The bandit chief was worrying about the escorts’ black armour when, on Chen Shiye’s advice, he immediately ordered men to send several baskets of oil jars to the front line.
Chen Shiye could think of the problem, but Jin Feng had already considered it when designing the armour.
Although the black armour is hard, it is not invincible.
Water and fire can get in anywhere, and they are the best ways to deal with black armour.
During training for the escorts, Jin Feng especially stressed the need to watch out for the enemy’s fire attacks and flooding.
In normal times, if the escorts saw enemies carrying oil jars approaching, the ones at the back would have shot arrows and taken them down long ago.
But now the fog is too thick. By the time the escorts see bandits holding burning oil jars coming close, it is already too late.
Although the escorts in the rear quickly shot and killed some bandits, more than a dozen oil jars still came flying over.
“Fire defence formation! Retreat!”
Liu Tie roared, and all the escorts swiftly fell back while raising their arms to shield their faces.
Pop pop pop!
Because they retreated in time, most of the dozen or so oil jars smashed onto the ground, but five or six still hit the escorts.
In an instant, the place where the escorts and bandits were fighting turned into a sea of flames.
Seven or eight escorts got splashed with oil and instantly became human torches.
“Third squad, put out the fires! Second row, move forward!”
While giving orders, Liu Tie pulled a wet towel from the side pocket of his armour and skilfully helped one escort put out the flames.
This wet towel was specially prepared by Jin Feng just in case such a situation happened.
The third squad escorts did the same as Liu Tie. Working in pairs, they quickly extinguished the flames on their comrades.
Originally the first row had been at the front. Now the first row pulled back to deal with fires, and the second row immediately stepped up to stop the bandits from charging through.
In fact they were worrying too much. The area where the escorts and bandits had been fighting was now a sea of fire.
When the bandits threw the oil jars, they did not care at all whether their own men would get burned. They just hurled them over.
Liu Tie’s side reacted fast to the bandits throwing oil jars, so only seven or eight escorts were caught in it.
But the bandits had their backs to the oil jars. They never saw anyone throwing them from behind, so their reaction was not as quick as the escorts’. At least twenty or thirty of them perished in the flames.
Heart-rending screams rose one after another, making the bandits at the back feel their scalps go numb.
In this situation, no bandit would dare cross the sea of fire to attack the escorts.
As the burning bandits finally died, the mountain path that had been chaotic with fighting suddenly became strangely quiet.
The oil on the ground burned out and the flames gradually went out.
A disgusting burnt stench filled the air.
“Oil jars work! They burned dozens of them at once! Quick, send all the oil jars to the front! Burn them to death! The more ears we cut off, the more silver we get!”
The bandit chief kicked and shoved from the rear, driving the bandits to keep fighting.
The fog was too thick and the bandits at the back could not see what was happening ahead. Many really believed the chief and thought the screams just now came from the escorts.
After all, their own men threw the oil jars, so burning the enemy makes perfect sense, right?
Driven by the promise of reward, the bandits in the rear started charging again.
The ones at the back did not know the truth, but the ones at the front did.
Their leader had also been burned to death. With no one to lead or supervise, who would dare rush forward?
One by one they turned and ran, crashing into the bandits who were still charging ahead.
The already narrow mountain path instantly became a complete mess.
One sharp-eyed squad leader noticed that quite a few bandits were still carrying oil jars. He quickly ran to report to Liu Tie.
Although the flames on the escorts had been put out and there were no combat losses, two escorts had burns on their faces. One of them had an eye burned, and it was not clear yet whether it could be saved.
Liu Tie was already furious. When he heard the report, he gritted his teeth and said, “I originally wanted to fight them face to face. Since they are looking for death, do not blame me! Bring the hand grenades!”
“Yes!” The squad leader ran off at once.
Soon several escorts carried a box of hand grenades over.
Nearby, other escorts were quickly assembling small trebuchets.
These trebuchets were specially designed by Jin Feng for throwing hand grenades. Although their range is not as far as large ones and they cannot throw many grenades at once, they load and string much faster than heavy crossbows and are more accurate.
At Liu Tie’s command, several hand grenades whistled through the air.
Boom! Boom!
The mountain path was already narrow, and the bandits were packed together. The killing power of a few hand grenades was easy to imagine.
Crowds of bandits flew up like torn sacks!
Even the thick fog was briefly blown away by the blast waves!
Now the bandits at the back finally saw what was happening ahead.
The shocking effect of hand grenade explosions could even stun Dan Zhu’s elite cavalry, let alone ordinary bandits.
Almost every bandit was stunned!
Taking advantage of the moment when the fog cleared, Liu Tie spotted where the bandits had piled their oil jars and immediately ordered the escorts to aim there.
This time they threw only one hand grenade, but the destruction was even greater than before!
The grenade smashed the oil jars, sending them flying in all directions. A three-zhang area around it instantly became a sea of fire!
Then Liu Tie ordered the escorts to target the bandit gathering points farther back, and another round of bombardment followed!
After several continuous attacks, the last bit of fighting spirit the bandits had was completely crushed!
The escorts were already strong in combat, and now they had such sharp weapons. How could the bandits possibly fight back?
So the bandits began to scatter. No matter how the chief threatened them, he could not stop the rout!
“Fang Zhou, bring the horses over. We are going after them!”
Liu Tie shouted towards the rear. The squad leader responsible for protecting Guan Xiaorou and guarding the warhorses immediately brought the horses forward.
“Protect Madam well. If anything goes wrong, I will take your head!”
Liu Tie mounted his horse, gave Fang Zhou brief instructions, then personally led a team to pursue and kill the fleeing bandits.
“Madam is here too?”
When Zuo Feifei and the female workers saw the fighting had ended, they came out from their hiding places.
Hearing Liu Tie’s words, they looked at Fang Zhou in surprise.
Before Fang Zhou could answer, Zuo Feifei saw Guan Xiaorou walking out of the thick fog with A Ju and the others.
Looking at the corpses everywhere and smelling the lingering burnt stench, Guan Xiaorou frowned tightly.
Although she could not see from the rear earlier, she had heard the sounds coming from the front and knew the battle must have been very fierce.
But she had not expected it to be this brutal.
Tiegua Mountain is not far from Xihe Bay. Guan Xiaorou is in charge of developing fragrances for soap and often visits the soap factory, so she and Zuo Feifei are not strangers. Still, this was the first time Zuo Feifei had seen Guan Xiaorou wearing armour, and she was momentarily stunned.
But as the factory manager, Zuo Feifei quickly recovered and stepped forward to greet her.
“Madam, it is so dangerous here. Why did you come?”
“Sisters, you have worked hard!”
Guan Xiaorou looked at the female workers around her, gave a solemn bow, and said with deep feeling, “All you sisters risked your lives to help the village resist the bandits. This kindness, Xiaorou will never forget in this lifetime!”
