Chapter Forty-Four: Endurance Contest

  This battle in the eastern city and western suburbs was absolutely the most embarrassing one that Little Overlord Sun Ce had ever fought. After the battle, Han Dang, an old general left by Sun Jian, died from arrow wounds, with more than 400 soldiers lost and over 500 wounded. Sun Ce himself was hit by five arrows, although none of them were fatal, but still injured and humiliated him. The result of the battle against the enemy was that not a single head of a gentleman soldier was cut off, only an unknown number of gentleman cavalry were shot and wounded with bows and arrows, losing thoroughly and shamefully.

  Actually, more than 50 Junzi Army soldiers were shot and wounded, and two generals were killed in action. However, the Junzi Army soldiers were strictly trained, and when they were shot and dying, they still tightly grasped their horse whips to prevent falling off their horses. They also paid close attention to covering each other during the battle. The bodies of the two fallen generals were moved by their companions to the heavy cavalry unit, where they were buried and mourned after shaking off the pursuit. That's why Sun Ce thought he hadn't killed a single Junzi Army soldier.

  If it were someone else, with an absolute advantage in military strength, they would not swallow their pride and would want to capture the Junzi Army to regain face, only to fall into Vice Director Tao's trap and waste precious time. However, the Little Overlord who conquered nine prefectures and eighty-one states of Jiangnan with bare fists remained the Little Overlord. Despite suffering such a humiliating defeat and being thoroughly enraged by Tao, Sun Ce kept his cool head and did not engage in a battle of wits with the cunning Junzi Army. Instead, he chose to march eastward at dawn the next day, directly attacking Guangling, which Tao would certainly come to rescue, using brute force to gain the upper hand and maintain control of the battlefield.

  Through scouts, Tao Ying discovered that Sun Ce's army had set out and departed. Tao Ying secretly scolded Sun Ce for being cunning and deceitful, but could only grit his teeth and order the troops to depart, circling back to harass Sun Ce's army from the side. Before departing, Tao Ying shamelessly declared to all the officers of the Junzi army: "Officers and soldiers, this time we go to war against Sun Ce, there is only one guiding principle for our battle - hit and run! Even if we only launch a single wave of arrows and kill just one enemy soldier, that will be our victory, and we can withdraw! Always pay attention to the flag commands, as soon as you see the withdrawal flag, immediately retreat, absolutely do not entangle with the enemy, and absolutely do not engage in close combat with the enemy!"

  Tao's use of such a shameless tactic was, of course, unavoidable. The number of Junzi troops was simply too small, and after several battles, the number of Junzi troops had already been reduced to less than 800 people. These precious seeds could not withstand even a little disturbance. However, this tactic was shameless but quite effective...

  "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

  On the official road, Sun Ce's army, carrying heavy grain carts and luggage carts, was having a hard time marching. Suddenly, from the north came the sound of scouts shouting in despair. A group of Sun Ce's scouts who had discovered the enemy's movement rolled back to the main force, and soon the banner with the character for "gentleman" appeared in the distance, carried by the wind. The panicked Sun Ce army responded with shouts of their officers ordering them to form a battle array. However, before they could fully protect their precious grain carts, cavalry emerged from the hills in the north, shooting arrows as they approached, and soon the sky was filled with arrow fire.

  "Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh……!" Amidst the chilling sound of dense arrows piercing the air, a hail of arrows descended upon Sun Ce's army formation. The cries of soldiers being hit by arrows echoed throughout Sun Ce's camp. Then, another wave of arrow fire came, and even more of Sun Ce's soldiers were hit and fell to the ground. However, just as Sun Ce's army managed to organize their archers to return fire, the banner in the Junzi army formation flashed, and hundreds of Junzi soldiers immediately turned around and fled, quickly escaping from Sun Ce's range, leaving behind a sea of broken arrows and feathers, as well as countless Sun Ce soldiers who had been hit by arrows and were groaning on the ground.

  There were also Sun Ce's military generals who could not bear such humiliation, leading the elite soldiers to pursue, but what greeted them was the exclusive Mongolian Mangudai tactics of the Junzi army, fleeing while shooting arrows backwards. The cavalrymen of the Sun Ce army on horseback could not shoot arrows, and when they got off their horses to shoot arrows or held back their warhorses to shoot arrows, the bowstring had just been drawn, but the shameless Junzi army had already run far away, escaping the range of the Sun Ce army's bows and arrows. When the infantry and cavalry of the Sun Ce army charged forward again to close the distance, the feathered arrows of the Junzi army had already arrived in front of their eyes. They paid with their lives to close the distance, but as soon as they drew their bows, the Junzi army ran far away again. This repeated back and forth, taking a beating without being able to fight back, feeling extremely humiliated.

  After repeated attempts, Sun Ce's army did not dare to pursue them and retreated back to the main force to bandage their wounds. They scolded the hypocrites for rescuing their heavily injured comrades without shame. However, just as Sun Ce's army restarted their journey, the Junzi army emerged again from behind another hill under the guidance of the guide party. Without saying a word, they first shot and killed the Sun Ce army scouts who did not have time to escape with arrows, then rushed closer and launched several waves of arrow showers, killing or injuring dozens of Sun Ce army soldiers. They turned around and ran away immediately, giving Sun Ce's army no chance for close combat at all.

  Immediately following several successful surprise attacks, the Junzi Army adjusted its tactics again. Surprise attacks were no longer launched simultaneously, but instead, the three light cavalry units of the Junzi Army took turns launching surprise attacks and harassment, in order to conserve horse strength and arrows. As a result, Sun Ce's army was even more exhausted. Tao Ji, Nian Bin, and Gao Gong led the Junzi Army's light cavalry units in taking turns launching surprise attacks, suddenly emerging from behind mountains and forests, unleashing one or two waves of arrow fire, killing dozens of Sun Ce's soldiers at a time, before quickly retreating. Just as Sun Ce's army concentrated its archers to chase away Tao Ji, Nian Bin led his light cavalry unit in attacking the position where Sun Ce's archers were scarce, firing arrows and killing people. As soon as Sun Ce's archers moved to that position to fire arrows, Nian Bin retreated again, replaced by Gao Gong who appeared with over a hundred light cavalrymen at an even more distant location, suddenly emerging to fire arrows and kill people.

  The shamelessness of the Junzi army and their inability to fight back, and seeing the Junzi army daring to divide their troops despite being at a disadvantage in terms of military strength. One of Sun Ce's generals led over 300 cavalrymen in pursuit of Gao Xun, vowing to wipe out this hundred or so shameless pseudo-gentlemen. However, when this general chased Gao Xun for ten miles, two teams of Junzi army heavy cavalry suddenly emerged from the left and right, and Gao Xun turned back to attack. Tao Ji and Nian Bin also led two teams of light cavalry to encircle from behind, forming a locally advantageous situation with many against few. Surrounding this team of Sun Ce's cavalry, they frantically shot arrows, using bows and arrows to annihilate nearly half of the Sun Ce army cavalry. After that, the main force of the Sun Ce army arrived to rescue them, and the Junzi army quickly turned their horses around, disappearing into the mountains and hills beyond the vision of the Sun Ce army's main force.

  Under such intense harassment, it was impossible for Sun Ce's army to speed up its march. As a result, on the first day of departure, Sun Ce's army, which was eager to rush to Guangling to attack the city, had only walked less than 40 miles, and the journey was far from meeting Sun Ce's requirements before departure.

  The sky finally darkened, and the gentleman's army, like a swarm of blood-sucking flies, had disappeared without a trace. Sun Ce's army, which had been tortured by the gentleman's army's rogue tactics to the point of unbearable pain, finally got some rest time. They hastily set up camp, placing the grain carts in the center of the troops, and rested overnight on the official road. After arranging these camping affairs, several leaders of Sun Ce's army, including Sun Ce, Zhou Yu, Cheng Pu, and Huang Gai, gathered around the bonfire to discuss how to deal with the gentleman's army's fly tactics, also known as the mangy dog tactic.

  "General, this can't go on." Cheng Pu was the first to speak up: "Tao Ying's sneak attack was despicable and shameless. Although he only killed a few of our enemies, it had a severe impact on our morale. Just taking a beating without fighting back will drain our spirits. If we continue like this, by the time we reach Guangling, our morale will be gone."

  "General Cheng, isn't it a small number of our soldiers killed by Tao's little trick?" Zhou Yu sighed and took out the casualty report: "Do you know how many casualties we have today? 365 people were killed in action, more than 590 injured, over 100 of them seriously wounded, and will not be able to return to the battlefield for a short time."

  "How is it possible? There are so many?" Cheng Pu was shocked.

  "Little by little, it adds up. Tao Yingxiong's men may only kill a dozen or twenty of us each time and then retreat, but the cumulative effect is quite significant." Zhou Yu sighed and his smile was even more bitter. "If that idiot Sun Gao hadn't led his troops in pursuit, our casualties might have been reduced by half, but he did, so our losses were greater."

  "This Tao Yingxiong is really shameless! He's simply too detestable!" Huang Gai, who was normally calm and composed, suddenly cursed out loud and said with hatred: "He only shoots arrows from a distance and doesn't engage in close combat. After shooting his cold arrows, he runs away and doesn't give us any chance to fight back! Such shameless cavalry tactics, I've never seen before! Shameless!"

  "Shameless is indeed too shameless, but I admire Tao Yingxiao even more. Such cavalry tactics have never been heard of before, and it seems that he, Tao Yingxiao, was the first to create them." Zhou Yu sighed and said: "Bo Fu, we chose the wrong opponent this time. Tao Yingxiao is actually much more difficult to deal with and more dangerous than Liu Bei. We didn't choose our opponent well, and instead of choosing the easier one, we chose the harder one."

  Sun Ce's face was gloomy, and he didn't say a word. The bonfire shone into his eyes, reflecting only a faint green light. After a long time, Sun Ce finally spoke up, asking out of the blue: "You guys tell me, why can Tao Ying's cavalry shoot arrows while charging? You are all skilled archers, and you should know how difficult it is to draw a bow and shoot while riding a horse at full gallop. It's even harder to turn your head back and shoot an arrow while charging forward, which is something that even we high-ranking generals can't do easily. So why can Tao Ying's ordinary cavalrymen do this with ease?"

  "As for this, I've also been paying attention to it." Zhou Yu said in a low voice: "From my observation, it seems that there is something related to the horse equipment of Tao Ying's little son, but it's too far away and can't be seen clearly what kind of horse equipment it is. Moreover, Tao Ying's little son is also obviously paying attention to keeping secrets, his soldiers' bodies and war horses' bodies are all taken away without any trouble, not giving us the opportunity to study."

  "In the battle of Dongcheng West Suburbs, Tao Yingxiao left behind two dead war horses. Huang Gai interjected: 'However, the saddles were taken away by Tao Yingxiao, and all eight hooves of the two war horses were also chopped off and taken away by him.'"

  "Hooves were all cut off and taken away? Why?" Sun Ce, who was shot by an arrow at the time and was carried back to Dongcheng for treatment, did not see this matter, and asked in surprise: "Is there a secret on the hooves of Tao Ying's war horse too?"

  Huang Gai smiled wryly and couldn't answer, while Zhou Yu chimed in, "Tao Ying's secret is absolutely not just this much, have you noticed? The warhorses used by Tao Ying are mostly short and inferior, but they can traverse rugged mountain roads and climb mountains with ease. On complex terrain, our warhorses can't keep up with them, which shows that there's something strange about the warhorses ridden by Tao Ying."

  "We were too careless in our investigation of the enemy's situation!" Sun Ce punched the ground heavily and gritted his teeth, saying: "We were also completely deceived by Tao Ying's bookworm reputation earlier! This kid is not the lamb we imagined, but a snake! A venomous snake!"

  "Bo Fu, there's something I know you don't want to hear, but I have to say it." Zhou Yu said in a deep voice: "If we continue like this, it won't work. We must make other plans. In my opinion, it's best if we first retreat and find out all the secrets of Tao Yingxiao's pseudo-gentleman army before making another plan!"

  Sun Ce did not speak, but Cheng Pu firmly opposed: "No way, absolutely cannot retreat! General Sun has come all the way to this point and there is no turning back, can only continue on! If General Sun turns back this time, there will be no more opportunities in the future."

  "Who says there's no chance?" Zhou Yu countered: "Bo Fu is only twenty years old, and there's still plenty of time to wait. Moreover, as long as we can figure out the secret of Tao Yingxiao's junior, and imitate it, then Bo Fu will be able to create another army like the Junzi Army. At that point, it won't just be us who are worried about Tao Yingxiao's cavalry, but all the lords and heroes under heaven will fear Bo Fu's cavalry!"

  "Gong Jin, you're wrong this time." Sun Ce said in a hoarse voice: "General Cheng is right, I've come this far and it's impossible to turn back now. Lü Zhihe has finally persuaded Yuan Shu with the excuse of taking advantage of the fire to attack, and Yuan Shu's subordinates are already filled with rumors. If I return in defeat, not only will I never have such a good opportunity again, but even if such an opportunity arises again, Yuan Shu won't possibly hand over my father's old troops to me and allow me to lead the army alone."

  Sun Ce's voice was hoarse as he asked Zhou Yu, "Gongjin, our first battle after independence happened to be against Tao Ying's elite army. Perhaps it was unfortunate, but why not think of it the other way around? Maybe encountering this elite army now is actually a great fortune for us?"

  "What a great blessing for us?" Zhou Yu was stunned for a moment, then quickly came to his senses and thought to himself: "Indeed, Tao Ying's small army of gentlemen is now only 700 or 800 people, yet it's already so difficult to deal with and troublesome. If we wait until he expands his army and increases his strength, when we encounter him again, our problem won't be how to eliminate this small army of gentlemen, but rather how to escape from the blades of this army of gentlemen!"

  Thinking of this, Zhou Yu changed his words and said: "Okay, let's discuss how to deal with Tao Yingxiaor. The tactical purpose of this child is very clear, that is to harass us, delay our marching speed as much as possible, its ultimate purpose we are not yet clear, but one thing is certain, Tao Yingxiaor does not want us to arrive at Guangling and launch a siege as soon as possible!

  "I have the same feeling." Cheng Pu nodded and suggested, "I suggest we speed up our journey as soon as possible. Once we arrive at Guangling City, Tao Ying's little brat won't dare to fight us head-on and will be at a loss for what to do."

  "I suggest that the cavalry be concentrated together." Huang Gai suggested: "The infantry is responsible for protecting the grain and heavy luggage, and the cavalry is responsible for pursuing and containing Tao Ying's little ones. As long as our cavalry bites down on Tao Ying's little ones, the infantry can march smoothly."

  "Absolutely not!" Zhou Yu firmly opposed, "If we do this, we'll be in even greater danger. You've all seen how fast Tao Ying's cavalry can move, it's much faster than ours. If we concentrate our cavalry and pursue him separately, we'll only give him the opportunity to defeat us one by one. Once he lures our cavalry into a wild goose chase on the vast plains of Guangling, he'll take advantage of every opportunity to nibble at us, and in the end, our cavalry will be worn out and completely eliminated!"

  Huang Ge was speechless for a long time, and finally said with hatred: "When we catch Tao Ying's son, I will personally cut open his head to see what kind of rubbish is in his brain. How can he come up with so many despicable tactics? If this continues, we won't be able to fight battles or compete with ordinary soldiers."

  "It's probably exactly what Tao Yingxiao intended." Zhou Yu said with a cold smile: "Xuzhou lacks great generals, and even more so fierce generals. Tao Yingxiao uses the collective action of ordinary soldiers to make up for his personal lack of martial prowess, which is actually a good method."

  "Alright, let's do it." Sun Ce finally spoke up, his voice hoarse as he said: "From tomorrow on, our army will march in a square formation, with the grain carts in the center and the long shield bearers on the outside. We'll also gather all the strong crossbowmen together and equip them with war horses. When we encounter Tao Ying's harassment again, we'll first use the long shields to deflect Tao Ying's arrows, then counterattack with the strong crossbows. The range of the strong crossbows is farther than that of the bows and arrows, so we won't be at a disadvantage in the exchange."

  "In that case, we will still suffer casualties. After Tao's defeat, he will definitely adjust his tactics and use a few waves of archers to attack us before retreating, not giving our strong crossbows the chance to counterattack." Zhou Yu was still worried and added: "Moreover, if we march in a square formation, our speed will be severely slowed down, which will further delay our journey."

  "The journey won't be delayed." Sun Ce shook his head and said in a low tone, "Gongjin, it seems you've forgotten one thing - Tao Ying's arrows will run out, and their rations will be depleted! Once his arrows are used up and their rations are gone, he'll only have two options: either engage us in close combat or retreat to Guangling to replenish! We're not afraid of close combat with Tao Ying, and if he retreats to Guangling to resupply arrows and provisions, we can march at full strength!"

  "What Bofu said is extremely true, I had indeed forgotten this point. Tao Ying's small children are on a long-distance expedition and cannot carry large quantities of grain and arrows." Zhou Yu nodded: "Then let's do it this way, patiently wait for Tao Ying's arrows and grain to be exhausted, then fully mobilize the army."

  Huang Gai and Cheng Pu also thought that Sun Ce's analysis was very reasonable, so they agreed with Sun Ce's proposal. Just as Sun Ce and the others were about to disperse and rest, General Fu Yin cautiously approached, looking around and wanting to speak but hesitating. Sun Ce caught sight of his movements and asked: "General Fu, what is it?"

  "General... you..." Fu Ying hesitated for a moment before carefully asking, "General, is your wound okay? Do you feel uncomfortable?"

  "What's wrong? Why are you asking this?" Sun Ce asked in puzzlement.

  "It's nothing, it's fine." Fu Yin let out a sigh of relief and honestly replied: "I was in charge of escorting the wounded soldiers. Tonight, more than 20 of our wounded soldiers suddenly took a turn for the worse, with fever, convulsions, and limb spasms. There was even one soldier who originally only had a leg injury but unexpectedly died without reason. The medical officer said it's likely that the enemy's arrowheads were coated with Aconitum poison. I knew you, General, also got hit by an arrow, so I rushed over to take a look."

  "Has the arrow been poisoned with aconitine?" Sun Ce's eyes widened in shock, then he burst into a loud curse: "You hypocrite! You're really a fake gentleman!"

  The words had not been finished, Zhou Yu, Huang Gai and Cheng Pu three people had already rushed to Sun Ce's body, busy hands and feet to untie the gauze on Sun Ce's wound. Sun Ce cried and laughed, saying that his wound was nothing unusual, but Zhou Yu and others refused to believe it, until they carefully checked the five arrow wounds on Sun Ce's body and found that none of them had black blood or turned purple and green. Only then did they carefully re-bandage Sun Ce's wound, and then scolded together: "Tao Yingxiao, hypocrite! True villain!"

  Incidentally, if Zhou Yu and others knew about the symptoms and incubation period of tetanus, they would definitely not be at ease with Sun Ce's injury, because the symptoms of tetanus, apart from being very similar to those of aconitine poisoning, also have an incubation period of three to seven days, and only a small number of patients will show symptoms within one or two days...

  ………

  The night passed quickly, and the discovery of Sun Ce's military camp being heavily guarded and the moon not being bright enough made Tao Vice Director, who didn't like to fight hard battles, mercifully decide not to launch a night raid. This allowed Sun Ce's army to rest well for a night, as did the equally exhausted Junzi Army officers. However, when the Junzi Army crept back to near Sun Ce's camp again at dawn the next day, Tao Vice Director somewhat regretted not having pursued and expanded their gains through the night, because this time Sun Ce's army had formed a massive turtle-shaped array, with the precious grain carts clustered in the center, long shields on the outside, and hidden archers within. Even if the Junzi Army wanted to launch another surprise attack, it would be difficult to inflict effective casualties on the enemy while also risking being counterattacked by the enemy's infantry and archers.

  Danger begets danger, while secretly admiring Sun Ce's calm and wise demeanor, Tao Ying still ordered Tao Ji to launch a tentative surprise attack, in order to probe the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, and find a weakness in Sun Ce's army's turtle formation. As a result, what made Tao Ying rejoice was that Sun Ce indeed had an ace up his sleeve, when Tao Ji led the light cavalry in a charge, Tao Ying clearly saw through binoculars that before Tao Ji could get close, the interior of Sun Ce's army's turtle formation had already undergone adjustments, a team of cavalry swiftly moved from within towards the direction of Tao Ji's charge, and just as Tao Ji approached to fire arrows, that team of cavalry immediately raised their wooden crossbows, aimed at Tao Ji's troops, and fired!

  Seeing this, Tao immediately put down the telescope and ordered decisively: "Raise the flag to let Tao withdraw. Don't let our soldiers sacrifice in vain! Our horse bows and Xiongnu bows can't even reach the range of strong crossbows!"

  Li Ming and his personal soldiers responded, quickly advancing to display the flag signal, ordering Tao Ji to retreat. Fortunately, this flag signal was displayed in time, under the strong crossbow shooting of Sun Ce's army, Tao Ji's lightly armored cavalry unit, which had already suffered many arrow injuries and deaths, quickly retreated, thus avoiding even greater casualties. Sun Ce's army did not pursue them either, continuing their advance eastward.

  Lu Su also sighed and said, "Sun Bofu and Zhou Gongjin are indeed formidable. They have come up with a way to counter our cavalry so quickly. If we don't think of a way to deal with Sun Ce's powerful crossbowmen, the next battle will be tough to fight."

  "The strong crossbow array is not invincible, it's just that the terrain in this area is not suitable for breaking through." Tao said with a furrowed brow: "Is it necessary to stop harassing and wait until Sun Ce's troops have passed by Gutan and entered an open area with plains on all sides before we can restrain them?"

  "In my opinion, even if Sun Ce passes by Gutang, it doesn't matter." Lu Su smiled and said: "If Sun Ce's army maintains this formation while marching, their speed will definitely not increase, which is equivalent to being indirectly restrained by us."

  Tao Ying nodded slowly, considered for a moment, and then ordered: "The whole army will immediately head east, advance to the open area east of Gutang, rest and adjust there, and wait for Sun Ce's troops."

  "No way." Lu Su hastily opposed, saying: "Young master, if our army advances into the open area ahead of time, Sun Ce's army will also speed up its march. The best approach is to maintain the same pace as Sun Ce's army and continuously intimidate the enemy with flags, slogans, and drums, making them dare not advance boldly and forcing them to continue crawling like a turtle. This way can also save arrows and avoid our army having to rush back to Guangling for replenishment."

  "It's reasonable." Tao smiled, revealing his teeth, and said: "The military advisor is indeed brilliant. Let's do it this way, forcing Sun Ce's little son to learn from the turtle's crawl and competing with Sun Ce's little son in endurance."