The Ming Dynasty, the thirteenth year of Chongzhen.
Spring rain is as precious as oil, but this spring, not a single drop has fallen.
It is already the third month of spring, yet it still makes one’s hands too cold to extend.
Jizhou, in a dilapidated courtyard in Longqingbao.
Fang An and his father sat side-by-side against the wall, basking in the warm sun, occasionally chatting.
“Da Lang, how was the one your seventh aunt told you about yesterday?”
Fang An shook his head repeatedly upon hearing this. “No good, no good. I secretly peeked over her courtyard wall and saw her waist was like a water bucket, and her backside could hold both of us. She’s clearly a tigress, I don’t want her!”
“What do you know? A big backside means good childbearing. She’ll be able to give us a chubby boy as soon as she enters the door!” Fang’s father curled his lips at him.
Compared to father and son, the two of them were more like buddies.
Fang An grinned mischievously, “If you want to marry, you marry. You’re only forty-something this year, you can still handle it~”
Fang’s father not only wasn’t angry but rolled his eyes instead, “Nonsense! One drop of essence is ten drops of blood. Your old man wants to live a few more years!”
Just as the father and son were chatting, the courtyard gate was suddenly pushed open from the outside.
A group of soldiers dressed in mandarin duck combat jackets stood outside the gate. The man in the lead entered the courtyard and held up his waist token for the father and son to see.
“By order, Longqingbao military household, Fang Da Niu, return to camp immediately!”
The smile on Fang An’s face instantly froze. Fang Da Niu was his father’s name, and his identity, as the soldier said, was a military household of Longqingbao.
During the last expedition, his right shoulder was hit by a Tatar wolf fang arrow. Although he was lucky to survive, he could no longer lift heavy objects. Everyone in the fort knew this.
Now, being summoned back to camp, if he went onto the battlefield, it would be certain death!
While he was still stunned, Fang Da Niu had already gotten up, patted the dust off his buttocks, and smiled at him.
“Xiao Anzi, watch your dad snatch a Tatar woman back this time!”
“Dad~” Fang An panicked.
His mother had died early, and it was just him and his father at home. Every time his father was summoned to camp, he was filled with anxiety, fearing that only a corpse would return.
This damnable military household system, once registered, generations would only be soldiers!
“Dad, I’ll go this time!”
He couldn’t bear to watch his crippled father go to his death, but one male member of the family still had to join the army. The only way was for him to take his father’s place.
“Nonsense! You haven’t even grown all your hair, what are you going for?”
“With your carefree and thoughtless personality, be careful if you get captured by the Tatars and your backside gets a hole poked in it!”
Fang’s father’s face only held a playful expression, with no hint of dissatisfaction with the military order.
Once the military order was issued, it was an inescapable fate for a military household. He understood this very well.
“You old bastard, it’s this time already, and you’re still so glib. Who among you two is going? Hurry up, I’m waiting to notify the next household!”
The petty officer impatiently urged them from the side.
“Officer, please calm down. This old man is a cripple, he can’t even swing a knife. What can he do if he goes to the fort? He’ll just be a nuisance.”
Fang An clasped his fists and smiled apologetically at the petty officer, taking the lead and grabbing the old, worn-out saber hanging on the wall, inserting it into its scabbard at his waist before his father could.
“Old man, wait at home. Does your son still need to snatch a Tatar woman for you?”
“Wait, watch me bring back a beautiful daughter-in-law for you. And incidentally, I’ll snatch a woman with a backside bigger than a pig for you to remarry!”
After saying this, he ran into the house, got a quilt, went to the kitchen to get a ceramic bowl, led their old horse, and followed the petty officer and his men out.
In the courtyard, watching their retreating figures, Fang Da Niu frantically slapped his thighs, tears flowing uncontrollably like a bursting dam.
“This is a sin! In this world, people can never have peace!”
Leaving home, following the petty officer, they headed to the next military household. By evening, the group had returned to Longqingbao.
A day of rushing was indeed tiring, and even though the stench in the barracks was overpowering, he slept soundly.
At home, his father always called him thoughtless, and it wasn’t without reason.
In a beautiful dream, a whip struck his body, and Fang An woke up in pain.
“Get up, if you sleep any longer, the Tatars will be upon us!”
The scarred man roared at those still sleeping.
Fang An quickly scrambled out of his quilt, casually tugged at the wrinkles on his clothes, and ran outside.
An hour later, on the small training ground, he stood in formation with dozens of old and young men.
The hundred-household officer, clad in cotton armor, stood on the platform, his stern eyes scanning everyone.
“I am your Hundred-Household Officer! Some days ago, the Tatars breached the border, and dozens of brothers were killed.”
“That’s why you have the qualification to stand here!”
“From today onwards, all of you, lift your spirits. You are no longer people who dig for food in the fields!”
“If you want to survive, you must use the tools in your hands to kill Tatars and earn military merit!”
“Whether you train or not, that’s up to you. Don’t wait until the Tatars’ iron clubs smash onto your own bodies before you regret it.”
After a brief speech, the hundred-household officer turned and left, too lazy to glance at Fang An and the others again.
Fang An, dumbfounded, followed the scar-faced man back into the dilapidated house. After thinking for a long time, he asked curiously.
“Why did the Hundred-Household Officer say we should train as we see fit? Are there no unified regulations in the fort?”
The scar-faced man smiled bitterly, “This fort can barely manage to eat today, let alone tomorrow. If we really go through the motions of training, where would he get the food to fill these people’s stomachs?”
After saying this, he suddenly asked, “Whose son are you? I thought you looked a bit familiar yesterday. Tell me.”
“My father is called Fang Da Niu. Do you know him?” Seeing him scratching his back with his hands behind his back, Fang An stepped forward to help him scratch.
“Hmm? Da Niu’s son?” The scar-faced man turned back instantly, staring at Fang An’s face.
After a long while, he slapped his thigh. “Damn it! No wonder that fellow tossed you to me. It turns out you’re here to follow your father’s footsteps!”
“Speaking of which, that arrow that hit your father’s right arm was to shield me.”
“Alright, since you’re here, just follow me with peace of mind.”
“Your father took an arrow for me, and I’ll take a knife for you.”
“Remember, my name is Mo Qi, you can call me Uncle Qi from now on!”
Mo Qi smiled and ruffled Fang An’s head, treating him intimately like his own junior.
Afterward, Mo Qi talked a lot about his past with Fang Da Niu. Their team consisted of eleven people in total, forming a squadron, and Mo Qi was the squadron leader.
Unlike other squadrons, their squadron was the night scouts of the fort, doing the work of what would later be called reconnaissance soldiers.
They did the most dangerous work, but their treatment was similar to other squadrons.
The only benefit was that when on missions, they could take some side jobs.
After chatting for a long time, Mo Qi walked into the house and found a long spear from the corner, handing it to Fang An.
“We are military households, so we must provide our own weapons and horses.”
“Yesterday, I saw you only brought a saber. This spear was left by a fallen brother, and it will be yours from now on.”
The spear was eleven feet long, a common Nine-Bend Spear in the army at that time.
The spearhead was serpentine, sharp and pointed, with thin blades on both sides. The entire spearhead was over a foot long.
Fang An took it and nodded his thanks.
Weapons were the second life of a military household. If the army did not issue them, they had to find ways to acquire them themselves.
Being able to get such a long spear was an unexpected joy.
Mo Qi casually said, “One uses a saber all year round, a staff for a lifetime, and a spear for a lifetime. Your father also had a spear back then, but it was lost in a clash with the Tatars.”
“At home, did he teach you spear techniques?”
“No.” Fang An shook his head helplessly.
Night scouts could be considered the most elite soldiers at the grassroots level, but that old man never spoke about military matters after returning, let alone taught him spear skills.
Mo Qi said nothing else, but after a moment, he looked at Fang An with surprise.
“Eh, I heard your father gave the Hundred-Household Officer a lot of silver, saying he wanted to get your family out of the military household registry. What happened, did it not work out?”
Fang An was still completely confused. He had no idea about this!
“Never mind, we’ll talk about this later. If your father doesn’t teach you, I will, so you won’t even know how to stab someone.”
Mo Qi shook his head, took the spear back from Fang An, and walked outside to demonstrate the movements to him.
After completing a set of spear techniques, he wiped the sweat from his forehead and said to Fang An.
“We are not like those useless ones who go out every few days.”
“If you want to come back alive, you have to practice more in private. Try it yourself.”
Fang An nodded, and gratefully said to him, “Uncle Qi, don’t worry, this young man will not dare to be lazy.”
With that, he performed the movements he had memorized, wielding the long spear.
The moves were not difficult to learn, but the strength and the angle of the spear thrust were a bit hard to grasp.
Mo Qi leaned against the wall, basking in the sun, and pointed out his shortcomings.
“The thrust must be fast, and the strike must be fierce!”
“That last thrust should have been three inches higher.”
“Don’t rush, do it again and again. With more practice, you’ll naturally find the feeling.”
Several days passed in this manner.
Those who were summoned back on the same day as Fang An were mostly veteran soldiers. They had their own ways of fighting and spent their days sleeping after eating.
The meals for each squadron were prepared by those assigned after the fort received the grain.
The meager amount of grain distributed was only enough for one meal a day for the eleven of them, and even then, it was only half full.
After practicing the spear every day, Fang An’s stomach would ache with hunger. It was no wonder those old soldiers slept all day.
Two new recruits, after practicing with Fang An for two days, couldn’t take it anymore and refused to waste any more energy.
In less than ten days, Fang An had lost a lot of weight, but in return, he had gained a basic understanding of the spear techniques.
On this day, just as he finished practicing the spear, he heard the sound of fast-approaching horses from outside the fort.
Not long after, the Hundred-Household Officer arrived with five men dressed in various clothes.
“Mo Qi! There’s military intelligence, quickly take your men and Brother Zhou Tong and set off!”
“The specifics, Brother Zhou Tong will tell you on the way.”
His words left no room for doubt, and Mo Qi was not hesitant, cupping his fists and saying.
“Your subordinate obeys!”
After saying that, he notified everyone to assemble.
The squadron, including Mo Qi, eleven night scouts, under Zhou Tong’s guidance, galloped north.
Along the way, they learned from Zhou Tong that they were on a reconnaissance mission outside the Great Wall. Unexpectedly, when passing about ten miles north of Liujia Fort, they found traces of a small group of Tatar cavalry.
Liujia Fort was an abandoned, unguarded屯堡, located fifteen li east of Longqing Fort.
The Tatar group numbered only about ten people. Fearing that the news would leak, they hurried back to mobilize troops.
The main force moved slowly, and Longqing Fort only had their night scout cavalry unit. Therefore, this life-threatening mission fell upon them.
“Damn, these Tatars really don’t let people have a peaceful day!” Mo Qi spat as he rode his horse, then turned to look at Fang An.
“Stick close to me later, don’t get yourself killed, or I won’t be able to explain to your father!”
Fang An’s heart also tensed up. They were going to kill people!
The words “kill people” echoed in his mind, and his heartbeat unconsciously quickened.
Most of their horses were of poor quality and had poor stamina. The group could only travel intermittently, running for half a day.
Just as Fang An wondered why they hadn’t seen the Tatars yet, two men jumped down from a tree ahead.
“Boss, those Tatars entered the village and haven’t come out yet!” The man blocked the way of the group and reported to Zhou Tong with cupped fists.
“Son of a bitch, they must be harassing someone’s women again!” Zhou Tong cursed, then said to the man, “Lead the way from the front!”
The group followed the man off the main road and walked along a small path for about a quarter of an hour, finally arriving at their destination.
Everyone dismounted a few hundred meters away, put bits on their horses, and then covered the hooves with rags before quietly sneaking forward.
Ahead was a dilapidated village, from which came the screams of women.
Two Tatars stood at the village entrance, laughing shamelessly, as if those screams were beautiful music to them.
“Damn!”
Fang An, who had never seen anything like this, was about to move when Mo Qi grabbed him.
“Don’t be rash!”
Zhou Tong glanced at Fang An without speaking, then turned to the man leading the way.
The man quickly said, “There are no obstacles around this village. It can be entered and exited from all four directions: east, west, north, and south.”
“There are a total of thirteen Tatars, two wearing iron armor, four wearing cotton armor, and the rest in leather armor.”
“Two archers, four shield-bearers, and seven spearmen.”
After hearing the man’s report, Zhou Tong’s face turned ashen. He said to everyone.
“We cannot charge in. If even one person escapes, they will surely lead a large army to attack!”
“As long as we don’t startle them, once they have looted the goods, they will definitely come out this way.”
“We must set an ambush when they leave the village and capture them all in one fell swoop!”
Fang An didn’t understand military matters, so he looked at Mo Qi in confusion.
Mo Qi patiently explained to him, “We are a small team, and we won’t be far from the fort. As soon as someone reports back, they can guess the approximate location of our fort.”
“At that time, our Longqing Fort will be in great disaster.”
“If we capture all the Tatars and clean up the bodies, they won’t know where they met their misfortune, and this matter will pass.”
“But these Tatars~” Fang An felt uneasy hearing the screams.
Zhou Tong raised an eyebrow at Mo Qi, “What, is this a rookie who just came out?”
Mo Qi nodded repeatedly, “Brother, don’t blame him. This kid’s father is my brother. If anything goes wrong later, Brother Zhou, please be considerate.”
Zhou Tong glared at Fang An, “Damn! Bad luck! Stay away from me when the fighting starts, don’t get yourself killed by the Tatars and then die by my hand!”
Fang An: …….
Mo Qi patted him on the shoulder and said softly, “Don’t blame him. For their first battle, some wet themselves, some ran away, and some went berserk and chopped at everyone.”
After speaking, he pulled out two wads of cotton from the tear in his combat jacket and stuffed them into Fang An’s ears.
“Stuff them in, stuff them in, and you won’t hear.”
“We can’t ruin the big picture for the sake of these few civilians. If Longqing Fort is lost, who knows how many villages will be ravaged by the Tatars!”
Fang An felt his worldview had been skewed. This damned world! Damned Tatars! Damned Wei Suo Army!
The group lay hidden behind a dirt slope outside the village, their warhorses lying quietly beside them.
After waiting for a full half-hour, the Tatars finally emerged from the village with grim smiles.
Thirteen of them, each with two horses, the horses laden with spoils.
Iron pots, farming tools, cloth, and several women were tied together by ropes and led behind the warhorses like livestock.
“Screech!”
Just as Fang An could no longer restrain himself, Zhou Tong suddenly shot an arrow.
“Hmph!”
The Tatar in the lead, wearing a leather armor, was shot in the chest and fell stiffly off his horse.
“Ambush!” The other Tatars, seeing this, instantly picked up their weapons and scanned their surroundings warily.
“Screech! Screech!”
Two more arrows were shot from beside Fang An, but the Tatars, now on guard, dodged them.
“Kill!”
With a roar from Zhou Tong, the warhorses lying on the ground immediately got up, carrying him towards the Tatars.
Mo Qi and the others also rushed out at the same time, and Fang An was no less eager.
“There! Kill!”
As they rushed out, the Tatars had already noticed them, dropping the ropes holding the women and raising their weapons to meet the attack.
The two sides were only a few dozen paces apart. As the warhorses charged, they collided head-on.
Zhou Tong, on his horse, thrust his spear forward fiercely.
The Tatar opposite him had no time to dodge and was pierced in the chest. But the next second, his companion raised a saber and swung it towards Zhou Tong’s head.
“Damn your grandmother!” Mo Qi arrived at this moment and, with a swing of his saber, saved Zhou Tong.
Fang An, falling behind, held his spear and kept encouraging himself.
Kill! Kill all these Tatars!
But before he could find an opportunity to strike, he saw one of Zhou Tong’s subordinates have half his head chopped off. The red and white matter instantly sprayed from his skull.
“Ugh~~”
A wave of intense nausea washed over him, and he vomited directly on his horse.
Mo Qi glanced at him upon hearing the sound, but had to turn back to fight the Tatars.
“Clang clang clang”
The sound of weapons clashing was incessant, and Tatars and flag guards alike fell from their horses.
Zhou Tong, with a knife wound on his shoulder, saw Fang An standing foolishly on his horse at the very back and couldn’t help but curse.
“Damn it, I knew new recruits were useless!”
“What are you standing there like an idiot for? Waiting for the Tatars to chop off your head and claim a reward?”
Fang An was jolted awake by his scolding and finally realized that he was on the battlefield!
Suppressing the discomfort in his stomach, he urged his horse forward.
Mo Qi saw his reaction and a satisfied smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
“Kill!”
With his shout, the Tatar in front of him was speared off his horse.
The Ming army had eighteen men, while the Tatars had only thirteen.
Except for Fang An and three other new recruits, the rest were seasoned veterans who fought without hesitation.
But it was these four rookies who nullified the Ming army’s numerical advantage.
After two of Zhou Tong’s subordinates were killed and one was seriously injured, he himself was surrounded by three Tatars.
Fang An, seeing this, hurried to his rescue.
His thinking was simple: as long as he could tie down one of them, with Zhou Tong’s demonstrated skills, fighting two would only be a matter of time.
Upon reaching them, he locked his eyes on the Tatar soldier wearing cotton armor and thrust his spear out fiercely.
To his surprise, the Tatar bared his teeth at him with a ferocious smile.
“Grandson, good timing!”
Saying this, he raised his saber to block.
Fang An’s spear techniques had only been practiced for a few days, and he hadn’t even reached the introductory level, so how could he be a match for this Tatar?
Furthermore, this was his first encounter with anyone, and unexpectedly, the spear tip was deflected by two feet.
“Pfft!”
The spear shaft was only slightly delayed before it pierced someone.
Soon, Fang An knew the answer.
He saw Zhou Tong staring at him with bloodshot eyes, “Damn your grandmother! You son of a bitch, are you a spy sent by the Tatars!”
Fang An looked at the spear tip lodged in Zhou Tong’s buttocks and was stunned.
He quickly explained loudly, “Brother Zhou, it was an accident, purely an accident!”
Just then, he heard Mo Qi’s sharp shout, “An Waizi, be careful!”
Fang An instinctively ducked low on his horse, hearing a buzzing sound overhead – it was a Tatar saber!
If not for Mo Qi’s reminder, his head would have been completely lopped off.
He instinctively retracted his spear, executed a parry and dodge, and the spear tip slashed outwards.
“Hmph!”
“Ah!”
First, he heard Zhou Tong’s muffled groan, and then the scream of the Tatar whose face had been hit.
Fang An looked back and saw Zhou Tong, after killing one person, turn and stare intently at him.
Oh, I forgot~~~~
After only three to five minutes of fighting, both sides had suffered casualties.
The Ming army had four men dead and one seriously injured, while the Tatars had lost eight men.
The remaining five Tatars, seeing the unfavorable situation, began to shout and flee northward.
Mo Qi glanced at Zhou Tong, saw that his two wounds were still bleeding, and ordered Fang An and the others.
“Chase! Not a single one can be allowed to escape!”
The sun had not yet fully set, but a crescent moon had already risen in the sky. They closely pursued the Tatars.
Fortunately, the Tatars, in their panic, chose a path leading to a large river.
The river was swift, and the five Tatars had no choice but to turn their horses around to fight back.
Five against ten, the outcome was predictable, but the Ming army once again lost a brother.
Mo Qi dismounted, picked up a Tatar saber dropped on the ground, and handed it to Fang An, pointing at the Tatar corpses.
“Go, chop off their heads!”
Fang An did not take it, but ran to the riverbank and vomited again.
Before, he had endured it, but now, seeing the blood everywhere, the scattered corpses, one of which had its belly burst open by a warhorse, he could no longer suppress it.
Another new recruit named Li Jiu had the same reaction as him.
Mo Qi just shook his head and smiled bitterly, saying nothing.
Only after he and a few other companions had cleared the battlefield did Fang An and Li Jiu sheepishly return from the river.
The group returned to the village. Mo Qi was waiting for them by the roadside, his wounds already bandaged.
What shocked Fang An was that the women who had been tied up by the Tatars had somehow fallen to the ground, their eyes blankly staring at the sky, blood still flowing from their necks.
He pointed at the women in panic, looking at Mo Qi, “Sev-, Uncle Sev-, this, this, this is~”
Mo Qi immediately understood the reason and sighed.
“Alas! They are all unfortunate souls, unable to bear the judgment of others in the future, so they committed suicide.”
After speaking, he looked at Fang An and the others.
“Brothers, dig the pits deeper, don’t let them be dug up by wild dogs again.”
Fang An couldn’t understand. To kill this group of Tatars, was it really worth lying in ambush outside the village and watching these women suffer such atrocities?
“Bang!”
Just as he was feeling suffocated, Zhou Tong, limping, walked over and punched Fang An squarely in the face.
“Tsk~”
Before he could regain his senses, he heard the sound of a waist saber being drawn, and then felt a cold sensation on his neck.
He instinctively turned his head and saw Zhou Tong staring at him with murderous intent.
“Damn your ancestors! It’s bad enough you’re afraid of battle, but you dare to stab me in the back!”
“Today, I will charge you with insubordination and desertion in the face of the enemy!”
Saying this, he raised the waist saber and then ruthlessly slashed down at Fang An.
“Ding~”
Seeing this, Mo Qi immediately blocked the fatal blow for Fang An.
“Brother Zhou Tong, wait a moment!”
“Newcomers in battle, it’s inevitable that there will be mistakes. In this battle, he has killed two Tatars, which is much better than the useless ones before.”
“For the sake of our old brotherhood, spare him, will you?”
“Spare him? Then how do you account for this wound!” Zhou Tong pointed at his buttocks.
Mo Qi said, “Brother, how about this, all of Xiao Anzi’s combat merits today will be counted towards you.”
“Take the heads of those two Tatars and claim the reward, consider it his apology, how about it?”
Killing a Tatar was rewarded with five taels of silver. Exchanging heads for merit was stated in the reward and punishment regulations.
Zhou Tong thought for a moment, took the heads handed over by Mo Qi, tied them to his saddle with his rat tail braid, and pointed at Fang An, saying.
“Kid, I’ll let you off this time. If there’s a next time, no one can save you!”
The village was burned down, and the Tatar bodies were thrown into the fire. As for the fallen brothers, they were carried back on horseback.
Darkness had fallen, and returning to the fort was impossible. After traveling for a while, the group decided to seek lodging in a village.
Zhou Tong roughly knocked on a courtyard gate.
“Open the door! The military officer needs to borrow”