Batu nodded and said: "What you said makes sense, but should I do nothing and just wait for him to come? What if Ma Xiaoquan brings more people than me?"
Batu's worry is not unreasonable. Although Qiantun is a good checkpoint, it is only a one-sided advantage. If you attack from the outside in, it is indeed difficult to fight. But if you attack from the direction of the stronghold, Qiantun will not be able to win.
There are not many geographical advantages to speak of.
"General, you can rest assured. Even if Ma Xiaoquan comes, we can at least fight. It's freezing cold here. As long as we don't fight him, he will freeze to death."
Batu narrowed his eyes. He didn't want such a process, but for his opponent Ma Xiaoquan, seeing his death was the most important result.
"Okay, let's do it. Give me the order and keep a close watch on me. Don't neglect me~ In addition, we need to find reinforcements immediately. We can't stay here for a long time. We also need to find more people.
Kill Ma Xiaoquan."
"Yes~~"
...
It's daybreak. The weather today is not very good. It's cloudy and there's a northwest wind.
Ma Xiaoquan stood on the watchtower of the stronghold, feeling the baptism of the cold wind. After a long time, he shivered and jumped off the watchtower. He said to the soldiers waiting below: "It's too cold today, let's go out today."
Everyone shouted in unison, raised the weapons in their hands, and shook them twice above their heads.
Ma Xiaoquan hummed, looked at the prisoner beside him, and said: "You are still injured, but I can't let you rest. You have to walk with me to the front camp. After all, you are more familiar with it than me."
"Yes, sir~" the prisoner said respectfully.
"By the way, let me ask you, you don't have a name either. So, if I take you here in Qiantun, I will call you Atun from now on."
After receiving his name, Atun nodded vigorously and said excitedly: "Thank you, sir, for the name!"
...
The straight-line distance between the stronghold and Qiantun is ten miles. If you ride a horse, it takes more than half an hour. In fact, Qiantun was not originally a checkpoint, but because of its special geographical location, it was transformed into a checkpoint by the Ming army.
A checkpoint.
Ma Xiaoquan led a group of cavalry troops towards the front camp. Everyone was very energetic along the way. When they arrived two miles away from the front camp, Ma Xiaoquan ordered his troops to stop and set up camp.
With the tools obtained from the stronghold, the camp was quickly set up. According to the formation, Ma Xiaoquan asked the soldiers to set up ten small tents. Each tent was grouped according to the previous personnel arrangement and could accommodate more than ten people.
As for Ma Xiaoquan, he built a small tent for himself.
In the small tent, Atun unfolded the map, pointed at the terrain around Qiantun and said: "Sir, please see, this Qiantun is actually very easy to fight from the inside..."
Ma Xiaoquan interrupted Atun and asked: "Well, I can see it. If it is easy to fight, shouldn't Batu also know?"
"Yes, so Batu will definitely be heavily guarded."
Ma Xiaoquan dragged his chin and said, "Based on your understanding of Batu, what kind of person is he?"
Atun thought for a while and said: "Batu is very angry and will take action whenever he disagrees. However, he has a general beside him who is very cautious. Sir, if you want to lure Batu out, or confront Batu,
If there is a confrontation, it is best to kill the general next to him."
"Hmm~~Carrying out an assassination..." Ma Xiaoquan smacked his lips, thought for a while and said, "Don't worry about this. I will lead a team of people to explore the situation first. If it doesn't work, let's talk about it later."
...
In the afternoon of that day, Ma Xiaoquan led a cavalry team of 20 people to Qiantun to explore the military situation.
On the watchtower of Qiantun, Batu saw Ma Xiaoquan arriving from afar at the first sight.
Batu recognized the face he had not seen for a long time at a glance. He gritted his teeth and said, "Come here, the wind is favorable today. Give me a bow and an arrow to shoot at the man on horseback in the front."
Ma Xiaoquan also saw Batu on the watchtower. He laughed, reined in the horse, and shouted: "Batu, long time no see, how are you?"
Batu was so angry that he slapped the wooden railing of the watchtower and cursed in blunt Chinese: "Ma Xiaoquan, you Chinese dog, I will never come back to you today. Come on, come on."
After finishing speaking, the first wave of arrows from the Jurchen army in Qiantun had arrived.
Ma Xiaoquan and his party were on guard for a long time. They had already prepared their shields when the arrows were fired.
The sound of "ding, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, dong, clang" kept sounding. Due to the large plate of the shield, there were no casualties except for a few horses being shot.
Batu looked at it and stamped his feet: "Get on the rocket!"
At the same time, Ma Xiaoquan also issued an emergency order, ordering the cavalry to retreat twenty meters.
"Swish, swish, swish..." Dozens of rockets and arrows were fired from the front camp. The cavalry team responded effectively at the same time, so no one was injured. Of course, several horses were injured because of people.
He failed to hold it back and was hit by a rocket, injuring several more horses.
A squad leader said: "Sir, the enemy's rockets are too powerful. Even with our shields, we can't get close."
Ma Xiaoquan hummed and said: "I didn't come here to attack today. Well, you guys scold me... By the way, remember those words Atun taught you to curse people in Jurchen language before.
Is it done yet?”
"Remember!"
"Okay, scold me, scold me hard!"
...
One of the things soldiers love to do most is to curse, especially standing in front of the enemy's city gate and greeting the enemy's general's ancestors and family members. That feeling cannot be expressed in words.
After Ma Xiaoquan gave the order, several soldiers jumped off their horses, two of them were carrying large shields, and the other two simply took off their leather jackets and tops, and walked to the front gate of Qiantun, shirtless.
In the front camp, Batu saw several Ming soldiers wandering towards this side and stopped his men from shooting arrows.
"Let's see what they are doing first?" Batu asked.
Several Ming soldiers stopped, and the two shirtless soldiers at the front began to curse a few words in Chinese. Unfortunately, except for Batu and a few other Jurchen soldiers in the front camp who could understand,
The rest of the people didn't understand.
Batu smiled and said: "They are just a few miscellaneous soldiers. Is Ma Xiaoquan mentally ill..."
As soon as Batu finished speaking, the Ming soldiers not far from the door suddenly changed their tone and began to curse in Jurchen language.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, every word the Ming soldiers cursed contained words that insulted Batu's parents, and they also named Batu and scolded Batu alone.
The Jurchen soldiers in the front camp secretly glanced at Batu one by one, not daring to express their anger. Good guy, you dare to scold General Batu's parents and ancestors. This Ming army is really too courageous.
Batu himself was so angry that he was blowing his beard and staring.
In the rear, Ma Xiaoquan squatted on the ground, holding a roasted sweet potato in his hand, and asked several soldier captains around him: "Do you understand what they are scolding?"
The soldier captain shook his head, and one of them said: "Although Atun meant what he said, but after a while, why did he forget it again, hehe~~"
Several other captains of soldiers also scratched their scalps, indicating that they had also forgotten the meaning.
Ma Xiaoquan laughed and said: "It doesn't matter if you forget. Anyway, you don't understand us and you are not scolding us. How long can Batu hold on?"
"I don't know, but from the looks of it, I probably won't be able to hold on for long. If someone scolds my parents like that, I'll fight them~"
...
In the front camp, Batu couldn't bear it any longer. He tightened his belt, picked up his saber, and rushed to kill the few Ming soldiers who scolded his parents and ancestors.
"General, general, please calm down and calm down..." The general hugged Batu's waist and shouted loudly.
"Let go of that bitch Ma Xiaoquan, I fucked his grandma... Come on, follow me out, I will cut that bitch Ma Xiaoquan into pieces with a thousand cuts..."
"General, you can't be fooled. Can't you see it? That's Ma Xiaoquan's method of provoking generals. General, in the worst case, we'll scold him back."
The general reminded Batu that he calmed down a lot. Yes, if you scold me, I can scold you back.
"Okay~" Batu threw away his saber and ordered, "Find a few people who can speak Chinese and let me scold Ma Xiaoquan's eighteenth generation of ancestors. Damn it, I don't believe that scolding him can't kill him.
"
...
Later, Batu also sent a few people to stand on the high wall of the front camp and scold the Ming army soldiers. Since one side used the Jurchen language and the other side used Chinese, the abuse from the two groups was actually not too serious.
The huge intersection has resulted in a strange phenomenon - you scold yours and I scold mine.
The result is... Batu is still very angry, and Ma Xiaoquan, because he has already developed a shameless skill, eats sweet potatoes and sleeps as usual.
During this day, the two parties did nothing but curse each other.
During the day, Ma Xiaoquan arranged for the soldiers to take turns to rest. In the middle of the night, he continued to let the soldiers go and curse.
After enduring a whole day of abuse, even though he sent people to find a place to deal with it, Batu's own temper finally made him unable to bear it anymore.
At night, Batu called out all the soldiers and planned to attack Ma Xiaoquan at night.
It was the general again who jumped out in time and persuaded Batu to just use rockets to greet him. Ma Xiaoquan didn't dare to fight anyway.
Batu once again listened to the general's advice and immediately ordered to greet them with rockets.
This time, Ma Xiaoquan was negligent. Several cursing soldiers standing not far from the front camp were shot by rockets from Batu soldiers because they were not alert and at night, and several of them died.
...
"Haha..." Batu looked at the dead people on Ma Xiaoquan's side and danced happily, "If I had known earlier, I would have just shot the arrow. What the hell are you going to do? What a waste of words...
....You kid, why didn’t you tell me about archery earlier? It’s true, but you were right to remind me. I didn’t fall for Ma Xiaoquan’s fool, humph~”
The general stood proudly beside Batu, feeling secretly proud in his heart.
