Chapter 62: First Show of Talent

After eating and drinking their fill, someone also brought in several large tubs for them to take a hot bath.

After washing up and changing into clean clothes, everyone felt as if they had come back to life; the military medic was also summoned to treat their wounds and apply medicine.

The arrowheads in Wang Ce's leg and back were pulled out; although the process was extremely painful, he gritted his teeth and made no sound.

The fact that his wounds showed no ulceration surprised the military medic greatly; the arrowheads lodged inside his body had not festered at all.

He then asked, and upon hearing Wang Ce say it should be because of his constitution, he sighed and shook his head and walked away.

That night, Wang Ce lay on the bunk in the barracks, but he could not fall asleep for a long time.

He knew that joining Guo Ziyi was only the first step. Their twenty-odd people were merely a drop in the ocean among the tens of thousands of troops. To stand firm here and achieve merit, they had to show their true abilities.

On the third day, outside Guo Ziyi's central command tent, a sudden urgent bugle call sounded.

"Enemy attack! A small detachment of rebel cavalry is raiding our supply line!" The orderlies' shout echoed throughout the camp.

The entire camp sprang to life instantly, as various commanders gathered their troops, preparing to meet the enemy.

Upon hearing the news, Wang Ce leapt up from his bed at once.

"Brothers, grab your weapons! Our chance has come!" he shouted loudly.

Chen Xin and the others also quickly rolled out of bed, swiftly donned their assigned armor, and picked up their weapons.

They rushed out of the barracks, only to see Guo Ziyi already mounted and in the midst of deploying troops.

"Your Excellency!" Wang Ce rushed to Guo Ziyi's horse, dropped to one knee, and said, "I, the humble officer, request to go into battle!"

Guo Ziyi glanced at him, his brows slightly furrowed: "You are wounded; you should rest and recuperate."

"Your Excellency!" Wang Ce lifted his head, his eyes blazing: "We fought rebel cavalry at Juanyang! We have experience against them! Moreover, we came to join you under the dying orders of General Zhang Xun, yet we have achieved nothing! How can we rest easy here? Please grant us permission to go into battle!"

Behind him, Chen Xin and the others also shouted in unison: "Please permit us to go into battle, Your Excellency!"

Guo Ziyi looked at the determined youth before him and the murderous soldiers behind him, and couldn't help but feel a little surprised.

He had not expected that this remnant force would possess such high fighting spirit.

He pondered for a moment, then nodded: "Good! Since you have this resolve, I, the commander, will give you a chance."

He pointed to an officer beside him and said: "General Li, you will lead our division's three thousand infantry to meet the enemy head-on. Wang Ce, you will take your comrades; I will add enough men to make a hundred, forming a flanking unit to strike from the sides. Remember, you are few in number—do not become entrenched in battle; you need only harass their flanks and disrupt their formation."

"I will obey!" Wang Ce and that General Li both accepted the order.

Soon, General Li led his three thousand infantry, forming a square formation, and marched mightily out toward the outskirts.

Wang Ce, meanwhile, led his men silently out from another direction.

"Captain, we only have a hundred men—are we really going to charge the rebel cavalry?" Chen Xin asked anxiously. That rebel force, it was said, numbered several hundred horsemen; a single charge back and forth would wipe us out.

"A head-on charge would indeed be suicide," Wang Ce sneered. "But we won't clash with them directly; we'll fight them dirty."

He led his unit in a wide circle and secretly set up an ambush in a dense forest where the rebels might pass.

Not long after, a confused clatter of hooves came.

Several hundred rebel cavalry, swaggering arrogantly, were rushing toward the direction of the Tang army's supply line. Their formation was unordered, they were completely unprepared, obviously unaware that the Tang forces at Chenliu had already learned of their intent.

"Now!" a cold glint flashed in Wang Ce's eyes.

"Archers, ready!"

Nearly a hundred bows were drawn to full in an instant.

"Shoot the horses! Do not shoot the people!" Wang Ce barked softly.

At his command, hundreds of arrows flew, striking precisely at the rebel cavalry's horse legs.

The horses hit by arrows neighed in anguish, crashing to the ground and throwing their riders heavily.

The rebel ranks instantly fell into chaos.

"An ambush! An ambush!"

Before they could react, Wang Ce had already led his men charging out of the forest.

"Kill!"

They fell upon the dismounted rebels like a pack of hungry wolves.

With each swing of the blade, heads rolled to the ground.

The rebel commander, both startled and enraged, hurriedly organized men to counterattack.

But Wang Ce did not linger; after a successful strike, he immediately withdrew with his men back into the woods, vanishing without a trace.

"Chase! Chase them!" the rebel commander yelled in fury.

Some cavalry immediately pursued into the forest. But the complex terrain was unsuitable for cavalry combat; as soon as they entered, they were ambushed by Wang Ce's arrows again, losing several more bodies before retreating in disarray.

While the rebels were being harried by Wang Ce and his men, on the front battlefield, General Li's three-thousand infantry formation had already advanced.

"Form up! Meet the enemy!"

The rebel commander had no choice but to abandon the pursuit of Wang Ce, hastily mustering his troops to face the main Tang force.

But their formation was already disordered, their morale shaken. Facing the Tang infantry advancing like a wall, bristling with spears like a forest, these light cavalry gained no advantage at all.

Several charges were repulsed by the Tang army's long spears and arrows.

Meanwhile, Wang Ce, leading his hundred men, continually roved the flanks, occasionally bursting forth to loose a volley of cold arrows or sneak attack their rear.

Harassed beyond endurance, attacked from front and rear, the rebels could not hold on and began to collapse.

General Li seized the opportunity and immediately ordered the whole army to pursue.

A small-scale encounter ended in a complete victory for the Tang army.

After the battle, General Li watched Wang Ce and his men cleaning the battlefield, his eyes full of admiration and surprise.

He walked up to Wang Ce, patted his shoulder, and laughed heartily: "Good lad! You fought this battle splendidly—without losing a single man, you threw several hundred cavalry into chaos, creating a superb opportunity for us! What is your name?"

"I am the humble officer Wang Ce!"

"Wang Ce... good! I will remember you!" General Li praised, saying, "Come, follow me back to see the commander! In this battle, you shall take the chief merit!"

Wang Ce felt a surge of joy; he knew that, by his own strength, he had earned his first foothold in this army.

When they returned to the central command tent to report the battle situation to Guo Ziyi, after listening to General Li's account, Guo Ziyi's hawk-like eyes also fell upon Wang Ce and remained there for a long time.

He looked at the youth whose face still bore a childish air, yet whose gaze was extraordinarily steady and stern, and slowly nodded.

Wang Ce.

The subordinate is here!

Come forward.

Wang Ce felt a little nervous, and stepped forward.

Guo Ziyi rose to his feet, personally walked up to him, examined him carefully, and suddenly asked: "Your father, was he the former Minister of the Household Department, Wang Jin, Duke Wenjing?"