Traveling back to the Northern Song Dynasty: Picking up a princess as my wife

At this moment, the refugee army attacking Tangyin City surged in like a tidal wave, and in less than half an hour, Tangyin City was breached. Countless civilians and wealthy merchants fled out of the other city gates, unaware that the leader of the Zoroastrian Church had already laid an ambush, and their efforts were merely a futile waste of energy.

In the end, all their possessions will become the private property of the many leaders of Zoroastrianism.

Just as Tangyin City fell, Sun, the manager of the Sun Family Grain Store, drove a dilapidated horse-drawn carriage and carried the unconscious Magistrate Zhang Cheng onto the carriage.

At this moment, Zhang Cheng slowly woke up, opened his eyes and saw his wife. He said, "Wife, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, father-in-law. I failed to defend Tangyin City."

After saying that, she burst into tears, looking utterly hopeless.

Madam Zhang comforted him, saying, "My husband, as long as we're alive, we can always rebuild. What is a small city like Tangyin as long as we're still alive?"

Manager Sun, who was driving the carriage, turned around and said, "Old Zhang, let's go to Li Family Village to lay low for a while. As for the rest, we'll see how things go. As far as I know, not only Tangyin City, but the entire Daming Prefecture Road has been ravaged by these rioters. I brought my sister-in-law here in advance, so please don't take offense."

Manager Sun drove his dilapidated carriage along the way, encountering several groups of refugees. He was a shrewd man; he hung a Zoroastrian flag on the carriage, which deterred the refugee groups from harassing them rashly, since they were all on his side.

After many twists and turns, in the evening, Manager Sun finally arrived at the gate of Li Family Village in his horse-drawn carriage.

Upon seeing the guards of Li Family Village, Manager Sun jumped off the carriage and burst into tears, hugging one of the guards.

The guard was completely bewildered and asked, "Are you a relative of mine?"

Later, when Li Zhen learned that Manager Sun and his group had arrived at the mountain stronghold, he personally came out to greet them. Upon seeing Li Zhen, Manager Sun broke down in tears again: "Brother, my business, which I've worked so hard for over a decade, is just gone like this! I'm not reconciled!"

At this moment, Zhang Cheng, supported by his wife, also stepped down from the carriage. Looking at Li Zhen, whom he had not seen for a long time, he felt a surge of inexplicable tears welling up in his eyes.

To cover up his embarrassment, he wiped his eyes with his sleeve: "Brother Li, the sandstorm in your mountain village is so strong, it even got into my eyes."

Madam Zhang, being a straightforward woman from a military family, said directly, "Brother Li, your brother Zhang Cheng and I have nowhere else to go but to seek refuge here. We hope you can take us in. We will repay your kindness forever!"

Li Zhen smiled and said to them, "Brother and sister-in-law, it is my honor that you remember me at this time. Don't panic, it's just a Zoroastrian sect. Don't forget that your younger brother is from the Three Pure Ones sect. Do you think I'm afraid of these foreign monks?"

Just then, Wang Changdao reported: "Chief, several thousand more refugees have arrived from the foot of the mountain, and it seems that their equipment is better than last time."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhen laughed loudly: "What's there to be afraid of! If they come, we'll take them down! We'll let them know that Li Family Village is not to be trifled with."

After settling Zhang Cheng and Manager Sun's group, Li Zhen went to the stockade wall to check the enemy situation outside. He saw that countless simple tents and thatched huts had been set up at the foot of the mountain surrounding Li Family Village, and smoke was rising from dozens of large cooking pots, indicating a long-term siege of Li Family Village.

Li Zhen pulled Yue Peng aside and asked, "Yue Peng, do you dare to pull off a stunt tonight and let these refugees see the might of my Li Family Village?"

Yue Peng laughed and said, "With such excellent equipment, what are we afraid of? Let's take them on!"

As night fell, it seemed as if even the heavens were on Li Family Village's side, for the moon disappeared, making it even harder for these starving refugees to see clearly.

Due to the scarcity of resources in this era, most ordinary people suffered from night blindness, which was ultimately caused by a lack of salt and vitamins. However, the soldiers of Li Family Village had recovered from this problem after several months of nutritional supplementation, so Li Zhen decided to launch a surprise attack while the Zoroastrian Church was still establishing itself.

Li Zhen originally wanted to use a tractor, but considering that a tractor would be too noisy at night, it would be a loss if it caused an accident.

Although these refugee troops were hastily assembled, they were primarily Zoroastrian members and thus possessed some tactical skills. For instance, the sentry posts set up around the camp at night—regardless of whether they could be seen or not—were at least established.

After Yue Peng led several elite men to quietly eliminate the three sentry posts, the entire refugee camp was exposed to them like a naked girl.

"Pfft! Pfft!"

Two powerful crossbow bolts rang out, and the guards in the central command tent of the refugee army camp were felled. Yue Peng led more than a dozen men and rushed in.

At that moment, a leader of the Zoroastrian sect was discussing the length of life with three young girls when he was suddenly startled and lost his initial imposing demeanor.

"Who are you people? How dare you barge in?"

Yue Peng approached the naked gang leader with a cold smile: "You're the leader who attacked our stronghold this time, but your physical condition isn't that great."

"you!"

Yue Peng ordered in a low voice, "Tie him up and take him back."

Instantly, the dozen or so elite soldiers pounced on the three girls dressed in thin veils. Yue Peng was a little agitated when he saw this, and he said in a low voice, "I'm talking about this leader of the Fire Worship Cult!"

The leader said somewhat awkwardly, "Captain, we misunderstood you. We thought you were interested in these three girls, so..."

Yue Peng: "Get lost, get down to business. This is enemy camp, we can't afford any mistakes."

"Then these three..."

Yue Peng glanced at it and said, "As usual, we can't reveal our whereabouts."

Several subordinates swiftly and decisively dealt with the three women, their ruthless methods instantly impressing the Zoroastrian leader.

"Well, we're all from the underworld, I know the rules. Spare my life and I'll do whatever you ask."

Although the other party was so cooperative, for safety's sake, Yue Peng still used ropes to tie him up securely. Then he retreated towards the outside of the camp. At this time, fires broke out in several directions in the refugee camp, causing the refugee soldiers who were resting to start cursing and scrambling to put out the fires.

After struggling for most of the night, they finally realized something was wrong at dawn: their boss was missing!

So the entire refugee camp started to get busy again. After several senior professionals analyzed the situation, they came to the conclusion that their leader had been kidnapped in the chaos last night.