Invincible Iron Army 15, Kill towards Prairie Book Flag

  As Wang An's army fighting strength continued to increase, Wang An also began to have some ideas in his mind. He thought: "This army needs to be tempered and needs to gain more practical combat experience in order to become a seasoned veteran." Wang An shared his thoughts with Jiang Cai and others.

  Jiang Cai and others naturally expressed their agreement. Li Li said, "Wang brothers, are you still going to ambush the Xiongnu scouts? After making a meritorious achievement, there will be a reward of 10 taels of white silver." Wang An said, "Brother, we mobilized 500 people to ambush one Xiongnu scout. Isn't it a bit of an overreaction? If this gets to the ears of the Jiedushi, she will definitely punish us. Moreover, the reward for killing one Xiongnu is 10 taels of white silver. Is this enough for these brothers to share? The cost of food and transportation for these 500 people going out is probably around 100 taels. We use a cost of 100 taels to get a return of 10 taels of silver, haven't our brains gone bad?" Li Li said, "Wang brother, listening to you say this, I also feel like we're being taken advantage of."

  Jiang Cai said: "Brother Wang, what should we do?" Wang An said: "In my opinion, we should bring three days' worth of cooked food, travel lightly, and deeply into the grasslands. We'll attack a Xiongnu tribe, eliminate one of their armed forces, and gain some military merit. This way, we can give our brothers more battle experience, earn rewards, and capture some cattle and sheep to improve the soldiers' rations. Isn't this a great opportunity?" Jiang Cai nodded in agreement: "Alright, let's do it." The others also became excited, clenching their fists and preparing for battle.

  Wang An gathered his soldiers, preparing to depart. A Wu Chang asked, "Where are we going?" Wang An replied, "This is a military secret, you don't need to know." The Wu Chang asked, "Sir, does this military operation have the command of our superiors?" Wang An was accustomed to acting on his own and didn't care about orders from above. He said, "You don't need to worry about that, just execute my commands." Jiang Cai, Du Lu, and others were originally old soldiers who knew the rules, but after being with Wang An for a long time, they became bolder. They had made countless fortunes by relying on the Jiedushi's power, so naturally, they wouldn't care about the commands of a Qianfu Zhang or Wanfu Zhang.

  Wang An led his troops out of the Great Wall in secret, heading towards the grasslands. They did not know that this was the first time a military force from the Jin Dynasty had ventured so deep into the grasslands.

  Wang An's army advanced while searching for the Huns' tracks, but the Huns followed water and grass to live, migrated frequently, and it was indeed very difficult to find them.

  The army of Taiyuan had to be careful to remain hidden, for if they were discovered by the Xiongnu cavalry, tens of thousands of troops would be summoned to attack and Wang An's forces would quickly be annihilated.

  Be careful all the way, Wang An and his troops hid in a forest, discussing their next strategy together. At this time, Li Li pointed outside with joy: "Well, I saw the Xiongnu", Wang An and others were very happy, thinking that their efforts had not been wasted.

  Wang An and others looked out carefully, only to find a Xiongnu cavalry wandering on the grassland. Wang An was somewhat disappointed and thought to himself: "It's really an overkill to send so many soldiers to deal with just one Xiongnu cavalryman." He then said, "Don't bother with him, focus on hiding."

  The Xiongnu cavalry unexpectedly approached the forest where Wang An and others were hiding, causing them to tense up and think: "Could it be that the enemy has discovered us? If they find us and send a message back to the grasslands, the Xiongnu will gather tens of thousands of troops to attack us, and our destruction is not far off."

  The Hun cavalry indeed found something unusual here, because there were many birds in the area at ordinary times. At this time, not a single bird was seen or heard calling, and it must have been an unusual situation. He didn't know that an army had ambushed here, with people hiding in the forest, so naturally no birds dared to stay here.

  As they drew closer, the Xiongnu soldiers discovered Wang An's army and were shocked. They turned around and ran, shouting something in the Xiongnu language, probably something like "The Jin army has arrived!" Wang An didn't care about anything else at this point and loudly shouted: "Kill them!" The crossbow arrows of Wang An's army shot out together, shooting towards the Xiongnu cavalry.

  Due to tension, Wang An's army soldiers' crossbows all didn't shoot the Xiongnu soldiers. The Xiongnu soldiers even made a move, hiding behind their shields, making the target for the cavalry even smaller. The Jin soldiers were extremely anxious because once the Xiongnu cavalry returned to the main camp and gathered the majority of the Xiongnu troops to launch an attack, it would be the end of Wang An's army.

  The Xiongnu cavalry was gradually moving away, about to leave the range of the crossbow arrows. Wang An shouted: "Shoot his war horse!" The crossbow arrows flew towards his war horse, and soon the Xiongnu's war horse was hit by several arrows. The Xiongnu's war horse was shot, leaving the range of the crossbow arrows. Wang An let out a long sigh and said: "Withdraw quickly."

  However, the Huns' cavalry fell to the ground after leaving the range of crossbow arrows. The Huns cavalry were thrown off their horses. It turned out that the Huns' war horses had been hit by more than a dozen arrows, and at first they could still hold on, but after running for a while, the war horses lost too much blood and fell to the ground in mid-air. The riders on the horse were also thrown to the ground, and they were all over the place.

  Wang An's soldiers shouted excitedly and rushed out. They brought back the Xiongnu soldier, and some soldiers even carried back the Xiongnu warhorses, preparing to roast them for food later. Wang An was about to interrogate the Xiongnu soldier when Li Li said, "Brother Wang, there are more Xiongnu soldiers coming." Wang An happily said, "Eliminate them!" Li Li said, "Brother, I think it might be a bit difficult." Wang An looked out and not only took a cold breath, but found that the Xiongnu army had as many as 50,000 troops.

  Wang An's soldiers did not wait for orders and immediately hid, thinking: "With our strength of over 500 men, we are going to attack the Xiongnu's 50,000 cavalry, and still need to fight a field battle with the Xiongnu's cavalry. Isn't this seeking death?"

  The Xiongnu cavalry arrived outside the forest and immediately discovered something unusual. There were bloodstains here, as well as several crossbow arrows. The Jin soldiers had not retrieved all the crossbow arrows they had shot in their haste, so they were discovered by the Xiongnu who walked to this place. The Xiongnu soldiers often fought with the Jin soldiers and of course recognized the Jin crossbow arrows. Because the Jin crossbow arrows were more exquisite than the Xiongnu arrows, and the wood used by both sides was different.

  The Xiongnu immediately made preparations for battle and began to search the forest. Wang An whispered, "Prepare for battle." The Xiongnu prisoner also woke up and saw the Jin soldiers looking like they were facing a great enemy. He suddenly looked out and discovered his own army, and was about to shout when he was knocked unconscious by Jiang Zai's quick stick. Jiang Zai thought to himself, "You little thing, you should know that we are experts at knocking people unconscious. Even the governor has fallen for our trick, let alone a small Xiongnu soldier."

  Wang An made preparations for battle, and the Xiongnu soldiers gradually approached the forest. The Xiongnu soldiers thought to themselves, "Could it be that there is a large Jin army here?" But suddenly, the Xiongnu troops began to retreat, their forces gathering together and heading off into the distance.

  The messenger of the Xiongnu officer thought to himself: "This must be a scouting party of Jin cavalry that has penetrated deep into the grasslands and encountered our Xiongnu soldiers, and after one battle, they killed our cavalry and have long since fled. Could it be that the Jin soldiers, having killed our men, are still hiding here waiting for us to kill them?" He really did not think that this time it was an entire army that had penetrated deep into the grasslands.

  Wang An and the others let out a sigh of relief, thinking to themselves: "Fortunately, they were not discovered by the Xiongnu cavalry." The Xiongnu cavalry gradually disappeared into the distance, and the Jin soldiers felt as if they had just taken a stroll on the pass. Their grand ambitions slowly dissipated, and many of the soldiers began to feel homesick. At this time, Wang An brought over the captured Xiongnu soldier, wanting to rouse him, but the Xiongnu soldier had been beaten severely and was unable to come to for the time being.

  Wang An's soldiers pinched him and poured water on him, finally waking up the Xiongnu soldier. Wang An and others were immediately delighted, thinking that he had finally woken up. The Xiongnu soldier saw the ferocious-looking Jin soldiers and fainted again. The Jin soldiers were discouraged and started all over again.

  The Xiongnu soldier gradually woke up again, and when he saw Wang An, he shouted in the Xiongnu language: "Ghost!" before fainting again. Wang An said: "Is this Xiongnu guy so shocked that he fainted because he's never seen a handsome guy like me?" Everyone shook their heads, thinking to themselves: "Wang brother, your face has already been ruined by plastic surgery, now you look even more ugly after the surgery, just stop being narcissistic!" Jiang Cai woke the Xiongnu up again, and the Xiongnu uncertainly pointed at Wang An and asked: "He won't eat people, will he?" The translator said: "No, this isn't a ghost, it's a human." The Xiongnu said: "You say that and I suddenly feel like he does look somewhat human." Wang An felt a wave of depression. The translator began to ask questions, and soon translated their conversation, revealing that the Xiongnu was a scout soldier from the Right Virtuous King's tribe, who had come to this road because the Right Virtuous King's son would be arriving with 10,000 war horses, as well as 1,000 heads of cattle and sheep, to propose marriage to the Left Virtuous King's daughter.

  The 50,000 troops that had passed by earlier were the bodyguards of the Xiongnu Chanyu. Wang An continued to ask: "How many guards does the son of the Right Wise King have?" The Xiongnu soldier replied: "Only about six hundred people. This is a vital area for the Xiongnu, and the Jin army rarely penetrates deep into this place, so there's no need to bring too many Xiongnu guards. Moreover, the son of the Right Wise King is not of high enough rank to gather too many young men from the tribe to serve as his guards." Wang An weighed the pros and cons in his mind, thinking: "500 against 600, infantry against cavalry, still a battle against cavalry, our chances of winning are slim. Should we fight or not?"

  Jiang Cai and others were also weighing the pros and cons, thinking that if they could capture the son of the Xiongnu's Right Virtuous King, they would definitely achieve great merit and make a big splash along the entire border. However, their chances of winning were indeed slim. Wang An stamped his foot and said, "Let's do it! How many times can one gamble in life?" Jiang Cai and others suddenly felt hot-blooded, thinking: "Let's do it! At worst, we'll shed our blood on the battlefield and leave our lives here, dying a glorious death."

  Wang An and Jiang Cai carefully planned and completed the military deployment, preparing to ambush the son of the Xiongnu Righteous King. The soldiers hid in the deep grass and woods, anxiously waiting. However, until dusk, they did not see any Xiongnu soldiers. Wang An thought to himself: "Could it be that our intelligence was wrong, and we were all deceived by this Xiongnu?" The Jin soldiers had been hungry for a whole day, and they dared not light a fire, so they could only eat some dried food. At this time, the soldiers began to miss the warhorse they had just killed, hoping to roast it to improve their situation.

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