Despite picking up more people, the caravan’s speed increased. The young men could easily follow after the carriages once they’d been fed and had their pillocks removed. Plus, they could help lighten the load by carrying miscellaneous junk. They traveled another five kilometers or so before resting for the evening by the side of the road, raising a bonfire, and preparing dinner.
The Jie slaves didn’t have the privilege of getting cooked food. They all huddled at the outskirts of the camp, munching on the bran flatbread they’d been handed. The bread was dry and rough and scraped uncomfortably going down. But it was still hard to come by sustenance to the Jie, who hadn’t eaten properly in a long time.
Xunji nudged his companion while he gnawed at the bread, “Yiyan, what’cha looking at?”
They were from the same township, different villages; they’d fled the famine together and had looked out for each other ever since. Yiyan was young, but he was capable and honorable. It was thanks to him that the two had managed to survive thus far, so Xunji followed his lead steadfastly. Unfortunately, they’d come across soldiers in a moment of carelessness. They’d thought it was all over, but as luck would have it, they’d been bought on the road. Now that they had food and freedom of movement, Xunji’s sullen gloom had disappeared with the pillocks.
Yiyan stopped looking and quietly replied, “Nothing. That person who bought us, who is he?”
“Who knows?” Xunji swallowed difficultly, “Those nobles, they’re all the same. Besides, we’re fleeing famine anyways, does it matter who we get sold to? As I see it, this one doesn’t seem too bad. It’d be a blessing just to have some fields to work.”
Xunji’s words were plain truth. Yiyan had seen far too much evil during the six months they’d been drifting about. The famine had hit his already struggling hometown especially hard; nowadays, its only inhabitants were emaciated corpses. He’d been planning to head north with Xunji to seek refuge in You Province before they’d been captured. In this world filled with people who’d kill for an extra bite of bread, charity and benevolence were a rarity. However, what Xunji didn’t know was that he’d actually been distracted by the split-second glimpse he’d caught of the person behind the curtain.
Yiyan had been to Jinyang with his father, who was skilled at carving buddharupas and often made them for the wealthy. In the flourishing city of Jinyang, he’d seen those hoity toity nobles’ decorated carriages and gilded mansions, seen the kinds of silks and brocades they wore and the gold and jade they piled atop their heads. But never had he seen any noble so delicate or fair as the man he’d just glimpsed.
When the curtain lifted again, Yiyan couldn’t help but glance over, tense with anticipation, but instead he saw a young worried-looking maidservant heave a medicine jar over to the fire. Shortly, the choking scent of medicine wafted towards them.
“Is someone sick?” Xunji sniffed, peeked at the maid, then said concernedly, “It wouldn’t be that noble in the carriage, would it? There’d better not be a mishap….”
Yiyan didn’t reply. He silently clenched the bran bread in his hand and started chomping; the glow of the fire illuminated his furrowed brows.
Early the next morning, ah-Liang hustled everyone awake to continue traveling. He was anxious that Liang Feng’s fever had not abated yet. The situation would turn dire if they weren’t able to rush back to the Liang Estate soon.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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Yiyan kept an eye on the activity around the carriage. Every once in a while, that maid would hop off the carriage to retrieve medicine or fetch clean water, her face etched with worry. That was an ominous sign. As Yiyan was silently brooding, his ear twitched, he suddenly looked up!
“Bandits!”
A flock of birds suddenly took flight, as if startled by a wild beast. In the blink of an eye, a dozen savage machete-wielding men emerged from the forests and began charging at them.
“Not good!” Ah-Liang had detected the bandits as well. He ran over to the carriage, “Master! Master! We’re being attacked by bandits!”
Liang Feng was just about wrung dry by the fever, passing the days doing nothing more than staring blankly at the dull wooden roof above him. It was like the fever had burned away his will to live. With no immediate enemy to fight and no pressing problems to solve, he was nigh defenseless against the sickness’ corrosion. He was too tired to respond.
However, upon hearing a terrified shriek, a burst of strength surged through him. Liang Feng shot up, threw aside the curtain, and took in the scene. The mountain pass was narrow; ten or so people were charging at them; there were two carts full of random crap in front. If they were turned sideways, they could act as barricades and slow the enemy’s assault. There weren’t many serfs, but there were the freshly-bought Jie. If he roused their morale, they still had a fighting chance.
He didn’t hesitate to order, “Turn the carts sideways, block off the front! Everyone, pick up a weapon and get ready to fight! We outnumber them, we won’t lose to these criminals!”
No one could’ve thought that such a frail, sickly noble would order them to battle. They were all plain peasants! Their first instinct, when met with bandits, was to run away screaming!
Seeing that everyone was still shaky and apprehensive, Liang Feng frowned and promised, “Whoever manages to kill a bandit, I’ll exempt their land tax for three years!”
Turning to the Jie, he said “If you fight off the bandits, I’ll return your freedom!”
The bandits were only a hundred meters away; they didn’t have good odds of escaping, but if they fought, they could gain tax exemption, or freedom. The crowd of quivering quails finally straightened their backs and dragged the two supply carriages into the middle of the road. The bandit leader was caught off guard by their resistance, he hollered, “There’s money to be had for these bastards’ lives! And three carriages, and women! Charge!”
Two arrows struck against their makeshift blockade. Liang Feng calmly continued commanding, “Form groups of three; bravest in the center, face the enemy head-on. The other two, assist from the side, go for the throat and gut!”
Police officers were trained in combat tactics, especially those in riot control. When faced with rabid thugs, equipped with only shields and batons, they relied on strategy and coordination. It was akin to the ancient Yuanyang Formation and Centipede Formation. As long as they had ample coordination and a tight defensive line, they could halt enemies who far outnumbered them!
Liang Feng astutely noticed that the bandits weren’t all hale and healthy. Most of them wore rags, not a single one was mounted on horseback, and more were armed with clubs than blades. Not to mention that, after having their ambush discovered, they would expend a good amount of stamina charging from afar. With the enemy’s lack of precise long-range weapons, and with two carriages in the way, they’d be fine as long as they didn’t panic.
The bandits were before them in the blink of an eye. Crazed battle cries and pained wailing rose up into a chaotic clamor. Yiyan could feel his heart pounding furiously inside his chest. He tightened his grip on the heavy club in his hand. Originally, he’d been planning for the worst; perhaps if he fought like mad, he’d be able to drive the carriage away and get that person to safety, he had bought him and saved his life, after all.
But before he could even try it, that person had stood out and, with a short speech, woken the fighting spirit of his mousy servants. Tax exemption? Freedom? Yiyan didn’t care about any of that. All he could see were those black eyes, dazzling as the brightest stars in the night sky.
He sprang forward!
He clubbed the nearest bandit across the head; it burst like an egg, splattering red and white. He continued advancing towards the next bandit. Yiyan was still a youth who hadn’t grown to his full height yet, but his strength and agility were considerable. He put his full body into every strike, turning the club into a lethal weapon!
The others were invigorated by his ferocity. They grouped into twos and threes, dealing with the bandits that tried to climb over the barricade one by one. Yiyan wasn’t being reckless either, rather, he was guarding the weakest spot in their defense, slowing down the enemy’s charge, and acting on Liang Feng’s occasional instruction. Somehow, their shoddy line managed to hold.
The bandit leader was hopping mad at seeing that their easy prey had turned out to be a porcupine. He shouted at his archers, “The carriage, shoot the one on the carriage!”
The bandit leader was sharp, knowing that if they killed the nobleman, then the peasants would scatter like pigeons; besides, he was their target in the first place.
The two hunting bows they had were underwhelming; the wood was soft, the string was loose, and the projectile speed was slow too. It probably wasn’t capable of piercing even light armor. But the archers had gotten right up to the barricade. They were still threatening at short range, even if they happened to be complete crapshoots. Soon after, several arrows flew towards the carriage.
Lüzhu shrieked, “Master!”
Liang Feng remained unshaken. His eyes locked onto the arrows’ trajectories; he shifted slightly out of their path. Yiyan roared with rage and used the machete he’d just seized to cut his way through the crowd. He pinned an archer to the ground, then leaped at the bandit leader!
“Ten thousand to whoever kills the armored bandit!” Liang Feng yelled.
There was a stir as several courageous Jie emerged from behind the barricade and went on the offense, but none of them were able to get there ahead of Yiyan, who’d picked up a spear and was swinging at the towering bandit leader. The spearhead whistled through the air as it crashed into the bandit’s face.
The bandit had tried to block with his saber, but was too late. Not only did he fail to parry, his own weapon was smashed into his neck. His head thudded on the ground and rolled.
The gory scene had struck fear into the remaining bandits. One of them threw away their weapon and fled without looking back, shattering their morale. Those who were able dashed into the forest like rabbits being chased by wolves.
Some of the serfs, excited by their unexpected victory, were about to give chase when they were stopped; “Don’t pursue a cornered enemy.”
Yiyan turned and saw a slim figure trying to disembark from the carriage, but he was weakly trembling, his movements faltering.
Before he even knew what he was doing, Yiyan had discarded his weapon, strode over, and offered his hand.
The author has something to say:
Hahaha…. Does everyone like this big wolfdog? =w=
Even sick he leads well
I Do like this wolfdog! ❤
I like the big wolfdog! I like him very much!
I also like the wolfdog!
thanks for the chapter! <3
Why yes, I do like this wolfdog! Eager to see how this gets resolved!
Thanks for your hard work translating!
Thanks for the chapter! Very heroic young man!
Yiyan: Who cares about merits? He saved my life after all!
And +1 for “I like this wolfdog” :3
Thx for the ch ٩(｡˃ ᵕ ˂ )و
I’m liking them both. They both are hella 😎
I’m liking this wolfdog!
The other malw lead is cool as hell! Looking gorward to see more of him.
Thanks for the chapter 😊
Ohoo, so good
Woof! Hah. Hah. Hah.. New reader here. Thank you
Awwww
Thank you for the chapter.
ahhhh I already love ML 😩💜💜
Love it!!