Chapter 756

The small grove in the afternoon was very quiet, only the rustling of leaves in the wind and the occasional chirp of cicadas.

Qian Fugui had a stalk of grass in his mouth, half-reclining at the bottom of a small dirt mound, looking up at the blue sky and white clouds leaking through the gaps in the leaves.

"Li Lin, I have an idea!" he suddenly said.

This sentence startled the Training Officer crouching nearby, making him tense up immediately: "General, this is the enemy camp of over ten thousand troops; we really can't have ideas—once you go in, you can't get out!"

After staying with Qian Fugui for a long time, this old man could guess seven or eight out of ten of whatever idea he had just by hearing him speak.

Qian Fugui glanced at him, "Don't be a coward, you son of a bitch—if this succeeds, you and I will become famous under heaven, rivaling the ancient fierce generals!"

Li Lin said with a mournful face, "General, this is probably very hard to succeed!"

Qian Fugui suddenly sat up, pointing at the distant Qiang camp, "I just observed that these bastards, relying on their numbers, have extremely lax defenses—scattered here and there; we have a real chance."

"Look closely—though it's called one big camp, it's actually more than ten separate camps; the patrol soldiers each just sweep their own doorstep. There's no cavalry patrol on the outside, and inside it's split into many factions—this is the Qiang Alliance, clearly not united, each clinging to its own little patch."

"If we create a huge commotion and charge in headfirst, they will surely cling to their own camps and fall into chaos."

Li Lin's throat was a bit dry, "General, I can see that too, but they ultimately have over a hundred thousand troops!"

"What's there to fear about a big army? How many can actually reach us? You've followed me this long—why are you still so muddle-headed? I'll ask you one thing: are you in or not?" Qian Fugui cursed.

Li Lin sighed helplessly, "If the Lord orders it, I have to do it even if I don't want to!"

"Why wait for the Lord's order? By the time we go and come back, the daylilies will be cold." Qian Fugui gave Li Lin a hard pat on the shoulder.

"Battle opportunities are fleeting; right now is the best moment. The Lord has granted me authority to roam and act—attacking a few Qiang scouts is fighting, attacking their whole camp is also fighting; it's just more people, what's the difference?"

Li Lin's mouth twitched sharply, "General, there's no difference?"

"Is there?" Qian Fugui gave a sinister smile, "Tell me straight, Xiao Linzi—you're my deputy; even if we behead enemies, we must stand together and die as comrades—you can't talk nonsense like that! I think there isn't; what do you think?"

Li Lin opened his mouth slightly, after a moment said helplessly, "Maybe there isn't."

Qian Fugui then chuckled, "There really isn't any difference—just more or fewer people. Essentially, there's no distinction. The Qiang scouts are maybe a hundred or so; this is just a few ten thousand at most."

Li Lin let out a faint sigh, "Isn't this difference already big enough?"

If we really had to find a similarity here, we could only say they're both human.

"General, how many men are we bringing?" Li Lin asked.

Qian Fugui snorted, "What a stupid question—we only have eight hundred cavalry; how many more could we bring?"

"Ah? Just... just eight hundred?!" Li Lin was stunned.

"Do you have more cavalry? To take on these bastards we definitely need mobile raids—sending infantry up there would just be sending them to die," Qian Fugui said. "No problem, the eight hundred still give us the advantage: we attack, they defend; I plan carefully, they're caught off guard; I have elite troops and strong commanders, while their morale is scattered—you tell me, how great is the advantage?"

Li Lin was stunned, staring blankly at Qian Fugui.

Going by that logic, that does seem like quite a lot.

But can we really count it that way?

"Xiao Linzi, if we win this battle, Lao Yang ought to consider yielding his position to us!" Qian Fugui turned, eyes locked on the Qiang camp, the corner of his mouth curling into a cold, cruel smile, "You and I will become the Lord's first and second Great Generals; thereafter you'll command your own army, just like Chen Baojia, Lu Ji, and Xie Fengxian—they'll all have to take a back seat to you."

"When people mention us again, they must damn well put a prefix before our names: the Fierce General who broke the Qiang's hundred-thousand-strong army with eight hundred!"

Li Lin's blood boiled for a moment, but he quickly calmed down, "General, if you go to fight I'll surely follow you, but you'd better first think about what punishment the Lord will mete out if we suffer a defeat!"

"We have justification and evidence—what punishment to fear? If you don't want to speak, you don't have to; we've already said it—there's no difference between the Qiang camp and their scouts; we might accidentally slip in while fighting! It's an accident, I didn't do it on purpose." Qian Fugui said speechlessly.

Li Lin was also rather speechless at this moment.

He understands this logic, but does the Lord?

"Let's go, sharpen the knives!" Qian Fugui waved his hand, sneaking down the small slope, and spat out the grass in his mouth with a "pah."

"Today I'll grind this blade until it can cut hair and split strands—there are so many rotten heads out there, we'll definitely have to hack away for a while!"

Returning to the main force hidden deep in the woods, Qian Fugui immediately ordered everyone to sharpen their blades.

On the warhorses, any superfluous items like bows and arrows should be discarded if they're not needed.

For this battle, they need only knives; nothing else is required.

Half an hour later.

A force of eight hundred cavalry suddenly burst from deep within the woods, charging straight at the Qiang camp.

Strangely, they got to within about a li of the Qiang camp, yet the Qiang showed no movement at all.

Qian Fugui's heart settled at once; he whipped his horse and spurred forward, "These bastards must have mistaken us for their own—charge in and cut them down!"

Over the past two days, the Qiang cavalry had been constantly coming and going, with neighing horses everywhere; Qian Fugui's eight hundred cavalry really didn't stand out. They probably never imagined that, while they had over a hundred thousand troops stationed here, someone would dare to bring eight hundred men on a sneak raid.

Qian Fugui led his troops in a frantic dash; only when they neared the enemy camp on horseback did the Qiang finally react.

"Enemy raid on the camp! Enemy raid on the camp!"

The patrolling Qiang soldiers shouted at the top of their lungs.

"What are you yelling for, your mother?" Qian Fugui charged ahead on his horse, swinging his knife and cutting.

In an instant, the sprawling camp housing over a hundred thousand troops fell into utter chaos.

Here the fighting was fierce; over there, everyone was at a loss, sending people to ask what had happened.

A camp of several ten thousand troops couldn't possibly have everyone startled and reacting immediately at the first sign of battle.

Let alone anything else—just passing the message and figuring out what exactly happened would take a considerable while.

Qian Fugui led his troops galloping across the Qiang camp, letting loose, not caring about direction, cutting down anyone they saw—like plowing a field.