Vol Chapter 6 (1/2)
Chapter 6: Mock battle, Part 1 of 5
The thirteenth day of training.
Evening.
Sunset, in two hours time it’s going to be completely dark, they didn’t train last night, Boss said tonight there will be a very important and demanding training, everyone’s heart is in his throat, because usually when Boss claimed it’s not too difficult or when she trained them as it pleased her, the way they had been trained they were more dead than alive, this time even she warned it is going to be a harsh training … they really dare not imagine!
Gu Yun brought all the soldiers quickly to the back of the mountain, about five or six miles away from the area in the forest where they usually trained. Here, to their back is the mountain, in front is a wide, open plain, there is no place to take shelter, the soldiers were all nervously waiting for Gu Yun’s command, but she was roving around the vicinity, they didn’t know what exactly she was looking for.
Finally, she found a finger-thick twig, took out a small triangular banner tucked inside her sleeve, facing them all, very casually she smiled and said: “Still two more days and the night raid battle will begin, tonight is the final night training, I want to test the results of your overall training, tonight’s training exercise is – a night raid mock battle.”
Mock battle?!
Not expecting there’s a training exercise such as this, the soldiers all stared blankly, Gu Yun not minding their reactions, blithely continued: “Tonight the offensive side is Ge Jing Yun’s team, the defensive side is Leng Xiao’s team, until the conclusion of the exercise, I will not give you any advice and instructions, you engage in the battle each with two hundred and forty people.”
Handing over to Leng Xiao the twig and the small banner she was holding, Gu Yun continued: “This is the commander’s banner, Leng Xiao, your team protects and defends this commander’s banner, if Ge Jing Yun’s team s.n.a.t.c.hes it away, then you lose the battle, conversely, if Ge Jing Yun’s team fails, the group loses. Here is Leng Xiao’s camp, the area where we usually trained is Ge Jing Yun’s camp. Now you have two hours to prepare, after these two hours, the mock battle officially starts.”
These men are all new army recruits, having truly not experienced any so-called battle, at the moment everyone just looked at each other in blank dismay, still some even just gaped there stupidly.
“Do you understand?” Gu Yun’s sudden yell, finally jolted them back to their senses, hurriedly they stood in attention and replied: “Yes!”
“Everyone prepare respectively, okay?” Gu Yun nodded her satisfaction, indeed she has got nothing more to say. Leading the remaining twenty people, she climbed halfway up the mountain to a spot where she got a wide, open field of view of the entire area, sitting there leisurely.
Tonight, she wants to determine who will be her upcoming night’s vanguard!
Twenty soldiers stood perplexed behind Gu Yun, watching below them both teams have already begun to actively deploy, they did not understand, why did Boss let them come up here? Although confused, however this two-week training has allowed them to deeply understand a basic principle, and that is, never refute Boss, whatever she does, regardless if it seems on the face of it to be strange, certainly she has a reason for it.
Sure enough, probably after a quarter of an hour, Gu Yun finally turned her head, facing them she said: “Two people in a group, covering the distance from the forest to the camp, you fan out in five areas, observe everything along the way, everytime anything happens come and report it. You only need to watch, under no circ.u.mstances will you intervene. Do you understand?”
Without hesitation, twenty people replied in unison: “Yes.”
In response she waved them away, Gu Yun leaned back against a rock, a pair of bright eyes quietly gazed at the situation below, though she appeared calm and relaxed on the surface, her mind actually worried for these soldiers. They are new army recruits, inexperienced in battles, yet they will have to face Su Ren and his elite troops, in this night raid battle to beat the recruits trained by Su Yu would not be difficult, but to meet Su Ren head-on, she’s not quite sure of the outcome.
This exercise is not so much in order to test their skills, but rather, it is to test their courage and insight, and their ability to meet and plan for all possible contingencies, she hopes they will not let her down too much.
Gu Yun who was the whole time gazing attentively below suddenly narrowed her eyes, what’s Leng Xiao doing?!
In the open area, he lined up over two hundred soldiers and divided them into five teams, except for thirty soldiers who stood still behind Leng Xiao, the rest of them ran and fanned out in four directions.
Gu Yun’s face darkened, her hands slowly clenched into fists, after taking several deep breaths and slowly releasing them, she continued to stare coldly at the open area where the remaining soldiers appeared to be somewhat idling their time away, and although ever deadpan, Leng Xiao’s face could not help but display a few moments of triumph.
It was getting dark, the time has come for the night raid to start, Leng Xiao lit two fires in the open area, now and then he kept on looking towards the direction of Gu Yun, but because where Gu Yun sat the spot was dim, and the sky was dark as well, Leng Xiao could hardly see her face, still he could feel her pair of sharp eyes coldly watching him.
Before he would never believe that a woman could have such clear and bright penetrating eyes, such a tough and intrepid character, but since meeting her, he came to believe, in this world there’s really a woman whom he could not help but admire.
He knew that tonight she will choose between him and Ge Jing Yun the night raid’s captain, he must prove to her that he is more outstanding than Ge Jing Yun, more resourceful, and more talented.
Chapter 6: Mock battle, Part 2 of 5
Behind her there was sound of rus.h.i.+ng footsteps, soon a young soldier came behind Gu Yun, saying: “Reporting. Ge Jing Yun’s troops were divided into three, they set off towards the camp in three directions, south, east and west.”
Gu Yun nodded gently, saying nothing, the young soldier hesitated for a moment, not hearing a command from her, he hurriedly ran back to continue monitoring.
Only a quarter of an hour later, another young soldier came to report: “Reporting. Leng Xiao sent off separately four teams in all directions, dug mud pits in the four corners of the area, lurking on a higher ground, a wave of troops are waiting to ambush the enemy.”
Gu Yun chuckled shaking her head, offense is the best form of defense, Leng Xiao is doing well on this point, basing on Ge Jing Yun’s honest character, he would never expect he would be ambushed en route!
Calculating the elapsed time, at this time Ge Jing Yun’s team ought to have reached already the camp’s vicinity, but apart from the clear and cold moonlight, the burning, roaring bonfires, nothing whatsoever was taking place in the surroundings. In all likelihood, Ge Jing Yun’s team encountered the ambush.
“Reporting. About Ge Jing Yun’s team, the east group fell into the mud pit, all were captured.”
“Reporting. Ge Jing Yun’s troops attacking on the west side, this group was quickly ambushed behind the mountain, the attack failed.”
Behind her almost simultaneously hearing both reports confirming Gu Yun’s guess, but she waited for a while, the report on the third team did not come for a long time, watching the open area Leng Xiao appeared increasingly becoming complacent, the corners of Gu Yun’s mouth raised, she smiled oddly, pride goes before a fall, the ultimate showdown has not started yet!
“Reporting.” Again a running, panting young soldier arrived, his clear voice resonated: “Ge Jing Yun led the south attacking team and fought fiercely with the ambus.h.i.+ng soldiers in the higher grounds, he successfully prevailed, but -“, the young soldier hesitated for a moment, Gu Yun’s face slowly darkened, the young fellow quickly continued: “suffered heavy casualties.”
While Gu Yun scowled she saw straight ahead, dust swirling in the air, ahead was a group whose faces were all covered with stain, a battered and exhausted Ge Jing Yun, running and following behind him were more than two dozen soldiers, in total disarray and without any battle formation at all.
Holding in his hand his weapon, a long single-edged sword, Ge Jing Yun his fury overwhelming headed straight for Leng Xiao.
Leng Xiao was sh.e.l.l-shocked, it seemed he did not antic.i.p.ate Ge Jing Yun breaking through the tight encirclement of the area, quickly picked up his pair of halberd placed on his side, got up to meet him.
The long sword and the pair of halberd furiously clashed, both team captains battled impressively, but because of Leng Xiao’s over-confidence, his defense was not very good, and his remaining thirty people basically were the team’s relatively weak soldiers, thus under such stand-off, Ge Jing Yun’s soldiers gained the upper hand.
Leng Xiao and Ge Jing Yun’s confrontation was naturally awfully intense, but ultimately he too could not sustain resisting the fury of Ge Jing Yun.
Ge Jing Yun s.n.a.t.c.hed the commander’s banner, and waved it towards the direction of Gu Yun’s location. No happy expression on his face, especially looking on to a distant spot, where Leng Xiao’s men were marching back with his captured soldiers, he looked ablazed with anger.
When Leng Xiao’s soldiers came back only to see the commander’s banner already in the hands of Ge Jing Yun, they could not help but get a bit angry and disheartened, while those soldiers who had been taken captive or “killed” in battle promptly cheered up, all of a sudden on the small clearing either one is venting his frustration or celebrating, the cacophony meshed into one.
It was bustling with noise and excitement below, but halfway up on the mountain the mood was tense such that the twenty people standing behind Gu Yun dared not breathe heavily. Boss had been watching them for a while in deathly silence, even if only at the back, they could also sense her anger dramatically soaring.
After a quarter of an hour, many of the soldiers eventually felt the atmosphere was not quite right, the drill was long over, even if only to rant at them, that gloomy black, pet.i.te figure should have already shown up by now, but up until now still there was no sound, something is amiss.
All the soldiers hurriedly lined up and stood in formation, not daring to look up on that shadowed patch on the mountainside, their hearts finally started to throb rapidly in fear and anxiety.
A quarter of an hour later, Gu Yun at last got up and came down from the rear side of the mountain, strolling and heading towards them, the moonlight at her back, they could not clearly see her face and tell whether she looked happy or angry, however from head to foot she exuded that unusual sort of repressed emotion, even before she opened her mouth, the group of soldiers already knew, tonight they’re all done for!
Stopping in front of the group, Gu Yun spoke her voice neither light nor heavy: “Ge Jing Yun, Leng Xiao, step out of the ranks.”
Chapter 6: Mock battle, Part 3 of 5
“Yes.” They took a step forward, Leng Xiao’s face was deadpan, but Ge Jing Yun looked really vexed.
Walking over to the middle of them, Gu Yun coldly asked: “What were you two doing?”
As Gu Yun’s voice dropped, Ge Jing Yun began to rant: “He didn’t follow the rules, obviously he was the defensive side, but he didn’t defend the camp well, ambus.h.i.+ng us on the way to the camp, he wanted to cheat us first!” Clearly they were a.s.signed either offense or defense, he committed a foul!
“Baloney!” Ge Jing Yun’s justification infuriated Gu Yun so much that she couldn’t help but roar loud, “all’s fair in war! Did I forbid taking the initiative to attack? On the battlefield, there’s never absolute offensive and defensive side. Role swap can happen at any time. You simply didn’t regard this drill as a real battle. Don’t tell me when you face the enemy, when your enemy can’t wait to kill you, you’d honestly wait for him to attack you first?!”
Ge Jing Yun felt wronged being roared at, raising the already wrinkled commander’s banner he was holding, he said: “I got the commander’s banner.” Although Leng Xiao cheated, regardless, he won!
Grabbing the banner from his hand, Gu Yun sardonically asked: “Do you think you’ve won?”
His eyebrows slanted upwards quizzically, Ge Jing Yun anxiously replied: “Didn’t you say that the team who has the commander’s banner is the victor?” Is she going back on her words?!
Delicate hands ruthlessly grabbed his shoulders, pus.h.i.+ng him hard, making him turn around, Gu Yun ordered: “Count your men, how many soldiers do you have?”
Ge Jing Yun glanced around, some of his men were covered with mud, some were holding feather arrows in their hands, they were not captured, but were considered “dead” already, he looked behind him standing scattered here and there a dozen or so of his men, Ge Jing Yun’s confidence a moment ago, has now wilted.
He stayed silent for a very long time, Gu Yun not giving him face at all, berated him: “eighteen! You only have eighteen men left! In tonight’s raid, your casualties are high! Now count Leng Xiao’s men. How many soldiers are alive?! One hundred thirty-eight! In an actual battle, do you think the moment you seized the commander’s banner you already won?! When these soldiers all have returned to the camp, facing them, only nineteen men, why did you take the commander’s banner? And why were your lives preserved?! Because of your rash moves, you let slaughtered many men, and now you dare claim victory?!”
Inflexible, a rigid mentality, a foolhardy! Ge Jing Yun p.i.s.sed her off so much ah!
Each time Gu Yun said something, Ge Jing Yun dropped his head a bit, a tough guy like him never before has he bowed his head this low, but when he saw the muddy faces before him, his shame was difficult to bear.
A mad Gu Yun didn’t bother to glance at him, turned her head towards Leng Xiao who kept quiet throughout, Gu Yun’s facial expression still looked sour, “Leng Xiao, do you know why you’ve lost?”
This time, Leng Xiao did not answer he didn’t know, he just stood silent, he dared not look at that pair of sharp eyes. Although she spoke harshly, compared to the dull-witted Ge Jing Yun, Leng Xiao’s strategy satisfied Gu Yun quite well, “your initiative was not wrong, on the battlefield, the skill to strategize is your strength, but for your blind confidence, underestimating the opponent, you suffered a crus.h.i.+ng defeat!”
“I did not.” Leng Xiao denied.
“No?” Leng Xiao’s quick denial incited Gu Yun’s fury, “I can’t believe you left behind only thirty men, which is one-eighth of your total forces. The camp is stocked with the army’s food supplies, water, weapons, military maps and all other reserve resources, I ask you, with an eighth of your troops, how can you defend your camp?”
Leng Xiao kept silent, Gu Yun sneered: “I’ll help you answer, because you thought highly of yourself, you already a.s.sumed sending men to block, you need not worry over the camp’s security, because you underestimated the opponent, arguing that even if some can successfully breach through, they cannot overpower here, an eighth of your army is more than enough to meet them head-on, isn’t it?”
Leng Xiao adamantly remained silent, Gu Yun unable to put up with his reticence any longer snapped and growled: “Answer me!”
“Yes.” For the first time, the indifferent Leng Xiao replied forcefully, at the same time fully acknowledging his over-confidence.
The two commanding captains were castigated, behind them all the soldiers inwardly trembled in fear. When Gu Yun slowly walked into their midst, every person’s heart was in his throat.
Gu Yun approached one whose body was wholly plastered with mud, just a while ago he and the men around him greatly rejoiced and laughed, she asked: “what do you think, it was fun, wasn’t it?!”
The young lad was too frightened to answer, he also didn’t dare look down, he just stood stiff in place. Gu Yun’s cold gaze swept on the young soldiers’ faces, and asked: “What do you think you were doing? Taking a stroll, perhaps playing a game? Look at yourselves, who looked like a soldier even a bit, who looked like he had just gone through a battle?”