Ma Xiaoquan frowned slightly, and the team captains in front of him were so frightened that they quickly lowered their heads, not daring to look at him.
"I expected that there would be one more person, so he ran or ran away..." Ma Xiaoquan waved his hand and said, "Okay, let's tidy up and clean up this place. Well, you guys should work hard.
Stuff the corpses of all the dead Jurchen soldiers into sacks and throw them into the nearby river. Put stones in the sacks to prevent the bodies from floating. Then don't linger. Let's leave after we're done!"
"Yes~~"
...
After burning a stick of incense, Ma Xiaoquan led everyone to leave the checkpoint and go to the second stronghold.
The second stronghold is 25 miles away from the main camp of Qiantun. The road is easier to walk, but there are relatively fewer places to hide on this road.
It was already late at night. If we walked all night, we would probably reach the second stronghold and the sky would be almost white. Ma Xiaoquan decided to lead the team to Guangming Mountain for temporary reorganization before heading to Qiantun.
Guangming Mountain is not far from the second stronghold. Due to terrain reasons, the geographical advantage of the additional stronghold is greater than that of Guangming Mountain. Therefore, no matter whether it is the Han people at the beginning or the Jurchens now, they will not send troops to guard Guangming Mountain without special reasons.
...
Arriving at the foot of Guangming Mountain, Ma Xiaoquan ordered everyone to climb halfway up the mountain to rest, while he went to the secret location to investigate alone.
It's been a while since I came back, and the Ma family no longer sends people to guard the secret location, so the place is overgrown with weeds.
The weather in the Northeast is much colder than that in Beijing. Standing on the mountainside, the biting cold wind blows across your face, like a knife cutting you.
Ma Xiaoquan tightened his tight cloak, touched his cheek gently, squinted his eyes, and quietly came to the passage of the secret place alone.
He wanted to go in and take a look, but he was afraid that he might not be able to get out for a while, but he was not willing to go in and take a look.
After thinking about it, Ma Xiaoquan finally decided not to look at it yet, but to capture Qiantun first, and then he would investigate carefully by himself.
Sighing, Ma Xiaoquan turned around and retreated to the mountainside. At this time, the soldiers gathered around and squinted their eyes to rest. Ma Xiaoquan yawned and also closed his eyes to rest.
...
In the second stronghold of Qiantun, two Jurchen soldiers were panting and reporting the situation to the guard.
After the general guarding the stronghold heard that the first checkpoint had been lost, he was so shocked that he quickly sent someone to send a message to the former general Batu. He himself called everyone up and prepared for Ma Xiaoquan's attack.
It gradually dawned, but Ma Xiaoquan didn't come.
The stronghold guard couldn't help it anymore and asked the two Jurchen soldiers who came back from the checkpoint: "Didn't you say there was a sneak attack? Who is it?"
"Ma... is that Ma Xiaoquan, he... he brought a cannon, that cannon!" one of them said.
"What? You mean that cannon? One time we attacked Ningyuan, what cannon did the Han people use?"
"Yes, that's the one. It's very powerful. We are no match at all!" said another.
"Hmm~~" the stronghold guard thought for a while, then said with a drag of his chin, "Instead of doing this, I think we should abandon this stronghold, lure Ma Xiaoquan and the others to Qiantun, and annihilate them in one fell swoop."
"Ah?" said the young staff officer next to the guard, "General, after passing this stronghold, there is no way for the front camp to stop us. General Batu will be blamed for us going back so hastily."
"I know, but he said that Ma Xiaoquan has that kind of cannon, and we are no match for that kind of cannon. It's probably useless to count them here. By the way, how many people do they have?"
The Jurchen soldiers who came back from the checkpoint didn't know how many people Ma Xiaoquan had brought. What impressed him most was that people seemed to be shouting and killing from all directions at that time, so he rolled his eyes and said: "Three to four hundred people."
"What? Three or four hundred people?" When the stronghold guard heard this number, he couldn't sit still.
The total number of people at the checkpoint is twenty-sixty-seven. Because the people at this second stronghold need to be rotated with the checkpoint, the total number of people at the checkpoint is a little more than double that at the checkpoint. Even so, there are only about fifty people. The total number of checkpoints and strongholds is eight
There are about ten people, and there are three to four hundred people on the other side, and it is said that they also have cannons? How can we fight this?
"General, we can't retreat. If General Batu is really blamed, we will be doomed!" the young staff officer next to him warned.
"Well, I know, we can't retreat like this, so how about we take the initiative to fight that Ma Xiaoquan?"
"Take the initiative?" Everyone was stunned for a moment.
The stronghold guard confidently took out a copy of "Sun Tzu's Art of War" from his pocket, patted it and said, "This is written in the Han's military book. We have to take the initiative to attack. This is called an attack. That Ma Xiaoquan will definitely not be able to go far with his cannon.
I made him think that maybe we would win. If we won, we would have the chance to capture Ma Xiaoquan and offer it to General Batu. Do you think General Batu would be happier? Maybe he would reward us a lot.
A Han woman is having fun."
This truth is indeed correct, and it does sound like a good coping method, but they don't know that Ma Xiaoquan is currently in Guangming Mountain.
Guangming Mountain is not a good defensive location, but everything has to be balanced. The stronghold is much worse, but compared with the terrain around Guangming Mountain, it is actually a good defensive location.
Especially standing on the top of Guangming Mountain, you can see far away and have a wide field of vision.
...
The sky was completely bright and the sky was clear. Ma Xiaoquan stood on the top of Guangming Mountain and looked into the distance.
From a distance, Ma Xiaoquan saw a group of cavalry.
"Jurchen?" Ma Xiaoquan shrank his neck alertly and ordered the soldiers beside him: "Ma told us to go down and hide on the mountainside. Don't come out."
"Yes~"
...
The group of cavalry arrived at the foot of Guangming Mountain in a blink of an eye. There were about four or five people. They stopped their horses and spoke a tribal language that Ma Xiaoquan could not understand. Then they separated two cavalrymen from the group and continued to move forward.
Ma Xiaoquan squinted his eyes and murmured: "It seems they are the outpost cavalry. Well, those two should have gone to the checkpoint to find out the news, but there is no one at the checkpoint, hum~"
In less than a moment of burning incense, several groups of Jurchen cavalry arrived one after another. Remember, there were already a hundred people, each carrying sophisticated combat weapons on their backs.
Ma Xiaoquan dragged his chin, saw the equipment of the Jurchen soldiers at the foot of the mountain, squinted his eyes and said: "They are indeed aware of it, and they also sent people, intending to have a battle with me first... Well, they
Knowing that I came with infantry, they are right to use cavalry. If I were still down there now, I would really become their favorite~"
Ma Xiaoquan patted his chest and was secretly glad that he led his people to station in Guangming Mountain. Otherwise, I am afraid that at this moment, when they met the other party's cavalry in such an open place, the entire army would be destroyed.
A team leader approached Ma Xiaoquan and said: "Sir, what should I do? There are already more than a hundred people at the foot of the mountain. This Guangming Mountain is not a place to hide, and the brothers are also very cold...
."
Ma Xiaoquan dragged his chin and said humbly: "I know, now that we are out, don't take any chances. Everyone, grab your weapons and let's make a sneak attack. Those are cavalry. There are no cavalry in Guangming Mountain. The cavalry dismounts and those are infantry."
, in terms of infantry, they are not as good as us, give me an order, let the brothers rub their hands, let's kill them with two rounds of bows and arrows first, if it doesn't work, we will wait for them with thunderbolts."
"Yes~"
...
At the foot of the mountain, the leading Jurchen cavalry captain said to the team members: "You all are ready, don't neglect, General Batu said, that Ma Xiaoquan is very cunning..."
A cavalryman mentioned: "Boss, I heard that the guy who ran from the checkpoint said that Ma Xiaoquan had already breached the checkpoint. He did not go to build a stronghold. Do you think he was hiding on Guangming Mountain?"
The cavalry captain raised his head and looked at Guangming Mountain, shook his head and said: "This is impossible, they are not that fast. Don't forget, they also have cannons, and the cannons are very slow to push."
...
On the mountainside, Ma Xiaoquan lay quietly. Behind him, more than eighty people were ready, and everyone drew their bows.
"Quietly arrow~" Ma Xiaoquan ordered in a low voice.
Everyone really quietly put the arrows on their bows, and then carefully pulled the bowstring to its full length.
Ma Xiaoquan leaned his head and looked down, determined the position of the Jurchen cavalry, then made a ready gesture, and then pressed down.
"Whoosh whoosh..." More than eighty arrows flew out almost at the same time, aiming directly at the Jurchen cavalry at the foot of the mountain.
For a moment, screams and the neighing of horses were heard at the foot of the mountain.
In the second round of shooting, they couldn't hide it even if they wanted to. Without Ma Xiaoquan's order, everyone stuck out their heads, drew their bows and nocked arrows, and aimed at the Jurchen cavalry they wanted to target.
From top to bottom, there is no cover below, and with the cavalry on horses, the target is very exposed. It can be said that they are completely living targets.
The sound of "咻咻咻" sounded again, just two breaths apart, and the Jurchen cavalry at the foot of the mountain once again suffered the baptism of arrow rain.
Ma Xiaoquan was also surprised by the effect of two volleys of bows and arrows. There were originally more than a hundred cavalry, but now there were less than fifty left.
People are all bloody, let alone being aggrieved and being attacked by someone unexpectedly?
The surviving Jurchen cavalry drew their swords, jumped off their horses and shouted, and attacked Guangming Mountain.
The enemy is below and we are here, and Ma Xiaoquan's side still occupies a geographical advantage.
By the time those Jurchen soldiers approached, their arrows were already on the bow.
