Zhu Zi brought people and led the warhorses.
Five hundred horses, all Mongolian steeds.
This emptied out the Zhang family's fortune, clearing out his entire horse farm, and then some. They scraped together these horses from friends.
To achieve this, Fang Er sent out cartload after cartload of Zui Xian Zui to clear the way.
He also promised many benefits before they agreed to sell him the horses.
There was no baggage train.
Each huo qiang, a bag of cartridges.
A fine steel sabre, a suit of plate armor.
This was all the military equipment.
The sabre was cast in one piece.
The plate armor was directly stamped into shape on a forging bed, then bound together with leather.
It had to be said, the blacksmiths from the Ministry of Works were truly exquisite in their craft and possessed strong learning abilities.
Fang Er had only casually given a few pointers, explaining the manufacturing principles. He hadn't expected them to finish so quickly.
They managed to produce them so swiftly.
The five hundred guards, mounted on tall horses, clad in silver-white fine steel half-plate armor, with sabres at their waists and huo qiang on their backs.
Bullet pouches were hung on one side of the saddle.
On the other side, it was the rations hastily prepared by Hua Niang and the women of the manor. Not much, but enough to sustain them until they caught up with Cheng Yaojin and the others.
Yu Chi Baolin and Cheng Chu Mo had already departed three days prior with the cannons.
"Armor, weapons, rations, mounts – all prepared for you. You have also passed the tests of these past two days. Now, comes your true trial! I, Fang, being bored, will now lead you to pursue the northern expeditionary army and experience the battlefield! Do you dare to follow me?" Fang Er roared at his team, pouring all his strength into his voice.
"Willing!"
The group, who had been listless moments before, suddenly perked up upon hearing about a mission, and one that involved the battlefield.
Word had somehow leaked out about Fang Er leading people to destroy the Zheng family last time.
Each team member had received a considerable amount of bounty.
Their willingness to join the guard was primarily driven by the reward money.
In these times, human lives were the cheapest commodity!
Being able to exchange their lives for a comfortable livelihood for their families was considered a rare opportunity!
Moreover, the superior warhorses and fine armor also gave them much confidence.
"Depart!"
Fang Er took the lead, galloping towards Chang'an City.
Zhu Zi followed closely behind.
Zhao Hu, Liu Meng, Ma Chao, and Sun Zhou followed after.
Then came the five hundred guards.
Upon reaching the vicinity of Chang'an City, they bypassed it entirely and headed north.
Liang Shidu's partitioned territory was located in the areas of Yan'an, Honghua (present-day Qingyang), and Diaoyin (present-day Suide).
The Tang border's attack route was to first attack Honghua, then Yan'an, and finally Diaoyin, pushing forward in a straight line.
Riding at full speed, two days later, they finally caught up with the northern expeditionary army, fifty li away from Honghua.
Cheng Yaojin, along with Cheng Chu Mo and Yu Chi Baolin, were at the rear of the main army, responsible for escorting the provisions.
Upon hearing the report from the scouts that a cavalry of five hundred men was approaching from behind, he was somewhat surprised.
Could something have happened in Chang'an?
So, he sent Cheng Chu Mo with a detachment to meet them.
Seeing Fang Er before him, Cheng Chu Mo was a bit taken aback.
"Brother Fang, why have you followed us?"
"Hahahaha, your brother here was bored at home, so I came to hang out with you. Incidentally, I wanted to experience a confrontation between armies and see if I could snag some military merit along the way," Fang Er gave himself an excuse and patted Chu Mo on the shoulder.
"No, why do you have so many people with you? Does the Emperor know?" Cheng Chu Mo was somewhat speechless.
He just runs off to the battlefield when he's bored?
Has his brain been squeezed by a door?
"People? What people? These are new items made on the manor. I'm just bringing them to the battlefield to test their usability. After the test, if they are useful, I'll sell them to the Emperor, hehe."
These words left Cheng Chu Mo even more at a loss for what to say.
He glanced at the hundreds of fully armed men behind them.
Armor, sabres, huo qiang – the complete set!
"Huh?"
This armor looks so strange, nothing I've ever seen before.
He walked up to a team member and touched it.
"Hiss~~~!"
An entire set of half-plate armor had only two seams!
Looking through the seams, it was at least half a finger thick!
What a perversely designed piece of equipment! Cheng Chu Mo estimated that even his full-strength sabre couldn't cleave through this thing!
He didn't need to look at the sabres and huo qiang; he was already very familiar with them.
But how did these people and horses come to be in just a few days?
"Alright, stop being curious. Take me to see your father," Fang Er called out to Cheng Chu Mo.
Led by Cheng Chu Mo, the contingent of five hundred men directly merged into Cheng Yaojin's forces.
"Hahahaha! Well done! To dare to bring people to wander onto the battlefield of your own accord, I haven't misjudged you!" Cheng Yaojin was delighted to see Fang Er.
He had never expected Fang Er to follow.
Although this was somewhat against regulations, with the cannons and explosives present, as long as Fang Er didn't do anything treasonous, he believed Emperor Li Er wouldn't investigate too deeply. Therefore, he simply ignored the five hundred men Fang Er brought.
Only five hundred people, what's that worth!
"Hehe, I'm just here to observe and see if there are any improvements needed for the cannons."
"Good! With your attitude towards doing things, I'll explain to the Emperor on your behalf later." Cheng Yaojin directly took responsibility for Fang Er bringing troops onto the battlefield without authorization.
It's just testing armor and huo qiang, what's the big deal?
Cannons have been brought to the battlefield, what else can't be accepted?
Besides, the provisions for these tens of thousands of troops were provided by this very Fang Er!
Chai Shao, hearing about this from the front, specifically came to meet Fang Er.
He didn't ask for the reason Fang Er had followed at all.
As for the originally appointed deputy general, Hou Junji, he was unable to participate in the campaign due to an injury from gunpowder, and was replaced by Emperor Li Er.
Taking his place was Zhang Gongjin, the Great General of the Left Wei.
This fellow was a formidable warrior.
Because of the cannons, he was extremely enthusiastic upon meeting Fang Er.
As the army advanced slowly, by that evening, they saw the city of Honghua Commandery.
According to reports, Honghua was garrisoned by Liang Shidu's capable general, Feng Duan.
Feng Duan had received news two days prior. Scouts reported that a hundred thousand troops were marching towards Honghua.
He absolutely did not believe this number.
This was likely the number Chai Shao, who led the army, had boasted about.
The actual troop strength, who knew?
When the Tang army arrived at the city gates, Feng Duan became even more certain of his judgment.
Judging by the banners, it was only about ten thousand men!
The rest were auxiliary troops, or laborers, not worth considering!
As it was getting late, the two sides exchanged shouts from a distance.
It was nothing more than the Tang army urging surrender.
And Feng Duan responded with a string of mindless threats.
This scene made Fang Er want to laugh.
What's the point of shouting, why not just bombard them with cannons!
ps. The third chapter has been delivered.