"Not bad!"
Zhang Xianzhong was quite satisfied with the performance of these youths. He nodded, raised a large hand high, and fiercely swung it down and forward!
"Set out!"
With that, he took the lead, riding toward the main gate at an unhurried pace.
"Everyone, follow!"...
Following the cavalry training methods of the past few days, Ai Nengqi gave a loud shout and hurriedly led his squad of young Martial Artists after him.
Then came Li Dingguo's squad, followed by Liu Wenxiu's squad and Zhang Huier's squad.
At the very end, Zhang Xianzhong's three trusted subordinates rode warhorses and led the logistical convoy behind the formation.
The large force left the Wang Family Courtyard without pausing for even a moment, racing along the main street toward the city gate in the northwest!
Even as Mounted Infantry, their marching spectacle was far more imposing than that of an infantry force of the same size.
Though they had only fewer than seventy soldiers in all, each with a horse, and were leading over a dozen large carts, the commotion they caused along the way was no less than that of a thousand-man infantry force.
Pedestrians on the streets and patrolling Rebel Army soldiers alike hurriedly moved out of their way.
The clatter of hooves was like rain striking banana leaves, endless and unbroken. In less than the time it took to drink a cup of tea, they arrived beneath the west city gate under the watchful eyes of soldiers and civilians along the road.
When the Rebel Army soldiers guarding the gate saw their own king personally leading the force, they hurriedly used the winch to raise the gate.
"Creak..."
Once the city gate had slowly risen, Zhang Xianzhong still took the lead, leading the soldiers behind him in a streak out of the gate and onto the official road to the northwest. Their speed grew faster and faster!
That was only because the Spirit Beast Warhorse beneath him was deliberately holding back its strength as it ran.
If the Spirit Beast Warhorse truly unleashed its speed, those ordinary horses would soon be unable even to eat its dust!
And this was merely a low-grade Flood Dragon Scale Horse.
If it had been a high-grade or Top-Grade Flood Dragon Scale Horse, or even a Dragon Scale Horse, its speed would leave ordinary horses staring hopelessly at its dust!
The sky was already bright. There were quite a few travelers on the official road, but the overwhelming majority were ragged refugees who could no longer survive amid natural disasters and man-made calamities, traveling toward Dingbian City in groups.
They must have heard that Eight Great Kings had captured the county city and was throwing open the granaries to distribute food. So long as they reached Dingbian City, they would have food and drink and, at the very least, could survive for a while.
As for traveling merchants on the official road, it was not that there were none, but there were not many.
Most of them came from those deeply rooted medium and large merchant houses. Only such people had the strength to travel far afield and risk their lives for immense price differences.
Especially now that Eight Great Kings had let his troops plunder a county city, he did not lack money at all. So long as goods could strengthen the Rebel Army, he accepted every order without exception, offering prices far above the usual market value.
For a great many wealthy merchants, the Great Ming Dynasty, with beacon fires blazing across the land, better suited their interests.
So long as one had the strength to travel north and south, one could easily double, or even multiply several times over, one's family wealth within a year or two.
Whether merchants or refugee commoners, upon seeing a fully armed cavalry force racing toward them, they all moved to the roadside from far away, their expressions varied.
After another half hour or so, the force had ridden dozens of li at an unhurried pace. The rumbling sound of flowing water reached them—they had arrived near the famed Wuding River.
The Wuding River gathered and surged forth from countless lakes and streams deep in the grasslands Beyond the Pass. It passed through the inner and outer Great Walls, traveled past over a hundred towns and cities, flowed southeast, and finally emptied into the Yellow River.
The middle reaches of the Wuding River cut straight through the inner and outer Great Walls along the northwestern frontier, forming two enormous gaps one before and one behind. Thus, it became a military stronghold of the Great Ming Dynasty's northwest, where emperors throughout the ages stationed heavy forces.
The strategic pass and natural stronghold between the two gaps in the inner and outer Great Walls was the famed Yansui Town.
The military strength of Yansui Town could be said to rank second only to Liaodong among the powerful military towns of the Great Ming Dynasty.
The government troops here could still fight. They were considerably stronger than those in most of the other Nine Border Garrisons.
Though Yansui Town's government troops now suffered defeat after defeat against Tatar cavalry who often entered the passes to "harvest grain," they were not without the strength to resist.
At the very least, relying on the protection of the city walls, these officers and soldiers had repelled countless Tatar attacks. They had also forged a large number of elite soldiers who could fight and dared to risk their lives, making the Tatars hastily withdraw beyond the Outer Great Wall every time after obtaining their expected supplies from their grain-harvesting raids.
Otherwise, if the Ming border army, which held an overwhelming numerical advantage, used the terrain and its home-field advantage to cut off their retreat, they would very likely be wiped out to the last man.
Since March of this year, the passive situation in which Yansui Town could only take beatings had changed somewhat.
After Cao Wenzhao, Deputy Commander of Yansui Town's Eastern Route, arrived with a powerful elite cavalry force, he launched several counterattacks against the Tatars near Beyond the Pass, temporarily intimidating the Tatar Tribes of all sizes living near the Outer Great Wall.
If Cao Wenzhao could remain stationed here for a long time, he might well cow this northwestern border region and leave the Tatars afraid to send even a single rider south for a long while.
Unfortunately, natural disasters and man-made calamities were now arising one after another throughout the Great Ming Dynasty, while Rebel Armies sprouted everywhere like bamboo shoots after rain. A formidable general like Cao Wenzhao, along with his strong troops, was destined not to remain here for long.
He would probably soon be transferred inside the passes to join the drawn-out campaign of encirclement and suppression against the rebels.
Sitting atop the Spirit Beast Warhorse, Zhang Xianzhong gazed straight ahead. For no reason at all, these thoughts came to him, and a faint chill ran through his entire body.
Once the elite border army led by Cao Wenzhao was ordered to come suppress his Rebel Army, he had no hope whatsoever of victory. If he could escape alive, that would already be quite good.
"Forget it. Thinking about this only makes me miserable. I can only hope that these young soldiers behind me grow up as quickly as possible."
He silently sighed in his heart, led the force onward along the official road near the Wuding River for a while, then turned onto a small path to the left and raced toward a mountain range already clearly visible ahead.
This mountain range, less than ten li from the Wuding River, stretched endlessly beyond the eye's reach.
It was said that a Demon King occupied its deepest reaches.
Any Demon Beast that could be called a Demon King was at least a Level Five Demonic Beast, equivalent to a human expert at the Fifth Layer of Martial Dao.
If Zhang Xianzhong encountered one now, he would have to thank heaven and earth if he could escape by luck.
However, the target he had chosen for this expedition lay at the edge of this mountain range. He would not venture deep inside.
At the edge of the mountain range ahead stood a bun-shaped earthen hill over twenty zhang high and roughly five li in circumference. That was the target he had chosen this time.
This year's drought was exceptionally severe. Though it was still early autumn, everything in sight had already turned a withered yellow.
A small river flowing into the Wuding River, formed by streams gathering from throughout the mountain range ahead, was left with only a babbling current less than two chi deep.
Though it had not yet dried up, merely looking at it made one's heart panic.
It had to be said that, besides man-made disasters, the unceasing natural calamities were also a major reason for the fall of any dynasty.
Perhaps that was the meaning of the cycle of Heaven's Way.
Before you continue