Chapter Seventeen: Defeating the Enemy's Vanguard

  After finishing, Wei Zheng quickly shifted his gaze to the two scouts and asked: "Two brothers, when you discovered the Tartar troops, did you see the vanguard of the Tartars? If so, how many men were in the Tartar vanguard..."

  The two scouts nodded subconsciously and replied: "There is a vanguard..."

  "There were over twenty people in total, all riding tall horses, about two miles away from their main force..."

  After Wei Zheng's repeated explanations, Wang Feng, who already had some understanding of the Manchu army organization, replied: "General, this is exactly the number of troops that a single 'battalion' of the Tartars has..."

  After finishing, he asked Wei Zheng with a thoughtful expression: "You just said that we must first crush the enemy's morale, is it to swallow the vanguard of the Manchu Tartars and give the main force of the Tartars a blow..."

  "That's right..." Wei Zheng said loudly in affirmation.

  "I not only want to eat away the vanguard of the Tartar cavalry, but also write a letter to Nurhaci. Warn Nurhaci that if he continues to launch reckless attacks on us, he should be prepared to die together with us. At that time, he will not only fail to seize even a single grain of food, nor capture a single one of our men..."

  "We are in this big mountain, there is plenty of room for us to hide... If the other side really launches an attack on us without giving us any buffer time. Then we will threaten to burn the captured grain and escape into the mountains..."

  "When the time comes, the Tartars will not only be unable to take back their grain, but they won't even be able to catch one of us..."

  "So, as long as the Tartar general isn't a fool, he'll halt his attack. He'll redeploy and come up with a plan to trap us in the stockade. Even if we burn our food supplies, we won't be able to escape the Tartars' siege."

  A look of confusion quickly appeared on Wang Feng's face at this point.

  "General, in this case, the Tartars who are attacking us will not divide their troops into several routes, but directly surround our mountain stronghold, making it difficult for us to escape."

  At this moment, a mysterious smile flashed across Wei Zheng's face and he nodded at Wang Feng and all his subordinates: "You're right, what I want is for the Tartars to divide their troops. As long as they do, I have a specific plan to break through this siege."

  Wei Zheng has already said that, as a subordinate, plus everyone's trust in Wei Zheng, no one else is speaking, quietly waiting for Wei Zheng's next command.

  Not keeping everyone waiting for too long, Wei Zheng confidently spoke up again with a self-assured expression.

  "No matter what we do next, the first thing we have to face is how to blunt the enemy's spearhead and devour the vanguard of the Tartars."

  "I have decided that the task of annihilating the vanguard of the Tartars will be assigned to the Longbow Troop and the original Long Gun Troop. As for the remaining brothers, you two will take command and continue training in the mountain stronghold, striving to master the skills of killing enemies as soon as possible."

  Wang Feng wanted to go together, but after seeing Wei Zheng's serious gaze, he wisely chose to agree.

  "Facing Wei Zheng, he loudly guaranteed: 'Please don't worry, General. I will lead the remaining brothers to train well and wait for your triumphant return.'"

  A rugged mountain road, a small path trampled by bandits, winding its way deep into the dense forest.

  Just then, a loud neighing of war horses suddenly sounded at the end of the small road, followed by a rapid spread of curses from the Tartars.

  Due to the rugged road, the warhorse at the front lost its footing and fell, throwing the rider, a Manchu warrior wearing leather armor, off its back.

  The road ahead is getting increasingly rugged, riding on war horses not only endangers us but also slows down our marching speed. The Tartar general, clad in two layers of iron armor, gave a decisive order.

  "Warriors, the mountain path here is not suitable for horse riding. Now I command, all of you, to dismount and proceed on foot..."

  The vanguard of the Tatars moved faster, but the main force of the Tatars, in order to conserve their strength, remained on horseback and advanced towards the mountain stronghold at an increasingly slow pace.

  Invisibly, the distance between the two troops became larger and larger, and the time left for Wei Zheng to eat away their vanguard also became more and more.

  Just ahead of the more than twenty Tatars, in a dense thicket, fifteen archers led by Wei Zheng himself lay motionless among the bushes, blending in with their surroundings.

  As the Huns drew closer, Wei Zheng, who was in the middle of everyone, first pulled out a feathered arrow and steadily aimed at the Huns on the mountain road who were getting closer and closer.

  Although more than a dozen archers around him had not undergone systematic training, they were selected by Wei Zheng to join the longbow team and at least knew how to draw their bows and shoot arrows, only lacking accuracy.

  However, in this impending battle, Wei Zheng wants everyone to be aimless.

  Because only these people's arrows have no target, the vanguard of the Tatars will be lightly guarded, they will recklessly pursue themselves, and under their lead, they will heavily crash into the long gun array carefully prepared by Wei Zheng for them.

  Seeing the longbowmen around him making their first battle preparations, Wei Zheng quickly shifted his gaze to the mountain road, where the Tatars were rapidly approaching the ambush circle.

  Fifty meters, Wei Zheng was silent...

  Thirty meters, Wei Zheng still had no movement...

  Twenty meters away, even those hiding in the bushes could clearly see the ferocious face of the bandits, yet Wei Zheng still didn't make a move.

  Perhaps someone would say that with the Tartar's archery skills, a distance of twenty meters was absolutely achievable for pinpoint shooting. Wei Zheng, hiding on the side of the mountain road, didn't worry about his painstakingly assembled longbow formation being shot to pieces by the Tartar bowmen.

  In fact, in the dense forest in front of us, an arrow shot from a bow would lose its power within ten meters due to various obstacles. Therefore, no matter how good the archery skills of the Hu's bowmen were, they could not threaten our troops hiding in the dense forest.

  Someone will ask, since the Hu's bow and arrow can't threaten the longbowmen under Wei Zheng's command. Can't the longbowmen under Wei Zheng's command also pose no threat to the Hu on the mountain road?

  If anyone has such an idea, it proves that this person has again committed empiricism error.

  The rugged small road where the Mongols were located, due to long-term human destruction, the density of the surrounding forest is far less than that in the depths of the dense forest, and can even be described as "sparse".

  Shooting arrows from the dense forest outwards, the arrows can easily fly out for over 20 meters before encountering obstacles. However, shooting arrows from the outside into the dense forest, the arrows often lose their power after flying for over 10 meters due to various obstacles.

  Unless there is a powerful archer in the middle of the cavalry, the arrow shot out has extremely strong power and can easily penetrate various obstacles without diminishing its power. Of course, this is obviously impossible for a cavalry unit with only more than 20 people.

  At fifteen meters, when the hands gripping the longbow tightly around him had already begun to tremble slightly and beads of sweat the size of soybeans started to flow from his forehead in the biting cold wind, Wei Zheng finally moved.

  The arrow flew with a slight whistling sound, flashing towards a cavalryman wearing armor. Wei Zheng loudly shouted to the soldiers beside him: "All longbow troops, fire immediately and prepare to retreat."

  "Whoosh...whoosh...whoosh..."

  A dozen or so arrows flew out of the dense forest one after another, and Wei Zheng, who reacted quickly, had already nocked a second arrow on his longbow.

  Aim at a samurai preparing to hide, shoot out feathered arrows suddenly. Then, regardless of the outcome, hold the longbow and follow the longbow array to withdraw to the position where the commander is located.

  Including Wei Zheng, the sixteen longbowmen retreated into the dense forest with ease, while the suddenly attacked Diao Ya Lai was raging on the spot.

  In a round of arrow rain, Wei Zheng shot two arrows in a row and the two Tartar armored soldiers who were hit died on the spot.

  The other fifteen arrows, although not hitting the target, at a distance of 15 meters, even if a blind cat hits a dead mouse, two Tartars lost their combat effectiveness due to being shot, and one Tartar's arm was injured.

  Looking at the corpses and wounded warriors in front of him, Pochi quickly thought about what he should do.

  Let these bandits go and continue to search ahead, open the way for the main force in the rear. The morale of the brave warriors under his command will definitely be greatly affected. Moreover, the dozen or so bandits who just escaped don't know where they will continue to launch a sneak attack on themselves.

  After all, the woods here are too dense, and no matter how careful you are, you can't guard against everything.

  Immediately lead his subordinates to pursue the fleeing bandits, and may not be able to complete the search task given by Niu Lu Zhang Jing.

  Just as Niu Lu Zhang Jing was looking embarrassed, a report from an iron armor soldier next to him directly dispelled the worries in his heart.

  "Judging from the angle of the arrow wounds on the warriors, it can be seen that although there were over a dozen archers on the other side, at most only two of them were qualified archers, and the rest had not received any training."

  "As long as we make up our minds and go all out to hunt down the enemy, with the bravery of our warriors, within a short period of time, at most one incense stick, we can eliminate all the Han bandits who dare to launch sneak attacks on us and avenge the martyred warriors."

  A moment of fragrance eliminates the sneak attacker, not only will it not affect its own mission as a vanguard, but also increase some military merit for itself, allowing the warriors' morale to recover once again.

  Why not take delight in such a good thing?

  Facing the remaining twenty brave warriors looking at their eager eyes, the commander ordered decisively: "All wounded warriors stay behind to guard the war horses, the rest of the warriors follow me to pursue and annihilate the bandits who dare to launch a sneak attack on us."