After Xue Shen left, Shen Mingjiang also came down from the mountaintop.
The guards gathered around, asking curiously, "What did the general see? His complexion has never been this good since he was trapped in the mountains."
Shen Mingjiang waved his hand, gestured towards the opposite cliff with his lip, and said, "It seems there's another group of people dealing with Bai."
The others perked up immediately, exclaiming excitedly, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend, isn't he? Our reinforcements have arrived!"
Shen Mingjiang stroked his chin, took a breath, and said, "It's hard to say. The Tibetan royal court is currently embroiled in internal strife. It's possible that the eldest or fourth prince's men wiped out the third prince's forces, captured us, and then the credit would go to them."
His words dampened the excitement on everyone's faces, and someone gasped, "Then aren't we just like Tang Sanzang's flesh that everyone wants a bite of?"
Shen Mingjiang kicked the person who spoke and cursed, "You're trying to undermine morale. If you don't speak, no one will think you're mute."
The guard who had spoken earlier shut his mouth in grievance, and then Shen Mingjiang waved his hand and said, "Let's go, follow them and see. Who cares which group they are? I don't think there are many of them. Once they've worn down the Bai's forces, we can reap the benefits."
"The fact that outsiders were able to sneak in means there must be another way out. You guys aren't tired of this godforsaken place, but I am. We need to find a way out quickly."
His words immediately roused everyone, who were eager to get started.
*
On the other side, Xue Shen was already waiting for the Bai to arrive at the next ambush location.
Although he had only met Bai once, based on the wording he used when mentioning Bai in his letters and his deductions from that brief encounter, he concluded that Bai was a perceptive and suspicious person.
Such people are difficult to deal with on the battlefield, but at the same time, they are also easy to deal with.
If you can make a suspicious person suspicious and unable to distinguish between truth and falsehood, you've already won half the battle. All you need to do next is wait for them to lose their composure.
The "flood" falling from the sky is the first step, and the second step is "suspicion breeds evil spirits".
The Bai's army suffered heavy losses from the flood, with more than half of its soldiers killed or wounded. They had no choice but to temporarily find a flat area to set up camp.
Xue Shen glanced at the horses in the military camp and asked, "Is the fodder ready?"
He discovered a wild grass in the mountains that would cause horses to suffer from abdominal pain and go mad if they ate it. This wild grass looked very similar to the grass that horses like to eat. In the past, there were cases where horse feeders mistakenly picked wild grass for their horses, causing the horses to go mad and die.
Therefore, when he saw this wild grass in the valley, he had a plan in mind.
Now everything is ready, all that's left is to find an opportunity to mix the poisonous weeds into the horses' feed.
The Bai's army used to be heavily fortified, but now, a sudden disaster has struck, killing and injuring more than half of them. The Bai is busy counting the wounded and arranging follow-up matters, and the previously formidable defenses have been neglected.
Xue Shen didn't have to exert much effort to sneak into the military camp and mix poisonous wild grass into the horses' feed.
Horses, of course, cannot distinguish between poisonous and non-poisonous grass. The freshly gathered wild grass is so delicious that the horses quickly eat up the poisonous grass placed on top of them.
Xue Shen calculated the time in his mind, figuring that the poison of the wild grass was about to take effect, so he and the guards placed the thorns they had cut down in advance outside the stable.
When the horses go berserk, they will be in pain after stepping on thorns and will instinctively turn and charge towards the military camp.
The military camp is already littered with wounded soldiers; if they are further trampled and rammed by the rampaging horses, their fighting strength will likely be reduced by more than half.
The commotion of laying down the thorns was quite loud, and some guards on patrol in the military camp came to check the situation. However, before they could find anything, the horses tied to the side suddenly reared up, neighed, broke free of their reins, and charged wildly at the guards.
Caught off guard, the guard was knocked to the ground by the crazed herd of horses, and then trampled over by their hooves. He died before he could even utter a sound.
Xue Shen and his group observed the situation from the shadows. The guards never expected them to be so lucky. The maddened horses didn't even try to run out of the camp. After seeing the patrolling guards, they went straight for the people.
However, in a short while, the military camp was thrown into chaos.
The horses went berserk and charged around wildly. The Tibetan soldiers who reacted tried to stop the mad horses, but this only provoked the horses' ferocity, and the horses resisted even more fiercely.
In a short while, another large number of soldiers fell in the camp.
Bai was escorted out of the camp by his personal guards. He saw a chaotic military camp and horses running rampant in the camp. He was so angry that his face turned blue.
After a long pause, he shouted sternly, "What are you all standing there for! Archers, fire! Shoot down the mad horse!"
The stunned archers then reacted, drawing their bows and aiming at the crazed horses.
The riot in the military camp ultimately ended with the Bai's forces losing half their strength once again.
When Baiyi broke camp, he still had more than a thousand men, but in less than a day, he suffered heavy losses for inexplicable reasons, leaving less than three hundred soldiers still capable of fighting.
If Bai had suddenly encountered a mudslide rushing down the mountain, he would have thought it was just bad luck that he happened to be caught in it. But this time, the horses' madness was clearly caused by human intervention.
His suspicions were further confirmed when he led his soldiers to inspect the area around the camp and discovered thorns spread on the ground.
—Someone is sabotaging us in the shadows.
However, with the enemy in the shadows and him in the open, Bai was not even sure whether it was Reang who had set the trap for him or those cunning Wei people.
Bayi's expression shifted uncertainly as he pondered the situation. He still felt that the Wei people, who were being chased like stray dogs, didn't possess such abilities. If they did, they wouldn't have been relentlessly pursued and ambushed for the past two weeks, forced to hide in such a sorry state.
But if it's not a person from the Great Wei, then who could it be?
Bai finally placed his suspicions on Reang, who, thanks to his sister's influence, had always been highly regarded by the third prince.
But Gérôme himself was a good-for-nothing, with no real ability and no meritorious service recognized by others. In particular, he was constantly suppressed by Gérôme on the battlefield and was quite resentful of him.
When the Third Prince sent men to besiege the Wei people, Reang learned of it from his sister and probably thought it was a very simple but meritorious task, so he insisted on getting involved.
However, the Wei people were treacherous and cunning. They blocked Ximen Mountain for more than half a month, but still failed to capture the man.
Perhaps Gérôme felt hopeless about making any contributions, so he decided to take the opportunity to get rid of his mortal enemy. In the end, he could blame it on the Wei people and smear Gérôme in front of the Third Prince, blaming him for being incompetent and dying at the hands of the Wei people.
Otherwise, Bai couldn't understand how it could be such a coincidence that Reang had just sent someone to ask for help, and he had sent someone to investigate the situation, after which things started going wrong one after another, and he was ambushed repeatedly.
Moreover, Gérôme had six hundred soldiers under his command, more than enough to secretly ambush him.
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