On the hillside, Zheng Fang crouched in the shadows, fist clenched as he watched Xu the chief march every Tiger Head bandit into Longsnake Gulch.
Close call, he thought. The plan had wobbled, yet the fish still swam into the net.
Relief had barely settled when he spotted the Twin Camel column peeling off down a narrow side trail.
“Damn it!”
His brows knotted. Disaster.
“Captain, Tiger Head is inside. Shall we spring the trap?”
His lieutenant’s whisper was urgent. “Any later and we lose the moment!”
The side trail also reached Xihewan, only farther round. Worse, it offered no ambush ground. Let Twin Camel slip past these slopes and they would pour straight into the village lanes, unstoppable.
Zheng Fang punched an oak trunk, knuckles stinging. “Do it. Two signal arrows!”
Before the operation, Jin Feng and Zheng Fang had rehearsed half a dozen contingencies. Two arrows meant switch to Plan B.
Whoosh, whoosh. The arrows streaked upward.
Instantly, boulders arced from both ridges, thudding down to seal each end of Longsnake Gulch. Not one bandit died, but the message was deafening.
Every Tiger Head man froze, blood drained from their faces.
“So the trap was real!”
Feng the strategist and Lu the chief swapped glances, gratitude flashing in both pairs of eyes. Thank heaven they had dodged the gulch.
“Move, move! While Tiger Head pins Xihewan down, we race on!”
Feng urged.
“Sir, this little path, no traps here, right?” Lu muttered.
“Relax. I memorised every fold of these hills. A hundred zhang ahead we hit the post road. Nothing along it can hide an ambush.”
Feng spoke fast. “To stop us they must meet steel with steel, and Xihewan has no steel left…”
His sentence died. From the slope above, two dozen veterans burst out, spears gleaming, shields locked.
Only twenty-odd men, yet every stride screamed discipline. In three breaths they snapped into a pocket Macedonian square and corked the narrow trail.
This tiny force was Jin Feng’s hidden ace, held back for exactly such surprises.
“One, two, one! One, two, one!”
Boots hammered in perfect time as the square advanced.
Fewer men, endless drills, perfect trust. The square glided faster than the old Iron Forest phalanx ever had on open battlefields.
Gone were the clumsy bamboo lances. Each soldier now carried a ten-foot steel-tipped spear on a tubular shaft, light, unbreakable.
The chant swelled. Momentum gathered like an avalanche. Though still yards away, bandits stumbled backward.
“Brothers, twenty-odd against hundreds! They’re bluffing!”
Lu roared, eyes crimson. “Drop one and I pay ten taels. First blood earns a hundred!”
Silver was the universal tongue of banditry. It never failed.
The retreat halted. Greed ignited. Men surged forward, howling, each desperate to claim the prize.
They never stood a chance.
Ten feet from the shields, the commander barked. A hedge of spear-points lanced through the gaps.
The front rank of bandits fell like wheat.
“Their spears outrange us! We can’t close!”
Lu watched his men crumple, face twisted.
“Long spears? We make longer ones!”
Feng spun toward the pines. “A-Jun, fell a tree. Smash this hedgehog!”
“Aye!”
Minutes later, a dozen bandits staggered downhill under a thirty-foot pine trunk thick as a water butt.
The column parted. The human battering ram lumbered straight at the square.
Brush exploded on the left. A single heavy-crossbow bolt hissed out, punched through eight men in a straight line, skewered three more, then buried itself in the far slope.
“Curse Xihewan and their damned crossbows!”
Feng smashed a fist against stone.
“Sir, what now?” Lu pleaded.
“What else? Run!”
Feng shut his eyes, defeat bitter on his tongue. He had replayed this plan a hundred times, certain it was flawless. Now it lay in ruins.
The square was a spiked turtle. No angle, no hope. To keep fighting was to feed the fire.
“We’re on Xihewan’s doorstep! Tuck tail and flee? Unacceptable!”
Lu snarled.
“Then stay and die. I’m gone.”
Feng turned, his personal guard melting into the trees.
Lu kicked a boulder sky-high. “Retreat!”
The improved square could not chase free-running bandits. Twin Camel vanished round the bend.
Zheng Fang exhaled. “Let them go. Sir Jin says eight or nine times out of ten, life kicks you in the teeth. Tiger Head is still caged. That’s victory enough. Time to parley.”
His lieutenant cupped hands to mouth. “Listen up, you little bandit pups! Drop every blade and kiss the dirt!”
“Twenty heartbeats. Anyone still standing after twenty gets no mercy!”
Catapults thundered again. This time stones walked forward, chewing the edges of the trapped mob, stopping just short of flesh, a promise carved in flying rock.
