Changning’s Imperial Army - Chapter 89

Chapter 89 – Only But A Three

When Shen Leng was on the edge of the woods, he listened closely and estimated that there were more than a hundred of them. After he fought against those men, he confirmed that there were in fact only fifty odd men in total. Each of them were assigned two horses, hence it was natural for anyone to misjudge.

It was not that Shen Leng’s ears were extra special. He had been trained in the military camp for long periods of time; the Navy’s calvary was made up of approximately 500 soldiers. Furthermore, they trained on the same drill ground. During their short training breaks, Shen Leng and the other soldiers entertained themselves by closing their eyes and guessing the number of soldiers in the cavalry force who were present. The winner would receive an empty red envelope – in the event the winner got married, everybody would give him cash as a wedding gift, coupled with a million taels of silver. It was only a joke, though…

That subject nearly ended because someone said that they would get the commander to be the best man for that person’s wedding…

At that time, Shen Leng actually thought about it seriously – naturally, a person like Zhuang Yong was not suited to be the best man, but he could be the host.

Those Guan Tang Kou men were not good-for-nothings – if they were to engage in one on one combats, they would not lose to combat soldiers. Of course, they were not as good as people like Shen Leng, Yang Qibao or Gu Le. In comparison with ordinary combat soldiers, they might even win. However, under such circumstances, they did not have any advantage over them. Even though they might have more people on their side, in the eyes of combat soldiers who had been well-trained in military strategies, there were several ways they could defeat them.

After getting out of the woods, a dozen Guan Tang Kou men were shot down. At this moment, almost half of the pursuers had been eradicated. Zhao Feng’s eyes were red with anger – even the darkness could not hide it.

Shen Leng drew out the black cord sword behind his back and turned around before facing those fellas. He had a calm look in his eyes, not even a look of complacency. However, he had a vicious smile on his face.

Was there a combat soldier who was not vicious at all?

“Attempting to pursue and attack combat soldiers, huh? Guan Tang Kou’s men sure are gutsy.”

Yang Qibao heard Shen Leng mentioned earlier that those fellas were from Guan Tang Kou, one of the underworld secret societies in Changan city. He was extremely hateful towards people who would do anything for dirty money, and held them in contempt.

Zhao Feng looked at Yang Qibao before shifting his gaze back to Shen Leng. “Incredible, you actually knew that you were being pursued.”

Shen Leng replied candidly, “Well, I don’t know. It’s just that you people are down on your luck.”

Wang Kuohai, who was next to Shen Leng, nodded. “I second that.”

Those words nearly made Zhao Feng explode in anger. He raised the sword in his hand and pointed it at Shen Leng. “Brothers, as everyone can see, these people know where we come from. If any one of them leaves here alive, our serious offense of assassinating combat soldiers will destroy Guan Tang Kou. None of you will escape unscathed.”

Shen Leng interrupted his rousing speech, “You don’t have to motivate them like that because I don’t have the intention to let any of you go.”

Zhao Feng snorted. “Attack!”

The three closest Guan Tang Kou assassins charged forward. After they got out of the woods, there were no leaves to block the moonlight, hence, the blade light became a lot brighter. It was the start of winter, but every ray of blade light was even more chilly than the atmosphere.

“Spear!” Shen Leng suddenly shouted.

His men immediately took the spears from their backs before aiming and throwing them over. Six to seven assassins fell onto the ground.

“Wang Kuohai!” yelled Shen Leng.

The majority of the combat soldiers had three short spears tied to their backs, only Wang Kuohai had a heavy shield tied to his instead. The shield was 1.6 meters in height, and weighed less than 44 pounds. He was assigned to carry it because of his bull-like strong and stocky physique – if it was someone else, they would not be able to carry such a heavy equipment for that long.

When he heard the military officer calling out to him, Wang Kuohai reached out his hand and grabbed the shield from his back. As he grabbed the shield with both hands, he looked like a rhino charging towards those people and ramming into them.

Shen Leng and Yang Qibao followed closely behind Wang Kuohai, while the remaining men seized the short window of time to load the arrows onto their repeating crossbows.

Bam!

The two assassins at the front flew upon impact as Wang Kuohai charged into them. The impact was so great that the two people felt as though a mountain had hit them.

Wang Kuohai knocked into the Guan Tang Kou men like a heavy hammer. Shen Leng and Yang Qibao attacked from the left and right respectively. When Wang Kuohai had stopped what he was doing, Shen Leng and Yang Qibao had already killed three people each.

Guan Tang Kou’s men finally realized that even if they forcefully faced them head on without an ambush, they still would not stand a chance to win.

The soldiers behind, who had finished loading the arrows, started to attack. They bent their backs as they moved forward; they aimed at their opponents accurately before releasing the arrows, shooting several men who were surrounding Shen Leng and the other two men. The advantage, of having more manpower, that they had disappeared in an instant.

In order to pursue and attack Shen Leng and his men, those Guan Tang Kou men had equipped themselves with the repeating crossbows that were only given to Great Ning soldiers. This offense, if it was being investigated, would implicate several people. How did those repeating crossbows end up in the hands of an underworld secret society, and a powerful one at that?

However, they were not adept at using the repeating crossbows – they were nowhere near the soldiers’ abilities to maximize its potential. They were not as accurate in their attacks; apart from one soldier who got shot in the arm, nobody else was injured.

Perhaps, they were better off using darts instead of repeating crossbows.

Wang Kuohai used the heavy shield in his hands as a weapon and swung it. The edges of the shield smashed against the head of one of the assassins, shattering it into pieces. His tofu-like brain flew everywhere.

Shen Leng, Yang Qibao and Gu Le engaged in close combat, with the help of Wang Kuohai shielding them. The remaining soldiers aimed their crossbows and released their arrows. In less than three minutes, the remaining dozen Guan Tang Kou men had fallen to the ground.

Shen Leng kept his sword and stood straight. He was sweating a little on his forehead. At this moment, Zhao Feng was the only person standing there. He looked extremely flabbergasted; his face was pale.

Gu Le wiped off the blood on his hengdao using the clothes of one of the corpses. He looked at his neck and reluctantly walked away from the corpse. “What a pity.”

Indeed, what a pity. They killed all these people but there was no way of claiming any credit. He coul，

The ten-man squad was made up of elites that were carefully selected. Under the circumstance that their enemies were caught off guard, they managed to kill more than forty underworld assassins. However, it was not considered an impressive feat. At the very least, they did not feel

So what if those assassins were more ferocious and vicious? Every single man that Shen Leng brought with him was extremely ruthless.

Even though the people in the underworld depended on their fierce and fiendish aura to scare the common folks, their fierce and fiendish aura was nothing compared to the ruthlessness of combat soldiers.

With just a look from these experts from secret societies, it was enough to make ordinary people scared. If they looked at combat soldiers with the same look in their eyes, combat soldiers would dare to gouge their eyes out.

Beheading to claim credit – how many underworld assassins could understand the brutality of it?

Shen Leng’s men surrounded Zhao Feng; the latter knew that he had no way of escaping. He could only blame himself for his lack of understanding towards combat soldiers, as well as Shen Leng.

In truth, combat soldiers looked down on people like them and vice versa. Many people shared the notion that good men should not join the military – they felt that the life of a soldier was way beneath them. However, despising required one to pay a price. Fortunately, they only had to pay a one-time price. But unfortunately…one time was enough.

“You intend to win by relying on higher manpower? Is that your only ability?” Zhao Feng looked at Shen Leng and said mockingly.

Shen Leng looked at the pile of corpses; he could not comprehend where Zhao Feng got his confidence from when he said those words. On what basis exactly was he saying that?

He pointed to those corpses, making Zhao Feng feel even more humiliated.

“One on one. If you are a man, don’t depend on higher manpower to bully others. Let’s fight it out one on one. If you kill me, I will die with no complaints. If you intend to defeat us by virtue of the fact that you have more people, I will look down on you.”

Shen Leng sighed softly. “Firstly, you are bringing up about manpower in a time like this. How immature. From the looks of it, you’re ten years older than me, huh? It seems like age means nothing at all…Secondly, do you think that I care about whether or not you die with complaints or without? If you die, that’s enough for me…Thirdly, I don’t need you to look up to me. I am undeserving.”

After Shen Leng said that, he laughed. “However, let me help you.”

He stuck his black cord sword to the ground. After that he took out the scabbard of the small hunting knife. “Choose one.”

Zhao Feng asked, “What do you mean by choosing one!”

“Choose how you want to die.”

Shen Leng gripped the scabbard tight. “Let me choose for you.”

Zhao Feng cussed at him before charging towards Shen Leng with his sword, aiming for his neck. Shen Leng tilted his head backwards. The tip of the sword almost grazed his throat.

That attack was extremely powerful and swift.

There was no such thing as a meek assassin – only swift and swifter, strong and stronger.

Shen Leng dodged the attack. As he bent backwards, he flipped his body over. He supported himself with his left hand against the ground, as he kicked him in the chest hard with both legs, taking advantage of the fact that there was an opening when Zhao Feng was trying to attack him.

With a loud thud, Zhao Feng flew backwards upon impact. Shen Leng pounced forward and threw a punch at his lower abdomen with all his might. Zhao Feng was beaten up so badly that his body was scrunched up like a dried shrimp.

Shen Leng held his scabbard against Zhao Feng’s neck and slashed it, ripping off a huge chunk of his flesh.

Zhao Feng wailed in pain. After he landed onto the ground, he used his sword for support before he could stabilize himself. He used his other hand to press against his neck. Blood continued to gush out through the gaps between his fingers.

Shen Leng did not give chase. Instead, he said in a calm tone, “Not long ago, I met a fella named Hei Yan. He’s a lot stronger than you. Well, at the very least, he could receive two punches from me. He told me something…after I killed the leader of Liu Lang Dao in the abandoned warehouse in Changan city, you people from Guan Tang Kou arrived there soon after.”

Shen Leng walked forward. “I don’t think that you people are dividing your things. You are probably going there to provide assistance. I am not interested in the relationship between Guan Tang Kou and Liu Lang Dao behind the scenes. I only want to say that…everybody in Liu Lang Dao deserves to die. If you people share a close relationship with them, you deserve to die too.”

Zhao Feng opened his mouth and was about to say something, but blood kept gushing out of his mouth. He looked exceptionally miserable.

Shen Leng walked up to him. Zhao Feng wanted to use his last ounce of strength to lift his sword. Shen Leng immediately grabbed it before stabbing him in the heart.

“I did not fight against you because I look down on you. I simply like the feeling of killing my enemy.”

Shen Leng released his hand. “Your martial arts skills are not as good as the leader of the Liu Lang Dao. Hence, you’re only a six…”

When he thought about how he had underestimated the abilities of some people, Shen Leng changed his mind. “You are only but a four.”

When he thought about Wang Kuohai, if it was one on one, even though it might be a bit more challenging, ultimately, Wang Kuohai would still kill that fella. Hence, Shen Leng changed his mind once more. “You are only but a three.”

“Military officer, what do we do now?”

Gu Le looked at the corpse as he lamented about how those people’s heads were not worth the money.

“Gather their horses. Tomorrow, at daybreak, we will look for a place to sell them. We will sell the weapons too. Search for the silver and banknotes on their bodies and collect them before splitting amongst everybody equally.”

Shen Leng sighed, “Just that this is not a very civilized thing to do…”

One soldier laughed. “I hate being civilized the most. (Note: ‘wen ming’ is civilized in Chinese)”

“Yeah, knowing somebody by his reputation is not as good as meeting him in person (Note: the phrase in Chinese is ‘wen ming bu ru jian mian’).”

“What nonsense.”

“Split the loot equally. (Note: the phrase in Chinese is ‘jian mian fen yi ban’, hence, the conversation is a play on words)