A valley a hundred miles away from Ji County, Youzhou’s capital, is called Red Stone Valley. There are crimson giant rocks stacked everywhere, hence the name.

A curved mountain path is winding and twists and turns in front of the Red Stone Valley. The mountain paths are lined with strong maple trees. It was early winter, and the bright red maple leaves on the maple trees no longer exist, but have turned into a dark red with a little yellowish yellow. The ground is intertwined with the stones near the Red Stone Valley, giving people a mysterious feeling.

At this moment, bright eyes spread out, shining on the entire valley. Two ragged men could not feel the warmth of the sun. They stood behind a huge rock near the mouth of the Red Stone Valley, avoiding the north wind of early winter.

"Niuwa, why are we so unlucky? We have to drink the northwest wind in this valley." One of the big men said to Ling Yi.

The man called Niuwa shivered and tightened his collar that was leaking everywhere, then said, "What's so strange about this? The leader is afraid that the official army will come over. Besides, we are not going to stand guard every day, so what's there to complain about."

The man who spoke before also imitated Niu Wa, pulled his collar tightly, and then asked, "Official army? Where did the official army come from? In this world, no one in the army can get military pay, otherwise who would be a bandit in this ghost place?"

Niu Wa was silent for a while and said, "Yes, our leader was an official army before, and he led the big guys to stay in this valley and worry about food every day. If there is food and field, I wouldn't be a bandit." Looking back, he ignored him, but looked ahead in shock, stretched out his hand and pushed the big man: "What are you looking at?" He looked at the big man's eyes as he said.

It doesn't matter when Niu Wa saw dozens of cavalry officers approaching quickly in his direction. What shocked him the most was that these officers were all wearing exquisite willow-leaf iron armor and holding bright steel knives! Niu Wa and others were originally farmers, but at the end of their way, they followed a group of retreating from the front line to occupy the mountain and become king in Hongshi Valley. How could they have seen this formation? Even their leader, the man who claimed to be a general, did not have such excellent armor and weapons at the beginning!

Niu Wa came to her senses, pulled the big man who was still in a daze, and shouted loudly: "Run quickly! Go back to the valley to report the message to the leader!" The big man then realized, and the two ran into the valley.

The elite team that came was the vanguard led by Ao Lie. The war horses trampled on the earth at the entrance of the valley, causing a tremor. Seeing that there was about a hundred steps away from the entrance of the valley, Ao Lie raised his spear and shouted: "Stop moving forward! Build a crossbow!" Following Ao Lie's dozens of elite cavalry, they tied the reins in a uniform manner, formed a geese wing formation, and then raised the crossbow on their right hand.

Ao Lie didn't wait long, and soon, a strong man wearing a lieutenant's armor ran out of the valley. After him, there were more than a hundred bandits. These bandits were carrying various weapons, some were swords and guns issued by the court, some were homemade spears, and some even had rakes, pickaxes and other farm tools used to cultivate the land. Looking at their armor, a small number of people were wearing the standard armor of county soldiers, but they were also uneven. It is not difficult to find that their armor was distributed by at least four or five different counties. Most of them didn't even have armor, and they ran out in ordinary clothes and jackets, and many were even ragged clothes.

The man dressed in the captain shouted, "Who are you? What are you doing in our valley?" According to the original plan, Ao Lie wanted to greet them with a crossbow first, but looking at the bandits in front of him, Ao Lie changed his mind and said loudly: "I am General Weiyuan, the subordinate of Youzhou Gong Gong, General Liu. You are gathering here to harm the people, why not surrender early?" The strong man in the lead said disdainfully: "Even with your dozens of people, you dare to come to Tai Sui to get to the head of the Tai Sui? When I was fighting, you kid was wearing open-crotch pants. Brothers, come on!"

With the order of the strong man, hundreds of bandits behind him rushed out of the valley in a swarm. Seeing this, Ao Lie sighed and waved his hand to make a slash. The elite cavalry behind Ao Lie saw Ao Lie's gesture and immediately pulled the trigger and spilled the crossbow arrows on the crossbow towards the bandits who were coming.

Suddenly, the entrance of the valley turned into a hell on earth. The bandits without armored bodies screamed and were shot to the ground. In a moment, blood spread throughout the mountain path. Seeing that their brothers were shot over, the strong man in charge hurriedly said to a bandit beside him: "Go to the valley, call out all the brothers, and have a thrill of ideas!" The bandit took the order and left.

After Ao Lie's elites shot in a row, more than 100 bandits killed had already gone 600% of them. The strong bandit leader's face twitched, and then he showed a series of fierce looks: "If you don't leave a way out for us, no one will survive!" After that, he raised his sword in his hand, led the rest of the bandits and headed straight for Ao Lie.

Ao Lie gave an order calmly: "Colle the crossbow and set up the formation!" It's not that Ao Lie is not as good as continuing to use a hand crossbow to clean the bandit gate. He is really not willing to have enough energy. The hand crossbow in the Eastern Han Dynasty had a strong deterrent power in this cold weapon era, which is that it also has its flaws. It is that after a single strike is issued, it takes some time to refille the crossbow arrows before it can continue to be launched. Of course, if it is an infantryman, and it is an established infantry, the hand crossbow is still very lethal, but now the elites under Ao Lie are all cavalry. Although they can also be used for infantry battles after learning the blood-killing sword technique taught by Ao Lie, what should we do if the war horses are? You must know that in this era, war horses are also extremely scarce military equipment, so Ao Lie has no reason to give up the speed of war horses and fight an infantry battle with a group of bandits.

Seeing the bandit leader bravely coming to him, Ao Lie raised the spear in his hand and shouted, "Crash!" Then he took the lead in urging Zhao Yexue to rush out. Dozens of elite cavalry followed closely behind Ao Lie and showed the steel knife in his hand that had not yet been drunk with blood to the bandit gate!

Puchi! Ao Lie's spear pierced through the shoulder of a bandit, then swung the spear, threw the injured bandit aside, and then killed the next target. A group of bandits rose up Yu Yong, trying hard to cause harm to Ao Lie and others. However, none of them achieved the goal. The elites under Ao Lie were already quite elite, and after this period of rigorous training, they practiced the blood-killing sword technique, which was even more wings. Facing the rammed bandits, these elites formed a group of six people in a small six formation. Some raised their swords to block the bandits' weapons, and some slashed out the steel swords and slashed the bandits. Those who stood in the back row, and those who could not cut the enemy could instigate the war horses and kicked the enemy with their horse's hooves. The small six formations were in the rotation, and they had a basis for advancing and retreating, like a millstone, crushing the bandits heavily.

The strong bandit leader was also shocked at this moment. No matter what, the bandit leader was also an officer of the Han Dynasty. He had been on the battlefield and had seen bloody men, but he had never seen such an elite soldier? What was even more shocking was that his big sword had chopped the opponent's cavalry several times. Apart from splashing a spark, causing the horse's knight to shake his body twice, he did not receive any effect. There is no doubt that the willow-leaf iron armor on these knights made great contributions, and they were not able to cut through the weapons in their hands.

The bandit leader looked around the battlefield and finally fixed his eyes on Ao Lie. Ao Lie is the chief general of these official troops. He is not wearing iron armor, but just ordinary robes. So the bandit leader mistakenly thought that he could capture Ao Lie first, and then take Ao Lie as a hostage to force this elite force to retreat.

Under such consideration, the bandit leader shouted and rushed towards Ao Lie. Ao Lie had stabbed more than a dozen bandits in succession, but he did not kill him. After all, a group of mobs was not worthy of his own killing. Seeing the bandit leader raise his sword and slashing at him, Ao Lie used a little force, and the spear in his hand moved forward, colliding with the bandit leader's sword. Although the bandit leader was brave, he was not Ao Lie's opponent? The big knife held in his hand was lifted away by Ao Lie and was swung away. He didn't know where to fall. Ao Lie then waved the spear, turned the tip of the spear, and smashed it hard on the shoulder of the bandit leader with the gun. The bandit leader screamed, and was directly smashed to the ground by Ao Lie's huge force and could not stand up.

At this moment, a shout of killing came from the valley. Zhang Liao led his troops to take a small path from the valley behind and rushed into the valley. A group of unprepared bandits were immediately killed by Zhang Liao and cried and called for their parents, and they were defeated.

After the war in Gukou was completely resolved, Zhang Liao also led his troops out of the valley and came to Gukou to meet with Ao Lie. Then, Xun Yu and Tianchou, who were watching the battle in the distance, also rushed to clear the battlefield. Before he could say hello to Ao Lie, Xun Yu and Tianchou took a team of soldiers to count the spoils of the battle.

Not long after, Xun Yu came back first and said to Ao Lie: "Report to the lord, our army has no casualties in this battle. More than 50 bandits were killed, and the rest were captured and no one was left to escape. As for the spoils in the valley, Zitai is further counting."

Ao Lie nodded and turned his gaze to the bandit leader. When the strong bandit leader saw Ao Lie looking at him, he struggled to stand up. He just supported him a little, but then rushed to the ground. Although Ao Lie's attack did not use all his strength, how powerful is Ao Lie? Half of the strong man's body was so sore that he could not use any strength, so of course it was impossible for him to stand up.

The strong bandit leader was also a straightforward man. Seeing that he couldn't stand up, he simply stopped struggling, leaning on the ground half-lying, looking up at Ao Lie and said, "It's up to you to kill and shave, but I beg you to let go of the brothers in the valley. Most of them are poor people who are forced to go to the end."

Ao Lie pondered for a moment and said, "Of course, I can see this, but if someone has ever had a life on his hands and killed a commoner, he will definitely behead him to comfort the dead innocent people in heaven."

After a while, Tian Chou led his men to the open space in front of the valley. Tian Chou approached Ao Lie's ear and whispered: "There is no food stored in the valley, and it is only enough for 500 bandits to eat a day. There is no gold, silver and jewelry, only some old, weak, sick and disabled people." After hearing Tian Chou's reward, Ao Lie believed the words of the bandit leader in his heart. This shows that these bandits were not crazy people. They neither plundered the people nearby nor abandoned the old, weak, sick and disabled people.

Looking at the more than 400 surviving bandits with hands tied behind their backs, Ao Lie said loudly: "I know that the world is not peaceful today, and many people are forced to follow the thief, but have you ever thought about your parents and relatives? Have you ever thought about your descendants? You must let your parents and your descendants be named as thieves for generations, and you can't raise your heads for the rest of your life? Good men should fight on the battlefield and make unparalleled fame, why bother to be a thief?"

The bandits who had originally lowered their heads seemed to see a glimmer of hope when they listened to Ao Lie's words, but because of the long-term oppression, they were unwilling to believe Ao Lie, or in other words, they were unwilling to believe in the government, so they looked at each other and refused to speak.

The bandit leader lying on the ground laughed and said, "Fighting on the battlefield? Make a fame and fortune? Haha, go and go! I used to be a soldier, and I was still a lieutenant, but what happened in the end? When my brothers and I were fighting against the Yellow Turban Uprising, my brothers were killed in battle, and I didn't know how many times I was injured. The brothers who died in the end couldn't even get the pension! We fought bravely on the front line and shed so much blood and sweat, but our military pay was not paid for in a whole year! But those generals and ministers were drinking and having fun in the rear. Who would still have hope for such a world?"

Ao Lie sighed and said, "Yes, what you said is true, but the Han Dynasty is not all greedy for life, fear of death, and seek pleasure! If you have attacked the Yellow Turbans, you should naturally know the names of the two generals Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun? Are they the same as you said?"

The bandit leader naturally knew that the two generals Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun, who fought against the millions of Yellow Turbans, were rigorous in the military and never deducted military pay. The soldiers under his command were willing to follow the two generals to fight, and finally quell the Yellow Turban Rebellion. For a moment, Ao Lie asked him speechlessly.

Ao Lie said loudly: "Did you see the elite behind me? Maybe you were dissatisfied and thought that they defeated you only with the help of a strong armored blade and the power of war horses. But I told you that in order to defend the frontier of the Han Dynasty, they were all warriors who had experienced many battles. They had fought with the Huns and killed tens of thousands of Huns in one battle! They were the real men! They were the real elite soldiers of the Han Dynasty!"

Zhang Liao and more than a hundred elite blood killing camps shouted in unison: "The soul of blood killing is invincible but not in battle!" Only more than a hundred people shouted out the momentum of thousands of troops. Even Xun Yu, who was standing aside, was startled by the momentum of moving forward bravely.
Chapter completed!