Ten miles is not a big distance on the grassland, but it is still quite far in the desert.
The ten people walked quickly and slowly, and it took a lot of time.
"Unlucky, we can't find anything in this damn place." Swedy looked around, "That sand dune is leeward, let's rest there. We'll turn around and go back to the stone forest tomorrow."
The group nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, someone's teeth were knotted, "Team, captain..."
"What's the matter?" Sweety was very angry.
He led the team to search for several days, but still found nothing. Now he was so tired that he didn't even want to turn around.
Sweety suddenly felt something was wrong.
The Desert of No Return was usually silent except for the wind and the rustling sand, and now was no exception. However, for some reason, there was a deathly silence that made his heart shiver.
He turned his head sharply and looked.
This hill in the lee of the wind was surrounded by a group of people who suddenly appeared. The bright weapons in their hands were pointed at them.
There are knives, guns and arrows.
"Raise your hands and be honest! Anyone who dares to move will be killed."
Sweetie's heart skipped a beat.
But he was blind in one eye and couldn't see in other directions, so he couldn't help but turn around and look around.
Just turned around.
call out!
The sound of bowstrings sounded.
Sweetie was hit by an arrow in the neck and fell to the ground immediately, making no sound except for the blood.
Death is the best warning.
The faces of all the horse thieves changed drastically. They were all so frightened that they raised their hands high and did not dare to move again.
Lei Er and others rushed over ferociously and quickly searched the horse thieves and the skinny horses they rode.
"Old Ren, they don't have cloud-piercing arrows on them."
Ren Ning nodded and waved.
Lei Er and others were already familiar with the tricks, and they immediately separated the horse thieves and asked about the situation separately.
"There are nine more of you. Let's think about our questions and then answer them. As long as your answer is different from other people's. Hehe..."
"Yes Yes Yes!"
Seeing that they were decisive in killing the clan, the horse thieves did not dare to think too much and nodded quickly.
Half an hour later, the information gathered from the questions was put into Ren Ning's hands.
"This is the only team that came in to check on the situation?"
"Yes." Lei Er nodded, "It's all the result of the previous sandstorm."
Two months ago, a super sandstorm hit. When the horse thieves in the stone forest saw that the sand was unstoppable, they were so frightened that they all hurried south to escape.
They had just returned to their old nest in the past few days, and they couldn't spare many people to come in and check.
And such violent sandstorms are likely to destroy all road signs in the desert.
The goods of the caravan are valuable, and the merchant leaders have always been cautious. At this time, there should be no caravan that is bold enough to directly lead the team into the Desert of No Return.
The cloud-penetrating arrows discovered earlier were probably the path-exploring teams sent by the caravan that had lost their way.
Such a team could be said to be penniless, and the leader of the horse thieves did not pay attention to it.
Ren Ning and Lei Er looked at each other.
It seems that in the eyes of the leader of the horse thieves, they are the kind of people who are bold and reckless and do not know whether to live or die.
Continuing to look down, Ren Ning frowned: "Five hundred, is this the only number of horse thieves in the stone forest?"
At least not as much as he imagined.
"More than five hundred people, that's not a lot." Lei Er smiled.
In Yunchui territory, once the number of robbers and bandits on the mountain exceeds four to five hundred, the imperial court will send local garrison troops to the mountain to suppress the bandits.
Of course this refers to normal conditions.
In places like Laigu where civil unrest once occurred, there are now estimated to be eight thousand bandits on each mountain top, if not ten thousand.
Compared with the mountain bandits in Yunchui, the horse bandits in Xiliang are extremely cruel, and their combat effectiveness and elimination rate are also higher.
In Laigu, as long as you have eyes and can hold a stick, you can become a horse thief. Here, it is difficult to become a horse thief if you don't know how to ride a horse or can't ride a horse well.
Moreover, once low-level horse thieves are injured or disabled, they may be directly abandoned by the team. In addition, horse thieves never pay attention to respecting the elderly and loving the young or caring for the young.
Therefore, their number has never been able to increase. But their strength is far from what the same number of bandits on Luoxia Mountain can compare with.
"However." Lei Er tapped a name on it, "The leader of the horse thieves named Hu Ting Tuochi has been sheltering Xiliang children recently. It seems that he is planning to expand the scale of the horse thieves in the stone forest."
"Hu Ting Tuo Chi?" Ren Ning looked at the name thoughtfully, "This is the surname of the Xiliang royal family."
Well!
Lei Er slapped his forehead hard, "If you didn't tell me, I really didn't notice this."
The two people looked at each other and laughed in unison.
It seems that the Xiliang royal family is not united, and each has its own ideas.
It's just that Hu Tingtuo Chi was supposed to be a loser and ended up becoming a horse thief in the stone forest.
"Go and ask those people, when did Hu Ting Tuo Chi arrive at the Horse Bandit Stone Forest?"
"Understood." Lei Er turned around and left.
Not long after, he came back with regret on his face and said, "Old Ren, none of the nine people can explain clearly."
Ren Ning nodded, not surprised at all.
The wind and sand had just subsided and it was still winter, so the person who could be sent out to inspect the situation was naturally not an important horse thief.
It's normal that they don't know.
"This is an ambitious horse thief," Ren Ning pointed at Hu Tingtuochi's name, "When we meet him in the future, we will subdue him if we can. If we can't subdue him, we must kill him."
"Understood!" Lei Er nodded, "How to deal with the nine pony thieves?"
"Let them go back to respond."
Lei Er understood, carried the machete and whistled and left again.
Ahhhhh.
After a while, five screams rang out from around the small sand dune.
The surviving horse thieves were trembling with fear and looked pitifully at the person guarding them, but did not say a word.
After a while, the four remaining horse thieves reunited.
Several people looked at each other, their eyes full of fear.
In the dark night, Lei Er walked over like a murderous god, and there was a dark color on the big knife on his shoulder.
The few pony thieves knew that this was the person in charge, so they opened their eyes hard, but they couldn't see clearly what was on the knife.
At this time, a biting north wind blew through, bringing with it the strong smell of blood above.
The legs of the four of them felt weak and they could hardly stand.
hey-hey.
Lei Er squatted down and looked at the four people with a smile.
"The five of them are so brave and dare to lie in front of me. So I have sent them to see your wolf god."
"As for you four, you are quite honest and everything you say is correct..."
Lei Er touched his chin, seeming to be considering how to deal with them.
One of the horse thieves with a mustache had just thought that he was dead, but after hearing Lei Er's words, he was surprised and happy.
cough!
He coughed lightly.
Seeing that no one was glaring or drawing a sword, Xiao Xiu quickly spoke.
"This captain," he thought it was a caravan coming over from the clouds, "as long as you are willing to let me go, I can comply with any request."
oh?
Lei Er glanced at him indifferently, almost giving Mustache a heart attack.
After being silent for a long time, Lei Er dug around and took out a meatball that exuded a strange smell.
"The caravan values peace and comes all the way here just for money. I am not a person who kills indiscriminately. I would not have come here if I had not lost my way."