On the third watch, Zhang Shun, who was asleep, was suddenly awakened by the sound of killing in the distance. When he got up and looked outside, he saw that the sky in the west, which should have been dark, was dyed red by the firelight, which made him quickly calm down from his confusion, and he hurried out of the house without even thinking about getting dressed.

At the same time, other people in the village also ran out, staring at the west with surprised and uneasy eyes, and the discussion continued, Zhang Heng also ran out with a knife on his bare back, and while shouting loudly to let his brothers strictly guard their posts, he came to Zhang Shun: "Brother, is there something wrong with the Ruan family brothers?" ”

Zhang Shun looked solemn, stared at the fire in front of him and nodded: "Probably that's the case, it should be that the official army launched a surprise attack on Xizhai, and it also used fire to attack!" ”

"They are really bold, they actually dare to attack us from the waterway, with the skills of the three brothers of the Ruan family, it should be more than enough to deal with them, right?" Zhang Heng was actually a little worried in his heart, just to seek comfort from his brother.

But Zhang Shun failed to let him get his wish, and shook his head after groaning: "It's hard to say, you and I have already learned Sun Tu's skills." On that day in Jiangzhou, he was able to lead a group of township soldiers who did not have much combat power to exterminate the gang of fierce Jiao, and today his soldiers are strong and strong, and the threat to us is naturally greater. What's more, we are completely unprepared, and Xizhai is not optimistic. ”

Zhang Heng's face changed, and he said urgently: "Then how about we send troops to support?" ”

"It's not proper, who knows if this is their conspiracy, we don't know the situation in Xizhai, the best thing to do is to strictly guard the village and not give them any opportunity to take advantage of." Zhang Shunke was much more stable than his brother, and immediately stopped, after all, their duty was to guard the Beizhai where their house was located.

Although Zhang Heng also agreed with his brother's opinion, he was still vague in his heart: "If Xizhai is really broken, the consequences are not easy to say...... Do you have to wait for the brothers in the cottage to come down to the rescue? ”

Before Zhang Shun could come up with a countermeasure, there was a shout from the brothers in front of him: "A small boat is coming...... It's a brother in our cottage......"

When the Zhang brothers heard the news and rushed to check, a small boat had come to the front, and two men dressed as minions had stumbled out of the water, shouting as they walked: "Leader Zhang, save our Xizhai, the official army is setting fire to the village, we will not be able to resist......"

"What do you say? How could Xizhai not be able to resist? What are the Ruan brothers doing? Zhang Heng was so anxious that he grabbed one of them and asked loudly. Zhang Shun, on the other hand, was more gentle, and also stared at one person and asked, "What went wrong?" ”

"That officer and army were too cunning, and they secretly approached our Xizhai at night, and then suddenly released rockets and set fire to the outer wall of our village. The three leaders quickly took their brothers out of the village to meet the enemy after they realized that something was wrong, and they didn't want the officers and soldiers to be prepared, so they arranged for archers to ambush them, and actually shot and wounded the second brother and the seventh brother, and only the fifth brother returned to the village with the big guys. The brothers suffered heavy casualties, and they were about to be unable to support themselves, so we risked our lives to go out of the village to ask for help. Two leaders, our Xizhai can't hold on for long, please send troops to rescue quickly. As he spoke, he knelt down and kowtowed.

was held up by Zhang Shun: "There is no need to be like this, our brothers should help each other." But let me ask you, have you spotted any other ships along the way? ”

"No...... After breaking out of the encirclement of the official army, we did not encounter any obstacles all the way, they should have concentrated their forces in our Xizhai, and it was impossible to arrange troops and horses to intercept them elsewhere. ”

"That's good." Zhang Heng immediately rushed to say: "Brother, we will send people to the rescue, if it is too late, we really can't save people." ”

Zhang Shun still had some doubts in his heart, but looking at the embarrassed appearance of the two people in front of him covered in fireworks and blood, as well as the eager reactions of the brothers around him, he finally put this concern aside: "Okay, let's send troops to rescue." However, Beizhai still needs someone to guard it, so you will take three hundred brothers here, and I will take other brothers to rescue Xizhai. ”

Although Zhang Heng was also anxious to rescue Xizhai, he also knew that what his brother said was reasonable, so he nodded and said: "Okay, you must be careful, these officers and soldiers are much more cunning than their previous opponents, don't fall for their tricks." ”

"Brother, don't worry." As Zhang Shun spoke, he quickly ordered 300 men and horses, divided into more than 20 large and small ships, and quickly left Hokusai under the leadership of two help-seekers, heading straight for the direction of Xizhai.

There is a way to save people such as fighting fire, now Xizhai is both attacked and fired, they naturally dare not delay, even if there is no wind on the lake tonight, and not downstream, more than 20 ships are still moving fast, only half an hour, has been driven out more than ten miles, the journey has been more than half.

Just when everyone was ready to fight head-on with the official army and rescue the Xizhai brothers, Zhang Shun, who was standing on the bow of the main ship, suddenly moved his heart and thought of a key question: "The time is not right." It's only halfway through the third watch now, how could they come to my Beizhai for help so quickly? ”

Because according to common sense, if the official army wants to attack Xizhai in a cover-up manner, it must set off after dark. And it took more than half an hour to get from the shore of the official and military cantonment boats to Xizhai, and coupled with the details of the intermediate arrangement, it was impossible to start a battle in less than two watches.

Then with the combat power of the brothers of Xizhai and the Ruan family, even if they encounter a sneak attack, they are a little out of proportion, and they can support it for a while, so they will have to wait for someone to ask for help. But now, these two people actually appeared in front of their own village just after the third watch, unless they flew over, there was no possibility of such a speed.

There is not much flaw in this, coupled with the urgency of the military situation, Zhang Shun and the others have not seen the problem before, until now, he did not notice the difference, and immediately paid attention, turned his head and shouted at the two people on the small boat not far away: "You two come and talk, I still have something to ask you." As he said this, he had secretly made a gesture to his brothers in the boat to prepare for them to come close to him and take them.

The two hurriedly agreed, and they were about to row over. But just when everyone was ready, the two of them suddenly got up, jumped into the water after two plops, and directly abandoned the boat and left. At first, everyone was stunned, but then, Zhang Shun quickly understood, and shouted: "We have been tricked, they are not brothers of Xizhai, they are people from the official army!" Be careful, everybody......"

It's just that this reminder was too late, because before his words fell, in the darkness on the side, there was a sudden sound of bowstrings, and then dozens of sharp arrows flew through the air, directly catching the minions who had not yet made a clear decision, and in the screams, many people had fallen into the water one after another.

At the same time, with the sound of several gongs, there were ships outflanking at the same time, and at the sound of the bowstring, arrows rained down on the ships of Zhang Shun and others.

On this unobstructed lake, suddenly encountering such an encirclement and sneak attack, this is really a catastrophe for the water army brothers. Some raised rudimentary shields, some brandished weapons, and some chose to jump into the water...... But under the heavy and powerful arrows of such intensity, the struggle of these men was evidently futile, and except for those who jumped into the water, those who remained in the boat fell in large swaths like wheat that had been cut down.

Although Zhang Shun has excellent water skills, he can only protect himself at this time, and he is powerless to save people and fight back, so he can only jump into the water in anger to avoid the rain of arrows that converge above the ships. With only one face, the sailors of Liangshan Beizhai did not even see the enemy's face clearly, and they did not even know how many men and horses and ships they had dispatched, so they were defeated and suffered heavy casualties.

Zhang Shun regretted in his heart, if he had realized that this was a conspiracy earlier, he would not have caused such a tragedy. At the same time, he had a warning in his heart, maybe his own Beizhai was the key target of the official army's attack! Suddenly, he didn't care about revenge and saving people or anything, so he quickly turned around underwater and swam quickly in the direction of Hokusai, he had to hurry back to remind his brother that it was necessary to take precautions.

But as a result, he had just swam a certain distance and was about to surface for ventilation, when several black shadows flashed in front of him, blocking his way - the other party actually counted this and sent someone to guard the water early in the morning!

However, Zhang Shun is not afraid, his reputation as a white strip in the waves is not obtained for nothing, at the beginning in the Jiangzhou area, no one in the Yangtze River could fight with him in the water. Seeing that the enemy was in his way, he quickly leaned over and tried to kill him.

But before he could pounce in front of the other party, the man suddenly showed a strange weapon, looking like a bow and not a bow, a crossbow and not a crossbow, more than half a human length, and an arrow with a flickering cold light in front of him!

"What is this? Is it possible to use a bow and crossbow underwater? Zhang Shun didn't believe that there was such a thing in the world, and with a kick of his foot, his body was already rushing forward like a swimming fish, and then he saw that the weapon shook suddenly, and the thick arrow in front of him really broke through the water wave and flew away, and the speed was not much slower than on the water, and he could even hear a sharp snort in his ears......

This time was too unexpected for him, and the arrow came too fast, Zhang Shun only had time to move his body to the side, avoiding the face door and the key point in his heart, but his right shoulder was still shot by an "arrow". The force of this "arrow" was so great that it directly shot him horizontally and crashed backwards.

The severe pain then made Zhang Shun couldn't help but open his mouth to cry out in pain, but before the scream came out, a large mouthful of lake water had been poured into his mouth, making his eyes even darker, and he almost fainted......