The four people standing by the campfire were silent. These bandits and swordsmen have been walking in the desert all year round, and have been accustomed to silence for a long time with the god of death and loneliness.
San'er suddenly raised his head and said, "We can kill horses, but can't he kill horses?"
Zhang Kuo followed his gaze and saw that in the dark night opposite, Li Siye's fat black man was snoring in the cold wind under the rock tower.
Zhang Kuo's eyes lit up and he asked San'er, "What do you think we should do?"
"While he hasn't made a move yet, let's go over there tonight and bring the horse over."
Zhang Kuo didn't answer. He lowered his head and thought for a long time before saying dullly: "That's a good idea."
San'er immediately grabbed the sword that was thrown on the ground and prepared to stand up, but Zhang Kuo grabbed his arm. The cunning boss looked at the two swordsmen sitting opposite and said slowly with a deep voice in his throat:
"I paid half of the reward to you two, but I didn't ask you to make a show of yourself. You should take the initiative to get the horses."
The two swordsmen exchanged glances. The younger one stood up from the sheep's felt and said with shrinking eyes: "I'll go, but not now. I'll wait until after midnight."
Zhang Kuo nodded, rolled up the sheep felt and lay on the ground, and the four of them began to take turns to watch the night.
In the middle of the night, or to be precise at dawn, the young swordsman hung the horizontal sword on his back, bent over and walked towards the rock tower in a roundabout way.
He behaved very cautiously. He did not approach the horse directly. Instead, he stuck to the other side of the rock wall from another direction and walked slowly forward against the rock wall. Li Siye's black fat was on the edge of the rock wall, at the other end of the horse's reins.
Tie it to the barrier knife and nail it deeply into the rock wall.
The swordsman leaned forward and stood in front of the horse, making hissing sounds in his mouth to calm the horse's mood. At the same time, he took out the sword from his waist to cut the rope.
"Shh!"
A small stone suddenly flew down from above his head, accompanied by a sharp whistle. The swordsman suddenly looked up and saw Li Siye with a rope tied around his waist, two feet on the protrusion of the rock wall, and a crossbow in both hands aimed at him.
.
The swordsman subconsciously dodged to the side, and suddenly stepped on the air, and a tearing pain came from the sole of his foot. He fell to the ground with a muffled grunt, and rolled out quickly, screaming and being covered with a layer of iron caltrops. Li Siye banged
The ground struck the crossbow string, and the arrow shot through the air, stabbing the swordsman in the waist, followed by another scream.
He immediately strung the crossbow, quickly pulled out the crossbow arrow from his waist, inserted it into the slot, and raised his hands to aim. The swordsman endured the severe pain and rolled around. Li Siye pulled the bow string and fired in response, but the arrow missed the target.
.
By the time he loaded the arrow again, the swordsman had already crawled forty or fifty steps away. With such a distance, the power of the crossbow was greatly reduced. Besides, it was still dark and the accuracy could not be guaranteed.
Li Siye sighed angrily, turned around and was about to climb to the top of the rock with the rope, but a strong wind roared towards him. He subconsciously moved to the side, and pain suddenly came from his shoulder blade. He endured it and climbed to the top of the rock, suddenly
Turning over, another feather arrow suddenly shot out, pierced the edge of the rock top and bounced away.
He retracted his body and took in a breath of cold air. He stretched out his hand to touch his back, and his hand was covered with bright red blood.
He raised his head again and used the blind spot to watch. Zhang Kuo was standing more than sixty steps away from him, holding a boxwood bow in his hand, with the strings fully drawn and ready to go.
At this moment, the sky was turning white, and Li Siye did not dare to act rashly. Zhang Kuo, who was holding the bow in the distance, relaxed and reinstalled the wooden bow on his horse.
The elderly swordsman and San'er quickly ran towards this side, and they worked together to lift the wounded man and move him to the campfire.
Zhang Kuo was a terrifying marksman. He was able to shoot himself from a distance of seventy-eight steps under the dim visual conditions of dawn. Sure enough, keeping quiet was the best option.
He thought about himself again, and realized that his killing skills were still a bit outdated, so he would have to train slowly to make up for it in the future. At this moment, the swordsman was hit firmly by a crossbow in the waist, and countless bloody holes were poked in his body by caltrops.
In ancient times without anti-inflammatory drugs and advanced medical equipment, it would have taken a long time to recover from such an injury.
In this way, the opponent only has three people left who can fight, and he is still in a situation where there is a huge disparity between strengths and weaknesses.
…
The red sun slowly rose from the Gobi Desert, and the blood left on Li Siye's shoulder was baked into brown. He should treat the wound as soon as possible to prevent infection, but the location of the arrow wound was a little off, and it happened to be stuck on his left shoulder.
He sat cross-legged in the center of the top of the stone tower, while the enemy guarding in the distance lay under the sun to rest. At this time, he was treating his injuries. As long as he didn't make any noise, he shouldn't attract the enemy.
He lowered his head hard, raised his right arm and bent it back to touch the arrow shaft on his shoulder. Severe pain immediately attacked his internal organs. But he must not stop because of the pain. If the arrow wound is infected, he will die.
Faster.
He slowly and silently muttered in his heart: "It doesn't matter, it just hurts, just like an injection, just like an injection..."
His right arm suddenly exerted force, and the pain instantly extended along the nerve endings. All the strength in his body seemed to be drained, and wet sweat flowed down his forehead. Although he bit the sweat towel in his mouth, he felt the tearing colic.
Still, he groaned, fell forward, and rubbed his cheek against the rock surface.
Although he was extremely weak, he refused to close his eyes, because as long as he closed his eyes to take a breath for a while, he would fall into a comfortable coma, and he was afraid that his head would be picked up in someone's hand.
He supported his arms and sat upright again, took off his robe to expose his left shoulder, took out the distilled wine from his backpack, put his right hand on his shoulder and poured it on the wound, then picked out bottles and jars, some golden sore medicine, Yunnan Baiyao, one by one.
He sprinkled it on the ground, and finally took out a fine linen bandage, sprinkled it with medicinal powder, and bandaged it along the shoulders and armpits.
After taking care of the wound, Li Siye lay down on the rock in a slightly comfortable position, with his bare shoulders receiving as much sunlight as possible, which could promote metabolism and speed up the scabbing process of the wound.
At the same time, a group of bandits in the distance were also treating the wounds of their companions. Compared to Li Siye, the other party's injuries were much more serious. Those rusty iron caltrops would cause large-scale infection of the wounds.
The swordsman squatted in front of his companion and pulled off the iron caltrops on his body one by one. Each pull would cause a miserable scream. The entire day in the Devil City was filled with this sound, mixed with the cold wind whining among the giant rocks and the ghostly cries.
, which sounds creepy.
Zhang Kuo sat silently in front of the ashes, wondering what he was thinking. It was not a pity for him that the swordsman's companion was seriously injured. On the contrary, his strength still prevailed between the two parties, and that was enough.
He does not believe in swordsmen hired by money. These people are just for money and may violate their integrity at any time and bite him back when he is weak.
…
Li Siye carefully observed these people on the top of the rock. He had the same anxiety as the other party. Even if he didn't take the initiative to attack at this point, was he waiting for him to die of thirst and starvation? This bastard was really insignificant.
In the current situation, the two sides are still on the same level in terms of consumption. Although Li Siye has compressed biscuits, the other party can kill horses. If he kills two horses and two camels like this, he will starve to death in the end. As for fresh water, the other party's water bag is at least
It's quite sufficient. Two water bags on my side are already empty, and there are three left. I can continue to hold on.
The sun began to set, and a white horse skeleton appeared on the ground. Li Siye and his opponent fell into a protracted torment. His fat body under the rock wall was also getting thinner from hunger.
Li Siye decided to take the initiative tonight to reverse the current situation. He calculated that the probability of success was very high, and the enemy should not have expected that a person who was injured during the day would take the initiative to attack them.