xymnovel Chapter 5 Chao Gai Joins the Gang
Chapter 5 Chao Gai Joins the Gang
Chao Gai stood at the bow of the boat, hands on his hips, looking majestic and imposing.
He looked at He Tao in the distance and laughed loudly, "Isn't this the Jizhou Prefecture's arresting officer? What brings you here?"
He Tao roared, "Chao Gai, if you surrender, I might spare your life!"
Chao Gai laughed loudly, "If you jump into the water now, your grandpa Chao Gai will spare your life."
The henchmen burst into laughter.
He Tao roared, "Paddle faster, get through this!"
The small boat suddenly accelerated.
Wu Yong waved his hand, and the fishing boats around him began to shoot arrows. Although it did not have the momentum of ten thousand arrows shooting at once, the power of nearly a hundred people shooting arrows should not be underestimated.
He Tao laughed heartily. He had already anticipated that the enemy would use a volley of arrows. Without him giving the order, the soldiers raised their wooden planks to defend themselves.
They were soldiers from Jeju Prefecture, unlike the imperial army. They were poorly equipped and received low pay, so they had to use wooden planks as shields.
With a series of "whoosh" sounds, all the arrows were blocked, and only a few soldiers were injured, bringing them closer to Chao Gai.
As He Tao's fleet drew closer, Chao Gai gave the order, and his henchmen nocked arrows and shot arrows with oil on the arrowheads. The arrows rained down, and many ships caught fire.
Most of the wooden planks in He Tao's and others' hands were also set on fire, and only then did he panic.
He turned around and shouted, "Release the arrows!"
Although their bows and arrows were not the divine crossbows, they were better than those of the Liangshan bandits. In addition, they had a large number of men. Following He Tao's orders, everyone divided up their men to defend against the bandits' arrows, while the rest shot arrows at the bandits on all sides.
Both sides sustained damage in the exchange of fire.
But the soldiers gradually approached Chao Gai, forcing him to flee.
With Chao Gai's escape, He Tao was greatly encouraged and commanded the boats to charge forward. The shouts of battle were deafening, and countless henchmen were wounded, their blood staining the river.
They charged all the way to the edge of Jinsha Beach, where Chao Gai led over a hundred henchmen in a fierce battle array. To his left and right were Wu Yong and Gongsun Sheng, and behind him were Liu Tang and the three Ruan brothers.
Chao Gai lamented, "Mr. Wu, your fire attack strategy has had very little effect. What should we do now?"
Wu Yong also felt a headache coming on. These lackeys were in low spirits when they heard that the main camp had announced a pension system, while they, under Chao Gai, naturally did not receive this treatment.
Furthermore, Wu Yong was new to Liangshan and unfamiliar with the terrain, so he had to come up with the fire attack plan on the spot. However, it was June, and the water plants were lush. There was no dry grass around the river to ignite, so the plan was not very effective.
He saw the government and fishing boats approaching in the distance and said, "The only way now is for us to rely on our military force and take advantage of the chaos to seize He Tao."
Chao Gai sighed softly, "We are all skilled in martial arts, so it goes without saying that we can take advantage of the chaos to charge and kill, but our underlings will inevitably die."
Wu Yong smiled faintly: "Brother Chao, we cannot be sentimental at this time. These lackeys are all Wang Lun's men. The more they die, the easier it will be for you to take control of Liangshan in the future."
Chao Gai was taken aback, not expecting Wu Yong to be so ruthless.
But there was no other way at the moment, so they had to prepare for a fierce battle.
Just then, a cannon shot rang out in the distance, and two smiling figures stood on the high observation platform.
The man in front, dressed in a white robe and holding a feather fan, was Wang Lun. Behind him stood a towering giant, Du Qian, who served as his bodyguard.
When Wang Lun appeared, Chao Gai and the others were stunned. Just looking at Wang Lun's appearance and demeanor, they felt as if Zhuge Liang had been resurrected.
Wang Lun stood on the high ground with a smile, raised his feather fan, and shouted, "Block it!"
He Tao and his group emerged from the narrow river channel, and at that moment the boat reached a wide bend. They were startled to hear the cannon fire.
At Wang Lun's command, countless fishing boats emerged from the tributary near Huiwan, blocking the tributary's mouth. Then, with a series of splashes, the crew members jumped into the water and escaped.
Wang Lun stood on a high place, waving a feather fan in his right hand and holding a wine pot in his left, looking elegant and carefree.
He Tao knew he was in trouble and shouted, "Charge! Get ashore as soon as possible!"
Wang Lun waved his feather fan: "Break!"
Immediately, a series of hissing sounds rang out as countless arrows shot out from the reeds. The soldiers continued to use wooden planks to defend themselves, but screams filled the air as the planks proved ineffective. The arrows, carrying much greater force, pierced through the planks.
He Tao was startled: "What kind of bow is this?!"
Chao Gai, Wu Yong, and the others on the shore were also greatly surprised.
Wang Lun was delighted to see the newly made bow and arrows working. He knew that the Divine Arm Bow of the Great Song Dynasty was a great invention of cold weapons, and he had studied it carefully when he worked at the Military Museum.
The materials required for the Divine Arm Bow are extremely demanding, including tough mulberry wood, sandalwood, fish glue, silk, and hemp. It's not something that can be collected and crafted overnight.
Although they couldn't completely replicate the Divine Arm Bow, last night Wang Lun directed his men to improve the horn bows currently used on Liangshan using existing materials, along with the blueprints for the Divine Arm Bow. The bows are now much more powerful.
Arrows killed countless soldiers, and the vanguard of the soldiers was almost at the shore.
Wang Lun ignored the soldiers in front of him, intending to make Chao Gai and his men fight the soldiers and waste their energy, so that it would be time for Lin Chong to appear later.
He waved his feather fan again: "Fire!"
Wu Yong's pupils contracted, and he shook his head slightly, saying, "I didn't expect Wang Lun to also use fire attacks, but unfortunately, fire attacks are completely useless."
The tributaries leading to the bend were all blocked by fishing boats. Only after the bend did dozens of fishing boats arrive, led by Song Wan.
As they drew ever closer to the soldiers' boats, Song Wan gave the order, and his henchmen jumped into the water to escape.
The two fishing boats collided with a loud "bang, bang, bang," and then exploded. The fishing boats were blown up, and countless soldiers were either killed or injured and fell into the water.
The ship was loaded with gunpowder, and the explosion ignited the broken wooden boat, causing a chain of ships to burn.
Hearing the cannon fire behind him, He Tao quickly turned around and saw that the fleet behind him was engulfed in flames, and dozens of fishing boats had already been destroyed.
gunpowder!
He frowned.
At that moment, the fishing boats that had been blocking the fork in the river slowly moved and crashed into the soldiers' boats.
Explosions followed one after another, and cries for help echoed throughout the air.
There are more than ten tributary rivers here. The boats that sail out of each tributary are loaded with gunpowder, and the henchmen set them on fire before abandoning the boats and fleeing for their lives.
Wang Lun secretly shook his head. Although the effect of using gunpowder was not bad, it was far from what he expected. It seemed that the purity of the gunpowder in the Song Dynasty was still too low, and its power was really insufficient.
Explosions erupted all around the officers and soldiers, and hundreds died instantly, their bodies lying across the water.
He Tao and the dozen or so speedboats behind him were already close to the shore, having escaped the explosion.
Seeing that the fleet behind him was almost completely wiped out, he became enraged and, after the ship docked, led the charge towards Chao Gai and his men.
The two sides clashed in a chaotic battle. Although Chao Gai and his men were brave, his henchmen had no will to fight, since they wouldn't get any compensation even if they risked their lives.
However, the soldiers led by He Tao were already bloodthirsty because countless of their comrades had been killed in the explosion. They wanted nothing more than to kill and take revenge. Under He Tao's leadership, they actually forced Chao Gai and his men to retreat.
At that moment, Wang Lun waved his feather fan, and Lin Chong, who had been lying in ambush near Jinshatan, led his men out to attack.
The two hundred men he led were all handpicked, highly skilled, and with Wang Lun's newly introduced pension system—the more people they killed, the more money they received—they were already itching to get started.
At this moment, they charged out, and although there were only two hundred of them, their battle cries were deafening and their momentum was overwhelming.
In just a short while, the two hundred men had bypassed Chao Gai and were engaged in close combat with He Tao and his soldiers.
Countless soldiers began to retreat, running into the water in an attempt to swim away. But then Song Wan, leading over a hundred henchmen, surrounded them in the river, capturing them one by one and taking many soldiers prisoner.
Chao Gai and his men were about to rush up and grab He Tao when they were blocked by the henchmen behind Lin Chong. Just as they were getting anxious, they saw Lin Chong descend like a tiger down the mountain, unstoppable. He swept his spear horizontally, knocking away He Tao's personal guards, and then picked up He Tao.
Wang Lun, perched high above, smiled slightly: "Let's go welcome Chao Gai to join us."