Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 26 Drumming the March
Nine feet went to the Taihang Mountains.

Liu Bei sent him with several wooden plaques as gifts.

Those wooden signs were carried by Jiu Chi and the others, but they were all covered with other people's names.

This was prepared by the officials of Zhuojun for Liu Bei's entourage before he set off. However, Jiu Chi and his group were escaped prisoners who had not registered their residences at all. Therefore, Liu Bei reported the names of the Taiping Dao disciples who were reclaiming wasteland at Shiliting.

Liu Bei was going to Luoyang to report his military achievements, so he naturally needed to have retainers and attendants with him.

However, Liu Bei wanted to bring Jiu Chi and others with him, and the customs office had strict requirements. They had to be registered citizens, and it was not allowed to just give false names.

Those Taiping Dao disciples had settled down in the county and were indeed farming on Liu Bei's land, which was more in line with the identity of Liu Bei's retainers, so their names were used to replace them.

Anyway, there are no photos of this thing.

These places were of no concern to Jiu Chi and the others. Liu Bei could easily provide them with a bunch of them whenever he wanted, since the disciples of the Way of Peace had no use for them anyway.

But for the bandits of Taihang Mountain, these passes were a great gift.

This is a pass issued by the prefecture for travel from Zhuojun to Luoyang, and the reason for the journey is listed as 'escort first'—it's a military pass...

In other words, possessing these post stations meant unrestricted travel throughout the area north of the Yellow River, and those with a thick skin could even request local official post stations to provide some conveniences.

……

When Liu Bei returned to the ferry with the remaining eight men, it was already evening.

Gongsun Zan has not yet returned, but most of his followers and servants have.

The righteous men searched downstream of the Zi River, but they couldn't find a boat downstream.

Then we'll just have to salvage and repair those sunken ships upstream; that's better than building new rafts.

Having already wasted a whole day, Gongsun Zan's followers discussed with Liu Bei their plan to start work that very night, rather than lingering there and increasing the danger.

The loyal followers also saw the desolate landscape of the area and planned to take all the servants there to repair the ship, hoping to set off as soon as Gongsun Zan returned the next day.

With Gongsun Zan's men doing the work, Liu Bei didn't need to do the rough work of salvaging the sunken ship. The volunteers asked Liu Bei to stay where he was to guard the supplies and wait for news from Gongsun Zan.

If Gongsun Zan doesn't return tomorrow, Liu Bei plans to swim across the river himself first—the boat is needed for the large amount of supplies that Gongsun Zan brought, while Liu Bei himself is fine traveling light and can swim across even without a boat.

However, most of his bandits were former bandits from the northern border and were basically all landlubbers, so it was best not to travel alone unless absolutely necessary.

Gongsun Zan's men went upstream, and Liu Bei moved the horses and other belongings to the ferry dock for safekeeping so they could board the ship the next day.

I'll also take care of settling a few young ladies in.

These were the musicians recruited by Gongsun Zan.

These artists are all very young, mostly sixteen or seventeen years old, and quite good-looking, after all, they were chosen to be presented as a tribute.

They were all registered as musicians, meaning they were hereditary musicians.

The status of musicians was relatively low. Although they were not slaves, they were not considered law-abiding citizens either, and were similar to criminals with prior convictions.

Most of the musicians were originally convicted of crimes and forced into this profession. They were considered relatives of criminals and were easily discriminated against and bullied.

However, Liu Bei himself was a criminal with a criminal record, and he also had experience working in the music hall, so he got along well with these musicians.

It was getting late, so Liu Bei settled them in a large house near the ferry where supplies were stored. He also moved into the house next to the musicians to keep an eye on the horses behind the house.

The eight bandits under his command lived in the place where they had previously encamped, about a hundred paces away from the ferry, guarding Gongsun Zan's sentries and flags.

In truth, Liu Bei had no intention of having any romantic relationship with the musicians; he simply wanted to prevent any accidents from happening between his subordinates and the musicians.

But unexpectedly, the accident still happened.

In the early hours of the morning, Liu Bei woke up from his sleep.

He had a feeling that the place was dangerous, so he was not sleeping soundly. He vaguely heard some noise, so he picked up his sword and went out to see what was going on.

As soon as I peeked out, I felt something coming towards me.

Liu Bei reacted quickly, ducking his head, but then heard a thud as an arrow stuck in the doorway before falling loosely to the ground. The arrow had a shallow strike, probably launched from a distance without deliberate aim, but it still gave Liu Bei quite a fright.

"Enemy attack!"

Liu Bei quickly shouted, and at the same time, he shrank down and rolled on the spot, rolling behind a pile of hay outside the door.

The camp sentry post was manned at night, but no alarm was even sent out?
If Jiu Chi were here, he certainly wouldn't be ambushed. Although Jiu Chi's ears are small, they are much more sensitive than mine...

As Liu Bei pondered this, he peeked out again from behind the haystack, his heart sinking.

Dozens of dark figures were slowly approaching, and were now positioned between the sentry post and the house where Liu Bei was located, in the area of ​​empty houses, separating Liu Bei from his men.

They also saw Liu Bei, and two or three arrows were shot toward the haystack, but they didn't even hit the haystack; they must have just shot because they heard the sound.

But this does not mean that the enemy is weak; on the contrary, it means that the enemy is elite!
It was still dark, and there was fog by the river. Liu Bei could only see shadowy figures, and the other party probably couldn't see them either.

New recruits will attempt to aim when they can't see their opponents clearly, but well-trained troops won't care whether they can kill the enemy. In such an environment, they should quickly suppress the enemy with arrows.

"Enemy attack!!"

Liu Bei roared again.

"Enemy attack!!"

His men responded, but they were about a hundred paces away from Liu Bei and were blocked on the opposite side, so they could only respond from afar and could not join Liu Bei.

The musicians in the next room opened the door a crack, but they didn't make a sound because Liu Bei was not far from the door.

Liu Bei's voice attracted several more arrows, and the same was true for the others who spoke.

The enemy probably thought there were more people making noise on the other side, so most of them turned and headed towards the sentry post.

Liu Bei remained silent, simply huddling tightly behind the haystack.

"Go in and search..."

The enemy outside didn't make much noise either; you could only vaguely hear someone giving orders.

There were no shouts of battle, only the sound of footsteps.

The footsteps weren't dense, suggesting there weren't many people around, and they weren't moving fast either. There were quite a few empty houses nearby, so the enemy obviously couldn't determine which houses were occupied and was cautiously searching forward.

Liu Bei gripped his sword tighter and glanced again at the flagpole at the camp sentry post.

The sentry posts were set up by Gongsun Zan's men yesterday. Zhuo Ling Gongsun's flag is still hanging on the flagpole. The enemy is very close to the sentry posts and can definitely see the flag.

Knowing full well that this was Gongsun Zan's camp, they still launched an attack, and at the most oppressive time of night...

Who are these enemies targeting?
But there was no time to think. Taking advantage of the fact that most of the enemies had turned around to check another direction, Liu Bei leaped back from the haystack to the base of the wall.

Using the shelter of the houses, they ducked and went into the house next door where the musicians lived.

The musicians covered their mouths, their eyes filled with panic, but they remained silent when Liu Bei rushed in. These girls from the music family had encountered a lot of trouble since childhood and had long since learned to keep quiet.

"Princess, bring out all the drums... Do you know how to play the drums?"

Liu Bei rummaged through the supplies piled up in the house and pulled out the gongs and drums of the musicians.

"meeting……"

Several musicians picked up their drums and looked timidly at Liu Bei: "Young master?"

"Do you know the war drums? Three strikes in one breath, marching drums!"

Liu Bei quickly gave the instructions.

Three strikes in one breath—this is the war drum for a rapid advance, used to order a charge.

(End of this chapter)