Chapter 54 Chapter 54 “Whoa—” a few…
"Whoa—" A few horse neighs were heard nearby, and Jiang Wan heard the sound of leather boots stepping on the ground, which was only about twenty meters away.
The leader of the bandits yelled a few words in an incomprehensible foreign language in a rage. Based on his experience, Jiang Wan judged that they were probably speaking the Xiongnu language.
But because he couldn't understand, Jiang Wan could only guess from their anxious tone that they were looking for the people in the convoy, probably saying something like "Damn, where are these people?"
He tilted his head slightly and glanced at the five people underwater. They all looked confused, and the female guide even had a look of fear in her eyes.
Everything seemed normal, but Jiang Wan had a bad feeling.
The loud noise and the towering sand columns we heard earlier were clearly caused by explosives. But even if a group of bandits wanted to rob people, they wouldn't use gunpowder. Wouldn't that easily injure themselves?
Jiang Wan's mind was spinning rapidly. The distance of more than twenty meters was very short. As the footsteps of the horse thieves got closer and closer, several Hun men in leather jackets appeared in her sight.
Because of the swaying water and the obstruction of the grass, she couldn't see clearly. Nine people appeared at the lake's edge. They all had the appearance of Xiongnu people, with loose hair, thick eyebrows, and large eyes.
According to Yili's estimation, the enemy had fifty horses, so there should be at least fifty people. However, there were only nine people at the lake. Therefore, they must have been searching separately.
The leading man was about forty years old, sturdy, with a hideous scar on the left side of his face. His temperament was different from the others, and Jiang Wan suspected that he might be a former soldier who had become a bandit after retirement.
The scarred man led several horse thieves in a short circle along the lake and searched all the bushes on the shore.
Half an hour later, one of the bandits plunged his knife into the sand and started shouting angrily. The scarred man walked over and patted his arm, mumbling something incomprehensible. The man calmed down a little and pulled out his knife again.
As a result, the knife got stuck in the sand and couldn't be pulled out.
The horse thief tried several times but failed, and kicked the back of the knife in anger. He sat on the ground screaming in pain, and his huge wails echoed by the lake.
Jiang Wan: In the time and space before I traveled through time, there was a term called impotent rage. I wonder if you have heard of it.
Yi Li, who was standing next to Jiang Wan, curled the corners of her mouth and habitually raised her hand to cover her mouth, but Jiang Wan quickly grabbed her wrist.
A small circle of ripples appeared on the water surface.
The scarred man suddenly turned his head and looked towards where they were with a fierce look.
He drew his knife with one hand and slowly approached the bushes in the lake, step by step.
Jiang Wan's heart was in his throat. He could feel Yi Li trembling stiffly at his fingertips, and the others were also pale and afraid to move.
The footsteps stopped about four or five meters away. The person hiding underwater held their breath and waited for a moment. The scarred man on the shore didn't move either.
A horse thief walked behind the scarred man, looked in the direction where Jiang Wan was hiding, and said a few words in confusion, which Jiang Wan could not understand at all.
Suddenly, Scar raised his knife and flung it toward Jiang Wan's hiding spot. The knife arced through the air, then, with the tip pointing downward, plunged almost straight into the waterweed. There was a clang, followed by a crashing sound.
The water plants rustled and swayed.
The scarred man made a gesture to silence his companion who was about to speak, tilted his head and listened carefully, while staring at the lake with vicious eyes.
Jiang Wan knew exactly what the other party was looking for.
One second, two seconds...
The six people underwater had never felt that time was so long and unbearable.
A cup of tea passed, and the lake water remained crystal clear. The scarred man shook his head, turned around, and shouted twice. Nine men mounted their horses one after another, presumably to search elsewhere.
Underwater, a large knife gleaming with cold light was lying on the rock. Jiang Wan used his sleeve to hold down the female guide's forearm tightly. There was a wound about ten centimeters long caused by the knife.
The female guide grimaced in pain, and Ellie looked at her apologetically.
Everyone looked sympathetic, but no one dared to move. Moreover, with the hollow grass in their mouths, they couldn't speak, so they could only stare blankly.
Fortunately, the bandits were about to go far away. After waiting for another half hour, he could climb out of the water and treat his wounds.
Jiang Wan breathed a sigh of relief, but the unexpected incident caught him off guard.
Suddenly, the white guard surfaced and shouted in Xiongnu language, causing the nine horse thieves who had just mounted their horses to look back.
The moment he opened his mouth, Jiang Wan quickly covered it with her hand. However, the woman's strength was too weak to compete with a skilled martial artist. After being slapped twice, the hollow grass in Jiang Wan's mouth fell out, and she had no choice but to let go of the white guard and float to the surface.
Fang Hong and another guard named Li were stunned for a moment by the sudden change. Only after Jiang Wan was attacked did they rush forward to subdue Guard Bai. However, as they engaged, they discovered they had lost all their internal energy. The harder they pushed, the more sore and weak they became.
So the two of them received the same treatment as Jiang Wan: they were slapped twice, the water plants in their mouths fell out, and they had to go ashore.
The white guard also climbed ashore and turned back to pull the two girls out of the water. Yi Li struggled desperately, but found herself limp and unable to move. The female guide, however, was thin and didn't resist at all.
At this point, all six people reached shore. Fang Hong, Yi Li, and Guard Li lay on the ground, unable to move. Jiang Wan and Guide Liu had just sat up when the Xiongnu horse thieves arrived.
The white guard had a smile on his face as he walked up to the scarred man and spoke a few words in Xiongnu language, making a beheading gesture.
At the scarred man's command, eight bandits drew their swords and surrounded Jiang Wan and his companions. Another bandit rode away, presumably to find his companions.
If looks could kill, Jiang Wan and the other five would have chopped the traitor Bai Huwei into pieces with their dagger-like gazes. But Bai Huwei didn't care. He walked up to her and squatted down, braving the five angry gazes.
Jiang Wan's eyes were cold: "Is there poison in the wine? Cartilage powder?"
Except for her and the guide, everyone else in the caravan had drunk alcohol, which caused them to experience internal blockage and general soreness. There are only a few common medicines that have this effect.
"Jiang girl, long time no see. You have become much more powerful than I thought." The voice of the white guard was different from before, becoming the familiar voice in her memory.
He raised his hand and pulled, and the skin was torn off. Inside was not flesh and blood, but another face - the face of the servant who reported Duke He.
"It's you!" Jiang Wan exclaimed, his heart sinking to the bottom. It seemed that this encounter with the bandits wasn't accidental, but Guard Bai had passed on the information, and it was he who was colluding with the Xiongnu.
"So, you stole the Duke's silk screen and his handwriting to forge letters that implicated his collusion with the Huns?" Jiang Wan asked.
The white guard nodded.
"But the Duke never brings the Ministry of Revenue files back to the palace. How did you get them?"
Guard Bai said sinisterly, "There are others who will get the files. As long as they are not taken away from the Ministry of Revenue, no one will be able to find them after the incident."
"When you betrayed the Duke, did you not think about his kindness to his servants, or your father who also lived in the Duke's Mansion?"
Guard Bai laughed heartily, as if he had heard something funny. "No matter how gracious you are, you're still a slave like an ox. As for my pedantic father, haha, I think about my entire future, and he actually stopped me from leaving the Duke's Mansion and wanted me to be a servant for the rest of my life! A father like that would be better off dead!"
His bony hands pinched Jiang Wan's face. "If I kill you, I'll hide in the Xiongnu and continue to serve my new master. My master said that when he achieves great success, he will give me endless wealth and glory."
Jiang Wan sneered, "Leaving your homeland, fleeing across the desert, not even daring to reveal your true identity, is this a gift from your master?"
Guard Bai suddenly tightened his grip on her hand. Jiang Wan felt pain but endured it without making a sound.
Guard Bai gnashed his teeth and said, "Those who achieve great things don't care about trivial matters. What do you women know? But I didn't have to flee to the desert. I was hiding well in Xiaofangpan City, but I was spotted by the Jinyiwei."
He snorted, "I was the one who repaired your wooden house. I'm going to charge you ten taels of silver less. Consider it buying your life."
Jiang Wan was shocked. "Your identity in Xiaofangpan City is Uncle Wang, the decorator? But Uncle Wang is dead. The government found a charred corpse in the house that was burned."
"It was just a trick to fool the Jinyiwei. Those idiots really thought I was dead, and Shen Jianqing went straight back to Beijing, hahahahahaha..."
Jiang Wan recalled the sadness he felt when he heard the news of Uncle Wang's death, and he really wanted to go back in time and slap himself in the face.
The doubts in her heart were finally resolved. Shen Jianqing was inspecting the counties as an imperial envoy, with the goal of hunting down the spies in Xiaofangpan City. Guard Bai faked his own death and escaped, sneaking into the caravan. His brazen march to the Xiongnu would clearly arouse suspicion, so he came up with a plan.
The Xiongnu's helpers disguised themselves as horse thieves, killing and stealing people near the Wusun Ancient Road, then staged a "faked death." Not only Jiang Wan's caravan, but all the caravans that had been traveling along the Wusun Ancient Road in recent days were doomed, and only Guard Bai would survive.
No wonder the "horse thieves" used explosives. They wanted to clean up the scene so that the government would not be able to find out how many bodies there were.
"It seems you have figured out the key." The white guard's fingers stroked Jiang Wan's skin, which was cold and sticky, and Jiang Wan got goose bumps.
He whispered, "Smart little beauty, just be good and don't resist. For the sake of our acquaintance, I will give you a quick death."
Jiang Wan kept his head down, but his brain was racing.
The Huns' encirclement was shrinking. The man with the scar had changed his knife and put the tip of the knife against Jiang Wan's back.
The timid female guide began to cry, and the other three lay on the ground with despair in their eyes.
Jiang Wan suddenly raised her eyes and smiled: "Really? You really fooled everyone?"
The scarred man paused holding the knife.
A long sword came through the air, and the knife in his hand flew into the air in an instant, stirring up a layer of sand waves.
In the yellow sand, light and shadows flickered around her, and with a few clinking sounds, nine long swords broke into two pieces.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
