Seeing Yan Ming's cowardice of soiling his pants, Sheng Jiangli was too lazy to deal with him. He just said to the city guard commander,
"What are you standing there for? Open the city gate!"
"If you don't open it soon, you'll have to collect the corpses of those commoners!"
He held Yan Ming by the neck with one hand while looking nonchalant.
He tilted his chin slightly, revealing a sharp jawline that was gilded by the firelight on the city wall. With a smile, he continued to give orders,
"Order two squads of soldiers to lie in ambush on both sides of the city gate. As soon as the gate opens, let those unarmed pass, but kill all those holding swords!"
He looked like a handsome young man, but the orders he gave carried an unquestionable authority. The city guard commander couldn't help but tense up and followed his instructions.
Outside the city gate below, cries and sobs filled the air. Inside the city, the commoners couldn't sleep all night. Everyone was panicking and the situation was in chaos.
After giving instructions to the city guard commander, Sheng Jiangli said to Suobude, who had emerged from somewhere, "You take a dozen soldiers to the city to recruit doctors from the medical clinics and gather wound medicine... Oh yes, send them to Lord Yan's mansion."
He patted Yan Ming's pale and haggard face. "Lord Yan, you won't mind if we use your mansion as a shelter for the refugees, will you?"
At this moment, Yan Ming didn't dare to have the slightest objection. He only regretted that he couldn't nod because his neck was being held.
By this time, the city defense soldiers had already finished setting up their ambush on both sides of the city gate.
With a loud boom, the copper and iron city gate slowly opened wide.
Dozens of commoners stumbled in, followed by the cruel water bandits who were chasing them.
"Kill!"
At the order of the city guard commander, the city defense soldiers attacked the water bandits like closing the door to catch a dog, only targeting those with weapons.
The sounds of fighting and roars pierced through the city wall. Dozens of water bandits who had just rushed in were caught off guard. They didn't even have time to figure out the situation before they were beheaded. Blood meandered on the ground at the city gate.
The city gate quickly closed again. It closed so fast that the water bandits who were covering the rear with muskets could only fire a series of blank shots at the city gate.
The gunpowder exploded, making a loud noise on the copper and iron city gate.
The commoners who had survived the disaster were all pale and crying.
The city guard commander excitedly ran up to Sheng Jiangli. "My lord... Uh, no, hero, the commoners have all been rescued!"
He stared at Sheng Jiangli with bright eyes, secretly speculating in his heart who this person was. This person commanded the troops so smoothly that it was really exhilarating.
But Sheng Jiangli didn't pay attention to his admiring look at all.
He thought Yan Ming was in the way, so he took out a pill from his bosom and stuffed it into Yan Ming's mouth.
Yan Ming opened his mouth in surprise, and the pill rolled into his stomach.
Sheng Jiangli let him go. Before Yan Ming could change his expression, he said with a gentle smile first, "Lord Yan, the poison you just swallowed can only be cured by me. You must be gentle with me."
Yan Ming quickly swallowed back the order to kill. He showed a flattering smile. "Hero, please spare my life! You are the savior of the commoners. How could I..."
Sheng Jiangli had already left him behind and jumped off the city tower. He landed among a group of refugees.
His affectionate eyes quickly scanned the crowd, and his brows frowned. "Has anyone among you seen a group of horsemen escorting a carriage with a beautiful woman in it?"
Since he parted ways with Caiyu, he had entered Lingbi City first to secretly recuperate his injuries, and he had also been calculating the progress of Song Yinghuai and the others.
Song Yinghuai had crossed the city during the day, so he knew that Caiyu was left alone.
Anyway, he had failed in his assassination attempt, which could be regarded as giving an explanation to the crown prince. He was too lazy to go and risk his life again, so he just watched Song Yinghuai and his group disappear like the wind.
He himself was happily waiting to meet Caiyu again by chance.
But unexpectedly, in the evening, Lingbi City was attacked by water bandits!
Sheng Jiangli was extremely anxious. He asked the commoners who had entered the city again and again. "Are you sure no beautiful woman entered the city?"
Everyone was silent.
Which playboy had left his mistress outside the city? It seemed that he still had a conscience and knew to inquire.
It was a pity that it seemed that no one had seen such a group of people.
Sheng Jiangli's brows were almost knitted together. "Could that girl have known I was in the city, so she deliberately didn't take the land route but switched to the waterway?"
Just then, an old man who had just woken up on the ground said, "I've seen them... Everyone in that group was armed with a sword, escorting a carriage. They were at the back. Presumably, they heard something was wrong in Lingbi and turned back early... The girl in the carriage, is she your wife, benefactor? If they turned back, they might be able to avoid the attack of the water bandits. It's a good thing. Don't worry, benefactor."
They had turned back.
Sheng Jiangli blinked regretfully.
It was impossible to meet by chance. He could only meet by force.
Sheng Jiangli smiled brightly at the old man. "Thank you, uncle, for telling me. I'll go and look for my wife now!"
In just a short moment, perhaps intimidated by the killing aura of the Lingbi City defense soldiers, or for some other reason.
Anyway, the soldier on the city wall suddenly shouted, "The water bandits have retreated!"
Sheng Jiangli looked up and happened to see a cluster of blue fireworks exploding in the sky several miles southwest, tearing through the dark night sky and filling the sight with splendor!
All the people who had survived the disaster stared blankly at the beautiful fireworks, feeling a sense of beauty.
Only Sheng Jiangli's face darkened slightly. He leaped onto the city wall and looked into the distance.
He saw figures outside the city running crazily towards the southwest in the night, full of killing aura.
They didn't seem to be fleeing or retreating. Instead, they seemed to be rushing to complete some task.
Sheng Jiangli grabbed a small soldier beside him and asked, "What's the place in the direction where the fireworks just went up?"
"Over there, it seems to be a dense forest with swamps!"
Dense forest, firework signal, water bandits, muskets...
Sheng Jiangli's eyes suddenly turned as cold as a knife blade. He silently spat out a word: "Damn!"
He took a deep breath, leaped into the air, and landed on a fine horse not far inside the city. He shouted, "Open the city gate!"
He seemed to be the master of this city. The soldiers all pulled open the city gate in unison.
The pitch - black horse carried the man and rushed out, quickly disappearing into the vast night...
"Quick! Quick! Get into the forest!"
Han Fen quickly grabbed Qingqing, who had fallen to the ground, and pushed her into the forest.
A group of personal guards also followed closely behind and rushed into the dark forest.
The next moment, a flint was lit. Ning Shi and the others picked up a dry firewood and lit it, illuminating the surrounding area.
Caiyu quickly looked around.
The last time she had only been in for a moment and hadn't looked carefully. Now she found that the humidity in this forest was very heavy.
Presumably, because the water system here was well - developed, new green leaves had sprouted on the branches, but there were countless fallen leaves on the ground, as if they had been accumulating for many years and were already rotting.
The fallen leaves on the ground were all damp.
Caiyu had an idea. She carefully stepped forward and stomped on the ground.
Seeing what she was doing, Qingqing quickly followed. "Sister Caiyu, what are you doing?"
There was a soft, floating feeling under her feet as if she couldn't step on solid ground.
Caiyu's eyes sparkled. She said to Han Fen and the others, "Brother Han! There are several swamps here!"
Han Fen and the others surrounded her.
Swamps?
Caiyu quickly directed everyone. "The water bandits are locals and are familiar with the swamps. We can't hide this from their eyes. As soon as they enter the forest, they will notice and avoid them. So..."
She pointed to the safe areas around. "You spread some of these rotting leaves on the safe areas around the swamps, and then spread some branches on these swamps."
It was like exchanging flowers for trees and deceiving the sky!
Han Fen and the others understood immediately and quickly got to work. Even Qingqing was no exception and got busy.
Everyone worked very fast. In less than a moment, they had completed the arrangement.
While everyone was busy, Caiyu also found several traps set by hunters.
Animal traps, wooden rafts with spikes, nooses, stone spears...
Caiyu arranged for Ning Shi and a few others to hide in the dark near the traps.
In the distance, there were already noisy footsteps. Caiyu urged everyone, "Get into the hunting lodge! Hurry! Get into the hunting lodge!"