Xiong Tianba recognized Tang Boxi. Raising his great hammer, he laughed. "Tang Boxi, damn you! Surrender at once! I'm going to capture you alive and claim my reward from Third Uncle!" Even as he spoke, he spurred his horse forward. He had always been a fierce brute, eager for glory and afraid of nothing. Seeing that Tang Boxi's party was smaller than his own only made him more reckless.
"General, get away!" Liu Yuncai cried. Two deputy generals charged out, swinging their broadswords at Xiong Tianba. He paid them no heed. His twin hammers swept apart, and with a clang, both blades flew from their hands. Then his hammers struck again, smashing into their faces and pulping their heads like watermelons. Their horses fled in panic, carrying two headless corpses.
The sight of such ferocity left Tang Boxi staring in terror. Forgetting that he had just intended to kill himself, he wheeled his horse around and fled. He had barely gone a few paces when he saw a rider racing toward him like someone chasing the wind and pursuing lightning. It was Hu Xiaotian on Little Gray. "General, get away! I'll hold them off..." Liu Yuncai said, his voice trembling.
An ambush ahead, pursuers behind; to the south lay the surging Yong River, and to the north, Eastern Liang Commandery. Tang Boxi sank into despair, with no road to heaven and no door into the earth. Just then, a small boat approached. Several soldiers aboard wore Great Yong Navy uniforms. "General, over here! General, over here!" they shouted.
Tang Boxi had never expected one of his own boats to appear at such a moment. It was one of the lifeboats carried by every warship for emergencies. All thoughts of suicide had vanished from his mind. At the boundary between life