A Mistaken Marriage Match: A Generation of Military Counselor Chapter 7.3

Chapter 7: Night raid attack and defense, Part 3 of 5

Vigilantly they rushed their way towards the front of the room, just when the three almost arrived, they heard a commotion and sounds of fighting from the rear court, it looks like  someone has been discovered! They need to hurry! The trio crossed over the side of the courtyard, and finally darted to the front of the room; at this moment, a team of guards happened to be patrolling there, in front of the room nowhere is a spot to hide, a head-on  bitter encounter with the guards is unavoidable.

When Dong Lin, the leader of the guards, saw them without batting an eyelid he simply turned to the guards behind and said: “Capture them.” They are nothing more than just some new army recruits, this so-called night raid is practically an insult to them!

Dong Lin’s disdainful eyes made the three clenched their fists, Ge Jing Yun inwardly admonished himself to remain calm, inclining his head to the side he told the skinny soldier behind him: “You go and  check. We’ll cover you.”

The young lad nodded, extremely fast he rushed into the room, Ge Jing Yun and the other soldier stood near left and right of the door, staring alertly at the brawny men heading towards them.

The drive and aggression honed constantly in the army life surged within, Ge Jing Yun strived to hold up, but the hands of the soldier beside him started to tremble, glaring at him for a moment Ge Jing Yun yelled: “Watch out! Losing your head?! The task must be accomplished!”

To embolden himself, Ge Jing Yun took the lead, he moved forward to meet the tall and robust guard who clearly looked down on him even though Ge Jing Yun’s build is  also st.u.r.dy as an ox.

Evidently the other party underestimates the enemy, Ge Jing Yun deceptively stepped forward, reaching out his hand he  grabbed the guard’s front shirt; the guard sneered, he too wanted to throw a punch.  His thick and solid arm extended, a move that was  easily blocked off next by Ge Jing Yun’s surprise attack. He was caught off guard.  Ge Jing Yun conveniently grabbed the guard’s arm, bent his body, his other hand grabbed the guard’s waistband, he executed a beautiful  shoulder throw maneuver [a judo throwing technique]!

The guard’s burly body fiercely fell to the ground, the ground beneath practically shook, everyone was struck dumb for a moment; at about the same time the door opened, the young lad ran out of the room shaking his head towards them, the room was empty, the case wasn’t inside.

Ge Jing Yun shouted aloud: “quickly retreat!”

As soon as his voice fell, the three of them as they have agreed before they entered the camp, ran off to three different directions. Dong Lin’s eyes glinted cold, his lean figure dashed after  Ge Jing Yun; Ge Jing Yun got alarmed, rapid-fire he raised his right foot and  took out a short dagger from his boot, brandishing it in a flick. Suddenly a cold light flashed, Dong Lin did not expect his body concealed a weapon, added to that Ge Jing Yun’s thrust was strong, Dong Lin’s split-second sloppiness already gave Ge Jing Yun the chance  to slip away.

Dong Lin furiously commanded: “Chase!” d.a.m.n it, just like that he let him escape!

Outside a battle was raging on, but within the headquarter there still was a leisurely sight to behold. On top of a table, a wooden chessboard was cluttered with white and black chess pieces, the mechanics of the game resemble not a bit like the game of Go, Su Ren’s one hand was delicately holding a cup of the Liuyue tea, his other hand holding a white chess piece, patiently waiting for Han Shu to put down his piece.

Han Shu’s hand was grasping a black piece, but he did not know for how long he ought to have put it down already, this game of Gobang seemed simple, but playing it is actually challenging! Picking up the teacup beside him for a mouthful of drink, Han Shu clenched his teeth, and placed the chess piece.

Su Ren eagerly also put down his white piece, “you lost.”

Han Shu looked closer, indeed there were five pieces connected, how strange! How on earth did he miss that?!

“Reporting.” A male voice resounded outside, Han Shu in a foul mood, hollered: “Speak.”

Already familiar with Han Shu’s bad temper, Dong Lin wasn’t perturbed by his tiger roar, calmly he reported: “Lieutenant General Su already brought his blue soldiers to the city gate tower and has begun to launch the first attack, Lieutenant General Wu is in the thick of contending with them following your deployment orders. Meanwhile in the rear court hundreds of soldiers in black and more than thirty soldiers in blue suddenly appeared. The soldiers garbed in black were divided into groups of three, their action was swift running to each available room. Our soldiers intercepted them. We captured all the blue soldiers, but only eighteen among the black soldiers.”

Su Ren holding the tea in his hand paused, raising his voice he ordered: “Come in and explain.”

As soon as Dong Lin stepped into the room, Su Ren immediately asked: “Why is it only eighteen black-uniformed soldiers were arrested?” More than a hundred men barged in, but only eighteen were taken captive, when did his elite soldiers turn so lousy?

Dong Lin’s face obviously stiffened, but his voice remained steady, he answered: “They had definite targets, were highly coordinated, moved extremely quick, once they’ve ascertained the wooden case is not in the room, they then dispersed into multiple directions. Not only that their fighting techniques were quite bizarre, their weapons were also very superior.”

Su Ren scowled, “What weapons did they use?” He could not quite recall what sort of superior weapons they have.

“Daggers.” Dong Lin proffered a dagger he took from a captured army recruit.

Su Ren received the dagger handed over and  examined it, indeed it was more exquisite and compact than an ordinary dagger, one that is handy to carry around. Han Shu whose mood was initially gloomy blatantly laughed out loud when he saw the thing in Su Ren’s hands, smugly he asked: “what do you think, sharp and exquisite ones, aren’t they? I had these made according to Madam’s request.” He had to find a lot of craftsmen to forge them! That they actually played a vital role in the night raid, his toil wasn’t in vain.

Even so, it ought not be only eighteen men getting arrested, Qing Mo, seriously, is your army training technique really this formidable?

Noting Su Ren’s stern face, Han Shu’s mood perked up, chortling he said: “after their foray, Madam will no doubt soon be able to expose your feint.”

Slowly Su Ren put down the dagger he was holding, the corners of his mouth faintly curled up, nonchalantly he replied: “I had expected that she will eventually see through it, but just not so soon. However, it is now yinshi [3-5 am], in another shichen [2-hour period] the dawn breaks, within a shichen she would not be able to decipher my dual battle formation stratagem. Tonight’s raid could be considered a failure, and tomorrow I may not necessarily place the wooden case in the same spot.”

He did not want the search for the wooden case to be a breeze, or why else did he give them three nights for it.

A bemused Han Shu clucked his tongue and sighed: “who would have thought you’d take this to heart.” At first Su Ren also thought he would just have fun with them, who knew he would be using battle formation stratagems on them; he looked out the window, time indeed is running out.

Su Yu did not don an armor, as he was just clad in simple clothes he watched from the sidelines at the very back of his troops, his brows furrowed and eyes squinting, he gazed intently at the battle’s situation in front, his countenance remained unruffled. From atop the walls, the arrows were pouring down like heavy rain. Thanks to his rigorous training, it can be said this group of new army recruits did pretty well. They were basically able to fend off the spate of arrow attacks. The combination of shields and bows and arrows worked so well, but so far it seemed, neither side gained the upper hand, a stalemate persisted.

“Reporting.” A very young lad in blue came running, stopped beside Su Yu, and said: “After the soldiers entered the camp, they were immediately discovered by the guards, all were captured. And …”

The young lad stammered, Su Yu’s cold voice erupted: “report the truth!”

“Yes!” The young lad did not hesitate anymore, continued: “At the same time hundreds of black-clad soldiers showed up, together they sneaked into the camp, many people went in, but a lot also ran out.”

Qing Mo could not also wait to attack? While he engaged second elder brother’s forces in a battle, taking advantage of the chaos she sneaked into the camp to steal the wooden case! Thinking he ought to end it beautifully, lowering his voice Su Yu said: “Move two hundred soldiers to the back of the camp and lie in wait for them, if they’ve stolen the wooden case, ambush them right away and s.n.a.t.c.h it.”

“Yes.” The young lad hurried away.

Glancing up to the tower, the tower commander appeared to merely rely on shooting arrows to confront the enemy, Su Yu snickered, it seems second elder brother only thought of dispatching a few hundred men tonight nothing more than to trifle with them, it won’t do.  Su Yu’s dark eyes slightly narrowed, his handsome face lifted, turning to the messenger behind him he ordered: “switch to wedge battle formation, launch an all-out attack.”

“Yes!”

Before the city gate tower, the troops lined up again at breakneck speed to change formation, afterwards the formation taking shape was narrow in front but broad at the back. The soldiers at the back holding the bows were covered with the soldiers in front hoisting the shields overhead to fend off falling arrows, the entire formation is now shaped like a long sword, rushing all the way to the gate.

With rapt attention Gu Yun watched the lively scene playing out in front, after a while, Ge Jing Yun with the soldiers finally came back.

Gu Yun urgently asked: “how did it go?”

Running all the way back they were breathless, but still Ge Jing Yun was steady and calm in replying: “the guards were keen and brave, although we were very careful and quick, eighteen of our men were captured. Out of the sixty rooms in the rear court, fifty-seven were already searched, we did not find the wooden case.”

Gu Yun looked glum, something’s fishy!

Fifty-seven out of sixty, only three rooms were not searched, the odds of finding the wooden case therein is five percent, very unlikely! If the wooden case is not in the rear court, why did Su Ren take great pains to a.s.sign so many guards in the rear court, what was his intention? Just to confound the enemy? In that case, where’s the wooden case? Inside the main headquarter’s hall, or in the study? Or in the adjacent halls?

Gu Yun knitted her brows, mulled over, and whispered: “take out your topographic map, let me look at it again.”

“Yes.” Ge Jing Yun took out the map from his sleeve and rolled it out in front of Gu Yun. Under the moonlight the intricate drawings were blurry and confusing, but Gu Yun did not complain or puzzled over a bit. It seemed that in such dark surroundings, as to the issue of darkness, it was as if a common enough occurrence for her.

Sharp eyes moved back and forth on the drawings, her cold voice carried no delight but anger, “after you sneaked in, was there a change in the deployment of forces?”

A moment ago when he took the head count, he also asked the other soldiers about the circ.u.mstances inside; after sorting out his recollections for a while Ge Jing Yun cautiously replied: “the rear court was heavily guarded as before, more than half of the soldiers remained in the rear court, but one thing very suspicious was, the guards were mostly concentrated in the rear court and in the courtyard, probably more than five hundred guards were stationed out there, but only two hundred actually patrolled the rear court.”

Five hundred soldiers stationed, but only two hundred people were patrolling, then the others were guarding the place … where the wooden case is?!