the gong." Seeing this, a bandit immediately realized the problem and shouted to a bandit next to him.
When the bandit next to him heard the shout, he immediately turned around and ran towards a gong hanging on the wall. Unexpectedly, he had just approached the gong and picked up the mallet beside the gong before he started beating it when he saw a figure rushing towards him. Entered the hut and punched him in the back of the head.
There were two bandits left in the house, and they reacted very quickly. One bandit rushed towards the figure who entered the house, and the other bandit took the opportunity to climb up the window and prepared to rush out of the house to call for help.
Of course it was Ye Ying who rushed into the hut. He quickly dealt with the bandits rushing towards him, but another bandit had already jumped out of the window. He shouted and ran quickly towards the cottage.
How could Ye Ying let him run away? He quickly chased after him, picked up a short knife found in the house, and shot the bandit in the back. The bandit only had time to let out a scream and then fell to the ground.
After successfully dealing with several bandits, he breathed a long sigh of relief. He was not worried that the shouts just now would alert the bandits in the village. Because this place is still a long way from the bandits' stronghold, the wind on the top of the cliff is very loud, and the people inside cannot hear the shouts. This is why the bandits prepared gongs.
In order to avoid accidents, Ye Ying stabbed each bandit again, retracted the steel needles from the necks of the two bandits, and then looked in the direction of the village. Seeing that there was indeed no movement, he walked towards the cliff with confidence.
Qi Jiao and others at the bottom of the mountain were waiting quietly. Ye Ying had been up there for a long time, and before he could get the rope down from the top, many people already had anxious looks on their faces.
However, everyone did not wait too long. A long rope was hung from the top of the cliff. Qi Jiao was already impatient with waiting. He was the first to grab the rope and climbed up quickly.
Thanks to the support of the people above, everyone successfully reached the top of the cliff. Looking at the bandits who fell on the ground, it was not difficult for everyone to imagine what they had just experienced. Everyone looked at Ye Ying with admiration.
"We have to hurry up. It is estimated that the bandits in the village will find out what's going on here at the latest tomorrow morning." Ye Ying didn't have time to pay attention to everyone's eyes and made arrangements in a hurry.
Under the leadership of Ye Ying, everyone quickly threw the bodies of the five bandits off the cliff and cleaned up the blood stains on the ground. Next, more than twenty soldiers from the new barracks wearing night clothes bypassed the wall of Zeyun Village and quickly headed towards the mountain behind the village.
