As soon as Zhao Xian stepped out of the cowshed, he saw the village head pacing back and forth in the open space in front of him. Upon seeing Zhao Xian come out of the cowshed, he was overjoyed.
Upon seeing Wang Lizheng, Zhao Xian felt a little embarrassed. He had been resting in the cowshed for over an hour, while the village head had been waiting outside for so long, trampling down a large patch of weeds on the ground.
"Well, is the bomb ready?" the village head asked.
"We've made over a hundred, but we don't know if they'll work. Let's test them out and see if they explode," Zhao Xian said with some concern.
"There's definitely no problem. Let's go test it out quickly." The village head was very excited; he had a lot of confidence in Zhao Xian.
The two quickly arrived at the open space on the east side of the village, where more than twenty people were still practicing. When they saw Zhao Xian and the village head coming over, they went to greet them.
“We’re almost fully trained now. We can accurately throw stones into pits from eighty paces away, and we hit the target every time. What’s the next step?”
Zhao Jinxian nodded and said, "I'll show you something, and you'll know how to deal with those bandits tonight."
Everyone looked at Zhao Xian eagerly, wondering what he was going to show them.
Zhao Xian took out a bomb from the cloth bag. The thing was dark and about the size of two fists, and looked a bit like a lump of cow dung. He didn't know what it was for.
"This thing is called a bomb. We just made it. There is a fuse on the bomb. To use it, first pull out the fuse, then throw it and it will explode. Now let's test its power."
After Zhao Xian finished speaking, he handed the bomb to Zhao Xian and asked him to test it.
Zhao Cheng weighed the bomb in his hand; it was heavy, weighing less than two pounds. This thing should be easier to throw than a stone.
Zhao Xian told him that using a bomb was dangerous, and that after removing the fuse, it must be thrown away immediately and not left in his hand.
Zhao Cheng nodded and prepared to throw the bomb. He stood a hundred paces away from the pit in front of him, pulled out the fuse, and soon a wisp of smoke began to emerge from the small hole in the bomb.
Zhao Cheng dared not delay and threw the bomb into the pit in front of him.
The bomb traced a beautiful arc in the air before landing precisely in the crater.
The moment the bomb fell into the crater, a violent explosion occurred, so loud that the entire ground vibrated.
The pit contained many stones, which were immediately blasted into flying scattering everywhere.
No one expected the bomb to be so powerful; if it had fallen into the crowd, it would have certainly blown them to pieces.
Everyone quickly understood why Zhao Xian had them throw stones. It turned out that he was training them to throw bombs. One could imagine that if these bombs were used to bomb the mountain bandits who had attacked Shuixian Village, they would be blown to bits.
Zhao Xian hadn't expected that these simple bombs would be so powerful. He was overjoyed, knowing he could use them to deal with the people of Wild Wolf Village tonight.
Zhao Xian had everyone try it so they wouldn't be nervous when throwing bombs at night and could avoid making mistakes.
Soon everyone had a bomb in their hands, and they began live-fire training one by one.
The continuous explosions startled the villagers working in the fields and in the village. They looked up at the east side of the village, where plumes of black smoke were rising, wondering what had happened there.
Night fell quickly. Zhao Xian instructed each of the twenty men to carry five bombs, which should be sufficient to deal with the people of Wild Wolf Village.
It was nearly midnight, and everyone was lying in ambush at their designated spot, closely watching for any movement outside the village.
Suddenly, the patrol team noticed a group of people quietly approaching the village entrance in the distance. Because it was dark, they couldn't see how many people were coming.
Everyone immediately went into a state of combat readiness. They quietly took out their bombs, pinched the fuses with their fingers, and waited for Zhao Cheng's order to drop them.
Soon the people of Wild Wolf Village arrived at the village entrance. They paused for a moment, but did not immediately enter the village. Instead, they lit torches and prepared to rush into the village.
Seeing that it was about time, Zhao Cheng roared:
"bomb"
With the torches as a guide, it was much easier to throw bombs; one bomb after another was thrown towards the light.
The bomb Zhao Xian threw exploded first in the crowd, and the others followed suit, throwing their own bombs into the crowd as well.
The explosions echoed repeatedly, carrying far through the silent night sky.
The indiscriminate bombing knocked down almost half of the people. The people of Wild Wolf Village were disoriented by the blasts and quickly retreated, leaving the village.
Not far from the village was a small grove of trees, where the people of Wild Wolf Village retreated in disarray.
One of the leaders began to count the number of people and found that the indiscriminate bombing had killed at least fifty or sixty of them.
The leader of the group was furious. He was prepared to lead his team back to fight, but the men were too scared of the bombing to dare to go back.
We suffered heavy losses before even entering the village. We can't explain ourselves to the village chief if we go back like this. We have to fight our way back to save face.
Just as they were arguing, several sparking bombs were thrown at the crowd.
Another explosion rang out, the immense power knocking down another group of people from Wild Wolf Village. The remaining people fled in panic, scattering in all directions.
To prevent the people of Wild Wolf Village from attacking again, the twenty men continued to lie in ambush at the village entrance, guarding it until dawn.
This time, the Wild Wolf Stronghold's sneak attack on Narcissus Village not only failed, but also resulted in heavy losses, which infuriated Chief Hu.
As dawn broke, Zhao Xian knew the danger had passed, so he arranged for two of his soldiers to ride fast horses to the county town to report the news. Meanwhile, they began to clean up the battlefield, treat the survivors of the Wild Wolf Village who had not been killed in the bombing, and then hand them over to the government.
Magistrate Cao was shocked to receive news that the Wild Wolf Village had launched a night attack on Narcissus Village but had been defeated by Zhao Xian.
He quickly wrote a memorial and sent it to Qing'an Prefecture, while he himself led a group of yamen runners to Shuixian Village to handle related matters.
In the prefectural government office of Qing'an Prefecture, Prefect Shen was summoning some officials to the council hall to discuss important matters. Li Xue was also present. They were discussing sending troops to Wild Wolf Village.
Wild Wolf Stronghold is very strong, and the troops of Qing'an Prefecture alone are not enough. Troops must be transferred from other prefectures immediately, but this will take time.
At this moment, Li Xue was extremely anxious. The Wild Wolf Stronghold had to be wiped out as soon as possible. The leader of the Wild Wolf Stronghold was ruthless and might very well massacre Shuixian Village, which would then become a river of blood.
Just then, someone came to report that Zhengyang County had an urgent official document to present.
Prefect Shen was greatly surprised. Could something major have happened in Zhengyang County? Li Xue also had an ominous premonition. Could it be that the people from Wild Wolf Village really attacked Shuixian Village last night?
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