Chapter 87: Whoever Protects Me, I Will Protect in Return

The county seat of Peace County was a rammed-earth town, low and frail, and that was one reason it had fallen seven times.

Against such a shallow wall, all one needed was a wooden plank to launch an assault.

Deng Hu watched his mounted archers ride forward. He searched in his robe, drew out a handkerchief, and lifted it to his nose, inhaling its faint fragrance.

Beside him, Qiao Heng, who carried a battle ax, laughed. "Brother still cannot forget Hui Na, can he?"

Hui Na was the daughter of Huo Zhuo, chieftain of the Waxie Tribe, and her beauty was famed across the grasslands.

Deng Hu said in a low, distant voice, "Since the day I saw her, I swore that in this life I would marry no one but her."

The brooding Zhuang Sheng smiled. "Brother is not only after Hui Na's beauty, is he?"

Deng Hu's face went cold. "Of course not."

Zhuang Sheng was also one of the leaders, and did not fear offending him. "Our more than three hundred riders are enough for plundering nearby settlements, but if we want to go further and carve out a stronghold of our own, that is far from enough. Only by joining hands with the Waxie Tribe can we borrow their strength and build our foundation."

Qiao Heng sighed. "You have suffered for it, brother."

Deng Hu shook his head. "No suffering at all."

Zhuang Sheng said, "Last time, Hui Na did not greet brother with much warmth."

Deng Hu's expression remained unchanged. "Women are always like that. The one who sneers at the goods is the one who means to buy them."

Ahead, three hundred riders charged.

"Archers..."

Qian Mo raised a hand, and fifty soldiers drew their bows.

But the horse bandits cunningly pulled up outside bow range.

They laughed.

A pack of horse bandits was laughing.

"Hold!" Qian Mo gave the order helplessly, for a bow kept drawn too long would strain the arm.

A whistle rang out, and the bandits kicked their horses forward.

"Draw!"

With the creak of bowstrings, the soldiers on the wall drew again.

The bandits stopped once more.

This was nothing but teasing.

After several such rounds, the bandits launched their rush.

Mounted bows could not match the range of the longbows on the wall, so they had to close in before loosing arrows.

"Draw!"

Qian Mo shouted.

The longbows slowly came taut.

But the bandits accelerated.

They were drawing their bows too.

"This is mutual destruction." Yang Xuan had at last formed a rough impression of the bandits' cunning and ferocity.

Yet Qian Mo had no choice. If they let the bandits loose a rain of arrows, how many men on the wall would fall?

"Shields!"

Someone screamed shrilly.

Yang Xuan raised his shield.

Arrows streaked down from the wall, and arrows from below flew upward.

Yang Xuan noticed that those convicts assigned to the death squad had no bows.

Indeed, if they had been given bows, the fifty soldiers would likely have been wiped out in one sweep.

At that moment, they crouched behind their shields at the rear of the wall, and some people were laughing.

No, many people were laughing.

They were laughing at the soldiers' miserable plight.

"Ah!"

Cries of agony came in rapid succession.

Yang Xuan saw seven or eight men fall, and his heart turned cold.

The low wall had stripped the soldiers of protection, and it also allowed the bandits to shoot from close range.

Yet Qian Mo kept shouting, "Draw!"

Draw what nonsense?

Yang Xuan clenched his teeth.

Just as he was about to give an order, arrows came flying.

Screams rose from both the wall and below it.

This time fewer men fell, five in all.

The bandits were closing in.

Yang Xuan sprang to his feet.

The horse bandits were already near.

Several dismounted and laid wooden planks up against the wall.

An archer drew and shot downward, only to be shot off the wall at once.

Such was the fate of the outnumbered.

Yang Xuan glanced left and right.

Diao She looked unsettled.

Zhao Youcai was absentminded.

The leaders were like this; those below them among the convicts were surely no different. Once melee began, Yang Xuan would wager that these prisoners would break and flee.

Seven times the city had been breached—were these convicts merely spectators as well?

Perhaps they all hoped to escape from here.

Yang Xuan drew a deep breath, and at last understood why Qian Mo had given the rigid order for archers to meet strength with weakness.

Once the fighting turned into a wall-top struggle, he feared the convicts would run.

And then, how could fifty soldiers stop more than three hundred mounted bandits?

"Sir!"

The old bandit's face had gone pale.

"County magistrate!"

The two clerks, Hu Zhang among them, wore despair on their blackened faces, and the hand that held the blade trembled.

Zhen Siwen, however, remained remarkably calm.

With a slap, a plank was laid before Yang Xuan.

Qian Mo roared, "Do you mean to join the horse bandits? The women among the bandits are shared by all. Can you bear to watch your wives be humiliated?"

Among the bandits, women were treasures. These fierce outlaws, who lived with tomorrow uncertain, needed the consolation of women more than anything.

The convicts stirred.

Qian Mo was furious beyond measure. "Charge down there and drive them back!"

Someone shouted in protest, "Do not take us for your scapegoats. Which of you dares to go first?"

"I do!"

One man climbed onto the wall and met a bandit just as he rushed up.

A sweeping strike of the blade.

The bandit fell away.

The man slid down the plank.

"It is the county magistrate!"

Yang Xuan charged down.

"Sir!"

Cao Ying followed close behind.

The old bandit, Wang Lao Er, Yi Niang...

Yang Xuan's people rushed down the plank after him.

"What the hell!" someone among the convicts stared in disbelief. "Is he going to his death?"

The moment Yang Xuan's feet touched the ground, arrows came at him in a dense volley.

He focused only on blocking them, when a spear came silently from the side.

"Careful!"

The old bandit shouted.

Yang Xuan twisted aside from the spear, and behind him came the fierce hiss of a blade.

He reversed his grip in the move known as Qin's Backward Sword.

Clang!

A tremendous force struck him. Yang Xuan steadied his footing and tried to counter with a slash of his own.

Then came the thunder of hooves.

The horse's iron-shod feet pounded the ground, making a sound that shook the soul. The bandit on horseback bent slightly forward, his blade resting at his side.

Qian Mo saw this and cursed, "You don't understand battle formation and you're still going out there? Are you going to die for nothing?"

Yang Xuan hurried to block, but this slash relied more on the horse's momentum than the rider's strength, and he was forced back several steps.

Arrows came again.

Yang Xuan dodged quickly.

Tired.

He felt unbearably tired.

It was as though the inner energy in his whole body could not be summoned at all.

He suddenly thought of a single line.

"Only those unafraid of death can survive the battlefield."

He stepped forward.

The spear was knocked aside by his guard.

A long blade came from behind.

Yang Xuan pressed onward and struck once.

The bandit before him fell.

The blade behind him missed.

He continued to press the attack.

When you surge forward fast enough, the ambushes from behind become a joke.

He shouted, "Form up!"

Cao Ying behind him answered at once.

Yang Xuan was in front, Cao Ying and the others behind.

This small squad held the line there, while the horse bandits came wave after wave.

"Brother, that young county magistrate has led his men down."

Deng Hu saw it and said with composed interest, "I shall need to take his head to make my proposal. Believe me, when Hui Na sees the head of Peace County's new county magistrate, she will cast aside all reserve..."

"And go into a tent with you."

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Bandits had no great refinements among themselves, and that cold jest drew uproarious laughter.

Deng Hu pointed ahead. "Faster. If you are too slow, the people on the wall will go mad and snatch him back."

The bandits pressed in densely.

Yang Xuan gripped his blade in both hands, his face splashed with blood until he looked like a demon.

He drew a deep breath, as though he had returned to Dongyu Mountain.

The first rider.

Block.

Borrow the force and let it pass.

A rising slash.

The bandit's right arm, still clutching the blade, dropped to the ground.

Behind him, Wang Lao Er slapped a bandit clean off his horse.

The old bandit was a little farther back, severing a horse's leg with one stroke.

The warhorse screamed and went down, and only then did the rider tumble from its back.

As he struggled to rise, a flexible sword struck like a snake.

One cut across the throat.

"Left side!"

Cao Ying was watching the flow of battle.

Ahead, two riders came in succession.

Yang Xuan blocked one blade, and was just about to counterstrike when another horseman bore down on him.

He hastily guarded, and the bandit's long blade slid across his shoulder.

Blood burst forth.

"Sir!"

Yi Niang's cry stirred cheers from the bandits.

"A woman!"

Qian Mo on the wall shouted, "Come back, county magistrate... come back!"

By now most of the bandits had gathered on this side.

If Yang Xuan could be killed, the city would collapse of its own accord.

So rider after rider charged straight for him.

The convicts slowly rose to their feet.

"The young county magistrate is wounded."

"Why doesn't he retreat?"

"He has a horse. He could run!"

"Exactly! I heard the former county magistrate said that when a tribe was about to attack, he was going to request reinforcements in Lin'an. Fine, seek reinforcements—but what was the meaning of taking his own woman with him? Did he really think the rest of us were fools?"

"The county magistrate is wounded again!" someone cried out.

Across the way, Deng Hu smiled. "A greenhorn. Tell the brothers: capture him alive, and the reward doubles."

A trace of surprise entered Zhuang Sheng's brooding eyes. "Brother no longer wants his head for the proposal?"

Deng Hu shook his head and said indifferently, "Bringing back a living county magistrate is even better."

Ahead, Yang Xuan freed one hand, gathered his inner energy in a sudden surge, and let out a roar.

His blade flashed like lightning and went straight at the rider. The bandit on horseback split from brow to belly, and blood and viscera gushed out madly.

"Sir, move aside!"

Behind him, Cao Ying and the old bandit pressed forward.

Wang Lao Er slapped one man dead, snatched up a blade, and hacked wildly.

Yi Niang's face had turned white. "Sir, fall back. Cao Ying, if so much as a hair on the sir's head is harmed, this old woman swears I will make your life worse than death!"

The old bandit said, "Those convicts are all just watching for the fun of it, waiting for the city to be breached so they can run. Not worth it, sir. Not worth it!"

On the wall, Qian Mo and his men were desperately blocking bandits trying to climb up. Seeing the situation here, he could only manage a bitter smile.

The convicts were watching too.

"Why doesn't he retreat?" someone asked.

"I think... because he is the county magistrate," said one convict with folded arms, his tone calm.

"The former county magistrates all ran."

"But he is young! Young people have fire in them."

A young convict muttered, "Then what about our own fire?"

"County magistrate!"

Hu Zhang shouted once and rushed down.

Zhen Siwen rubbed his face hard. "Steady, Siwen, you can do this. You must be able to do this!" Then he raised his blade. "Kill them!"

The two clerks of Peace County charged down as well.

"To what purpose?" Deng Hu smiled with confidence. "In a little while, once we enter the city, leave me two women."

Zhuang Sheng laughed. "Brother is indeed vigorous enough to inspire joy and congratulations. Hm?" He pointed at the wall. "That is..."

On the wall, one of the convicts stood up.

In a calm voice, he said, "The county magistrate is protecting us."

He stepped onto the plank and charged down without the slightest hesitation.

A second convict walked out.

"Whoever protects me, I will protect in return."

One after another, the convicts stepped forward, and one after another they rushed down from the wall.

Qian Mo looked on, and suddenly his eyes brimmed with tears.

He raised his blade and stood atop the wall, shouting at the top of his lungs.

"Slay the enemy!"