Pang Gui had no way out now. He was the leader of the bandits, and his wounds were stained with the blood of many poor people. He had even killed some high-ranking officials in Dongnu Province. He could be considered a big bad guy. He did not believe that he would be treated well by the military after surrendering.
Since surrendering would not end well, the only way out was to fight to the death. Although it was difficult, the number of soldiers was too small. The main force had not arrived yet. As long as they gave it their all, there was still some hope.
Generally speaking, Pang Gui's idea was not wrong. As long as the 4,000 people were all fearless and charged forward dauntlessly, they could indeed break through the rain of arrows and cause great damage to the more than 200 soldiers of the imperial army. They could even wipe out the soldiers in one fell swoop. However, only Pang Gui and a few other leaders thought so. The bandits below did not think so. Pang Gui and the others only needed to stand at the back and command. There was not much risk. The ordinary bandits, however, had to face the strong bows and hard crossbows of the imperial army. There was a high chance that they would lose their lives. Moreover, they became bandits to make a living. It was not worth it to lose their lives.
The long-range weapons of the soldiers were too powerful. The bandits who rushed forward were already scared out of their wits when they saw their companions fall one by one. They did not dare to rush forward. The bandits at the front were in a mess. Even if Pang Gui shouted at the top of his lungs at the back, it did not have much effect. Pang Gui and the other leaders did not dare to go to the front to make an example because the enemy had a sniper weapon. As long as they went forward, they would lose their lives. This gave Pang Gui and the other leaders a headache.
"Rush forward and kill the soldiers. You will be rewarded. You will be rewarded."
Pang Gui once again encouraged everyone to fight.
However, at this moment, this method was not very useful. Usually, when robbing, the bandits would be very active without encouragement. However, in this kind of situation where they were courting death, even if they were given the biggest reward, the bandits would not be too happy. If they lost their lives, how could they get the reward?
No matter how loudly Pang Gui shouted, the bandits in front refused to help. Many bandits simply lay on the ground and pretended to be dead. They even hugged a corpse to block the arrows for themselves. After all, no one wanted to die here.
Seeing that the bandits were completely stunned, Ang Lee smiled with satisfaction. Before the attack, he had already learned that Zhao Wufu's troops were very close. Before the attack, Ang Lee had already sent a message to Zhao Wufu, asking him to hurry up and surround Pang Gui's troops. At this moment, Zhao Wufu's three thousand troops were already five li away. It wouldn't take long for them to arrive. When the time came, Pang Gui's troops would face a pincer attack from both sides. It would be very easy for them to be completely annihilated.
"Send a message to Chen Long and summon the bandits."
Li An gave the order to the guards outside the boulder.
Soon, Chen Long, who received the order, began to persuade them to surrender.
"You've been surrounded. Hurry up and surrender! Otherwise, only death awaits you. "
Chen Long shouted loudly.
After all, in the eyes of the bandits, there were only about two hundred soldiers in the imperial army. Moreover, they were only in one direction. How could they be surrounded by the imperial army? They didn't quite understand.
However, when Pang Gui and the others heard the news, they seemed to understand something. If the two hundred soldiers appeared behind them, it was very likely that there would be soldiers coming from the front. If that was the case, could it be that the soldiers from the front were also coming for them?
When they thought of this, Pang Gui and the other leaders looked behind them in horror. They saw a few thousand soldiers rushing towards them. They were Zhao Wufu's troops. Although Ang Lee had asked him to guard the exit, he didn't want to do nothing. He wanted to contribute as well. Therefore, he was advancing every day. When he received Ang Lee's message, they were only about ten li away from the rebel army. Now, they were very close. Especially the elite vanguard, they were less than two li away.
"Leader, it's the main force of the imperial army. It looks like there are about five thousand soldiers! It's a black mass. "
When a leader saw Zhao Wufu's troops, he was shocked. Other than the three thousand elite soldiers, there were also two thousand elite logisticians. Although they were logisticians, they all had weapons in their hands. However, they were in charge of escorting the supplies. As long as there were no accidents, they wouldn't participate in the battle.
Zhao Wufu ordered the three thousand elite soldiers to be in front and the two thousand logisticians to be at the back. They moved along the narrow mountain path. The vanguard looked like they were well-trained elites.
Pang Gui was in despair. At this moment, there were strong enemies in both the front and the back. More than two hundred elite soldiers had already caused his four thousand soldiers to suffer a great loss. If the five thousand soldiers behind him were to arrive in front of him, wouldn't he only have one path — death?
Fear, a kind of extreme fear wrapped around Pang Gui's heart. He had never thought that he would one day encounter such a terrifying dead end. There were cliffs on both sides, and he really couldn't think of any way to escape. Despair had already taken over his entire heart.
"Leader, it's not good. There are more people behind the two hundred soldiers. There are at least three to five hundred of them. There might be more soldiers behind. We can't escape."
One of the captains said in despair.
These leaders were the same as Pang Gui. They all had murder cases in their hands. They were all heinous bandits. Once they surrendered, the bandits could go back to being ordinary people. However, the leaders would face the fate of being executed.
"There's no way out. It seems like the heavens want me to die!"
Pang Gui said with a sigh.
The other leaders beside him also sighed. They felt that they were already on a dead end. There was no way for them to escape.
At this moment, some of the bandits in front threw away their weapons and were ready to surrender to Chen Long.
Seeing that some people were surrendering, the bandits behind were also shaken. At this moment, they knew that they were surrounded. They had no other way out except to surrender. As long as they could keep their lives, they didn't care about anything else.
Sometimes, surrendering could be contagious. As long as one person surrendered, there would be a second person. Then, more people would put down their weapons and surrender. When there was no hope of victory, the best choice was to surrender. Was there any better choice than surrendering? Obviously, there was none.
Pang Gui, who was in despair, wanted to stop them. However, there was no hope in continuing the battle. Moreover, he had lost too many leaders. Many bandits didn't listen to his orders. He couldn't stop the sneak attacks of ordinary bandits. Therefore, it was better to let them go. At worst, he could hide his identity and surrender. Maybe he could get away with it.
Thinking of this, Pang Gui and the small leaders all dismounted and changed their clothes, dressing themselves up as ordinary bandits. In order to disguise themselves as bandits, they threw away their weapons and replaced them with the weapons of ordinary bandits.
Pang Gui put his long saber in the hand of the leader who was shot by Ang Lee. He smeared a lot of blood on the leader's face to disguise himself. The other leaders followed suit and put their weapons on the dead bandits to cover up the illusion that they were dead.
The weapons of these bandit leaders were the best. At first glance, it was obvious that they were different from the weapons in the hands of ordinary bandits. Naturally, they couldn't keep them.
There were thousands of bandits. These leaders mixed in the crowd to change their clothes and then disguised themselves as ordinary bandits. This move was naturally able to fool Chen Long and the others because Chen Long couldn't see this scene at all.
However, Ang Lee was standing halfway up the mountain. He had already seen Pang Gui and the others with his binoculars. Ang Lee could even roughly recognize their faces. Therefore, these guys couldn't escape.
If these guys were hiding in the crowd, Ang Lee wouldn't be able to find them. However, these guys actually gathered together. It was really stupid. They were all bandit leaders. In terms of temperament, they were different from ordinary bandits. If they gathered together, it would be even more obvious.
"A bunch of idiots."
Ang Lee cursed. Then, he left the mountainside and went down to meet up with Chen Long.
At this time, the remaining 3,000 bandits had all surrendered. Their weapons were thrown to one side, and they stood on the other side. They were very well-behaved.
Zhao Wufu, who had wanted to kill a few bandits to gain merit, was shocked to see a group of bandits who had thrown away their weapons when he arrived. He never expected that with just Ang Lee's pitiful men, a group of bandits who were more than ten times their number, would directly throw down their weapons and surrender. Moreover, since Ang Lee could reach this position, it was enough to say that the other group of 4,000 bandits had also been eliminated by Ang Lee.
This could no longer be described as shocking. The total number of bandits was only slightly over 20,000, yet Li An had easily taken care of 8,000 of them. This was on top of the fact that he only had a few hundred men with him. If he had a few thousand men with him, wouldn't he be even more powerful?
Since the bandits had already surrendered, Zhao Wufu had no reason to use force. He urged his horse to Ang Lee's side, dismounted, and saluted. He said in surprise, "Assistant Minister Li eliminated 8,000 bandits with just a few hundred elites. This is really admirable!"
"Haha! No, no, they're just bandits. The other group of bandits was defeated, and more than half of them ran away. If the Fifth Minister hadn't arrived in time, this group of bandits might not have chosen to surrender. Haha! "
Ang Lee said lightly.
Being humble despite having strength, Zhao Wufu immediately respected Ang Lee even more. Compared to many years ago, Ang Lee's strength seemed to have improved a lot.
"So many bandits have surrendered. How should we deal with them?"
Zhao Wufu looked at the captured bandits and frowned.
Obviously, Zhao Wufu didn't trust these bandits very much. But his forces were limited, and he really didn't want to divide his forces to watch over these surrendered bandits. But if he left them alone, once these bandits reorganized and rebelled, it would be very troublesome.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Fifth Minister, you don't have to worry. Most of these surrendered bandits are civilians who have nowhere to go. Only a few of them are bandits who have committed crimes. For the civilians who have nowhere to go, they can be temporarily incorporated into the army. As for the few real bandits, they can be caught and dealt with according to the law. I think the Fifth Minister should have a way to distinguish between real bandits and civilians!"
Zhao Wufu smiled and nodded, "Assistant Minister Li's words are reasonable. Let's do it."
After he finished speaking, he ordered his subordinates to start distinguishing the bandits. These trusted subordinates were all experts in the army. They could still tell the difference between bandits and ordinary people. After all, there was a difference between the calluses on the hands of farmers and bandits who had been holding weapons for a long time. Ordinary people could only roughly distinguish, but these veterans could tell what kind of weapons or farming tools the bandits used based on these calluses. This was the experience they had accumulated over a long period of time.
Soon, the real bandits were caught one by one by Zhao Wufu's subordinates. Of course, this included Pang Gui and the other leaders who were disguised as bandits.
Ang Lee glanced at Pang Gui and the others, and the corners of his mouth revealed a trace of a sneer. These guys still wanted to get away with it. It was simply wishful thinking.
Zhao Wufu didn't see who was the leader, but there were four thousand bandits, so there must be many leaders.
"Who is the leader among you?"
Zhao Wufu asked loudly.
The more than two hundred people who were caught were all silent, as if they didn't hear a word.
Zhao Wufu was angry. He shouted again, "I'll ask you again. Who is the leader among you?"
This time, no one answered. Everyone lowered their heads and refused to speak.
"Oh, you think you'll be fine if you don't speak?"
Zhao Wufu was furious. He directly pulled up a small leader and killed him in front of everyone.
"Tell me who is the leader, or I'll kill all of you."
Zhao Wufu threatened.
This deterrence was very effective. A few of the small leaders were already secretly looking at Pang Gui. This made Pang Gui very angry. In order to divert their attention, Pang Gui volunteered, "General, the leader has died in battle. His body is in front."
After that, Pang Gui pointed at a small leader's body lying on the ground not far away.
Zhao Wufu walked over and looked at the superior weapon in the bandit's hand, as well as the size of the bandit's body. He was almost convinced.
"Haha! This leader has been killed. Assistant Minister Li is really good! Perhaps this is the real reason why these bandits surrendered! "
Zhao Wufu said with a smile.
Ang Lee shook his head and smiled, "Fifth Minister, you're wrong. The person who spoke just now is the real leader of the bandits."
After that, he looked at Pang Gui who was not far away.
Hearing this, Zhao Wufu looked back at Pang Gui. Suddenly, a very puzzled expression appeared on his face.
"How does Assistant Minister Li know that he is the leader of the bandits?"
Zhao Wufu seemed to be uncertain. After all, clothes make the man. At this time, Pang Gui was wearing the tattered clothes of an ordinary bandit, and his hair was dirty and messy. He didn't have the domineering aura of a bandit leader at all. It was impossible to tell that he was a leader.
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