The crowd felt the tension in the air and involuntarily quickened their pace. People lining the roadside wore smiles that seemed to urge them to pass quickly, hoping to avoid conflict.
Yet, those smiles sent a chill down their spines.
As half of the group exited the range of that group of people, a sudden roar erupted from behind, followed by the clang of weapons.
"Keep moving, don't stop, don't look back. Dēngzigǔi, protect the people," Zhào Liángcái had long been prepared for such a move.
He tugged the reins, Xiǎo Fēi reared up, and with a thrust of his waist, he spun in place.
The single-handled great hammer drew an arc in Zhào Liángcái's hand, following his master to reap lives.
The clang of metal, the roars of men, the neighing of horses, the screams of Zhào Ruǐ and the others, all reached Qín Jùnyáo's ears.
All Qín Jùnyáo could do was hold Shān Táo, who was sitting on the donkey's back, steady and prevent her from looking back, then quicken her steps forward.
Over ten days of traveling through the mountains and forests had greatly improved Qín Jùnyáo's stamina, and she was no longer a burden to the group.
After running a considerable distance, Dēngzigǔi signaled for everyone to stop. He turned his horse and led some people back to provide support.
Once stopped, Qín Jùnyáo looked back and clearly saw over a dozen people lying on the ground. Others were emerging from the bushes on either side of the road.
Zhào Liángcái and his men were charging back and forth on horseback, dealing with that group and finishing them off.
***
"Boss, no survivors and nothing useful found. Only some broken silver was recovered," Dēngzigǔi and his men searched the bodies of those attackers but couldn't identify their affiliation.
"Divide the silver. How many horses were injured?"
"Four," Dēngzigǔi said, clenching his fist. Their Shǒuyǎn Army had few warhorses.
"Take them to ask Physician Shèng and Physician Mo if they have any medicinal supplies, and tear open clothes from our bags to bandage the horses," Zhào Liángcái stood facing the corpses on the road, his mind replaying the attackers' fighting style.
He wanted to find some trace to know who they were. Mountain bandits had their own tactics, and armies had their own formations.
When they mounted their horses and held their weapons, they could maximize their combat effectiveness in a surprise attack. Against cavalry, the horse was injured before the person.
It was also a form of deterrence.
When these people, armed with the same weapons, still charged at them recklessly, was it premeditated or a chance encounter?
***
Dēngzigǔi and a few soldiers led the injured horses back to Qín Jùnyáo and the others, explaining the situation.
Divine Doctor Mo had no medicine and disdained treating horses. However, Shèng Yíníng felt heartbroken seeing the horses limping, and voluntarily produced dried herbs she had picked in the mountains.
Without grinding tools, Dēngzigǔi and a few others found large stones by the roadside to crush and grind the herbs into powder.
Hóu Jīng and others helped tear cloth strips. Men generally liked horses, and seeing them injured, they spontaneously went to help.
The women were all scared, holding their children and sitting on the ground to recover their emotions. Those with shallow sentiments like Mother Zhào cried silently, while those like Zhào Ruǐ cried loudly.
Of course, there were special existences like Shèng Yíníng.
For example, Qín Jùnyáo took some semi-dried grass from a basket and gave it to the donkeys and injured horses to eat, and secretly slipped them some fresh corn kernels she had peeled out of boredom in her spatial dimension.
Qín Xiǎoyǔ followed Grandma Zhào towards Zhào Liángcái, wanting to watch the excitement.
The few big men worked together to bandage the horses. The medicinal powder irritated their wounds, making them constantly restless.
Qín Jùnyáo could only secretly take out cucumbers, break them into small pieces, and feed them to the horses. Some of them quieted down when they ate.
"Miss Qín really has a way. Feeding them dry grass can calm them down," Dēngzigǔi gave Qín Jùnyáo a thumbs-up, praising her resourcefulness.
At this moment, Zhào Liángcái returned with his subordinates. Xiǎo Fēi immediately left Zhào Liángcái's side and ran towards Qín Jùnyáo, nudging her with his long face for food.
Zhào Liángcái, smelling the faint fresh scent of cucumber, ordered two subordinates to ride ahead. One would go to the city of Ānshùn to gather information, and the other would find carriages.
It would take over two months to walk from here to Xīběi City, which was too time-consuming.
Apart from the four injured horses, everyone else was unharmed.
Everyone gathered their belongings and continued forward. They were close to the city of Ānshùn, and it was not safe to linger.
Zhào Ruǐ fussed about being unable to walk. Zhào Liángcái had people help the three of them and Divine Doctor Mo onto horses.
Looking at Qín Jùnyáo and the others walking below the horses, Zhào Ruǐ felt very smug. After all, Zhào Liángcái was on their side.
After another hour of travel, they found a clearing by the roadside to rest.
"We need to hurry after a short rest. It's still not safe to spend the night here," Old Man Hóu said, watching people hurrying along the road.
The others nodded in agreement. Over ten days in the mountains, it seemed that some extraordinary events had occurred in the outside world.
After a brief rest, just as they were about to leave, the soldier who had gone to find carriages returned with four flatbed carts, escorted by several horsemen.
These people were very excited to see Zhào Liángcái and wanted to salute their general, but Zhào Liángcái stopped them.
"Boss, they are Deputy Officer Zhōu's men, sent to pick us up," the soldier who found the carriages reported.
As soon as Suǒzi returned to Xīběi, his first act was to send carriages to pick up the people.
He wanted Madam Qián and the others to suffer more, but he also didn't want to be lectured by the returning Zhào Liángcái. If Zhào Liángcái and Madam Qián were to travel together for over two months, Old Zhào, with his hammer, would surely beat him to death.
A compromise was to send people to pick them up, but maliciously, he didn't find any covered carriages.
With the carriages, the Zhào and Hóu families no longer had to worry about the rest of the journey.
Since the horses were injured and couldn't be ridden, the four soldiers who had no horses sat in one carriage, while the Qín and Hóu families quickly occupied the other three.
Madam Qián and the two others, seeing the people in each carriage, didn't want to sit with them and chose to continue riding horses. Divine Doctor Mo did not continue riding and instead sat in the carriage with the soldiers.
"Are you really going to ride horses?" Zhào Liángcái asked Madam Qián and the other two again.
"You can ride, why can't we? We'll ride horses," Zhào Ruǐ said, patting the horse's neck while sitting on it, as if she were a skilled rider.
Zhào Liángcái looked at Madam Qián and Qián Duǒ, who didn't object, and a slight smile curved the corners of his mouth beneath his beard. He then had the three soldiers holding the horses get into the carriages as well.
"Full speed ahead."
With Zhào Liángcái's command, the carriages slowly moved forward, then gradually picked up speed. Qín Jùnyáo, riding in a carriage for the first time, curiously found that carriages could also be very fast.
"Ah!! Slower, slower!!" Zhào Ruǐ, who also noticed the speed increasing, was the first to cry out.
She and Qián Duǒ had ridden horses before, during the coming-of-age ceremony of a rich horse merchant's daughter.
And then there was this time, where they had spent an hour on horseback with soldiers holding the reins.
Madam Qián's riding skills were limited to a horse walking at a normal pace.
Now, with the soldiers who had been holding the reins sitting in the carriages, the horses ran freely with the carts. This was torment for the three on horseback.
Unable to keep pace with the horse's movements, riding became uncomfortable for both horse and rider. The humans became uncomfortable and cried out, while the horses, feeling uncomfortable, tried their best to throw them off.
Zhào Liángcái rode on Xiǎo Fēi's back, listening to the chaotic cries for help from the three behind him, his mood greatly improved.
Madam Qián, when I was a child, you tricked me into riding a neighbor's pig. The pig broke its leg, and I broke my head, almost losing my life.
The neighbor came looking for us, and because of your few words, my father disciplined me.
Today, I'm showing mercy by only letting you ride horses. You should be grateful.