Chapter 1717 Who are the casualties?
Ying Shao was hiding in the damp and dark underground. His hand holding the hilt of the knife was so tense that his knuckles were almost cracking.
After a long silence, he finally gritted his teeth and retreated.
This time, he retreated because there were already several bandits on the other side of the boulder, so he had to be extra cautious and not make any noise. He bit the boot knife in his mouth again, supported the boulder above his head with one hand, and touched the stone wall beside him with the other hand, moving forward step by step.
The hand that was supporting the huge rock above his head never dropped down.
After a long, almost suffocating dark passage, he finally reached the other side of the boulder.
The people here were still in darkness, without any light, and as soon as they saw him come out, they immediately stepped forward.
"Lord Ying!"
"Shh!"
Ying Shao hurriedly signaled them to be quiet, and everyone immediately shut their mouths, not daring to utter a single word. Qiu Jiang stepped forward, helped Ying Shao out of the gap under the boulder, and immediately said in a silent voice: "Sir, that sound is--"
They had apparently heard the gongs too.
However, because of the obstruction of a huge rock, the sound heard here is even smaller, and only a faint sound can be heard.
Ying Shao remained calm: "Retreat first!"
"retreat!?"
Everyone was shocked again.
Originally they thought there would be an ambush in this place, but when they walked to the front of the boulder, there was no sign of one; they also thought there would be an ambush on the other side of the boulder, so everyone was nervously preparing for battle, waiting for Ying Shao's order to charge forward.
Unexpectedly, after Yingshao had passed for half a day, the sound of a gong was heard in the night sky.
If they come back again, we will ask them to leave!
What's going on?
Even Li Lai, the guide, was confused and asked, "Master Ying, why?"
"Don't talk yet, retreat!"
Ying Shao just glanced at him and waved his hand. Suddenly, no one dared to say anything. They could only feel the stone wall and retreat carefully step by step.
Although their steps were a little messy, the noise of life and the sound of gongs on the other side of the boulder made it seem as if the bandits didn't hear anything. They were able to retreat safely, all the way to another fork in the road hundreds of feet away.
You can be sure that you won't be discovered.
Qiu Jiang lit a small flame.
The flickering firelight illuminated everyone's frightened faces. Looking at Yingshao, they saw that his handsome face was covered with mud and dust, which was stained by the huge rock. However, he didn't care at all. He just frowned, as if he had encountered some huge problem.
Qiu Jiangxian asked: "Sir, where is the huge rock——"
I dared not finish what I said.
After all, judging from the current situation, there is no ambush here, so Li Lai's words seem to be at least half credible.
Sure enough, Ying Shao also glanced at Li Lai.
Then he said, "Over there, as he said."
"ah?"
"It is indeed a road leading to the inner part of Thermidor, to the Sand Bandits' lair."
"Really?"
"This, this is great!"
Everyone was very excited.
Li Lai listened quietly beside him and didn't say much.
Although everyone was excited, Qiu Jiang remained calm. Hearing what he said, he frowned and asked, "What else did you see, sir?"
"There are only a few sand bandits guarding there."
One of the young generals immediately said, "If that's the case, why don't you summon us to attack together? I'm afraid we can completely wipe out the Thermidor tonight."
Ying Shao glanced at him.
Then he said, "With just a few of us, it's no problem to kill those guards, but the military strength in the Hot Moon Crescent is not something we can contend with."
Li Lai finally spoke at this time, with a bit of justified dissatisfaction, saying: "I told you that this number of people is not enough. There are too many people inside, and the people you have here are simply not enough. Before, Lord Ye brought several times more people from your place, and still suffered a loss. You just didn't listen to me, and now you are fine, right..."
He was complaining.
After all, he has risked his life along the way.
But it was obvious at this time that Yingshao and the others did not completely believe him.
Seeing him like this, Ying Shao didn't respond. He just turned around and looked at the crowd. Everyone was excited and said, "But we can't go back empty-handed."
"To put it bluntly, a thief never leaves empty-handed."
"Since we're here, it would be nice to take one or two heads back with us."
Ying Shao raised his hand to stop them from speaking further.
Said: "No."
"Why?"
"Don't you hear the gongs over there?"
"this--"
Everyone looked at each other.
Apparently, everyone heard it.
The bandits in the desert wouldn't have this kind of equipment that only regular troops have. This gong sound was obviously made by a general on another route, that is -
Sound the retreat!
They wanted all the soldiers who had entered the Thermidor to withdraw.
Ying Shao said, "This is the order to retreat. You must know that soldiers must obey. Since the order is for us to retreat, we will retreat."
"Can……"
"I know how you feel. A thief never leaves empty-handed. Taking a few heads is good too."
"That's right."
"But not tonight, especially not on this road, absolutely not!"
"Why?"
"If we kill these bandits, the bandits in their lair at Thermidor will surely discover that this place has been invaded. After a closer look, they'll discover this road and will immediately block it or send more troops to guard it. I've seen this road before, and it's so powerful that even one man can hold a thousand men back. If that's really the case—"
“…”
"Then this road is useless."
When everyone heard this, they immediately came to their senses.
The reason why Ying Shao did not take action was because he heard the call to retreat. Obviously, he had not won the battle on the road to the east of the main battlefield, so he had to keep a road open for the battlefield on this side, and also keep the hope of winning in the future.
Everyone immediately nodded in agreement.
Ying Shao said, "Let's go."
Everyone immediately packed up and went back, but Ying Shao turned around and looked at the dark sky.
The sound of the gong is still echoing.
At this time, Qiu Jiang leaned close to his ear and whispered, "Sir, this sound——"
Ying Shao said calmly, "Don't let everyone get upset now. Let's talk about it when we get back."
"yes."
With that, everyone left together.
The young soldiers here might not be able to tell the difference, but before Ying Shao became the commander of the imperial guards, he had fought in battles with Zhu Feng, and he was very familiar with the sound of the retreat horn.
One could also hear that the gong sounds just now had a hint of wail in them.
It's a warning that there are casualties!
The army will never retreat if ordinary soldiers are killed or injured.
The casualties were—
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