Chapter 51 The First Pair of Red Flower Staffs of the Tang Dynasty Tramples Both Banks of the Yellow River, Mace Strikes...

Under the blazing sun, the caravan slowly made its way along the rugged mountain path of Black Wind Ridge. Zhao Deyu kept wiping the sweat from his brow, his eyes warily scanning the steep cliffs on either side. Since leaving Songyang County, his heart hadn't been at peace.

"Lord Huo...Lord Huo," Zhao Deyu leaned close to the boy riding the donkey, his voice trembling, "Are you sure this road is safe?"

Huo Qubing didn't even turn his head, his fingers lightly stroking the hilt of the ring-pommel sword at his waist: "Master Zhao, if the bandits come, it will be a good opportunity to rid the people of this scourge."

Perfect timing, let's meet head-on, besides...

Magistrate Jiang's eyes light up at the sight of gold, so he must really like gold. He's using this opportunity to ask for medicine.

Such arrogant talk is unreliable.

Zhao Deyu swallowed hard, stealing a glance at Qin Shubao, who was fully armed, behind him. Only then did he feel slightly more at ease. This burly man's armor gleamed in the sunlight; he seemed far more reliable than the boy riding the donkey.

They even said to remember his name~

How young, arrogant, and ignorant!

Suddenly, a sharp whistle pierced the sky.

"An ambush!" Huo Qubing suddenly raised his hand, and the caravan immediately stopped. His black donkey pricked up its ears, even more alert than the warhorse.

Dozens of dark figures suddenly appeared on the cliff, and arrows rained down upon them.

"Raise the shields!" Huo Qubing commanded, and the craftsmen quickly raised the prepared wooden planks. Arrows clattered against the planks, with only a few piercing through the gaps.

Zhou Dashi huddled beside the truck, his hand gripping the machete he had been assigned, his knuckles white from the force. Suddenly, his coworker Erwang screamed – an arrow had pierced his calf.

"Lie down! Don't move!" Zhou Dashi pulled Erwang down and used his body to block him.

Huo Qubing squinted as he observed the distribution of bandits on the cliff, then suddenly pointed to the left: "General Qin, you take ten men and guard that pass! The rest of you, follow me!"

Without a word, Qin Shubao led ten strong men to the designated position. Zhao Deyu stared in disbelief at this scene—could this young man actually command a fierce general like Qin Shubao?

When the arrows proved ineffective, the bandits began pushing boulders down the hillside. Huge rocks rumbled down the slope, threatening to smash the truck.

"Scatter!" Huo Qubing shouted, and at the same time, he leaped up from the donkey's back, using the rolling stones for leverage, and in a few leaps, he climbed up the cliff.

The bandits were clearly unprepared for someone with such skill and were momentarily thrown into disarray. Huo Qubing, like a tiger entering a flock of sheep, his ring-pommel sword gleaming coldly, felled three bandits in the blink of an eye.

"Kill them!" Seeing Huo Qubing's bravery, the craftsmen also mustered their courage and charged forward.

Zhou Dashi watched his companions charge forward, then glanced at Erwang groaning in pain on the ground, gritted his teeth, and charged out as well. He didn't know any martial arts, but the strength he had developed from firing kilns made him wield his wood-chopping knife with tremendous force.

The battle lasted for about half an hour. The bandits fled in panic, leaving behind dozens of corpses. Huo Qubing did not pursue them, but immediately returned to count the casualties.

"Three are seriously injured and seven are slightly injured," Qin Shubao reported. "The number of bandits is larger than expected, at least a hundred."

Zhao Deyu slumped to the ground, his face deathly pale: "It's over, it's over, I'm definitely going to die..."

Huo Qubing ignored his wails and went to the injured craftsman to check his wounds. Zhou Dashi was using a torn piece of his clothing to bandage Erwang's leg injury with surprisingly skillful technique.

"You know medicine?" Huo Qubing squatted down and asked.

Zhou Dashi shook his head: "My mother has been bedridden for many years, and she's become quite the doctor over time." He paused, his voice low, "Sir, the bandits are clearly after us; they know we'll take this route."

A glint of light flashed in Huo Qubing's eyes: "Continue."

“They were so well prepared, with rolling stones and arrows... it didn’t seem like a spur-of-the-moment decision.” Zhou Dashi lowered his voice. “And I noticed that when they pushed the rolling stones, they avoided Zhao Yuanwai’s cart behind them.”

Huo Qubing had also noticed these things, but when leading troops, one must pay attention to each person's strengths, and when they come together, they can be invincible.

Huo Qubing's lips curled up slightly: "Very good, you have observed very carefully." He stood up and looked around at everyone, "Gentlemen, the bandits' lair is nearby. They have suffered a loss today and will surely come to retaliate. From now on, none of us will have a peaceful day."

The craftsmen looked at each other, some already trembling. They had come with nothing but reckless courage, never expecting the bandits to be so brutal.

Zhao Deyu burst into tears, crying out, "I told you we should have taken a detour! Now everything's ruined!"

"Silence!" Huo Qubing shouted sharply, and everyone immediately fell silent. The young general's eyes flashed like lightning. "Those who want to live, do as I say."

"Cut the weeds and eliminate the roots!"

After saying that, Huo Qubing led ten men and ran off somewhere.

Those bandits who fled back to Black Wind Stronghold immediately reported to their leader. The bandits were warlike and immediately prepared for a head-on confrontation. The first to bear the brunt was the third leader, who led only a few hundred men and vowed to wipe out Huo Qubing and his group.

As soon as they met...

The last thing Scarface Li, the third leader of Black Wind Stronghold, saw in his life was a beam of golden light coming towards him.

The golden light initially resembled the first rays of dawn at sunrise, but by the time he realized it was a bronze mace, it was too late. The mace, weighing over sixty pounds, tore through the air with a roar like a dragon's cry, precisely striking his nine-ringed sword as he swung it down with all his might.

"clang--!"

Amidst the deafening clang of metal clashing, the nine-ringed sword, forged from fine steel, snapped in two like a withered branch.

This is top-quality steel!

Scarface Li's hand clenched open, and before he could even scream, a second golden light arrived. This time, he clearly saw the fine patterns on the mace.

"Bang!"

The bronze mace slammed solidly into Scarface Li's left shoulder, the sound of his collarbone shattering clearly audible even to bandits ten paces away. This ruthless bandit, who had committed numerous atrocities over the years, flew through the air like a broken sack, crashing through three fence posts before finally coming to a stop, blood and broken teeth spurting from his mouth.

Qin Shubao stood with his mace sheathed, his armor gleaming like gold under the blazing sun. Not a single one of the hundred-odd bandits dared to advance; they all froze in place. When this leopard-headed, piercing-eyed general charged into their ranks, they had thought he was a suicide mission—until they witnessed his power firsthand.

He's a living killer.

"Who else?" Qin Shubao's voice boomed, pointing his mace at the bandits. He had already spared these young men a way out.

Suddenly, a burly bandit with a menacing face charged out, his dagger aimed straight for the waist and abdomen. Qin Shubao neither dodged nor evaded, but instead struck back, shattering the bandit's skull like a watermelon.

Qin Shubao held his left mace three steps in front of Zhao Deyu, while his right mace pointed diagonally at the ground. Drops of blood dripped down the edges of the maces, creating small craters in the yellow earth. The breastplate reflected the shadows of the trees, revealing the terrified faces of the bandits opposite him.

"Good sir...spare me!" The young bandit threw down his machete, knelt on the ground, and kowtowed repeatedly. "I was captured and brought up the mountain..."

Qin Shubao's bronze mace stopped three inches from his opponent's throat, the force of the blows already piercing the skin and drawing blood. His leopard-like eyes widened: "Have you killed anyone?"

"No...no! I only helped move grain!"

With a slight turn of his mace, Qin Shubao glanced at the calluses on the young man's hands—the result of years of wielding a hoe; he was a farmer.

Just as he was about to put away his weapon, three crossbow bolts suddenly shot out from the woods!

"Get down!"

Before Zhao Deyu could react, Qin Shubao swept him to the ground with a kick. The pair of bronze maces swirled like golden wheels, and with three crisp clangs, the arrows were shattered in mid-air. The arrowhead of the last arrow was less than half a foot from Zhao Deyu's eyeball, and the force of the mace sent it flying backward, a scream echoing through the forest.

"General Qin, be careful!" Zhao Deyu suddenly screamed.

A towering black figure leaped down from the cliff, his nine-ringed broadsword aimed straight at Qin Shubao's skull. The newcomer was none other than "Mountain Tiger," the fourth leader of Black Wind Stronghold. He was tall and strong, and wielded his broadsword with incredible skill. This single strike had once cleaved a soldier's shield and the soldier in two.

Qin Shubao neither dodged nor yielded, but instead crossed his two maces into a cross shape and raised them upwards.

"clang--!"

The shockwave reverberated through the valley, and a gap the size of a bowl appeared in the nine-ringed broadsword. The force of the impact sent Kai Shan Hu staggering back three steps, his face filled with disbelief.

"Who are you?" Someone actually managed to catch his knife.

"Qin Qiong." Qin Shubao's voice was like a muffled thunder. The moment he announced his name, the bandits burst into laughter.

None of the people present had ever heard of Qin Qiong's name; they simply thought he was lucky to have taken a blow from the Mountain-Splitting Tiger.

Kai Shanhu's Adam's apple bobbed, and he suddenly ripped open his shirt to reveal his scarred chest: "A nobody like you dares to be so arrogant?" As he spoke, he suddenly threw out three iron caltrops, aiming straight for Zhao Deyu's face.

Qin Shubao remained motionless, his right mace shooting out like a golden dragon's claw. The tip of the mace precisely struck the first iron caltrop, using its force to knock away the next two. Simultaneously, his left mace was hurled, tracing an arc through the air—

"puff!"

The bronze mace pierced through the tiger's right shoulder, sending the giant flying backward and pinning him to a pine tree. The tree crown shook violently, scattering pine needles everywhere.

The remaining bandits let out a shout and were about to flee. Qin Shubao took another copper mace from his waist and slammed it into the ground. With a loud "boom," spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the mountain path. The bandits were frozen in place, as if under a spell.

"Those who kneel and lay down their weapons shall live." Qin Shubao's voice was not loud, but it made everyone's knees go weak. "Those who resist—" He pulled out the copper mace nailed to the tree, and the tiger-like creature slid to the ground like a rag doll. "Such a tree."

With a snap, the pine tree pierced by the copper mace suddenly broke in half.

Zhao Deyu slumped onto a rock, only then realizing that Qin Shubao had never strayed more than three steps from him. All those seemingly perilous battles were entirely under the control of this renowned general. Even the most dangerous crossbow bolt hadn't broken through the range of Qin Shubao's mace attack.

"General Qin... General Qin..." Zhao Deyu's voice trembled, "Your double maces must weigh over a hundred pounds, right?..."

Qin Shubao was wiping the bloodstains on his mace with a bandit's clothes when he heard this. He looked up and said, "I'm used to it..." Before he could finish speaking, he suddenly turned around, and the mace flew out of his hand.

A bandit scout who had just peeked out from the bushes twenty paces away was struck in the chest by a spinning bronze mace and sent flying backward into the ravine. Qin Shubao walked over, retrieved his weapon, and continued as if nothing had happened, "So it didn't feel so heavy..."

The rescued young bandit suddenly rushed to Zhao Deyu's feet: "Sir, please have mercy! I was forced into this! My mother is still in their dungeon..."

Qin Shubao, his bronze mace already halfway in the air, paused slightly upon hearing this. Zhao Deyu quickly grabbed the hem of his armor: "General Qin, perhaps..."

"There's a Zhoujia Village, thirty li east of Songyang County," Qin Shubao suddenly said, pointing his mace at the young man. "Since you say you're a farmer, do you know which god is worshipped in the village's land temple?"

"We worship...we worship the Mountain God and the Goddess of Fertility..." the young man blurted out, then quickly added, "There's also a crooked jujube tree in front of the temple!"

The bronze mace was slowly lowered. Qin Shubao said, "Follow him, don't try anything funny." As he turned, he whispered to Zhao Deyu, "He reacts quickly, he's not lying."

Qin Shubao was a man of great loyalty and compassion, and he always showed some leniency towards the people who were forced into banditry. This leniency was born of absolute power, and he had the ability to do good deeds.

A mountain breeze swept by, ruffling Qin Shubao's blood-stained battle robe. His double maces gleamed golden in the setting sun, making him appear like a god descending to earth.

Zhao Deyu was captivated and murmured in admiration:

"The general is truly a divine being."

Zhao Deyu was filled with admiration. He only knew that Qin Shubao was a yamen runner in Songyang County, but he did not know that the person standing in front of him was: "Qin Shubao, the number one fierce general of the early Tang Dynasty, the governor of Xuzhou, the Duke of Protector of the State, one of the 24 meritorious officials of Lingyan Pavilion, the number one double-flowered red stick of the Tang Dynasty, and the number one thug of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, who trampled the Yellow River on both banks, wielded a mace to conquer three prefectures and six counties, was as filial to his mother as Zhuan Zhu and as friendly as Meng Chang!"

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Author's note: There's not enough room for all of us [doge emoji]

Huo Qubing is currently on his way to raid a bandit's den. [Let me see!] Please add this to your favorites! Please add this author to your favorites! [Pity][Pity][Pity] Please everyone, please add this to your favorites! [Pity][Pity][Pity]