RPAGF Chapter 105 Reconnaissance and Training: Undercurrents Begin to Emerge
Chapter 105 Reconnaissance and Training: Undercurrents Begin to Emerge
As dawn broke, the thirty-mile stretch of mountains and forests on the south bank of Kunming Pool was still shrouded in a thick, impenetrable white fog.
The damp, cold mist clung to the ground, engulfing the jagged rocks and ancient trees, revealing only their menacing outlines, like a vivid ink painting from the Song Dynasty.
Li Jing stood in the mist, his clothes already soaked with dew.
Behind him, Shen Guang and five other team members stood holding their breath, all dressed in coarse cloth short jackets, carrying rattan shields, ropes and water bags on their backs, with short sticks wrapped in thick cloth and painted black at their waists—these were "horizontal swords" used in the exercise.
"Once you enter the forest, forget that you are human."
Li Jing's voice was not loud, but it carried a chilling quality that pierced through the fog, clearly penetrating everyone's ears: "Treat yourself as a beast in the forest, as the grass beneath your feet."
He extended three fingers and pointed them lightly in the air: "Today's survey will focus on only three things: land, water, and roads."
Shen Guang and the others straightened up, their ears perking up like alert antelopes.
"The land is a place of life and death. Where can we hide and ambush? Where are the sheer cliffs and dead ends?" Li Jing pointed to the depths of the misty mountains. "Water is the source of life and death. Where you can drink, you can also poison—though it's just dye for drills, treat it as a deadly poison that draws blood! As for the road…"
He paused. "The Imperial Guards will definitely camp in open areas. Their armor is heavy and their formations are very disciplined. That's their strength, but also their weakness. What we need to do is force them into these mountains and forests. Once inside, their armor will be a burden, and their disciplined formations will be sitting ducks."
"clear!"
"Split up and reconnoiter." Li Jing pulled out five sketches from his robes and distributed them. "Each of you is responsible for six li (approximately 2.5 kilometers). Meet here at noon. Remember, not only do you need to look and memorize, but you also need to 'think'—if you encounter the enemy here with forty-nine brothers, how should you pass the knife, and how should you survive!"
"Go." Li Jing waved his hand, his sleeves fluttering in the mist.
The five people disappeared into the fog and vanished in an instant.
Li Jing did not move.
He stood still, his gaze fixed on an inconspicuous depression in the northwest.
The morning fog was thick, obscuring his vision, but he remembered a glimpse under the starlight last night—something seemed amiss there.
He walked slowly, the decaying leaves under his feet making a soft rustling sound.
About two hundred paces from here, on a shady earthen slope.
As the morning mist dissipated, a patch of freshly turned earth was revealed. Although it was disguised, it did not escape Li Jing's eyes, which were accustomed to recognizing hoofprints in the wind and sand of the frontier.
He crouched down and gently brushed away the loose soil with a short stick.
Empty.
However, several tiny, triangularly distributed depressions remain in the soil layer.
"Iron caltrops..." Li Jing narrowed his eyes and picked up a bit of soil with his fingertips.
"It's not Hundred-Layer Steel."
Li Jing also came from a prominent family and was very knowledgeable about military equipment.
The arrowheads and blades of the Imperial Guards were all manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of Works, using refined steel that had been refined many times and had a bright blue color.
The black fragments were clearly privately made, or even... weapons used by barbarians or remnants of fallen kingdoms who used rudimentary iron-making methods and hid deep in the mountains and forests of Lingnan.
"Remnants of the Southern Chen dynasty... or assassins kept by some powerful family looking to use someone else to do their dirty work?"
He carefully wrapped the fragments in oiled paper, his eyes calm as a deep pool. This battle would likely break not only the Imperial Guards' formation, but also the undercurrents beneath this seemingly peaceful and prosperous world.
……
The sun was high in the sky at the Daxingyuan temporary camp.
The rich aroma of corn mingled with the smell of sweat, rising in the air.
The 1,470 newly selected soldiers were divided into 30 square formations, with 49 men in each formation.
Qin Qiong stood atop the high earthen platform: "Listen up, all of you! You are no longer farmers from Jingzhou and Qizhou, nor are you anyone's tenants! You eat from the same pot, sleep in the same tent, you are brothers born of the same mother!"
His gaze swept across the entire area like lightning: "Within five days, I'll make sure you can hear your own brothers breathing even with your eyes closed! On the battlefield, a single glance from the corner of your eye will be enough to tell whether it's Zhang San or Li Si protecting your back!"
"From now on, we will have only one name—'Changning Breaking Army'! Let those who look down on us tremble at the mere mention of these five words!"
After a brief silence, the crowd erupted like a pot of boiling oil.
"The Breaking Formation Army! I am the Breaking Formation Army!" Zhao Tiezhu was the first to pound his chest and roar.
"Take them down!" The tall, thin soldier's eyes turned red.
The shouts, which started as a few scattered noises, quickly spread and eventually became a chaotic yet deafening tidal wave. Many people shouted and stomped their feet, raising clouds of dust across the training ground.
"Now!" Qin Qiong leaped off the earthen platform, kicking up a cloud of dust as he landed. He walked straight to the first team, his finger pointing like an iron halberd at the team leader named Zhao Tiezhu. "You, step forward!"
Zhao Tiezhu was a typical man from Guanzhong, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted. Upon hearing this, he strode forward with his head held high and chest puffed out: "Here!"
"Reach out your hand."
Zhao Tiezhu was taken aback, but still stretched out his large, calloused hand, which resembled a palm-leaf fan.
Qin Qiong also stretched out his right hand, and the two rough hands clasped together tightly in mid-air.
"Arm wrestling." Qin Qiong grinned, revealing a set of white teeth, but his eyes were as fierce as a tiger's. "If you win, this team will get double the meat for lunch today—this was specially allocated by His Highness from the Prince's funds! I'll personally serve you the soup! If you lose, the whole team will have an extra hour of training tonight!"
Zhao Tiezhu's eyes lit up instantly, his Adam's apple bobbing: "General, do you keep your word?"
"Enough talk! Come on!"
The two squatted down on the muddy ground next to the earthen platform, slamming their elbows hard against the ground.
"Buzz!"
Thirty squads of soldiers instantly surrounded them, forming layers upon layers, with countless eyes fixed on the two entangled arms.
"start!"
With a loud shout, Zhao Tiezhu's forehead veins bulged, his cheeks puffed out like a toad, and he let out a low growl, exerting all his strength.
He was indeed strong; his brute strength, honed from years of farming and blacksmithing, forced Qin Qiong's arm to tilt slightly.
"Bravo!" A cheer erupted from the crowd.
Qin Qiong's expression remained unchanged, and even his breathing was steady.
He was like a majestic Mount Tai; no matter how red-faced and angry Zhao Tiezhu became, his arm remained as steady as iron at the steep angle, without budging an inch.
"Is that all the energy you have? Didn't you eat enough breakfast?!"
Qin Qiong snorted coldly, and just as Zhao Tiezhu was about to run out of strength, his eyes flashed with a sharp light.
"rise!"
An overwhelming force erupted instantly.
boom!
With a muffled thud, Zhao Tiezhu's hand slammed heavily into the dust, kicking up a cloud of smoke.
Qin Qiong released his grip, stood up, dusted off his hands, and looked down at Zhao Tiezhu, who was staring blankly and rubbing his wrist: "Do you submit?"
Zhao Tiezhu's face flushed red: "I'm impressed! But General, your strength is just too much..."
"Too much? Too much bullying?"
Qin Qiong interrupted him, his gaze suddenly turning icy as he swept his gaze across the entire room: "You think I'm bullying the weak? Let me tell you, on the battlefield, the enemy will be ruthless, vicious, and unreasonable than I am! The Turks' scimitars won't ask if you've practiced enough, and the poisoned arrows from Lingnan won't care if you submit!"
"Losing a fight today means eating less meat and sweating more. But losing a single move tomorrow means losing your life! Not just your life, but the lives of these forty-eight brothers around you!"
He strode up to Zhao Tiezhu's group, his gaze sharp as a knife, sweeping across their young or weathered faces.
"When Zhao Tiezhu lost just now, who among you wanted to help him? Who felt resentful? Who thought about what they would do if they saw their own brother being beaten in a real fight?"
In the crowd, a tall, thin soldier swallowed hard and raised his hand tremblingly: "General, if it's a real battle... I... I'll go around to the back and give that guy a good whack..."
"Hahaha!"
The crowd burst into laughter, and the tense atmosphere instantly eased.
Qin Qiong didn't laugh. He walked up to the tall, thin man, reached out and patted him hard on the shoulder, making the soldier grit his teeth.
"That's right! That's the spirit we need!"
Qin Qiong roared, "Remember this: we are soldiers, not knights-errant, and certainly not in a martial arts arena! We must win, we must live! As long as we win, we will take down those precious Imperial Guards in these thirty miles of mountains, even if we have to bite them with our teeth or smash them with stones!"
"Now, teams, spread out! Cook together from the same pot, and announce your comrades' names before eating! If anyone mispronounces a name, the entire team will be forced to watch others eat for a quarter of an hour after dinner!"
"roar--!!"
More than 1,400 men responded in unison, their voices echoing across the fields.
Beneath the thirty hastily erected large iron pots, firewood crackled and burned, reflecting the soldiers' faces as they stared at the pots.
Millet simmered in the pot, while a wooden bucket beside it held dark, fermented soybeans and pickled vegetables. This was the kind of good food they could only dream of on ordinary days.
……
Noon, at the edge of the mountain forest.
Li Jing and the five team members were meeting up. Shen Guang and the others were all covered in mud and grime, as if they had just rolled in a mud pit, but their eyes were frighteningly bright.
"How is it?" Li Jing took the water pouch and took a sip.
"There are three animal trails, one of which is extremely well hidden, only wide enough for one person to pass sideways. It leads straight to the ridge and is an excellent ambush point." Shen Guang spoke very quickly, pointing to the sketch. "But if that trail is blocked, it's a death trap."
"Put yourself in a desperate situation and you will survive. This plan is usable. Divide into small teams for a surprise attack, and retreat as soon as you succeed. Do not linger in battle." Li Jing quickly marked the plan on the sketch.
Another team member wiped the mud off his face: "There are three suitable spots near the water source for 'poisoning'. If we put dye at the source, the Imperial Guards fetching water downstream will reveal their location. However..."
"We must launch the attack at night, and from multiple locations simultaneously, using a mix of real and feints," Li Jing continued, sketching a chilling defense map on the paper with his charcoal pencil.
After the five men finished their reports, a "net" targeting the Imperial Guards had been formed.
Li Jing put away the sketch, glanced at the five people, and lowered his voice: "Remember, in the exercise the day after tomorrow, each of you will lead forty-nine people, who will be the forty-nine mountain demons in this forest. Don't think about confronting them head-on. Think about how to make them feel pain, how to annoy them, how to make them feel that every step in this thirty miles of forest is a trap."
"besides……"
Li Jing's fingers unconsciously caressed the oiled paper package in his arms, his eyes growing deep: "Keep an eye on things during the drills. Besides us and the Imperial Guards, there might be other 'dirty things' in this forest."
Shen Guang's eyes sharpened, and his hand instinctively gripped the short stick at his waist: "Does the Chief Secretary mean..."
"One should always be wary of others."
Li Jing didn't explain further, but turned to look at the distant outline of the bustling city of Daxing, where it seemed as if an invisible hand was manipulating the game of chess.
"Back to camp! This afternoon, each team will conduct small-scale drills according to their reconnaissance areas. Tell the brothers to conserve their energy these past few days; in five days, we're going to put on a good show for the Sui Dynasty court!"