Chapter 613: In Danger

Don't walk extra just because you feel energetic, because you'll be exhausted the next day. Don't pick fruit by the roadside either, it could easily upset your stomach and then you'd be discovered. How to respond if someone comes snooping around — the Student Squad members listened to every detail with great care and attention.

Those still in the Student Squad by now came from families utterly devoted to the Zhao Battalion, so their loyalty went without saying.

After crossing the border, Zhao Jin had the troops rest in the afternoon, then roused them in the middle of the night, reaching that estate before daybreak. When they were still one li from the estate, the column extinguished its lanterns; those behind gripped the clothes of those ahead, and just like that they crept slowly closer.

Though called an estate, it was actually a way station built from an abandoned village. The brick-and-stone buildings formed the center, and the detained refugees lived around that center, surviving on their own handiwork and the little food doled out to them. The reason it still held together was not that the refugees and disaster victims didn't want to leave, but that the guards were very tight — even at night you could see patrols, two or three men to a squad, carrying lanterns and torches.

The Student Squad men had been cooped up too long. A night march demanded silence, yet the whispered chatter in the ranks never stopped, drawing constant scolding from the veteran household retainers leading them. But new recruits were new recruits. Once they reached the objective, they fell completely silent — though everyone around could clearly hear their heavy breathing.

"The personal guard stays sixty men, then twenty are assigned to the Student Squad and twenty to the militia. I'll hold the line with the personal guard. Ji Xiang, you lead the Student Squad in a frontal assault. The Xuzhou militia cuts off their retreat!" Zhao Jin gave a simple pre-battle disposition. For a little estate that, even counting the refugees, held less than two thousand people, this arrangement was more than enough.

Using the darkness, the force split into three columns, circled wide, and got into position. All was quiet now, and it was the darkest hour of the night. The attack needed no signal — daybreak was the signal.

At first light, the Student Squad charged at a run into the estate. Many of the students shouted with excitement, thinking this would boost morale and frighten the enemy.

"Why shout? One who doesn't wake is one less enemy!" Watching from a distance, Zhao Jin gave a wry assessment.

The estate held nearly two thousand people, but those dazed, muddled refugees and disaster victims were utterly negligible. At the sight of the Student Squad suddenly charging in, they scattered in panic at once.

The guards on patrol were stunned when they saw this, half a beat slow even to flee. Several students ran them down at speed; before they could even turn their heads, they were cut down on the spot.

The weapons the students used were not long spears, but long halberds about three chi shorter than a spear. They looked nothing like the "Sky-Piercing Halberd" of opera tales — more like a small axe joined to a spear. At that length they still counted as long weapons, and they worked very well for chasing and hacking.

Strictly speaking, this was the Student Squad's first real battle. Many were so excited and worked up they hardly knew what they were doing. After charging a short while and cutting down fleeing enemies, their formation immediately grew somewhat disordered. Some couldn't help vomiting, adding chaos to chaos. Ji Xiang, leading them, had no choice but to halt the squad, re-form the ranks, and only then advance.

Zhao Jin led the sixty household retainers of his personal guard, watching from a distance and slowly closing in. Seeing such disorder, the retainers couldn't hold back their amusement; some laughed aloud.

"What are you laughing at? When you first saw blood, how much better were you than them?" Zhao Jin rebuked them, but didn't press the point. This fight was a true case of a lion pouncing on a rabbit — they'd only started it with full confidence, so there was nothing to worry about. The key was to give the Student Squad combat experience and let them see blood.

This trip was to season the Student Squad and teach the Smelling Incense Sect a lesson, but more importantly, Zhao Jin wanted to put these students to use. Having punished the local strongmen who colluded with the Smelling Incense Sect, he also needed to reward the factions loyal to him. Qingjiangpu needed men everywhere, which made it the perfect place to post the students. Loyal sons from loyal families finding a future and a post in a rich, prosperous place — that would be a fine example.

He'd originally thought that after hurting the Smelling Incense Sect badly, the two sides had reached an unspoken understanding to keep out of each other's way. He hadn't expected them to never stop infiltrating Xuzhou territory. Then they'd keep fighting. Zhao Jin found himself inexplicably thinking of Mu Shulan. If Xiaolan were running the Smelling Incense Sect's affairs in Xuzhou, he thought, with her background and standing she'd certainly be more suitable than the illegitimate Zheng Quan, and would surely manage things more tightly.

He was lost in thought when he heard horses neighing. Zhao Jin jolted. This estate actually had cavalry? The prior reconnaissance hadn't mentioned that. Perhaps they'd just arrived.

If the Zhao Battalion retainers took the field — even just this one company of retainers — they wouldn't fear a small number of cavalry. But this was the Student Squad's first battle. A cavalry charge could easily throw them into chaos. If they broke, there would surely be casualties. And these young students — Zhao Jin wasn't willing to lose a single one.

"Form ranks and advance at the run!" Zhao Jin gave the order. The laughing, joking retainers tensed up too and swiftly formed up to advance.

But there was still some distance. They'd only just started moving when they heard men shouting and horses neighing, even cries of alarm. They could see a dozen or so riders burst out of the village.

Though the riders in the saddle were disheveled, every one held a weapon and controlled their mounts quite well. Right before them was the Student Squad's formation.

Zhao Jin's heart clenched. He knew he'd been overconfident this time. He and his companions always spoke of the lion pouncing on the rabbit, but in a life-or-death fight, no amount of caution was too much. Yet this time the prior reconnaissance had been superficial. The reason he hadn't been more thorough was simply that he felt the Zhao Battalion was strong enough to win on arrival — even with an inexperienced Student Squad. After all, this one company of retainers was nearly invincible in rural armed clashes.

"Get ready. Even if you can't hit them, remember their faces!" Zhao Jin drew a deep breath and quickly calmed himself. If casualties were unavoidable, then he'd think about how to take revenge later.

Before the retainers beside him could answer, a great shout erupted from the Student Squad ahead. Zhao Jin's heart lurched even harder. Had these young men panicked at the sight of the mounted troop? If they scattered in terror, what followed would be a disaster. Don't assume those dozen riders weren't ready — if they truly charged into the crowd, hacking and trampling from horseback with the high ground, even several hundred men could easily be scattered and routed, and then it would be a slaughter.

The only hope now was that the retainers mixed into the Student Squad could hold out for a while, and that Ji Xiang could command them properly. Above all, Daxiang must not come to any harm.

More horse neighing could be heard — the kind of sound riders make only when urgently reining in and wheeling their mounts. The Student Squad, whose formation had scattered during the rapid advance just moments before, had already regrouped. Their ranks were orderly, their long halberds layered and overlapping outward, like a hedgehog.

Zhao Jin froze, then let out a long breath. He ought to have some faith in the Student Squad. Though the students had never seen real combat, the intensity of their training was not inferior to that of the company retainers. Moreover, the Zhao Battalion retainers' early training hadn't been standardized, because Zhao Jin had still been figuring out the methods. By the time the Student Squad was formed, every aspect of training had been put on the right track, and there was plenty of real combat experience to share.

Under such training and study — and having trained and studied for so long — these young men of the Student Squad had developed instinctive reactions. That was exactly what he was seeing now.

The earlier charge could be chalked up to the excitement and confusion of a first battle, but luckily Ji Xiang had called a halt and re-formed the ranks. It was at that very moment that the mounted troop burst out of the village, which actually gave the Student Squad time to react.

Faced with the dense thicket of sharp blades before them, the riders spurring forward urgently wheeled aside. They were the personal guard of the Smelling Incense Sect's Yuncheng headquarters, who had arrived at this estate the previous afternoon to pick out a hundred or so able-bodied men to take away. A great magnate in Jining Prefecture had an urgent need, which was why they were in such a rush.

The men had been selected the night before and were to be taken away early this morning. They were nearly ready when they heard the sound of killing outside shaking the heavens. Though the estate hands who came to report were scared out of their wits, these dozen riders were not alarmed, because the estate hands said there were no horsemen outside — all infantry.

Cavalry against infantry: one rider worth ten was normal, one worth a hundred not all that rare. Besides, these dozen riders were quite confident — they were all from the border armies and the capital garrison, men who had put special effort into archery and horsemanship. In a real charge, a few hundred or even a thousand scattered soldiers and stragglers were nothing to them. Even if they couldn't win, escaping would be easy.

But looking at the formation before them, no ordinary bandits or outlaws, not even local militia, would have weapons this uniform, nor such a forbidding battle array. And no unit would fail to scatter in panic at the sight of charging cavalry, instead shouting and forming ranks to meet the enemy.

The dozen riders urgently wheeled away. Since there was no advantage to be had, they'd best leave quickly. This estate was of no importance, and those hundred-odd able-bodied men weren't worth much either...

The riders' horsemanship was superb. About ten paces from the Student Squad's formation, they wheeled their mounts and were about to slip past the edge of the formation. They didn't think the enemy would dare break ranks to pursue. If they really were that reckless, the mounted troop would wheel on the spot, charge in, and cut back and forth several times.

But at that very moment, those infantrymen really did move. A young man, his face still boyish, thrust straight at them with his "ornamental axe."

Truly courting death. The rider he was aiming at sneered inwardly, but he didn't want to counterattack. This formation was not something to get tangled up in — the sooner gone, the better. But a horse couldn't turn quickly, especially in a mounted troop. The young man was charging over at a run, fast enough to catch up.

With a shout, he thrust. The rider drew his saber to parry, expecting a clash and then separation. He hadn't expected the "ornamental axe" to slide downward, the notch of the axe head catching the blade. The "ornamental axe" twisted with the motion, and the rider could no longer hold his saber. But in that frantic moment, he couldn't even spur his horse forward. The "ornamental axe" hacked heavily into his back, dragging him straight off the horse.

With one man taking the lead, the others surged forward after him. In close combat, the long halberd was far more versatile than the long spear. Besides thrusting, it could hack, smash, and hook. The halberd's "axe blade" and "iron hook" both had their uses. When the Student Squad first took up these long halberds, they'd thought them less pure than the long spear, but now, using them in this situation, they discovered their convenience.

A bunch of inexplicable stuff, won't go into it. Thank you, everyone.