While retreating, Cuan Wudi climbed up a high slope and looked back at the thousands of soldiers charging towards them. His eyes were filled with panic.
He felt that the ambush of the three thousand men was very well hidden, and the army should not know where they were hiding. However, when he thought about how nearly a hundred of the three hundred men he sent out were captured, he felt relieved. He felt that the captives must have told the army where the three thousand men were hiding in order to save their lives. That was why the main force of the army came out in full force to kill them.
"Ghost Lord, the army is advancing very quickly. Let's retreat quickly."
Cuan Wudi nodded, took off his armor, and quickly fled.
The three thousand bandits had fled in panic before the army even started fighting, but they definitely didn't know that there was a small army waiting for them on the way.
Nan Jiyun was leading two scouting teams of one hundred and ten soldiers, holding Zhuge Repeating Crossbows. They were waiting on a high slope for them to walk right into the trap.
"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!"
"Eh!"
The three thousand bandits had just entered the ambush position when they were attacked by a rain of arrows. In an instant, they suffered heavy casualties. The narrow mountain path was covered with bandits' corpses.
The bandits who were injured but not dead were lying on the ground, screaming miserably. They were killed by the arrows that came after them. The bandits who ran the fastest were killed by the arrows. This made the bandits behind them subconsciously stop running.
"Great Ghost Lord, there's an ambush ahead. Our brothers have suffered heavy casualties."
"Ambush? Where are the ambushers?"
Cuan Wudi only saw the bandits fall, but he didn't see any sign of the army.
"Great Ghost Lord, they're on the high slope ahead. The arrows are coming from there. There are at least a few thousand archers."
"Great Ghost Lord, the army's main force has caught up. They're just three li behind us."
Cuan Wudi looked back and saw that the army was really getting closer. This shocked him. The bandits were the most used to mountain paths, but they couldn't outrun the army. This once again shocked him.
Of course, the soldiers were all simple farmers, and their physical strength was not inferior to the bandits. After nearly a month of rigorous training, their physical strength had been further enhanced. Their running speed and endurance on the mountain had surpassed that of the local bandits. Naturally, they were getting closer and closer to the bandits as they chased after the bandits.
"Great Ghost Lord, there are strong enemies in front of us, and pursuers behind us. We have five ways to escape."
"Great Ghost Lord, I can't do it. How about we surrender?"
Cuan Wudi was furious. "Bastard, have you forgotten? The brothers of the six strongholds who surrendered were all taken to Luzhou City to be beheaded. Surrendering means death. Even if we are pardoned, we, the leaders, will not be pardoned. The only way to survive is to break out of the encirclement. Charge!"
"Charge, charge out!"
The bandit leaders shouted loudly, but no one dared to take the lead and charge into the road that was covered with corpses.
"Kacha"
Cuan Wudi personally killed many bandits and shouted, "Charge! If anyone refuses to submit, kill them!"
The main force of the army was getting closer and closer. The black mass of soldiers gave the bandits a great mental pressure. If they were caught, they would definitely die. If they charged forward, they might have a chance to survive.
Under Cuan Wudi's pressure, a large number of bandits used their arms to cover their heads and stepped on the corpses of their comrades to charge forward.
Cuan Wudi grabbed two of the bandits' corpses and used them as shields. He stepped on the corpses and charged forward, braving the rain of arrows.
The firing rate of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbows was heaven-defying. More than a hundred soldiers continuously fired arrows, creating a momentum of hundreds of crossbowmen. The bandits only knew how to run, but they didn't dare to attack the position where the arrows were fired.
The soldiers didn't have the slightest bit of mercy for the bandits. Seeing the bandits flee in panic, they immediately sped up the firing of arrows, doing their best to cause more damage to the panicked bandits.
The arrows poured down like rain, causing great losses to the fleeing bandits. A large number of bandits fell to the ground because of the arrows.
Cuan Wudi used two of the bandits' corpses to block the arrows as he charged through the ambush. He wasn't hit by any of the arrows, but the two corpses in his hands had already turned into hedgehogs.
Throwing the two hedgehog-like corpses on the ground, Cuan Wudi broke out in a cold sweat. With so many arrows, he would have turned into a hedgehog long ago if they had hit him.
Looking back, he saw that a third of his three thousand brothers had been hit by arrows. Only two thousand of his brothers had charged forward. Furthermore, among those two thousand, there were quite a few who had been lightly injured by arrows.
He hadn't even touched the army's hair, yet he had lost nearly half of his four thousand men. This made Cuan Wudi very angry. He had dominated Lu Province for many years, but he had never suffered such humiliation. Today's probing had caused him to lose a lot of face.
Cuan Wudi felt his cheeks burning, as if he had just been slapped.
"Ghost Lord, we can't stay here any longer. Let's go!"
Seeing Cuan Wudi's dazed expression, his subordinates hurriedly urged him.
Cuan Wudi came back to his senses, stomped his feet, sighed, and turned to flee.
Nan Jiyun followed Ang Lee's orders and waited in place. He didn't chase after the bandits who had charged through the ambush. After all, there were too many bandits. If he let the hundred soldiers chase after them, it would inevitably cause casualties.
Soon, Ang Lee's main force arrived at Nan Jiyun's ambush location. They saw the bandits' corpses strewn all over the ground. Of course, there were also bandits who were too injured to escape.
"General, our army's arrow rain killed more than a thousand bandits. More than two thousand have escaped."
Nan Jiyun ran out from his ambush and loudly reported the results of the battle.
Ang Lee's face was full of joy as he nodded. "Not bad, the Zhuge Repeating Crossbows are more powerful than I imagined. I had you guys lie in ambush here to test the power of the Zhuge Repeating Crossbows. It's really domineering."
"General, there are still more than two thousand bandits that escaped. Why don't we take this opportunity to wipe them all out?"
A few of the generals were addicted and wanted to continue chasing after the bandits and wipe them all out.
Ang Lee smiled. "Don't chase after cornered bandits. Moreover, there are only so many bandits in Luzhou. If we wipe them all out now, we won't have any place to train for the next two months. How boring would that be?"
"Haha, General, you are rearing the bandits like pigs. When there are guests at home, you kill a few to entertain them. If there are no guests, you continue to raise them. Don't you think so?"
"Hahaha!"
All the generals laughed.
Ang Lee looked at the nearly a thousand corpses and the bandits who couldn't get up. He said indifferently, "Dig a big hole and bury them all."
"General, there are still many who are still breathing. Should we bury them all too?"
The generals were a little surprised.
Ang Lee nodded lightly. "They are all heavily injured and might not be able to be saved. Don't waste resources on them. Bury them all."
"Yes, General."
The generals carried out Ang Lee's orders unconditionally. They buried the bandits who were shot dead and those who were still breathing into the hole. After that, they covered the hole with soil.
Although Li An and his army did not continue to pursue, the bandits, who were like birds startled by the twang of a bow, did not dare rest in the slightest. They crawled all the way back to Cuan Wudi's lair.
Cuan Wudi's lair was an extremely dangerous mountain stronghold. There were three cliffs, and only one passable path was up a steep slope. There were springs and wells in the stronghold, so there was no need to worry about a water source.
After returning to his lair, Cuan Wudi ordered his men to immediately close the gate of the stronghold and closely investigate the surrounding situation. He also ordered the bandits from the other strongholds who were still breathing to do the hard work of building various defensive fortifications for him.
From Cuan Wudi's point of view, the stronghold he was in was a stronghold that was easy to defend but hard to attack. As long as the defenses were tight, no matter how powerful the army was, they would not be able to break through. In order to cause more damage to the army and to be more secure, Cuan Wudi had to continue strengthening the defenses of the stronghold. He even built arrow towers at the three cliffs to prevent the army from climbing up the cliffs.
In this battle against the bandits, the army had paid the price of not being injured at all. They had killed more than a thousand bandits and captured nearly a hundred of them. It was an extremely glorious result.
After returning to the Gourd Cove, Ang Lee rewarded all the soldiers and reported the results of the battle to the imperial court. As for the hundred or so bandits that he had captured, Ang Lee decided not to kill them. Instead, he imprisoned them in a courtyard in the East Cove Cove and made them do manual labor.
Bandits were used to being lazy, so it was difficult for them to do manual labor. Just as Li An expected, these bandits were lazy when they were working, and from time to time, they would cause trouble and cause trouble. They didn't do much work, but they caused a lot of trouble.
How could Ang Lee not be able to deal with these bandits? One time, when they were causing trouble, Ang Lee happened to see them. He killed the few bandits who were causing the most trouble and hung their corpses at the place where they were working to intimidate the rest of the bandits.
Ever since the few bandits who were causing the most trouble were killed, the rest of the bandits who were usually lazy suddenly became more diligent. They became more and more skilled at their work, and no one dared to cause trouble anymore.
As the bandits had left behind too many traces when they fled, the army scouts easily found Cuan Wudi's lair. After a detailed investigation, they returned to the Gourd Cove and reported the situation to Ang Lee.
Ang Lee wasn't afraid of Cuan Wudi's lair, which was easy to defend but difficult to attack. As long as they could find the lair, they would be able to destroy it. The siege troops' new heavy equipment was no joke.
In the next few days, Ang Lee sent many troops to the vicinity of Cuan Wudi's lair to capture the few bandits who had left. After they were captured, they were sent to the Gourd Cove to do manual labor.
Every time the army moved out, they would reap some rewards. Cuan Wudi, who was in the lair, didn't know what had happened. He only knew that none of the bandits had returned, but he didn't know that they had been captured by the army. He thought that they had escaped out of fear.
The number of bandits in the lair decreased, and this made Cuan Wudi panic. In order to prevent more bandits from escaping, he ordered the entrance and exit of the stronghold to be closed, forbidding anyone from entering or leaving. He only sent his most trusted subordinates out to scout and purchase necessary supplies.
However, Cuan Wudi was completely disappointed. After his most trusted subordinates left the stronghold, they also didn't return. It was as if they had disappeared from the face of the earth.
Of course, this was because the army had many small units that took turns to hide outside the stronghold. As long as bandits came out, they would quietly capture them alive and send them back to the Gourd Cove to do manual labor.
None of the people who left the stronghold returned, nor did they bring any news from the outside. Even the people hiding in Luzhou City didn't send any news for a long time. This caused a large number of rumors to spread in the stronghold, and they were extremely terrifying rumors.
Cuan Wudi had no choice but to completely seal the stronghold and kill the bandits who were spreading the rumors to calm the atmosphere in the stronghold.
In the workshop of the Gourd Cove East Cove, Ang Lee and his subordinates were testing the newly built catapults. This kind of equipment had been around for a long time. It was a powerful weapon for siege. For thousands of years before the invention of artillery, this kind of heavy and heavy siege equipment had always been the main force of siege equipment and was highly valued by the major empires.
As an elite army that could attack and defend, in addition to having well-trained soldiers, the army also had to be equipped with heavy siege equipment. Only by equipping these weapons could they reduce their losses and inflict heavy damage to the enemy.
Ang Lee had made many improvements to these catapults and had the craftsmen in charge of building them. After many modifications, the catapults' power had been greatly increased. The accuracy and power of the projectiles had also been greatly improved.
"General, there has been no movement from the bandit lair for two consecutive days."
Nan Jiyun rushed over and reported the situation to Ang Lee.
Ang Lee was taken aback for a moment before he said: "Let the soldiers continue to monitor the situation. We will launch an attack in three days. Let's try out the new weapons."
"Yes, General."
Nan Jiyun accepted the order and said with a smile on his face: "General, let me be the vanguard when we launch an attack on the bandit lair in three days."
Ang Lee hesitated for a moment before he nodded: "Okay, you can be the vanguard. However, this is going to be a tough battle. It will be very dangerous. Furthermore, it is very likely that our soldiers will suffer a lot of casualties."
"General, I'm not afraid. My soldiers in the reconnaissance team have been itching for a long time. They are just waiting to launch an attack on the bandit lair."
Nan Jiyun grinned.
Ang Lee nodded. He then divided the tasks of attacking the bandit lair in three days.
The main purpose of this attack was to test the power of the new weapons and to see what kind of results the soldiers could achieve in such a dangerous environment. This was so that he could have a deeper understanding of his army.
###
In the direction of Kunzhou City.
The Kunzhou Provincial Governor Cuan Rijin's face was full of joy. He was excitedly pacing in the courtyard.
News had just come from Nanzhao that the two daughters of Pilote, the King of Nanzhao, were about to arrive in Kun Province. The confidant he had sent had also returned and reported that Pilote's two daughters were peerless beauties.
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