C98

Suddenly, the drumbeats in the military camp on the west side of the prefectural governor's mansion echoed throughout the sky. A team of various dressed Army of Heishan s rushed out of the dilapidated military camp and began to gather slowly in the main arena. They did not wear yellow scarves on their heads, but instead had a slender yellow cloth belt wrapped around their weapons.

Ever since Zhang Yan became a prefectural governor, he had cancelled the eye-catching symbol of a yellow scarf on his head, in case it brought about an excuse to attack. He did not expect that this action would cause many of the Army of Heishan's older soldiers to be unhappy, so under this helplessness, Zhang Yan ordered a small yellow belt to be twined around the weapon, showing that he had not forgotten about this.

The speed at which Flying Swallow Camp was gathering was not something they should be proud of. The soldiers were quarreling noisily, pushing and shoving, Du Chang's loud shouts were not effective at all. Gongsun Xu secretly shook his head. The gathering speed of the White Horse Camp was at least three to four times faster than them, and Zhang Yan's direct line of disciples was in such a state. It could be seen that the millions of Army of Heishan s lacked strict training.

The majority of Army of Heishan were farmers who had never received military training before entering the army. After entering the army, they rarely had enough food and did not have the strength to train strictly. However, Gongsun Xu saw a kind of indifferent killing intent on many people's faces. Only the soldiers who had survived a hundred battles would have this kind of temperament that looked as if they were ignoring life. From this, it could be seen that although the Flying Swallow Camp was lacking in drills, their combat power should not be low.

Zhang Yan pressed on the handle of his blade with his left hand and stroked his beard with his right hand as he looked at his own team of direct descendants with satisfaction. Last night, Tao Sheng made a statement to him to have the most elite Flying Swallow Camp conduct a drill, and show Gongsun Xu his great power so that he wouldn't be looked down upon by Gongsun Xu. Zhang Yan also thought that Gongsun Xu was a little arrogant. If even the Army of Heishan could not handle him, then he would just go on the campsite first, and Gongsun Xu actually made a bet with Tao Sheng to annihilate all of them first, wouldn't that mean that all the Army of Heishan s were trash? Therefore, Zhang Yan agreed deeply on Tao Sheng's suggestion, and had invited Gongsun Xu over early to watch the Flying Swallow Camp's drills.

Roughly an hour later, the drum gradually stopped. The tens of thousands of Flying Swallow Camp s had finally assembled and were divided into a few large square formations. The number of spearmen was the highest, followed by sabre, shield, and archers. There were only two to three thousand cavalry, less than thirty percent armored men, and the color of their war horses wasn't bright enough. Although their equipment wasn't good, but as the saying goes, there are ten thousand of them, with no end in sight. From a high vantage point, one could see the array of swords and spears flying in the air.

Zhang Yan turned around and smiled as he asked Gongsun Xu, "How does nephew think of my Flying Swallow Camp?"

Gongsun Xu muttered to himself for a moment, then replied: "There are hundreds of warriors, as expected of the elite troops under uncle's command."

Zhang Yan's smile froze, he was not convinced of his answer. In his opinion, even if the Flying Swallow Camp could not compare to the elite troops under Gongsun Zan's command, they should still be around the same level. In a direct confrontation, the Flying Swallow Camp only needed around 2500 men to defeat Qu Yi and set up camp.

Bai Rao and Gui Gu looked at each other and disagreed with Gongsun Xu's evaluation. As everyone knew, the Flying Swallow Camp was strong enough to suppress the other Great Qu General s with just this team.

Tao Sheng's expression did not change, but he secretly sneered at Gongsun Xu's arrogance and lack of eyes.

"This old man thinks that the Flying Swallow Camp is a strong army!" Zhang Yan withdrew his smile, waved his hand and said: "Nephew will take a look at the drill first, then the evaluation."

"Alright then!" Gongsun Xu smiled and nodded.

Du Chang had been looking at the general competition arena the entire time. Now that he saw Zhang Yan waving his hand, he immediately ordered another round of drumming to begin.

Amidst the sounds of battle drums, the square spear formation and the square sword formation started to turn, charging towards a large number of scarecrows that were standing hundreds of steps away. When they were fifty or sixty steps away from the scarecrow, they shot a round of arrows and stopped. Army of Heishan lacked everything, so they did not dare to waste their precious arrows during practice.

Gongsun Xu made a rough calculation. The arrows were about 10: 6 – 7 and were a fixed target. To him, this was just barely pass.

Yang Feng was the first to shout his praise, Tao Sheng and Gui Gu followed suit and praised. Even the cold faced Bai Rao also nodded his head, upon hearing it, Zhang Yan's face revealed a satisfied smile.

In this short period of time, the square lance formation had also rushed into the sea of scarecrows, and the lance formation crazily stabbed at them. Following that, the Sword and Shield Formation rushed forward to slash apart the wooden stake that the scarecrow was tied to. A cool breeze accompanied the warm spring sun as straw was scattered everywhere along with the wind.

Only then did the cavalry start to move. They charged through the gaps created by the longspear array and the sword and shield array, and started to kill the scarecrows that had not fallen yet. Gongsun Xu shook his head, the Army of Heishan's cavalry was very precious, it was understandable that they would not be willing to use it to charge into the battle. However, Zhang Yan only used the cavalry which had the upper hand on the battlefield, he was unable to unleash its full power. Even if he only used it to scare the enemies on both sides of the battlefield, it was more effective than using it to attack them.

"Alright!" Yang Feng clapped his hands and shouted: "Marshal, the cavalry army is progressing very quickly and not a single one of them fell from their horses. It seems that they have put in a lot of effort recently!"

"You've really improved a bit!" Zhang Yan nodded his head and laughed: "Remember to ask Du Chang to give two kilograms of white noodles to each person in the cavalry unit later."

Tao Sheng sighed: "If we practice diligently, in the future, the commander's cavalry army would not be inferior to us!"

"Haha, Pinghan, don't try to flatter me!" Qu Yi trained for more than two years before that troop of soldiers became strong. This old man's cavalry unit trained strictly after arriving at Bo Ling. Zhang Yan laughed as he refuted Tao Sheng, but his face was full of satisfaction.

When Gongsun Xu heard this, he felt relieved. So these cavalry soldiers had only trained for three to four months, no wonder Zhang Yan felt satisfied. However, knowing the situation, he could not change his view. This troop of riders from the Flying Swallow Camp could only be considered as infantrymen on horseback.

Tao Sheng intentionally looked at Gongsun Xu a few more times, he cupped his hands and said: "General Gongsun doesn't seem to care much about the Great Marshal's strength, could you please give us some advice so we can hear?"

Yang Feng and Gui Gu who were cheering loudly stopped, frowning as they looked at Gongsun Xu.

Zhang Yan turned his head to look at Gongsun Xu, and solemnly said: "If nephew has any good words, please speak frankly, this old man will accept them one by one."

"This …" Gongsun Xu hesitated for a moment, then nodded his head. "Then this nephew will be making a fool of himself.

Zhang Yan cupped his hands: "Please speak."

"From my point of view, there are three main uses of cavalry: first, long-range assault; second, charging the enemy; and third, using them as a roaming cavalry." Gongsun Xu said three simple points, then pointed at the Flying Swallow Camp's cavalry, and said in a deep voice: "Uncle allowed the Flying Swallow Camp's cavalry to go out to do battle in a situation where the overall situation has already been set, out of consideration for them, but not only was he unable to bring out the greatest power of the cavalry, he was also unable to truly train this cavalry! For a true elite cavalry, other than training, one must also frequently exchange blows with powerful enemies! "

"A long ranged assault against the enemy as cavalry" Zhang Yan muttered, and suddenly revealed a look of understanding, and praised, "What Nephew said is true, it is this old man who has not understood the true function of the cavalry! Last year, when my nephew and the General of the Single Meridian attacked Liucheng, wasn't it a long-range assault? In the War of Tanhan Mount, there were large groups of cavalrymen charging at the enemy from all sides, and the effect was very obvious! As for the Rangers using them to get to camp first, isn't that the same thing? "

Gongsun Xu nodded his head, "Uncle is right. Therefore, if we want to deal with the advance camp, other than dispatching an army to ambush us, there is another way. We can use elite Rangers to deal with them!"

Many of them had never seen a war horse in their entire lives. Even after their great fame had swept across the entire Great Han Dynasty, their cavalry troops were still lacking, and there were also very few outstanding cavalry generals. Zhang Yan was good at defending and not good at attacking, he had never used a large amount of cavalry in battles over the years. One, he was not good at it, and two, he did not have a formed cavalry army to use. Ever since he had been forced into the Yanshan and the Gongsun Zan Alliance, he had managed to obtain a few thousand war horses in succession from the Youzhou. It was not that Gongsun Zan was not generous with his horses, it was just that he was unable to support a large number of war horses in the mountain.

Ever since they came to the Hejian County, Zhang Yan's methods of training the cavalry had always seemed plausible, but he also felt that his horse was injured, and he treasured the cavalry as if they were his treasures. Thus, the cavalry in the Flying Swallow Camp did not have any actual combat experience or ability. When Qu Yi was moving about unrestrainedly, Zhang Yan had sent out troops to chase him down. However, he was actually defeated by Qu Yi and lost several hundred war horses. This caused Qu Yi to not dare to let his cavalry army fight anymore, which also led to Qu Yi becoming more and more rampant.

After Gongsun Xu finished speaking, Tao Sheng immediately cupped his hands together and said: "General Gongsun's words are truly worthy of respect! Might as well ask the White Horse Camp's cavalry to train for a while, to let us broaden our horizons, what do you think? "

"Pinghan's words are very fitting!" Zhang Yan nodded his head and smiled to Gongsun Xu: "Nephew, let your cavalry train for a bit, how about it?"

Gongsun Xu had originally wanted to tactfully reject them, but suddenly came up with an idea. He cupped his hands and said: "Just as uncle said, this nephew will have someone call them over." After that, he walked down the stage and ordered the brothers, who were standing below, in a low voice.

The Gongsun Jia brothers jumped on their horses and rushed towards the camp that the White Horse Camp was stationed at.

When Gongsun Xu walked back to the stage, he ordered Du Chang to gather a group to allow the White Horse Camp's cavalry to come out.

After the time it took to make a cup of tea, Zhao Yun brought two thousand cavalrymen to the outside of the camp.

'I came so fast! ' Zhang Yan and the others were all shocked. If Gongsun Xu had not called out in advance, the speed at which they were gathering would be way too fast!

Tao Sheng's eyes were filled with dark intent, he had already made plans with Xu You to kill Gongsun Xu, if White Horse Camp's fighting strength and gathering speed were as strong as his, Qu Yi might not have the upper hand! If he first made it to the camp, he might be hated by Yuan Shijun, and his future prospects might be affected.

Just then, Gongsun Yi ran down the stage, cupped his hands and said: "General Zhao Yun has already led the troops here, please give the order!"

Gongsun Xu shouted: Let Zi Long and his army come in and form a formation on the arena.

"Here!" Gongsun Yi ran over.

After a while, Zhao Yun brought two thousand cavalrymen and filed into the army camp, starting to line up on the drill grounds.

Zhang Yan sighed: "Nephew's cavalry is indeed elite! To be able to line up in such a short period of time, if it were the cavalry under my command, I would need at least twice as much time! "

If Xu You had not left, he would have definitely made a new plan with Xu You.

Gongsun Xu ran over and shouted once again: "The formation is complete, General, please give the order!"

Gongsun Xu pointed at the few remaining scarecrows in the distance and shouted loudly: "Take those scarecrows as our target, and conduct a charging exercise!"

"Here!" Gongsun Yi ran over to Zhao Yun and passed on his orders.

Zhao Yun swung his spear and was about to order everyone to turn around when two of the horses suddenly started fighting. The riders on the horses panicked and fell off their horses, rolling and crawling to the side, not daring to stop the berserk war horse. The two horses became more and more violent, and in the end, they rushed into the crowd and started biting and kicking, attracting the participation of close to a hundred warhorses, and after a while, the White Horse Camp's formation started to break down, but Zhao Yun's loud shouts were useless.

Seeing that, Gongsun Xu's face became as black as ink, and roared: What is Zhao Yun doing? Hurry up and stop them! "

Zhao Yun looked to be in a bit of a fluster. He whipped his horse and the panicking cavalry soldiers consecutively, and it took a while for the chaos to subside.

Zhang Yan and the rest were all dumbstruck. Gongsun Xu's explanation was clear and straightforward, it was just talk on paper! Zhang Yan secretly sighed, he wanted to advise his otherwise, but he looked like he wanted to kill someone, so he could only swallow his words back.

Tao Sheng heaved a sigh of relief, this Gongsun Xu was not just another Zhao Qi! Gongsun Zan was most likely the one who killed Qiu Liju, attacked Liucheng, and War of Tanhan Mount. However, he had placed all the credit on Gongsun Xu, probably because he wanted to increase Gongsun Xu's prestige! Thinking about it, it made sense. How could a mere seventeen or eighteen year old youth do so many great things?

"Uncle, this nephew will go back to the camp and severely punish those bastards.'s training is over now!" Gongsun Xu cupped his hands towards Zhang Yan, walked off the stage and quickly ran in front of Zhao Yun, and dragged him down from the horse, then kicked him and beat him up.

Zhao Yun lowered his head to allow Gongsun Xu to curse, as if he was ashamed and afraid to the point that he did not even dare to say a few words to defend himself.