Jingchu was near Yangtze. Xiangyang was beside Jingshan. The old people used to say that the sky need not be too high as long as immortals exists and the water need not be too deep as long as dragons exist. Although nobody have come across immortals and dragons, Jingchu was full of giants among men, proving that their soil was suitable for nourishing people.
The gates of Xiangyang opened at dawn. A group of soldiers then went out, escorting the carriage behind them.
“Lady Cai is going to Jingshan again?” The common people of Xiangyang commented with familiarity. Such big movements would be difficult to hide. They had already become accustomed to seeing Lady Cai go to Jingshan.
“Xiao Cui, have we arrived?” A grandeur voice asked from within the carriage.
“Not yet, Miss.” Xiao Cui replied to Lady Cai. Xiao Cui had accompanied Lady Cai from the Cai Family which is why she was more accustomed addressing her as ‘Miss’. She turned her head around and saw that Xiangyang can no longer be seen. “Miss. We will arrive soon.”
“N.” Lady Cai nodded and leaned back. Every month, she had to leave the city for some private time. Just as soon as she was about to take a nap, the carriage suddenly came to a half.
“Miss. There is a scholar that wants to see you.”
Lady Cai waved her hands and replied that she did not want to see anyone.
“This scholar said he came from the Lumen Academy and we could help each other.”
“Lumen Academy?”
___
“Jingzhou is really a nice place!” Liu Mang had also left Xiangyang inside a carriage. Before this, Liu Mang had to disguise himself when going out because he was being monitored. However, now that he had a political marriage with the Kuai Family, others would help cover his tracks instead.
As Liu Mang could now relax more, he felt comfortable.
Were there any poor people in Jingzhou? Of course there were. There were plenty of such people around Kuai Liang’s home. Their houses were all made from satintail. However, these poor people were not starving. They could still earn enough to provide for themselves. There were no corpses anywhere unlike Yangzhou and Yuzhou where the starving and the dead were everywhere.
The people were working the farm as the birds flew freely in the clearly blue sky. This could not be seen in modern times.
“Hopefully this place could avoid the horrors of war.” Jia Xu sighed. In war, the influential and the ambitious fought against each other. However, the people were the ones that suffered.
Liu Biao did not strive for new lands and his only enemy was Sun Ce. It was because of this that the people of Jingzhou could work peacefully unlike other militaristic places.
However, the world was not so kind to leave you alone just because you want peace. Liu Biao’s land was rich and many wanted it for themselves. One of the reasons Sun Ce did not take his fight to the Central Plains and continued attacking Jingzhou is because he knew that he would be able to cover up for his losses and even expand bigger after taking Jingzhou. Compare this with ruined places such as Yangzhou and Xuzhou. Capturing those places would only force Sun Ce to spread his forces thinner. Now everybody, including Liu Bei and Cao Cao, wanted Jingzhou.
“Liu Biao, Liu Qi and Liu Zong…” Liu Mang thought of three people as he plotted. Liu Biao was already old. If Liu Mang remembered correctly, Liu Biao did not have long to live. The next person to inherit Jingzhou would be Liu Qi or Liu Zong. However, would Liu Qi be able to compete against Liu Zong?
Liu Mang then shook his head. The inheritance of Jingzhou none of his business right now. What he needed was provisions.
“Have the two merchants reached Yangzhou yet?” Liu Mang asked
“Not yet. They should be in Zaoyang right now.” Jia Xu replied. Fatty Liang had gathered thirty thousand provisions which was no small amount. Liu Qi who was at Xinye would help make the provisions arrive at Yangzhou.
“It is not enough!” Liu Mang lamented. Although it was enough for an army to go on a campaign, it was hardly enough for Yangzhou.
“What about Zilong and the White Horses?” Liu Mang asked after just only remembering about Zhao Yun. The White Horses were given everything such as silk, bows, and an additional horse. The only thing they did not have was heavy armor. The cost to establish them was comparable to the amount needed for the Wolf Cavalry.
“General Zilong is avoiding combat!” Jia Xu replied. He had obtained information that Zhao Yun and his cavalry went North of Wancheng but have not started fighting against Liu Bei.
“Haha! That is good!” Liu Mang laughed after hearing this. The Wolf Cavalry was enough if they needed to fight against the Xiliang Cavalry. The White Horses is not needed. Zhao Yun is starting to become familiar with Mangu tactics.1
Liu Mang handed the White Horses over to Zhao Yun as the man was loyal and could keep his composure. Zhao Yun would do as asked unlike Xu Sheng. Xu Sheng was also powerful but he was also more irritable. Once his opponents provoke him, he would lose himself.
“Milord. We have also spent a lot.” Jia Xu said. The expenses of the White Horses were too astronomical to even consider them ‘troops’. They were money sinks.
One arrow was twenty coins. In the past few days, Zhao Yun had used hundreds and thousands of arrows. If the cost for repairing the bows and feeding the horses were included, a few hundred gold could vanish in several days.
“If gold can solve the problem, it is not a problem!” Liu Mang smiled. Liu Mang said this not because he was rich. He simply wanted to turn the four thousand gold into materials. “Besides that, I believe Liu Bei must be feeling very uneasy for the past few days!”
Liu Mang was right. Liu Bei was indeed uneasy about having an enemy cavalry within his territory. To deal with a cavalry, one needed to send out cavalries. That was why Liu Bei chose to send out Hu Che Er and the Xiliang Cavalry. In ancient times, battles was about who had the better heavy armor. On the other hand, Liu Mang’s cavalry all had no armor.
Hu Che Er excitedly went out to do battle. Even if he only had one arm, his morale was high. He was certain he would be able to easily wipe out the light cavalry even though he only had one arm. Unfortunately, when he set out for battle, there was nobody there to fight. Zhao Yun had already gave the order to retreat the moment he saw Hu Che Er dispatching troops.
Hu Che Er excitedly thought that the enemy was too afraid to fight. In ancient times, people generally avoided retreating as the army would be completely routed if they were overtaken by the enemy.
Hu Che Er had disdain for the enemy general and wanted to claim his head for merits.
Hu Che Er thought that Zhao Yun was retarded for having the cavalry try and shoot arrows while still speeding along with their horses. Had they been the Qiang Cavalry or foreigners, this may be feasible. After all, those people lived on horsebacks. However, these people were all Han men, some of them even peasants. They look like amateurs, how could they hit anyone like that?
Hu Che Er chased and had almost caught up with his enemy. However, the enemy had two horses per rider and wore light armor. His heavy cavalry only had one horse per rider. How were they going to catch up? All Hu Che Er received for his troubles was a volley of arrows. These arrows were not aimed accurately but there were so many of them. The soldiers may be heavily armored but not the horses. Within a short moment, the horses were shot down and its rider trampled on.
Once or twice was of no consequences but in half a day, Hu Che Er lost over three hundred men.
Hu Che Er angrily decided to fight back with arrows. A few hundred of his men were skilled at archery. Unfortunately for them, the White Horses wore silk clothing which protected them from arrows.
Since Hu Che Er could not catch them, he decided to rest to preserve horsepower. However, Zhao Yun would not let them rest. He followed Liu Mang’s instructions to disturb the enemy when they stop. Causing them to be chased again.
The same thing kept repeating in the Nanyang region. This was how Zhao Yun wasted so many arrows within ten days. Liu Bei’s face turned pale from the reports of the damage faced by the Xiliang Cavalry. A thousand of his men died in exchange for only about ten of his enemies. On top of that, these ten people were not even confirmed kills. There were no corpses, in other words these ten people may also be an overstatement.
__________
One of the Mongolian “Hit-and-run tactics” using bows. Basically attack, pretend to retreat/actually retreat with superior speed. Wear down the enemy’s stamina and “deal scratch damage” until they die.
