The horse bandits were complacent and their morale was very high. Especially the group responsible for attacking from the west gate. They were the most elite part of the horse bandits. The leader, Scarface, was also the number one warrior of the horse bandits. He was also the right-hand man of the horse bandit leader and also the second-in-command of the horse bandits.
This guy was the most ferocious. When he robbed, he would often hurt people. If it were not for the fact that the leader of the Horse Gang had asked all the Horse Gang subordinates to only seek wealth and not kill, this guy would have started a massacre. In this guy's eyes, only his own brothers were human. The other tribes, especially the Central Plains people, were lambs waiting to be slaughtered. In the era of the Tang Dynasty, when the Central Plains people had a high status, it was really surprising that this Horse Gang would have such an idea.
Perhaps this was the pride of a nation! Any ethnic group, even if it was an extremely weak one, had self-esteem and would value themselves. They would even deliberately belittle other ethnic groups in their hearts, thereby elevating their own ethnic group to a certain extent. They would even fabricate the glorious history of their own ethnic group and treat many things that did not exist as real. It was very much like burying one's head in the sand and stealing a bell.
Scarface was such a person. In fact, there were not many Xiongnu people left. Except for some who continued to move west, the rest had basically been assimilated by the Central Plains people. Many people even forgot that they were Xiongnu people. However, there were still a few people who were very stubborn. They always remembered that they were Xiongnu people and always had the delusion of restoring the glory of the Xiongnu people.
The west gate was the closest to the valley where the Horse Gang was lying in ambush. The tall scar-faced man rode his horse confidently. From time to time, he would shout loudly to urge the Horse Gang under his command to move faster. He even scolded loudly. These Horse Gang were not educated and their language was also quite rude. Scolding people was a common occurrence, especially when the leader scolded his subordinates. It was very common.
The environment at night was quieter, especially in the middle of the night. The environment was even quieter. A large group of Horse Gangs galloped over. The shouts of the people and the neighs of the horses were very obvious and could be heard hundreds of steps away.
Ang Lee and the soldiers sitting on top of the west gate naturally heard these sounds. From these sounds, they could estimate the distance and the approximate number of Horse Gangs.
"They are less than two miles away. There are about two hundred riders."
With many years of combat experience, Ang Lee could already estimate the number and distance of the enemy cavalry from the sound of the horses' hooves. This was a trained ability. People who did not live at the border often would not have this ability.
"Everyone, get ready. Stay calm. Don't make any mistakes."
Ang Lee continued to make arrangements.
At this moment, the most nervous people were the soldiers standing at the city gate and in the tents. They had to face the surprise attack of the Horse Gang directly. It was very risky. If they failed to protect their vital parts, they would risk losing their lives.
The Horse Gang thought that they had fully understood the situation in Old White Town, so they were not worried at all. Each of them was more arrogant than the other, and they rushed over without any warning.
The tall man with the scar on his face rushed to the front. He was brave enough so he wasn't afraid of being blocked by the soldiers. He could defeat many ordinary soldiers by himself. Moreover, he felt that he understood the situation in Old White Town well enough. Since the soldiers were asleep, he had nothing to be afraid of.
When they were about to reach the west gate, Scarface saw that the soldiers at the gate were panicking. This made him lower his guard.
"Brothers, kill these soldiers. Kill them."
The tall scar-faced man shouted excitedly.
The Horse Gang behind him drew their bows and loaded their arrows. They aimed at the few soldiers and began to shoot. Some of the Horse Gang even aimed at the tents. After a rain of arrows, the soldiers fell to the ground. The soldiers on the city wall were hung on the broken parapet wall with many arrows in their backs. A few soldiers in white shirts ran out of the tents with several arrows in their chests. Almost as soon as they ran out of the tents, they fell to the ground and couldn't get up.
In the blink of an eye, he had killed the six soldiers guarding the west gate without injuring his brothers. This made the tall scarred man very excited. The soldiers were just so-so, there was nothing to be afraid of.
"Satisfying! Killing to the heart's content! Hahaha! "
The tall scarred man shouted excitedly. Then, he looked at the smaller scarred man behind him and said, "You take a dozen brothers and stay here. If any soldiers escape, kill them immediately."
Then, he looked at the rest and shouted, "Brothers, charge in and kill all the soldiers. Charge!"
The tall scar-faced man took the lead and led nearly two hundred mounted bandits into Gu Bai City. As soon as they entered the city, they saw a large number of lanterns hanging in the distance, so they went straight for the lanterns. Along the way, what awaited them were traps and fire. They were destined to never return.
Seeing that the main force of the horse bandits had been fooled, Li An and the soldiers under his command all heaved a huge sigh of relief. If these horse bandits had stopped to rest for a moment and first occupied the top of the city gate tower before attacking the city, it would have been very troublesome. Li An and the soldiers under his command who were hidden would have been easily discovered and the consequences could be imagined.
"These Horse Gangs are really simple-minded. They fell for it so easily. They are done for."
One of the soldiers said excitedly.
"The Horse Gangs are not stupid. It's Assistant Minister Li's strategy that is too brilliant. How could the Horse Gangs see through our disguise?"
Another soldier said.
Li An smiled and said, "Soldiers, now, there are only a dozen or so mounted gangsters outside the door. We outnumber them. Now, choose those who are good at archery. Later, each of us will kill one of them and not leave a single one alive. Now, let's start preparing."
In order to prevent the Horse Gangs from escaping, the best way was to attack at the same time and kill all the Horse Gangs in an instant. In this way, none of the remaining Horse Gangs would be able to escape. They wouldn't even have the chance to sound the alarm.
Annihilation was imminent, but Scarface had not foreseen all of this. The noise in the city was too loud, and their ten-odd men were also constantly making noises. As a result, they could not hear Li An's soft words from the top of the city walls, and thus, they did not know that there were several dozen soldiers hidden here.
"You guys go and chop off the heads of the soldiers at the side of the tent."
Scarface was bored and ordered his men to chop off the heads. He was counting his chickens before they hatched a plan. When he went back to see the chief, he would tell the chief that he was the one who chopped off the heads of the soldiers. This way, he would be more valued and be able to gain more benefits. At the same time, this was also a way to vent his anger. His character was the same as Scarface's. He was also a fierce guy. When he robbed the merchants, he didn't have the chance to kill and had been holding back for a long time. Now that he finally had the chance to vent, how could he miss such a heaven-sent opportunity?
Hearing this, two Horse Gangs jumped off their horses and walked towards the tent not far away with their machetes. They were ready to chop off the heads of the soldiers. This didn't seem to be a difficult task. It seemed to be very easy to complete.
However, when the two Horse Gangs walked to the entrance of the tent and were about to chop off the heads of the soldiers, they suddenly realized that the eyes of the soldiers suddenly opened. This shocked the two Horse Gangs. Before they could even scream, they were killed by the short swords that the soldiers drew from their waists.
"Hey, what are the two of you standing there for? It takes so long to chop off a head."
Scarface roared angrily.
However, the two mounted gangsters just stood there and didn't answer. This made Scarface very surprised. He couldn't help but have some cold sweat on his back. The rest of the mounted gangsters were also scared. They always felt that this matter was very strange.
"The three of you, go and take a look."
Scarface instinctively drew his machete from his waist and ordered.
The three Horse Gangs rode their horses over. Each of them drew their machetes and were ready to deal with danger at any time.
These Horse Gang bandits all focused on the direction of the tents, but they neglected the real danger above the city gate. Li An and his soldiers had already drawn their bows and made the final preparations.
"Soldiers, what are you waiting for? Now is the time."
Li An was the first to stand up abruptly. Then, all the soldiers stood up and aimed at the mounted gangsters not far away. According to the previous arrangement, everyone aimed at their own mounted gangsters. This way, they would be able to catch all the mounted gangsters in one fell swoop.
"There are soldiers in ambush."
Scarface saw Ang Lee and the others from the corner of his eyes. He was scared out of his wits. However, everything was too late. Just as he called the alarm, more than a dozen arrows flew over and took down all the Horse Gangs. Scarface's neck was pierced by an arrow. He fell to the ground and stopped breathing.
Of the dozen or so mounted bandits, there were still some who were not killed, but they were all injured. The soldiers shot a few more arrows. Then, the soldiers who had pretended to be dead got up. They were responsible for checking the corpses of the mounted bandits and collecting the horses. These were everyone's spoils of war.
The situation at the West Gate was very smooth. The situation at the South and North Gates was also very good. All of them successfully fooled the Horse Gangs and made them enter the city unprepared.
The Horse Gangs who entered the city from the West Gate were the fastest. They were the first to arrive at the place where the lanterns were. There were more than a dozen tents in front of the lanterns. Moreover, they were all big tents. However, the strange situation was that there were no soldiers outside the tents. It seemed a little empty.
However, Scarface did not care about this. He urged his soldiers to rush over and kill all the soldiers in the tents.
"Kill …"
The Horse Gangs rushed up quickly and used the big swords in their hands to slash the tents.
"There's no one. The tents are empty. There's not a single soldier."
"There are no soldiers here either. There's nothing inside. There's no clothes or bedding."
"Here too. It's just an empty tent."
"This place is empty too. Could it be that these soldiers have escaped in advance?"
The Horse Gangs said in horror.
Scarface suddenly had an ominous premonition. He felt as if he had fallen into a trap of the soldiers. This feeling was very strong and made him shudder.
Soon, he realized that there were a lot of weeds under his feet. He could faintly smell the smell of oil. Oil and hay were flammable. If the soldiers hid around to prevent fire, they would be in trouble.
"Jia …"
Just as Scarface was panicking, the Horse Gangs who broke in from the South and North Gates had successfully arrived. However, they seemed a little unhappy. Recently, they had arrived a little late at the West Gate. The biggest credit had been taken by Scarface.
"Retreat, retreat immediately. Go back the way we came."
Scarface roared and took the lead to retreat, preparing to get out of the ruins of Old White City from the West Gate.
The Horse Gang under his command were also frightened by this sudden battle and fled together with him. This scene made the other two groups of Horse Gang, who had just arrived, puzzled. They did not understand what had happened.
However, they soon understood what had happened because a large number of flaming arrows whizzed over their heads. The soldiers of the Tang dynasty had begun their fire attack.
As these arrows fell to the ground, the fire quickly burned. The tall scar-faced man who had escaped earlier was in a better situation. At least half of his men and horses were not burned by the fire. The remaining two groups were all caught in the sea of fire and suffered heavy casualties. Many horse bandits were burned by the fire and wailed like ghosts and howled like wolves. It could be said that they deserved it.
Looking back at the raging fire, the tall scarred man felt a lingering fear. Fortunately, he had escaped a step earlier. Otherwise, he would have definitely been roasted. However, since this was a trap, then the city would definitely not be safe. It was best to escape as soon as possible.
However, the tall scar-faced man didn't know that the road he had just walked through had been temporarily set up by the soldiers. When he returned, the tripping rope was activated by the soldiers. Immediately, a large group of mounted gangsters, including the tall scar-faced man, fell to the ground like dogs eating mud. Arrows rapidly shot from the surroundings, killing some of the mounted gangsters on the spot.
In a short distance, six tripping ropes were set up, blocking all the escaping mounted bandits. Not a single one of them was able to break out.
The tall scar-faced man touched his knee and grimaced in pain. Fortunately, there were not many soldiers nearby. The arrows were sparse and only killed a few of the Horse Gang. Most of them were still fine. The uninjured Horse Gang immediately returned fire with crossbows.
"The main road is blocked. We can't go. Brothers, follow me to the side road."
Scarface led the horse to the side road. After getting on the side road, he found that there were no soldiers, so he got on the horse and moved forward carefully.
However, there was also an ambush on the side road. Moreover, the horse trap was on the side road and was well camouflaged.
"Ah …"
Not long after they walked, more than a dozen Horse Gangs in the front fell into the horse trap one after another and were immediately skewered by the sharp branches in the pit. Both men and horses died.
The tall scar-faced man reined in his horse and barely managed to avoid a calamity. He was just a little bit away from losing his life.
There were ambushes and traps on both the main and small roads, which made the Horse Gangs all frightened and did not know what to do.
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