bullyxtreme Chapter 74 The Luo family army is nothing special!
Chapter 74 The Luo family army is nothing special!
Chapter 74 The Luo family army is nothing special!
"Hehehe, I misjudged him. I didn't expect Tie Liancheng to be more than just a brute. That bastard's actually quite cunning!"
When Ge Shouye, the leader of the Ge family army, received the message from Tie Liancheng, he couldn't help but chuckle coldly.
"Boss, what do we mean? Are we going to go and work with them?"
Ge Shouye nodded, then snorted coldly and said, "Yes, of course I want it. That Luo family army really doesn't give me any face at all; they've gone too far!"
"It's not a good thing for young people to be so arrogant. Let me teach that brat a lesson and show that so-called commander of the Luo family army what it means to provoke public anger!"
Upon receiving this news, the head of Erlong Mountain immediately issued an order to send troops. By noon the next day, the three bandit groups had joined forces, forming a force of over 1000 men.
Among this bandit group, Erlongshan sent the most men, a total of 600, while Heiqiling sent 300, but they brought out all their foreign-made guns. Ge's army, on the other hand, mobilized its entire force, with 200 horse bandits moving swiftly like the wind.
After all, the Ge family army was different from the other two bandit groups. They didn't have any fixed territory, and their money was hidden in various secluded places. Even if they had a temporary stronghold, they could abandon it at any time.
Therefore, unlike the other two bandit groups, they did not have to leave a lot of troops to guard their home. They could bring out all their troops and fight the enemy in one fell swoop, taking everyone down with them!
More than 1000 bandits gathered together, and looking at them, they looked like a small army. In particular, these bandits were relatively well-equipped. They had more than 500 firearms, which was no weaker than the Green Standard Army of the imperial court.
The bandits were unaware that, in fact, the Green Standard Army troops stationed in Kaiyuan City were not as well equipped with firearms as they were. Apart from the uneven quality of their firearms, their firearms had surpassed those of the imperial army stationed there in every other aspect.
"Hahaha, with our troops so strong and well-equipped, that little thief from the Luo family army is doomed!"
Looking at the large group of people, Tie Liancheng laughed heartily, full of pride.
In his view, with such a force assembled, let alone just taking down a small gold mine or eliminating a local armed force like the Luo family army, they might even dare to open up Yuan City!
Of course, that was just a casual remark.
If they were really allowed to open up Yuancheng, they wouldn't dare even if they had a few times the courage. Putting aside how many troops were stationed in Yuancheng, the mere act of rebellion was enough to terrify the bandits.
To put it bluntly, these bandits are a bunch of cowards who bully the weak and fear the strong. They're fine with bullying the local people, but they would never dare to go against the imperial court and become rebels.
Why not just honestly rob people everywhere? Why bother raising the banner of rebellion and becoming a traitor?
So from this perspective, they were quite puzzled by Luo's army, because in their eyes, many of Luo's army's daily actions were no different from winning people's hearts, and it was obvious that they had great ambitions.
Therefore, they could not understand why the Luo family army was unwilling to join them in their crimes and live a carefree life as bandits, instead of having to suppress bandits while maintaining local order.
What's the use of accumulating such a good reputation?
In the end, this good reputation will only make them a thorn in the side of the imperial court. Who knows when they might inexplicably become rebels!
After the bandit group assembled, they marched towards the gold mine while simultaneously sending a messenger to inform Wan Fu, the garrison commander of Kaiyuan City.
Regardless of their reasons for gathering together, even if Wan Fu knew that the bandits were going to rob the gold mine in which he had a share, they still had to inform them properly.
After all, such a large armed force was no small matter. If Wanfu hadn't been providing cover for them on the official front, they could have easily been mistaken for rebels by the court.
This is precisely why the bandits obediently paid tribute to Wanfu, making money alongside the officials who did nothing. The root cause was their fear that if they grew too powerful, they might be treated as rebels by the imperial court.
Along the way, the bandits chatted about this and that, briefly discussed how to fight next, and then unanimously decided to skip the fluff and just lead their men to push straight up and attack!
Because in their view, they had brought so many troops, giving them a huge numerical advantage, so wasn't the advantage definitely in their hands?
Those bandit scouts hadn't been able to thoroughly investigate the situation, so they had no idea how many people the Luo family army actually had. In addition, the Luo family army had only ever had around 300 people, so even if they recruited more, it wouldn't be possible to increase their numbers by that much all at once.
So the bandits all felt that the number of Luo family troops they were fighting this time was at most 300, and there was nothing to worry about!
As for why their pass was breached and why the lamas guarding the gold mine failed to protect it.
The bandits paid no attention to either of these things.
They didn't see exactly how the pass was breached, only the scene of a massive avalanche. So the bandits all believed that the pass must have been breached by a sudden avalanche, or perhaps the Luo family army had sent people to plant explosives on the mountain.
Thinking of this, many bandits unanimously decided that after they rebuilt the pass, they would not only have to move the pass further back, but also pay attention to clearing the snow in winter!
Otherwise, what if another avalanche comes and collapses their pass again? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?
As for the lamas, to be honest, the bandits had no idea what abilities these lamas possessed, so much so that they were completely unaware of how astonishing it was that the Luo family army had wiped out all those lamas.
These lamas were from the imperial court, secretly sent by Wanfu. In the eyes of the bandits, the lamas seemed to have no special skills other than knowing how to manipulate living corpses.
The bandits, upon honestly admitting it, didn't find the zombies particularly frightening. They believed that if they operated properly, even with only 300 men, they could outmaneuver and kill zombies that outnumbered them by dozens of times!
So when you think about it this way, the Luo family army doesn't seem to be anything special. They just have good luck and the advantage of a surprise attack, right?
This seems to work for us too!
With this in mind, the bandits didn't take Luo's army seriously at all and marched towards the mountain pass in a mighty force.
Anyway, the small wooden fortress they set up there had collapsed under the weight of the snow. They only needed to climb over the obstacles on the other side to successfully cross the mountain pass. There was no need to worry about any terrain that was impregnable. They could just fight when the time came!
If all else fails, and if the Luo family army really has a lot of muskets blocking the mountain pass, they can simply send out martial arts masters to sneak around the mountain and attack the Luo family army from behind.
Anyway, there are so many of them, and quite a few experts among them. They don't think the Luo family army can surpass them in terms of experts!
Not long after, the Cossack cavalrymen on patrol outside informed Rock of the bandit attack.
"So, how many bandits came in total?"
"Reporting to the master, there are approximately 1000 people in total, no more than 1200. We specifically counted them several times from beginning to end, carefully calculating them by the squad!"
Rock nodded, unable to suppress a cold laugh.
Haha, these bandits didn't even bother to send more soldiers. They're clearly looking down on him.
It doesn't matter anyway. Whether the bandits send more or fewer soldiers doesn't matter; it won't make any qualitative difference. Once this bandit force is wiped out, the remaining bandits won't be able to defend the stronghold even if they want to.
"Very well, let the Cossacks roam around and harass them. Don't let them have it too easy on their journey!"
Upon hearing Rock's order, the Cossack cavalryman chuckled, strapped on more bullets, and charged out.
When the Cossack cavalry scouted the perimeter and discovered the bandits, the bandits naturally also spotted some tall and strong cavalrymen.
It must be said that the bandits had mixed feelings about the Cossack cavalry at this moment. After all, these guys looked like genuine Russians, and in those days, whether they were bandits or government soldiers, they were afraid of foreigners.
"Brothers, don't panic! Those are just a small cavalry unit from the Luo family army!"
"Don't be scared of me. Those foreigners also have two arms and two legs, one nose and one eye. They'll die if they get hit by a cannonball. What's there to be afraid of?"
"Charge! Cut off a foreigner's head, and you'll get 20 taels of silver!"
Under the reward, there must be a brave man.
When the other bandits heard about the generous reward, they immediately stopped being afraid of the foreign cavalrymen. Instead, they were eager to kill as many Cossack cavalrymen as possible.
Hearing this, the Cossack cavalrymen in the distance burst into laughter, some even taunting, "You bastards, if you've got the guts, come on over here! My head's right here!"
"That thing without testicles, surely it can't chop off Grandpa's head, can it?"
Oh my god!
I never expected these foreign devils to speak Chinese so fluently, and to be so arrogant!
The bandits' anger flared instantly, and the entire cavalry of the Ge family army charged out first, quickly splitting into several groups that surrounded the Cossack cavalry from different directions.
"Brothers, charge! Let's show these thugs what the Cossacks are all about!"
Rock's cavalry also shouted and charged towards the bandits.
Despite the stark disparity in numbers—one side had 200 cavalrymen while the other had less than 30—these 30 Cossacks somehow managed to overwhelm the opposing 200 bandit cavalry in terms of sheer force.