He Aba crouched at the edge of the forest, staring toward White Hoof Ridge.

Tonight’s sky was overcast and cloudy, but it wasn’t so dark that one couldn’t see their hand before their face.

Bright light outlined the distant mountain ridge. At this moment, He Aba could vaguely make out that this group of refugees at White Hoof Ridge had set up watchtowers on the northern and southern ridges, as well as halfway up the gully directly facing them. Three or four people at each location clutched bamboo spears and wooden pikes while keeping watch.

Since the watchtowers all had bonfires burning, they might be able to suddenly launch an attack and cleanly eliminate one watchtower without alerting anyone, but they couldn’t simultaneously approach three watchtowers separated by distances of about one li each.

Not to mention, they still weren’t clear about the specific situation of this refugee force’s main camp located on the eastern side of the mountain ridge.

Speaking of which, after they received the news and sent people to investigate, they hadn’t been able to infiltrate inside.

“How is it? Any movement?”

At this moment, a lean man wearing leather armor, his hand pressing on the saber at his waist, crept over from behind and asked.

“These forces have been digging channels at the lakeside northern and southern openings on the east side these past few days, drawing water to create moats. They’ve also built many horse rejections, caltrops, and other obstacles. On the west side here, they just set up three watchtowers and scattered some bamboo spikes in easily passable places—they haven’t had time to do anything else yet. You can tell their resources are also limited. They shouldn’t have detected us infiltrating here.”

He Aba shifted to one side to make room for the lean man to crouch down and talk. Besides introducing what he had personally observed while monitoring here these past two days, he also asked curiously:

“What’s the background of these forces? Even if they’re nails the court dispatched to infiltrate here, His Highness has no need to directly dispatch Silver Halberd Guard soldiers, right? The fifty-plus people who came from behind should be Silver Halberd Guard soldiers from His Highness’s side, right?”

“Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t know,” the lean man said in a low voice.

Currently, the message transmitted from Chuzhou had no intention of letting the refugee armed forces directly participating in the attack know too many inside details, lest the situation become uncontrollable. He simply stopped He Aba from randomly inquiring.

“I spent half a year in Shiliang barely gathering over three hundred able-bodied fighters. Was it easy?” He Aba grumbled dissatisfied.

Before Huaidong could confirm the Imperial Guards would move against the rebels in Chuzhou and Chaozhou, he had been ordered to bring seven or eight brothers to infiltrate the region west of Fanliang Lake, but had always quietly lurked in the shadows.

Only after the Imperial Guards crossed the river and the rebels withdrew from Chuzhou, with local areas in complete chaos, did He Aba have the opportunity to secretly rally and incorporate wandering refugees. His group of personnel had barely assembled a force of fifteen to sixteen hundred people, but only three to four hundred were able-bodied.

Although he couldn’t violate Chuzhou’s will, now requiring him to commit the combat strength he had painstakingly gathered that could be called his direct forces into an attack whose purpose he didn’t even understand—it didn’t mean he had no opinions whatsoever.

At this moment, the sound of armor plates rustling came from behind. Without the lean man needing to remind him, He Aba immediately shut his mouth. Turning around, he saw over fifty shadowy figures creeping over from behind.

Though it was cooler after nightfall, the weather was still hot. He Aba wished he could go bare-chested for comfort.

He Aba saw these people were wearing extra robes, and heard the muffled sound of armor plates rustling from inside the robes. He knew that their wearing extra robes on this hot summer night was mainly to conceal the lamellar armor and scale armor worn underneath.

In this era, not just any military force could casually assemble over fifty sets of lamellar and scale armor.

Huaidong still held the court in some fear. No matter what, they had to avoid news of Silver Halberd Guard soldiers entering and operating on the western shore of Fanliang Lake from spreading.

This made He Aba even more curious about this force gathered at White Hoof Ridge. He truly didn’t know what their background was—to actually alarm Silver Halberd Guard soldiers from His Highness’s side to come deal with them.

“Any abnormalities?”

The leader of this Silver Halberd Guard troop was a scarred man in his forties. A penetrating scar crossed from his left cheek through the bridge of his nose—his features quite fierce. His left eyebrow also had a gap cut out, likely from an arrow or blade wound. His narrow triangular eyes were both vicious and sinister, putting extreme pressure on He Aba, who prided himself as an elite scout.

The newcomer swept a glance at He Aba but spoke to ask the lean man who had just come to meet with He Aba. This person was also Huaidong’s contact person responsible for infiltration and reconnaissance affairs in Chuzhou.

The lean man recounted the situation He Aba had scouted while staking out White Hoof Ridge these past two days, then said: “From the current situation, we cannot simultaneously eliminate these three watchtowers, so it’s impossible to silently cross the mountain ridge and launch a surprise attack on the enemy camp to the east!”

“If there truly were an opportunity for close-range sneak attack, it would more likely be a trap set by the other side,” the scarred man said coldly, quite disdainful of the lean man’s idea of completely relying on sneak attack trickery. In a hoarse voice, he said, “We only need to control that mountain ridge opening before the enemy’s main force…”

White Hoof Ridge’s mountain ridge seemed like a smooth arc gleaming faintly in the night sky, but formed a gap above the gully.

If they could control that gap first, they could suppress the forces on the eastern side. Conversely, the principle was the same.

Over these years, the Silver Halberd Guard soldiers had continuously crossed the Huai River northward to attack Liang forces assembling toward Xuzhou. Having grown through this process, they never expected to be able to completely silently approach the enemy before suddenly launching an attack.

Seizing the initiative on the local battlefield was often the key to whether an attack could succeed. Even if they missed the initiative and saw the situation was wrong, it would be convenient to decisively and rapidly withdraw.

Because the advance infiltration personnel sent to secretly organize refugees these past two days hadn’t been able to observe the enemy camp’s movements at close range, the scarred man also couldn’t rule out the possibility of the enemy camp hiding ambush forces behind the mountain ridge. Setting the first objective on contesting the mountain ridge gap was prudent and reliable.

Of course, even without directly eliminating the watchtower at the ridge, the scarred man still dispatched three elite fighters skilled at climbing walls to scale the ridge from cliffs on both sides under cover of summer’s dense trees, to conduct further reconnaissance of the camp on the eastern face of the ridge—this was still necessary.

Just this ability to silently climb cliffs to approach and scout wasn’t something ordinary reconnaissance cavalry could accomplish.

Only in the latter half of the night did the three elite fighters return. They noticed that although the camp on the eastern face of the ridge maintained a considerable degree of routine vigilance, they could confirm most people had already fallen asleep.

At the ridge gap and on both flanks of the gully below, some roving patrols were still secretly deployed. They couldn’t approach, but could confirm at most twenty to thirty people lurked as hidden sentries in the darkness.

This meant that when they launched the surprise attack, as long as they defeated the interception of these twenty to thirty people, they should be confident of occupying the ridge gap before the enemy camp organized reinforcements…

“Good, move out.” The scarred man had already discussed how the Silver Halberd Guard soldiers would coordinate with the elite refugees organized here. Having obtained more accurate information, he decisively decided to ignore the enemy’s twenty to thirty visible and hidden sentries and contend for the ridge opening under cover of night.

At this moment, many clouds had receded. With a bright moon and sparse stars, they didn’t need to light torches. Three to four hundred people divided into three groups, climbing up the mountain along the gully that was roughly forty-some paces wide.

The gully was filled with broken stones and bamboo spikes. With so many people trampling through, sand sliding and stones rolling, there wouldn’t be no sound whatsoever.

Sharp warning whistles suddenly pierced the sky, breaking the silent night.

The watchtower halfway up the mountain was simply made by inserting four thick long bamboo poles into the ground, then mounting a simple bamboo shed on top for people to keep watch from above. Usually three soldiers guarded inside the bamboo shed, going up and down via rope ladders.

After the warning whistles sounded, these three watchmen used torches to ignite the bamboo shed watchtower, then flipped over and slid down into the gully, blowing warning whistles while fleeing toward the ridge opening.

“Quick, quick!”

At this moment, scattered falling rocks and rolling logs slid down from the cliffs on both sides. The scarred man, leading the Silver Halberd Guard soldiers in the middle rear position, had anticipated this situation but desperately urged the able-bodied refugees on both sides to climb quickly.

The other side had entered White Hoof Ridge half a month ago—of course they had time to stockpile some falling rocks and rolling logs on the mountaintop to guard against sneak attacks. But as long as the enemy forces entering the ridge opening weren’t numerous at this moment, relying solely on these sparse falling rocks and rolling logs couldn’t form a lethal threat to the attacking forces.

However, the terrain on the eastern face of the ridge was more gradual, meaning that after the defenders in the camp heard the warning, more and more would gather at the ridge opening to intercept them in an extremely short time.

Scattered falling rocks and rolling logs smashed down. Though being struck would cause some casualties, compared to suffering some casualties, not being delayed by these falling rocks and rolling logs was more critical.

At this moment, some falling rocks and rolling logs also intermittently rolled and crashed down from ahead. The scarred man still paid no attention, continuing to urge He Aba to lead the refugee elite forward.

Though the falling rocks and rolling logs weren’t dense, not to mention the refugee able-bodied—even battle-hardened elites would grow fearful at the sight, watching carefully, hoping to block hard with iron shields when they got close or dodge. Unknowingly, the forces ahead slowed their pace while those behind desperately pushed forward. Worried about falling rocks on both flanks, in the stone gully thirty to forty paces wide, the three to four hundred people quickly became extremely crowded.

“Spread out, spread out!”

The scarred man shouted angrily. Even without an ambush, with such a dense formation, if a rolling log directly crashed through, unable to dodge in time, it could consecutively injure several people.

At this moment, the more they squeezed toward the middle, the more casualties there might be. Conversely, pressing against the cliff walls on both sides would result in very limited casualties.

Just at this moment, the scarred man heard a loud “crash” overhead. Looking up, he saw from the steep cliffs on both sides large piles of falling rocks cascading down toward their position like a black tide. The dense broken stones crashed against the steep cliffs as they rolled down, the sound like furious waves battering cliff shores.

“A trap! It’s a trap!” the scarred man shouted in panic. But he only had time to raise his large shield to block small stones pelting toward his face. Fleeing down the mountain was already too late. Whether he could escape with his life purely depended on fate—otherwise, if directly struck by a falling rock or rolling log of thirty to fifty catties or even heavier, his shield-bearing arm would be directly shattered.

And at this moment, the dense crowd jammed in the stone gully wanted to evade but had nowhere to go. Hundreds upon thousands of falling rocks and rolling logs cascaded down together. The muffled sounds of stone and wood striking human bodies and breaking bones, panicked screaming, and agonized wailing erupted all at once.

People have thinking inertia.

Normally speaking, even if the Chishan Association set up an ambush or prepared defensive measures on the back mountain, they would pile falling rocks and rolling logs behind the ambush position, then when enemy forces charged over, have personnel push the falling rocks and rolling logs, piece by piece, log by log, out from the ambush position to bombard the enemy, or use this to delay the enemy’s advance speed.

In such situations, the density of falling rock and rolling log bombardment would be directly related to how many personnel had entered the ambush position in advance.

The previously sparse falling rocks and rolling logs aligned with the enemy’s judgment of the number of visible and hidden sentries on the back mountain at night. This prompted them to advance more rapidly toward the ridge opening while braving the falling rocks and rolling logs.

In fact, the true death trap waiting for these people to step into was the large piles of broken stones on the steep cliffs on both sides of the stone gully watchtower, pre-suspended in mid-air using over ten reed mat platforms. Cutting the hanging ropes with swords, tens of thousands of catties of large and small stones crashed down together—the power and destructive force far exceeded three to four hundred falling rocks or rolling logs successively thrown and rolled down by more than just a little bit.

Two to three hundred people, throwing off helmets and abandoning armor, rolling and crawling, fled down the mountain in disarray, wishing their parents had given them two extra legs when they were born. But nearly two hundred more were either directly crushed to death by stones or had broken limbs and shattered bones, lying in the rubble piles moaning and wailing.

War is always cruel. At this moment with the situation unclear, Han Qian naturally wouldn’t rush to send people to capture these wounded attackers. He also had He Liufeng and Lin Sheng lead a team to guard the ridge opening and steep cliffs on both flanks, preventing the attackers from charging over to rescue these wounded.

Everything could wait until after daybreak.

Confirming there was no movement on the northern and southern flanks, Han Qian directly returned to the camp with Feng Liao, Guo Rong, and Feng Yi to rest. After catching up on sleep until the sun rose above the treetops, he washed up and walked back to the ridge opening position.

“At dawn, the other side repeatedly risked their lives to come up and seize wounded and corpses. We shot dead another damn nineteen of them!” Lin Sheng had served as a squad leader in the Chishan Army and Left Guangde Army in earlier years and participated in quite a few bloody battles—even more brutal than what lay before him now. But this was his first time directly leading troops to inflict such devastating casualties on the enemy. Full of excitement, he reported the specific battle results from the early morning to Han Qian.

Besides the nineteen attackers shot dead while seizing wounded and corpses, the rock trap had killed or severely wounded one hundred seventy-seven attackers in a single strike in the latter half of the night.

Among those who had fled down the mountain earlier, quite a few had light injuries—just that their hands and feet weren’t broken, so they could still roll and crawl away on their own.

“The attackers still haven’t withdrawn from the forest?” Han Qian looked at the western forest above where birds still circled without leaving—clearly quite a few people were still hiding in the forest.

“They haven’t withdrawn yet. After daybreak, over a hundred more people entered the forest from the north to meet with last night’s attackers. Estimate there are still nearly three hundred attackers who aren’t seriously wounded hiding in the forest,” He Liufeng said. “Looking at them, they probably don’t dare fight again, but fear withdrawing during the day would let us pursue them, so they want to drag it out until nightfall before withdrawing?”

“How can we let them withdraw easily—you two lead troops down to the gully opening first, adjust formations there, then enter the forest to kill and drive these people out,” Han Qian said to Lin Sheng and He Liufeng, looking at the severed limbs remaining in the rubble pile halfway up the mountain with furrowed brows. “If we merely use a stratagem to kill two hundred of the enemy, it’s impossible to make Huaidong convinced enough to sit down and discuss cooperation!”

“The other side has elite guard soldiers from Yang Yuanyan’s side mixed among them—quite a few remain. I’ll bring fifty men down to assist them,” Kong Xirong said.

“No need for so many.” Han Qian shook his head, telling Kong Xirong to just accompany him at the ridge opening to observe the battle.

The Chishan Army and Left Guangde Army originally lacked weapons and armor. Taking long bamboo as weapons—this evolved from the wolf brush used in the Mandarin Duck Formation of the later Ming Dynasty.

When large-scale forces faced off in battle, the Mandarin Duck Formation couldn’t display any obvious advantages. The main function of the long-poled, densely-branched wolf brush was only to help new recruits reduce their fear when facing enemies.

However, on complex and fragmented battlefields like forests and rugged mountain ridges, the Mandarin Duck Formation with its twelve-man squads and staggered configuration of long and short weapons plus bows and crossbows—its advantages were far too prominent.

It just hadn’t yet been tested through mountain warfare and forest combat.

During the Sizhou civil unrest, Tan Yuliang had limited control over the insurrectionist forces, and also hadn’t been able to promptly promote the Mandarin Duck Formation during mountain stronghold offensive and defensive battles with Sizhou forces.

The first batch of Chishan Association protective forces gathered at White Hoof Ridge were all veteran soldiers from the old Chishan Army and Left Guangde Army, long familiar with Mandarin Duck Formation drills and combat. Entering forest combat at this moment was exactly the time to make the attackers taste the bitterness of the Mandarin Duck Formation even more profoundly.

At most, He Liufeng would select a few skilled fighters to go down the mountain and enter the forest to snipe the elite Silver Halberd Guard soldiers, minimizing unnecessary casualties on their side as much as possible. But Han Qian also instructed them that after entering the forest, they should cooperate with the small squad soldiers formed into Mandarin Duck Formations, maintaining attention to steady advancement and coordination of battle lines.

He also required them to limit the pursuit battle to within the forest, not pursuing attacking enemies who fled out the western side of the forest.

Han Qian stood at the ridge opening with Xi Ren, Feng Liao, Guo Rong, and Feng Yi to observe the battle. With summer’s dense tree shade, as Lin Sheng and He Liufeng led three hundred troops to kill into the forest, they couldn’t see the specific killing situation inside, but from the disturbance of treetops, they could see the attackers were being killed in steady retreat from the very beginning of renewed contact.

In less than the time it took to burn two incense sticks, they saw attackers fleeing in panic from the other side of the forest.

……

……

“So satisfying!” Lin Sheng and He Liufeng returned from the cliff opening, shouting with excitement.

At this time, the battlefield search and tallying in the forest were already basically complete.

Not far from expectations, the attacking enemies hiding in the forest after daybreak who still retained combat capability were indeed around three hundred people, comparable to the forces Lin Sheng and He Liufeng led into the forest. But after the battle ended, the casualties on both sides were worlds apart.

Aside from over a hundred who fled in panic toward the western side of the forest, the attacking enemies had over one hundred sixty killed or captured in the forest.

Adding the lightly and severely wounded previously seized by the attacking enemies, in the forest Lin Sheng and He Liufeng killed over one hundred ten attacking enemies and captured over ninety lightly and severely wounded soldiers. But the Chishan Association’s casualties were merely a dozen or so—all caused by direct combat with Huaidong’s most elite Silver Halberd Guard soldiers.

And Huaidong’s so-called most elite Silver Halberd Guard soldiers, including last night’s trap ambush plus the recent forest pursuit, left behind a total of thirty-eight corpses.

This could be seen from the excellent lamellar and scale armor worn on the corpses, as well as the fine weapons and bows they carried.

At noon, through interrogation of wounded prisoners, obtaining more and more accurate intelligence, Lin Sheng and He Liufeng escorted over ninety wounded prisoners back to the camp. Then bringing the blood-stained He Aba whose right arm had been crushed by a falling rock in the latter half of last night, they rushed over to see Han Qian, excitedly saying:

“Huaidong only dispatched fifty Silver Halberd Guard soldiers to the western shore of Fanliang Lake this time. In addition, this refugee force secretly gathered by Huaidong Army spies has a total population of about fourteen hundred-plus people. Three-quarters of the able-bodied participated in last night’s attack on White Hoof Ridge. The forces that fled back now, even if morale hasn’t completely collapsed, together with the Silver Halberd Guard soldiers who escaped and the able-bodied in the camp, only amount to about two hundred people—we’re completely confident we can swallow this entire refugee force!”

Although the former Left Guangde Army subordinates had at least fourteen to fifteen thousand old, weak, women, and children needing to migrate over for settlement, being able to annex other refugee forces at this time to further strengthen themselves had Lin Sheng and He Liufeng extremely excited. They came over to request battle.

In chaotic times, more population meant greater possibilities and greater military potential.

“Xirong, you take a team and accompany them on this trip,” Han Qian said to Kong Xirong.

He still didn’t want the Chishan Association’s limited personnel to suffer unbearable devastating casualties. At this time, he had Kong Xirong bring a team of guards to assist them in battle.

The guards led by Kong Xirong could be used as elite cavalry.

If they couldn’t make the remnants of this refugee force directly surrender, using them to coordinate with the infantry led by Lin Sheng and He Liufeng to tear open the enemy camp’s defense would be most effective.