Daming: At the start of the showdown, Lao Zhu was stunned

Chapter 824: Trapped in a Lonely Mountain

Chapter 824: Trapped in a Lonely Mountain

The Ming army attacked angrily. A large group of bandits were already in a mess in order to search for spoils. Seeing a group of Ming soldiers with red eyes and anger rushing out of the fire, it was like Shuras rushing out of purgatory. How could they still have the will to fight?

In less than a few moments, the bandits either fled or died, and all of them disappeared without a trace.

After all, it was dark, and Zhu Su was worried that the bandits had ambushes, so after taking control of the mountaintop camp, he urged them to withdraw. Although the Ming army was in a mess, fortunately, there was no major loss except for a few people killed in battle and burned to death at the beginning.

"Fortunately, Your Highness had an idea... otherwise, we would all be dead here." Chang Mao still felt a lingering fear when he recalled the scene of fire all around.

"...We have to escape the disaster, but Jiujiang..." Zhu Su took a few breaths of fresh air brought by the mountain breeze, and he felt that his head, which was fuming from the thick smoke, finally felt better. But soon, he became worried again. "Look..."

"This..." Everyone looked in the direction Zhu Su pointed, and saw bursts of fire at the foot of the mountain, where Li Jinglong and the rest of his troops were supposed to be stationed.

"It seems that Jiujiang has also been ambushed." Zhu Su was worried.

"Is this... a fire attack?" Di Meng looked surprised. "But, but before we went up the mountain, we clearly chose a place near the river where fire is not likely to start. How could it be..."

Halfway through the conversation, he understood it. Under normal circumstances, that place would not catch fire. But if there was kerosene...

Judging from what happened tonight, it was obvious that this group of thieves had been planning this for a long time.

"It seems that it is not time for us to rest yet." Zhu Su picked up the helmet that had been put aside, smoothed the messy hair on his forehead, and put the helmet back on his head.

"Let's go. We will go to join Jiujiang and find an opportunity to break out."

Li Jinglong might not be good at other things, but when it comes to escaping, Zhu Su believes that he is still good at it... What's more, there are quite a lot of Ming troops at the foot of the mountain, the camp is wide, and they are all elite. Even if they encounter a fire, not all of them will be burned.

As long as one of the Ming troops escaped the ambush, it would be enough to repel this mob and secure their retreat.

Zhu Su guessed right again. Li Jinglong was indeed quick to seize the opportunity, and the Ming army at the foot of the mountain did not suffer too many casualties... But although Young Master Li escaped, he fled to the mountain. Chang Mao, Zhu Su and others who were originally preparing to go down the mountain to meet the friendly forces were stunned when they saw Li Jinglong running up the mountain with a dusty face.

"Fifth uncle?" Li Jinglong looked surprised. "Are you okay?"

"Jiujiang?" Zhu Su was also stunned. "Why are you running up the mountain?"

"How can Jiujiang feel at ease when seeing the flames rising from the mountain? Naturally, they should gather their troops and go up the mountain to support Uncle Wu!" Li Jinglong said confidently. Zhu Su was stunned. Chang Mao interrupted and said, "Gather the troops? What about the order from His Highness to protect the retreat route?"

"Hmm?" Li Jinglong raised his head. "I'm only worried that we don't have enough troops to rescue Uncle Wu, so how can I care about so much else?"

Zhu Su smiled bitterly and asked carefully. It turned out that Li Jinglong saw the flames on the top of the mountain and was worried that something might happen to Zhu Su, so he immediately beat the drum to gather the generals in the middle of the night and rushed up the mountain to put out the fire. What do you mean by keeping the retreat route? If something happened to his fifth uncle Zhu Su, even if he took everyone back in one piece, it would be a huge sin.

But if he could rescue his fifth uncle... there would always be a way out. With the ability of his elite Ming army and his fifth uncle, Li Jinglong believed that the few fleeing religious bandits would not be able to block the retreat of their Ming army.

Li Jinglong didn't realize that there was someone else behind the ambush, but because of his prompt decision, the Ming army at the foot of the mountain did not suffer any losses...

It was also because the bandits on the mountain launched their attack in a hurry that Chen Zuyi's originally scheduled action time was delayed. By the time he set fire to the Ming army's camps at the foot of the mountain, those camps were already empty.

"Your Highness, what should we do next?" Di Meng asked Zhu Su.

Zhu Su knew that this group of thieves must be stronger than the White Lotus Sect. He only brought a thousand people with him. If he continued to linger here, he would have no initiative at all.

So he gave the order: "The enemy must have blocked the way down the mountain... If that's the case, there is only one way to break through."

"The fire below is almost out. The thieves may not expect Jiujiang to come back and break out from the original route. We will set out now and break out of this mountain at lightning speed!"

"Yes." Everyone around him responded.

The mountain road was difficult to navigate, but fortunately this Ming army was disciplined. The Ming army that joined the other side received the military order and became more determined, and they filed down the mountain in the dark. Zhu Su originally hoped that the bandits down the mountain would relax, but he did not expect that he would encounter a large group of bandits' ambush before he could get out of the mountain pass.

Among these bandits were foreigners, Han Chinese, and people from West Asia and Southeast Asia. Their numbers far outnumbered the Ming army. Also, the mountain pass was narrow, allowing only six or seven people to pass abreast at a time... As soon as the Ming army's offensive became stronger, they threw out flaming oil to set fire. Relying on this method and the human wave tactics, these people actually blocked the Ming army's offensive.

Seeing that this place was not going to work, Zhu Su made a prompt decision and chose to go down the mountain from another place. However, in another place, he encountered the White Lotus Sect. A large group of foreign people and the brave White Lotus Sect bandits were together, and their numbers were far inferior to the Ming army. If he broke through by force, the losses would be huge. Zhu Su chose to return to the mountain to garrison.

The Ming army was stationed on the mountain and had a commanding position, so these people did not dare to attack the mountain by force.

The situation suddenly came to a standstill.

"How is it going? Have you explored other mountain roads?" On the mountain, inside the original camp of the foreign tribe, Li Jinglong saw the scouts he had sent out returning and asked anxiously.

"Your Highness, Young Master... We have not found the way down the mountain." The Ming army scout seemed a little frustrated.

"We captured a few foreigners, some of whom are quite familiar with the terrain here. They also said that there are only two roads up and down the mountain, one to the west and one to the south. The east and north roads are steep cliffs and deep ravines, making it difficult for birds to cross..."

"Really, there is really no other way down the mountain..."

"Bang!" On the other side, Chang Mao, who had a more explosive temper, had already slapped hard, causing the cups and plates on the table to tremble. "These thieves actually want to trap us to death!"

"If we still have firearms... we'll blow them to pieces!"

The Ming army pursued lightly, and they didn't have much gunpowder and firearms on them. When they went up the mountain, they gave most of them to Zhu Su's guards. They used them up when avoiding the flames, and now they could only rely on swords, spears, swords and halberds to break through.

They were elite troops, and were quite capable with swords and guns, but they were restricted by the terrain, and secondly, the bandits had that disgusting flaming oil... As a result of this, they really didn't have much to do against these two mobs.

(End of this chapter)