The group continued to gallop along the official road in the mountains and ridges. Lao Daozi also took out his telescope from time to time to observe the movement of the whistle in front of him.

I have to say that the telescope is indeed a good thing. With this thing in hand, even if the two sides are separated by several miles, they can still see clearly. Therefore, although the traces of the bandits in front of them appear and disappear, Lao Daozi and his group are still hanging behind calmly.

After running for more than ten miles, the sky gradually darkened. Lao Daozi found that the other party had stopped beside a forest. He raised his hand, and the seven Yebusuo behind him quickly pulled the reins. The war horse quickly stopped and kept shaking its head in place, constantly emitting thick white air from its mouth and nose.

The old knife untied the mask covering the face, rubbed the stiff cheeks, took out the telescope and looked forward, and found that the bandits in front were untiing the cloth bag from the saddle to feed the war horses. However, he could see clearly that the war horses stopped after only taking a few bites.

When Lao Daozi saw this, he suddenly said, "The thieves' horses are thirsty, so they must stop and boil water to feed the war horses."

The scholar and others also nodded in agreement. Due to their huge size, the animal war horse not only eats a lot, but also drinks a lot. Even if you don’t exercise, you have to drink fifteen to thirty liters of water a day. If you exercise vigorously, you will have to double the amount of water you use.

Moreover, if a war horse drinks water, it is not enough to just find a stinky ditch or dirty sewage. It must be clean water and not too cold, otherwise it will easily cause discomfort and diarrhea or illness. From this point of view, war horses are also a delicate animal.

Lao Daozi guessed correctly. These bandits unloaded the saddle. They even unloaded a large iron pot from the saddle. Several people brought a few big stones from nearby, while others collected clean snow on the ground and put them into the iron pot. Some people picked up a pile of dead branches and started to burn the fire.

"Go... touch it."

Lao Daozi put a cage on his war horse, then waved his hands and held the war horse and began to touch it forward.

Time passed little by little. When the old knife touched hundreds of meters away from the woods, it was getting darker. The bandits who set up a bonfire in the woods to keep warm did not notice at all. They took out the frozen hard pancakes and roasted them by the bonfire and ate them in hot water, joking loudly while eating.

At this time, with the help of burning fire, Lao Daozi and others could clearly see the appearance of these bandits without using a telescope.

These bandits had eleven people and eighteen war horses, most of which were wrapped in red headscarves, or wore crotchs (pronounced liǎng dāng, a vest in ancient times. Most were made of cloth, with crotchs and cotton, which could be taken by both men and women), or wore shabby sheep robe.

However, one of the bandits attracted the attention of Lao Daozi. The bandit was tall, with a curly beard, a white felt hat on his head and a coat of armor, which was shoulder-length cotton armor. A simple knife hung around his waist and a horn bow behind him. This kind of dress is very popular among low-level officers in the Central Plains.

There were two war horses tied next to the bandit, which looked pretty good.

Apart from this bandit, the other bandits only had waist knives and bows, and those bows were stair bows rather than horn bows. It was obvious that these bandits did not have the ability to shoot arrows immediately.

Not only that, their horses don't look very good, they are short and thin, and can only be used to ride for barely.

Despite this, Lao Daozi looked at these people with some admiration.

Although the cavalry in the Jiangning army is one person and two horses, and if they don’t collect them at night, they can even reach three horses, but that’s because Yang Feng has a good relationship with grassland tribes such as Korqin and can buy a large number of high-quality war horses.

But it is different among the people. It would be a great thing for anyone to have a horse, which is equivalent to the ordinary family in later generations having a Mercedes-Benz and BMW. These eleven bandits actually owned eighteen war horses. Although most of them were of poor quality, they were enough to make Lao Daozi and the others look at each other with admiration.

"Can they be the elites in the old camp of the thieves?" Lao Daozi thought to himself.

The Jiangning Army was ordered to quell the rebellion, but did not accept it at night as the eyes and ears of the Jiangning Army, so they naturally knew the situation of the bandits.

Today, the bandits regard Gao Yingxiang as the King of Chuang, and there are thirteen families and seventy-two battalions under his command.

These thirteen families are Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong, Ma Shouying, Luo Rucai, He Yilong, He Jin, Xu Bian, Li Wanqing, Ma Jinzhong, Hui Dengxiang, Hengtianwang, Jiulong, and Shuntianwang.

As for the 72nd Battalion, it is a general term. The name of its leader is unknown and difficult to count, so most people collectively call the 72nd Battalion the old camp, which means the most elite among the bandits.

Looking at the bandits who were unsuspecting to sit around the campfire and eat, Lao Daozi shook his head and said, "These bandits are far worse than the Qing Tartars. They don't even have the minimum warning. Do you really think this is their vegetable garden?"

The scholar laughed: "Isn't this better? We can kill these pieces in just one round."

"But you can't be careless."

As the only old knife in the team who had fought against the Qing Tartars with Yang Feng, he issued an order.

"Everyone is ready to check the muskets and hand guns, and prepare to replace the horses. Jiaozuo, Jiaowei, you are ready to have thousands of enemies and blow him up!"

"Here!"

Everyone agreed, and the two of them looked quite similar. It was obvious that Ye Bushe of the two brothers took out two huge enemies from their pockets, unscrewed the lid to reveal the fuse inside, and ignited the windproof flask in their hands.

Others loaded the Minni rifle with ammunition, checked the three-eyed pistol hanging around their waists, and made sure that the ammunition in the barrel did not fall from the muzzle and then tamped it into the barrel with a few sticks.

After everyone was ready, Lao Daozi picked up the Minni rifle, looked around Ye Bush and shouted in a low voice: "Brothers, it's time to make achievements. Kill the bandits and catch the living!"

"Kill the bandits and catch the living!"

Several Ye Bushang yelled in an excited tone.

"Strike!"

Old Daozi shouted softly, and suddenly grabbed the horse's belly. The war horse under his crotch rushed forward like an arrow from the string. The other seven Ye Bushu followed closely.

As the most elite army of Jiangning Army, their military qualities are naturally unquestionable. The group automatically formed a cone-shaped formation at the beginning of the charge. The old knife with the highest military power rushed in front as an arrow. Jiaozuo and Jiao were on the two wings of the team respectively, while the others followed closely behind the old knife to charge at the fastest speed.

The sound of horse hooves and the snowflakes on the ground immediately alarmed the more than a dozen bandits who were resting.

The reactions of these bandits were also very pleasant. After hearing the sound of horse hooves, they immediately jumped up and rushed towards the war horses beside them.

But in desperation, they forgot that because they were resting, their war horses had already been unsaded. Both the saddles and weapons and equipment were unloaded. Where could they be installed for a while?

The distance of hundreds of meters is not a distance for the sprinting horses. It can be reached in a few dozen seconds. The burly bandit saw that his companions around him were still at a loss and were still wandering around. He didn't know whether to get on the horse or run into the woods. Seeing this, he shouted sternly: "I don't care about so many things, I'll leave here and die. Hurry up and run!"

After saying that, he ignored others and jumped onto the backs of the group of war horses closest to him, grabbed the reins and grabbed the horse's belly, and punched the horse heavily with his right hand. After the war horse was in pain, he neighed and ran towards the side.

After hearing the leader's words, the other bandits then woke up like they were awakened from a dream and jumped on their horses and tried to escape. However, it was too late. The old knife that had already reached them had already raised the Nimi rifle in their hands and pulled the trigger.

"Bang bang bang..."

A series of dull gunfire sounded, and several bandits who were about to get on the horse were shot and fell into a pool of blood. After the shooting, Yebushang did not continue to rush forward, but instead circled around the sides.

At this time, Jiaozuo and Jiao Wei ignited the ten thousand enemies in their hands and threw them forward with the help of horsepower. Then, he pulled the reins of the horse and the war horses circled around both sides.

"Chichi..."

The 10,000 enemies weighing two and a half pounds and sparks fell among the bandits.

"Boom..."

With two violent explosions, almost all the bandits in the woods fell to the ground. Even one or two people were left stunned by the sudden explosion and did not react for a while.

“Rumbling…”

The sound of horse hooves sounded again, and it turned out that Ye Busuo rushed towards the bandits again.

At this time, there were only three bandits standing on the spot. Looking at Ye Bushang who rushed over again, they jumped onto the horse without saddles in a panic, took out the weapons from their waists and rushed towards Ye Bushang.

But people only have good or bad points, and this is the case with war horses. The bad horses under their crotch had inherent disadvantages when facing the high-headed big horses that were rushing to fight. In addition, they were hasty to face the challenge. The owner originally wanted them to meet them, but these bad horses neighed and turned their heads and ran to the side.

"kill……"

Seeing Ye Bushang beside him, he raised his guns to prepare for shooting, Lao Daozi shouted, "Stay alive!"

"yes!"

Ye Busuo agreed, put away his pistol and pulled out the weapons from the saddle.

"kill!"

The scholar held the saber and rushed to the back of a bandit, slashing with the back of the knife. Only a muffled sound was heard. The bandit was knocked on the back of the knife, and was smashed off the horse. After rolling on the snow for a few times, he never moved again.
Chapter completed!