Shanhai Pass.
While Xiao Ming was planning the privateering scheme, his order to attack the barbarians had already arrived here.
When Lei Ming read the military order from Qingzhou, he suddenly burst out laughing.
The generals of the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry surrounding him looked puzzled. A captain asked, “What is it that makes the Governor so happy?”
Lei Ming carefully put away the military order, which bore Prince Qi’s seal, and said, “The Grand Commander said that His Highness wants us to go out of the pass and blunt the barbarians’ arrogance.”
“Finally, we’re going to war, hehe, our hands are itching.”
“Exactly, the barbarians aren’t behaving again. It’s time to teach them a lesson.”
“Give them a good beating and let them know the power of our Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry.” The generals’ voices grew louder and louder.
Lei Ming raised his hand, signaling the generals to quiet down. He said, “This order was issued five days ago, but according to the Grand Commander, this time we just need to know when to stop. We can’t fight to the death with the barbarians; just take advantage and retreat.”
The excited generals immediately deflated. One general said, “So it’s not a continued advance north.”
“You’re thinking too much. If we were to continue north, the Qingzhou Army would have been stationed at Shanhai Pass long ago.”
“Who says we can only advance if the Qingzhou Army is here? Are we Youzhou Army training for nothing?”
“Training is training, but our Youzhou Army only has three thousand muskets. That’s not enough for anything.”
The generals started discussing again, and finally everyone looked at Lei Ming, “Governor, our Youzhou Army’s equipment is too poor. Can we ask the Grand Commander about it, otherwise how can we fight the barbarians?”
Lei Ming was immediately a little embarrassed. He had raised this question to Qingzhou more than once, but so far they had only received three thousand muskets. However, after careful selection, the Youzhou Army had already trained twenty thousand musketeers, not including the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry, which had expanded to two divisions.
“You can’t say that. Didn’t Qingzhou just send us twenty thousand warhorses a few days ago? These warhorses are all from Prince Zhao’s enfeoffed territory. This shows that His Highness still treats our Youzhou Army favorably,” Lei Ming explained. He was most afraid of the generals asking him for equipment.
The generals immediately felt that this made sense. These twenty thousand warhorses were given to the Youzhou Army alone, which was half of the total. It was precisely because of this that the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry had expanded to twenty thousand men.
Clearing his throat, Lei Ming’s expression became serious. He said, “Now we must immediately execute the order from Qingzhou. You will now immediately gather your men and set up an ambush outside the city. Once barbarian scouts come to investigate, immediately kill them.”
“Yes,” the generals responded in unison.
Having given the order, the generals left one after another. Before long, the sound of rumbling bells suddenly echoed through Shanhai Pass, and the cavalry in the military camp quickly assembled.
Then they set out from the customs to carry out their plan to attack the barbarian scouts.
This time, Lei Ming did not lead the troops. At this moment, he stood on the city wall of Shanhai Pass, watching five thousand cavalry disappear into the vast grassland.
Behind him, the city walls that had been destroyed in the war had been repaired, and they were also expanded and thickened compared to before.
Now, Shanhai Pass was not only difficult to break through on the north side, but also on the weaker south side.
And in the granary of Shanhai Pass, three years’ worth of grain had now been stored, which relieved the soldiers in Shanhai Pass of their worries about hunger.
At the same time, soldiers could receive monthly pay, which made the soldiers serving in the army even more enthusiastic. However, this was only one reason. A deeper reason was that Xiao Ming promised them that, like Youzhou, they would be given land if they captured an inch of it in the future.
And as Xiao Ming had promised, after recovering Youzhou, they distributed land to the Youzhou soldiers, and these lands were fertile fields near Youzhou.
This alone made the soldiers very grateful to Prince Qi. It was also because of this that the soldiers and generals looked forward to fighting, because it was said that there was vast land outside Shanhai Pass.
Even if they didn’t farm it themselves, selling these lands to merchants could earn them a lot of silver.
After watching the soldiers leave, Lei Ming descended from the city wall. He still had to ponder the construction of a redoubt a hundred li outside Shanhai Pass.
In the evening, the cavalry who had been out of the city for a day returned.
The purpose of this cavalry sortie was to kill scouts and create conflict, which was a very simple task for the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry.
After all, with Lei Ming’s personality, even if there was nothing wrong, he would send soldiers to harass the barbarian tribes. This area was now very familiar to him, and he had even specially drawn a map for it.
The map marked various terrains and the locations of barbarian tribes.
“Governor, we ambushed a team of scouts outside the city. As per your instructions, we deliberately let one go back to report.”
“Hmm, well done.” Lei Ming nodded with satisfaction.
Although he didn’t understand the purpose of Xiao Ming’s order, for them, he only needed to obey orders.
And just as he was preparing to send the battle report back to Qingzhou, a large number of barbarian cavalry appeared sixty li northwest of Shanhai Pass.
The leader was none other than Gurtai, the banner chief of the Huyan Tuo Tribe, who had once lived in Youzhou.
“Banner Chief, it was here that we encountered the ambush,” the escaped scout said to Gurtai.
Looking at the hundred or so bodies of barbarian soldiers on the ground, Gurtai’s eyes seemed to spew flames.
“Lei Ming, you’re going too far,” Gurtai roared. He now knew that the general in Shanhai Pass was Lei Ming.
Because ever since Shanhai Pass was lost, the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry would often enter the grasslands to harass the tribes there. During this period, they had wins and losses against the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry.
However, this back and forth not only failed to bring them a sense of balance but made them increasingly worried, because in their view, the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry was growing too fast.
Previously, no cavalry could engage in prolonged battles with their cavalry on the grasslands.
“Banner Chief, must we continue to endure? If this continues, our tribe will have no way to live here,” a myriad-commander said.
Gurtai’s eyes looked towards Shanhai Pass. He said, “Coward, what’s there to fear? The Great Taiji said that the Emperor of the Great Yu Empire is dying. Once he dies, the Great Yu Empire will surely fall into chaos. Now, Prince Liang of the Great Yu Empire has secretly sent someone to meet the Khan, declared himself a vassal to the Khan, and recognized the Khan as his father. He’s just waiting for the Great Yu Empire to fall into chaos so they can use our cavalry to seize the throne. When that time comes, we will directly kill Prince Liang and the Second Prince, and the Great Yu Empire will be ours.”
The generals all burst into laughter upon hearing this.