"Fourth Brother, after we cross this mountain, we'll reach Hangzhou Prefecture, right?" Thirteenth Prince, riding a glossy, dark red horse, asked Fourth Brother, who was riding a black steed ahead of him.
Su Peisheng and Li Wei, along with several carriages carrying luggage, followed behind them, while a few guards rode behind the carriages.
"Yes, after we cross this mountain, it's probably less than thirty li to Hangzhou Prefecture," Fourth Master said, turning around to him.
Suddenly, an arrow flew from an unknown direction and struck the left leg of Fourth Master's horse. The horse cried out in pain and its left leg buckled, and Fourth Master hadn't even noticed the arrow. As the horse buckled, he lost his balance and fell forward as well.
Thirteenth Prince, Su Peisheng, and Li Wei's horses also began to be hit by arrows. Seeing Fourth Prince's horse struck, they reacted instinctively, immediately dismounting to avoid the sudden barrage of arrows. Su Peisheng lay prone on the ground, groping his way towards Fourth Prince.
"Master, Master, are you alright?" Su Peisheng had never encountered anything like this before, and his voice was almost choked with tears. He had almost lost his own life, and now he had to worry about the safety of the Fourth Master, because if something happened to the Fourth Master, he would lose his head as well.
"What are you howling about? I'm not badly hurt yet. Hurry up and stop spewing your horse piss." Fourth Master lay prone on the ground with his horse, probably only suffering a slight jolt to his shoulder from the sudden impact. He didn't get up because he knew there was still a hail of arrows behind him, so he simply pretended to be injured, lying prone behind his horse to avoid the indiscriminate arrows. Unfortunately, the beautiful black steed was now like a target, riddled with arrows, and could only lie on the ground whimpering, helplessly awaiting its death.
Upon hearing what Fourth Master said, Su Peisheng immediately stopped crying. It was really not a good look for a grown man like him to shed tears.
"Fourth Brother, are you alright?" Thirteenth Brother also hid behind his horse, which had suffered the same fate as Fourth Brother's.
Li Wei and his guards hid behind the carriage, while their mounts triumphantly scattered and fled for their lives.
"It's alright, hang in there. Once they run out of arrows, we won't have to dodge anymore." Fourth Master raised his hand and touched his left shoulder blade, which was probably dislocated and was very painful.
"Damn it, who dares to ambush us? Did we run into some bandits?" Thirteenth Master cursed.
"He'll show up soon, no rush," Fourth Master replied.
"Su Peisheng, come here and help me lift my arm up a bit," Fourth Master said.
Su Peisheng obediently crawled up to Fourth Master and, as instructed, lifted his arm slightly.
With a "crack" sound, Fourth Master only groaned, but large beads of sweat had already appeared on his forehead, showing that he was in great pain.
"Master, I didn't mean to be rough just now, but this dislocation had to be fixed in one go, otherwise..." Su Peisheng saw that the Fourth Master was in a lot of pain and was afraid that he would blame him for being rough, so he quickly explained.
"Enough with the nonsense. Go, crawl over to the carriage and take out a few weapons. I won't be able to protect you later!" Fourth Master rubbed his shoulder blade, finally putting it back in place. It had really hurt so much that he wanted to curse.
Su Peisheng nodded quickly, turned around immediately, and climbed towards the carriage.
When Thirteenth Master saw Su Peisheng crawling towards him like a tortoise, he found it amusing, but he also felt that laughing out loud at this moment was really inappropriate, yet Su Peisheng's appearance was indeed very funny.
The guards had already taken some weapons out of the carriage and were throwing them toward the Thirteenth Prince. Su Peisheng was halfway up when a sword was suddenly thrown in front of him, followed by a knife. He grabbed the sword with his left hand and the knife with his other.
"Quickly send it to Fourth Brother. He only has a soft sword on him, which might not be enough," Thirteen hurriedly said to Su Peisheng, who was still lying on the ground.
Sure enough, the rain of arrows finally stopped, and then several black shadows emerged from the tall grass piles on both sides of the road.
"Thirteen, today will be the day to test your martial arts skills." The Fourth Prince suddenly stood up and shouted to the guards, "Baruts, charge! For every enemy you kill, you will be rewarded with ten taels of gold."
The Thirteenth Prince immediately stood up and shouted, "Those who charge out with me today will be my trusted men from now on! Kill!"
Li Wei and Su Peisheng, who were not skilled in martial arts, immediately hid behind the carriage so as not to cause trouble for the Fourth Prince and his men. Upon hearing the orders from the Fourth Prince and the Thirteenth Prince, the guards immediately brandished their weapons and met the attacking enemy.
These people were all dressed in black and did not utter a word. They were clearly not mountain bandits. Their target was the Fourth Master and the Thirteenth Master. They did not care about anyone else and paid no attention to the valuables on the carriage.
In the chaotic hand-to-hand combat, Fourth Prince and Thirteenth Prince retreated to each other, back to back, surrounded by four men in black. The guards were each holding off two or three men, unable to spare any help for them.
Su Peisheng hid behind the carriage, watching the Fourth Prince and the Thirteenth Prince being surrounded, and he was so anxious that he wished he could rush out with a knife.
“Going out like this is suicide!” Li Wei said, grabbing Su Peisheng’s arm.
“But Master and Thirteenth Master are in danger. If something happens to them, I won’t have to risk my life.” Su Peisheng said, trying to rush out again.
“Listen to me, I have a plan, it’s a bit underhanded though. There’s some wine in the car, let’s each take a jar and pour it on those men in black,” Li Wei whispered.
Upon hearing this, Su Peisheng hurriedly said, "Then use a tinderbox to set them on fire? But wouldn't that hurt Master and Thirteenth Master?"
Li Wei said, "Wait a minute, I'll yell and tell Fourth Master and Thirteenth Master to roll into the haystack. They shouldn't get any dirt on them. Besides, I think there's something wrong with these guys, but I can't quite put my finger on it."
Su Peisheng hesitated, but seeing that Fourth Master and Thirteenth Master were each facing two or three opponents, and their stamina was clearly waning, he had no choice but to steel himself and take the risk.
The two climbed into the car, each carrying a jar of wine, and then took it out again. Then, Li Wei and Su Peisheng, hunched over, stealthily approached Fourth Master and Thirteenth Master.
During the fight, Fourth Master had already noticed that the two were facing east and saw that they were holding a wine jar, so he roughly understood what was going on.
"Thirteen, jump with me later." Fourth Master and Thirteenth Master said as they stood back to back, defending each other against the surrounding enemies. They also noticed that these people seemed to be deaf and mute, not making a sound and not being able to hear anything.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
