Chapter 232: Scoundrels Don’t Make an Army
As evening approached, a fine drizzle began to fall.
A Wu first carefully draped an oilcloth over her horse’s back, then put on his own, and rode to catch up with the others.
A Nan’s schedule was always tight; she was supposed to arrive in Jinling City just as it got dark. Now, having taken a detour, she would only reach the city a quarter of an hour after dark.
“Please sit tight, ladies. We need to get the horses moving,” the cart driver said, looking back. He cracked his whip with a loud snap, urging the two horses forward.
They hadn’t gone far when the cart suddenly braked.
Li Xiaonan, who had been watching the drizzle in the twilight through the gauze curtain, was jolted and hit her head on the cart’s side panel. Fortunately, the panel was padded.
“This is a killing formation! Yu Ting!” A Wu’s voice called out.
“Kill…” Li Xiaonan didn’t finish asking who they were going to kill when a sharp, piercing whistle sounded, followed by an explosion.
The explosion startled Li Xiaonan, her mind going blank. Was that a bomb? Were there bombs here?
Yu Ting had already rushed out and taken the cart driver’s seat. The driver jumped down and held tightly onto the two restless horses.
“What do we do?” Wan Jing leaned out of the cart, shouting to the head attendant leading the group.
“We’ll adapt as we go. It’s fine, I’m here!” Yu Ting replied. She yanked hard at the curtain, but it wouldn’t come down. “Why is this curtain sewn so tightly! It’s in the way!”
“I’ll do it! I’ll do it!” Wan Jing, her hands trembling, tied the curtain to both sides of the cart door.
“Who is it?” Li Xiaonan snapped back to reality and squeezed out from beside Wan Jing. “What just exploded?”
“I don’t know,” Yu Ting answered casually, her eyes fixed on A Wu, who was at the forefront.
“Can you hold the horses?” the cart driver asked Yu Ting.
Yu Ting nodded quickly.
“Take this. Can you use a knife? Hold it well. If the horses bolt and you can’t hold them, here, here, just cut them,” the cart driver instructed briefly. He pulled a long-handled saber from under the cart, rushed to the back of the cart, untied a spare horse, mounted it, and joined the three attendants guarding the large cart.
“Are all the cart drivers at your estate this skilled at fighting and killing?” Li Xiaonan looked up at the calm and agile cart driver.
“I don’t know either,” Wan Jing said, standing close to Li Xiaonan and wiping rain from her face.
“Should we run? Where should we run?” Li Xiaonan looked around.
Ahead, A Wu sat on her horse, which seemed extremely excited, galloping back and forth between the post road and the small grove of trees beside it. A Wu held a spear, wielding it with great vigor.
Another attendant also held a spear and rode a horse, moving back and forth, crossing paths with A Wu.
“Is this a battle formation?” Li Xiaonan asked Wan Jing, watching the two horses and two people constantly crossing paths. She heard cries and screams one after another.
“I don’t know!” Wan Jing’s voice was tearful and trembling as she looked at the bandits on the side of the post road, wielding gleaming sabers and charging around erratically.
“Don’t be afraid, I’m here!” Li Xiaonan patted Wan Jing.
“You can run faster than me. Later, you’ll have to run for your life…”
“We can’t run. You two can’t outrun them,” Yu Ting interrupted Wan Jing.
“There are so many of them… They’re charging! Ugh!” Li Xiaonan watched as an attendant thrust a spear into one of the bandits at the front, then withdrew it. The spearhead spun halfway, and a mist of blood mingled with the fine rain.
“Good spearwork!” A Wu shouted excitedly, her spear tip piercing another bandit charging with a saber.
“Are we going to kill all of them?” Li Xiaonan’s voice also trembled slightly.
This was the first time she had witnessed someone killing another person.
“No need. Killing a few more will scare them off,” Yu Ting leaned forward and patted the two horses.
The two horses, smelling the blood, actually calmed down.
“We have more people! Charge together! Charge together!” someone shouted from the woods on both sides of the road.
“What are they shouting?” Wan Jing and Yu Ting asked Li Xiaonan together.
“The ones at the front are blocking spears and dying, follow behind!” Li Xiaonan shouted first, then added, “He said they have more people and should charge together. I told them to follow behind.”
There was a moment of silence all around, then a barrage of curses erupted.
“What are they saying?” Yu Ting and Wan Jing asked Li Xiaonan again.
“They’re cursing. It’s all Jinling dialect, I can’t understand it anymore,” Li Xiaonan said, straining her ears. She could only understand three or five out of every ten sentences.
“How many are dead?” Li Xiaonan asked Yu Ting.
“Three are dead, and two are close to death,” Yu Ting craned her neck to watch the battle.
“Sigh, it would be better to just run them through with a spear,” Li Xiaonan said, instinctively hunching her shoulders at the sounds of screams.
“We want them to scream. The more they scream, the more the others will be afraid,” Yu Ting tugged at her earlobe.
She didn’t like hearing these mournful screams either.
“They’re not charging forward anymore. What do we do? Just stall?” Li Xiaonan felt less afraid.
“I don’t know about that. If it were just me and A Wu, we would have run by now,” Yu Ting stood up and looked around.
A faint whistle sounded in the distance, and a firework exploded in the sky.
The head attendant guarding the front side of the cart immediately raised a cylindrical object above his head. The same piercing whistle sounded, and a firework exploded above them.
“This is a signal. We have reinforcements,” Li Xiaonan understood.
Indeed, it wasn’t long before they heard the faint sound of horses’ hooves.
Among the bandits on both sides of the post road, some began to turn and flee.
“Capture two alive!” the head attendant ordered.
The sound of hooves grew closer, scattering in all directions.
Yu Ting let out a long sigh of relief. The cart driver dismounted, tied the horse to the back of the cart, and sat in the front, signaling Yu Ting to get inside.
The cart began to move slowly, gradually picking up speed.
Within two to three li outside Jinling City, shops lined the road, bustling as if they were within the city itself. This was common in most prefectures and counties of Liangzhe Circuit.
Li Xiaonan’s weaving school was for women in villages and towns. Even the closest schools to the county town were located outside the city. This time, Li Xiaonan and her group had planned to stay at an inn outside the city. However, today, the head attendant directed the cart driver straight into the inner city and chose an inn. No one knew what the head attendant said to the shopkeeper, but the shopkeeper, with a pale face, directed his assistants to quickly clear out the inn.
Li Xiaonan silently watched the group work with practiced efficiency.
She had never experienced an assassination attempt before, but these attendants seemed very experienced.
Did Gu Yan often encounter such situations? Or did their Prince Rui’s Mansion frequently deal with them?
A Wu’s eyes sparkled, more excited than nervous. After entering the inn, she threw her blood-stained clothes to Yu Ting, led her horse out, fed it some apples, and then hugged its head, kissing it repeatedly. She began meticulously washing the bloodstains off the horse.
Her horse had truly performed admirably today.
Wan Jing kept a close eye on Li Xiaonan, not leaving her side.
Li Xiaonan sat by the doorway, watching Yu Ting wash clothes.
Wan Jing sat next to Li Xiaonan, her arms crossed over her chest, huddled into a ball. She wasn’t cold; she just wanted to shrink away.
“Who do you think they were trying to kill?” Li Xiaonan asked Wan Jing after a while.
“You! Do you even need to ask!” Wan Jing shrank further inward.
“Why would they want to kill me?”
“Exactly, why?” Wan Jing gestured outside. “They captured some alive.”
The attendants and the cart driver all had stern expressions and moved about with purpose. Li Xiaonan suppressed her confusion, realizing it was probably still not entirely safe. She would wait until they finished their tasks.
