The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

One day in late April, just after dawn, on the road to Daliang, fifteen miles west of Huyou Township, people were constantly coming in and out of the grass and marshes on both sides of the road, reporting to Zhou Shi and Chen Yu who were hiding in the forest what they saw in Huyou Township.

"The grain of Huyou Township has been loaded onto ox-horse carts, which are full and lined up on the road outside the town."

"The Qin official in the Qin army camp came out with thirty people, and also escorted a child."

Hearing this, Chen Yu clenched his fist and said, "It must be my nephew!"

"The Qin official and Qin soldiers said goodbye to Zhang outside the town, and took more than a hundred young men in the town to escort the grain carts. The child was tied to one of the carts..."

Hearing this, Zhou Shi also said to Chen Yu: "The more than a hundred young men will not die for the Qin people. At that time, we only need to deal with the more than thirty Qin soldiers."

He turned around and looked at the Wei warriors who had followed him around for the past two months and continued to fight against the tyranny of Qin, as well as the more than ten Zhao knights brought by Chen Yu, and smiled.

"This time, we must make sure that the Qin army in Daliang City will not get a single grain of food!"

Then, when the sun rose high, the news that his subordinates got again broke Zhou Shi and Chen Yu's plan...

"The Qin official escorting the grain cart suddenly turned around at the fork in the road and went to Waihuang County!"

"What!?"

Zhou Shi and Chen Yu were both shocked.

"Could it be that they noticed that we were going to intercept them here?" Zhou Shi looked at Chen Yu with some suspicion. Although Chen Yu's words that day changed his impression of this person a lot, Zhou Shi did not completely trust him.

Chen Yu guessed: "Perhaps the Qin official was worried that the grain cart sent from Yangwu County to Daliang had an accident on this road, so he planned to take a detour?"

There are two roads from Huyou Township to Daliang. One is to go directly west. It takes a hundred miles to reach Daliang. You have to spend the night in Xiaohuang Township on the way. Zhou Shi and his men ambushed between Huyou and Xiaohuang.

The second option was to spend the night in Waihuang first, and then go west from Waihuang, which would still take two days.

The Qin people chose the second route, which disrupted the ambush plan, and Zhou Shi began to hesitate and planned to cancel the attack.

But Chen Yu refused to give up and urged him: "It's better to go to Waihuang, that's my brother's hometown. Although the Qin people occupied Waihuang and hunted for Qingxia everywhere in the city, there are still many Qingxia hiding in the countryside outside the city. They have received favors from my brother, and several of their leaders are still in contact with me. Zhou Jun might as well take people to the only way from Waihuang to Daliang to continue ambush, and I will quickly go to the outskirts of Waihuang to contact Qingxia, maybe I can get dozens of people! When the time comes, we will work together to destroy the Qin bandits and burn their food!" Chen Yu's words made Zhou Shi's heart active again. At this time, even if he gave up the plan and attacked Huoyou Township, facing the remaining Qin soldiers and Zhang's child servants, his chances of winning were not great. But if he could use this incident to absorb the Waihuang Qingxia, he could gather more people and do bigger things! Zhou Shi immediately spread out the map he brought with him when he was an official in Yangwu County, but saw that less than 30 miles south of their location was the road from Waihuang to Daliang, and it had to pass through a dense forest...

Nowadays, the Qin people's control over Wei land still only occupied towns as strongholds, barely maintaining traffic lines, but they were powerless against the vast rural areas.

Therefore, it was not difficult for locals who were familiar with local roads and rivers to avoid the Qin people's eyes and ears. Moreover, most Wei people did not willingly succumb to the rule of the Qin army. Not every county and township had a harmonious relationship like Huyou Township. In Waihuang, Chenliu and other places, the atmosphere was almost tense, and the local Wei people were happy to assist Zhou Shi.

"I will take people and wait for Chen Sheng here."

Zhou Shi pointed to the forest on the map and looked at Chen Yu, who was ready to set off in a coarse brown coat, but his scholarly spirit was not reduced.

"Mr. Chen, if everything goes well, you can meet me in this forest with the Waihuang knights before dawn tomorrow! If you don't arrive before noon, I will not wait for you!"

Chen Yu did not break his promise. Before dawn the next day, he followed the guide assigned by Zhou Shi and came to this dense forest in the dark.

There were more people than those brought with him. Behind Chen Yu, there were forty or fifty people! They were all knights in short clothes, some holding torches, some holding swords, with dishevelled hair and hair, talking loudly, saying that they wanted to meet "Zhou Daxia" who had caused countless troubles to the Qin army in the past two months.

"In just one day, Chen Yu actually recruited so many people! Zhang Er's reputation is so great?"

Zhou Shi frowned immediately. As a Wuzu who had been a soldier for generations, he actually looked down on these knights. But now, with the fall of Wei imminent, he had to unite all those who were enemies of Qin, even though most of them were for personal grudges and were not the same as Zhou Shi, who was determined to protect Wei.

He could only suppress his temper and praise the young knights, saying that they did not flee after the fall of Waihuang, but stayed to continue to fight against the Qin army, and they were also "great knights".

After comforting the young knights and letting them go down to close their eyes and rest for a while, Chen Yu sat next to Zhou Shi, who noticed that he looked unhappy.

"Mr. Chen, what did you find out in Waihuang?"

"That Qin official Heifu stationed in Huoyou Township is really hateful!"

Chen Yu punched the tree and said angrily: "That Heifu not only forced my sister-in-law to death and held my nephew hostage, but after arriving in Waihuang, he also swaggered through the streets and publicized his merits of capturing Zhang Er's son. He also insulted my brother and Waihuang Qingxia as dogs who lost their homes. They only used their wives' wealth to recruit scoundrels, violated the law with force, and disrupted the law of the country. Once they encountered trouble, they could not defend their country and their wives and children. They could only flee in embarrassment. They were really rats."

"He also threatened that he would take Zhang Ao to Daliang today to receive the reward in exchange for the gold reward. He also said, 'This little Qingxia may be taken to Guanzhong, castrated and entered the palace, and become a little eunuch to serve the king.' How can the descendants of heroes be humiliated like this? It is really intolerable! I must kill this thief!"

The news spread quickly, and within a day, all the villages and towns near Waihuang knew about it, so Chen Yu was able to recruit forty or fifty people so smoothly.

These people were either young knights or local warriors who had received favors from Zhang Er. When they heard that Chen Yu was going to cooperate with Zhou Shi to ambush the Qin people, they were eager to help rescue the young gentleman...

There was also a young knight who raised his arms and shouted: "We have had enough of the Qin bandits these days. It's just right to kill them and be worthy of the wine and meat favors of the hero Zhang!"

Zhou Shi nodded without much doubt. The arrogance of the Qin people was not a day or two. In the past, the Qin army in Yangwu County would parade his men in the streets and then behead them to set an example. But they didn't know that the men in Wei were endlessly killed?

He was just worried that when the Qin official Heifu led the grain team out of Waihuang, would he send more escorts?

The result made Zhou Shi relieved. The spy reported that the Qin official was too confident and did not send more people. It was still more than 30 of them, with more than 100 civilians escorting the grain. After dawn, they had already left Waihuang County and slowly walked towards this side...

Seeing that the sky was getting bright, as the commander of this ambush, Zhou Shi began to assign tasks to Chen Yu and others.

His two confidants, who were also Wei Wuzu, were responsible for leading nearly 100 Wei people to divide into two teams and ambush in the bushes on both sides of the road. When they heard Zhou Shi shouting, they would rush out together to disrupt the Qin people's formation and drive away the Wei people's civilians.

The confidant took the order, saluted Zhou Shi as a Wuzu, and ran out with the fifty people who had gathered, crossed the road, and ambush in the woods opposite.

Chen Yu was asked to take the dozens of young knights to this side of the forest. They were responsible for killing enemies and saving people.

"This time, we still focus on burning grain. If we can save the young gentleman of the Zhang family and burn the grain, we can retreat into the forest and evacuate. The Qin invaders don't have to be killed."

Zhou Shi knew very well that he couldn't just look at the Qin people transporting grain in front of him. Although they were still on the land of Wei, they had to treat this place as "enemy territory" and couldn't be careless at all. Daliang was just a hundred miles to the west. The Qin cavalry could gallop here in a few hours. If they met them on the plain, no matter how many people there were, they would definitely die.

Finally, he left a few hunters to squat at the entrance of the woods, responsible for watching whether the Qin people's chariots and horses entered or not, using the true and false bird calls as signals...

The sun gradually rose, the dew slowly evaporated, and while lying in the woods and grass waiting, Zhou Shi found that Chen Yu was actually very nervous.

Although he took off his Confucian robes and wore a short robe with a two-foot sword in front of him, he looked like a knight-errant, but he still had a scholarly temperament on his face. He kept blinking and looking at the appearance, with some expectation and some nervousness.

"Mr. Chen said he had killed people, I believe it."

Zhou Shi smiled and said, "But, you have never fought a war, right?"

"Indeed, I haven't." Chen Yu knew that his nervousness had been discovered, and he felt a little ashamed.

"It doesn't matter. When I went into battle for the first time, I was just like you and them." Zhou Shi comforted him and nodded to the people behind him.

Among the group of people following Zhou Shi, how many of them had really fought in battles?

Among the nearly 100 people, there were no more than five real Wuzu. The rest were county soldiers, farmers, and even small merchants from Yangwu County and Huangchi County. Some of them wanted revenge because their relatives were killed by the Qin people, some of them dared not surrender because they had been enemies with the Qin people, and some of them even ran out of the city with Zhou Shi for no reason.

In the eyes of the Wei people, the Qin people were like tigers and wolves, and they were terrified by the bad reputation of their leaders, so no matter where they went, there were many people who ran away.

These people were not warriors in the past. Even though they had been hiding with Zhou Shi for two months and had some experience, they were still immature. Now they were about to face another battle. Although they were outnumbered, they were still nervous.

Chen Yu saw. A boy who was about fourteen years old tightly grasped the handle of the wooden spear, as if he was hugging his parents, and was about to cry. More people unconsciously moved their legs or swallowed their saliva.

"It's good that I didn't burst into tears."

Zhou Shi said calmly, and he asked someone to pass on the message: "Listen carefully, my friends. This battle is the same as the last time we robbed grain in Yangwu County. I will go first, and you will follow behind!"

Zhou Shi was a Wuzu. He learned on the battlefield that as a lower-level military officer, leading by example is the best way to boost morale. If he was afraid of death, how could he convince everyone to stick with him to resist Qin, just to prolong the life of Wei?

After comforting everyone, he taught Chen Yu: "If your hands are sweaty, wipe them with dry soil to avoid the sword falling when you rush forward."

Chen Yu was angry when he heard this, but he still did what Zhou Shi said, and at the same time thought to himself: "It's worthy of being an old Wuzu who is regarded as a thorn in the eye by the Qin army in Wei..."

As if seeing through his heart, Zhou Shi suddenly sighed.

"There is no way. Who told us that we are the last soldiers of Wei?"

At this time, a bird's cry came from afar, and it reached Zhou Shi's ears.

He immediately became solemn.

"The Qin people are coming!"

This forest is old and the trunks are thick. In mid-April, it is the season of lush growth. The green leaves are like a canopy, and the wind blows through the branches and leaves, making a rustling sound.

The weeds on the side of the road are also growing wildly. An adult can be hidden in it, as long as you can bear the itch of the grass leaves, and the chirping of grasshoppers will also cover the breathing of the ambushers...

However, it can't cover the sound of wheels, footsteps, and cows and horses neighing from afar!

Zhou Shi, Chen Yu and his men held their breath and lay in the grass under the forest, motionless, staring at the distance with their eyes. However, the road, which was originally empty, began to be dusty. Two horses led the way, and two lightly-armored Qin soldiers rode on the horses, looking vigilantly at the woods on both sides.

Then, there was a long line of cattle and horse carts, with more than 70 or 80 carts, and the distance between the front and the back was hundreds of steps. The Wei people, who were wearing coarse cloth, were responsible for leading the cattle and horses in front. Every ten steps, there were several Qin soldiers carrying spears, still talking happily, as if they knew nothing about the upcoming danger...

Chen Yu raised his head slightly, he was trying to find Zhang Ao's whereabouts.

Zhou Shi's eyes were fixed on the things dragged on the cattle and horse carts. It looked like a bag of grain in sacks, which made the wheels creak. There were also some fodder mixed in each car, probably for feeding cattle and horses.

At this time, Chen Yu's body froze and his eyes widened!

He finally found Zhang Ao's whereabouts. The poor child was tied to a car and was still sobbing. The cart was not carrying any grain. A black-faced Qin official wearing a crown and armor sat in the cart, looking relaxed, as if he was looking forward to the reward money after sending Zhang Ao to Daliang.

Chen Yu gritted his teeth and looked at Zhou Shi, meaning that he could take action?

Zhou Shi shook his head and told him to be patient and wait until the grain cart and the Qin people completely entered the forest before launching an attack.

Chen Yu had no choice but to continue to endure, thirty steps, twenty steps, ten steps, and when he saw that the cart carrying Zhang Ao had already passed the ambush site where he was, Chen Yu could no longer bear it! Suddenly, a loud shout came from the side!

"Kill the bandits!"

Zhou Shi lifted the disguise and stood up. He held a sword and shield in his hand, pointed at the Qin people on the road who had not yet reacted and shouted!

"Kill Qin!"

As the voice sounded, Zhou Shi rushed up again as he had promised to everyone earlier.

"Kill the Qin bandits!" Chen Yu also jumped up and shouted, but because he ran too fast, he stepped on a stone, slipped and almost fell. When he stood firm, many Wei people and Qingxia followed Zhou Shi and rushed in front of him! "Save my nephew first!" Chen Yu shouted hurriedly, but he suddenly realized that those "Wei people's husbands" who should have been frightened and scattered were not panicking at this moment, but gathered together in groups of five or ten, and skillfully pulled out the weapons hidden in the ox-horse cart! And in the sharp copper whistle of the black-faced Qin official, there were also Qin soldiers with right or left buns in the carriage of the ox-horse cart who suddenly lifted the straw. They squatted in the car, holding the crossbow in their hands, and they had already been strung up and ready to go! "Oh no, we've been fooled!" Chen Yu was shocked to realize that this poorly guarded grain transport team, and even his nephew, was a bait to lure them in! However, before Chen Yu could give a warning and retreat, the Qin soldiers on the car had already aimed at the Wei people and Qingxia who were rushing over, and pulled the trigger on the hanging knife. The sound of the string like a clapper, the dull sound of the sharp weapon entering the body, followed by the sound of heavy falls to the ground. After a scream, more than a dozen of those fearless Qingxia warriors who ran in front of Chen Yu actually fell down, lying in all directions. Chen Yu was stunned and couldn't help but think of that sentence. "Below the bait, there must be a dead fish!"