"Kill!"
After rushing down the hillside, the bandits could no longer hold back and shouted to be brave, "If you are wise, hand over the gold, or I will kill you all!"
"How dare more than 40 bandits come to rob the road? They all look like raw melons and eggs!"
As a bandit, Ding Xiao was a little stunned.
Who is a truly experienced and intelligent bandit who would do this?
It seems that Yang Yinglong's rebellion has caused many usually lazy gangsters to become bandits, trying to fish in troubled waters, but their brains seem to have been squeezed by the door panel.
There is such a huge gap between the two sides, and you still dare to come and die. How greedy are you for money, and you want money rather than your life?
Do you think you are a royal guard or a Japanese pirate?
"Firegun Team, come out and practice."
Ding Xiao snorted coldly, unsheathed his sword, "Pack the gunpowder and wait for my order before shooting."
Thirty minzhuangs holding firecrackers immediately stood up and lined up in groups of ten. Everyone was filled with gunpowder and ready to go.
"Kill, charge!"
"Grab the gold. The gold belongs to us. Don't kill until you surrender!"
The charging bandits were red-eyed. Even though they saw that the Chang'an army was on guard, they still rushed forward like moths to a flame.
In the eyes of the bandits, the people in Chang'an Town are all honest country bumpkins. How brave can they be?
My side is full of gangsters who usually do evil, bully men and women, and get into fights. As long as they are violent, these country bumpkins who are strong on the outside and hard on the inside should run away, right?
They only dare to confront each other because of the strength of their numbers. As long as they launch a charge without fear of death, these country bumpkins will fall into chaos, right?
Ding Xiao sat on the horse and observed silently: "The distance is two hundred feet, one hundred and fifty feet, one hundred and twenty feet, one hundred feet, eighty feet, seventy feet... open fire and shoot!"
Following Ding Xiao's order, the musketeer in the first row pulled the trigger of the musket.
In an instant there was a loud burst of gunfire - "Bang, bang, bang!"
When attacked at a short distance, the bandits who couldn't stop their cars bumped into the muzzle of the gun one after another. Their bodies were covered with wounds from bullets, and four or five fell down in an instant.
"Change to the second row and fire!"
Ding Xiao waved the sword in his hand and gave the order again.
Another round of bullets was fired, knocking down five or six bandits again.
Then it was the third platoon's turn to fire.
After the bullets in the third row have been shot, they are replaced with the first row, and after the first row is shot, they are replaced with the second row, and so on...
In just a moment, half of the more than forty bandits who rushed down the hillside were dead. The remaining ones no longer had the courage to charge, so they turned around and ran for their lives.
"No, the people in Chang'an Town actually have fire guns!"
"The boss is so deceptive. He tricked us into rushing down to die, while he himself watched from behind."
"Stop mumbling and run!"
"Where the hell are you running, are you going to go back to find this bastard, the Earth-Drilling Dragon? This guy is trying to kill someone without paying for his life...ah, I was hit by an arrow!"
"drive!"
Ding Xiao rode in pursuit, "Brothers with horses and brothers with crossbows, charge me, don't let any of them go!"
"Kill!"
Under the leadership of Ding Xiao, Minzhuang of the Junzi Company let out a roar like a mountain roar and a tsunami, and launched a charge like a tiger descending from the mountain.
At this moment, a scout galloped over on horseback: "The mayor has an order, try to catch as many people alive as possible!"
Ding Xiao immediately conveyed the order: "Don't shoot the arrows, catch them alive!"
Minzhuang of the Gentleman Company charged while shouting: "Don't run, disarm and don't kill, or I'll shoot you to death!"
The bandits who were fleeing for their lives were so frightened that they knelt on the ground and surrendered: "Spare your lives, this is our first time being bandits. Please forgive me for any offense!"
"Get up, put your head in your hands, and follow us down the mountain."
The people escorted the captured bandits down the mountain one by one. Not one of the more than 40 people escaped.
But the earth-burrowing dragon stubbornly resisted and refused to surrender, and was beheaded by Ding Xiao's sword. This ragtag group that had just become entangled was completely destroyed in an instant.
Soon, more than 20 captured bandits were escorted to Zhu Renxia's horse.
"Hey, you really have the heart of a bear but the courage of a leopard. How dare you rob a large group of over a thousand people with only forty or fifty people?"
Seeing the county magistrate wearing a blue official robe, these gangsters who usually do evil kowtowed and begged for mercy: "County magistrate, please forgive us. We were bewitched by the earth-burrowing dragon and dared to rob the gold. It was not our original intention."
"Gold robbery?"
When Zhu Renxia heard this, his eyes flickered sharply for a few times, and he grasped the most critical information.
He originally thought that these bandits were robbing randomly, grabbing whatever they caught, but it turned out that they were here for gold, and they seemed to have a clear purpose. So how did they know that there was gold in the baggage escorted by this team?
There is only one answer, and that is that someone in the county government tipped off these bandits.
"Where's the burrowing dragon?"
Zhu Renxia got off his horse and asked with his hands behind his back. The large group of people stopped and rested on the spot.
Ding Xiao drew his sword and shouted: "Who is the Earth-Drilling Dragon? Stand up for yourself."
"Sir, the person whose head you cut off and whose face is pockmarked is the Earth-Drilling Dragon." The dog-headed military advisor mumbled in reply.
Ding Xiao was a little helpless: "Uh...it turned out to be him. If I had known, I would have left him alive."
Zhu Renxia did not continue to pester who was the Earth-Drilling Dragon, and continued to ask: "So besides the Earth-Drilling Dragon, who is the second or third master?"
"It's him, it's him, it's him."
More than twenty bandits testified against each other, and in the end most of their fingers focused on the dog-headed military counselor.
Zhu Renxia's eyes were blazing and he snorted coldly: "Is that you?"
The dog-headed military advisor knelt on the ground and begged pitifully for mercy: "I am just a staff officer of the Earth-Drilling Dragon. I am not the second-in-command at all. Not many people take my words seriously."
"If you're not honest, cut off an ear!"
As soon as Zhu Renxia finished speaking, Ding Xiao swung out the sword in his hand, instantly cutting off the left ear of the dog-headed military advisor, causing blood to flow profusely.
"Sir, spare your life!"
The dog-headed strategist was so frightened that he covered his bleeding ear with one hand, and hurriedly picked up the ear that fell on the ground with the other hand. He mumbled for mercy, but his crotch was already full of feces and urine.
Zhu Renxia said coldly: "Let me ask you now, if you recruit me from the ground, I will ask the military doctor to sew your ear shut. If you continue to deny it, your other ear and even your tongue will be cut off."
"The elder just asks, the villain will definitely recruit from the truth if he knows."
The dog-headed military advisor knelt on the ground and shivered. He only regretted that his hands were not enough, otherwise he would have covered his remaining right ear no matter what.
"How did you know there was gold in the Chang'an Army?" Zhu Renxia asked in a deep voice.
The dog-headed military advisor told him honestly: "It was Li Yuejin, the leader of the Zhuang Squad in Jinping County, who sent someone to notify the Earth-Drilling Dragon."
"How long have you bandits been gathering together? Where is your lair?" Zhu Renxia asked again.
"More than a month ago, shortly after the rebels captured Liping Mansion, we were gathered together by the Earth-Drilling Dragon. The lair was in Woniu Mountain at the junction of Tanxi County and Jinping County."
"What other bad things have you done?"
"Reply to the eldest master, we followed the earth-burrowing dragon and robbed several small villages. We didn't kill anyone or set fire to it. We didn't kill anyone."
The dog-headed military advisor was so frightened that he confessed honestly as if he were pouring beans out of a bamboo tube.
Zhu Renxia called out: "Come here, take this bandit leader into custody and hand it over to Liu Gongfu in Jinping County. Let him come out to testify against Li Yuejin, who reported to the bandits, and eliminate the bad apples among the officials."
"yes."
Immediately two burly men emerged from the crowd and tied up the dog-headed military advisor.
"Please find someone to sew my ears back, I don't want to be an earless person!" The dog-headed military advisor held his bloody ears and shouted for help.
"How dare you, a fucking bandit, bargain?"
The person in charge of the binding was Minzhuang, a man from the Qi family army who hated evil. Hearing this, he tied the ropes hard and said, "When you robbed the people, you also killed a lot of people, right?"
"If you don't have faith, you won't be established, let alone this county, which is an official of the imperial court!"
Zhu Renxia thought for a moment and then became compassionate, "Here, ask the military doctor to come over and help sew his ears. Whether he can live long depends on his own luck."
The dog-headed military advisor burst into tears with excitement and thanked him repeatedly: "Thank you, sir, thank you, sir Qingtian!"
After the dog-headed military advisor was taken down for treatment, Ding Xiao pointed to the more than 20 bandits kneeling on the ground and asked, "Sir, how should we deal with these bandits?"
Zhu Renxia thought for a while and ordered: "Since the leader of the bandits is dead, his deputies have also been handed over to the county magistrate for questioning. Then let these people help the Thirteenth Company escort food, do some menial work, and make contributions. Atonement.”
"Thank you sir for your kindness!"
"I wish the county magistrate a long life!"
When these bandits heard about the amnesty, they all kowtowed and thanked them. Then they were escorted to the rear of the team by Gao Tong, the 13th company, and were responsible for doing some menial work.
A brief interlude ended here, and the 900-man Chang'an Army continued to advance westward, striving to reach Jinping County before evening.
