An hour earlier, his scouts discovered numerous hoofprints and traces of cooking smoke on the riverbank ahead.
Li Mao believed that a small group of Tartars was active and decided to launch a surprise attack.
However, when his vanguard charged over a embankment, they were met with a well-prepared Tartar cavalry force!
Although the volley of crossbow bolts caused the Tatar vanguard to fall to their knees, the enemy's flanks immediately closed in like scimitars. The Tatar cavalry's agility and ferocity on horseback far exceeded the recruits' expectations.
Many new recruits, seeing blood for the first time, panicked, their formations were disrupted, and they found themselves fighting individually.
Only by the desperate efforts of three hundred veteran soldiers to hold their ground and fight and retreat could they barely avoid being surrounded and annihilated.
"General, we can't keep dragging this on!"
An old soldier with a full beard and scarred cheeks rode over.
He was the captain of the guide team, named Hu Laohei, his voice hoarse. "The brothers can't hold on any longer, and the horses are exhausted. The Tartars outnumber us. If they run out of arrows and charge again, we'll all be stuck here!"
Li Mao knew this all too well.
He felt waves of throbbing pain in the wound on his left arm, and waves of dizziness from blood loss washed over him.
He looked south, towards the direction of Kill Tiger Pass, an eighty-mile journey that would normally take half a day to cover at a fast pace.
But now, with so many wounded and exhausted soldiers, and with the menacing Tartar pursuers lurking behind...
"Old Hu, you take the old soldiers and the brothers who can still run, protect the seriously wounded, and retreat south first! I'll take the ones who can still fight to cover the rear!" Li Mao said through gritted teeth.
"Bullshit!" Old Hu glared. "If anyone's going to cover the retreat, it'll be me! You're the commander, you have to get back alive to report to Governor Tian! These Tartars are suspicious! You have to deliver the message!"
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