"My sons, listen to my command! Quickly raise your blades, nock your arrows, and kill the Qian people beside you to welcome the Yan soldiers into the city!"

On the battlefield, skillful formation, adaptability, and astute judgment are the qualities of a commander. Clearly, Liang Cheng was nearly perfect in this regard.

But there were other things that went beyond the scope of the "battlefield," didn't fall under the category of commander's qualities, and weren't part of the "unorthodox" within the orthodox.

Generally, such matters were left to the scheming characters in the imperial court.

But now,

Zheng Fan had already gotten his hands dirty when he thought about using Madame Daxi.

Add a blind man to the mix, one who liked to bask in the sun, fearing his bellyful of bad ideas would mold if left unexposed for too long, and you had filth upon filth.

As for "soul searching" via spiritual power, it wasn't that the blind man couldn't do it. Reading memories in a short time wasn't impossible either. But he couldn't do it now, unless his lord could match the level of Jingnan Marquis; perhaps then he could be so carefree.

But not speaking the "local dialect" was only a minor issue.

After that one sentence in "Central Plains speech," the effect quickly manifested.

Anyway, the goal was to incite infighting among them; who made the first move didn't matter.

After "Madame Daxi's" shout,

the Qian soldiers on the city wall were instantly startled and immediately looked at the Wolf Soil soldiers beside them with suspicion. Two Qian soldiers holding crossbows even aimed their weapons at the Wolf Soil soldiers next to them.

One of them,

pulled the trigger.

"Buzz!"

"Pfft!"

The crossbow bolt directly pierced the Wolf Soil soldier's body.

This scene happened so suddenly, yet so publicly.

The Qian soldier on the other side immediately turned his blade towards the Wolf Soil soldier beside him, adding fuel to the fire.

The Qian Kingdom liked using Wolf Soil soldiers for two reasons: first, they were fierce in battle, making them convenient for suppressing rebellions; second, in order to mobilize the Western Army guarding the southwestern mountains northward, they used heavy bribes to entice the chieftains to contribute their troops to go north together, also out of fear of unrest in the southwest after the Western Army left.

Therefore, there was already extreme distrust between the natives and the Qian people. Coupled with the Wolf Soil soldiers' recent defeat and the fact that their Madame Daxi had been captured by the Yan people, these Wolf Soil soldiers were in a state of mental panic.

Historical reasons combined with the current atmosphere made that one crossbow bolt instantly ignite the situation.

The Wolf Soil soldiers began to raise their knives, and the Qian soldiers also began to raise their knives. Accompanied by a first strike from who-knew-who, the internal strife between the two sides unfolded in this ridiculous manner.

Meng Gong watched the scene before him in astonishment. Things had happened too quickly, and Madame Daxi's transformation was too sudden. Even now, Meng Gong was still incredulous as to why Madame Daxi dared to disregard the people of her village. Even if she was coerced by the Yan people, she shouldn't have shouted such words. Even if she was tortured and forced, she couldn't have changed so quickly!

Therefore,

at this moment,

Meng Gong lost control of the situation, because this was not the responsibility of his generalship.

Normally, generals were responsible for fighting battles on the outside, and the imperial court was responsible for logistics and supplies in the rear, trying as much as possible to assign suitable troops for the generals to command. But these Wolf Soil soldiers were simply beyond Meng Gong's ability to command.

If Mianzhou City had provided him with the Western Army or the troops from the three northern towns of the Qian Kingdom, Meng Gong would have even dared to deliberately let more Yan soldiers into the city before closing the gates to trap and kill them.

But now, he could only try his best to maintain the situation from completely collapsing, doing nothing more than his best and leaving the rest to fate.

She was a beautiful woman, but unfortunately, she faced two dirty bastards.

Meng Gong's eyes began to turn red, and he gripped his knife, but in his heart, he felt a sense of confusion.

On the contrary,

outside the city,

Zheng Fan was very happy.

The knights began to readjust their state. The sounds of fighting inside the city were so clear, and they knew their chance had come.

No one would嫌弃 (xiánqì, dislike) having too many military merits. Whether they were barbarians or penal servitude soldiers from the aristocratic families, they all had a strong thirst for heads.

Because since the last raid into the Qian Kingdom, Zheng Fan had come to realize that his "racial discrimination" against the barbarian soldiers was inappropriate.

Liang Cheng understood Zheng Fan's meaning and conveyed it to the blind man, who immediately understood the spirit of his lord's message.

Under the blind man's operation, the barbarian soldiers, in addition to having a dream in their minds after being brainwashed, also had a pursuit right in front of them.

That was, they could earn the identity of a citizen of the Yan Kingdom through military merits, and they could be granted land, which was equivalent to obtaining a Yan Kingdom *hukou* (household registration).

The Yan Kingdom *hukou* was naturally not as good as the Qian Kingdom's Shangjing *hukou*, because the Qian Kingdom's Shangjing City was undoubtedly the greatest city in the world, with highly developed commerce, culture, and other industries, making it simply the most dazzling pearl in the world.

But for the barbarians who came from penal servitude tribes, being able to obtain the Yan people's *hukou*, so that they and their descendants would not have to face the shadow of the Zhenbei Army's blades, was already an extremely precious opportunity.

However,

just as the morale of the army was rising again, preparing to find an opportunity to charge the city again, two scouting riders returned.

After receiving the report, Liang Cheng immediately spurred his horse over to Zheng Fan's side:

"Lord, we've spotted Qian cavalry on the outskirts."

Zheng Fan was taken aback and asked:

"Which side?"

"The south."

Zheng Fan frowned. "The south?"

If the Qian cavalry came from the north, then it should be the three northern towns' cavalry coming to support, but they shouldn't be that fast.

This time, the Qian cavalry came from the south, which meant it was likely the Qian Kingdom's northward-bound troops.

This Wolf Soil army was actually the first batch of troops to go north, which meant that the follow-up troops were not far away.

Zheng Fan scanned his surroundings. The chaos inside the city was telling him that now was a great opportunity to try charging the gate again, but this city would ultimately not be able to be defended.

He was leading cavalry, and the numbers were insufficient. What he relied on was individual soldier quality and mobility.

"Withdraw!"

Zheng Fan made a decision.

Madame Daxi looked at Zheng Fan with some resentment.

So her transformation from man to woman was just for a little noise?

But the blind man was, after all, blind; he rarely made impulsive decisions due to emotions, so Madame Daxi trembled and fainted.

"A'li, protect the blind man's body."

"Yes, Lord!"

Zheng Fan's gaze turned to the two hundred or so captured Soil soldiers kneeling on the other side.

A look of compassion appeared on his face,

and he said:

"They are also pitiful people. Heaven has the virtue of cherishing life. We will take Madame Daxi away, but the rest, let them go. I don't do the thing of killing prisoners."

"Your subordinate understands, Lord." Liang Cheng nodded.

After Zheng Fan finished speaking, he waved his hand, spurred his horse northward, and a team of cavalry followed Zheng Fan and began to gallop north.

Liang Cheng stayed behind slightly,

and ordered the surrounding cavalry:

"Kill them all."

"Yes, sir!"

...

Not being able to capture Mianzhou City was a pity, because the city had been lying vulnerably in front of them twice, seemingly deliberately luring them in, with a hint of coy resistance for the sake of atmosphere.

But the Cuiliu Fort's army was unable to really enter this time.

The troops did suffer some losses.

But thanks to Madame Daxi's wave of godlike operation, they forcibly sent a wave of heads.

Therefore, this raid was still a full return. Judging solely in terms of head-based military merits, it really far exceeded what Zheng Fan had gained the last time he entered the city.

And this was before Zheng Fan even factored in the enormous gains made by the dwarf assassins in his own team.

The journey north was not smooth sailing either, because the three northern towns did indeed react after receiving the beacon fire message.

However, just as Zheng Fan had said when he roasted lamb legs with the Zhenbei Marquis last time, "Give me a little more manpower, and I can have the Qian people escort me out of the country with courtesy."

This time, the Qian people didn't escort them out of the country with courtesy, but facing these thousand-plus Yan iron cavalrymen with overwhelming killing intent, the groups of one hundred or two hundred Qian cavalrymen really didn't dare to step forward to stop them.

They clearly had the opportunity to delay, but they didn't dare to come forward. Some only dared to follow from a distance, just to show they were doing something.

In fact, when the Cuiliu Fort's cavalry team changed direction, those Qian cavalrymen had to retreat.

The Qian people were waiting for their main force to arrive, but their main force, in recent times, or rather, in the previous months, after facing Jingnan Marquis personally leading ten thousand Jingnan Army iron cavalry and being forced to retreat, had been cowering in the military towns, not daring to venture out recklessly. So it was almost impossible to arrive in time.

Even if they arrived in time, facing these thousand-plus cavalrymen who were impolitely rushing directly north, without any auxiliary troops to actively intercept and delay them, how could they possibly catch up?

This was a cavalry force, cavalrymen with two horses each!

On the way back, the morale of the army was still strong, because they were not retreating in defeat, but triumphing.

Unless there was a Qian cavalry force of nearly two thousand in front of them, it would be impossible to force them to change direction.

The reason why Zheng Fan was chased so much that he had to pull and hide east and west last time was because there were too few soldiers that time. He had taken out four hundred barbarian cavalrymen, and some were lost when charging the city. When he went, he hadn't made enough preparations, so it was inevitable that he was a little tired. Therefore, when facing the Qian pursuers, he chose to retreat and detour. In the end, if Jingnan Marquis hadn't stepped in, he would have been finished in the Qian Kingdom.

But this time, there were no problems like last time.

Everyone was thinking about going back, because this time, the head-based merits were enough for the penal servitude soldiers to have their families gain freedom, and they could also allow the barbarian soldiers to obtain *hukou*.

Moreover, the hairstyles of the Wolf Soil soldiers, including the pendants on their ears, were easy to identify, so there would be no trouble when calculating the heads, and they wouldn't have to worry about being accused of killing civilians to claim credit.

However, the first person to eat crabs was always the luckiest, because after this lesson of blood, the Wolf Soil soldiers probably wouldn't dare to make such an exaggerated maneuver of chasing cavalry on the plains again.

"Hey, Lord, look, so many Qian cavalrymen are escorting us."

The blind man was unconscious, carried on Fan Li's shoulder.

Xue San wasn't there; who knew if he was dead or not.

Liang Cheng was commanding the army. Si Niang was only suitable for the night.

Therefore, only A'ming could chat with Zheng Fan at this time.

"Heh heh."

Zheng Fan smiled.

Beside the team, behind them, the gathered Qian cavalry teams began to increase, but they would soon be left behind, because the Qian cavalrymen's stamina was not good, and they couldn't compare to the luxurious configuration of two horses per person on this side. Furthermore, they didn't have the determination to actively attack and seek battle.

Since they were all cavalrymen, they were all experts. They knew in their hearts what the quality and temperament of the cavalry in front of them were like. If they were blindfolded, they might try it, but no one was willing to take themselves as eggs to crack stones with their eyes open.

It could be said that the Qian people's suppression of martial arts with culture for nearly a hundred years had already shown its bad consequences. Although there were indeed good generals and some soldiers with passion and fearlessness in the Qian army, the overall military atmosphere was still extremely low.

The low social status of soldiers and the resulting self-abandonment and lack of a sense of honor among the soldiers themselves would surely lead to extremely bitter consequences.

However, Zheng Fan was still somewhat dissatisfied in his heart, and he shouted:

"If I had another seven or eight thousand cavalrymen, I wouldn't have to run away!"

Zheng Fan felt that his thousand-plus cavalrymen, with the advantage of equipment in the front and Liang Cheng's command in the front, might have a gap compared to the Zhenbei Army, but compared to the same number of Jingnan Army, they were really on par.

If he had ten thousand Jingnan Army iron cavalrymen under his command at this time, not to mention that Mianzhou City would definitely have been captured earlier, he could even be as leisurely as a spring outing when running away at this time, and he could even exchange souvenirs with these Qian cavalrymen who came to chase them in a relaxed manner.

Zheng Fan had a great-uncle back in his old hometown who had chatted about how he used to exchange canned meat with the Vietnamese devils on the Lao Shan front during family gatherings during the New Year, saying that he was already tired of eating his own canned food.

At that time, Zheng Fan was still very confused. Fighting a war like that?

Now, he understood a little. As long as you had the confidence, you could indeed do that.

"Heh heh, isn't this the same as when the Manchus entered the Pass before?" A'ming said.

Many people only knew that Wu Sangui led the Manchus into the Pass, but they didn't know that in fact, in the years before that, the Eight Banners of the Later Jin had broken through the Pass several times, burning, killing, and looting all the way, and even taking a horse ride under the city of Beijing, offering a greeting to Emperor Chongzhen on the city wall.

When the Later Jin retreated, carrying the wealth they had looted, they naturally couldn't go fast, but the Ming army only dared to follow behind, waiting for the Later Jin soldiers to retreat and leave the city before the Ming army entered and announced the "recovery" of the city, escorting them all the way out of the Pass.

At the end of a dynasty, when the military was abandoned and the soldiers and generals who could fight had withered away, it was easy for similar scenes to occur.

In Zheng Fan's view, this Great Qian was really in line with the situation at the end of a dynasty. He had failed to die twice and had returned with a full load each time, which was the best proof.

The only thing that Zheng Fan couldn't understand was probably that Jingnan Marquis had clearly returned long ago, but he had only been ordering the miscellaneous army warlords under him to come out and forage for food and make trouble on their own, and the Jingnan Army camp had not made any moves at all.

Was he waiting for an opportunity?

Zheng Fan knew that Jingnan Marquis had been waiting for the Qian's three-border main force to take the bait, so that he could eat their three-border main force in one bite. But now there were clearly capable people in the Qian's imperial court. The former Prime Minister Yang, who had "humiliated the country and ceded territory," had not been transferred and was still continuing his policy of contraction. And the Qian's main force legions everywhere had already gone north.

If this was really a protracted war, shrinking back and not coming out, what should the Yan Kingdom do?

Fortunately, although Zheng Fan was an officer of the Yan people, he didn't have the awareness of being a Yan person to be concerned about the Great Yan. It was his first priority to be able to eat his fill and develop well. As for the future, let it be.

The cavalry continued to gallop until the east began to turn white. Most of the Qian cavalry either ran out of horsepower or saw that the border line was about to arrive, so they gave up following.

But behind them, there was still a cavalry force of more than a thousand people, still chasing closely.

It was just that the quality of the other side's warhorses was not as good as Zheng Fan's side, so they had not been able to catch up, and the Qian comrades in front had not launched a suicide charge for this pursuing force to help delay them.

Raising cavalry was a very expensive thing. The cavalry of Cuiliu Fort were all horses from the desert, and all aspects of their quality were first-class.

In fact, including Zheng Fan, the horses that many people familiar with in later generations were the horses seen in amusement parks or on the roads, mostly Yunnan horses. These horses were small and had strong hooves, climbed high mountains, and walked on dangerous paths, and did not pant or sweat even after dozens of miles.

But real warhorses, the so-called "tall horses," were definitely a completely different experience, otherwise Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that Zheng Fan was familiar with would not have been so excited about getting the Ferghana horse.

Finally, the cavalry of Cuiliu Fort broke through the Qian Kingdom's fortress defense line in front. This time, the fortress only released smoke, and no one dared to come out to stop this surging iron cavalry.

Zheng Fan turned his head, looked at the cavalry that had been chasing from the periphery of Mianzhou City since last night, and smiled,

I came quietly,

and I left extremely arrogantly,

chase me!

...

The silver-armored general who had led the army to chase for half the night raised his hand, and the cavalry slowed down their speed. In fact, the warhorses under their crotches were already somewhat overdrawn.

"Young General, this Yan cavalry is too fast, and they have horses to change."

The silver-armored general's face was as deep as water,

and he made a disdainful sound:

"It's not that the Yan people run fast, it's that my Great Qian's three-border officers and soldiers fear the enemy like tigers."

"Young General, be careful, be careful, this is not at home."

"Careful what? I, Zhong Tianlang, have never seen such useless officers and soldiers in my life!"

...

The Western Army entered the city, and the fighting between the Wolf Soil soldiers and the local Qian soldiers was also stopped.

The Wolf Soil soldiers were not afraid of the local Mianzhou Qian soldiers, but they had a fear of the Qian Kingdom's Western Army from the bottom of their bones.

An old general with a white beard drove into Mianzhou City under the protection of his personal soldiers,

looking at the mess all over the ground,

the old general smiled,

his laughter,

carried a bone-chilling coldness.

...

Inside the city, in the back kitchen of an empty merchant team's branch residence, a small figure was rummaging through the pottery jars inside. He found the salt jar.

He took out the head wrapped in cloth, rubbed several handfuls of salt, and began to smear it on. Inside the package, there were also accessories and documents that could prove the identity of the head's owner.

"Come, Prince Fu, let's smear some here, and smear some there, can't miss any."

Xue San wiped it very carefully.

After killing the person, another army entered the city and quickly took control of the defense of the entire city.

Xue San, who had originally thought about taking the head and leaving while taking advantage of the situation, was a little puzzled. This Qian army, which didn't know where it had come from, carried an extremely strong killing intent, and was very strict in its defense.

After hesitating for a while, Xue San didn't risk leaving directly, but instead first applied powder to Prince Fu.

After applying the powder, Xue San found some bacon and other food in the kitchen, re-wrapped Prince Fu's head, and jumped into a well in the yard.

In winter, the water level was not high, and the space at the bottom of the well was actually quite large. After Xue San went down, he first drank two mouthfuls of water, and then took out the bacon and took two bites. He didn't find it unpalatable, and he didn't feel any difficulty swallowing it at all.

As an assassin, waiting for the target to appear in harsh environments, even waiting for a month was nothing. This little bit was just a drizzle.

After eating and drinking a little, replenishing what his body needed, Xue San hugged Prince Fu's head, gently patted it with his hand,

and said to himself:

"Alas, Lord and the others must be worried to death after they find out I'm gone."
Chapter 1 The Beginning