31 Fire!

It was about 5am when the scouts came running back crazily. There was shouting all outside the camp. I woke up, just after managing to fall asleep, feeling very nervous again. "Put on your war armour and come with me." Lu Qing Yu said, before dashing out of the tent.

Shaking, I bundled up my precious idea notebook, and tied it securely around my waist under my war armour and light winter attire. The snow had more or receded to a normal level outside, and the desert was clean again, though it was still very cold at night. I strapped my weapons around me, hung a Molotov Cocktail on my waist, then tied up my hair. I ran out into the camp.

I was expecting chaos, but since we had been expecting and practicing for a month, the camp was very orderly. By the time I got out of my room, 15 minutes later, most of the camp was already ready. There were only a few soldiers here and there who were running to their positions.

Turns out I was very late after all. Lu Qing Yu was nowhere to be seen. Where should I go, again? Thankfully, General Shui was running by and barked at me. "Noble Concubine! Quickly get to your position! Come with me!" he said. I hastily followed him.

I was ushered up to the main watchtower in the center of the camp, beside Lu Qing Yu. I was able to see the main view. The whole camp was lit up. There was no point hiding the camp now since the Rouran would find us anyway.

According to the scouts, they would be here in around 15 minutes at their speed. They had clearly wanted to capitalise on the element of surprise and timed their arrival to be at 5am when everyone was in deep sleep and probably would not expect to find an entire camp waiting for them.

Time seemed to pass very slowly as I saw the army appear in the horizon, then make their way here. Having been scared out of my wits at the look of 2000 fierce and burly looking Rouran soldiers, I was very nervous at... how many were these?

A horn sounded from the distance, and as the army approached, they started chanting war cries. It got louder and louder as they closed the distance. "That horn. Looks like Yeke Khan came personally. They really want to finish us off." Lu Qing Yu said calmly. I glanced at him.

Through sitting in meetings now and then, I came to know Yeke Khan was the eldest son of the first Khan (chieftain). The first Khan was very old and ill (supposedly) and the North West army had been facing off against the schemes of this Yeke Khan and his army for years. "How many troops is that?" I asked. "400 000." Gu Yin, who was standing next to us replied. "400 000? Isn't their population only 3 million?" I asked.

"This is probably the main portion of their troops. Their troop count should be about 800 000." Lu Qing Yu said. "But don't underestimate the Rouran. Every one of their soldiers is very fearsome and violent. That's why we always have a hard time defending against them. We may not usually have the upper hand." he continued. To my knowledge, the North West camp held 800 000 soldiers. Since Huaxia was so big, we could afford to have loads of troops at every border, but the North West held the highest concentration of troops.

I felt like I was in a very terrible movie as I watched the army march toward us in slow motion, the ominous chanting ringing in my ears getting louder and louder by the minute. Predictably, they had spread their troops.

The main offensive force led by Yeke Khan was in the front, and there was a sizeable portion marching to the east, west, and south flank of the camp too. Every few seconds, the leaders would shout words of encouragement and commands to the troops waiting below. Every hundred metres, they would alert the troops with the update since most could not see the full view very well.

However, I did not feel any better. Perhaps it was because it was my first time in war, seeing such a big army. I kept thinking about how we would certainly be screwed if we hadn't planned ahead. Finally, they were within range of the land mines. It was a waiting game as we waited until the entire troop force was between the first circle and the fifth circle, which was about 1.5km long. Thankfully, war formations tended to be tightly packed. "Fire!" "Fire!" "Fire!" "Fire!" "Fire!"

Orders rang throughout the camp as each side of the camp gave their orders. My heart jumped in my chest as a series of deafening explosions, mixed with cries of woe and anguish rang out in the night. It sounded like fireworks. By the time the sounds were over, I had to brace my heart to take a look.

The Rouran ranks were now in significant disarray. Dead bodies and body parts were strewn all over the place, just like at the avalanche site, but now on top of each other. Those not dead were missing body parts (mostly legs) or knocked down. In the end, even the mightiest of men were not immune. Especially the Rouran, who favoured cloth armour and animal hide over proper metal armour and didn't have any protection. The shocked Rourans had difficulty regrouping.

The Huaxia soldiers cheered loudly at the sight. Then the orders came to prepare the cocktails. The soldiers were already in neat ranks. 1 would light the fuse, the other would throw, and they would alternate to prevent exhaustion.

A very angry roar came from the front of the camp. It was coming from a very big and muscled man, lavishly decorated who was at the front. He didn't seem very injured (probably had quick reflexes), and seemed to be the leader. This must be Yeke Khan. "A pity Yeke Khan is fine. But this is a blow to morale and they cannot regroup properly." Gu Yin commented.

Yeke Khan started shouting at the soldiers, probably telling them to regroup and get themselves together. Unfortunately we were not going to give them the chance. The first 2 lines were within range of the Solitaire Cocktails. "Fire the first round!" the leaders shouted.

Another deafening round of explosions exploded as glass and ceramic hit men and sand. It was very difficult to guard against explosions besides running. Even if you tried to hit it, it would still explode in your face. Moreover, we had a specific line of soldiers whose task was to hit those running toward the camp. Another specific group of soldiers with the best aim were to aim only at Yeke Khan and any other top leaders they saw.

"Fire the second round!" "Fire the third round!" "Fire the fourth round!" every few minutes at decided "random" intervals, another round would be fired. It truly was fearsome. I wouldn't want to be the Rourans right now. There was no time for them to regroup or think of a strategy to avoid the explosions.

All they could do was pile on top of Yeke Khan to protect him, but eventually, they too would be blasted to pieces and he would be left alone. Moreover, the prideful Yeke Khan would not stoop so low as to hide under the dead bodies of his men.

There were 8 rounds of Solitaire Cocktails planned. After the 5th round, we stopped. The cocktail throwing soldiers orderly filed away to let the archers take their place. The archers drew their bows. Again, one drew and fired the bow, and the other lit the arrow with fire. "Fire!" I heard General Shui row.

A beautiful orange arch of fire went up into the air and over the fence. "Fire!" "Fire!" "Fire!" if there was any alcohol left on their bodies, even if they managed to avoid the brunt of the glass, they would burn alive with the fire. Anguished screams rang out from all directions.

After 4 rounds of fire arrows, it was time for cocktails again. Not giving them a chance to pat out the fires, the soldiers filed into a neat row. At the top of the fence, it was alternate between an archer pair and a cocktail pair. "Cocktails!" General Shui shouted. After the smash of glass could be heard, he would shout again. "Arrows!"

The flaming arrows would then find their targets on the alcohol soaked and glass covered Rouran, setting them ablaze again. Eventually, even after they took off their clothes to get the fire off, they couldn't take off any more.

If they wanted to roll on the sand, they were rolling in a mix of glass, alcohol, and dead men. "Hold!' after 2 more rounds, exhausting all our cocktails apart from the last round, General Shui peered over the fence personally to survey the damage. "Troop count!" he shouted. Silence ensued.

After a short moment, every leader shouted back their counts. "Troop count 0!" "Troop count 0!" "Troop count 0!" "Troop count 0!" "Scouts, go down and check for survivors!" Scouts sidled down the side of each fence using ropes and personally checked over every corpse. One by one, they sliced off every head.

When a few playing dead tried to escape once they realised they would be decapitated, the soldiers at the top of the fences would skewer them with arrows until they died or were immobilised. Considering how many soldiers there were, the first part of the process took 1 hour.

Now that it was considered safe (no sudden attacks), the gates opened and the soldiers regrouped into teams and combed the corpses in neat rows. If they were unsure, they would just stab the person to death.

I could finally breathe a sigh of relief.