Chapter Thirty-Five: Fate

  Suddenly, a urgent whistle sounded in the south camp, and two arrow towers near the gate shot out a rain of arrows. At the same time, the gate slowly closed.

  The soldiers who can stand guard at night on the arrow tower are all excellent archers. Although there are not many people, only ten people on each arrow tower, but the arrows they shoot out are very accurate, just blocking the road where the enemy is about to rush forward. Qian Budelib specifically asked the archer to learn to use throwing to shoot in advance, don't worry about wasting arrows, no arrows can be made again, but opportunities are gone and cannot be retrieved.

  With a loud shout, he urged his war horse to speed up and charge forward. A rain of arrows shot down, and six or seven soldiers behind him cried out in agony as they fell off their horses.

  Another urgent whistle sounded, and the arrow tower shot out another rain of arrows. Zhan Han gritted his teeth and continued to charge forward, his bow already drawn into a full moon shape, but he hesitated to release it. Many grassland warriors could shoot through a hundred paces, but the range of shooting with a bow and arrow was far greater than direct shooting. However, using indirect shooting against the archers on the arrow tower was useless. To kill the enemy, they had to charge within a certain distance and shoot directly.

  When the third whistle sounded inside the southern camp, Zhan Han finally shot out his first arrow. The arrow flew like a meteor towards the arrow tower and hit the neck of a soldier in the southern camp with incredible accuracy. The soldier didn't even have time to let out a miserable cry before he fell to the ground.

  Wang Rui made a gesture, the gong sounded, and the archers on the arrow tower all bowed down, hiding behind the wooden fence. In the rear where the arrows could not reach, a soldier was standing on a high watchtower, holding a small yellow flag in his hand, pointing to the direction of the vanguard's movement, constantly changing with the movement of the vanguard.

  Wang Rui turned his head and looked at the direction pointed by the small yellow flag, and whispered: "High arm, throw!"

  The army of the Zhou Dynasty knew the power of throwing, but did not have an accurate ruler as a standard, so they could only use the flat arm and vertical arm as standards, setting three standards: initial lift, lift, and high lift, covering the three regions in front.

  More than 50 archers behind Wang Rui drew their bows and shot in the direction he pointed, the vanguard of the Tangut army took advantage of the time difference to pass through the covered area smoothly, but the rear team was not so lucky. Under the arrow rain, some soldiers fell from their horses with a miserable cry, while others were thrown far away due to the wounded war horse under them.

  Jamukha, who was watching from the rear, felt a great pain in his heart. If this were a battle on the steppes, some casualties would be nothing, but now he only had one thousand-man unit left, and with three volleys of arrows, he lost more than thirty of his brave warriors, which was unbearable for him.

  "Fall back! Sound the horn and fall back at once!!" Jamukha bellowed.

  Jamuqa still wanted to fight again, but Jamukha's military orders were extremely strict, and in the end he led a group of war horses to retreat to the rear.

  The whistle sounded again, and the archers in the arrow tower stood up one after another, stubbornly starting to chase and shoot. The archers under Wang Rui also shot arrows in the direction indicated by the yellow flag.

  When he returned to the main camp, his hundred-man squad had lost more than half of its men. Temujin hung his head in shame and dared not speak, while Jamukha's face turned iron-gray. A small test had cost him nearly a tenth of his troops; although losing his composure was partly to blame, Temujin's mistake was greater!

  The archers on the tower were still shooting arrows, this time targeting the wounded soldiers who were struggling and shouting on the ground. The sound of arrogant insults and maniacal laughter carried through the wind. Jamukha could no longer control his emotions, raised his whip and struck it heavily against Khutulun's face, bellowing: "Bastard! Didn't I tell you to be careful?! You brainless bastard!!"

  Bang... Bang... Two more bloody marks appeared on his sticky face, he didn't dare to resist, letting his big brother vent his anger.

  "Pass down the order, raise the fire!" King Rui smiled and issued his own command.

  One lantern after another lit up, and the southern camp became bright again. However, there was a slight difference from before - three exceptionally dazzling large red lanterns rose high on the watchtower. Unfortunately, Mu Ke, who was in charge of disturbing the enemy, wouldn't notice this subtle difference at all, not even taking a glance at the lanterns.

  Zha Mu He coldly gazed at the front, filled with a triumphant aura of the enemy camp. In his heart, he felt both hatred and urgency, as well as pain. Now he finally understood that the opponent had never intended to engage in a night battle with him, but rather used his own tactics against him! Hadn't he wanted to use a strategy to disrupt the enemy? Look at it now... He led the entire camp's men and horses to wait outside for half a night, while his opponent was probably comfortably lying in bed, laughing loudly.

  Zha Mu's heart was filled with unprecedented shame, the defeat at Lu Ri Gorge could be explained as being too impatient and careless, but what about now? How can this time of being controlled by others be explained?!

  "Ah... That something Muhe, thank you for playing with us!"

  Want to play with our general? Haha...

  "There are poor people everywhere under the sky, but you are the poorest!"

  "Are you kidding me? Standing outside in the middle of the night like a fool, aren't you cold or hungry?"

  "Come on over, we've got fine wine here, come, come, come, as long as you can get in, we'll give you a drink..."

  Several soldiers on the arrow tower deliberately raised their wine jars, although they were so far away that the other side could not easily see what they were holding, but if they didn't do this, they couldn't vent the pain in their hearts.

  A few specially selected loudmouths had considerable power, Zhamuhe only felt dizzy, he knew that being fooled by the enemy was one thing, but if everyone knew it would be another matter, and his face would be gone! Zhamuhe clenched his fists tightly, squeezing out a few words from between his teeth: "Come on, pass the order down, retreat immediately!"

  "Yes, Your Majesty." At this moment, no one dared to say another word, lest they provoke the Khan and suffer dire consequences.

  "Muak!!"

  Muk cautiously approached him.

  "Now our soldiers are exhausted and the horses are tired, it's the best time for the southern army to launch a surprise attack! You lead a team of 100 people to explore near the southern camp, if there is any abnormality, immediately return to the camp to report, absolutely cannot be careless!" Zhamuhe has reached this point and can still make wise judgments, which shows that his experience is very rich. However, this time his opponent was really too difficult to deal with, and didn't play by the usual rules, it seemed like the outcome had already been decided...