I am Emperor Shizu of Song

Chapter 22 Kill Zhang Heng first and then surround Li Jun

As Shi Sheng and Deng Yue fell into the water together, Zhao Zi said that he had thought that the battle would soon be over.

The pirates who boarded the ship with Shi Sheng were quickly killed by Zhao Zicheng and the servants of the Murong family.

Zhao Zi said that he had killed two thieves again and gained a lot of practical experience. He became more decisive than before and was better able to seize opportunities in battle. He no longer hesitated.

However, what was unexpected was that even at this time, there were still local pirates with a strong gambling nature who insisted on going against the trend because of greed.

Zhao Zicheng saw another boat approaching from a distance. He did not hesitate to order the Murong servants to throw kerosene cans and shoot arrows with all their strength.

Soon, several fires broke out on the enemy's boats, and several pirates were shot by arrows and fell into the water.

However, the flames could not sink a ship immediately. This time was enough for the enemy to board the ship. Soon, a fierce and strong man in the lead, and several other thieves jumped onto Zhao Zicheng's ship again.

The leader held a round rattan shield in his left hand and a wind-splashing knife in his right hand, his posture was quite serious.

Although his upper body was naked and without armor, the shield covered him very cleverly and blocked several arrows for him just now, so he did not die before he could even reach the boarding ship.

"Shi Sheng is already dead, and you little thieves are still looking for death?"

Zhao Zicheng also didn't want to fight with others directly. A son of a wealthy family would not sit idly by. Before the fight, he could use words to shake the opponent's mind and morale, so why not do it.

The thief sneered, "What's it to me if Shi Sheng dies? It's just one less person to share the gold and silver with. I'll take a smack from you!"

After saying that, the man jumped forward, held the big shield in front of him and charged forward with all his might, blocking the enemy's vision at the same time.

The other hand's Pofeng board knife was hidden behind his back, but he was the first to arrive and chopped up from below at an angle.

The fight was not a one-on-one duel. When the enemy rushed up, Zhao Zicheng also had two Murong servants on his side, waving their weapons to fight back.

But the man's move was insidious, and the angle of his sword was unexpected, and his movement was blocked by the shield. One of Murong's servants was caught off guard and was immediately chopped on the thigh, falling to the ground.

Zhao Zicheng was slightly startled. If the servant had not tested the opponent's strength first, he would have been ambushed due to his lack of experience in the martial arts world, even though he had practiced martial arts for a month.

Now that the opponent has revealed his killer move, Zhao Zicheng has become wary. He has roughly seen the opponent's strength and is no longer so nervous.

Moreover, Zhao Zicheng accidentally caught a detail from the other party's shouting just now, which made him a little surprised.

The other party has a habit of saying "bandao noodles", a word that is so familiar. Anyone who has read Water Margin knows that when Song Jiang was sent to Jiangzhou as a soldier, he was treated to bandao noodles on the way.

Zhao Zicheng subconsciously called out, "Zhang Heng, the boatman?"

The thief was slightly startled when he heard this. He had never expected his identity to be discovered. His men couldn't help but slow down a bit: "You actually know my grandfather's name?"

It really is Zhang Heng! I didn't expect this thief to appear on the Yangtze River between Yangzhou and Zhencheng. Shouldn't he be hanging around in Anhui?

However, Zhao Zicheng was not slow to act despite his thoughts. He took advantage of the moment when Zhang Heng was distracted and asked a question, and decisively stabbed out with his sword.

Zhang Heng's martial arts skills were only average among the later Liangshan bandits. However, he was a good swimmer, and since his brother, Zhang Shun, was considered the best swimmer in Liangshan, the older brother couldn't be ranked lower than his younger brother.

In the end, the Zhang brothers and the three Ruan brothers together took up the places after the 25th and before the 30th place in the Tiangang.

With Zhang Heng's martial arts skills, if he concentrates and is on guard, he can still stop Zhao Zicheng, who has only learned sword for a month.

But he was in the moment of surprise when his identity was exposed, and his brain was unable to react. By the time he reacted, the sword was already approaching him.

Zhang Heng instinctively dodged to the side, but Zhao Zicheng still slashed his thigh with his sword. Fortunately, his upper body was protected by a shield, so Zhao Zicheng couldn't attack his upper body in such a hurry, so he could only swing his sword from the side and stab his leg.

A half-foot-long cut, more than an inch deep, was left on one of Zhang Heng's legs. Blood immediately gushed out, and his ability to move was instantly greatly reduced.

"Despicable dog!" Zhang Heng was aroused to his ferocity and went completely mad, rushing towards Zhao Zicheng with great force.

Unexpectedly, after being injured, the thief became even more desperate. Zhao Zicheng quickly jumped back, not wanting to fight him to death. At that moment, he just used the introductory sword skills that Duan Yuyan had taught him in the past month, carefully guarding the gate and repeatedly deflecting the opponent's weapons.

Although Zhang Heng's moves were brutal, one of his legs was seriously injured, making it very difficult for him to give chase.

Murong Yan, who was standing by, thought that Zhao Zicheng was in danger, and regardless of her own safety, she quickly joined the battle with her sword drawn, blocking Zhang Heng's wind-poking sword, and trying her best to swing her sleeves to wrap around it, trying to push away Zhang Heng's blade.

Zhang Heng had never seen such a strange move before. He felt dizzy and the machete in his hand was almost turned back by the powerful force.

In a hurry, Zhang Heng could only throw away the rattan shield in his left hand and use both hands to hold the blade firmly to avoid hurting himself.

But in a war, the enemy would not give him the chance to adjust.

Seeing Murong Yan's move, neutralizing Zhang Heng's two powerful blows, Zhao Zicheng quickly leaped forward in unison. Seizing the moment Zhang Heng dropped his shield, he launched a direct strike through the center of his body, his sword slashing like a dragon, piercing Zhang Heng's chest and abdomen. Zhang Heng let out a fierce howl, already pierced twice by the sword. He swung his sword down with all his might, hoping to eliminate one of his victims before he died.

Zhao Zicheng wanted to draw his sword to block, but found that the blade was stuck too deep and was stuck in the enemy's muscles and bones. He almost broke out in a cold sweat for a moment.

Fortunately, he reacted quickly, dropping his sword and leaping back. Murong Yan also assisted from the side, blocking Zhang Heng's fatal blow while pulling Zhao Zicheng's belt back at his waist, allowing Zhao Zicheng to retreat safely out of the attack range.

Zhang Heng's dying blow finally struck the deck fiercely, sending up countless wood chips. He tried to pull the knife from the cracks between the planks, but all the strength seemed to have drained from his body. He twitched a few times before falling to his knees.

Zhao Zi was afraid that the other party was faking it and was not dead yet, so he took the sword from Murong Yan's hand, took a stance, and walked around behind Zhang Heng with alertness. With a quick, accurate and ruthless sword move, he cut off his head. Only then did he completely relax and pulled his sword back from the headless corpse.

The remaining local bandits in the Yangtze River were horrified to see that Zhang Heng, who was quite prestigious and famous among them, was killed by a weak scholar in the government army. Their morale collapsed and they finally began to consider their retreat.

……

"Brother Zhang!"

On another ship in the distance, Li Jun, who had originally advocated retreat, saw loud shouting from the official ship behind him, and then the officers and soldiers began to clamor for pursuit. He knew that Zhang Heng was definitely in danger.

After all, they had hung out together before and had some sense of brotherhood. Just now, Zhang Heng wanted to go up, so it was not convenient for him to retreat alone.

But now Zhang Heng had indeed been annihilated by a powerful enemy, and the other bandits around him were completely panicked. They all asked Li Jun, the leader of the group, "Brother Li, what should we do now? I'm afraid all the gang leaders are dead!"

Li Jun gritted his teeth and said, "Retreat! It's not that I, Li Jun, am disloyal. We've all been deceived by Shi Sheng of the Haisha Gang! This group of people must have a personal vendetta against the Haisha Gang, or even the Zoroastrianism. We originally wanted to seek wealth, but we've been dragged into this vendetta for nothing! The soldiers must have planned and ambushed us long ago!"

Many of the thieves were originally selling illegal salt, and some were even selling vegetables. How strong could their willpower be? As soon as Li Jun gave the order, the remaining thieves immediately chose their own paths and fled.

Zhao Zicheng and Yang Zhi were busy cleaning up the battlefield, especially rescuing their comrades who fell into the water, so they had no time to give chase.

In particular, Zhao Zicheng and Murong Yan first searched carefully and rescued Deng Yue who had fallen into the water. They also found Shi Sheng who was floating in the river and was seriously injured.

Zhao Zicheng personally drew his bow and shot several arrows at Shi Sheng who was unable to resist in the water.

When Shi Sheng heard the sound of wind breaking behind his head, he instinctively dived to avoid it.

But on the Yangtze River, others were on boats and he was in the water, and they were shooting at him at close range. How long could he hide?
So in the end, just like shooting at a swimming enemy in the chicken game, Zhao Zicheng shot five or six arrows for actual practice, and one of the arrows finally hit the back of Shi Sheng's head when he floated up to breathe.

Then they rowed the boat over and used a caltrop fishing net to rescue Shisheng, who was seriously injured and about to sink into the river.

Shi Sheng had an arrow stuck in the back of his head and had already completely unconscious, but Zhao Zicheng did not slack off at all. He still carefully cut the tendons of his hands and feet, and then had someone tie him up with thick hemp ropes.

In today's battle, Zhao Zicheng killed Zhang Heng and shot Shi Sheng to death, which was indeed a great achievement.

Yang Zhi should have killed the Wuxing giant thief Lu Xing'er, which was also a great achievement.

"Brother Zhao, do you want to chase the remaining bandits? They are escaping upstream!" After tying up Shi Sheng, whose life or death was unknown, Murong Yan asked excitedly.

Zhao Zicheng thought about it and felt that there were valuable cargoes on his ship, so he should not risk chasing them. Moreover, his own ships were heavy and slow, so it would be difficult to catch up.

However, this group of thieves suffered a great loss and their own strength was exposed. I don’t know whether the thieves will gather forces again to take revenge in the future.

While he was struggling, Zhao Zicheng suddenly saw blood seeping from Murong Yan's sleeves and was startled: "Brother... is he injured?"

Only then did Murong Yan realize that she was probably too nervous and excited just now and didn't feel any pain.

Now that she thought about it, it must have been when she blocked Zhang Heng's dying full-strength sword attack that the deflected blade still cut her arm.

Murong Yan said ashamedly, "It's nothing serious. It must have been the last blow from that villain. It was just a flesh wound, but I didn't even feel any pain just now. Sigh, I'm still not good enough in martial arts. I couldn't even completely block such a blow and return it to him."

"Don't say that. Let's not chase him. Let's quickly land on the north shore and seek treatment from a famous doctor."

Zhao Zi said that he was taking advantage of the situation and gave up the pursuit with this excuse.

"There's no need to miss out on big things because of a minor injury." Murong Yan wanted to argue, but she couldn't persuade Zhao Zicheng, so she had to give in.

However, Zhao Zicheng had not sailed the boat out for long when a new incident suddenly occurred on the river.

The pirate boats that had just been fleeing upstream in a hurry soon turned back and rushed downstream.

Zhao Zicheng, Murong Yan and Deng Yue could hardly believe their eyes.

(End of this chapter)