Chapter 419
“He managed to endure!” Zhang Liao could not help but look Lu Meng favorably. Normally, generals are more simple minded. On top of that, youngsters would also be more hot blooded. If this was Sun Ce, they would have already charged out of the jungle. However, Lu Meng still managed to remain calm. This made Zhang Liao sigh with lament.
Even Zhang Liao himself were not as cool headed as Lu Meng when he was at that age. He had to use his own injuries and the lives of his men to learn this lesson.
“Zhang Hu! Ge Jun! Continue doing this! I want to see how long this Lu Meng and endure himself.”
“Understood!” Zhang Hu and Ge Jun received the order and continued to harass and taunt the enemy. In the end, the Chu Army started to become annoyed.
“Zi Ming! Give me some troops! Let me go out and kill them!” Ling Cao could no longer endure constantly being humiliated by the Xiliang Cavalry. They had also insulted his dead father which was his sore spot. Mentioning Ling Cao’s father caused Ling Cao to explode in anger.
“I am telling you to stay!” Lu Meng shouted coldly. Lu Meng was also angry at the enemies but he also knew that this was his enemy’s stratagem. They wanted to lure Lu Meng out to crush him. He even had to silently tell himself to have self-restraint.
“Could it be that your fathers are so weak that their offspring can’t shoot arrows?” The Xiliang Cavalry came back and taunted. Lu Meng did not even have a chance to relax. Although his camp was in the jungle, the Xiliang Cavalry could still attack. If they attacked while he slacked off, the whole army would be in trouble. Even if the Xiliang Cavalry dismount from their horses, they would be heavy infantries. It would not be wise to be caught unprepared.
Lu Meng planend to get the Xiliang Cavalry to attack and dismount to fight. He also intended to ambush the Xiliang Cavalry in the forest. Lu Meng had wasted a lot of arrows trying to shoot the Xiliang Cavalry. The Xiliang Cavalry had also made many trips taunting Lu Meng’s soldiers. Neither side gains the upper hand. However, Lu Meng was only stalling for time. Once the real reinforcements arrives, his mission would be complete.
“I can’t take this anymore! Who wants to charge out with me?” Ling Cao shouted.
“Ling Cao! Did you not hear my orders? You are violating the military law! Do you want to be punished?” Lu Meng looked at his friend coldly.
“So what? Do you think I am scared? I would have been the commander if I was the older one! You do not have any qualifications to say anything about me!” Ling Cao roared back.
“Ling Cao! Come back here! Don’t force me to use military law!”
The soldiers simply watched the two quarrel. They also felt helpless.
“I dare you!” Ling Cao approached Lu Meng and shouted. “Barbarian Lu! I can accept being insulted but I won’t stand the fact that my father is insulted!”
Before Ling Cao could say anymore, Lu Meng slapped him in the face. This caused Ling Cao to fall to the ground.
“Lu Meng?” Ling Cao’s eyes turned red.
In comparison, Lu Meng was angrier than Ling Cao. He shouted back, “Ling Cao! Do you think you are the only one insulted? Do you think you are the only one with a dead father? At least you had spent some time with your father! I don’t even know what my father looks like! Do you think I am not angry?” Lu Meng had never even seen his father before. He simply joined the army in secret because he wanted to make his mother’s life easier.
Eventually he was discovered by Deng Dang. Although shocked, Deng Dang allowed him to officially join the army.
“Zi Ming?” The light in Ling Cao’s eyes slowly returned.
“Go! If you still want to go! I will let you go! Take your men with you out to fight and die. Go and become merits that the enemy could proudly flaunt! Go and make the others in Jiangdong lose their fathers, sons or husbands. At best, you can go and meet your late father while leaving your mother alone in this world!” Lu Meng continued to scold.
All the angry soldiers calmed down when they heard Lu Meng’s words. They all still had family waiting for them at home.
“I… I won’t go!” Ling Cao felt ashamed dejected but finally relented.
“If you are not going then withdraw and take out your three shi bow!” Lu Meng shouted happily at his friend. He would not use military law. Although the military law was strict, Ling Cao was his childhood friend. On top of that, his mother was the one that provided his family with financial aid. Without Ling Cao’s family, Lu Meng would not have grown up to become a successful person.
When the Xiliang Cavalry came back again, Lu Meng ordered the soldiers to shoot from two hundred and forty paces away.
“Shooting at two hundred and forty paces away?” When Zhang Hu saw this, he sneered. That range was too far away for two shi bows. He believed that the general simply became reckless out of anger. He then thought of how to humiliate the enemy even more.
“Not good!” On the other hand, Zhang Liao noticed that the arrows were longer and became frightened. He did not believe that Lu Meng would have the soldiers shoot for no reason when he was able to endure being lured out.
The arrows flew and struck the soldiers in front causing them to fall to the ground. The soldiers at the back did not fare much better than the ones in front. The skillful ones were able to make their horses jump while the unskillful ones would stumble and fall over the corpses of those in front of him. Their life would then come to an end as they get trampled by the other soldiers behind them.
“Withdraw! Withdraw!” An arrow pierced through Zhang Hu’s left arm. He was angry and wanted to charge forward but decided against it when he thought of Zhang Liao’s cold expression.
“Three shi bows!” Zhang Liao coldly said when he saw the arrows pierce through the soldiers. There were over a hundred casualties from that volley. Zhang Liao never expected the enemy to be able to use three shi bows. While Zhang Liao, Zhang Hu and Ge Jun could draw those bows, they were generals. However, the several hundred soldiers that managed to use those bows were common soldiers.
The Jiangdong soldiers cheered. They have finally taken revenge on their enemies. Although they have not destroyed their enemies, harming them was already a victory. To Zhang Liao and the others, that cheer also served as a humiliation.
“General! This one is ashamed to greet the General! Please punish me!” Zhang Hu exclaimed when he returned. He haven’t removed the arrow stuck to his hand. He also did not dare to look at Zhang Liao in the eye. He believed that this was his mistake. If he had been more vigilant and noticed that the enemy was using three shi bows, the Xiliang Cavalry would have been able to avoid casualties.
Zhang Liao did not reply immediately causing Zhang Hu to have cold sweat. Zhang Liao’s punishment could be grave.
However, instead of punishing Zhang Hu, Zhang liao laughed instead. Zhang Hu could not believe his eyes because of Zhang Liao’s prejudice towards the Xiliang Cavalry. Even if no mitakes were made, Zhang Liao would not show a good expression towards the Xiliang Cavalry. It was to the extent that Zhang Hu momentarily wondered who this person was.
In the end, Zhang Liao opened his mouth to speak. “Although you have made a mistake, you are not the only one. I am also at fault.” Zhang Liao had also been careless. He did not expect Lu Meng to do this.
“Zhang Hu. I will give you an opportunity to fix your mistake. Harass the enemy and make sure they have no time to rest! If you cannot accomplish this, you do not need to come back here!” Zhang Liao’s face turned cold again.
“Understood!” Zhang Hu nodded. He was not used to Zhang Liao smiling at him and preferred to see the cold Zhang Liao.
The Xiliang Cavalry charged forward again. Learning from experience, they now carried shields and lowered their bodies to protect themselves from arrows.
“Coming to harass us again? If you want to die, come!” Lu Meng said as he saw the Xiliang Cavalry move again. Once the Jiangdong Army becomes exhausted, the Xiliang Cavalry would also be finished.
“General Wang Wei. I will leave the next part to you.” Zhang Liao said to Wang Wei.
“Understood!” Wang Wei nodded and left to make his preparations. Lu Meng continued to watch the movements of Zhang Liao’s Army and saw a cart being prepared. The cart was carrying hay and wood.
“General. Do they want to start a fire?” Ling Cao came over and asked. He had since felt much better after killing some of the Xiliang Cavalry with the three shi bow.
It was actually quite obvious given that the enemy brought so much hay and wood.
Ling Cao then mocked them. “Starting a fire? The ground is moist and there are streams in this forest. What is the point of starting a fire here?”
“We must not underestimate Zhang Liao!” Lu Meng replied. Lu Meng felt a lot of pressure fighting against Zhang Liao. Zhang Liao was a veteran general while this was Lu Meng’s first battle as one. Because of this, Lu Meng would end up thinking a little too much when fighting against Zhang Liao. However this time, he still could not understand Zhang Liao’s actions. Eventually he found out that Zhang Liao really wanted to start a fire based on the movements of the soldiers.
Lu Meng frowned as he instructed Ling Cao to bring some soldiers with him to collect water from the streams in preparations for a fire attack.
“General. Is it really needed?” Ling Cao asked in disdain. It would be strange for such a damp place to catch fire.
“Just go! Don’t speak so much nonsense!” Lu Meng did not care whether the enemy’s fire attack would work or not. He wanted to be prepared for anything.
“Understood!” Ling Cao cupped his fist helplessly and took about a thousand men with him towards the streams.
“Burn them!” Zhang Liao ordered. Torches were thrown onto the dry materials gathered in the jungle and a fire started. The fire quickly rose as smoke started to appear.
“Withdraw! Withdraw further into the jungle!” Lu Meng ordered calmly. As the fire was from the dry materials brought by Zhang Liao’s Army, it was obvious that the jungle was still too humid. They would not be able to bring more hay to spread the fire. Even then, Lu Meng decided to be cautious and ordered the soldiers to withdraw further into the jungle. Ling Cao was also I nthe process of going to take water.
“General Wang Wei. Are you ready?”
“We are ready!”
“Then begin.”
“Understood.” Wang Wei nodded. The catapults he had prepared had begun to move.
“Is it too far away?” Ge Jun asked. The catapults have a range of seven hundred paces but they would normally not even shoot from that far away.
“It is not too far away.” Zhang Liao replied. Normally, the catapults threw heavy rocks that were at least a hundred catties. Now it was only throwing jars that were ten times lighter.
The catapults threw the jars which fell into jungles. A blackish liquid then flowed out of the jars as they crashed onto the ground.
“General. What is that in those jars?” It did not take long for a soldier to grab one intact jar that landed on a tree. Lu Meng opened up the jar to check its contents and even smelled the disgusting stench of the black liquid.
“What is this?” Lu Meng wondered as he dipped his finger into the black liquid. Although he did not know, one of his soldiers knew what the black liquid was.
“General! This is oil!”
“Oil?” Lu Meng had never seen this before but he had heard that it was a thick flammable liquid. “Not good!’
The catapult launched a second volley. However, these time they were no longer throwing jars of oil. The dry wood and dry hay were also not so much a problem on their own. However, together with the oil, the fire ignited and spread very quickly.
“It is really a fire attack!” Ling Cao was astonished but remained calm. He had listened to Lu Meng’s orders and had brought water to fight against the fire.