Chapter 27: Fury Sets the Prairie Ablaze (2)

  It was already midnight, and Gu Xin still hadn't fallen asleep.

  In the newly-born Jin regime, especially in the military, many high-ranking generals were very young and full of vigor. Like most young and brave warlords, Jurchen was still under thirty years old, but already one of the few fierce An of the Great Jin State. He was able to squeeze into the ranks of high-ranking generals at this age, not entirely because he came from the Tangkuo department of the eight departments of the Jurchen people, but more because of his bravery and calmness on the battlefield. Also for this reason, he was able to get the support of the Right Vice Marshal, letting him lead an army alone, escorting a large amount of supplies and Song Dynasty's imperial family members and women and children, in the first batch to return north.

  He wants to smooth out the route of this northward journey as much as possible, eliminating or expelling any remaining Song Dynasty military forces that could pose a threat to subsequent batches of troops and ensuring their safety. In a sense, he is undertaking the mission of an advance party.

  Since marching north, Gongsun has thought that he had done a good job. Not only were all the so-called righteous armies and horse bandits who dared to discuss the wild fire defeated by his crack troops, but they also fled in disarray. Moreover, he also brought along some counties, towns, and fortresses that had not yet surrendered on the periphery, sweeping them clean. Those local Song Dynasty militias and village braves were completely routed under the iron hooves of the great Jin army, unable to withstand a single blow.

  But in the past two days, Gu's good mood was ruined by two things: one was last night's sudden heavy rain, which caused many vehicles carrying Song women to collapse. Nearly a thousand young women were left homeless in the rain and had no choice but to take shelter in the military camp. As a result, it provoked his soldiers' animal instincts, causing them to repeatedly assault these "delicacies" that were delivered to their doorstep, resulting in many women either being raped to death or committing suicide out of shame.

  These women are all spoils of war listed on the register, and there are still many officials and soldiers in Dajin who have not participated in the southern expedition and are waiting to be assigned. Although the hardships of the march and the harsh environment along the way allow for some losses of spoils of war, such a large loss is also unacceptable.

  However, Gu Xin did not punish the participants for this reason. Because there were too many participants, and most of them were Jurchen Golden Soldiers, as well as some Khitan and Xi people. If they had really applied military law, even the lightest punishment of flogging, it would have damaged the morale and combat effectiveness of the army. Who would have defended the central camp then? And who would have suppressed the tribal signed armies?

  If this matter was still just an internal problem, it would only make Gong Xin feel annoyed. But the disappearance of a team of scouts two days ago and the sudden attack this morning, which resulted in the loss of five scouts without even seeing the enemy's appearance, made Gong Xin's heart suddenly produce a bad premonition.

  The loss of ten Jurchen crack troops is not a trivial matter, and for the foundation of the Great Jin Dynasty, Zixin understands it better than anyone else. The earliest foundation of the Great Jin Dynasty was the raw Jurchens from both banks of the Songhua River. The so-called "raw" and "cooked" Jurchens were initially divided by the Liao people. The Liao people referred to the Jurchen people within their jurisdiction as "cooked" Jurchens, while those farther away, outside their jurisdiction, were called "raw" Jurchens.

  Taizu Aguda, with only 2,700 troops lacking armor, relied on the brave and unparalleled true elite soldiers to rise up, winning battle after battle, with the army growing stronger and better equipped with each victory, ultimately overthrowing the Liao Empire, which had dominated the country for nearly two hundred years. He established the Jurchen people's own nation - the Jin Dynasty.

  Although the Jin Dynasty had been at war for over a decade and had plundered many places, the number of Jurchen households was not large. Including all the Raw Jurchens and the Cooked Jurchens, as well as some Bohai people and Sute people who had been Jurchenized, the total number of Jurchen households did not exceed 150,000. Assuming two able-bodied men per household joined the army, the total number of Jurchen soldiers in the Jin Dynasty was only around 2 million.

  In fact, this is just a theoretical number and not all males are suitable for military service. Among them, some are underage, some are old and weak, some have disabilities, some do not meet the physical requirements... etc. After deducting these factors, the total number of troops in Da Jin nationwide is actually only around 100,000 to 200,000, and it's impossible for all of them to be elite soldiers.

  The elite standard in the Golden Army, apart from being proficient in archery and horsemanship, and being brave in battle, also has certain hard indicators. For example, how many battles have been participated in, whether the combat experience is rich enough, how many enemy heads have been beheaded, etc. Calculated this way, those who can be called elite soldiers are only about half of the whole army. As for the sentry cavalry, which requires higher individual combat quality and comprehensive combat literacy, the requirements in this aspect are naturally more stringent.

  This army of nearly 5,000 people, the Jurchen soldiers were less than 2,000, and could be considered elite troops. The ones sent out as scouts were only about 500 or 600 people. This was indeed the cream of the crop, and losing ten at once was unbearable - in fact, he didn't know that another ten of his scouts stationed on the north bank of the Wan River had been killed, otherwise Gongsun would have probably gone to rescue them.

  As for what the soldiers under his command reported, this morning they took a wooden raft to cross the river and killed five sentinel cavalrymen, those few Song people are somewhat hard to believe. When have there been such powerful Song people? He followed Right Vice Marshal Zong Wang from Yanshan to Bianjing, and then from Bianjing back to Yanshan, fighting against the Song army was like driving ducks, even the supposedly most elite Western Army and Imperial Guards of the Great Song military were no exception.

  He spoke of the new solidification this time, first sending Beiren back, and on the way, there were not many dare to launch a surprise attack by the righteous army and horse thieves. He successively defeated dozens of them, killing no less than a thousand people, and he lost only over a hundred people. Among these losses, most were Han soldiers, a small part were Khitan soldiers, and only five Jurchen people were injured and three died. As for the elite scouts, not one was lost.

  In Genghis' view, these volunteer armies from Hebei and the bandits were no less powerful than the elite Western Army of the Song Dynasty, and were even more flexible and effective in terms of tactics. However, they still failed to inflict much damage on his great army. But a few Song people who suddenly appeared out of nowhere were like a few annoying mosquitoes that sucked his blood when he was not paying attention, and made him "itch" until now, and there was no way to swat them away...

  The death of a whole squadron was enough to shock and anger Genghis Khan, but what shocked and bewildered him even more was that these few Song soldiers had used what kind of weapon to wipe out the entire squadron so quickly and lethally?

  Gu Xin examined the wounds on the five vanguard corpses, and with his rich combat experience of over a decade, he couldn't figure out what kind of weapon had caused those tiny, finger-sized injuries. The only thing that could be confirmed was that these injuries were all penetrating wounds, some piercing through the skull, others through the chest and abdomen, and even the hard horse head had been pierced through.

  The divine arm bow of the Song army did have such a strong penetrating force, but no arrow was found on the scene, and even if the divine arm bow was powerful, it would not be possible to penetrate five people and one horse. The bed crossbow might be possible... But as a defensive tool for guarding the city, no one has ever heard of taking it to the battlefield. And even the smallest bed crossbow requires more than ten people to operate; the smallest arrow is also as thick as a gun barrel... These don't add up!

  The unknown, powerful weapon weighed heavily on Genghis Khan's mind, and he wandered around until deep in the night. Even the family entertainers from the mansion of Cai You (son of Cai Jing), a former high-ranking official of the Song Dynasty, who had been quite infatuated with him for several days, could not lift his spirits, and were sent back to their quarters.

  After pacing back and forth for a long time, he still couldn't get to the bottom of it, and let out a deep sigh, just as he was about to take a rest. Suddenly, a report came from outside the tent: "Mang Anbu, there's an emergency!"

  "Quickly pass it on!"

  A sweaty Jin soldier rushed in, knelt down and reported: "General, on the banks of the Wan River, we found the corpses of ten of our scouts, including one Shizhang and two Wuzhang..."

  "What?!" Gu Xin's face suddenly changed color, and he grabbed the collar of that golden soldier, "Say it again!"

  Na Jinbing's face turned pale, and he gritted his teeth: "Our army has ten scouts killed, and the enemy has infiltrated the central camp..."

  It seems that another Golden Soldier rushed in from outside, his face a mixture of shock and anger: "Ba Yi, something's happened! The Han army camp on the south side of the main camp suddenly burst into flames, and the whole camp is in chaos!"

  Gu Xin kicked away the kneeling Jin soldier in front of him and rushed out of the tent. Indeed, three miles southwest of the main camp of the Central Army, the Han army's camp was ablaze, with flames shooting up to the sky, illuminating half of the night sky, and the sound of shouting and wailing could be faintly heard.

  Gu Xin's face turned pale, and he gave a stern order: "A Mu Tai, you lead a group of elite soldiers to the Khitan camp, mobilize the five thousand Khitan soldiers, surround the Han army camp, and see what happens!"

  A golden-robed general standing behind Gongsun Zan received the order and left. This was Ah Mu Tai, Gongsun's personal bodyguard captain, brave and calm, with rich experience in handling sudden events. Let him lead six hundred cavalry to surround the Han army camp, whether there are enemies sneaking in to sabotage or the Han army launching a rebellion, believe that this capable subordinate can handle it effectively.

  Guo Ziyi gave the order at the same time, and the scouts patrolling on the north bank of the Wan River were not allowed to be recalled. Instead, they strengthened their vigilance and searched for enemy tracks as soon as possible. Moreover, 300 Khitan soldiers from various tribes were dispatched to build rafts to cross the Wan River and search for enemy traces on the other side.

  Under the night sky, the Jin army's central camp was bustling with activity. From time to time, Jin soldiers hastily put on their armor and grasped their weapons, emerging from their tents, leading war horses, and mounting them in one swift motion. In the darkness, horse silhouettes galloped rapidly but orderly to gather at the drill grounds within the camp, then under the command of their superiors, they brandished torches, wielded swords and bows, let out strange cries like night owls, and with a thunderous clatter of hooves, rushed out of the camp.