Chapter 13: What Gives You the Right to Be So Arrogant?
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Wang Black Tiger snatched up a wooden training sword and pointed its tip at Lin Chuan.
This time, he had learned his lesson. He kept his right eye fixed firmly on Lin Chuan while nearly closing his left.
He glanced at the short stick in Lin Chuan’s hand and frowned.
“That’s all the Banner Commander is using?”
Lin Chuan weighed the stick in his hand and smiled. “I’m using a dagger.”
“A dagger?”
Wang Black Tiger stared blankly, and the veterans around them burst into laughter.
How could a wooden stick barely a foot long possibly defeat Wang Black Tiger?
Lin Chuan offered no explanation.
In his previous life, when he had served in the special forces, dagger combat had been his strongest discipline.
In close-quarters fighting, every inch shorter meant another inch of danger.
But in skilled hands, a short weapon could catch an opponent completely off guard.
“Begin!”
Hu Dayong gave the command.
Wang Black Tiger let out a roar and brought the wooden sword crashing down, its momentum heavy and forceful.
Lin Chuan did not meet it head-on. He slipped to the side, and his stick darted toward Wang Black Tiger’s wrist like a venomous snake.
Wang Black Tiger hurriedly changed his move, sweeping the blade sideways.
Lin Chuan retreated another half-step, never allowing the blade to meet his weapon directly.
“Does the Banner Commander know how to do anything but dodge?”
Wang Black Tiger grinned viciously, his assault growing fiercer.
Lin Chuan said nothing. His eyes remained fixed on Wang Black Tiger’s right shoulder.
That was the tell that revealed where he was about to exert force.
After several exchanges, Wang Black Tiger grew increasingly agitated, and his swordplay began to lose its order.
Suddenly, Lin Chuan’s foot slipped, as though he had stepped on a pebble. His body lurched.
Wang Black Tiger was delighted. He rushed forward, raising his wooden sword high—
Now!
Lin Chuan abruptly bent low, scooped up a handful of sand with his left hand, and flung it into Wang Black Tiger’s face.
“Ah!”
Caught off guard, Wang Black Tiger was blinded by the grit.
He stumbled backward in panic, only to feel a chill at his throat.
Lin Chuan’s wooden stick was already pressed against it.
Silence descended once more.
“This…” Wang Black Tiger trembled with rage. “What kind of skill is that? You cheated!”
Lin Chuan lowered the stick and stood upright. “That is how I killed six Tartars.”
His voice was not loud, yet every person present heard him clearly.
“On the battlefield, the one who survives is the winner. Sand, stones, teeth… Any method that can kill the enemy is a good method.”
At those words, everyone exchanged uncertain glances.
What the Banner Commander had said… did seem to make sense.
It was just that… the victory had not been particularly dignified.
Wang Black Tiger panted heavily, then suddenly shouted, “Again! If you have the guts, don’t use tricks!”
Lin Chuan nodded. “Very well.”
He had more or less figured out Wang Black Tiger’s temperament.
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These men were all veterans.
If he did not beat them into submission, managing them later would be difficult.
Lin Chuan shook out his arm, shifting the short stick from a reverse grip to a forward one, and raised it before him.
At the change in his movements, Hu Dayong’s pupils contracted.
For an instant, it was as though he saw a dagger in Lin Chuan’s hand.
Lin Chuan stood motionless, the wooden stick angled toward Wang Black Tiger.
Wang Black Tiger cautiously circled him. Then, without warning, he lunged forward and raised his wooden sword.
Lin Chuan moved at last.
His stick struck first despite moving second, landing precisely on Wang Black Tiger’s wrist before the sword could complete its arc.
Wang Black Tiger felt his arm go numb, and the wooden sword fell from his hand.
Before he could react, Lin Chuan’s stick was pressed against his heart.
“On the battlefield, the enemy will not give you a second chance.”
Lin Chuan withdrew the stick. “Are you convinced?”
“Damn it!”
Wang Black Tiger stood there in a daze for a moment, then suddenly dropped to one knee.
“This one is convinced!”
At last, Hu Dayong’s eyes lit up.
He suddenly felt that this new Banner Commander might truly be capable of leading Ironwood Fort to accomplish something remarkable.
…
After seeing One-Eye lose several times in a row, the remaining veterans finally corrected their attitudes.
Hu Dayong had them demonstrate their sword-and-shield formation and spear formation in turn.
The wooden weapons whistled through the air. Their movements were imposing enough, at least on the surface.
Yet the longer Lin Chuan watched, the more deeply he furrowed his brow.
“Stop!” he suddenly shouted. “Squad Leader Hu, is this really how you normally deal with the Wolf Rong cavalry?”
Hu Dayong wiped the sweat from his face. “Banner Commander, this is the Frontier Army Drill Manual issued by the Ministry of War…”
“The drill manual?”
Lin Chuan let out a cold laugh and abruptly snatched up a long staff. “Watch closely!”
His figure flashed, and the wooden staff stabbed toward Er Gou’s throat like a venomous snake.
The veteran hurriedly raised his spear to block, but Lin Chuan suddenly changed his attack. The end of the staff dropped and swept viciously toward Er Gou’s legs.
As Er Gou staggered backward, Lin Chuan was already rolling forward. The staff drove hard into the small of his back.
“The Wolf Rong archers begin firing from a hundred paces away!”
Lin Chuan withdrew the staff and stood upright. “Those three moves just now were three arrows flying toward you. Where were your shields?”
Er Gou stared blankly, then instinctively looked toward the wooden shield he had left at the edge of the training ground.
“And then there is the speed at which you change formation.”
Lin Chuan suddenly accelerated toward the flank of the formation. “By the time you finish turning around, the cavalry will already have scattered you!”
As he spoke, he demonstrated, tapping the staff several times into the gaps between the veterans.
“See? In the space of a moment, you have already died three times.”
The men fell utterly silent.
Hu Dayong’s eyes widened.
They had indeed suffered because of these weaknesses when fighting the Wolf Rong, but no one had ever explained them so clearly.
“Do you know where the problem lies?”
Lin Chuan tossed aside the staff.
“Your tactics consider only attacks and defenses between men. But the Wolf Rong are cavalry! Look…”
He crouched down and used a dead branch to draw several arcs in the dirt.
“What the Wolf Rong cavalry excel at most is this—”
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He scooped up a handful of sand and scattered it over the lines.
“First, they use a rain of arrows to throw you into confusion…”
The dead branch stabbed suddenly at the weakest point of the arcs.
“Then they launch their assault from that weakest point!”
The branch gouged a deep line across the arc.
The veterans felt their hearts tighten.
For a moment, they seemed to sense the icy edge of the Wolf Rong cavalry’s blades.
Every veteran in Hu Dayong’s squad had fought the Wolf Rong many times.
Now, after hearing Lin Chuan explain the matter in only a few sentences, they felt as though a veil had been lifted from their eyes.
“Banner Commander, how do we counter them?” Er Gou asked nervously.
“Let me ask you this: Why can the Wolf Rong cavalry act with such impunity?”
“Why?”
The veterans looked at one another.
“Answering the Banner Commander!”
One-Eye cupped his fist. “The Wolf Rong cavalry are extraordinarily fast. They come and go like ghosts. Their archery is superb, and their attacks are ferocious!”
“You are only half right.”
Lin Chuan nodded. “What makes them truly terrifying is not merely their swift horses and sharp arrows. It is that they understand better than we do how to trade the smallest cost for the greatest number of enemy lives.”
To the veterans, those words were somewhat profound.
Several of them knit their brows.
Hu Dayong, however, fell into thoughtful silence.
“Then let me ask you another question. If you were Wolf Rong cavalrymen, what would you fear most?”
“What would we fear most?”
The veterans exchanged glances, their brows tightly furrowed.
They had fought the Wolf Rong, but never once had they considered the problem from the enemy’s perspective.
Hu Dayong narrowed his eyes. “Being held in place?”
“Correct, but that is not all.”
The corners of Lin Chuan’s mouth lifted slightly. “Their greatest advantage is also their fatal weakness.”
He snatched up Wang Black Tiger’s shield and drove it sharply into the earth.
“What do fast-moving cavalry fear most? They fear this—”
The shield sank deep into the soil, throwing up a cloud of dust.
Zhao Iron Ox suddenly widened his eyes. “A… a horse-tripping rope?”
“Wrong! Obstacles!”
Lin Chuan pulled up the shield, leaving a furrow in the ground.
“Anything that can obstruct cavalry: trenches, pits, marshes, houses, piles of straw, sheets of ice—even horse-tripping ropes! No matter how fast cavalry are, they must slow down when they encounter such things!”
Hu Dayong’s eyes brightened.
He remembered the scene from the previous winter, when a band of Wolf Rong cavalry had fallen into chaos on the frozen surface of the river, horses and riders tumbling one after another.
“Find the enemy’s advantage, and you will find their fatal weakness.”
Lin Chuan guided them forward step by step.
“If their horses run fast, make them slow down. If their arrows fly true, blind their eyes! What they fear most is a battlefield that refuses to follow their rules.”
The veterans stood frozen.
It was as though a string had suddenly thrummed inside their minds.
Er Gou suddenly cried, “Ah! I understand!”
Everyone’s eyes snapped toward him.
Er Gou blinked. “Why are you all looking at me? I really do understand!”
“If you understand, then explain it!”
One-Eye shouted, “Hurry up and let me understand too…”
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