Chapter Thirty-One: The Secret Obstruction of Temujin

  But after the ambush on Temujin failed and Temujin escaped, Wang Han and Sangkun knew that Temujin was skilled in battle, and they were afraid that he would come to take revenge with his army. So they ordered their subordinates to be vigilant every day. But after two days of vigilance, there was no sign of Temujin's revenge army, instead, the captured Du Shi returned safely, bringing with him a generous gift from Temujin.

  He saw the envoy sent by Temujin speaking in extreme humility and flattery, and also heard from Du Shi that Temujin had been seriously injured in the previous ambush. He thought that Temujin was unable to command his troops due to his serious injury and was afraid of their large numbers, so he specially sent an envoy to surrender. Suddenly feeling relieved, he withdrew his garrison and spent several days drinking and feasting with Wanyan Honglie and Jamukha in the tent. Although Wanyan Honglie and Jamukha felt that things might not be so simple, they couldn't think of anything wrong and soon became lost in Wang Han's and Sangkun's hospitality.

  On this day, Wanyan Honglie returned from a drinking party at Wang Han's place and was about to rest in his tent when "whoosh" an arrow suddenly broke through the curtain and shot into the tent, deeply embedding itself in the wooden pole that supported the canopy. Wanyan Honglie let out a startled cry of "ah".

  "What's wrong with you, Prince Wang?"

  "Your Highness, are you all right?"

  "Someone is trying to assassinate the king, catch the assassin!"

  ……

  Suddenly, a strong arrow shot into the big tent, and after hearing Wanyan Honglie's cry of surprise, the outside of the tent was in an uproar. Several close guards rushed into the tent, asking anxiously, while the remaining close guards were tense and searching everywhere for the whereabouts of the archer. These people couldn't help but be anxious, as Wanyan Honglie's personal guards, their lives depended on his safety, if anything happened to Wanyan Honglie, they would also suffer, all of them would have to follow him in death.

  Wanyan Honglie waved his hand at the rushing bodyguards, indicating that he was fine, and his gaze remained on the arrow stuck in the wooden frame of the tent.

  At first, Wanyan Honglie was also startled and thought that someone really wanted to assassinate him. However, he soon discovered that it wasn't the case at all, because on the arrow that had been shot in, there was a piece of cloth tied to it, with some words written on it.

  Wanyan Honglie suddenly realized that there must be something fishy going on, walked over and pulled out the arrow stuck in the wooden stake of the tent, tore down the cloth strip and took a look, only to see a line of Chinese characters written on it: "Temujin is faking injury, beware of sneak attack."

  Because he had always dreamed of leading a large army to conquer the Song Dynasty and unify the world under the Jin Dynasty, Wanyan Honglie was well-versed in military strategy and tactics. Most of these strategies were written in Chinese characters, so Wanyan Honglie was not unfamiliar with them. After reading the words on the cloth strip, Wanyan Honglie's heart skipped a beat: "Is Temujin really unharmed? Is this true or false? Could it be that all the gifts and apologies before were just another one of Temujin's tricks? Then who is warning me now?"

  Wanyan Honglie immediately dispatched more men to investigate the trail of the arrow shooter, but no matter how many soldiers he sent to search, they were unable to find anyone. They only found out that someone had seen a person outside the camp shoot an arrow at his tent from afar and then ride away on horseback. As for who this person was, where he came from, and where he went, none of these things could be known.

  Wanyan Honglie was at a loss, unable to figure out who had warned him. Judging from the Chinese characters written on the cloth strip, the informant was likely a Han person. However, there were not many Han people on the Mongolian grasslands, and apart from the Yellow River Four Devils he had brought with him, there were no other Han people associated with him, so who would come to inform him?

  According to the investigation of his subordinates, the person who shot the arrow to report was outside the camp, and it was calculated that the distance was hundreds of steps away. To accurately shoot into his tent at such a long distance is extremely rare even among the Mongols who are good at shooting, let alone Han people. According to what he knew, there was indeed a skilled Han archer by Temujin's side, namely the young man who single-handedly defeated the four Yellow River demons he brought with him. However, since that young man had risked his life to protect Temujin before, he must be Temujin's loyal follower, so how could he possibly come to report and warn him?

  If this is Temujin's conspiracy, why did he use Chinese characters to write instead of Mongolian script? Moreover, doing so would only make them more vigilant and defensive against Temujin, and there was no benefit for him at all!

  In the face of fruitless investigation and speculation, Wanyan Honglie cautiously told Wang Han, Sangkun, and Jamukha about the matter, advising them to be vigilant and take precautions. However, Wang Han and Sangkun did not take it seriously because they had witnessed Temujin's injury with their own eyes and were deeply convinced of his loyalty. They even advised Wanyan Honglie not to be deceived by treacherous people and to enjoy himself without worrying about a mysterious message.

  Wanyan Honglie was also helpless in this matter, after all, although Wang Han received the gold seal from the Jin state and belonged to the Jin state's vassal in terms of law, he was also the Khan of Mongolia's largest tribe, and this was on his own territory, so Wanyan could only make one or two suggestions, if Wang didn't listen, he couldn't force him to execute.

  It turned out that Jamukha was a very wise man, and his military tactics were also very cunning. After listening to Wanyan Honglie's words, he added a few more precautions, ordering his troops to be on high alert and guard against surprise attacks. Wanyan Honglie saw that Jamukha had taken his words to heart and felt a bit of goodwill towards him, drawing closer to him, and considering his own safety, even moved his royal tent into Jamukha's military camp.

  It was actually Ling Mu Yun who sent the message to alert Wanyan Honglie, and his purpose was simple: he wanted Wang Han, Zhuo, and others to be on guard, not to be easily defeated by Temujin as in history. It would be best if they could fight each other to a draw. Even if that couldn't happen, he didn't want Temujin to win so easily, and he wanted to delay his unification of Mongolia and slow down his expansion. This was also a contribution that Ling Mu Yun made as a Han person for his own nation.

  The next day after Temujin received the warning message from Jamukha, he dropped his disguise of cowardice and summoned all his generals to gather their troops and follow him in an attack on the Merkid clan.

  The generals looked at each other in dismay, unclear what was going on. Previously, they had been seriously injured and were recuperating, and even sent gifts to ask for peace. Now, they were saying they wanted to go and launch a surprise attack on someone's home. What play was this, anyway?

  Temujin explained to his generals: "Wang Khan has many soldiers, we have few, it's hard to win in a straightforward battle, so we must launch a surprise attack. I will release Tu Shi, give him lavish gifts, and pretend to be seriously injured by an arrow to the chest, so that they won't be on their guard, making it easier for us to launch a surprise attack."

  All the generals heard and unanimously admired Temujin's unparalleled wisdom and strategy.

  Temujin then ordered the release of the chiliarch who had been flogged and imprisoned, and rewarded him generously. The chiliarch, on hearing that he was to be sent against Wang Khan and Jamukha, was overjoyed, and begged to be allowed to lead the vanguard. Temujin agreed. The army divided into three routes, marching by day and resting at night, taking a detour through the mountains and valleys, capturing all the herdsmen they met on the way, so as not to reveal their military plans, and rushed towards Wang Khan's camp. By the next night, they arrived at Wang Khan's camp and launched a surprise attack on him.

  Wang Khan had not expected Temujin to launch a surprise attack, and his troops were completely unprepared. In the dark of night, they were suddenly attacked and thrown into chaos, quickly collapsing under the onslaught of Temujin's army. Fortunately, Jamukha's forces had been somewhat prepared beforehand, and under his leadership, they managed to hold off Temujin's surprise attack at the most critical moment, avoiding collapse along with Wang Khan's forces, instead engaging in a chaotic melee with Temujin's army.

  After a night of chaos, both sides suffered heavy losses. Although Wang Han's army was the largest, it also suffered the greatest loss due to its collapse in panic, with more than half of his men killed or scattered. By dawn, when Wang Han finally managed to regroup his troops, he had only about 20% of his original force left. His son Sangkun and grandson Dashizhong were both killed in the chaos. This was still thanks to Zhamaohe's army holding steady, otherwise not even this many men would have been left.

  Although the Zha Mu Hebu had some defense, after all, it was a surprise attack, and because they were stationed with the Wang Hanbu, while withstanding the impact of Temujin's army, they also suffered from the impact of the Wang Hanbu's chaotic army, and the loss was extremely heavy, with more than half of their troops lost. Fortunately, after surviving a night of chaos, they joined forces with the remnants of the Wang Hanbu at dawn and barely had the strength to fight another battle.

  Although Temujin's troops were elite and good at fighting, they also suffered losses of several thousand soldiers and horses, equivalent to two or three tenths of their total strength, which made Temujin feel heartbroken.

  Temujin saw the remnants of Wang Khan and Jamukha's troops gathering together, wanting to thoroughly defeat them would inevitably result in even greater losses, so he had no choice but to swallow his pride and retreat. Wang Khan and Jamukha's troops suffered heavy casualties, barely able to defend themselves, let alone pursue Temujin's army, so they could only watch as Temujin's army left.

  After this battle, the original grassland's first major power, Wang Khan, thoroughly declined, while Temujin's unit replaced Wang Khan as the grassland's first major unit. Temujin also gained a reputation from this battle and became the actual number one strongman on the grasslands. Often, nearby small tribes would come to surrender, further expanding Temujin's unit's influence.

  It was only because they failed to completely eliminate the Wang Han Department and the Zha Muhe Department, which made the two departments form a solid alliance against Temujin. The two departments were after all one of the largest on the grasslands, despite suffering heavy losses, but their combined strength was not to be underestimated. Although they were slightly weaker than Temujin's department in terms of momentum, they were not something that Temujin's department could completely defeat in a short period of time. For a fairly long period after this, the Mongolian grasslands maintained a state of two strong forces vying with each other.

  Ling Muyun lightly flapped her small wings, but it brought about a huge change in the history of the world of Shooting Hoopoe.