After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

…………

The bright moon hangs low in the west.

Shuijing Township is right in front of us.

Ahead was a dirt slope, and in front of a few bare locust trees stood a stone tablet. Under the cold moonlight, the three large characters "Shuijing Township" were engraved on it, almost illegible.

Ning Nan rode a large white horse, holding the reins in one hand and a torch in the other.

The ground was a plain, with patches of withered grass trembling slightly in the night wind, and some grasses were covered with frost, which shimmered white in the moonlight.

He stared at the stone tablet in front of him. There was only emptiness and darkness in front of the tablet, and all around was silent except for the panting of the two horses. There wasn't even a single insect chirping.

It's already the time of year when spring chills can set in, and now that it's past midnight, the chill is still biting, and a slight coldness creeps into my body.

Deng.

Ning Nan broke out in a sweat, dismounted, and left the Flowing Water Sword hanging on the side of the white horse, but he did not go to retrieve it.

He raised the torch in his left hand and walked straight toward the three-foot-tall stone tablet in front of him.

Wearing a black mandarin jacket and a melon-shaped hat, Ah Lin, carrying a knife, dismounted and walked behind him.

Ah Lin narrowed his eyes slightly, looking at the back of the thin figure in front of him.

In that place.

The other side... had several muskets hanging overhead.

He had heard of Ning Baixuan's reputation for skillful use of firearms, and that he had used a firearm to kill Danzhu in a Western duel.

He didn't like using muskets, but he kept an eye on the other man's hands out of the corner of his eye, as soon as the other man's hands were on those muskets.

His knife would then be drawn, and he would first chop off several of the opponent's fingers.

He wouldn't break off relations between the North and South unless absolutely necessary.

But the strange events of tonight had brought his guard up to its peak, yet he endured it all for the sake of "Han Qing".

Thump, thump, thump, Ah Lin's footsteps landed two feet away from Ning Nan.

Ning Nan held up a torch, the red and yellow flames flickering as they swept across the stone tablet.

"This is it," Ning Nan said, wiping sweat from his brow with his right hand.

Alin squinted and scanned his surroundings, then said:

"Han Qing didn't come."

It was pitch black all around.

"They won't be coming."

Ning Nan took a breath and shook his head.

He turned around and looked at Ah Lin, who was three steps away, with a calm and indifferent gaze.

rub.

Without uttering a single wasted word, Alin drew his sword, the scabbard falling to the ground. The moonlight reflected off his snow-white blade, making it appear somewhat dazzling.

Alin frowned: "Lord Ning, I would like to ask you to explain what you just said."

Ning Nan paused for a moment, then raised his eyes, his gaze both calm and obsessive in the moonlight.

"There's nothing to explain." He threw away the torch, his cold face disappearing into the darkness.

"Brother Alin,"

Ning Nan stared directly at A Lin in the darkness and said:

"You're going to die here."

……

……

"call out!"

An arrow flew over Shangguan Xiu's head.

He lay down on his horse and roared:

"First!"

Clap clap clap!

A frantic crack of whips rang out, followed by a thunderous thud of hooves.

On the northern plains, the group of fifty riders, each with two horses, quickened their pace, widening the distance between themselves and the pursuing group.

The coded language of their cavalry unit.

"甲" means to speed up.

"乙" means deceleration.

"C" indicates a preparation for a right turn.

"丁" indicates preparing to turn left.

In addition, there are commands such as "the rear guard prepares to turn around, draw their bows, and release arrows", "the rear guard becomes the front guard", and "change horses", as well as "Geng" - tear off the red cloth strip on the left arm.

Unable to see the command flags at night, they had to use coded language to command the cavalry, fortunately there were only fifty of them.

After Shangguan Xiu shouted out the command, the four loud-voiced messengers behind him would shout back to ensure that the entire cavalry unit heard the order.

Every cavalryman in the battalion had a red cloth strip tied around his left arm, which fluttered in the cold wind.

Fifty paces behind them, nearly three hundred cavalrymen, most of whom had drawn their bows and arrows and the rest of whom carried torches, were chasing after Shangguan Xiu and his men amidst the whistling of hooves and shouts of cursing.

As the commander of this cavalry battalion, Fucha Jing'an's forehead veins bulged, and he was so furious that he almost gritted his teeth.

As a fourth-class guard of the Sticky Rod Office, Jing An did not know why these people from the South would suddenly attack their camp. But since the camp had indeed been attacked, he made a quick decision: on the one hand, he sent someone to the city to report, and on the other hand, he held the camp.

But to his surprise...

The anticipated raid on the camp involved the enemy cavalry storming into the tents, followed by infantry. This also matched the troop deployment of the Southern Kingdom's envoy camp.

But this group was completely different.

One person, two horses.

They kept circling the camp, firing rockets soaked in pine resin into the tents, burning not only their tents and their provisions, but also their stables, which infuriated Jing'an.

The camp was burned.

The heavily armored cavalrymen lying in ambush inside the tent suddenly lost their purpose. The band of bandits laughed loudly, shouting "Tartars!" as they continued to shoot arrows at them.

Jing An and his cavalry were furious, but fortunately they were prepared and all wore armor, so the losses were not great.

This successful deployment earned Jing'an considerable prestige within the cavalry battalion.

Jing An waved his hand and ordered his cavalry to mount their horses and attack the group of southern cavalry.

They had just ridden out of the camp when the band of thieves immediately fled.

Jing An sneered and ordered his riders to give chase.

At first, Jing An saw that the enemy was a man with two horses and must be faster than them, so he thought of showing weakness and ordered twenty riders to gallop forward, while he led the main force about two hundred feet behind.

After the vanguard of twenty riders caught up with the enemy, the enemy turned around and fired arrows, causing the twenty riders to feign defeat.

Some even claimed that Jing An deliberately fell off his horse, hoping to lure the bandits back to their horses and kill them.

As a result, none of the fifty riders looked back. They simply raised their left arms, which were tied with red ribbons, laughed for a while, and then continued on their way.

Whether it was the vanguard of twenty riders or Jing An and his men who had caught up, they were all seething with rage, roaring, "Tear these southern dogs to shreds!"

Here on a plain, Jing'an no longer worried about the horses' strength and raised the command flag amidst the red and yellow firelight.

"drive!"

The three hundred riders immediately began to move from front to back, passing the baton and increasing the horsepower of their horses.

Such speed-up is extremely effective.

After running for three or four miles, they were within fifty feet of the bandits ahead, which was within the range of the arrows.

But after only one volley of arrows, the bandits in front immediately changed horses and sped up, widening the distance between the two sides to a hundred zhang again.

Jing An could only grit his teeth in silence. Fortunately, it seemed that although the other side had one person and two horses, their horses were not as powerful as the northern horses they were riding.

The maximum distance between the two is no more than a hundred feet.

However, after chasing and fleeing for about twenty or thirty miles, they still hadn't caught up with the group. Jing An was filled with both anger and fear.

Having chased them this far, there was no way to retreat now. He sent someone back to report the direction the thieves had fled, while continuing the pursuit. He figured he could only hold out until dawn and wait for the other battalions to come and join him in attacking the thieves.

At that moment, he saw a few scattered lights appear ahead of the fleeing band of thieves in the pitch-black night.

Suddenly, the group of thieves in front seemed to... tear off the red cloth strip from their left arms.

……

It is near Shuijing Township.

Upon seeing the sudden appearance of the cavalry in front of him, Shangguan Xiu broke out in a cold sweat and roared through gritted teeth:

"Geng!"

The cavalrymen tore off the red cloth strips from their left arms.

They ran for twenty zhang, and were less than eighty zhang away from the cavalry that suddenly appeared opposite them.

Upon seeing the cavalry appearing ahead, Shangguan Xiu raised a command flag amidst the flickering firelight.

"Xu!" he roared, drawing his bow and nocking an arrow.

He couldn't understand the command flag, but he figured it must be a flag signal used by the Northern Dynasty cavalry.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

The pursuers behind them also fired arrows, and the pursuers were less than thirty feet away from them.

Fifty riders, bent over on their horses, dodged the arrows, just like Shangguan Xiu, and all drew their bows and nocked their arrows.

Da da da da!

Its cries were like thunder.

They were no more than sixty feet away from the cavalry in front.

The cavalry unit ahead had clearly been raising command flags earlier, trying to distinguish friend from foe.

Seeing that they ignored the command flag and did not stop at all, the hundreds of riders at the front became noticeably more panicked, and some horses were even startled and stamped their hooves.

A dark shadow moved.

Shangguan Xiu squinted and saw the troops in front raise a red and green command flag under the torchlight. As soon as the flag was raised, the cavalrymen in front took down their muskets and aimed them at them.

In the blink of an eye, Shangguan Xiu swallowed hard.

Generally speaking, muskets can only be fired within 30 zhang (approximately 15 meters). As long as they don't run within 30 zhang of the enemy, the enemy won't fire.

Fifty feet.

"Wu!" Shangguan Xiu roared!

Fifty riders moved with the ease of an arm or finger, drawing their bows and nocking arrows, their arms taut and straight.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh whoosh!"

The arrow flew like a meteor, heading straight for the troop that had raised their muskets at the front!

At least five arrows were shot straight at the enemy's command flag in the darkness of night!

"Bing!" After shooting the arrow, Shangguan Xiu turned his horse around.

The cavalry began to turn right when they were forty zhang away from the enemy.