Sweep Yuan

Chapter 42 The Ambush Turmoil

During the transition from the Song to the Jin dynasties, the Yellow River changed its course, with some of its water flowing into the Huan River. This caused the Huan River to become silted up and flood year-round, creating vast stretches of wasteland along its course, overgrown with reeds and various small shrubs.

At this moment, the reeds are as dense as green waves, and the wild grass grows up to waist height, but there are no insects chirping. Even the eagles that used to circle in flocks in autumn have left this sky.

If one could look down from the sky, one would discover that the creatures that had startled the insects and birds were actually red-clad figures hiding among the reeds and bushes—the soldiers of the "Red Heart Battalion" under Shi Shan's command.

With a large army, it's inevitable that someone will cough or make other noises, or that some horses will struggle and neigh because they can't stand kneeling for long periods. Without extensive training, it's impossible to fool even a slightly more vigilant enemy.

Fortunately, Shishan chose this ambush location because it not only had a large area of ​​reeds and shrubs for hiding, but it was also the most suitable section of the Huan River for crossing over dozens of miles, making it an inevitable route for the defeated enemy.

After interrogating the captured messenger from Suzhou the day before, Shishan deduced that the city of Suzhou would fall in the next few days. Based on the results of previous training, he dispersed his troops and hid them on the wide reed beach, preparing to catch the enemy off guard.

The wait for the enemy was rather boring. Zhou Shier leaned against the earthen embankment, holding his identity token in his left hand and a piece of reed in his right, carefully copying the characters on the token stroke by stroke.

After the reorganization of Chulan, Shishan made identity tokens for officers of the rank of platoon leader and above, emphasizing that all officers promoted in the future must be able to write their own name and the name of their subordinate officer.

This was done for two reasons: first, to standardize the team's structure, and second, to intentionally guide the almost entirely illiterate officers to learn to read.

The token has a concise number of characters and uses colloquial characters (the prototype of later simplified characters) to reduce the difficulty of learning. If the goal is simply to "draw it realistically", even someone with a poor foundation can draw it fairly well in a day or two.

But there are also diligent learners like Zhou Shier, who practice their skills whenever they have free time.

Shishan was naturally pleased with this and promised that anyone who wanted to learn new characters could come to him anytime to receive a new bamboo token—not a token representing an official position, but a set of character tokens.

Yes, it can also be understood as a card collecting game based on the "Thousand Character Classic".

He was truly dedicated to teaching officers to read and write, even going so far as to require military clerks to use simplified characters that were easier to learn, completely disregarding the objections of Chen Cheng, the clerk in charge of the thousand households.

Zhou Shier was engrossed in writing, but Zhang Dan, a veteran of the Jianzu Battalion who had gone out of the city with him that day, was getting impatient and teased him:
"Team leader, I've already taken two pees and you're still drawing, and you don't even—hey! Someone's coming from over there!"

Following the direction Zhang Dan pointed, a group of Yuan Dynasty knights were riding towards them at the end of the northern fields.

These Yuan soldiers had probably finally shaken off their pursuers, and were not running very fast as they were conserving their strength.

"Two, four, seven—"

"Thirty or above, but less than fifty."

Zhang Dan had only counted a few when Zhou Shier gave his judgment.

As the Yuan army gradually approached Luzhu Beach, Zhou Shier gathered even more information.

“One man on two horses, most of them carrying bows, and the few in the lead wearing leather armor—there’s definitely a big fish among them. Go tell the boys to keep a close eye on them. If any of the brats make a move and scare them away, I’ll make sure they regret it!”

Zhou Shier's concerns were not unfounded. This fleeing army was highly vigilant, carrying armor and weapons while fleeing, and deliberately avoiding villages and communities where there were many people and accidents were likely to happen.

With the ferry crossing in sight, the routed soldiers not only did not speed up their journey, but also sent four knights ahead to scout the way, while the rest stood still to drink water, rest, and adjust their horses.

"Team leader, what do we do?"

Although Luzhu Beach is large, even with hundreds of people hiding there, it is impossible to remain completely undetected.

Once the fleeing scouts got close, they wouldn't have trouble noticing the strangeness of the situation.

"Don't worry, wait a moment!"

The Yuan reinforcements from Anfeng Road and Huaian Road must be guarded against. Shishan then deployed most of his cavalry and infantry to the lower reaches of Huanshui River to scout out the enemy's situation, and set up ambushes mainly with infantry.

Zhou's 12th unit was the vanguard responsible for reconnaissance, consisting of fifty men. They were deployed on both sides of the enemy's likely route, and once the enemy had entered the ambush point, they would "trap" them and block their retreat. Although the enemy was very vigilant and did not forget to send out scouts during their retreat, the vanguard's hiding place was nearly twenty feet away from the narrow path in the thicket. As long as they did not expose themselves, they would be difficult to be discovered.

Unfortunately, the routed troops remained outside the ambush area. Our side lacked cavalry, and once they discovered the ambush, they could easily escape by taking a detour with their speed advantage of one man and two horses. It was impossible to wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Zhou Shier made up his mind that he would not move unless he was exposed.

As expected, the scouts, covered in mud and exhausted, had no patience to search both sides and bypassed the area where the vanguard was located, heading straight for the ambush's core area.

Just then, a cry of alarm suddenly came from the enemy cavalry resting in the distance, and they rushed forward on horseback.

Through the gaps in the reeds, Zhou Shier saw dust rising from the fields behind the enemy cavalry.

Are there still pursuers?

"Fuck your mother! You eat the meat but don't let us have any soup? You dare steal our credit? We'll kill you all!"

The one cursing was Zhang Dan. After enduring dust all the way and lying in ambush for so long, the soldiers of the "Red Heart Battalion," who were seething with anger, did not want their limited merits to be taken away by their allies.

"There is an ambush! Quickly withdraw!"

"We can't retreat, charge!"

The one who exposed their presence was under Chang Tie's head. A reckless fellow heard the enemy shouting and assumed that the enemy had all entered the encirclement and been outmaneuvered by the vanguard. He couldn't resist sticking his head out.

"Second team, lasso!!"

Chang Tietou could no longer contain himself. His loud shout startled the enemy's horses and men, and the soldiers of the "Red Heart Battalion" who were lying in ambush in the reeds jumped up and threw more than thirty ropes at the enemy cavalry.

Lassoing horses is actually a very dangerous sport. Without a certain amount of talent and long-term training, it is almost impossible for an ordinary person to lasso a warhorse running at high speed.

The scouts' horses weren't fast to begin with, and with so many snares coming from all directions, there was always a chance that a blind cat would get lucky.

Whether it was the horse's leg, its head, or a person's body, if the spies were caught, they were immediately pulled off their horses. If the spies were caught, they were dragged along by the frightened horses, kicking up dust, grass clippings, and pebbles.

"Hurry up and lend a hand!"

Fortunately, the horses were not fast and there were many lassos. By sheer numbers and brute force, they managed to control these warhorses.

"Tie him up. If he resists, stab him with a gun!"

Not to mention the soldiers who were dragged down by the warhorses, many of the ropes were tangled together, and some even got caught in the nooses. The scene was extremely chaotic, and the first and third teams that were lying in ambush rushed out in a panic.

Seeing the large group of defeated soldiers heading straight for them, Chang Tietou became so anxious that he started cursing.

"Fuck you, what are you all doing here? Go back and grab the guys behind you!"

After cursing, he grabbed the first impetuous kid who had poked his head out and slapped him hard across the face.

"You forgetful idiot! If you keep acting foolishly and disgrace your grandfather, I'll kill you!"

……

P.S.: Shishan is about to draw the first SSR card. Guess who it will be? (No prize)

(End of this chapter)