Changning's Imperial Army Chapter 42 - Counter Attack

Despite having been through Shen Leng's strict and arduous trainings over a period of time, running three miles while carrying a heavy load was still not an easy feat. Fortunately, they only had to be a little faster than the water bandits behind them.

Even though the water bandits only carried a dagger with them, they could not run faster than Shen Leng and his men, who were carrying more than ten to twenty pounds worth of equipment with them. This made Shen Leng's squad somewhat pleased with themselves…

"Du Weiming, take two people with you and go over to see if there is anybody holding down the fort in the water bandits' camp."

Shen Leng yelled. He turned around and grabbed Wang Kuohai. "The rest of you keep going! You stay behind with me!"

Wang Kuohai turned around and headed back with Shen Leng. After they walked a few steps, he heard Shen Leng yell, "Shield!"

Wang Kuohai lifted the shield from the ground and held it against his body, hiding behind it. Shen Leng stood behind Wang Kuohai and took down the repeating crossbow. He shot the arrows intermittently towards the water bandits who were pursuing them from behind. Nine arrows shot out at the same time, taking down the closest few water bandits. Shen Leng hung the empty repeating crossbow on Wang Kuohai's waist, and took down Wang Kuohai's repeating crossbow and continued to shoot. The water bandits who were gasping for air got so frightened that they immediately lied on their stomach on the ground. After more people died, they did not dare to approach anymore.

Shen Leng filled the repeating crossbow with more arrows before hanging it back onto Wang Kuohai's waist. He did the same for his repeating crossbow and shot more arrows at the water bandits. They got so scared that they started wailing. They did not even dare to lift their heads up.

"Let's go!"

Shen Leng continued to drag Wang Kuohai along, and Wang Kuohai hung the heavy shield back on his back and continued running. It perfectly blocked the return fire of the scattered arrows from the back. The bows used by the water bandits were very coarse. The majority of them were made from bamboo. Its power was limited. They could only shoot up to ten to twenty meters. Occasionally, an arrow would strike against the heavy shield, but it only felt like a tickle.

On the other side, Du Weiming took two soldiers with him and charged right outside of the water bandits' camp. The person who saw them from the watchtower started yelling. Du Weiming lifted the repeating crossbow in his hand and started shooting at him. After getting shot by three arrows, the water bandit fell from the tower.

The other two soldiers kicked their wooden door down. They noticed a water bandit attempting to flee. They took out their repeating crossbows and began shooting. The water bandit collapsed to the ground after taking four to five steps.

"Tidy up a little!" yelled Shen Leng from afar.

"My men, come here!" yelled Du Weiming. His voice started to become hoarse.

He felt as though his blood was about to ignite. That fella Shen Leng did not follow the standard way of fighting a battle. However, it was extremely exciting…He brought his five-man squad with him and charged into the camp. He used the fastest speed possible to check if there were any water bandits that slipped away.

There were three to five people who remained at the camp. Shortly after, they were killed off by Du Weiming and his five-man squad.

At this moment, Shen Leng brought Wang Kuohai with him and charged into the camp. He turned around and closed the gate.

"Go up the wooden wall, and teach them a lesson!"

Shen Leng glance over at the wooden wall next to him. The wall was about two meters tall. He jumped up, grabbed onto the top of the wall and flipped himself up onto it directly.

"Chen Ran, go over to the watchtower!"

"Yes!"

Little fatty Chen Ran answered. He climbed up the watchtower as fast as he could. Halfway through, he almost slipped as his foot stepped on air. He felt the center of his thigh knocking against the ladder, causing it to shake…

Chen Ran's mouth was wide open. He managed to stabilize himself with much difficulty and continued climbing upwards. When he got to the watchtower, he took out his two stone bow and placed his arrows next to his legs. He did not lack physical strength - he was only somewhat clumsy. At that height, he was able to clearly see the movements of the water bandits.

At a distance, the leader of the water bandits, Zhao Dengke, did not expect Shen Leng and his men to take over their village. Originally, the water bandits were supposed to ambush them. However at this moment, they were being attacked by them. The tides had turned…he was extremely unhappy with the turn of events.

"Charge and kill! I want you to tear the bodies of those bastards apart!"

Zhao Dengke yelled at the top of his lungs. His subordinates tried to run, but it was as though their legs were weighted with lead. They could not move. Zhao Dengke was so furious that he struck the water bandits around him with his sword. "Get your act together, or I will cut every single one of you alive!"

The water bandits wanted to get their act together, but their legs were hurting too much. They were too tired to even walk. If they were charging into the camp and attacking at such a speed, it was practically courting death. When Shen Leng and his men waited for those fellas to be about thirty meters away from them, they started shooting at them with their repeating crossbows from on top of the wall.

Li Tuming continued to shoot as he yelled out in excitement. He finally understood why the squad leader wanted every single one of them to bring at least five boxes of arrows. This feeling was absolutely awesome.

The water bandits at the front collapsed to the ground, as though a sickle had combed through a field of wheat. The people at the back did not dare to advance any farther. They were all frightened till their faces went pale.

There were evidently only twelve Navy soldiers in the camp. They had twenty times more people than them, and yet they were played by them like monkeys. In fact, they were more pathetic than monkeys.

"Are all of you freaking idiots? Don't run straight ahead, don't run straight ahead!"

Zhou Dengke was so mad that he forgot about his plan to flee. He always felt that he was not like the other water bandits - he was more wise than brave. However, as it turned out, he got played by a group of new recruits from the Navy. He was about to explode from anger.

"Number two and three, take the men with you and outflank from both sides!"

The water bandits started to change their strategy. A group of them attacked head on, the other two groups circled towards the camp on both sides. At this moment, there were approximately 130 to 140 water bandits left. After they split up, their power seemed to have weakened.

"These morons."

Du Weiming scoffed. "Completely clueless about how to fight a battle."

At this moment, even he could already tell. Hence, his admiration for Shen Leng reached an even higher level. In the beginning, he was absolutely not in the mood to fight the battle. But at this moment, it was apparent that it was possible for a ten-man squad to be up against two hundred water bandits. In fact, it was possible for them to kill them!

"Chen Ran, tell me when either side is approaching!"

Shen Leng yelled towards the watchtower. Thereafter, he jumped down from the wooden wall. "Du Weiming, Wang Kuohai, follow me!"

Du Weiming was dumbfounded. Were they counter attacking with just the three of them?

"Screw it!"

Wang Kuohai jumped down directly from the wooden wall. Du Weiming followed closely behind.

"Wang Kuohai, open up a path!"

"Ok!"

Wang Kuohai lifted the shield that was as tall as a person. He looked like a rhinoceros charging over. His 2 meter tall muscular body caused the ground to shake as he ran. The water bandit that was right at the front immediately flew upon impact as Wang Kuohai charged into him with the shield. His bones shattered the moment he landed onto the ground.

Shen Leng and Du Weiming were behind Wang Kuohai - one on the left and one on the right. They continued to switch positions. One of them attacked while the other kept a lookout. They relied on Wang Kuohai's heavy shield as defense. One of them opened up a path by knocking them down, the other two killed ruthlessly with their swords. Within a short span of two to three minutes, Shen Leng had already taken down five to six people, and Du Weiming had already down three.

"Awesome!"

Du Weiming yelled at the top of his lungs, "Shen Leng, following you is so freaking awesome!"

Actually, the three of them was not entirely well-coordinated, but they were still a lot stronger than the water bandits. The water bandits had already become extremely exhausted from all the running and chasing. Their weapons were also not as good as Shen Leng and company's. Furthermore, those three men were abnormally strong. Hence, it was impossible to resist them.

The fifty to sixty water bandits that wanted to attack them at the main gate of their camp were scared off by the three of them. At this moment, they realized that they still had some strength left in their legs.

"Go back."

Shen Leng and company counter attacked and killed off more than ten water bandits. Thereafter, they returned to the camp. When they just got back, they heard Chen Ran yelling from the watchtower, "The left side, near the wooden wall!"

Shen Leng charged over to the left side with his seemingly boundless strength. He scaled up the wooden wall and started shooting continuously with his repeating crossbow. Originally, the water bandits were already approaching them. Additionally, there was nobody on this side of the wooden wall. Before they had the time to be happy, the god of death had appeared before their eyes. It was as though they were locked on by that fella's repeating crossbow. Each arrow hit each one of them.

Even though the remaining people knew that there was only one person on the wall, they did not dare to advance. At this moment, Chen Ran had already shot a few arrows from the watchtower and killed one of the water bandits. On the other side, the water bandits that circled around got blocked by Du Weiming and his men.

Twelve people guarding a camp. The water bandits who outnumbered them significantly could not approach them at all.

At this moment, the silhouette of battleships could gradually be seen on the river from afar. The ten-man squad who were guarding the camp started cheering aloud. They had persevered till the arrival of reinforcements. Once the Navy had reached the river bank, the water bandits would no longer be a threat to them.

However, once the three battleships had arrived at the river bank, nobody got off the ships.

The battalion commander, Wang Gendong took a huge step forward and stood in front of Mu Xiaofeng. "General, permission to go into battle!"

"Wait a minute."

Mu Xiaofeng casually waved his hand. "From the looks of it, there was an ambush. Let's wait till the water bandits become weary before we head over to attack them."

"But general, Shen Leng and the rest are still engaging in close combat. We should rush to their rescue immediately."

"Do I need you to teach me how to fight a battle?"

Mu Xiaofeng looked at Wang Gendong, "It seems like you think you're stronger than me. I will not stop you. If you want to go to their rescue, go ahead. But…you're not allowed to bring any soldiers with you."

Wang Gendong's eyes became red. "General, we are all comrades of the Navy."

"I only see water bandits, I don't see any Navy soldiers."

Mu Xiaofeng sat down once again. "I mean what I said. If you want to go, I will not stop you."

Wang Gendong gritted his teeth and turned around. He drew out his black cord sword and a shield before getting off the ship. He charged towards the camp alone. His backview looked exceptionally lonely.

The water bandits had also seen the Navy's battleships. In just a brief moment, they lost all will. Earlier on, they were still charging forward bravely due to safety in numbers. When the battleship appeared by the river bank, they had lost every last ounce of courage and were scared out of their wits.

"Run!" yelled one of them. They all turned around and fled.

"Pursue and kill them!"

Shen Leng saw a Navy soldier charging over from afar. At this moment, all those fellas were fleeing frantically. It was that one soldier facing the whole bunch of them head on. He was certainly outnumbered.

Du Weiming stared blankly for a moment. "You want us to pursue right now? The water bandits are already fleeing in fear. If we don't go after them, we will not suffer any casualties…"

"Huh?"

Shen Leng furrowed his brows.

Du Weiming's facial expression changed. "Yes! Understood!"

Shen Leng held onto his black steel black cord sword and jumped down from the wooden wall, instructing his men to provide assistance to Wang Gendong.

At this moment, a squad of people came charging out from the side. These people were evidently strong. They swung their swords at every single water bandit that came their way. Even though there were not many of them, every single one of them was brave and ferocious.

Immediately, Shen Leng ordered both five-man squads to get into formation. Li Tuming thought that it was a group of ordinary water bandits. He yelled and charged forward. In the end, he got flipped over by the person in front with a kick, and a sword headed immediately after for his neck.

Clank!

Shen Leng swung his sword, blocking the sword that was heading for Li Tuming's neck. That person took two steps back. He looked at Shen Leng in disbelief. This person had covered his face with a cloth, but Shen Leng saw the bow on his back and knew who he was immediately.

"It's you again."

Shen Leng took a huge step forward. That person's sword broke; he took his comrade's sword and swung it towards Shen Leng at a high speed and power.

Chapter end