267. Bandits
Translator: Fan Translation Studio
Battlefield.
The gunpowder smoke curled over with deafening gongs and resounding arms.
The sky was covered by thick smoke, deathly-sullen like the scene before the storm.
However, for some reason, the deafening sounds gradually weakened and turned into painful howls.
Being attacked front and rear, they were unable to resist. Desperately, what they could do was only watching their comrades being killed one by one.
Xiao Baoshan also got stabbed.
He woke up, and then he was soaked with cold sweat.
It was in the middle of the night. After Xiao Baoshan woke up, he just sat on the bed in trance with some scenes on the battlefield popping up in his mind now and then.
That was him. He was sure it was him. It was his real experience. In that incident, almost everyone died. He survived, and then he was turned into a traitor. Then...
Then, he lived with a girl.
It was little Ye.
However, he only remembered that.
He would rather forget.
Why did God let him pick up the most painful part?
He couldn’t sleep anymore. He only held the green lace and waited for the day.
......
Tianshan tribe.
Ye Xiaoxian was living as usual.
However, these few days, she felt her heart sink.
A month ago, Xiao Baoshan often followed her to help her. She prepared the meals and he carried water. She marinated beef and he helped her carry baskets.
He would also do some simple carpentry work in front of her, making simple stools and tables.
Even though she ignored him, she would always be able to see him as long as she turned aside.
Now that she couldn’t see him, she suddenly didn’t get used to it.
She was still thinking about whether he had a different heart with his team at this time. Could it be that he had no patience and didn’t want to be by her side?
Could he have thought of Jing Xiaoyu halfway and wanted to find her?
It wasn’t until she had no intention of overhearing the conversation between Li Hongmei and Wang Mudan that she realized that Li Hongmei had deliberately let him go out and said that she would miss him after a long separation.
After Ye Xiaoxian knew the reason, she got a mixed feeling.
She had to admit that what Li Hongmei had done would work to some degree. Because now Xiao Baoshan wasn’t around, she suddenly felt a little unaccustomed.
She ignored him before, but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to see him. In short, she felt that it was very contradictory.
Ye Xiaoxian was a bit absent-minded. She was cutting beef at this time so she accidentally cut herself.
“Gosh!”
She put down the knife and clenched her fingers.
Blood came out.
She suddenly panicked.
Apart from the year when she first became a cook, she would occasionally cut her hands off, but in the past few years, she had never done that again. She was a Five Star Chef yet cut herself. It would be strange if she didn’t get laughed at.
She could even cut tofu into flowers with her eyes closed, not to mention cutting beef that didn’t need special skills at all.
Therefore, she had an unknown sense of fear.
Then she thought of Xiao Baoshan. Was it dangerous for him to leave?
......
Today was the third day when the caravan drove on the desert.
It had already gone deep into the desert.
What came into eyes was endless sand.
Xiao Baoshan still walked behind.
There was no bowl when he came, but now there was a bowl. He could eat with the guy, but because of Tarico’s rejection, he was more neglected now than when he came.
Wang Wen and Wang Wu wanted to talk to Tarico, but they were stopped by Xiao Baoshan himself.
There was no need to talk with them because of this small matter. If everyone didn’t like him, then naturally there was a reason for not liking him. So it was unnecessary to force to get along well deliberately.
However, today’s desert seemed to have hidden risks.
The wind wasn’t strong and it was very hot. The place where they rested was a sand dune zone, which categorized to the Yardang landform. The field of view was not wide, and this kind of place often had bandits lurking inside.
When the caravan passed by here, they would pass quickly and try not to stay here. However, for some reason, Tarico insisted on resting here, saying that this place was cool.
Besides, they had traveled so many times, and they had never met any bandits. They had even beaten wolves. What were they afraid of?
The young fellows of the tribe naturally listened to Tarico, and as long as Tarico let them rest, they just rested.
Xiao Baoshan also didn’t say anything. He was quite ignored by them, so just listening to the arrangement was fine.
Those people sat down and set up the cooking bench. They took out the water from the bucket and poured it into the pot.
Then the next step was to make the fire and make the soup.
This group of people was not frugal. As long as they had some money on their hands, they would buy things in Beihui city City and they would also make merry in joyhouses. When they were waiting for water to boil, they were discussing which beautiful girls were in the house and also which restaurant’s the food was delicious.
Tarico also went with them.
He had been single for so many years. The first time he came to the joyhouse, there were girls who served him, but when he came back, he found it uninteresting.
They were just playing with him. As long as they were paid, they were quite hospitable. While the moment the time was over, they changed faces even faster than turning pages, as if there were another soul inside. Though, they didn’t forget to let him come again.
It was too boring.
He leaned against the sand dune behind him, listening to young fellows’ chatter. And the more exciting the discussion was, the more restless he felt.
The water in the pot was boiling and steaming. When he breathed a sigh of relief, Tarico suddenly remembered that he had bought some snakes. He planned to take the snacks out and share them with his brothers.
However, just after changing his position, an arrow suddenly hit the spot where he was lying.
Fortunately, he turned around quickly enough to avoid it, otherwise he would have been hit by the arrow now.
“Watch out! There’s someone attacking us!” Tarico shouted while taking his arrows.
The others were panicking too.
Quite a few more shots ensued.
Xiao Baoshan responded. He grabbed a match and waved it at the arrows. Then a few arrows were stuck on the match.
He took off the arrows from above and threw it out with his hand randomly.
Then there was a scream from afar!
Everyone was surprised that without a bow, why he could still hit the enemy?
“Hurry up, come behind the camel!” Xiao Baoshan shouted at them.
“No!” Tarico refused, “Camels are the most expensive thing. If they die, our losses will be heavy!”
Furthermore, without camels, they wouldn’t be able to leave the desert.
At this time, Xiao Baoshan wasn’t as gentle as usual. He ordered again, “Hide behind the camel!”
Then he asked Wang Wen and Wang Wu to block the arrow for the time being and he took out a cloth from one of the camels and quickly unfolded it. Then he motioned Wang Wen and Wang Wu, “Come on, pull the cloth away!”
Wang Wen and Wang Wu got his idea.
The goal of Xiao Baoshan was to block arrows. Although the cloth wasn’t thick, it was long enough. If gone, they could just take a new one again.
However, they still could not hold on for long.
They didn’t know how many people the other party had and how many arrows they had. What if they couldn’t hold on?
But Wang Wen and Wang Wu couldn’t care so much.
Because Xiao Baoshan was quite confident and convinced at this moment, when he ordered, they felt that he was a general who could suppress everyone present.
The two of them quickly spread the cloth and used their martial art to spin the cloth quickly, so as to block more arrows.
At this moment, something that shocked them had happened: Xiao Baoshan suddenly jumped up and quickly climbed up the hill.
He was going deep into the enemy’s territory!
Now it was the bandits who attacked them. This batch of bandits had long been wary of them, just they didn’t get the chance.
Now they chose to rest here, which created a golden opportunity for them.
Therefore, when they were resting, they secretly crawled over and occupied the high ground.
There were a total of 30 bandits. As long as they succeeded this time, they wouldn’t have to worry about their food for a year.
The favorable terrain here did them a big favor. No matter how many people the team had, even if they had some masters, it was difficult for them to resist the arrow rain.
Yet, they didn’t expect that when the two men used cloth to block the arrows, a shadow suddenly rushed over.
The bandits’ leader immediately ordered everyone to aim the arrows at Xiao Baoshan.
However, Xiao Baoshan was swift in movement. In an instant, he rushed to the nearest bandit and snatched the knife in his hand. Within a blink, the bandit’s throat was cut open.
Next was the second and third.
The bandits were stunned for a moment, and they started shooting arrows again.
After Xiao Baoshan rushed up, he also gave Tarico some time. Tarico was not willing to be weak, but he also rushed up the hill and shot at the bandits with arrows in his hands.
Bows and arrows had some advantages in a distance, so they might not be able to get close.
On the other side, this group of bandits were not a match for Xiao Baoshan as he was very fast, and the skills were very high. One knife, one life and he hadn’t missed yet.
Bandits were not the kind of people who never obbeyed the law. They were just all gangsters, and could be solved without giving them a second chance.
When Xiao Baoshan was killing, he still remembered the dream he had last night. In the dream, he was also killing people like this.
When he thought about those dead brothers, his eyes almost turned red.
Among the howls, the bandits fell down one after another without a single survivor.
While Xiao Baoshan stood on the sand dune covered with blood, he looked like a stiff stone statue.
The people below looked at the Xiao Baoshan in shock, speechless.
Wang Wen and Wang Wu had known the name of Xiao Baoshan before, but they had only heard of it and had not seen it with their own eyes. Now that they saw how strong Xiao Baoshan was, they were also stunned.
No wonder he used to have great reputation.
No wonder everyone said that they had no generals as Beiqing Country was invading. What was general demeanor? It should be like Xiao Baoshan.
In the current imperial court, they really couldn’t think of a second person who could be as decisive and courageous as him and not afraid of death.
Tarico and the others stayed stunned for a long time.
It was only now that they understood how childish their previous provocation and neglect of Xiao Baoshan was. In other words, Xiao Baoshan didn’t care about it. If he wanted to haggle over with them, they would have already become ashes.
Moments later, Xiao Baoshan came down from the sand dune. The blood on his body made him look more horrible.
They took a step back unconsciously, but Tarico reacted first. Xiao Baoshan was not an enemy but a fellow with them.
“You... are you alright?” Tarico asked in surprise.
In fact, Xiao Baoshan got shot by arrows twice.