Chapter 153 Counterattack and Escape
A scream rang out, blood splattered, and the remaining seven bandits, terrified, immediately raised their vigilance to the highest level.
They looked around in surprise and doubt, while Xie Wanniang and the others took the opportunity to wave their weapons at them again.
The seven men were forced to resist. They had always been the executioners, but this time their situation was reversed. They went from being the ones holding the butcher's knife to being the ones being slaughtered.
They couldn't escape, and they couldn't kill anyone. Although they had used all their hidden skills, they gradually became covered in wounds and were no longer able to put up an effective counterattack against Xie Wanniang and her group.
At first, they thought they would risk their lives to fight back and fight back, hoping to save their own lives, but they soon realized that they no longer had the right to trade their lives for each other.
The five surviving bandits grew increasingly panicked, angry, and desperate as more of their companions fell. Yet none of them had the courage to end their own lives, knowing they were in dire straits.
Don't be fooled by their ruthlessness when killing others, and their occasional pleasure in torturing the weak. When faced with pain, fear, or even death themselves, they are no better than the very people they once slaughtered like livestock.
They are equally afraid of death, equally shameful, and equally prone to wishful thinking due to their yearning for that extremely slim chance of survival.
Of course, Xie Wanniang and the others, who were the ones retaliating, didn't care how they performed. Whether they were calm or fearful, they would eventually have to pay the price for their actions.
After they killed the remaining five bandits, the bandits on the caravan, who had been unable to break through the defenses for a long time, gradually began to retreat.
The bandit leader cursed and shouted warnings to the bandits who were beginning to hesitate. Seeing this, Xie Wanniang and Haitang continued to retreat along the official road.
They planned to retreat to a certain distance and then take another route to reach the county town.
Rescuing the caravan was not even on Xie Wanniang's list of options.
There were only a few of them, and Xiaomei was a truly helpless young girl. She wouldn't impulsively lead everyone to do something that would be like throwing an egg against a rock.
In fact, if the bandits' main target had been these few individuals instead of the caravan, they probably wouldn't have lasted even a single round against the bandits.
Xie Wanniang, who was very self-aware, had just led her people to the first fork in the road when one of the caravan guards who had run out to ask for help returned with a small cavalry squad, charging back aggressively.
Hearing the thunderous sound of horses' hooves, Xie Wanniang leaned out of the carriage window, her gaze meeting that of a young general holding a long spear and wearing light armor.
The young general glanced at her, then nodded slightly to her two guards. Before Xie Wanniang could react, he led his men and continued charging towards the bandits without any hesitation.
But a young cavalryman beside him slowed down and approached, asking, "Who are you? Do you have any household registration or travel permits?"
Upon hearing this, Xie Wanniang quickly reached out her hand to Xiaomei in the carriage, "We are ordinary people from Yi County. On our way back to the city, we encountered bandits robbing a caravan. Knowing that we were no match for them, we took the opportunity to retreat outside the battle zone."
As she was speaking, she felt Xiaomei hand her the household registration documents, and she immediately handed them to the young cavalryman.
The young cavalryman opened the document, quickly scanned it, verified the authenticity of the household registration, and then handed it back to Xie Wanniang. "Please wait here for a moment. After we have resolved the caravan's crisis, we will need you to come with us to the yamen."
Xie Wanniang nodded, "Okay."
The household registration documents were handed back to Xiaomei for safekeeping. Xie Wanniang closed the car window and waited silently with Atai, Haitang, and Xiaomei.
Her two guards then struck up a conversation with the two young cavalrymen who stayed behind to watch over and protect them—although they didn’t know these two, they had many old acquaintances from the cavalry unit that had passed by earlier.
The general who nodded to them brought about a hundred cavalrymen. The number wasn't large, but it was more than enough to deal with the bandits along with the caravan.
With their safety assured, Xie Wanniang's two guards relaxed their guards a little.
They lowered their voices, introduced themselves, and casually mentioned a few familiar faces from the cavalry.
After listening to their explanation, the two cavalrymen finally believed that they were actually "one of their own".
Xie Wanniang, who couldn't hear what they were saying at all, kept her eyes closed and sat obediently in the carriage.
She appeared to be taking a nap, but in reality, her mind was racing with all sorts of thoughts.
After waiting quietly for about fifteen minutes, one of her guards' deep voices rang out again from outside the carriage, "Miss, a convoy is coming this way."
It was already dusk, and this was the fastest route to Yi County, so it wasn't surprising that a convoy was coming. However, it was rather strange that the two cavalrymen left to guard and protect the convoy didn't go to warn them or ask them to stop or take a detour.
Because the two men were right there, Xie Wanniang's guard didn't speak too bluntly. But Xie Wanniang had spent so much time with them that she knew they weren't the kind of people who would make a big fuss.
Since he said it, there must be something unusual or suspicious about it.
Xie Wanniang pulled out her long stick, opened the carriage door, and jumped off the carriage with Haitang.
The two women each held a long staff in one hand and a long knife in the other. Haitang's knife, in particular, had only been hastily wiped after the killing, and it still carried some suspicious marks and a strong smell of blood.
The two young cavalrymen responsible for guarding this spot tensed up instinctively the moment they saw them like this.
Xie Wanniang noticed the intense gazes the two were casting at them, so she explained succinctly, "We are martial artists; otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to escape unscathed from the bandits."
The young cavalryman who had just checked their household registration nodded slightly to indicate that he and his comrade had only subconsciously adopted a wary posture and did not actually suspect that Xie Wanniang and her group were colluding with bandits.
Not to mention that their household registration was perfectly fine, the caravan guard who had previously sought their help had mentioned that the bandits intended to kill innocent passersby, but they had inadvertently run into a brick wall, which gave them the opportunity to seek help from outside. The age and number of Xie Wanniang and the others perfectly matched the caravan guard's brief description of the "innocent passersby".
Just take Xie Wanniang's two guards for example; they had already gained the trust of the two young cavalrymen who remained behind.
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