Chapter 176 Determination
Lutai.

In a fishing village near the sea.

A siege battle suddenly broke out in this small and sparsely populated fishing village. Amid the shouting and screaming, villagers holding harpoons and wooden sticks would rush out from the corners from time to time, risking their lives to rush towards more than a dozen elite knights who were armed to the teeth.

However, even though these villagers were stimulated by some unknown reason and rushed to surround the knights like crazy, they were only slaughtered one-sidedly. The ones who could cause a slight obstacle to the knights were some farmers dressed in tight clothes. Although the latter had no armor, they had blades and crossbows. They hid behind the villagers and could pose a real threat to the dozen or so knights.

At this moment, the sound of horse hooves kept hitting the ground, stirring up pieces of snowy soil, and occasionally there were streaks of blood mixed with soil splashing.

Amid the sound of strong wind, the rustling sound of arrows could be heard from time to time behind him, and soon several crossbow arrows hit the ground inaccurately.

"Idiot! Why are you still bothering with them?"

On horseback, Lu Yan bent down slightly and took a deep breath, then killed a man dressed as a farmer who was rushing towards him with his spear. Then, following the inertia of the horse's speed, he gritted his teeth and threw the man straight into the air. His bravery frightened the farmer's companions in front of him for a moment.

Having expended so much effort just for this effect, Lu Yan naturally would not give up this opportunity. He immediately swung his spear left and right, taking advantage of the momentum to rush straight through the blockade of several people.

Then, regardless of his sore wrist, he shouted to the dozen or so cavalrymen around him: "Don't waste any more time! Divide into groups of three, and each of you should disperse and head east!"

Not far away, the imperial guard general that Li Zhen ordered to lead the troops was not dead. He also shouted: "Listen to General Lu, head east! Protect General Lu and the others and kill them!"

More than ten armored knights gritted their teeth, spurred their mounts, which already had little horsepower left, and chased after Lu Yan, forming teams of three and heading eastward.

Among them, Li Zhen's aide just dared to lie on the horse's back, holding the reins tightly. No matter how the enemy approached him, he just kept shouting. If it weren't for Lu Yan who was protecting him tightly, he would have been pulled off the horse long ago.

At the front, Lu Yan had a fierce look on his face, holding a spear in his hand, and finally he and the other two riders and their staff rushed out of the fishing village.

He turned around on horseback and could see behind them a young man in gorgeous clothes looking at the blood all over the ground and the broken limbs and dead bodies everywhere. His face turned pale with horror and he stood there in a daze for a moment before he climbed back on his mount at the urging of several other middle-aged men and chased after them.

Fortunately, the enemy did not have many mounts, and those who were proficient in horse riding were killed first in the melee. Looking at the enemy's clumsy appearance, it was completely impossible for them to pose any threat to them.

Lu Yan sneered, turned around, and kicked the horse's belly hard, his eyes just staring straight ahead. He seemed to have smelled the scent of sea water between his nose and mouth.

As for why they were here and why they were suddenly involved in such a fierce battle, it would be a long story.

First of all, after they came out of the tunnel, they were still within the jurisdiction of the Yan army's camp, but fortunately it was late at night, and they easily threw the two small camps outside the tunnel into chaos.

These hundred cavalrymen were all selected elite soldiers, and were almost armed to the teeth, even with a set of precious soft armor for almost every man. It was easy for them to chop down some of the Yan army's bandits who had not yet reacted.

However, within the territory of the Yan army, a group of troops soon posed a threat to them. At that time, the number of the enemy was not large, only about ten people, but they cooperated very well, and were able to hold back their hundred cavalry with more than ten people. If Lu Yan had not made a prompt decision to send more than twenty cavalry to cover their retreat, they might not have been able to break out of the territory of the Yan army.

After that, they fought their way out of the bandits all night long and escaped from their pursuit. In order to confuse the pursuers, Lu Yan divided his troops again and sent some to the west and south, attracting most of the pursuers' firepower. Only then did they finally break out of Youzhou.

Although there were only a dozen riders left in their group, they were well-equipped and carried a few days' worth of dry food, so they were able to travel east without any obstacles. Lu Yan was a native of Yan, so he tried to choose sparsely populated areas to march along the way, rarely making mistakes, and basically minimizing the exposure of his whereabouts. He entered Zhuozhou in fear and trepidation, and headed east to Lutai via Wuqing.

However, the dry food he brought was only enough for two or three days. In order to maintain his physical strength, Lu Yan had to send people to find food. In order not to alert the enemy, he even asked his subordinates to buy food with money, and only bought a small amount of food at a time, so as not to attract the attention of the Yan people.

But after just these two times, troubles suddenly came one after another for no apparent reason. Local natives began to block them abnormally and even followed the knights who were buying grain in an attempt to locate them.

Although Lü Yan reacted quickly and gave up everything to travel east, he still inevitably fell into an endless situation of being hunted down. At first, they were just some local villagers, but soon a group of farmhands came to hunt them down, and they cooperated with the local villagers to chase and intercept them, causing them to lose several horses.

Along the way, Lu Yan had naturally given up his so-called vigilance. He killed anyone he met and robbed any village he came across. He only chose small villages with few people where he could rob supplies and leave. He also did not forget to kill everyone so as not to expose his tracks.

The results brought about by this were naturally extremely significant. Not only did they obtain abundant looted materials, but they also fully released the anger of the dozen or so people along the way. In addition, they also prevented the villagers from tipping off the villagers to a certain extent.

However, the pursuers from behind were actually very close, and Lu Yan couldn't understand why all the villages and towns along the way seemed to have already known the existence of their dozen riders. It was obvious that their speed was far superior to that of the pursuers, so how could the news spread so quickly?
Fortunately, in the end, they finally arrived at Lutai, sent people to kill several fishermen, and determined the location of a ship that could go out to sea.

However, because they forced the fishermen to death, their tracks were exposed at the last moment, and they were quickly caught up in the chaos. Fortunately, everything was just a matter of this last moment.

Lu Yan narrowed his eyes, completely ignoring the constant shouts and screams coming from behind him, because he had already seen a fishing port in the snow and fog. In the early morning waves, several ships were rising and falling on the beach.

In the distance is the sea that seems like the horizon.

He kept soothing his mount, which had begun to pant heavily, and whispered, "Faster, faster, there are only a few hundred steps left..."

At the same time, he looked around and saw that the other knights who had come out in several directions were also rushing towards that direction. Everyone was on high alert. This was a specially chosen time. The morning tide was enough to drive the ships to the sea without consuming manpower. When the ships were put to sea, they would really be like fish in water.

Beside them, the staff members who had become thinner and thinner in just a few days were now crying bitterly: "Oh God, I finally got through..."

Lu Yan narrowed his eyes.

They had been in danger almost every day these days. It seemed like they had no time to sleep. They spent almost all their time on horseback, and even changed their mounts twice. His buttocks were rubbed to the point of bleeding, and there were countless wounds of varying sizes on his body.

But fortunately, God did not destroy Lu Yan.

As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times. If Xiao Yan, a common man, can be a hero, why can't Lu be one?
Thinking of this, Lu Yan almost couldn't help but want to sing a song loudly. The depression he had been feeling for these days finally burst out at this moment.

However, before he could utter a word, when he was only about a hundred steps away from the fishing port, the rider following closely behind him suddenly let out a panicked scream, and then he and his horse fell heavily to the beach.

Lu Yan didn't even turn his head. He knew without even looking that his horse must have lost its strength and that was why he fell off.

He would not bother with that person. If he wanted to blame someone, he should just blame his bad luck for not being able to escape!
But immediately, his expression suddenly changed, and not only him, but also all the knights who broke in from nearby and even from afar, all changed their expressions.

A high whistle suddenly came from behind, accompanied by a strange laugh. Several arrows rustled in the air and suddenly, accurately and violently pierced into the mounts of several knights.

Lu Yan's scalp suddenly went numb, and he turned around to look, and saw several figures suddenly jumping out from among the pursuers who had long been left behind. They were wearing bamboo hats, face masks, and Tang swords.

Also, everyone has a riding bow.

They were the elite soldiers they had encountered in the Yan army camp. They were dressed almost exactly the same, but this group of people looked even more ferocious and elite than the ones they met that night!

The man in front of him was holding the reins with one hand, drawing the bow and reaching for the quiver beside him with the other. Seeing Lu Yan looking back, he also stared at him closely, and then his hands did not slow down at all, and he immediately pulled out a feather arrow from the quiver beside the saddle and put it on the bowstring.

He didn't know if it was an illusion, but Lu Yan seemed to be able to sense that the man's face behind the mask seemed to be grinning.

puff--

Without thinking, Lu Yan suddenly jumped to the side almost at the moment his mount was hit by the arrow, rolled over on the sand, drew the sword at his waist, stood up and ran forward.

Puff puff……

The sound of several arrows piercing flesh was heard, and several knights who were making their final sprint towards the harbor fell to the ground at the same time, and almost no one was spared.

"General Lu, General Lu!"

Behind him, his staff screamed: "Get on the horse! Get on the horse!"

Lu Yan turned his head in surprise, only to see that the aide's mount had not fallen down after being hit by an arrow. Now he was holding the horse's neck and running forward desperately.

With a glance, he saw the knights who had fallen to the ground. They knew they were going to die, so they howled and drew their swords to rush towards the men in bamboo hats who were chasing them.

He gritted his teeth, exerted all his strength, rushed forward a few steps, reached out and grabbed the hand extended by the aide, then stepped into the stirrup and jumped onto the horse.

At this moment, he could clearly feel the mount beneath him neighing.

Then, he heard several screams of death from behind him. He didn't even need to look to know that those knights who turned around to stop the man in the bamboo hat must have been killed without a doubt.

But at least, they managed to buy themselves a few seconds.

"General Lu, General Lu, you protect me. As long as the two of us return, any sacrifice will be worth it. You must protect me!"

The staff kept trembling and speaking. He had seen that Lü Yan had a lot of military power. Now that he was at the end of his rope, he naturally placed his last hope on Lü Yan. Otherwise, relying on his own ability, it would be impossible for him to go to sea alone and return to the Central Plains.

Unexpectedly, Lu Yan suddenly sneered.

After hearing this sneer, the staff member suddenly stiffened for no reason.

The next moment, Lu Yan suddenly grabbed the back of his neck.

The latter's face was full of ferocity at this moment. He then grabbed the aide's neck, roared suddenly, and lifted him up with great force, then threw him to the side without hesitation.

"Protect you? The seal and the document are all with me, how can I protect you? Now you finally said something useful. As long as I bring the document back, any sacrifice will be worth it!
Thank you for the gift of the horse!"

After saying this, he didn't even turn his head back, and stabbed the horse's belly hard with the spurs. After squeezing out the last bit of horsepower from the mount, he finally rushed through the last few dozen steps.

At the back, the aide who had been knocked unconscious by the fall was terrified to death. He was in so much pain that his eyes went black. He couldn't even speak, but he just burst into tears. Then, when he heard the sound of horse hooves chasing him from behind, he was so terrified that he fell to the ground pretending to be dead.

Afterwards, Gong Yangzuo frowned, but ignored the staff on the ground, leaned forward, and urged the horse to speed up.

Because in front of him, Lu Yan had used the last bit of horsepower to crash into the fishing port, and then when his mount fell, he rolled forward, crawled into a small boat on his hands and feet, and immediately took out a knife to cut all the ropes tied to the wooden stakes, and then gritted his teeth and began to pull out the anchor that sank under the water.

'puff. '

An arrow hit his shoulder heavily. It was Gong Yangzuo who drew his bow and shot an arrow again. However, as his mount was tossing up and down, the arrow went off target by more than an inch.

The anchor in Lu Yan's hand, which had almost been pulled onto the boat, suddenly fell down. He gritted his teeth desperately, ignoring the blood oozing from his shoulder, and roared. He clutched the chain in his hand, his eyes red, and suddenly lifted the anchor heavily.

Swah——

The waves were rolling, and the boat was sailing towards the sea in the blink of an eye.

Puff puff.

Amid the sound of horse hooves, several other bad guys who arrived later drew their bows at the same time, almost one arrow each, and all of them fell on Lu Yan without any target. The latter's body trembled and fell to the ground with a bang.

The waves rolled in and the boat was instantly swept into the sea and drifted outward.

Gong Yangzuo took off his lower armor and looked a little gloomy.

In the harbor, several other ships had their ropes cut and were now unrestrained by the rolling sea water, and they collided with each other with a loud bang.

The bad guys next to him fell silent.

The ram left spat.

"I'm going to find a boat. I'm going to take this guy's head!"

(End of this chapter)