New Song Dynasty: My Wife is an Imperial Princess

Time flies, and before we know it, the moon is shining through the window.

Wu Zhuo mustered his men in front of his tent and began his pre-departure instructions: "Our purpose in leaving the camp this time is to create the illusion of a large army attacking the city. The bugle call for the attack must not be interrupted. The remaining five hundred soldiers should tie tree branches to their horses' tails and simply run back and forth on the battlefield. Rest assured, brothers, if there are any casualties in this battle, I, the general, will take care of your parents until their old age and raise your young children to adulthood. If you break this oath, you will be like this arrow."

With a "crack," an arrow was broken in two.

The five hundred cavalrymen pressed their right hands to their hearts: "We are willing to go through fire and water for our chieftain."

"Good." The soldiers were in high spirits, and Wu Zhuo was very satisfied. He waved his hand sharply, "Let's go."

At that very moment, Tang Xiaoqi, who had received the night raid mission from Tang Qian, and Yelü Yilie led a suicide squad of two hundred men out of the city from the west and took advantage of the darkness to sneak around to the vicinity of the Jin army camp and lay in ambush.

Despite being well-prepared, the two were still uncertain. Back then, Yue Fei was able to easily break through the Jin army camp with the help of the palm thunder, because there were too many favorable factors assisting him.

First, Wanyan Xie underestimated the enemy, setting up camp without any cover, allowing Yue Fei to see through the enemy's formation. At this time, the Jin army camp was surrounded by a wooden wall about two zhang high, a moat about two zhang wide, and barricades, making it impossible to approach.

Secondly, the two thousand cavalrymen led by Yue Fei were all veterans with combat experience, while the two hundred men they led, although called a suicide squad, were just a group of bold and valiant men with zero experience in fighting the enemy and no systematic training. It was already considered fierce that they did not collapse at the first contact with the Jin army.

Fortunately, Tang Qian's mission was to harass, not to actually raid the camp, so they didn't need to charge in. They only needed to throw palm grenades in from the outside to create a sense of panic. As for whether they could injure or kill the enemy, that would depend on luck.

After all, they had no idea about the layout of the Jin army camp, so firing blanks was really out of necessity.

Just as the two were preparing to take their respective actions, the gates of the Jin army camp suddenly opened wide, and a troop of cavalry slowly walked out of the camp, dismounting completely outside the camp.

Tang Xiaoqi and Yelü Yilie exchanged a glance, conveying their inner thoughts.

Tang Qian's prediction was indeed correct; the Jin army really did plan to attack the city at night.

But what were they planning to do by sending out a cavalry unit?

While the two were still wondering, the Jin cavalrymen not far away began to tie tree branches to their horses' tails.

This move left them even more baffled, but now was not the time to consider these strange occurrences. Now that they had left the military camp, they were easy targets for the suicide squad.

A distance of fifty zhang is definitely too far to throw with arm strength, but if you rely on a simple projectile device, throwing a palm thunder is not a problem.

This sudden attack came so fast that Uzhuo had no idea what was happening. A palm-sized grenade exploded right next to him.

Immediately afterwards, a series of explosions completely shattered the 500 warhorses. Many were killed instantly by the palm-sized grenades, while many more Jin cavalrymen were trampled to death by the frightened horses.

Seeing the success of the sneak attack, Tang Xiaoqi immediately ordered a retreat. As countless arrows were shot from the corner tower of the Jin army camp, he had already led his suicide squad back three hundred feet, far away from the enemy's attack range.

Upon hearing the news, Wanyan Xie immediately rushed out of the central command tent. Outside the gate, there was a mess, with corpses trampled by warhorses everywhere. Among them lay a man wearing general's armor, his back blown to pieces. He stared at the dark night above with his lifeless eyes, looking as if he had died with his eyes open. Who else could it be but Wu Zhuo, who had just offered his advice?

Tang Qian had indeed guessed their strategy and sent men to block the entrance to the camp. The horrific scene left Wanyan Xie seething with rage, yet utterly helpless.

During the day, Tang Qian dared not send troops out of the city. Under the cover of night, those who launched the first attack gained a significant advantage. Just like the current situation, his own cavalry was wiped out before they even left the camp, while he didn't even see a single Song soldier.

At this point, no matter how unwilling he was, Wanyan Xie still had to consider withdrawing his troops. If they continued to drag on like this, the 60,000 troops stationed outside Guangling City would truly have no chance of returning.

In the Guangling City Lord's Mansion, the news that Tang Xiaoqi brought back from outside the city made Tang Qian even more worried. In the end, he still couldn't underestimate these battle-hardened Jin soldiers. The problem he was worried about had still happened.

Fortunately, he acted decisively, ordering Tang Xiaoqi to organize a suicide squad to launch a surprise attack outside the city, thus seizing the initiative and catching the enemy off guard.

However, Tang Xiaoqi was lucky to have encountered the Jin army's cavalry coming out of their camp to harass them. If these people were allowed to run back and forth with branches tied to their horses' tails, the Guangling garrison, unaware of the situation, would definitely launch a saturation attack, wasting a lot of ammunition.

The Jin army is waging a war of attrition, which is indeed a clever tactic to deal with themselves.

Even though Tang Xiaoqi had transported most of the gunpowder materials from the Song Dynasty to Guangling, these materials would eventually become increasingly scarce. If the supply were cut off, he would truly become a fish on the chopping block, waiting to be bled dry before being brutally slaughtered.

"Tell Tang Xiaoqi and Yelü Yilie to hold their ground at the front and back gates of the Jin army camp. If there is any disturbance, use the palm thunder to signal them. Under no circumstances should they let a large number of Jin cavalry out of the camp."

Now is not the time to conserve ammunition; we absolutely cannot allow their harassment campaign to succeed.

Upon receiving the order, Tang Xiaoqi and Yelü Yilie split into two groups, abandoning their original plan to blindly bomb the Jin camp. Instead, they guarded the two exits of the camp, and any slight disturbance was met with a barrage of palm strikes.

If a large Jin army pursues them relentlessly, they should break up into smaller groups and withdraw from the position. After half an hour, they should regroup and guard the Jin army camp until dawn, when they can all return to the city to rest and set off again that night.

After two more days of this, the Jin army finally could not withstand the endless harassment, and signs of desertion appeared in the camp.

They have always been the ones on the defensive, and they have never even seen what the Song soldiers look like. They all have one head, two arms, and two legs. Why should they have to brave a hail of bullets and charge forward when the generals give the order?