“But the basic principle of guerrilla warfare must be the offensive, and guerrilla warfare is more offensive in its character than regular warfare.” 

* On Guerilla Warfare

Li Ming, after convincing her army, left the city, avoiding going through the major roads, she left without leaving a trace, as if she and the army had never appeared.

Two days later, Xu Jin had arrived with the vanguard of his army consisting of eight thousand calvaries and one thousand crossbowmen, expecting to crush any army outside the city walls, yet during this whole journey, he had seen nothing. More surprisingly for him, as he arrived in Bingjiang, he was not greeted by any form of resistance, the city gate is already opened.

As he entered the city, a young scholar arrived in front of him.

“Honorable sir, this servant is Ling Ping, it could be said that I am the representative of the city.”

Xu Jin appeared quite aloof, before asking, ``Is there a silver-haired girl that had entered the city.”

Ling Ping put on an act of shocked, before affirming the general,” Indeed honourable sir, there has been one, yet she had left the city just two days ago.”

Xu Jin’s brows furrowed,” guard the city gates,” he instructed his vanguard,” make sure to check every woman that leaves or enters,” before turning back to Ling Ping.

“Do you know the crime for slaughtering government officials and nobles,” Xu Jin asked Ling Ping.

“Honorable sir, to execute the culprits mean to execute the whole city, the governor had fallen out of flavour with heavens, perhaps an agreement could be made between you and me,” Ling Ping responded, extremely calm in front of the face of possible capital punishment.

Xu Jin burst into laughter, patting Ling Ping in the back,” Fret not, the emperor had only instructed me to besiege the city if Xu Xiaomeng had occupied it, it seems Concubine Hu had given off misinformation, as long as you aid me in capturing Xu Xiaomeng, no harm will come upon the city. Furthermore, barely anyone within the court had a favourable impression of the old governor, you seem capable, for you to governor Bingjiang would not do the Great Sui Dynasty any harm.”

Xu Jin had not spoken from his heart, in truth, the previous governor of Bingjiang is in a faction with Concubine Hu, for her to lose the support of Bingjiang is something he desires.

“Many thanks, honourable sir, we will ensure to support your search for Xu Xiaomeng,” Ling Ping bowed.

Xu Jin instructed a portion of his troops to remain in the city while taking the majority to search for Xu Xiaomeng.

“It seems my lord did not need to bring such a number of troops,” Xu Jins’ advisor, Si Yan said.

Xu Jin, sitting on his carriage, appears to be asleep, giving a sound of acknowledgement, he returned,” that seems to be the case, once we return to the main army, I will return some back to Xuchang.”

Si Yan obliged and continued riding beside Xu Jin.

“My lord,” Si Yan suddenly spoke,” the North is a vast plain, littered with small forests and the like, yet I believe as long as we monitor all roads, which are already few in number, finding Xu Xiaomeng would be effortless.”

“And what if Concubine Hu had lied, and Xu Xiaomeng was never spotted?” Xu Jin asked.

“Then Concubine Hu would fall out of favour with the emperor, his desire for eternal life is too strong, to provide false information to the emperor, no matter how much the emperor flavours Concubine Hu, he had already gone mad, she would certainly suffer the same fate as the empress,” Si Yan reported, before lifting his head towards the heaven, admiring the moon that had just reached its peak.

Xu Jin still had his eyes closed, the clopping of horse grooves could be heard as the calvary travelled down the main road.

Yet it suddenly ceased.

Before a forest around two hundred meters away from Xu Jin, Li Ming sits, with her distinctly warm smile, as if just noticing Xu Jin, she casually greets Xu Xiao Ming's father.

“General, you have brought forty thousand men to capture me, why to waste so much effort on a single person,” Li Ming asked, appearing rather innocent.

Xu Jin by now had his eyes opened, looking at his daughter, who appeared completely alien to him. Xu Xiaomeng had seldom smiled, much less in such a familiar manner, more surprisingly was she addressed to him as general instead of a father, yet still, the moonlight reflecting off the girl made her seem almost celestial.

“Unfilial daughter, come back now, your sacrifice will bring the Xu family to new heights, our family will be promoted to the status of prince,” Xu Jin said to his daughter as if stating a fact. It seems like some of the troops were surprised at the relation between the two, yet remained silent.

Li Ming paused for a moment, before her silver bell-like voice ran once again, this time as a sigh.

“General, these men all have families and aspirations, for them to die here is a great shame, it would be arrogant of me to ask you to retreat, but I truly wish that for those soldiers,” Li Ming said with disappointment before she turned and walked into the forest.

Xu Jin gave off a burst of mocking laughter, looking at his troops, he asked, ``Are you planning to flee? If that is the case, then go,” yet none of the troops left,” If not, then go and capture that unruly girl.”

“Sir, this must be an ambush,” Si Yan suggested.

“Of course I know it’s an ambush, yet how much troops can she muster, our troops' number nine thousand in total, each having gone through years of service in the frontier, I want to see what army she can use to defeat mine.”

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Li Ming gave another sigh, looking at Si Yan, she shook her head, before walking into the dense vegetation.

Just as she disappeared into the vegetation, four thousand musketeers emerged, seemingly out of ground, holding their muskets, in one massive row one thousand two hundred man wide, and three men deep, each ten men led by a corporal, each fifty led by an officer, and each two hundred led by a captain. As the top of command, Li Ming began issuing out orders, yet could not be seen through the jungle.

“Fire,” the silver bell-like sound rang out.

The men still in peasant clothes begin to fire in volleys at Xu Jin’s army, the small lead bullets piece through the horses and men, horse that was hit by the bullets collapsed, bring their rider along with them, while the men that were hit fell off their steed, yet the horses seem to be aware of this, galloping away from the battlefield.

“Crossbowmen, fire,” Xu Jin, seeing Li Ming’s army firing, responded with his own volley.

As the bolts dart through the night sky, it failed to hit it’s target, partly due to the night, partly due to the forest providing cover, and partly due to the smoke from the guns.

“Cavalry, charge,” Xu Jin, having not brought any artillery alongside his vanguard and could only order his cavalry to charge.

As the horses advanced towards the men, their distance soon closed, yet as the distance between the two armies shrank, the accuracy of the volleys greatly increased, added with the sound of gunpowder, the horse’s advance was slowed.

Yet the cavalry still had managed charge forward, coming to almost twenty meters away from Li Ming’s main force, suddenly, Li Ming’s army turned and hastily ran into the dense vegetation.

“The enemy must have broken rank and run, pursue them,” Xu Jin orders his force.

The cavalry quickly entered into the forest, constant movement should be heard as bushes rustled.

The leader of the cavalry, noticing their enemies are still around, ordered his men to follow him, with a wave of his hand, all the cavalry formed formation, advancing at the same speed, something cavalry rarely is capable of.

Suddenly the sound of gunfire could be heard, and a nearby soldier dropped onto the ground, while his horse ran away.

Yet as the horse ran not too far, it suddenly dropped into a hole, leaving behind a terrible neigh.

The leader, noticing this peculiar occurrence, sent one of his subordinates to investigate.

Yet before he could reach where the horse disappeared, another multiple shot could be heard, and the scout had died, alongside his horse.

The leader, perhaps due to the tenseness of the situation, ordered his troops to head to where the sound originated from.

As they approached the source of the gunshot, they too suddenly dropped into a hole, a combination of scream and neigh could be heard before the forest returned to its former tranquillity.

The leaders’ grip tightened around the horse's lead, ultimately, he decided to bring the entire force of his cavalry to investigate.

As the hooves approached where the men had disappeared, the soldiers could see a rather petrifying scene.

The subordinate he had sent had his body pierced by sharpened bamboo, going through the horse's body into the men.

Many of the men’s faces paled, yet their days at the frontier had hardened them.

“It is not safe to be on horseback, everyone dismount,” the leader said.

As soon as the order was given, the men got off their horses and began to form a formation, grabbing their sabre and crossbow, their professionalism could not be underestimated.

Another series of gunfire could be heard, and several of the men fell, yet the people around them seem not to notice, filling in the gap created, he proceeded towards the origin of the bullet.

A few more shots could be heard, yet only a few more men died, perhaps most disheartening was the reappearance of the former trap, which had killed more than five dozen men by now.

Suddenly, a large log rolled towards the soldiers. Forming a formation in brace for it, it had still crushed some, but could not be considered substantial, the leader gave out a few commands and continued marching.

Finally, they came to the place where the gunfire could constantly be heard, traces of footsteps could be seen, yet it suddenly disappeared.

The leader once again brought the soldiers along with him to investigate, yet nothing seemed out of the usual.

Ultimately, the leader gave up, ordering his men to act carefully, he sent them to scout around the forest.

A few more incidents with the traps had occurred, yet no traces an army could be seen, no footsteps nor blood.

Scouting through much of the forest, they ultimately gained no result, finally, they returned to Xu Jin, leaving those that had died in the traps, totalling nearly one thousand four hundred behind.

Of course, Li Mings’ army was still within their forest, yet Xu Jin knows when a futile effort is expended, ordering his men to return back to the remainder of his forces, they walked with a solemn look, while Xu Jin kept his eyes opened the whole time, secretly cursing his foolishness.

Underneath the battleground where the two armies had clashed, was a series of tunnels, it was rather tight, humid, and hastily dug, as evident by its bad foundation, as if it was ready to collapse at any moment.

Li Ming herself, due to her petite body, and status as general, suffered the least of these conditions remaining in a space away from the rest of the troops, her silver-haired appeared to occasionally shine, providing a dim source of light.

The soldiers, despite seeing the strangeness of their general, did not dare speak, afraid that they would be noticed by the cavalry. Eventually, Liu Four, who had been harassing the cavalry when they had been in the forest with the rest of the light infantry had returned, did the army proceed to the exit.

The light infantry was not trained in the traditional line formation common during this era, instead, they were thought to act individually, while harassing the enemy, after they had been noticed, they would quickly go into the tunnel to go out in another exit to continue their harassment, yet Li Ming had made it a rule that light infantry could not hide within the main area of the tunnel, where they are currently.

Yet Liu Four had entered, it could only mean one thing, the enemies had left.

Finally, the army had left the cramped tunnel through a small exit, far too small force soldiers wearing army to fit through, as they once again greet the moon, they celebrated.

“General Li, your tactic was too good, the enemy suffered so much, yet we were barely scratched,” Liu Two commented.

“That is thanks to your effort, private Liu Two, as well as the rest of the army, my body is too small to bear the recoil,” Li Ming returned with her signature smile.

Seeing her smile, Liu Two blushed a little, scratching his head, he returned back to the rest of the Liu brothers.

“He appears to like you,” Xu Xiaomeng commented, her tone carrying a bit of amusement.

“That appears to be the case lady, unfortunately, I would not be interested in beginning a romantic relationship in a thousand years,” Li Ming replied, her tone carrying a hint of seriousness.

It appears their typical roles had been reversed, perhaps due to the two of them residing within the same body, leading to their personality affecting each other.

Xu Xiaomeng, affected by the victory, appeared much more talkative than usual,” Sir, why are you not interested in beginning a relationship, I have already said sir can do as you wish with my body, even if you wish to engage in a relationship with a female, I would still not oppose it.”

“Lady, it is not that, but is instead that I have long lost interest in these things, back when I was the leader of nation x, I had already vowed to never marry, instead of focusing all my attention on governing the country,” Li Ming explained.

“Of course, if there were anyone lady fancies, I would not object to starting a relationship with them for lady,” Li Ming added.

Shaking her head, despite not having a form, Xu Xiaomeng replied,” No, I do not think I am interested in a relationship either, my experience of others desiring my flesh, especially men have damaged my capacity to love.”

“As you wish, lady,” Li Ming returned, containing a tad of humour in her words.

Li Ming had forbidden alcohol for the soldiers, in an attempt to maintain discipline, so the soldiers had little to celebrate with, a few fortunate, soldiers had a dance with their partner, despite the army begin unisex, there were far fewer females than males, leading to other soldiers gritting their teeth in anger.

During the night, Li Ming had even heard some of them being rather intimate, distracting her work on future military action, ultimately, she thought to herself,” I should ban such intimate actions in the army, this is certainly distracting.”

Ridding that from her mind, she looks at the plan she had conceived, at the top to details.

“Guerilla encirclement,” in broad strokes.