Chapter 445: Silly Dog

At noon on April 1st, shortly after the messenger from Zunhua once again passed by Santun Camp, two units departed from Santun Camp one after another, heading east practically on each other's heels.

These two squads were composed of a small number of Special Operations Team members plus Flying Tiger Battalion cavalry, each numbering fifty men with one hundred horses.

The objective of both squads was interdiction. They would position themselves along the two legs of a triangle, at suitable pre-scouted locations, to block any Tartar soldiers who might attempt to reinforce Qian'an County from the directions of Yongping and Luanzhou.

After the two squads set out, they advanced along the road at a steady pace. After nightfall, they would round Qian'an and hurry on to their destinations.

After the two interdiction squads had gone far afield, at exactly three in the afternoon, the east gate of Santun Camp swung wide open. Three hundred Flying Tiger Battalion soldiers, two hundred Guard Battalion soldiers, and a portion of the Special Operations Team — a "great army" of transmigrators totaling over five hundred men and more than a thousand horses — set out in sequence.

From this moment on, Santunying Fortress became a "dead zone." No one was permitted to pass before its gates, and battlefield information was cut off from here onward.

After the great army set out, it likewise adopted the steady, slow trot that conserved the most horsepower. Along this stretch, the cavalry traveled east along the Luan River, stopping now and then to water the horses; their speed was not fast.

By dusk, the great army passed through Qinghe County at the eastern mouth of the Corridor.

Qinghe County had long since been deserted. In the nearby villages and towns, the Ming people had either been captured or had fled south to escape the chaos; many of them were now doing hard labor for the transmigrators in Jinwei.

After the troops passed Qinghe, they were considered to have exited the Corridor. Here, the Luan River bent at a right angle and began flowing southward. The troops followed the bend, and after advancing another ten-odd li, they set up camp in a pre-scouted woodland by a bend in the river.

At this moment, the transmigrators were already on the Luan River Plain. Twenty li to the south was Qian'an County, to the east was Yongping Prefecture, and if they continued further east, they would see the sea and Qinhuangdao.

The night sky was bright and the stars were sparse. Since this was a field camp, there were certainly no tents to speak of. The soldiers settled the horses, set up pots to cook dinner, then wrapped themselves in felt blankets and lay down on the spot beside the campfires.

There was a reason this place had been chosen for the camp: a stretch of mixed woods blocked the flames and light of the campfires, preventing them from being seen from Qian'an County.

Because the Luan River Plain was currently plagued by soldier-disasters, the night was very peaceful. The outer observation posts did not spot any travelers or merchant caravans hurrying through the night, and the troops rested quite well.

At dawn the next day, when the sky was just turning pale, everyone had already eaten a full meal of compressed biscuits soaked in horse-meat soup. The horses had also chewed their black beans and drunk their fill of water from the Luan River.

The pre-battle mobilization and deployment, bearing the distinctive mark of the transmigrators, began once more.

By this time, there was no longer any need for the troops to conceal their tracks. So after the soldiers raised their knives and roared three times in unison, they mounted their horses, seething with killing intent.

He Tuo, the Jala Erzhen of the Bordered Blue Banner, stood atop the walls of Qian'an County, gazing at the great cloud of dust rising in the north, his face filled with confusion.

Such a large dust cloud meant a large force of cavalry was approaching — this much, every Banner soldier standing on the walls of Qian'an at that moment could judge.

Yet the identity of the newcomers was a mystery.

Because just yesterday afternoon, the messenger from Zunhua had passed through Qian'an County and reported that all was well. That being the case, even if Zunhua had been attacked by the Ming Army yesterday evening, how could the defeat and rout have been so swift?

Furthermore, even if the Banner troops all along the line from Zunhua and Santun Camp had abandoned their cities, after exiting the eastern mouth of the Corridor, they should not have come south to Qian'an. Wouldn't it be logical to go directly to Yongping Prefecture City to the east to see the Second Beile, and then have the entire army head north and out of the passes?

And so He Tuo was confused... He and his subordinates were all muddled at this moment; they truly could not guess what divine troops had come from the opposite direction.

But no matter what, since a large cavalry force was coming from afar, preparations still had to be made. He Tuo therefore ordered the four gates of the county seat closed and the drawbridges raised.

As for those Ming people in the Guanxiang outside the city... these people were already quite experienced with passing troops. The moment they saw the city gates suddenly close, they began fleeing toward the mountainous area west of the Luan River.

Not long after, a cavalry unit arrived beneath the walls of Qian'an, the county seat half-encircled by the Luan River.

Then the identity of the newcomers became clear: Acting Assistant Regional Regional Commander, Co-Defender of Zhangchao and Other Places, Nan'ao Deputy Regional Commander, Cao.

"It's actually the Ming Army!?" After clearly seeing the opponent's banners, He Tuo was dumbfounded. "How is this possible?"

He Tuo was illiterate, as were all the Tartar soldiers on the city wall, but this did not hinder them from identifying their opponent's status: even though the newcomers wore strange, one-piece green padded coats, the two Ming-style command banners at the front, and the square characters on those banner surfaces, all exposed the identity of the newcomers.

Very soon, an old man dressed in the uniform of a yamen runner was brought onto the city wall.

At this time, the five hundred-odd cavalrymen had already dismounted in the open ground outside the city, and some were taking out water bags and hanging them on their horses' necks.

"Which route of troops has come?" He Tuo did not speak Chinese, but he had a translator beside him, so the translator pointed at the banner and asked in stiff Chinese.

After the old official from the county seat was brought onto the city wall, he took a glance, then thought for a moment before saying to the translator: "Vice Lord, these are King's Rescue troops from Fujian in the south. The commanding general is a Deputy Regional Commander, surnamed Cao."

"WHAT?"

He Tuo still did not understand — do not use the template of later generations to judge this era of scarce information. Among these Tartars on the city wall, there was not a single person who knew the specific location of Fujian.

The old official, helpless, explained a bit more: Fujian was south of the Yangtze River, and the Zhangchao Deputy Regional Commander was probably on some large sea island beyond Fujian.

"Preposterous! Then how did these sea dogs get to my Qian'an County!?"

After He Tuo finally understood, he could not help but fly into a great rage. He was increasingly baffled: if they had come from the sea, then Yongping Prefecture, which was further east and closer to the sea, had actually sent no word, allowing this bunch to slip inland to Qian'an?

Then he figured it out: "This bunch must have landed long ago, and wormed their way in from the interior of the Ming domain, otherwise they wouldn't be coming down from the north."

"Wolf smoke, light the wolf smoke!"

Resting both hands on the battlements, He Tuo stared fiercely down at this group below the city for a few moments, then decided to first light the wolf smoke as a warning. After he had just calmed down, he had vaguely sensed that something was off: a large cavalry force was attacking from the north, yet Santun Camp had not raised an alarm... Somewhere along the line toward Zunhua and Santun Camp, something had gone wrong.

Once the wolf smoke was lit, no matter whether the opponent had follow-up troops or not, Yongping and Luanzhou would both heighten their vigilance and send out scouts in all directions, so they would not be like him, only learning of the enemy when they were already beneath his walls.

After lighting the wolf smoke, He Tuo also ordered messengers to leave the city and relay the information about this force to the neighbors.

With everything done, He Tuo set his mind at ease and carefully scrutinized this group of Ming troops below the city. But upon closer inspection, and after counting, He Tuo discovered that this group, while seemingly imposing in momentum, was actually not strong in troop strength?

The total number of soldiers in green padded coats below the city was just over five hundred, and among them, two hundred were musketeers carrying bird blunderbusses... Another few dozen men wearing multi-colored clothes, probably auxiliary soldiers, stood in the back ranks.

Counting the horses again, He Tuo now understood why a mere five hundred men could create such a clamorous presence: this bunch actually had two horses per man, and gathered below the city now were over a thousand fine horses!

"Are the Ming soldiers and generals in the south just outrageously rich?" He Tuo gazed greedily down below the city; all that met his eyes were robust, top-quality northern horses.

These thousand-plus horses undoubtedly represented an enormous sum of silver. In the current situation of frequent warfare in the Great Ming, twenty taels of silver might not even buy one good horse, so this was a colossal fortune worth twenty thousand taels or more in hard cash.

He Tuo, who had long overseen five Niru and was already considered a high-ranking member of the Bordered Blue Banner, certainly understood this value, so he was carefully weighing the possibility of leading troops out to attack.

This Jala Erzhen, He Tuo, theoretically commanded five Niru totaling fifteen hundred men. But ever since the main army had gone out through the passes, He Tuo, who had stayed behind in Qian'an as a nail household, only had four hundred men left under him to handle duties. That was why he had not immediately gone out of the city to give battle today; after all, he had not yet figured out the details of these strange opponents.

Now, looking closely, this bunch below the city was purely a bunch of rookie seabirds come from the sea!

Right before He Tuo's eyes at this moment, two cavalrymen wearing green padded coats and holding large banners were running horizontally past below the city wall, waving the banners in their hands along the way, seemingly taunting the Tartars on the wall, drawing waves of cheers.

Next was a shooting performance: a cavalryman holding a three-eye blunderbuss likewise rode his horse past below the city wall, and then this show-off fired repeatedly at the top of the wall, as if he could actually hit some Tartar soldier... In the end, the last shot accidentally burst the barrel, scaring the fellow so badly he even threw the gun away, and the cheers from the several hundred men nearby also fell silent, as if a chicken had been throttled.

"Are these guys clowns sent by a monkey?" If the Tartar soldiers on the city wall had ever been online, they would certainly have said this right now.

This kind of provocation technique could no longer be described as merely clumsy; it not only exposed the details of this group, but also revealed their shoddy equipment.

He Tuo, who had dealt with the Guanning Generals Group for many years, finally reached a conclusion about these idiots below the city: "Probably another case of internal strife among the Ming people, some outer-province general sent here to die."

The intimate comrade standing beside He Tuo, the Niru Erzhen Da He Ren, who was also He Tuo's half-brother by the same father, knew He Tuo's mind well upon hearing this, and said in a deep voice: "Five hundred men, two hundred bird blunderbusses, only three hundred blade soldiers."

He Tuo gave a cold laugh, turned his head, and asked the other headmen on the city wall: "A thousand fine horses — do we fight or not?"

At this time, the Manchu Qing did not yet have so many strict hierarchies of superior and inferior, so upon hearing He Tuo's question, one of the Niru immediately shouted loudly: "Four hundred warriors against five hundred Ming dogs — He Tuo, what are you waiting for? Afraid the captured horses will be too many and bite your hand?"

The rest of these headmen, after clearly seeing the number of the newcomers, had long wanted to go out of the city and kill these rookies. Now that He Tuo had spoken, everyone was naturally seething with fervor.

Forget four hundred — they'd been through scenes plenty of times where a hundred Tartar Soldiers chased five hundred Ming troops hacking and slaughtering, let alone the fact that among this bunch under the city there were still two hundred gunners — in the eyes of the Tartar Soldiers, gunners didn't count as people at all.

Send bondservants up to the gate tower to keep watch. If any more cavalry come this way, send the signal at once!

After arranging the rear lookouts, He Tuo drew his waist knife, stood atop the city wall, and bellowed: "Put on your armor! Follow me out to butcher this pack of stupid dogs!"

"Aye!"

Five minutes later, watching the slowly lowering drawbridge and the gradually opening city gate, Qian Tieshan, shrinking at the very rear of the column, glanced at the watch on his wrist and couldn't help letting out a long breath: "Finally tricked this pack of stupid dogs out. If they hadn't come out, I'd have had to storm the place!"