Chapter 302: Night Raid—Unsuccessful

(Added 3000 words before, refreshed)

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However, "Cousin, you'll be by my side soon, your armor won't do! Sigh, I also forgot earlier—turn back, give me your measurements, I'll order a set of good armor for you too. Maternal grandfather, two uncles and you—"

Wei Shen had already drawn his sword and rushed out, and the Great King and Wei Ke didn't say anything more.

Upon leaving the tent, the Great King finally understood why the Xiongnu chose to launch a surprise attack tonight.

Tonight, with no moon, it's a really dark night.

No problem, the Great King turned back and fetched his strong-light solar camping lamp; twisting it on lit up an area of over ten meters.

Wei Ke found it strange, thinking the Great King had bought a precious treasure at great cost, but the next second the whole camp lit up one after another, and the cavalry stationed at the front instantly became as bright as day…

What's the point of a night raid now!

The Xiongnu sneaking in under cover of darkness hadn't even arrived when the destination turned bright.

The Great King roughly saw his shock, "One lamp per two hundred people—only fifty-plus of them."

Wei Ke: ……

Numb.

Nothing to say to the pay-to-win crowd.

The Xiongnu on the opposite side had just crept close for their night raid when the Great King's camp suddenly lit up, leaving them in a predicament.

The squad leader was astonished, "What thing is so bright?"

Unknown things always inspire fear; the team leader quickly assessed and said, "Retreat!"

The surprise attack had lost its meaning; the opposite side was clearly well prepared.

The Great King had just ordered Ling Yin to keep an eye on his older cousin whose body hadn't fully recovered, when he saw the Xiongnu cavalry that had come riding up slam on the brakes, turn tail and run! Run!

"What's the logic?"

Wei Shen was even more speechless, "Is this still the Xiongnu's iron hooves?"

Great King: "Exactly!"

Wei Ke glanced around the camp lit up like daylight, he had no such confusion; if it were him, he'd also hesitate. "Do you think this camp still needs a night raid? Might as well wait for dawn." This lamp is really strange—its brightness is off the charts.

Then the Great King also grew angry, "Isn't this wasting my sleep? Kids who lack sleep won't grow tall! My armor's already on—what a waste!"

Wei Ke: "……I'll help you put it on tomorrow."

The Great King was easily pleased, instantly beaming, "Older cousin, I've grown fond of you—after the war, come back to You Prefecture with me!"

Wei Shen interjected, "Stop suffering—look, Heaven-Shading is chasing after them!"

On this moonless night, the Great King originally didn't plan to give chase; he had the advantage, no need to wear himself out—if his people met with any mishap in the dark, it would be a loss.

But Lord Heaven-Shading is diligent!

How could we let them come and go as they please? It had already flown up to the sky to monitor the Xiongnu; who knew these folks would turn and run, so this creature immediately gave chase.

Lord Heaven-Shading might also be grumpy from waking up; upon catching up to the Xiongnu cavalry, it immediately began a merciless slaughter without hesitation.

A grown Cloud-Soaring Eagle's single wing instantly froze everything within its control domain.

Even though the Great King was far off, he could hear the Xiongnu's terrified screams.

"Alright! Even if we don't chase, we have to chase."

The Great King ordered the Owl Cavalry to pursue in full force; the others temporarily held their positions.

The Great King intended to go himself, and Wei Ke followed; after mounting and riding a dozen meters, he froze.

The Xiongnu sent a force of three thousand elite cavalry intending to raid the Jin people's camp, set it ablaze, and kill a portion of the main forces to give the You King a shock.

They employed their finest warriors and most formidable steeds; even if the plan went awry, they were confident they could escape.

As a result, those three thousand cavalry have been thrown into utter chaos by a single bird.

Seeing Lord Heaven-Shading display its power for the first time, Wei Ke was more than shocked—using the Great King's words, his worldview collapsed!

He was obviously shocked, yet could hold back his questions; Wei Shen greatly admired this trait of the boss.

"Aren't you curious what kind of bird this is? It can freeze everything in the world—terrifying, right? Aren't you shocked at all?" He went over to ask them.

Wei Ke continued to stare at the chaotic battlefield ahead, where ghosts wailed and wolves howled, and calmly said, "Even Bai Ze can speak now."

KO

Wei Shen was instantly choked up, "Are you still my brother? Acting like this makes me look stupid!"

The Great King laughed loudly beside them, "Done~ I'm completely awake now; I won't be able to sleep later!"

Wei Ke: ……

These two rascals have fought their way from You Prefecture to Liang Prefecture, successively facing the Xianbei and the Xiongnu, and still won every battle?

Soon Wei Ke had no more doubts.

Lord Heaven-Shading was there launching physical and metaphysical attacks; the opposite Xiongnu were panicking and fleeing, while the Owl Cavalry began to move in and reap.

This was Wei Ke's first time seeing the Owl Cavalry on the battlefield, and its aura was completely different from last year's drills at Chang Prefecture's army camp.

Sparring is sparring, killing is killing.

They charged forward without a single wasted motion, harvesting lives in a clean, efficient, and simplest way.

Tang Qian had once secretly sighed, "Any ordinary army that has witnessed a single charge of You Prefecture's cavalry will fear encountering them on the battlefield for the rest of their lives."

Brave and unafraid of death, their equipment is unrivaled under heaven.

After watching, all that remained was sighing; fortunately, they are now comrades.

Over these years, the Xiongnu's iron hooves, feared far and wide in the Great Jin, had no power to resist in the hands of the Owl Cavalry.

In the middle of the night, the Great King forcibly started up the whole thing, lazy and listless; he didn't participate, just watching from behind as the battle collapsed one-sidedly.

This hot-blooded youth Wei Shen had already rushed forward; only Wei Ke and Ling Yin accompanied him, standing at the rear to observe the situation.

The Xiongnu panicked and fled in all directions, a pity the steppe warhorses couldn't outrun the Black Wind Horses.

Wei Ke watched as that Black Wind Horse flung its head, the spike on its forehead carving a blood-red arc; the Xiongnu warhorse collapsed at the cry. The Xiongnu rider on its back was thrown to the ground, instantly trampled underfoot by several Black Wind Horses charging from behind, his life or death unknown.

His fall from start to finish didn't involve the master on the black wind horse's back lifting a hand; he seized the moment, already locked in close combat with another Xiongnu, and within three strikes he severed the man's head.

Wei Ke gripped his spear tightly, feeling excited and thrilled; this cavalry was practically born for the battlefield!

"This is true cavalry! This is the strongest cavalry under heaven!" His eyes shone astonishingly in the night.

The king heard this and was extremely pleased: "As long as they're willing to work hard, this kind of cavalry can be trained even in Changzhou. I reward according to merit and promote regardless of background. Since joining the elite Xiaoyao cavalry, their families have never starved, and Youzhou soldiers all aspire to join the Xiaoyao cavalry."

"For those who achieved outstanding merit in the campaign against the Xianbei, I have rewarded them with houses and silver; they now await chopping off Lan He's head to be ennobled! Being a soldier is both glorious and rewarding!" How could they not give their all?

Wei Ke nodded: "Their techniques are quite good! Your Highness, once this is over I'll return with you to Youzhou; I also want to learn."

The king's goal was achieved; he was overjoyed and hooked up with another.

Wei Ke now simply cannot match Wei Shen; the king intends to cultivate this cousin, for his steadiness will be extremely useful later.

"Good! Tomorrow we'll take Yumen Pass in one fell swoop!"

Seeing everyone's rewards and votes, thank you thank you thank you!

I only saw the previous day's settlement this afternoon, but I noticed too late; today I'm busy and can't post an extra chapter, I'll make it up the day after tomorrow.

Thanks again, everyone!

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The Xiongnu's three thousand elite troops came out silently and vanished silently.

When a glimmer of dawn appeared in the east, it still didn't illuminate the dark, grim face of Wuchong, the commander of Yumen Pass.

He knew those three thousand would not return.

"Heh! How did a lone wolf sneak into the Bai Li clan's flock?!"

His close aide Ma advised him: "I said yesterday, we should just defend and wait for reinforcements; he couldn't possibly have the skill to reach here, and there are at least a hundred thousand outside—scouts have counted it several times, no exaggeration, the numerical disparity is huge, we can't take the offensive."

Wuchong flung the horsewhip he was playing with: "Reinforcements, reinforcements, reinforcements!? Are you sure there are reinforcements? We can't even hold the pass—do you really think the Chanyu will send troops south again? The Jin's indemnity silver has already reached the capital!"

"Those nobles who painstakingly seized this territory won't give it up easily; they're waiting to settle the southern migration—who wouldn't covet the lands of Great Jin? Besides, Lan Yizhi is currently in Liangzhou, alive or dead unknown, and Lan He will take charge of him."

Upon hearing that Lan Yizhi's complexion had finally improved, Wuchong knew Lan He still valued this brother greatly.

"Then let's wait a bit longer and see what tricks the Jin are up to!"

It's a pity the king isn't prepared to wait; only being able to sleep peacefully counts as rest—if these Xiongnu keep harassing us daily, how can we rest?

The king plans to first settle Yumen Pass; at least before he leaves, the pass must operate normally and restore previous order.

Tang Qian knows Yumen Pass best; he and Marquis Wei Ting are seriously discussing battle plans; meanwhile the king and Wei Shen are flattering Master Zhetian, giving him a psychological massage—Master Zhetian loves this.

Since they are the main force for counter‑ambush, if we want Master Zhetian to exert himself again today, we need to give him a sense of achievement!

Wei Ke's both factions aren't participating; they're currently rebuilding their worldview…

Wuchong didn't see the reinforcements he waited for; instead he saw the Youzhou army with banners blotting out the sun.

The military flags snapped in the wind, the "You" banner stabbing his eyes.

The three thousand elite had vanished silently; Wuchong hated it so much his teeth itched, and now he dare not ignore the enemy's strength any longer.

The opponent didn't win by luck.

Wuchong responded cautiously, but to no avail.

A hundred thousand versus thirty thousand—before absolute strength, terrain advantage isn't that decisive.

For this battle, the king let Tang Qian command; it's the battlefield he's known best for twenty years.

Only twenty thousand were involved. At morning the charge horn blew, and after a little more than an hour, Yumen Pass's infantry entered to begin clearing the battlefield.

The king remained calm throughout; when his subordinates asked how to handle the Xiongnu corpses, this time he did not say to bury them in mines.

"Further in lies a vast, sparsely populated desert—do you know what desert mummies are?"

Wei Shen shrugged his shoulders: "What are you planning? Don't bring up weird suggestions!"

The king was displeased: "Nonsense! In recent years haven't the Western Regions and the Great Jin all turned pale at the mention of the Xiongnu? Aren't they afraid of them? Don't bury the bodies—throw them outside our gates later, tell them this is what happens when you provoke me; the main point is intimidation."

Wei Ke: ……

Wei Shen pondered a bit, thinking it might be okay?

The two began discussing enthusiastically; Wei Ke finally couldn't help interjecting, "Won't they be dragged off and eaten by desert scavengers?" He thought it pointless.

Only Tang Qian greatly appreciated the king's proposal, supporting throwing them into the desert outside the pass.

Some supported the king, so they did it—after all he now has plenty of manpower; the Xiongnu stockpiled near Yumen Pass numbered close to thirty thousand, over half died, and the remaining ten thousand surrendered. The king immediately sent troops to dump nearly twenty thousand corpses into the desert leading into the Western Regions, laying them out in a row, stacked into a Xiongnu corpse wall, awaiting the desert's special climate to turn them into mummies, hoping for long‑term deterrence of the disobedient Western Regions states.

Having dealt with the Xiongnu, the king began genuine rest, and Tang Qian formally took over Yumen Pass.

In this clash with the Xiongnu, Yumen Pass's garrison suffered many injuries, but fortunately the Youzhou troops were present, so fatalities were minimal.

They can't forever hide in the rear; with a strong vanguard clearing the way, soldiers still must go to the battlefield. The king added training for the Yumen Pass garrison to the schedule, and the next day arranged idle cavalry to teach the garrison body‑forging techniques and practical close‑combat killing skills from scratch; Tang Qian's mouth almost split to his ears from grinning.

With free time, the king began sharpening his knives, heading westward; he furtively used his alone time to meet at home with the other two clumsy craftsmen to study his lightning‑strike route.

Comrade Bai Yang was born in a prosperous age, not hindering his ambition to become a war merchant.

Upon hearing of the lightning strike into the Western Regions, he became a hundred times more excited than the king; he even offered his friendship‑backed high‑calorie foods from his supermarket, raising both hands and feet in approval of the king's plan to first thrash the surrounding borderlands before moving on.

"You're not wrong—after all, you've come this far, right? It's no easy march from Youzhou to Yumen Pass; who knows when you'll get another chance, so if you can reclaim your territory you should return! You must chop the Western Regions twice to let them know you're not to be messed with; otherwise your Yumen Pass garrison will suffer heavy losses, be harassed daily, and Liangzhou won't stay peaceful! If the border isn't peaceful, the people aren't peaceful, and those who've fled far from the interior won't dare come back. Speaking of which, how many do you intend to station at Yumen Pass?"

The Great King held out a palm: 'Fifty thousand.'

'Too little! People previously at least had two hundred thousand!'

Ah—don't say it, if it weren't for Tang Qian being coaxed over, we wouldn't even have fifty thousand; back then I planned to have my maternal grandfather transfer twenty thousand over to use! Tang Qian really doesn't want to follow me, I couldn't possibly kill those hundred thousand people, could I? Fortunately, the outcome is good now.

Qiao Yi, unfamiliar with the terrain, chimed in, 'Isn't it a hundred thousand? Why keep fifty thousand?'

The Great King said: '... I'm already a rebel king; counting Bai Li Jin, Cool Prefecture now has borders on three or four sides. With another hundred thousand troops we could barely manage to move, and another fifty thousand I have to take away and station in the north!' Even if he didn't take Bai Li Jin seriously, the Northern Direction still needs people.

Setting aside the northern side for now, returning to the Western Regions, Bai Yang gathered various map versions to study the two 'chickens' the Great King had picked to kill for the monkey to see.

The strength of Shanshan, Mountain State, and Former and Later Cheshi outside Jade Gate Pass is about the same; the Great King doesn't know why they're following the Cui family, perhaps the benefits are enough?

Bai Yang thought the marching route was the biggest issue; a few clumsy craftsmen printed out the satellite maps and studied them.