Chapter 87: The night is dark and the wind is high
Night, the end of Yin Shi.
The crescent moon at the beginning of the month has long since disappeared, and the mountains seem to be coated with a layer of ink, making people mistakenly think they are in the void.
The roaring sound of the mountain wind blowing through the woods is like the sound of ghosts, and the night wind in the depth of winter makes people tremble uncontrollably.
Dark, cold, this is the dark night in the mountains!
I don't know when, a glimmer of light appeared in this darkness. The light was very weak, flickering as if it would go out at any time.
Slowly, as the light gets closer and closer, the view becomes clearer and clearer, and there are more and more light spots. Finally, the light spots are connected together, like a giant snake entrenched on the mountainside.
The giant snake of light slowly approached, and at this time, someone's voice could be vaguely heard!
"Hurry up, mother. Is this meal all in vain? Why don't any of them wake up? They all walk slowly!"
"If you keep dilly-dallying, all the girls from Black Tiger Village will be gone!"
'Everyone, work harder, they are not far ahead of us. When we catch up with them, I, Fang Dongquan, will never break his promise, and the food and women I promised to my brothers will never be short!"
This fire dragon advancing slowly in the mountains is naturally the Huangzhu Mountain bandits who are on their way through the night.
In order to catch up with the people in Black Tiger Village in front of them as quickly as possible, they got up and started on their way before dawn. If it was only about four o'clock in the morning, there was still an hour before dawn.
The reason why they got up in such a hurry in the middle of the night was because the spies reported at night that they had discovered the temporary camp of Black Tiger Village in a small valley about fifteen miles away.
In order to catch up with them in time, the people from Black Tiger Village ran away again, so Fang Dongquan and the others decided to rush on the road in the latter half of the night.
Going to bed early and getting up early is good for your health and will give you more energy to fight. Fang Dongquan and the others understand this principle, so they had rested as soon as it got dark yesterday and did not drink and brag until midnight. Therefore, when they woke up in the middle of the night, they were already asleep. It's been at least four hours.
But it is only feasible in this era. If it were in the 21st century, if you Fang Dongquan asked them to go to bed early and get up early, they would have to stay up until one o'clock in the morning even if they were exhausted at night. Even if the sky fell the next day, no Don't even expect them to get up when the sun is shining.
It can only be said that people in this era are still very pure, and their pure hearts have not been tarnished by mobile phones.
However, even if everyone has had enough sleep, everyone is in good spirits, but it is still quite difficult to travel in the dark night, especially in the darkest time before dawn, even with torch lighting.
Especially since they didn't have any GPS navigation, and they couldn't see too far in the pitch-black mountains. They couldn't tell the direction with reference to some obvious landmarks, so they had to rely on spies to lead the way.
We had gone the wrong way just now. Fortunately, the scout who led the way noticed something was wrong and changed the direction in time, so we didn't go further and further down the wrong road. Otherwise, we would have plunged into the mountains in the dark, and we wouldn't have lost our way. It's very possible. After all, they are all old bandits who have been operating in the mountains for many years. They will be able to tell the exact direction at dawn.
But if you make such a mistake, it will be very difficult to catch up with those in Black Tiger Village in time.
After all, they are not stupid, and they will not wait for you to capture them. They are living people, and they can run away.
If they were traveling in the middle of the night, the speed would naturally not be that fast, but no matter how slow they were, this hour would be enough for them to cover a short distance.
When the sky got a little brighter, their speed on the road had obviously increased a lot!
As the sky began to turn white and the red sun gradually rose, Fang Dongquan and the others had already returned to their normal driving speed.
"Now we are only seven or eight miles away from them, everyone, work harder and try to reach their camp before they leave!"
At this time, Fang Dongquan was cheering for the team again.
In fact, needless to say, this group of bandits also consciously accelerated their pace. This was not because they were eager to fight, and once they caught up, they would be able to receive generous rewards.
And more importantly, there is no danger in catching up.
The remnant soldiers of Black Tiger Village have been defeated by them, and with such a large group of old, weak, women and children, they will not be able to resist at all.
After they catch up, they probably won't need to fight much. The people in Black Tiger Village will have to surrender, especially Fang Dongquan and the others who brought Cai Erhu with them.
Cai Erhu also always said that after catching up, he, Cai Erhu, would persuade others to surrender.
With Cai Erhu leading the way, the old and weak women and children who regained Black Tiger Village probably won't have much of a problem.
At the same time, in a small valley seven or eight miles away, just as Fang Dongquan and the others expected, most of the hundreds of people in the Black Tiger Village were still sleeping. They had been running away all night since midnight the day before yesterday, and they had not escaped during the day yesterday.
He didn't dare to stop and rest, but forced himself to continue on his way.
After a day and a night, many old, weak, women and children couldn't hold on any longer. At night they finally got some rest, and many people slept soundly. They felt that it was already dozens of miles away from Black Tiger Village, so it should be safe.
Those people from Huangzhushan ran to Black Tiger Village. After finding no one there, they at most just looked around. If they couldn't find anyone, they might as well leave now.
Maybe after waiting for a while, they can return to Black Tiger Village.
But they didn't know that the purpose of Huangzhushan's war against the surrounding Jiguan Mountain, Black Tiger Village, and Huanggui Mountain was not to defeat them and plunder food, but for their population.
For today's Tang Dynasty, population is a strategic resource more valuable than food and weapons.
The fundamental purpose of this war is to kill the nearly 1,000 people living in these three bandit dens!
So if these people from Black Tiger Village run away, the people from Huangzhushan will give up, and naturally they will pursue them to the death!
The people in Heihu Village don't know yet, but the people from Huangzhushan are chasing him. If they knew, they would probably get up and run away early in the morning.
But there is no if in reality, so most of the people in Black Tiger Village are still sleeping.
About half an hour later, the sky was completely bright, and the people in Black Tiger Village started to get up one after another, and then began to cook rice.
At this time, in a small forest not far from the valley, several Huangzhushan spies came out of the woods and quietly looked at the people in Heihu Village who were making a fire for cooking not far ahead.
Immediately, a man who looked like a small leader said to a short young bandit beside him: "Ruizi, go back and tell the generals that the people from Black Tiger Village are still there!"
"Let me tell you the number clearly. There are about four hundred of them, and there are probably less than a hundred of them young and strong!"
"Also, run faster on the road, don't be too slow, otherwise General Chen will slap you if you delay!"
When Ruizi heard this, he seemed to think of Butcher Chen's fierce appearance, and immediately said: "Brother Liu, don't worry. Who am I, Lei Rui, if you don't worry, I will run all the way back later, and I will definitely not miss anything." !”
"Well, go ahead and be careful on the road!"
As Lei Rui turned around and trotted back, the bandit leader surnamed Liu returned his gaze to the valley not far away and murmured: "I, Liu Tianning, have made such great contributions this time, but I won't be promoted when I go back. You can’t be a general, but you should have a deputy general, guerrillas and the like!”