Battle Royale of the Sinners 134 Bandit Hunting

5 PM.

The messenger, who rushed back from Ganling city, galloped his horse back to Zhang Liao and proceeded to give Tong's order.

"FBI tactic again? What about the hostages?"

Zhang Liao was skeptical about this tactic in this situation. Should not he rescue the kidnapped people first to take away the bandit's bargain chips?

While he was deep in thought, a blue gate appeared and Tong stepped out of the gate.

Zhang Liao had experienced the gate before in Jinyang, he was not surprised anymore.

"My Lord?"
"Zhang Liao, all hostages have been rescued by me and Feihong. You're clear to attack the village."

Zhang Liao raised his eyebrows in astonishment and a faint smile appeared on his face for a second. The efficiency of his new Lord impressed him.

"Understood, my lord."

Tong stepped back and allowed his men to perform their roles while he monitored his radar map to scan for the hidden otherworlder.

As for the leadership and command ability of Zhang Liao, Tong did not worry the slightest.

…

Unlike Zhang He, who was a late bloomer, Zhang Liao was talented at combat from the beginning. Ding Yuan scouted him personally and made him an assistant officer. Zhang Liao became acquainted with Lu Bu as he had to accompany the son of his boss into the battles many times.

In the history, after the assassination of Dong Zhuo, Zhang Liao followed Lu Bu to all over the central plains and northern plains. He and Gao Shun did their best to cover the flaws of Lu Bu. Because Lu Bu was impulsive and had ill temperament from constraint backstabbing and politics, he did not utilize Zhang Liao to the fullest.

Zhang Liao surrendered to Cao Cao after the battle at Xia Pi in the year 198. Later in the year 202 to 207, he accompanied Cao Cao in various campaigns against the sons of Yuan Shao.

In 214, his true abilities shone in the battle at Hefei Castle where he drove back Sun Quan Army of 100,000 men with just 800 men.

During the famous fight of the history, Zhang Liao force was surrounded by the Sun Quan troops, yet he fought valiantly and rescued his men back into the castle. He managed to outlast the siege for several days before Sun Quan gave up trying to take Hefei Castle and signaled his troops to retreat.

While Sun Quan was retreating, Zhang Liao launched a counter-attack ambush on the retreating force, which he almost got his hands on Sun Quan during the battle.

Since that battle, he earned a new legend among the peasants. They said that a baby would stop crying if it heard the name of Zhang Liao.

…

15,000 Cavalries and 10,000 infantries surrounded the village. With a signal, all of them shouted.

"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"
"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"
"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"

The soldiers repeated the script. At first, their voice did not synchronize. But after a few shouts, they were in sync as if they were part of the choirs in the modern church.

Amused by the chorus of the soldiers, Li Feihong sang inside his private world. He forgot that Zhao Yun and the hostage girls were still there.

"EEF-BEE ~ AND AIIIIIIIIIIEIIIIII~ ~ Will always surround you-huuu-ALWAYS surround YUHUUUU~ ~"

The girls and Zhao Yun had to cover their ears as the song and the tunes were piercing their eardrums.

…

The two hundred thousand voice echoed and disturbed the bandits in the village. They gathered on the village square to standby for the order of their boss.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yan was anxious by the noise and the current situation.

The moment he heard the scout report that an army had surrounded them, he planned to use the kidnapped girls as their bargain chips. He wanted to bribe the leading commander of the army by giving those hostage girls to the commander as the side perk of this operation so that Zhang Yan could coax the commander into letting him go.

From his knowledge and experiences with all government officials he came across, he believed that there would be no official that would refuse this offer as the girls in Zhang Yan's warehouses were the best-looking girls in Ganling City. The commanding officers would gladly take them in as their concubines or their toys in secret for sure.

But before he could make use of his plan, the hostages disappeared from his warehouses. Even the assigned guards were also disappeared.

Now, Zhang Yan had no idea how to break this situation without a bribe.

'Damn it! If that bastard Jiang Man were here, we could have killed all of these imperial force already!'

The mysterious boss of his abandoned him and his bandit gang on the day that they were hunting down Zhao Yun. Zhang Yan had not been able to contact him ever since.

'They were shouting for us to surrender. Maybe I still have a chance to survive.'

Being optimistic, Zhang Yan walked out of his building toward the panicking bandits in the middle of the village. He gave them an order to the bandits.

"Lay down your weapons. They are warning us to surrender, so we will surrender to them."
"Boss Zhang Yan, what about boss Jiang?"
"That bastard abandoned all of us a long time ago! Never mention him in front of me again!"
"I-I'm sorry, boss."

All bandits threw away their weapons. They scrapped white clothes to make a white flag. The bandits slowly walked out of the village while they were waving white flags.

"WE SURRENDER! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

The slowly approached the formation line in front of the village entrance where Zhang Liao was stationing.

The frontline was a line of infantries. They planted their tower shield into the ground and knelt down on one knee while the second line soldiers pointed the repeating crossbows toward the bandits.

"WE SURRENDER! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

The bandits repeated their words again as they were getting closer.

Meanwhile, the surrounding troops did not stop shouting the script. They ignored the incoming bandits and shouted.

"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"
"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"

The bandits got intimidated by the continuous threat. They shouted back.

"WE SURRENDER! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

The troops also shouted back.

"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"
"WE SURRENDER! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

300 meters.

"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"
"WE SURRENDER! PLEASE DON'T KILL US!"

250 meters.

Zhang Liao darted his eyes around and clicked his tongue. The incoming bandit number was almost two thousand men. Combining with the bandits inside the city, their number was almost 3,000 men.

From the intel, there were roughly a thousand of them. However, they somehow gathered more members and increased their comrades close to 3,000. If Tong had not ordered them to come here and eradicate all of them, Zhang Liao could not imagine how many of them would have been multiplied.

200 meters.

Zhang Liao raised his hand. The flag bearers paid attention and switched the signal flags, ready to relay the order.

150 meters.

Zhang Liao swung his hand down and a volley of arrows covered the twilight sky. The bandits lost their abilities to think the moment they saw the incoming rain of arrows.

"RUN!"
"NO!"
"THEY ARE SHOOTING US!"
"SOB! WE WERE TRICKED!"

All of them turned around and kicked the ground. They ran back in a panic.

It was too late for the bandits to run. The arrow rain pierced the bodies of the bandits who did not have a shield or a weapon to fight back.

"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"

Despite the fact that Zhang Liao's men were shooting at the unarmed gangsters, they still shouted the script.

"Fire another volley." Zhang Liao ordered.
"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! COME OUT AND SURRENDER!"

Noticed the immoral tactic of Zhang Liao army, Zhang Yan ran back to the village. On his way, he grabbed one of his subordinates and shoved the poor guy in front of him as a meat shield.

"Boss! Why!?"
"Die for me, punk! I have to live!"

Zhang Yan did not just use one or two meat shield to get away from the rain of arrows, he used everyone that got into his way. After 5 volleys, he was finally hit by an arrow and fell onto the ground, rolling as he tumbled.

By the instinct of an experienced bandit, he pretended to be dead. Zhang Yan lied face down while he snuck glances at the surroundings. Usually, when an imperial army or a garrison guard squad defeated a group of bandits, they simply looted their weapons and left the corpses to rot in the wilderness. Zhang Yan managed to get away a couple times by using this bold tactic.

Once the last bandit collapsed, Zhang Liao waved his hand to stop the archers. He gave out another command.

"First and second squads, inspect the corpses! Make sure you cut off every head even if they are already dead!"

As a veteran general who constantly crashed with Xiangnu tribes, Zhang Liao was cautious of the play-dead trick as it was a common surviving tactic in the aftermath of every battle. Once a battle was over, they had to make sure that all dead enemies had to be killed again, or an unnecessary casualty might occur.

The soldiers strolled into the field of the dead bodies. They began hacking off the heads of the corpses one by one.

"Don't! Please, I surrender! Ugh!"

There were still living bandits as Zhang Liao suspected. Since Tong had ordered him to take no prisoner, Zhang Liao intended to be thorough with his duty.

More sounds of the living bandits dying to the soldiers came out every second. Zhang Yan was panic by the incoming troops and their actions. He bore the pain and dashed away into the village.

"There's a runner! Kill him!"
"He's alive! Shoot him down!"
"FBI, YOU ARE SURROUNDED! If you surrender, we'll kill you! If you don't surrender, we'll kill you!"

A dozen arrows flew toward Zhang Yan, but all of them missed the target. He made a 90 degrees turn and jumped into an alley between two houses. He continued using the unorganized buildings of the village to sneak away from the pursuers like a cockroach.

Ten minutes later, he lost the pursuers. Zhang Yan slowly breathed out and took out the embedded arrow in his calf. His eyes darted around to check the surroundings while he tended his wound.

'Ha! I'm the best. You can't catch me, you dumb pigs.'
'Now, how can I get out of this encirclement?'

Zhang Yan was preoccupied planning how to sneak out of this village in the middle of the night. He did not notice that there was a hand with a black object coming out of a small blue gate.

*BANG*

He heard a thunderous sound behind his back and felt an impact on the back of his head. Something went through his skull, and his vision and consciousness were lost forever.

…

Meanwhile, Li Feihong was still inside his private world, but one of his arms was inside a small blue hole. He watched the monitor which was showing his hand and Tong's gun.

Li Feihong pulled his hand back from the blue hole. The gun that was on the screen was in his hand.

"I see. So that's how it's done. I have never thought about this exploit before." Li Feihong muttered.

Tong, who returned into this private world again, tapped Li Feihong twice in approval.

"That's the gist of it. If you have had mastered this in Jinyang, I wouldn't have had to fight Lu Bu, damn you!"

"Ahaha!"

Chapter end