After they had gotten settled in the camp, training was resumed. They weren’t capable of helping much with the daily ongoings in the camp, so the higher ups had decided it was better if they were ready in case of a battle.
Wang Jie felt a lot better now while practicing. It was like everything just connected in his head. The bandit ambush and the hesitation he had at the time had sparked something in him. He realized that these were killer moves, meant to take another persons life. They needed a certain conviction behind them in order to show their full power.
You couldn’t half heartedly go out there without being willing to take someones life. That would be putting yourself in danger. Only by being ready could you protect yourself. Only by practicing until the moves were ingrained in your very soul could you destroy your enemies.
At the same time as their training was taking place, a heated discussion was going on in the camp’s most luxurious tent. Two young captains stood on the other side of a desk, while an older stalwart man sat down and stroked his chin.
“I’m telling you, we need to attack them now. Their fortifications are a lot weaker than ours.” The camps Captain plead his case to the Colonel.
“I disagree, our fortifications are the strong point here.” The Captain leading Wang Jie’s company spat. “We don’t know what’s out there or how many soldiers they have.”
“Shut up, what do you know? You weren’t here.” The camp Captain threw him a look of disdain. “However many we lost, they aren’t far behind.” He turned his attention back to the man behind the desk. “I’m telling you Colonel, this is by far our best shot.”
Having both said what they wanted to, they waited for the Colonel to speak his mind. They stood in silence for a while as he mulled things over.
Clearing his throat, he spoke, “You both have a point. I think there is wisdom in the middle ground.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t very well send our whole force into unknown territory, but I can’t let things go on like this either. We’ve been getting harassed almost every night before you got here. Fire arrows raining down everywhere in the middle of the night.” The Colonel sighed. “They may not be vocal about it, but I know all the soldiers are getting tense. We need to make a show of our own force.”
“We’ll do a night raid with 100 soldiers. Disturb their sleep quickly and retreat, it should calm the Rosalan Kingdom’s advance for a while.” The Colonel nodded to himself.
“Only 100 soldiers? That’s idiotic, we don’t even know if they have scouts. They might see us coming from miles away. By all mans, you’ll be sending those soldiers to their death Colonel.” The company Captain flared up.
“Be quiet, don’t speak out of turn.” The Colonel sent him a glare, before turning to look at the camp Captain who was under his command. “I want you to lead this. Pick your soldiers and take the recruits with you. We need the best soldiers here defending the camp.”
The camp Captain nodded.
“The recruits? Are you out of your mind? They’ll be slaughtered.” The company Captain pleaded again.
“I’ve already warned you once. Don’t get out of line. If they get slaughtered that’s how it’ll be. There are bigger priorities than conserving the lives of some meager recruits. The whole kingdom is at stake in this war.” The Colonel banged his hand on the table. “Get out of here now before you say something else.”
The company Captain held his gaze for a few seconds, before furiously turning around and storming out the tent with a frown on his face.
In his anger he kicked a rock outside and cursed. Looking around, he saw that he had attracted the attention of the nearby soldiers. Muttering some words he left, heading back to his own tent.
—
After having been briefed of their objective, the recruits donned their equipment in the early evening and set out with the rest of the soldiers.
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They set off in the early evening, so when they arrived at the enemy camp it would be night and completely dark.
As they didn’t want to alert any enemy scouts, they were forced to travel without torches though, which made it hard to find ones way through the silent night.
They were all traveling on foot, being as quiet and sneaky as a grouping of 100 soldiers possibly could.
At the slow pace, they were able to see the enemy camp after 4 hours.
They stood atop a hill, gazing at the camp that was lit up by lanterns and torches. A sign was passed down through the line, signaling to stop and hold still. Adjutant Zhang Yun went up to talk with with the lieutenants and the Captain.
After receiving his orders he signaled for the recruits to follow him. Circling around, they ended up at the back of the camp at a close distance. This was as close as they could get without being spotted.
They laid in wait there, waiting for the archers to attack. Zhang Yun had told them the plan, and when the archers attacked, they would use that distraction to attack from the back. The aim was to take out a few of the night guards, some stragglers, and then leave. Staying too long would be suicide.
That way they could harass the enemy and get them on edge. While the rest of the soldiers were sleeping back at camp, the enemy would be on edge for the rest of the night. Tired soldiers were bad soldiers.
An orange glow streaked through the night. It was so beautiful as it lit up the night sky, following an arc as it descended upon the camp, striking a tent and lighting it on fire.
That lone arrow was quickly followed by dozens of others, tearing up the sky as they swept over the camp and enveloped it in chaos.
“Now” Zhang Yun spoke before leading by example and charging towards the camp. He was followed closely by all of the recruits.
A guard was standing around, looking towards the front of the camp. As he heard several running footsteps behind him, he turned around and watched as several enemy soldiers were approaching him. He brought up his sword and tried to defend, but there too many it was too sudden. Being pierced in several spots he slumped over dead.
Scenes like this occurred at several points before the whole camp became aware. Wang Jie himself had managed to kill two people before the tides started turning. Smartly, he decided to turn around and run back towards the forest where they had hid.
As the enemy soldiers spotted them, several recruits who had been too hesitant to run were cut down.
The enemy even sent horse riders after them, trying to chase them down. However the enemy had reacted too late, most of them were far gone by now.
Wang Jie arrived at the tree line and watched as the horse riders managed to chase down a few of the late recruits.
He almost felt good about the attack, until he saw Huang Bo and Huang Chao were running and a horse rider was about to catch up to them. Without even considering it, he sprang up and charged towards them.
As the horse rider raised his spear and prepared to strike, Wang Jie knew he couldn’t make it in time. He tried yelling “Turn around! Raise your spear” But they couldn’t hear him.
He needed to save them. Wang Jie raised his spear, flexed his arm back and made a sudden stop as he threw the spear with all his might, his entire body snapping forward like a bow.
It was extremely fast as it sailed towards the horse, but not nearly fast enough. The horse rider stuck Hang Chao through the back and pierced through him. He died on the spot. Having just missed the timing, the thrown spear arrived right after, piercing through the horses front leg and felling it on the ground.
The rider was cast off, sent tumbling to the side. He didn’t get up after.
Wang Jie ran up and grabbed Huang Bo, dragging him back towards the tree line. Huang Bo was distraught, attempting to resist him.
“We can’t leave Chao.” He yelled, tears streaking down his cheek.
“He’s dead.” But Huang Bo didn’t seem to let up. “He’s dead.” Wang Jie shook him violently and screamed.
That seemed to loosen Huang Bo up, and they ran back towards the tree line together.
Some of the horse riders chased them up right to the entrance of the forest, but seemed to realize it wasn’t smart to chase spear men into a forest on horses.
Having regrouped with the other survivors, they circled back around to the archers who had been bombarding the front of the camp continuously throughout their attack. Before they pissed off the enemy soldiers too much, they decided to retreat.
Everything had happened so fast. They had lost yet another member of the group. Why did everything keep going wrong?
The deaths around him only seemed to steel Wang Jie’s conviction. He raged against the camp commanders for sending them on this suicide mission. He raged against himself for not being strong enough. With every passing death he felt himself becoming a bit colder.
All of the recruits were in a bad mood. Most of them had realized by now that they had been cast as the sacrifice. While they had to go in and put their lives on the line, the regular soldiers had merely been archers or slept back at the base. Yes, there was a 1000 people sleeping back at the camp while they sacrificed themselves for this.
—
After the attack the recruits grew dissatisfied with their treatment. Many of them talked of desertion, but before any plans could be made, the enemy made their response to the night raid.
The camp was sieged all around, thousands of soldiers surrounded their camp and set up tents a few hundred meters off. It certainly looked like they had received plenty of reinforcements.
The soldiers started talking about surrendering. Hope seemed to fall, no one was optimistic about making it out of this situation.
Food supplies started to dwindle, and the once luxurious meals they could have dwindled to being even worse than what they had eaten on the road.
One day after training, Liu Wei cornered him.
“Come with me, we can run away!” Liu Wei grabbed him and shook.
“Are you crazy? There’s at least 5000 soldiers out there right now, how do you plan on making it through that encampment?” Wang Jie lightly pulled Liu Wei’s hands off of him.
“If we surrender ourselves they won’t cut us down. It’s the exact thing they’re hoping will happen.”
“It’s too risky, maybe they won’t kill us, but we’ll be killed by our own allies before we can slip through the fence.” Wang Jie shook his head. “We should just wait until the Colonel decides to surrender.”
“You think they’re going to surrender? Don’t forget it’s the same crazy higher ups who sent us to die in the first place.” Liu Wei sighed.
Wang Jie started to consider it, but ultimately he knew he couldn’t do it. “I won’t tell.. But…”
“You won’t come with me.” Liu Wei finished his sentence. “Fine, suit yourself.” He kicked a wooden sign and walked off, leaving Wang Jie there by himself.
That same night, Liu Wei didn’t come back to their tent. From 8 they had decreased to 3, but none of them went to snitch on him.