Chapter Thirty-Six: Sneak Attack

  "Sir, look! General Wang has raised the lanterns!" a soldier whispered in Qin Chong's ear.

  Qin Chong tilted his head to the side, narrowed his eyes and looked over. Although they were already ten miles away from their own camp, the large red lanterns in the dark night were very eye-catching, and he could clearly see three shining red stars.

  Qin Chong focused his attention forward again, his cavalry squad hiding behind a small snow mound, while he himself brought three soldiers with excellent archery skills to lie on the snow mound, guarding against enemy scouts.

  The most dangerous time was when a scouting party of four people galloped past the snow ridge, and if anyone made a sound or a warhorse whinnied, it would have exposed the entire cavalry squad and ruined the commander's plan! Qin Chong's heart almost jumped out, fortunately, in the end, it was only a false alarm, and the scouting party quickly galloped past the snow ridge.

  There was another time when it was a narrow escape... A scout from the Flying Eagle tribe came straight at the snow ridge, Qin gave an order on horseback, two people shot the man and two people shot the horse, and knocked down the scout with ease. Although the person was killed, they still had to destroy the body and leave no trace, in case other scouts saw it and things went wrong. As a result, when moving the "body" of the opponent, the scout who hadn't died yet suddenly launched a surprise attack, pulled out a dagger and stabbed a soldier's shoulder. If the soldier who was stabbed hadn't instinctively dodged to one side, this knife would have accurately stabbed his neck.

  There was no more harassment from the scouts, especially now that most of the Flying Eagle tribe's scouts were suppressed near the southern camp, and here it seemed calm.

  "Sir, the lantern has fallen!" a soldier exclaimed in a low, excited voice.

  Qin Chong raised his eyes and saw three red stars shaking down, the time had come! Qin Chong's heart was boiling. He joined the army at the age of seventeen and served in Jixi Pass, fighting many battles with the Flying Eagle tribe, but at that time, except for defense, it was still defense. He rose from an ordinary soldier to a sergeant because he stood on the city wall and shot dead a provocative hundred-man commander with an arrow. The army of the Zhou Dynasty rarely had the opportunity to leave the city to fight.

  That battlefield seemed to be specially prepared for the warriors of the Flying Eagle Tribe, with surprise attacks, strong offensives, night battles, camp raids, and provocations. They had a hundred moves, and all the heroes were from the Flying Eagle Tribe, while the generals and soldiers of the Ji Zhou Kingdom could only stand on the city walls, enduring and defending.

  Is it finally my turn? Qin Chong gripped the spear tightly in his hand, its tip trembling slightly. With a cavalry squad of 90 riders, they were launching a surprise attack on the elite light cavalry of the prairie eagle, Zamukha! What an honor! Just thinking about it made Qin Chong unable to control the excitement in his heart. Even if he died here today, it would be worth it!

  "Follow me!" Qin Chung gave the order in a low voice, this is the most fundamental difference between civilian generals and noble generals. Most civilian generals would say "Follow me!" when giving orders, while most noble generals would say "Charge for me!". Although the meaning of the words is very close, the courage and combat effectiveness brought to the soldiers are vastly different.

  A lone cavalry squad, slowly circled around in a big circle, all the way to the rear of Jumuhe's camp. With Qin Chong's action of drawing his bow, the speed of the cavalry squad changed from slow to fast, like a sharp arrow, shooting straight towards Jumuhe's camp.

  Faster! Faster! Qin urged the war horse on, whipping it with all his might. Five hundred paces... Four hundred paces... At this moment, many of the cloth wraps tied to the horse's hooves were thrown off, and the sound of the horse's hooves grew louder. When they reached two hundred paces, the alarm horn finally sounded within Zhamuhe's camp. Qin suddenly pulled out a fire starter, lit it, and held it horizontally in his mouth, letting the flames flying backwards scorch his hair. His eyes were still fixed intently on the enemy camp.

  Qin Chong pulled out an arrow with a oil ball, ignited it on the fire starter, then drew his bow and shot the burning arrow into Zha Muhe's camp like a meteor. Following closely behind was a meteor shower consisting of nearly a hundred arrows, pouring down like a deluge.

  The southern army's camp quietly opened, and many soldiers ran out to move the deer horns and horse-tripping ropes placed in front of the camp, laying wooden boards on the pitfalls and clearing the iron caltrops from the ground. Of course, their movements did not escape the scouts under Mu Ke, who immediately sounded the alarm with bugle calls. Mu Ke brought his own guards to the front of the southern camp to observe carefully, and based on his decades of experience in battlefield battles, Mu Ke quickly determined that the southern army was not making a false move - they were preparing for a full-scale attack!

  "Come quickly and report back to the Khan, the Southern Army..."

  "General!" A scout's panicked cry interrupted Muk's order: "Our main camp..."

  Mu Ke suddenly turned his head, gazing afar at his own camp which had already burst into flames. Mu Ke's mind buzzed with a loud hum, Enemy raid? But how did the Southern Army bypass his scouts? This is impossible, absolutely impossible!!

  "What shall we do, sir?" one of the scouts cried out anxiously. The south camp's gate was open, revealing a cavalry troop that was fierce and fully prepared. It was clear that if they continued to linger here, there would be no way out but death!

  Mook turned back and took a look, he clearly knew how many cavalrymen the Southern Army had, judging from the number of cavalrymen in the camp. The Southern Army's sneak attack on their own camp would not exceed 200 people at most. Thinking of this, Mook's anger rose to his throat: "Blow the horn! Kids, all follow me!" Before he was punished by General Da Han, he wanted to make the Southern Army's troops who sneaked into their own camp pay a heavy price!

  Qin Chong didn't have the absurd idea of just rushing past with a small cavalry squad, let alone that Commander He had repeatedly instructed him not only to complete the task but also to bring his brothers back safely. So Qin Chong chose to pass by the flank 50 meters away from Jamukha's camp.

  The fifth arrow was shot by Qin Chong, who had already charged past the enemy's camp and was now holding a spear, having put down his longbow. He saw that the enemy scouts were gathering, and the mission to launch a surprise attack had been accomplished. The remaining task was to bring back as many brothers as possible.

  When Zha Muhe rushed out of the commander's tent, he looked at the miserable scene in the whole camp and was so angry that he almost fainted. Some generals' first reaction was to lead their men out to pursue and kill, while others were organizing fire rescue efforts. The confusion among the generals left the imperial guards at a loss for what to do.

  "Keshe, bring two hundred men with you and follow me! Chahar, take the rest of the men to put out the fire!" Jamukha shouted loudly, jumping onto his warhorse led over by his personal guards: "Children, let's go!"