"There's no smoke coming from the chimneys; perhaps the people there can't afford to start a fire!"
Seeing the leader's solemn expression, a Xianbei cavalryman next to him said nonchalantly.
“When we went to the border of the Great Han Dynasty in the past, there were often villages where no one cooked or smoked!”
"Exactly! These villages and towns may be poor, but they can still scrape together some resources!"
The Xianbei cavalry behind them also started to jeer, staring impatiently at the village at the end of the road.
The Han Chinese leader said with a solemn expression, "That's true, but we should still be careful. You all must not be too reckless!"
"Alright, I'll do as you say, sir!"
The Xianbei soldiers said nothing more and followed behind their leader, slowing their pace.
Before long, the team of sixty people arrived at a small road five miles north of the village.
To the east of the path are fields of lush green wheat, and to the west is a dense forest with few fallen leaves around it.
Seeing this, a Xianbei cavalry squad leader spurred his horse to catch up with the leading Han man and said with a frown, "Sir, it seems there is something wrong with this village!"
"Yes, this is clearly a village where people live permanently, yet it's so quiet, which is really strange!"
The two walked side by side at the front of the group, talking as they observed their surroundings, their expressions wary as they looked toward the dense forest to the west of the path.
Unfortunately, because the forest was too dense, they didn't notice anything unusual.
Deep in the dense forest, pairs of eyes were also watching the procession moving along the path.
When they noticed the unusual behavior of the Xianbei people, the people at the front immediately lay down.
One of them frowned and said, "Could it be that they've discovered us?"
"Probably not. Perhaps we made a mistake somewhere that alerted them!" the other person replied.
"Hmph, so what? They've already walked into our ambush. Even if they realize it, it'll be too late!"
As the people in the forest whispered among themselves, this group of Xianbei cavalry also approached the dense forest.
The Han leader and the Xianbei squad leader at the front of the group were still watching the dense forest warily.
Just as they were moving, the warhorses beneath them suddenly tilted and fell forward.
Caught off guard, the two were immediately thrown out.
It turned out that the two were so focused on guarding against the dense forest that they neglected the road ahead, causing their warhorses to step into a ditch in the road.
Before the two men who had been thrown off their feet could land, a horn sounded from the forest, and dozens of soldiers from the county and state armed with crossbows emerged from behind the thick trees.
With a series of "crackling" sounds, hundreds of arrows whistled out and shot straight towards the Xianbei cavalry on horseback.
In an instant, more than twenty Xianbei cavalrymen who were close to the dense forest let out miserable groans and fell off their horses.
Some arrows also struck the warhorses, causing them to lose control and begin to run wildly, throwing the entire column into chaos.
"There's an ambush in the woods! Retreat!!"
The Xianbei squad leader, who had fallen to the ground, forced himself to get up despite the pain and roared loudly.
The roar had barely faded when an arrow whistled through the forest and pierced his throat.
The shouting stopped abruptly!
Seeing this, the Han man who was leading the group did not dare to get up and hurriedly scrambled to the other side of the wheat field.
The remaining Xianbei cavalrymen also turned their horses around, preparing to flee the area.
At the same time, after the soldiers of the various prefectures and kingdoms finished firing a volley in the dense forest, dozens of knights-errant holding bows and arrows rose up on the ground and fired another volley, shooting down more than a dozen Xianbei cavalrymen.
In just two waves of attacks, this 60-man squad had already lost more than half of its men.
Those Xianbei cavalrymen who were lucky enough to survive immediately spurred their horses and galloped back the way they had come.
After crawling into the wheat field, the Han Chinese leader stopped after a few steps.
In front of him, dozens of civilians holding long guns lay prone in the wheat field, watching him silently.
The scene was very quiet for a moment.
The leading Han Chinese man opened his mouth, but before he could utter a sound, several spears thrust forward simultaneously...
On the other side, fifty soldiers from the county and state and fifty wandering knights, who had been hiding in the dense forest, also ran out of the forest with bows and crossbows.
Unfortunately, the remaining twenty-odd Xianbei cavalrymen had already run more than a hundred meters away.
Watching the Xianbei cavalry flee into the distance, the soldiers from the prefectures and kingdoms and the wandering knights did not give chase. Instead, they began to finish off the Xianbei who were lying on the ground, still alive.
The people hiding in the wheat field also dragged the corpse of the Han leader along the ridges towards the path.
A squad leader of the county army looked at the corpses of the Xianbei cavalrymen on the ground and said coldly, "Cut off their heads and send them to the county!"
"Here you go!!"
The crowd responded loudly, then drew their long swords and stepped forward.
Meanwhile, the remaining twenty-odd Xianbei cavalrymen fled along the same route they had taken and reached a small bridge.
After crossing this small bridge, and walking another ten or so miles, you will reach that mountain forest.
They quickly reached the small bridge, but stopped halfway across, looking at the other side of the bridge with fear on their faces.
Two rows of barricades had been set up on the other side of the small bridge, and behind them were dozens of Han soldiers armed with spears and crossbows.
"Kill!"
Just then, hundreds of knights and hunters armed with bows and arrows rose up from the wheat fields on both sides behind them, blocking the remaining twenty-odd Xianbei cavalrymen on the small bridge.
"Release the arrows!!"
With a loud roar, hundreds of arrows rained down on the Xianbei cavalry on both sides of the small bridge.
Caught between two forces with no way to retreat, the Xianbei cavalrymen on the bridge were shot off their horses before they could even react.
Blood dripped down the bridge and into the river below, staining a large area of the water red.
While the battlefield was being cleared up, other Xianbei squads also encountered various ambushes and traps.
Thus, the Xianbei cavalry responsible for the ambush were all killed with the combined efforts of the county and state soldiers, wandering knights, and local people; none of them survived.
The next day, the heads of the three hundred Xianbei cavalrymen and the ten Han traitors were sent to the Wuquan County government office.
Chen Gong immediately ordered the coroner to process the heads and send them to the Yunzhong Prefectural Governor's Office.
When the news spread, the local people were overjoyed to hear that all the invaders had been killed.
In the past, people had only heard of places being slaughtered by nomadic tribes of the grasslands, but they had never heard of any people being able to eliminate invading enemies.
Although the ambush was aided by the county and state troops, wandering knights, and the intelligence bureau, the common people also participated.
As Chen Gong had said before, the successful ambush of the Xianbei cavalry greatly boosted the confidence of the local people.
It turns out that the invaders weren't so scary after all; as long as people dared to stand up, they would eventually be eliminated.
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