Chapter 3, Huma Invades the Border

  The trees in this forest are not densely packed, but there are low-hanging branches that obstruct the way from time to time. The horses ridden by Zu Chao and his men were all tall and majestic northern steeds, each one standing at least eight feet high, and with their riders added on top, it was really difficult to navigate through the dense thicket. Fortunately, everyone's horsemanship was superb, and slowing down a bit in speed still allowed them to move freely among the trees.

  The three-mile journey was over in an instant, and the woods grew more and more sparse.

  The plain outside the forest is in sight, and with a glance, one can see that there is a team stationed not far ahead. The team has seven or eight horse-drawn carriages, but more than half of the horses have disappeared, leaving only two horse-drawn carriages on the southern periphery still equipped with horses, which are leisurely lowering their heads to eat grass. Near the carriage team, many pieces of luggage and trunks are scattered all over the place, and even damaged carriages can be seen, with three or four corpses lying among the wreckage, while several survivors are hiding behind a horse-drawn carriage, covering their heads and crying bitterly.

  Zu Zhaowan said with a dark expression: Have the barbarians succeeded?

  He burst out of the woods and subconsciously cracked his whip to speed up, riding with the wind to arrive in front of the convoy.

  Those survivors were frightened when they heard the sound of horseshoes, and they cried even harder, shrinking their bodies. Until one of them felt that the direction of the sound was not right, he plucked up his courage to raise his head and take a look, then shouted loudly as if he had been rescued.

  Zu Zhao pulled the reins on one side of the carriage where the survivors were hiding, took a glance at these people and found that they were all wearing white clothes, apparently either merchants or lower servants. He immediately asked without hesitation: "Where did the thieves go?"

  The survivors were stunned, they saw that Zu Zhao and others were not wearing armor, and didn't even have decent weapons. At this time, instead of thinking about rescuing themselves, they wanted to go after the Hu people's horse thieves, which was quite arrogant. However, Zu Zhao's loud question was full of energy, and despite his young age, he exuded an unquestionable aura of authority, with a heroic air that made people dare not slack off.

  "They went west... My young mistress was taken away by them..." A man trembled with fear and pointed in a direction.

  "How many bandits are there? How long have they been gone?" Zu Zhao continued to ask.

  "Many... many..."

  "How much more of this?!" Zu Zhao glared and asked loudly.

  "Six or seven tens of people... They just left a short while ago." Another person hastily added.

  "You all go ahead and take the horse carriage east, about twenty miles is the Lulong Pass. Ancestor Qi, we will continue to chase." Zu Zhao did not give a quick order, after finishing speaking, he whipped his horse and rushed in the direction that person pointed.

  Zu Ji Man was excited, even knowing that the bandits outnumbered them three to one, but his face showed no fear. He responded loudly and then tapped the horse's buttocks with the longbow in his hand, closely following behind Zu Zhao. Seeing Zu Zhao and Zu Ji, two brave young men leading the way, the other followers did not dare to retreat, shouting as they rode up together.

  He chased after them in hot pursuit, with many thoughts swirling in his mind. He was no fool and not one to act impulsively, so why would he lead a group of twenty or so servants against a much larger band of Huns? Even regular soldiers would find it daunting, let alone a motley crew of household staff. Yet he had to pursue them for several reasons: firstly, because he had always taken a strong stance against foreign invasions in the past few years and today was no exception; secondly, after lying low for so many years, it was time to show off his skills and earn a reputation for bravery; thirdly, he wasn't entirely without confidence - the nomadic tribes of the north didn't have a complete military system during the late Eastern Han dynasty, they were just a bunch of pastoralists who banded together to make a quick buck, so it was more a battle of morale and psychological warfare than numbers.

  With his equipment transcending the ages, including a saddle and stirrups, plus his arduous training in riding and shooting, he would be able to defeat these "herdsmen" by employing a tactic of gradual exhaustion, knocking down seven or eight of them at a time, which would be enough to crush their morale. Any bandit who covets wealth does not have the courage of conviction, this is where his confidence lies.

  The road to the west had a slight ups and downs, after chasing for a while, after crossing a small hill, I saw a large group of people and horses rushing at a moderate speed about five miles northwest. The Hu people all wore coarse cotton clothes, wearing cotton hats or accompanied by animal skin fur, looking from a distance were all dark tones. Those Han people who were taken away by the Hu people were mostly dressed in bright and elegant clothes, which were very eye-catching among the crowd.

  The hostages who were kidnapped did not stop crying and struggling, causing the team to drag on for a long time and become very loose.

  It was extremely advantageous for Zuozhao. He judged the direction of the wind, turned around and shouted to the crowd behind him: "Follow the west wind and go around their left wing."

  The attendants turned their heads to each other and continued to advance quickly in a northwest direction.

  The last few people of the Hu tribe heard the sound of horseshoes behind them and soon discovered the figures of Zu Zhao and others. They immediately waved their long-handled weapons and rushed forward, shouting loudly at the main force. After a while, the Hu tribe's team gradually changed, with about 20 people holding hostages continuing to move forward, while the remaining horses turned around in a circle and then turned back to face Zu Zhao, shouting and charging. It was clear that they did not take the pursuit team of only 20 people seriously.

  The Huns who came to meet them were not few in number, roughly counting nearly fifty. These herdsmen were also very experienced in archery, knowing that they had to occupy the upper wind position, which happened to be directly opposite Zuo Zhao and his men.

  Indeed, there are two of them!

  Zu Zhaoyin was secretly cold and hummed, but in his heart, he didn't dare to be careless. At this moment, he couldn't easily change direction, even if he couldn't seize the upper hand, he wouldn't let the Hu people take advantage of him. If the Hu people wanted to surround them, they would inevitably slow down a beat in speed, and then they could act according to their pre-planned tactics. The worst result was that the two troops were on two parallel lines, shooting each other with bows and arrows.

  "Maintain formation, maintain speed. It's better not to shoot arrows than to be slower than the enemy." As the barbarians drew closer and closer, Zu Zhao gave orders to the people behind him with a sideways glance.

  "Great Master, if you don't shoot, how can we?" asked Zu Ji from a short distance behind.

  "Take action when you see the opportunity, don't let the enemy surround us." Zu Zhao instructed.

  Zu Ji was confused for a moment, originally thinking it would be a fierce battle, but now it's become a competition to see who can run faster, which is really frustrating.

  The barbarian troops approached from the side and rear, but stopped at a distance of over 100 paces. They didn't try to get any closer, or else they would have ended up even farther away. Relying on their numerical superiority, they kept letting out loud, coarse laughter, and every now and then a few feathered arrows flew in, but since they were downwind and too far away, there was no possibility of hitting anything.

  Zu Zhao turned his head and took a rough estimate of the distance between the two sides, everything was already within his expectations.

  He swiftly drew out a longbow and an arrow from behind his back, shifted the center of gravity to the stirrup, twisted his waist and turned around, opening the bowstring in the process, aiming at the nearest Hu person with green jade on his hat. This Hu person had been charging at the front of the team from start to finish, as if he was the leader of this group of horse bandits, and capturing the bandits must start with capturing the king.

  It's not an easy thing to shoot through a hundred paces, let alone on the back of a galloping horse. However, being upwind and having the advantage of stirrups, there is still some confidence in creating intimidation.

  Hold your breath, steady your bow, and carefully grasp the rhythm of the horse's galloping.

  In an instant, he released the bowstring and the arrow flew out with a sharp whistling sound.

  The leading barbarian had already sensed Zu Chao's bowing posture early on, and after hearing the arrow whizzing sound, he hastily lowered his head and dodged to the side. However, the whistling feathered arrow first grazed the head of his mount, then swept across his own shoulder, although avoiding the vital parts, it resulted in the arrow that passed through ultimately hitting another barbarian who was closely following behind him.

  "Ah!" The wounded Hu man let out a loud cry, clung to the horseback for a while, then shook and fell down, swallowed by the rolling dust under the horse's hooves.

  Although it was a lucky shot, this arrow still surprised everyone.

  The leading barbarian was furious and fearful, after a burst of shouting, he also opened his bow and shot two arrows at Zu Zhao. The rest of the barbarians followed suit, shooting out more than ten arrows in a scattered manner, but unfortunately it wasn't windy, and there were no stirrups, so they had to slow down their horse speed when aiming, and the arrows they shot couldn't even catch up with Zu Zhao, let alone the last few followers of his team.

  The more than ten arrows shot by the Hu people all fell in vain, not only losing their own face, but also setting off Zu Zhao's prestige.

  The stark contrast immediately triggered the loud cheers of Zu Chao's entourage, and even Zu Ji waved his longbow and shouted, while turning back to make a face at those barbarians.

  Zu Chao heard the cheers of the crowd and was suddenly inspired. What could be more damaging to morale than mocking the enemy? As soon as he thought of this, he turned his head and said magnificently to the entourage: "Such untransformed people dare to be enemies with the great Han men, it's really a joke. Watch me shoot him off his horse."

  The crowd of followers echoed in unison: "Great Master, divine and martial!"

  As soon as he finished speaking, Zu Chao bent his bow and loaded an arrow, aiming once again at the leader of the bejeweled barbarians.

  The leading barbarian saw this and quickly slowed down his horse's speed, hiding himself among the crowd.

  Zu Zhao's mouth curled up in a cold smile, and the arrow he had shot earlier was already taking effect. He didn't intend to deliberately stare at the leader of the barbarians, but instead chose the nearest horse thief as his target, wanting to let these barbarian horses know what it means to shoot the bird that sticks its head out. As the bowstring reached its full moon shape, he intentionally shouted "Bullseye!" at the same time as releasing the arrow, deliberately creating an intimidating atmosphere.

  The crowd of horses had already turned cowardly at the time of the leader's retreat, and now hearing Zu Zhao's loud shout, they hadn't even seen the flying arrows, and the people in front of the team immediately scrambled to dodge. The first person, because his dodging movement was too big, and without a saddle and stirrups to stabilize his posture, fell off the horse's back in an instant, still holding onto the reins, and was dragged by the horse for a good while, finally disappearing into the rolling dust amidst heart-wrenching screams.

  As for whether the arrow shot by Zu Zhao actually hit its target, no one was clear, but the followers couldn't care less about that and all shouted loudly: "Another hit, indeed another hit."

  "A hundred steps through the poplar forest, nothing surpasses this."

  "The Great Master's Divine Archery Technique."

  "You barbarian little kid, how dare you chase me again?"

  Happy New Year! The winter break is approaching, and the year-end is also approaching. I am currently preparing to shoot a short film in Xiamen with several classmates from Communication University of China. I wish all readers everything goes smoothly, and I also hope that everything goes smoothly for myself.