Chapter 194: Operation Wildfire (3 / 3)
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nova
The Shanhai cavalries mounted their horses. Step-by-step, they began to sneak into the camp.
When the cavalries departed, it was already around 9 to 10 at night. The night was dark, and the weeds were high. Even with the help of the faint starlights, it was difficult to distinguish between the silhouette of humans and other things.
As the investigation team came back with nothing, the commander of ZhenXi camp ordered martial law again. The patrol warriors had twice received the instructions from the commander that asked them to raise their vigilance. However, through the whole night, even a ghostly shadow could not be seen, so they could not help but relax and lay down. One by one, they yawned in boredom.
Furthermore, there weren’t any wars in the recent years. The Tian Qi tribe claimed itself as the king of savanna, so the warriors grew lazier and started to slack. They took the disappearance incident during the day as nothing more than just an accident.
Maybe those missing patrols had secretly sneaked into some girl’s tents and had stayed there. The patrols were chatting and talking to pass the time.
“Hey, do you think that the commander is too cautious? Just a few missing patrols, and yet he makes such a big fuss. Depriving our night and making us suffer in the cold,” a soldier complained.
“Brat, don’t you dare say a bad word about the commander. Do you want to die?” the centurion leading the team rebuked. Lhakhshen had a high prestige within the camp, so one must be careful when they spoke about him.
The soldier also knew that his words were impulsive, and he had said something wrong. Fortunately, the centurion was a good friend of his, so he laughed and said, “Leader, I know. I am at fault, so please do not report me.”
The military regulations of the savanna were harsh and cruel. If anyone seriously handled this matter, then the soldier would not end well. At least, he would be whipped.
“Do not worry!” The Centurion did not want to make a fuss of it either.
During July, the mosquitoes in the savanna were many and large, so it was hard for one to endure. Thanks to the dedication of the warriors, although they mouths complained, they didn’t neglect their duties.
A short distance away, the cavalries dismounted and held the reins in their hands. Like ghosts, they slowly moved toward the camp patrols.
After they entered the effective range, they squatted down on the ground and hid their whereabouts. Quietly, they stealth shot the patrols to death one-by-one.
The vanguards were all elite soldiers proficient at shooting. As for melee-combat, it was almost impossible in the grassland.
Ouyang Shuo’s men slowly picked off the patrols.
Slowly and steadily, they reached five kilometers away from the camp. As it was closer to the camp, the vigilance level was raised. Any signs or sounds of combat could immediately alert the camp.
Therefore, Shanhai cavalry stopped moving forward.
Ouyang Shuo mounted his horse and gazed at the distant camp.
Because it was a settlement camp, the camp wasn’t like the Tian Lian tribe. It was just an encirclement of tents that formed a defense circle.
The camp was no different from the camps on the Central Plains. Tall wooden walls erected above the ground surrounded the camp and arrow towers stood at the four corners. There was only a main gate open in the south.
It was impossible to take down such a camp with only 2,000 cavalries, so their only choice was field combat.
However, field combat was precisely the nomadic warriors’ best combat mode. According to the Military Intelligence Department intelligence investigation, the camp had 5,000 horseback warriors. Among them, they had 1,000 heavy cavalries, and the remaining 4,000 were light cavalries.
The horseback warriors often took the lead in sending light cavalry to lure enemies. Then, they round out the two wings of the enemy for outflanking. At this critical moment, heavy cavalries would charge forward and clear their enemies in one killing blow to decide the outcome of the war.
The Shanhai cavalries dismounted. They began to layout and prepared the fire array. This was Lin Yi’s tactic. They would lure the enemies out of their camp and use the fire array to stop the enemies.
When they finished setting up the fire array, they all evacuated.
……
July 28th, 6 a.m.
The vanguard 1st unit was tasked with luring the enemy forces. Under the leadership of Lin Yi, they rode toward the camp. Along the way, they indiscriminately shot down the patrols.
For the whole night, Lhakhshen did not sleep well. Hence, he got up early. Before he could do anything else, a warrior came rushing in and said, “Reporting to the commander, a band of raiders has appeared to the south of the camp. They have around five hundred people, and they are coming for the camp.”
This report shocked Lhakhshen as it was simply unbelievable, “You are talking about raiders? Only five hundred people, who gave them the courage to attack our camp?”
The warrior answered, “Yes, commander, five hundred raiders.”
“Let’s go!” Lhakhshen decided to personally check the situation.
Lhakhshen climbed the arrow tower. When he looked ahead, he only saw the distant troops dressed in raider attire wantonly clearing the warrior guards stationed in the outer area. At the same time, they also continually whistled. Their attitudes were extremely wild and ill.
Faced with such naked provocation, Lhakhshen simply could not tolerate it. He ordered a light cavalry captain to lead his troops and teach the raiders a lesson.
Captain Hu’he excitedly received the order. In his opinion, it was easy to defeat these raiders, so this was a merit-based war effort. It seems that the commander still had high hopes in him.
A thousand cavalry rushed out of the camp like an arrow.
Who would have known that those raiders were a bunch of useless soft eggs. When they saw the cavalries, they panicked and turned and fled like a flock of sheep.
Relying on the advantages of the Qingfu warhorse, Hu’he did not give up. He led his warriors and continued to pursue the raiders.
At the camp arrow tower, the gradually disappearing warriors puzzled the strategist— Er’risi—he turned and said to Lhakhshen, “Commander, the situation seems to be somewhat wrong. These strange raiders came out of nowhere and fled so suddenly. Will there be some trickeries going on?”
Lhakhshen nodded, “Indeed, something is unusual. Order the rest of the troops to be on standby. With Hu’he’s ability, even if the raiders are truly fraudulent, he can still retreat safely.”
“Understood!”
On the other hand, Hu’he led his troops and chased the raiders for more than 10 kilometers, and he was about to catch up. Suddenly, more raiders emerged from the two sides. They immediately surrounded Hu’he and his men.
“Sh*t, a trap!” Hu’he was finally alerted, and he knew he had fallen into a trap.
Unfortunately, his troops were pressing forward too harshly at the moment, and they couldn’t immediately stop the inertia. The raiders from the sides pierced his troops like sharp knives.
In the face of the nomad warriors, Ouyang Shuo did not stupidly choose to fight with the arts of archer ridings. Instead, he engaged the warriors in close combat and took advantage of the Tang swords and armor, as he fought them at their weaknesses.
The horseback warriors were almost defenseless, as they only wore simple leather armors. In the face of tang sword, this was fatal.
The sharp blade of Tang sword could easily slice through the enemy’s leather armor and straight into their flesh. They only left behind death or injuries.
The battle had started.
Finally, Hu’he and his troops had begun to gather together and stabilize. They were ready for a round of tough battle. Right at this moment, Lin Yi and his vanguard 1st unit had already turned back and encircled Hu’he.
Immediately Hu’he realized that they were powerless, so he decisively ordered the troops to retreat.
However, Ouyang Shuo did not give him the opportunity to leave. 2,000 Shanhai City cavalry pursued Hu’he. The blood stained the savanna, and the sad neigh of horses resounded through the sky.
After nearly an hour of mad slaughter, less than two hundred warriors of Hu’he troops survived. They herded Hu’he in the middle, and they hastily escaped the encirclement. Then, they headed toward ZhenXi camp. Shanhai cavalries chased and relentlessly pursued them.
Due to the limitations of their horses, the distance between the two sides grew farther and farther. Eventually, Hu’he escaped.
However, little did he know. His success was only because Ouyang Shuo intended to let him escape. By doing so, Shuo could completely provoke Lhakhshen and cause him to lead the warriors out of the camp.
Ouyang Shuo chased after the fleeing party. Shortly, they arrived before the camp.
Sure enough, Lhakhshen could not help but become furious when he witnessed his warriors panicking and fleeing, while the raiders pursued them. He snapped and said, “Courageous!”
As he finished his word, he ran down the tower and mounted his Qingfu warhorse leader. Then, he shouted, “Everyone with me. Rescue Hu’he and exterminate the raiders.”
“Kill!” Four thousand horseback warriors gushed out of the camp.
The sight of reinforcements made Hu’he overjoyed. He patted his Qingfu horse and headed straight to the camp. Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, stopped uniformly. Then, he turned to leave.
Before he left, Lin Yi used his internal force and shouted, “Lhakhshen you brat. Today I am here to teach you a lesson. The next time I come back, I will take that head of yours.” Then, he laughed loudly in an extremely rampant manner.
No one had ever humiliated Lhakhshen like this before. Without a word, he led the troops and chased after them. Although Hu’he had just recounted his experiences, Lhakhshen did not believe that the raiders could mount another troop ambush. Even if they could, he did not need to fear, as he had his 4,000 elite warriors.
The savanna was once again the stage of an escape-pursuit scene. However, the two parties had switched places.
At this time, the strength and speed advantage of the Qingfu warhorse was evident. In less than 10 minutes, Lhakhshen and his troops were catching up, which brought their enemy into their shooting range.
Lhakhshen watched, as he closed in on to the fleeing enemy. His face was a deadpan; emotionless and cold, as if he was looking at a group of dead men.
Unfortunately, Lhakhshen did not know that he had just led his troops straight into Shanhai City’s well-established trap. Lin Yi took out a special arrow and lit it on fire. Then, he turned his body on the horseback and released the fire arrow.
The fire arrow flew across the sky like a shooting star, and it accurately fell in Lhakhshen’s proximity.
In the blink of an eye, the fire arrow lit the oil that Ouyang Shou’s troops had poured on the grassland beforehand. The layout of the raging fire array was not a long strip like before. Instead, it covered the entire area. The raging flames, with the help of gales and weeds, submerged Lhakhshen in a sea of fire.
