Chapter 66: Encounter

  In the late afternoon, the orange sunset cast a brilliant blood-red glow over the vast grasslands that were a mixture of green and yellow.

  A gentle brook, tender green grass, cunning groundhogs, agile wild rabbits, fluttering butterflies, soaring black eagles, and the vast prairie all seem so peaceful and serene at this moment.

  A sudden clatter of hooves came from behind a small slope.

  "Beyond this small mound is a river. Let's spend the night on this mound and return to Jiuyuan tomorrow. Drive!"

  "Great, tomorrow Little Wu can go home and see his wife!" "Haha!" "Let's go!"

  With a loud shout, a group of black-armored knights appeared on the mound, and to their surprise, it was the same scouting party that had set out from Jiuyuan earlier.

  At the foot of the earthen mountain, there was indeed a small river as the previous person had said. The ten Black Armor Knights suddenly let out a cheer and rode their horses down from the earthen mountain, charging towards the small river with a loud whoop.

  Only leaving behind a bunch of chaotic slogans such as "What's long and bright" and "What's long old man's family is mighty", Shi Chang smiled bitterly at a group of joyful soldiers, "A group of little rabbits, am I that old?" Then he rode his horse down the mountain slope.

  He called others little rabbits, completely forgetting his own young face.

  Xiao Wu and the others who had rushed down earlier got off their horses to prepare dinner, finally having water they could eat a hot meal, two or three of the Black Armor Knights even jumped directly into the small river to wash up, drawing loud curses from Xiao Wu and the others preparing dinner.

  The narrow riverbank suddenly became lively.

  Young Shang hurriedly said, "Have you forgotten the rules? On the grassland, one can see dozens of miles away. Now that we have entered deep into the grassland, if the smoke from cooking exposes our tracks, our lives are at stake, and if we miss the military information, we will be doomed. No fire is allowed, let's just eat dry rations and wash up quickly."

  "How long, we've walked into this grassland for hundreds of miles, not even a single hair has been seen, who would have thought that someone would discover us? For the past few days, eating dry rations, our mouths are almost dried up like birds. Now that there's water, please be kind and let us have a hot meal."

  A sturdy soldier, crouching down by a small stream to wash his armor and drinking water from an iron helmet.

  The rest of the soldiers also persuaded them, and a few people who were preparing to cook saw that the squad leader was expressionless and not speaking, and quietly put away the pot.

  "Brothers, it's not that I don't want to eat hot meals, but think about it, we've already ventured over 500 miles into this vast grassland, yet we haven't even seen a single flock of grazing sheep. Would it have been like this in the past?"

  Our Great Qin soldiers have never plundered the herdsmen grazing on this prairie. In the past, just after leaving Jiuyuan and not even a hundred miles away, we could see Xiongnu people herding. Is it normal now? That's why I led my brothers to penetrate deep into the northern prairies of Yinshan for five hundred miles.

  Until now, not a single tribe or sheep has been seen, although no Xiongnu cavalry has been found, but this strange phenomenon can already explain that the Xiongnu will definitely take action against our Great Qin. We must be vigilant." Shi Chang said with a heavy heart.

  The rest of the soldiers heard what their commander said, and they all lost their morale, hastily packing up and silently gnawing on their dry rations.

  The sun has set and the sky is getting darker.

  The scouts' party also went up to a small hill and rested in a mountain pass. One of them came to the river bank, carefully cleaned up all the places where horse dung and hoof prints could leave traces, and only after making sure that nothing was out of the ordinary did he lie down again.

  "What's going on? Are the Xiongnu really going to move south?"

  A low voice sounded softly beside Shiqiang, it was Little Wu sleeping beside Shiqiang.

  "I have a feeling that the Xiongnu army is just ahead. Unfortunately, our rations are not enough and we cannot advance further." Shi Chang said in a low voice, gazing at the dark northern landscape shrouded in nightfall.

  "Uh..."

  "Shh!"

  Shi Chang interrupted Xiao Wu's words and made a silencing gesture, leaning in to listen carefully.

  A faint rumbling sound like thunder, similar to the sound of horse hooves, came from afar in the north and gradually became clearer.

  The rest of the soldiers in the squad also heard the sound of horseshoes coming from the north at this time, and they all opened their eyes, gripped their weapons tightly, turned over and sat up.

  "Go! Put a muzzle on all the horses and wrap cloth around their hooves. Hurry up." Shi Chang gave the order in a low voice. Upon hearing Shi Chang's command, the rest of the soldiers quickly went into action and soon returned to Shi Chang's side fully dressed.

  "What's going on? Who is it?" Little Wu asked softly.

  "What else could it be? It must be the Xiongnu people." The robust soldier who had spoken earlier by the river chimed in.

  "Nobody speak. Inspect the crossbows, load the bolts. The approaching cavalry scouts are from the Xiongnu, over 40 riders. Everyone be cautious and wait for my command to act. Anyone who disobeys military orders will be executed!"

  Shi Chong's deep voice commanded, Shi Chong, who had long been in contact with the Xiongnu people, easily identified the identity and number of the incoming people.

  "Ah!"

  As for the Xiongnu cavalry scouts, these elite scouts of the Great Qin were all very familiar with them. Before each major battle, the first to engage in combat would be small groups of cavalry scouts from both sides. Like the Great Qin, the Xiongnu's scout cavalry was also composed of the bravest and most elite warriors.

  However, each small team of Xiongnu scouts had more than 40 people, while the Qin cavalry scout teams generally had only ten people. Of course, the formation of these ten people was also carefully planned, and with the excellent equipment of the Qin army, every battle between the two armies' scouts was extremely bloody and cruel.

  It turned out that the group of people coming over were actually the Xiongnu cavalry scouts, and all the scouts hastily stood at attention. They began to carefully inspect their bows, arrows, crossbows and armor equipment in their hands.

  The sound of hooves was getting closer, and occasionally a few strange tones came through, which was the commander of the Xiongnu scout team issuing orders. All the Xiongnu cavalrymen except for the commander's occasional orders were completely silent, apparently all well-trained elite troops.

  In an instant, more than 40 robust Xiongnu cavalrymen with disheveled hair and wearing simple white deerskin coats appeared on horseback in the twilight.

  The Xiongnu cavalry also discovered the narrow and shallow river at this time. The leading one, a tall knight wearing simple leather armor, let out a strange shout, and more than 40 Xiongnu cavalrymen galloped towards the place where the Qin army scouts had been stationed below the small earth mound.

  The place where the Qin army's scouts had rested was a small bend in this river, with water on three sides and a broad plain of over 50 zhang wide next to a small hill, with only the east side of the hill accessible, while the other three directions were endless grasslands.

  It is clear that this Xiongnu leader was very cautious.

  The Xiongnu cavalry had already dismounted and were washing their horses in the river. The leader of the scouts rode around, looking at several places, then shouted loudly and pointed to a few cavalrymen. These cavalrymen heard the leader's words and explained a few sentences, while another cavalryman wearing armor also said a few words. After that, the leader seemed to give up something and dismounted to start washing his horse as well.

  The leader was abandoned, and the several cavalrymen who were pointed out laughed loudly and said something. The Xiongnu cavalry took down the tents tied to their horsebacks, lit a fire and started cooking. There were many wolf packs on the vast grassland, and these people obviously intended to spend the night here.

  Young Shanyu in the mountain valley could speak Xiongnu language, which was a necessary skill for Jiuyuan's scolding Shanyu.

  He heard it very clearly, the leader wanted these children to go up to the earth mountain and check around, but these cavalrymen were unwilling. The latter one who seemed to be a leader-like cavalryman said, "This place is more than 500 miles away from the Jiuyuan border. The Qin army doesn't know that the Xiongnu will move south, how can there be enemies?"

  It seems that the leader also thought so, and immediately gave up the idea of sending someone to patrol.

  The Qin army scouts in the mountain pass saw the Xiongnu cavalry scouts setting up camp in the place where they had just rested, and couldn't help but take a look at what was going on.

  Everyone knows that if they hadn't erased the traces left behind, the leader would have definitely discovered them. Now facing four times as many Xiongnu cavalrymen, they are sure to die rather than live, and escaping with their lives is probably the only choice left.

  The Huns cavalry drank sheep's milk wine, ate roasted mutton loudly, and shouted boisterously. The small riverbank was suddenly noisy beyond compare. The Qin army scouts hiding in the mountain valley were less than fifty meters away from them.

  "What's going on? Forty-two Xiongnu barbarians, are we leaving or making a move?" A sturdy soldier heard the aroma of roasted mutton in the air, licked his lips and said in a low voice, with bloodthirsty gleams shooting out from his eyes.

  The rest of the soldiers heard his words and looked at the young captain, with the same bloodthirsty gleam in each of their eyes.

  The soldiers of the Great Qin have never been intimidated!

  "Let's finish this! So Xiaowu can go back and marry a beautiful bride!" Shizhang turned his head to glance at the soldiers, who were all eager for battle, and said in a low voice, but with no less killing intent.

  "You are ready, listen to my command and act!" Shi Chang ordered in a low voice.

  "Ah!"

  Thank you ~ emotional support from brothers who gave rewards.)