HUS Chapter 69: Fight to the Death
HUS Chapter 69: Fight to the Death
January 4
Light rain drizzled, the sky dim and overcast.
A villager wearing a straw rain cape stepped through the mud, one foot deep and one shallow.
He was hurrying back to the village when his gaze was caught by a figure collapsed on the ground at the village entrance.
"Who's there?"
He muttered as he approached and carefully turned over the face-down person.
A face pale as paper from excessive blood loss made him instantly cry out in alarm, "Licheng?!"
Wasn't this Corps Commander Kang Zhengyang's eldest nephew?
The villager's hair stood on end. He immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come quickly! Something happened! Young Licheng is in bad shape!"
Soon, villagers living nearby rushed over through the rain.
Everyone worked together to lift the unconscious Kang Licheng, not bothering about mud splashing on them, running all the way toward the Kang family compound.
News spread through the estate like wildfire.
The Kang family's small courtyard quickly filled with relatives and friendly retainers who came upon hearing the news, every face written with shock and worry.
The martial culture was strong in the estate. Villagers more or less understood some crude medicine.
Kang Licheng's main injuries were blade wounds and blood loss. Someone skillfully pounded hemostatic herbs and applied them, tightly binding with clean cloth strips, then pried open his teeth to pour down a bowl of scalding ginger soup.
After bustling about for a while, Kang Licheng's throat emitted a weak moan. His eyelids trembled and he finally came around.
Before his vision cleared, he saw two extremely anxious faces by the bed. They were his father Kang Zhengyi and eldest uncle Kang Zhengyang.
"Father! Eldest Uncle!"
Kang Licheng struggled to sit up and said urgently, "Quickly! Go quickly to Tielin Ridge to save Third Uncle! They... they were surrounded!"
Although anxious in his heart, Kang Zhengyang had experienced much and pressed down his nephew with one hand, his voice steady and reassuring, "Don't panic. Speak slowly. Tell us clearly what happened."
Kang Licheng endured the pain and haltingly recounted the encounter at Tielin Ridge last night.
Before his words ended, the room had already exploded.
Third brother Kang Zhengyan's two half-grown sons' eyes instantly turned red.
They clenched their fists and shouted hoarsely, "Eldest Uncle! Go quickly!"
"Second Uncle, grab weapons! Let's fight those sons of bitches!"
Kang Zhengyi was normally a man of few words who couldn't be beaten into saying three words. But at this moment, he was like an enraged black bear.
His own son had been hacked half to death, and his own brother was trapped in desperate straits. His eyes were bloodshot with rage, only forcing out one word from his throat, "Go!"
Before his words ended, he had already whirled around like a whirlwind, grabbed a gleaming three-pronged steel fork leaning against the wall corner, and walked out murderously.
"Second brother, take the people inside and outside the compound and go ahead first!"
Kang Zhengyang immediately made a decision. He had second brother Kang Zhengyi lead these dozens of able-bodied men in the courtyard to go provide reinforcement first, while he would summon more retainers.
Because from his nephew's description, the opponents were definitely not ordinary thieves. Each one had extraordinary skills.
Just over twenty people daring to escort four large carts of goods for long-distance trade, if they weren't powerful dragons crossing the river, they wouldn't have such courage but even powerful dragons crossing the river, he, the local snake, feared not at all.
If third brother and those villagers doing business with him really met with misfortune, how could he face their families?
Guilt and anxiety were gnawing at his heart like poisonous snakes. He had to do something.
Less than half an hour after Kang Zhengyi left with his men, Kang Zhengyang had gathered seventy to eighty more sturdy retainers.
After the rain, the roads were muddy and impassable. Riding horses was actually cumbersome, and besides, Feng'an Estate didn't have many horses.
Everyone went on foot. Under Kang Zhengyang's leadership, they headed straight for Tielin Ridge along the slippery road.
This was the Kang family's private matter. The retainer soldiers nominally weren't under the Estate Head's management either but these retainers were still villagers after all. Mobilizing so many people, he still instructed his wife to report to Feng'an Fortress.
Upon hearing the news, Yang Can leapt up from his reclining chair.
When he and Yu Chengye were returning to Tianshui from Jincheng to fetch the bride, he had personally experienced the ferocity of Longshang bandits.
Longshang's folk customs were fierce with prevalent martial culture, but whether these estate retainers were a match for those desperados who licked blood from their blade edges, he didn't dare guarantee.
"Ring the bell! Assemble all able-bodied men!" Yang Can ordered without hesitation.
Soon, the bells of Feng'an Fortress rang urgently.
Yang Can led Leopard Head and other guard martial masters and gathered over two hundred able-bodied village men. Braving the gradually ceasing rain, they hurried toward Tielin Ridge.
Yang Can, Leopard Head, and the others rode horses, but the roads were muddy and horses couldn't run freely. In the end, they also dismounted and walked.
When Kang Zhengyang led his men to Tielin Ridge, the light rain had almost stopped, leaving only barely perceptible drizzle.
The scene before them made their hearts and courage shatter. The ground had been washed by rainwater into a strange pale red.
Corpses lay stiff and pale on the ground, like abandoned broken dolls.
"Third brother!"
Kang Zhengyang rushed to a familiar corpse. It was precisely his third younger brother Kang Zhengyan.
He held his own brother's ice-cold body, tears in his eyes, his body trembling slightly from tremendous grief.
Kang Zhengyi clenched bowl-sized fists, tightly gritting his teeth, two ridges of muscle bulging on his face.
In the rain, low sobbing sounds came.
Those were retainers who had discovered their relatives' bodies, uncontrollable crying sounds.
"Corps Commander, I found fresh cart tracks two li away. It must be them. They went west!"
Hunter Li Quanxin, skilled at tracking who had carefully searched for traces in the mud, ran over urgently carrying a hunting knife.
This mountain mostly had gravel paths. The shallow marks left by carts and horses became unclear after being rinsed by rain.
Li Quanxin ran several li along the mountain path and discovered marks at the mountain pass that hadn't been destroyed by rainwater yet.
Kang Zhengyang gently laid down his brother's body and slowly stood up. The grief on his face had been replaced by icy killing intent.
With a "clang," he drew his waist saber, his voice hoarse yet resonant.
"Dayou, take a few people and send... them back."
"Everyone else!"
His gaze swept coldly over face after face filled with grief and rage, "Follow me!"
When Yang Can led over two hundred able-bodied men to arrive, they encountered retainer soldiers escorting bodies back to the estate halfway.
They had improvised on site, using tree trunks, vines, and branches of appropriate thickness to make "stretchers," walking through the night one deep step and one shallow step.
Seeing the dragon-like torches ahead and knowing people had come from the estate, they stopped.
"Dayou, you're saying Corps Commander Kang led people in pursuit? Where did they go?"
That retainer soldier told Leopard Head about Kang Zhengyang and the others' direction once.
Leopard Head, familiar with the terrain, immediately said to Yang Can, "Estate Head, leaving Tielin Ridge and going west, they can only be going to Canglang Gorge."
Yang Can asked, "What place is Canglang Gorge?"
Leopard Head said, "Beyond Canglang Gorge is a Xianbei tribe's pasture. Actually, if going to Canglang Gorge, passing through our village is actually closer and the road is better."
Yang Can's eyes lit up, "Does this mean if we chase now, we can still make it?"
If going to Canglang Gorge via Feng'an Estate was closer than cutting through from Tielin Ridge, naturally those who hadn't reached Tielin Ridge yet didn't need to take such a roundabout route.
Leopard Head said, "Correct. If going from the estate, it's closer but if we turn directly now, there's a mountain ahead to climb over."
Climbing mountains at night wasn't that easy.
In this era, many wild mountains had almost no traces of human activity.
Therefore, pits, cliffs...
All kinds of dangers were hidden beneath brush and vines that had never been disturbed.
Even climbing mountains in broad daylight could easily be fatal if one wasn't careful, let alone at night.
So Yang Can cautiously asked.
Leopard Head said, "No problem. It's a barren mountain, not a blade of grass grows there."
"Then let's go. We'll pursue!" Yang Can decided immediately.
The fire dragon immediately changed direction and rushed toward the barren mountain silhouette like a giant beast's spine in the distant night.
...
The next morning, after the rain cleared, the sunlight was scorching, quickly drying the muddy road surface hard.
Not only because of the sunshine, the wind here was also dry.
The carts and horses that were originally difficult to move suddenly became light and quick.
The leader of the mountain goods caravan suddenly felt much lighter in his heart.
One heavy rain and all traces were washed away.
Past Canglang Gorge ahead was Xianbei territory. This deadly business deal would be complete.
They had already received news in advance, knowing that Feng'an Estate's current Estate Head was now someone else.
Precisely because of this, they didn't go to Feng'an Estate first as usual.
Now having killed people near Feng'an Estate, it was better to deliver the goods quickly for peace of mind. However, they didn't expect that Kang Zhengyang and the others, under hunter Li Quanxin's guidance, had already taken shortcuts via small paths and caught up in time.
On the grassy slope, Kang Zhengyang's eyes were full of bloodshot threads after a sleepless night yet he was like a most patient leopard, staring fixedly at the slope below.
His fingers slowly and forcefully rubbed the icy blade handle.
No need for further confirmation. That convoy had four large carts. He recognized them.
Because loaded on those carts was precisely the goods he had purchased.
Beside him, Kang Zhengyi breathed heavily, that three-pronged steel fork warmed by his grip.
All his muscles were tensed. He said in a trembling voice, "Elder Brother!"
Just calling "Elder Brother," his cheek muscles trembled. This honest man looked especially ferocious at this moment.
"No. We won't attack here!"
Kang Zhengyang stared fixedly at the carts and horses below and slowly shook his head.
Without Kang Zhengyi saying more, he also had to kill these people.
Otherwise, he couldn't explain to his relatives, friends, and retainers but nephew Licheng had said the other side's manpower was about the same as their caravan's.
Yet now from the caravan, only Kang Licheng survived, while these bandits hadn't decreased much.
This meant their martial prowess was much superior to the estate's retainer soldiers.
Kang Zhengyang now had over a hundred men under his command, enough numbers to form a crushing advantage but this slope was too gradual. Charging down from here, before close combat, the other side would be alerted.
That way, wouldn't many more people die?
"Second brother, since they're taking this road, they can only be going to Canglang Gorge."
Kang Zhengyang said in a low voice, "We'll circle the mountain path, take a shortcut, and wait for them at Canglang Gorge!"
As Corps Commander, Kang Zhengyang had basic military literacy.
With just a little thought, he knew how to attack would be more advantageous for them.
Setting an ambush would obviously result in fewer casualties and... make it easier to annihilate them completely!
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