219 Get on the Horse and Yousre a Thief VII (1/2)

Being fast or slow each had its own pros and cons. This was not an argument, nor a philosophy question, but a very simple theory. The Horse Gang came charging down from the meadow, and because they were too fast, their momentum was messed up and caused them to fall horribly. Yet because the Big Black Horse was too fast, based on Ning Que's archery skill, he could only shoot three arrows during that short period of time before ending up at the border of the Horse Gang.

He carried the boxwood bow on his shoulder as he stretched out his hands and held on to the podao that was placed horizontally on the saddle. He raised his arm up, pulling out a blade and chopping off one of the Horse Gang's shoulder. Immediately, he sat upright and before the enemy's curved blade could touch him, he used his knife to dig out another's eyeball.

With the three people crossing each other's path in a split second, the blood and liquid from the broken Horse Gang's arm and dug-out eye ball started to spill out, splashing all over Ning Que's body and face. The fishy smell of blood and the odd smell from elsewhere were mixed together, creating a strange smell.

People often said that the blood was warm while the wind was cold, yet Ning Que felt that the wind blown onto his face was warm and the blood splashed onto his face was cold. It was because he was very calm that even till now, he could still vividly remember the principles of battle which he had held onto for many years.

Killing a Horse Gang was never better than injuring one. If a Horse Gang died, he would simply be dead. However, if he was seriously injured but not dead, he would be a burden to his Horse Gang mates. This meticulous thinking was indeed cruel, but useful.

Seeing more than ten Horse Gang riding on their horses and charging towards him, Ning Que took a deep breath and clipped himself tightly onto the Big Black Horse with his legs. He held out the podao and dashed towards the enemies with the sharp blade. Behind him, two hundred Yan cavalries had finally arrived. They formed a line of defense before they fiercely charged towards the messy-looking Horse Gang.

...

...

The winter wind in the Wilderness blew again but this time, it failed to flicker Ning Que's fringe, for they were already soaked with Horse Gang's blood and entangled together in a lump on his forehead. This was exactly how entangled he was feeling within.

The camp was a mess and gaps were already appearing from the laager. The Horse Gang had temporarily retreated but it was only after they had decided to abandon their horses and attacked on foot. This caused great damages to the camp. Dying soldiers and bloody bodies were found lying all over the camp. If not for the help from the ladies of Great River Kingdom, the camp would have been conquered by the Horse Gang.

The situation was not pleasant within the Horse Gang as well. Not far away from the camp was a low-lying border areas, where numerous bodies of horses with broken hoofs were found lying on the icy cold ground, struggling with their last breaths as they shook their heavy heads from time to time. Beside and underneath these horses were lifeless heads of the Horse Gang thieves.

All the injured Horse Gang thieves were eventually brought back to their hives by their mates. And from this, one could observe that though the Horse Gang had suffered severe damage, they were still united as one. They could still get together to launch an attack again.

Ning Que lifted his hand to wipe away the blood that was slowly flowing down his forehead. He looked back in the north-west direction where the camp was situated. There, the scene of the Yan cavalries busily slaughtering the Horse Gang had gradually drifted further. He could not help shaking his head.

In the eyes of the commoners from the Central Plains, the Central Plains Horse Gangs were the most ferocious existence in the world. However, because he had interacted with these Horse Gangs for many years, he felt that they were the most useless existence. Their ferocious looks were actually used to conceal the weaknesses within their hearts.

At this moment, the surrounding 600 thieves of the Horse Gang looked ferocious on the meadow. They could even have the courage to directly capture the men in the palace. However, if they were timid, they could be chased by a troop of Tang soldiers. Strength was the key for these Horse Gangs. Because of their high sensitivity towards strength, they were easily confused by it as well.

Ning Que thought that he was clear of these Horse Gangs' characteristics and thus, he chose the right location to camp and the right time to launch an attack. He thought with the 200 Yan cavalries fiercely charging towards the 500 thieves from the Horse Gangs, they could easily win. However, he forgot that those soldiers that he was leading were not the experienced warriors from City of Wei, neither were they the West Road Tang cavalries from the Southern Blue Water Battalion. They were just Yan cavalries who were weak in battle.

The battling skills of these Yan cavalries were worst than what Ning Que had thought.

The 200 Yan cavalries, with the geographical and time advantages, they launched an attack towards the Horse Gangs but failed to take them down. They could not even penetrate and attack their enemies once. On the other hand, the Horse Gangs who was suddenly caught by surprise by the attack, after a round of killing, could at least took down more than ten Yan cavalries. If not for the confusion in the Horse Gang arrangement, this surprise launch of attack from the Yan cavalries could end up be digging their own graves.

The battle between the Yan cavalries and Horse Gangs lasted for a while before both parties could not take it and decided to stop battling temporarily. Seizing this opportunity, Ning Que rode his Big Black Horse back to the camp. On one hand, he did not have hopes with the remaining 100 Yan cavalries, yet on the other hand, he felt that he needed to be on guard, an unexplainable feeling that he needed to watch out for something.

...

...

Suddenly, a sharp whistle whizzed through the icy cold air. Ning Que quickly dodged one side and an arrow brushed against his sleeve, flew past him and penetrated into the wheel of a carriage filled with grains. The tail of the arrow vibrated due to the impact.

Ignoring the fact that his black mask was soaked with the blood from the Horse Gang, which caused the smell of it to be rather unbearable, he put on the mask again. He then took off the boxwood bow on his back, pulled the string with his finger and shot a Horse Gang, who was in front of his camp, to death.

He felt a sting, followed by soreness at his shoulder. He knew he had pulled too many arrows today. If he neglected the pain and continued to do so, his right arm might be destroyed by himself.

Obviously, the Horse Gangs were not willing to give the soldiers in the camp too much resting time. After a short while, they launched a second attack, ignoring the fact that they were still injured themselves. This unreasonable and risky move was already out of Ning Que's expectation from the Horse Gang. He felt more and more suspicious.

200 thieves from the Horse Gangs came charging towards the camp in all directions.

Those civilian soldiers in the camp were already feeling numb towards life and death. At this important juncture of life and death, they mustered all their courage, grabbed the thick wooden spears and passed through the gaps left between the laagers. Then, without any hesitation, they pierced the spears outwards.

As every wooden spear pierced through every Horse Gang thief's abdomen, fresh blood flowed profusely from the wound.

In a split second, three thieves of the Horse Gangs climbed over the laager. With the curved knives in their hands, they waved them towards the civilian soldiers with the wooden spears. Blood splattered everywhere.

A shiny reflection of the sword was seen.

The long and elegant sword slaughtered the three thieves from the Horse Gangs.

One of them was instantly killed where his body flew off from the scene. The other two had their limbs chopped off as they helplessly fell backwards.

Those civilian soldiers, who were covered with blood, charged towards the Horse gangs like ferocious beasts. They grabbed wooden sticks and picked up stones from the ground as they surrounded the two limbless thieves of the Horse Gang and started attacking them. Without thinking, they crazily smashed and beat them up, repeating the same actions over and over again. Till there were no more noises from the enemies did they stop their attacks.

After the Cat Girl swung her sword like a breeze, she would make a cute clear yelp out of habit. Yet shortly after, she was stunned by the bloody scene in front of her. Her red little face was covered in dirt, but they could not conceal the fear and panic on her face. After all, she was still young. Where else could she have seen such scary scene?

Ning Que grabbed her by her neck, like a kitten, and threw her behind him. He then dodged an arrow and single-handedly pulled out his knife to block another arrow. Next, taking the opportunity, he chopped off the right arm of a Horse Gang member, who was trying to assassinate him.

The Horse Gang member covered the wound on his right shoulder that was continuously spurting blood and groaned painfully, half-kneeling on the ground. Ning Que did not throw him another glance as he held onto his podao and walked past the Horse Gang member. He knew that shortly after, this injured Horse Gang member would be surrounded by the civilian soldiers and there was no need for him to waste any more energy on him.

Once the laager was broken, the people in the camp would all die. Based on this simple understanding, no matter they were civilian soldiers or Yan Kingdom soldiers, they had all became fearless. They started to grab whatever weapon they could find in the camp and as though their lives were betting on it, they attacked any Horse Gang thieves they saw climbing over the carriage.

However, what truly enabled the camp to stand firm for so long was actually the disciples of Black Ink Garden from the Great River Kingdom. Though they did not have much experience with battles and had depended largely on their arrogance, perseverance as well as excellent swordsmanship, they had managed to wave their swords in the Wilderness on the meadow, causing the troublesome Horse Gang thieves to fall off one by one.

Even so, there were too many Horse Gang thieves and too few disciples of Black Ink Garden. Though the civilian soldiers were doing their best, their strength was too weak to make any significant differences. Looking at the surrounding situation, it seemed like the camp could be infiltrated any moment and they were in a hopeless situation.

Just then, in the middle of the camp, a clear crisp sound of the flute was heard from the carriage.

Upon hearing the sound of the flute, Zhuo Zhihua, Cat Girl and the rest of the Black Ink Garden disciples became alert. Without much hesitation, they used maximum Psyche Power to force the Horse Gang to retreat before gathering in front of the grain sack.

Hearing the sound of flute and seeing what happened, Ning Que felt that the situation was suspicious and weird. In fact, from his eyes which were not covered by the black mask, one could see a slight sense of displeasure in them.

...

...

This was the troop that was sent to deliver grains towards the Left-Tent palace. There were cavalries from Yan Kingdom guarding it as well as donkeys and horses carrying the grain sacks. Hence, other than those grains, there were also a lot of dry grass provided for the donkeys and horses.

The carriages carrying the grains formed a round laager. All the sacks that were filled with dry grasses were gathered below the wooden carriages. One reason was to stabilize the carriage, and another reason was to reduce the damage caused by arrows.

Upon hearing the sound of the flute, the Black Ink Garden disciples gathered in front of the sacks as they placed their swords in the air outside the laager. Just then, the Horse Gang launched their third wave of attack.

Not sure if it was due to the energy gathered in the Black Ink Garden disciples' swords, or due to other reasons, more than ten sacks of dry grass flew into the air and burst open. The sacks were torn into many shattered pieces. The dry grass in the sacks looked as though they had been punched violently as the grass was dispersed all over the area in a split second, like a grass rain.

The moment when the dry grass sack shattered into a piece, a smell of extreme dryness filled the whole camp. The moment when every sack of dry grass formed the grass rain, a faint spark was seen in the air. And in an instance... the whole sky started to burn.

The grass rain turned into the fire rain and fell from the sky, clothed the brightness of the sun. In an instant, the border of the camp became a sea of blazing fire. This bizarre scene frightened the Horse Gangs and before they could react, they were swallowed by the sea of fire, causing them to be drowned and burnt to death.

The civilian soldiers in the camp were also shocked by this bizarre scene. With various kinds of weapons in their hands, they noticed that though they were near the fire within the laager, none was swallowed by it. It was as if Haotian was on their side helping them.

It was only Ning Que who realized that when the dry grass collided together to create the spark and fire. There was a sudden change in the primordial Qi of Heaven and Earth. He could feel the power of the talisman within each sack of dry grass, and even saw the split second when the talisman started to burn.

The talisman fire, with the help of the dry grass, started to burn, rapidly spread out and landed onto the Horse Gangs. They were hard to put out. Many Horse Gang thieves who charged to the front of the laager were caught by the fire and were groaning in pain. They ran around, rolled on the ground, yet it was useless. Some went to look for water, but it was a challenge to find water in the Wilderness in winter. Other Horse Gang thieves tried to neglect the fire on their bodies and attempted to dash through the laager. But before they could raise their curved knives, they were already howling in pain on the ground.

Finally, the Horse Gangs had no choice but to retreat. There were more than ten charred bodies left outside the camp. Some of the bodies were hugging each other tightly. Perhaps it was due to the fear they had before death, which made them unclear as to who were their friends or foes.

There was a stinky burning smell lingering in the air.

There were cheers of victory echoing from the camp.

...

...

Ning Que stared at the lady in white, who was sitting in the horse carriage, and said, ”I've reminded you. You are the strongest here. Your Psyche Power is our most precious weapon. It should only be used at the right time, not whenever you like.”

Mo Shanshan raised her head and looked at him. Not sure if it was because she had seen too many bloody scenes, or due to other special reasons, her face was as white as a paper at that moment, even whiter than the clothes she was wearing.

”Many people are dead. If I don't help out, more people will die.”

Ning Que looked at her and commented, ”You are really a kind woman.”

Mo Shanshan slightly raised her brows and answered, ”I am a woman.”

Ning Que suppressed his anger as he mocked and continued, ”You aren't married yet.”

Mo Shanshan replied calmly, ”Even if I am, it won't be with you.”

Ning Que kept silent for a while before he added, ”If you still have Psyche Power, then leave the last one for me.”

He was a talisman practitioner and he knew how much Psyche Power the Talisman Taoism would drain out. Seeing how pale the lady was, she must had used up too much Psyche Power these days. Yet he had to admit that out of the whole team, this lady in white was the strongest among all. Hence, under such circumstance, he could not help but felt slightly mad.

Under this terrifying Fire Talisman, the Horse Gang suffered a great damage. However, on the meadow, there were another 200 Horse Gang thieves that were ready for battle. Mo Shanshan's Psyche Power was already running dry, and his true state was only at No Doubts State, there was no way for them to go against another wave of attack.

Of course, Ning Que still had some cards under the table for him to survive the attack. However, if he were to use items such as Primordial Thirteen Arrows or things found in the emergency bag given by his Teacher on these Horse Gangs, it would be such a waste. Unless his life was in great danger, else for someone like him, who was just slightly less stingy than Sangsang, he would definitely not use them.

The key was the relief troop. The troop that was in charge of grains had fought the battle for so long, yet there was still no sight of the relief troop. Should he know that there wasn't any relief troop in the first place, he would have escaped with the Big Black Horse.

”Is there any relief troop in the first place?” He stared at Mo Shanshan and questioned.

Mo Shanshan looked at him coldly and said, ”Only the relief troops themselves will know.”