In an inner ring, more than fifty archers continued shooting in every direction.
By now, the cavalry on the gentle southeastern slope had reached the crest.
Wu Shuangren stood behind a wooden board, gripping a spear in both hands and pointing it outward.
His palms were slick with sweat too!
Neither the wooden wall nor the spearmen behind it could actually withstand a cavalry charge.
Once a single corner gave way, the entire battle could collapse in an instant!
At that moment, the first rider to reach the edge of the crest abruptly reined in his horse.
Under the night sky, the thornlike spearpoints and upright boards looked especially sinister.
He dared not charge any farther.
PS: Only two updates today.
54 First Victory
"We can use the terrain to ambush the enemy and catch them off guard, and we can drive back the first wave. But if the next two waves join forces and attack us, how are we supposed to stop them?"
Before they decided to leave the city and ambush the enemy, Mo Zhenglin had asked that question.
As the person in charge of the Mo Family, he could not put himself in danger on a passing impulse.
Xu Jing's answer had been simple and confident: "As long as we make no mistakes and set up a defensive formation, those people won't be able to break through!"
Now it was time to put Xu Jing's words to the test-
The first rider to reach the crest instinctively shrank back!
He had thought there were only a few dozen archers on the hillside. He had not expected so many people, much less such thorough preparations.
He pulled the reins tight. His horse stamped its front hooves but went no farther.
Without a torch in the darkness, he could not see how crude the boards ahead were, nor the fear on the militia's faces behind them.
All he saw was an unbroken stretch of shadow and deadly spears aimed straight at him!
Everyone agreed that cavalry was precious.
That was why cavalry was not normally used to charge a formation. At the very least, light cavalry rarely did so directly.
Even the well-trained elite cavalry of the Wu Dynasty's border army would have struggled to force their way through a formation when both the timing and terrain were against them. How much less could cavalry trained by the Mist Hidden Temple itself do it?
While the first rider hesitated, his companions rode up behind him and likewise chose to rein in their horses.
Two or three horses crowded the edge of the crest, with no room even to turn around.
Behind the boards, the militiamen breathed hard, their limbs weak.
"Thrust!!!"
Wu Shuangren roared from behind the boards.
At his command, the men thrust their spears forward almost instinctively.
There was no order, no technique, and no accuracy to speak of.
The spears jabbed forward, the foremost points nearly grazing the lead horse's neck. It let out a startled whinny and recoiled.
Cavalry had also charged up from the other sides, but all of them stopped outside the spear formation and were forced back by the thrusting spears.
The riders in the rear had no choice but to stop as well.
The cavalry dared not charge the formation and had come to a halt, but the archers inside it had not stopped shooting.
With the range shorter and the cavalry relatively bunched together, their accuracy soared!
Men and horses were hit one after another. Some men rolled down from the crest, while warhorses pitched headlong to the ground.
The cavalry fell into disarray again, and some riders turned their horses around and retreated.
Once the first had done so, more and more riders began to fall back.
Behind the boards, Wu Shuangren was overjoyed at the sight. Without hesitation, he leaped over them and charged out to kill again!
He had just killed two riders in succession and noticed that the green on his Traits had increased a little.
Killing these riders could also upgrade his Traits. How could he pass up this chance to gain "experience points"?
"Shuangren!"
Wu Dongrong, who had been keeping his eyes on Wu Shuangren, saw his son charge out again. Angry and anxious, he could only follow him out.
Liao Yu charged out after them.
"Family head, should I go too?"
In the crowd, a burly man holding a guandao asked Mo Zhenglin, who stood beside him.
He was Bai Jinhuan, the Mo Family's chief guard, a martial artist officially ranked at Fourth Rank.
Mo Zhenglin nodded. "Be careful."
"All right."
Bai Jinhuan answered, leaped over the boards, and charged down the slope with his guandao!
Wu Shuangren soon caught up with a rider.
The rider's horse was injured, limping on a front leg and struggling to run, while its rider kept looking back. When he saw Wu Shuangren coming after him, his heart jolted, and he lashed the horse across its rump. It whinnied in pain and struggled forward for several paces.
Wu Shuangren caught up from behind and to the side. Without leaping, he turned sideways and shifted his feet. His right arm flicked, and his blade swept upward, slipping through the gap between the horse's belly and the rider's thigh to cut into the inside of his upper leg.
The rider tipped sideways and slid from the saddle. Before he hit the ground, Wu Shuangren slashed through his throat!
The next rider was farther down the slope and had already picked up speed, but his horse unfortunately stepped into a horse trap. It fell, throwing the rider through the air to land heavily on the ground. Before he could get up, Wu Shuangren was already in front of him. The blade plunged point-down through the back of his skull.
The third rider heard the commotion behind him, abruptly reined in his horse, and drew his saber as he turned. His movement was deft, and he swept his saber across as he turned, plainly skilled in martial arts.
But in that position, he could not borrow his horse's strength.
Wu Shuangren met his saber with his own. At the instant their blades collided, he pressed sharply downward, forcibly breaking the other man's stroke, then twisted hard and knocked his saber flying from his hand!
Wu Shuangren immediately stepped forward and stabbed him in the lower abdomen, dragging him from the saddle as he pulled out his blade.
Wu Shuangren had discovered another advantage of [Match for One Person]-it strengthened him according to the upper limit of his opponent's strength, not the lower limit.
If these riders' fighting strength was three when they had room to charge at full speed, then as they fled with their backs to the enemy, the strength they could bring to bear from horseback was less than one.
Yet [Match for One Person] kept Wu Shuangren's fighting strength above "three" at all times!
So now, as he pursued the fleeing enemy, he cut through them like a knife through bamboo!
Elsewhere, a head went flying with every sweep of Bai Jinhuan's guandao. He was killing them quickly too!
Wu Shuangren fought his way from the crest to the foot of the slope, killing five riders in succession. This time, he deliberately spared the warhorses, targeting only the men in their saddles.
All the riders on the slope had withdrawn and fled without looking back.
Wu Shuangren stood at the foot of the hill, reeking of blood. The Qi and blood in his body surged like a great river, and his eyes were full of killing intent.
Fragments of bone and a thick, dark liquid clung to his blade. Behind him lay fallen men and horses and heads that had rolled away.
He had killed seven men in succession tonight, but rather than feeling afraid, he still wanted more!
Wu Dongrong, who had fought his way down the slope with him, stood beside him with a complicated expression.
Wu Dongrong had intended to scold his son and tell him not to be so impulsive. As the commander, he should not charge out in front.
But seeing the light in his son's eyes, Wu Dongrong opened his mouth, and the words on his lips became a warning instead:
"We won tonight by taking advantage of the circumstances. If it had been daytime or we'd been on flat ground, those militiamen couldn't have stopped this cavalry. Don't let this make you underestimate the enemy."
Wu Shuangren nodded. "Father, I understand. I won't be careless."
Tonight, he had experienced firsthand the pressure of facing a cavalry charge!
Even with [Match for One Person] active, he had still felt the pressure, let alone ordinary soldiers.
Without the advantage of the terrain tonight, even if the enemy had not dared to charge straight into their formation, the speed and momentum of a full-speed charge alone could probably have frightened their militia into breaking!
To face cavalry with infantry, every man would at least need armor, along with powerful crossbows, anti-cavalry barricades, spears, and large shields.
The Bo County militia was still essentially a civilian organization, not yet a true army.
Its equipment was far too lacking.
"We won-"
Cheers suddenly rang out from the hillside.
Wu Shuangren turned to look up, a smile appearing on his face.
Whatever else, tonight was the militia's first victory since its reestablishment.
And they had won with infantry against cavalry, against the very riders who had previously washed Mo Family Village in blood.
This battle was therefore of great significance!
55 A Man's Ultimate Luxury
Torches were finally lit again on the hillside.
Counting the spoils after the battle was a pleasure. They had killed thirty-four enemy riders tonight!
Losses like these were enough to make the Mist Hidden Temple feel the sting!
On Wu Shuangren's side, only a few of his militiamen had fallen in their nervousness, scraping their knees or twisting their ankles. In addition, one militiaman had been holding up a wooden board when an arrow pierced it, the arrowhead wounding his palm.
With almost zero casualties, it was a complete victory!
The thirty-four dead riders yielded thirty-four sets of leather armor, more than thirty sabers and bows, and fifteen unharmed warhorses.
The leather armor these men wore covered only the torso, but it was thicker and better made than the constables' leather armor.
Wu Dongrong told Wu Shuangren that one such set cost at least two strings of cash to make. The thirty-four sets were worth nearly seventy strings in total.
The warhorses were naturally worth even more.
"These are Huangzhou Horses. Their endurance isn't particularly good, but they can just about serve as warhorses. I don't know how much the Mist Hidden Temple secretly paid for them, but I doubt they cost less than twenty strings apiece."
So said Wu Dongrong.
Wu Shuangren clicked his tongue inwardly.
That was only the basic purchase cost. Feed, tack, upkeep, and everything else afterward would all cost money.
But after experiencing a cavalry charge firsthand, Wu Shuangren found himself coveting cavalry.
Tonight, he had faced the charges of only two riders in succession. If he were on flat ground, facing the charge of a whole unit at once, he felt he would be in great danger even with his Traits to rely on.
Unfortunately, it would probably be difficult to form cavalry of his own anytime soon.
Cavalry really is a man's ultimate luxury in this era!
Wu Shuangren could not help but marvel.
After clearing the battlefield, Xu Jing sent men to scout the surrounding area in case the enemy doubled back for another attack.
From all the signs, however, the enemy had already left.
Given their level of organization, it was also almost impossible for them to double back after suffering such losses.
"Gather the bodies and burn them. Then we'll return to the city."
Xu Jing gave the order.
A short while later, a great fire blazed on the hillside.
With the firelight at their backs, the group returned to the county seat.
The county seat, the county yamen.
As county magistrate, He Zhixu had his own official residence at the yamen.
When the gong sounded on the city wall, He Zhixu was jolted awake in bed.