Chapter 19 Iron Shirt

When Zhou Chen was about to go to bed at night, he suddenly heard the sound of horse hooves, followed by a burst of cursing and noise, as well as crying. In an instant, Zhou Chen remembered what happened during the day.

Zhou Chen hurriedly got up and came to Leng Yiyao's door, "Yiyao, are you asleep?" After a while, Leng Yiyao's voice was heard from the room, "What's wrong, Brother Chen?"
"Something seems to have happened in the village. You should hide in the cellar quickly. I'll go out and take a look."

Then he picked up the amber and the longbow and left the room. After going out, Zhou Chen went directly to the roof. Zhou Chen quickly shuttled across the roof and soon came to where the sound came from.

I saw a huge group of people searching the village indiscriminately, looting any valuables and food. Zhou Chen frowned when he saw this and thought, "They really came."

At this time, Zhou Chen was more than fifty meters away from the bandits. Zhou Chen drew his bow and aimed directly. His archery skills had reached a high level, allowing him to hit the target within 70 meters. A bandit robbed someone of his money and was about to kill him, but suddenly an arrow hit him in the chest.

Zhou Chen put away his longbow in confusion, then looked in the direction where the arrow came from. They were two hunters in the village. Like Zhou Chen, they came to help after hearing the noise. They also heard about the neighboring village being attacked by bandits today, so they were prepared.

But the bandits were not pushovers either. There were some skilled archers among them. When they saw their companions injured, someone immediately took out the crossbows he was carrying on his back. The power of a crossbow was several times that of an arrow. After just one round of shooting, a hunter was hit by an arrow and lay on the ground.

After all, he was just an ordinary hunter. He was so frightened when he saw this that he lost his balance and fell off the roof. The bandits quickly ran over and caught the hunter.

At this time, the hunter was caught by the bandits with a painful face and brought in front of their leader, who said, "How dare you kill my brother? Someone cut off his head and hang it at the entrance of the village." The hunter was instantly scared and said, "My king, don't, don't kill me. I will tell you a secret."

"Oh, tell me, if it helps, I won't kill you."

"Zhou Chen from our village, his family has a lot of silver and grain. Just today I saw him carrying a bag of rice back." At this moment, an arrow shot directly through his heart.

This arrow was not shot by someone else but Zhou Chen. The bandits were shocked and said, "Someone is shooting arrows from behind, everyone be careful." Then another five arrows were shot and five bandits fell to the ground.

At the same time, an arrow was shot at the bandit leader, "Be careful, Third Master."

Upon hearing this, the third in command dodged an arrow by leaning sideways. Although he avoided the fatal blow, he did get a cut on his face.

They also discovered Zhou Chen's location, "Shoot them down where you are." Zhou Chen was not like those two idiots. He quickly shot five arrows again. The five bandits holding crossbows fell to the ground before they could even release the arrows. At the same time, Zhou Chen ran out of the village.

"Damn it! You killed so many of my brothers and yet you still want to run away! Brothers, chase me!" Then the remaining dozen or so bandits rode on horses to chase Zhou Chen. When Zhou Chen ran at full speed, his speed was barely comparable to that of the horses.

Of course, this is also because the snow is slippery. Under normal circumstances, Zhou Chen would not be able to match the speed of the horse.

When they were one mile away from the village, they were finally caught up. At this time, Zhou Chen had no arrows left in his hand, so he simply threw away the longbow in his hand and held the hilt of the knife at his waist.

"Hmph, kid, let's see where you can run." He then took out a crossbow and was about to shoot Zhou Chen to death. What he didn't expect was that Zhou Chen suddenly jumped up, dodged the arrow sideways, and then quickly drew his sword and chopped it. The horse was directly split into two, and his right leg was neatly separated from his body.

The third in command had not yet reacted and was lying on the ground with his horse. Everyone was stunned when they saw this. The third in command covered his right leg in pain and said angrily, "What the hell are you looking at? Kill him for me."

As the third in command, he was no match for Zhou Chen. How could the minions under his command be Zhou Chen's opponents? Zhou Chen killed them one by one with his knife like chopping melons and vegetables. After wiping the blood off the knife, he returned to the third in command.

"You also looted the village next door?"
The Third Master was so frightened that he dared not resist. He just answered whatever Zhou Chen asked, "Yes, we did it." "How many people were killed?"
When the third in command heard this question, he broke out in a cold sweat.

"When you kill someone, have you ever thought that one day you will end up like this?"

Without waiting for him to speak, Zhou Chen swung the long knife in his hand, and blood spilled on the snow, instantly melting the snow.

After taking back the long sword, Zhou Chen began to search the third in command's body. His original intention was to see if there was any silver, but he did not find any silver, but found a secret book "Iron Shirt".

Then they searched the bodies of many of the bandits, but found out that these bandits were very poor, and more than a dozen people only found two hundred coins in total.

"Damn, what a bunch of poor fellows. But luckily I have a secret book to practice with when I go back."

Although it was the middle of the night, the village was already in an uproar. Zhou Chen ignored them and returned home, calling out Leng Yiyao who was hiding in the cellar.

"Brother Chen, what happened outside?"
"Bandits came to the village just now, but you don't have to worry, they have been dealt with by me."

Leng Yiyao quickly checked Zhou Chen's body, and was relieved when she found that he was not injured. "Brother Chen, don't be so impulsive in the future. Although killing bandits is not against the law, it would be bad if there are experts among the bandits."

"Don't worry, I will be careful. If I can't beat you, I will run away." Except for Zhou Chen and the other two, no one else in the village slept well that night.

The next day, people from the county came, and the leader was Zhao Kuo. Before entering the village, he found a large number of bandits' bodies. After checking, he found that they were all killed by masters with one knife. The first person he thought of was Zhou Chen.

So they came to Zhou Chen early in the morning. Only Zhao Kuo came, while the other constables were investigating in the village.

There was a knock on the courtyard door, and Zhou Chen quickly opened it. Finding it was Zhao Kuo, he quickly welcomed him in, "Captain Zhao, please don't be surprised at my humble abode."

Zhao Kuo sat by the fireplace and said with a smile, "Very good." Leng Yiyao brought a cup of tea to Zhao Kuo. This tea was bought by Zhou Chen in the city a few days ago.

"Brother Zhou, your wife is very beautiful," Zhou Chen smiled awkwardly. Leng Yiyao whispered, "I'm not his wife," and then went back to her room.

"Captain Zhao, she is my sister," Zhou Chen explained.

"Captain Zhao, you're here this time because of the bandits last night, right?"
"So you killed all those bandits outside the village?"
Zhou Chen did not deny it and nodded, saying, "Yes, I found them robbing last night and they were going to kill people, so I had no choice but to intervene."

Anyway, according to the court regulations, anyone who kills bandits and robbers is not guilty.

After understanding the details of the matter, Zhao Kuo reminded them, "This group of bandits are from Zhengyi Village. The government has been paying attention to them for a long time, but it has not had the time to deal with them yet. You have accidentally achieved a great achievement this time."

"Moreover, there is a bounty on the third in command of the bandits. If you kill him, the government will reward you with some silver."

Zhou Chen was delighted, as he had not expected to get some silver for killing a bandit. He immediately asked, "I wonder how much silver the head of the third in command is worth?"
(End of this chapter)