Chapter 77
After a spring rain, the vegetation on the mountain becomes more lush and green.
The soldiers had been hunting frequently in recent days and were very familiar with the nearby forests. They had dug traps and made some traps for animals. However, perhaps because they had been hunting nearby for several days in a row, they had hit several traps that had been set in advance, but they had not gained anything.
Along the way, Fan Changyu didn't even see a rabbit.
The leader said, "If we want to hunt for good things, we'll have to spread out and look deeper into the forest."
He pondered for a moment, and divided the hundred or so people who followed him into teams of ten. A small group stayed in the forest where they had hunted before to continue looking for prey, while the rest followed him deeper into the mountains.
Fan Changyu and the two personal soldiers secretly sent by Gongsun Yin were divided into a group to hunt together outside. It was obvious that they had received instructions, because they were afraid that Fan Changyu would follow them into the deep woods and encounter some danger.
Fan Changyu did suggest exchanging with the soldiers who were going to the old forest, but when the young general gave the order, she knew that they were in the army and she was still dressed as a soldier from Jizhou, so she could not insist any longer.
The group wandered around in the woods and only hunted a few pheasants. They emptied their nests and picked up a lot of pheasant eggs. One of the soldiers took off his clothes and carried the eggs away.
Fan Changyu had experience in hunting in the mountains with her father. She kept a vigilant eye on the surroundings along the way. The mountain soil was soft after the rain, and it was easy to leave traces.
She noticed that at the junction of the bushes in the deep forest, there were traces of some large animal climbing up the hill and scraping the pine needles on the ground. She said to the team, "These look like wild boar tracks. If we follow these tracks, we may be able to find the pig's den."
The guards were a little embarrassed when they saw him going into the dense forest: "But Miss Fan, Captain Yang ordered us to wait for hunting outside..."
Fan Changyu thought for a moment and said, "How about this? You wait for me outside and I'll go in and take a look. I'm not a member of your army, so Captain Yang's military orders naturally don't apply to me. This way, it won't be considered a violation of military orders."
The two bodyguards secretly groaned, thinking that Captain Yang told them not to follow him into the dense forest because he was afraid that something might happen to Fan Changyu. If they let Fan Changyu go into the forest alone, they would be asking for trouble.
One of the guards said, "Miss Fan, please wait outside. We will find a few brothers to go in and look for the wild boar's den."
The scouts in the army were very careful and would not find any loopholes by following the traces.
Their obstructive behavior made Fan Changyu feel like she was a hindrance. She looked at the soldier and said, "I have gone hunting in the mountains with my father many times. I have experience. You don't have to be cautious just because I am a woman. If I would cause trouble, I would not come with you."
In fact, Fan Changyu already felt a little regretful in her heart. She felt that these people were too fussy. If she had known earlier, she would have taken action on her own.
The two bodyguards had no way to refute them. They also discovered along the way that Fan Changyu was not a delicate woman. After walking such a long distance, she didn't even breathe. She was obviously a martial artist. After some hesitation, they followed Fan Changyu into the dense forest.
The ancient trees were towering, it was early morning, and the forest was filled with mist after the rain. The two bodyguards kept shouting at the people behind them to move more closely.
After walking along the trail for a while, Fan Changyu would use a butcher knife to cut a mark on a tree trunk on the side of the road.
When she noticed the claw marks on a pine tree, she suddenly stopped, half-knelt down to look at the marks, frowned and said, "It doesn't look like a wild boar..."
As soon as she finished speaking, a shocking roar came from the front.
A sturdy black bear stood not far away, holding half a bloody wing of some unknown bird in its mouth, looking at them with fishy eyes, obviously protecting its food.
The guards and soldiers were frightened. One of the guards pulled Fan Changyu's sleeve and backed away: "Miss Fan, hurry up, it's a black bear!"
Fan Changyu had experience with trapping wild boars and bison with her father, but she had never hunted a black bear.
The guards were panicking, but she frowned as she was considering whether to go hunting. It would take a lot of effort to kill this black bear. She had never eaten bear meat, so she didn't know if the whole body of the bear could be eaten after it was killed. Otherwise, it would be too uneconomical to just take the bear paws.
As she was being led back, she hesitated for a moment, then turned to her two guards and said, "Why not just kill it? We finally found this prey."
The guards and soldiers all looked at Fan Changyu dumbfounded. For a moment, they couldn't guess whether she was frightened silly or simply ignorant and fearless.
Among all the fierce beasts, bears and tigers have always been the most difficult to hunt. There were only ten of them, and the weapons they carried were only some swords and ordinary bows and arrows. They didn't even have crossbows or spears. How could they hunt a bear?
Perhaps their retreating action provoked the black bear, and it suddenly shook its head, threw the crane out of its mouth, and flew straight towards them.
Everyone was terrified and quickly fled in all directions to make it difficult for the black bear to catch them.
The more nimble ones climbed up the trees like macaques, while the black bear rammed its body into the tree, causing the tree, which was as thick as a bowl, to fall down. The soldiers clinging on the tree also screamed and fell down.
In order to prevent the soldier from dying at the hands of the bear, Fan Changyu knew that the black bear's limbs were nimble and it would be inconvenient to use a pig-tying rope, but he still took off the long rope from his waist and tied it around the black bear's neck.
She stepped on an ancient tree with one foot, wrapped the rope around her palms with both hands, and pulled back with all her might.
The black bear was noose around its neck. Before anyone could slap it, the huge force from the rope pulled its entire body backwards and it hit the ground with a loud bang.
The panicked soldiers were all shocked when they saw this. They had not expected Fan Changyu to have such magical power. After they came to their senses, they all came forward to help drag the rope.
The two bodyguards had more practical experience, so they quickly picked up their weapons and stabbed at the black bear.
The black bear's huge paws rolled left and right and slapped, so the two bodyguards dared not get close. They failed to injure the bear's chest and abdomen, and only left two bloody wounds on his back. However, the black bear had thick skin and these injuries did not threaten his life. Instead, they made the black bear go crazy, and its sharp claws directly cut the rope.
Fan Changyu and the soldiers who were pulling the rope with all their might all stumbled.
Without the rope around its throat, the black bear attacked the two guards frantically. The two guards were obviously unable to fight the black bear head-on, and they could only rely on their agility to survive under the bear's paws. However, they still shouted to Fan Changyu, "Take Miss Fan away!"
How could Fan Changyu just abandon them like that? She simply picked up the heavy boning knife and threw it at the black bear. The knife stabbed into the bear's back, but the knife didn't penetrate deep enough to kill the bear.
However, this action also attracted the black bear's attention. The black bear turned around and roared at Fan Changyu, then turned around and pounced on her.
Fan Changyu ordered his soldiers to run away, while he led the black bear back towards the bamboo forest. During the retreat, he stabbed the black bear's chest with a pig-killing knife, but unfortunately the cut was not deep.
The black bear was in pain and frantically knocked down the surrounding bushes. After Fan Changyu retreated to the edge of the bamboo forest, he picked up his knife and chopped off a thick bamboo. After a few cuts, he carved out a sharp spear tip. Instead of retreating, he rushed forward and rushed directly towards the black bear with the bamboo spear.
The bamboo spear had the advantage of length. From a distance of ten feet, and with the inertia of a running start, it pierced the black bear's heart along the wound it had made before. The black bear screamed in pain and broke the bamboo spear with one grab.
Fan Changyu stepped on a bamboo nearby to gain leverage and thrust the pig-killing knife into the wound on the black bear's chest. The smelly blood splashed all over Fan Changyu, and a lot of it also splashed onto her face.
She didn't even blink, and was so ferocious that she seemed like a leopard fighting a black bear to the death.
After the black bear fell to the ground, Fan Changyu shook off the blood on the butcher knife and muttered to himself, "Hunting a bear is indeed more laborious."
In the early years, her father went hunting in the mountains to supplement the family income and hunted bears. However, she didn't know at that time that hunting bears was such a dangerous thing.
The personal soldiers and pawns rushed over at this time. Looking at the dead black bear on the ground and Fan Changyu with a lot of blood on his clothes, they swallowed subconsciously, and were shocked and dazed, as if they were dreaming.
This girl who looked kind and well-behaved actually hunted a bear alone?
If the news is sent back to the army, I'm afraid no one will believe it. What kind of freak is this?
The two personal soldiers had followed Xie Zheng to Qingping County before, and had seen Fan Changyu throwing people with one hand on the boat. Their expressions were still controllable, but suddenly they looked at each other at the same time: If this girl were to fight with their marquis in the future, who would win or lose?
Fan Changyu wiped the blood off his face with his sleeve. The murderous look in his eyes faded away, and he became honest and harmless again. He asked them: "Do you want to take back only the bear's paw, or the whole bear?"
The soldiers had no idea, but one of them said, "There isn't enough food and grass on the mountain. Let's take it all back."
Everyone agreed and quickly cut bamboo and vines to make a simple trailer and put the dead black bear on it.
The soldiers and bodyguards took turns pulling the rope, and when they returned, Fan Changyu didn't have to do any work.
However, the return journey was inevitably slow as they were pulling a heavy object. On the way, they met a young general who had just returned from hunting a wild boar. When he learned that Fan Changyu had hunted a black bear, he almost dropped his jaw in shock.
The group walked back with joy and mixed feelings. As soon as they came out of the woods, they heard a horn calling for help from the bottom of the mountain.
The young general said, "Oh no! The rebels are attacking the mountain!"
He quickly ordered a dozen people to continue bringing the prey back, and the rest followed him to the main road up the mountain to provide support.
As expected, Fan Changyu was arranged to continue transporting the prey. She didn't want to go down the mountain, but she had a keen nose and smelled the aroma of barbecue.
She asked her personal guards and soldiers, "Do you smell anything?"
The soldiers, who had not had a real meal for a long time, swallowed their saliva. After eating porridge and vegetable soup for many days in the mountains, they could salivate at the thought of the salt, let alone the rich aroma of meat.
The guards asked a soldier who had trotted up the mountain to report the news, and he replied, "The rebels attacked the mountain while roasting meat at the foot of the mountain to persuade us to surrender, in order to disrupt the morale of our army."
Fan Changyu felt that this move was too damaging, and he didn't know whether Old Man Tao and the reinforcements from Yan and Ji states could come up with any solution at the foot of the mountain.
The personal soldier saw that Fan Changyu was worried and said, "The men of Yanzhou are all strong-willed. Not to mention that there is still food on the mountain, even if there are only grass roots and tree bark left, we will not be persuaded to surrender by such a lowly means as the counter-thieves!"
This is the border between the camp and the forest, with a wide view. Looking down the mountain, you can even see a number of bandit tents lurking at the foot of the mountain.
Fan Changyu felt that the number of Chongzhou Army's tents was more than twice that of the tents on the mountain. He frowned and said, "There are too many rebels. They have blocked the road."
But the personal guard said, "Miss, don't just look at the arrangement of the rebels' camp. The rebels have withdrawn half of their troops, so they should have reduced their camps, but they didn't. First, they were afraid that we would attack from the mountain at night, so they arranged more tents to confuse the line of sight. Second, they were demonstrating to the new recruits, so that they would think that there were many people down the mountain and they would be afraid of fighting."
On the way here, Fan Changyu heard Old Man Tao talk about some things about the war, but there was no specific reference at that time, so she only understood half of it.
Hearing that a small soldier in the Yanzhou Army knew so much, he couldn't help but praise: "You know so much!"
The soldier knew that he had said too much and was afraid of causing trouble, so he said hurriedly, "I have been in the military camp for a long time, so I know a little bit."
Fan Changyu asked curiously: "Then how do you tell their exact number?"
The guard replied, "Look at the smoke from the cooking fires. The number of tents can be faked, but the smoke from cooking cannot be faked. How many stoves are needed for how many people to eat? Once you estimate the number of people, you can get the number."
Fan Changyu looked at the place below the mountain where thick smoke was rising, and then looked at the place behind the mountain where only a few wisps of smoke were coming out. He drew out his pig-killing knife, stared with a pair of honest almond eyes, and suggested sincerely: "There are fewer people there, why don't we go there to attack secretly?"
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Bodyguard: ????
Xie Hou: ????
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Sorry to have kept you waiting for a long time. I will send you 100 red packets. I will probably update at 0:00 in the future. Muah~
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