Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors
Chapter 189 - 181 Cavalry Trial Cleared! _4

Chapter 189: Chapter 181 Cavalry Trial Cleared! _4

For Emperor Taizu of Sheng, leading the imperial campaign personally was a situation like this: it was too important to entrust to other generals.

If this battle was won beautifully, it could directly disperse the Northern Barbarians, ensuring peace for the Great Sheng Dynasty at the Northern Border for at least several decades; if this battle was lost, the Great Sheng Dynasty might very well be unable to recover for decades, potentially triggering a series of serious chain reactions.

Zhao Haiping had already witnessed the situation of sending generals to fight.

That Duke from Qii, so perfect in military achievements, had utterly doomed him.

Of course, this didn’t mean that Duke Qiu Yuan was completely incompetent. His military achievements were genuinely earned; he truly grew up from the lowest ranks alongside Emperor Taizu of Sheng.

It seemed he had made a grave military error, underestimating the enemy and advancing recklessly. However, Zhao Haiping had also checked related documents and discovered that the situation was not as simple as he first thought.

Because the battlefield situation changes too rapidly, everyone will make different judgments.

From the perspective of hindsight, it was indeed true that Qiu Yuan underestimated the enemy and advanced recklessly; the total annihilation of his troops proved this.

But from the perspective of someone in the midst of it, it was impossible to foresee the future.

Qiu Yuan pursued the enemy with his troops very aggressively. If the enemy had set up an ambush, then indeed, all his troops would be annihilated; but what if the enemy hadn’t been able to prepare in time? That might have been a significant victory.

Qiu Yuan had been leading troops for many years; such maneuvers couldn’t possibly be the whim of the moment or his first attempt; they must have been based on many similar experiences.

Perhaps, in each prior experience, he aggressively pursued the weary troops and then achieved huge victories, so he thought it would be the same this time.

So, in the end, military affairs, the basis of the state, the ground of life and death, must be carefully examined.

Every general understands this principle and believes they are right, yet the outcomes are worlds apart.

This is the difference between an ordinary general, a famed general, and a divine general.

They may look similar, but the actual results could be minutely different, yet vastly wrong.

That’s why Emperor Taizu of Sheng could not leave this matter to ordinary generals.

At that moment, Zhao Haiping wasn’t thinking so much; he only cared about two things: the stirrup-equipped horse he was riding and the Divine Machine Battalion in the army.

After getting used to riding stirrup-less horses and suddenly switching to one with stirrups, Zhao Haiping felt like crying.

It was too joyful!

With his feet in stirrups and using a high saddle, it meant a person could exert force in four directions: front, back, left, right, making it much easier to maintain balance in any movement.

Like mounted archery.

While the warhorse was sprinting, the cavalry only needed to step on the stirrups, clamp the horse’s belly with their thighs, slightly lift their hips off the saddle, and lean forward to remain stable. Regardless of how much the horse jumped, their bodies would be as stable as a gimbal.

At this moment, drawing the bow and notching the arrow, although the bow’s draw weight might be less than on flat ground, the stability and accuracy were much better.

This was hard to imagine in the era of stirrup-less horses.

Similarly, using weapons on horseback was easier to balance with stirrups.

Having gotten used to riding horses without stirrups, Zhao Haiping, now on a stirrup-equipped horse, felt like a sharpshooter who had been practicing with ordinary rifles and suddenly received a high-precision sniper rifle.

He even wanted to take it for a spin.

But considering he was now the Emperor, he needed to maintain a bit of composure.

Just then, a fast horse galloped from ahead.

"Your Majesty, urgent news from the front! Last night, the Northern Barbarians broke through Xuan Ning Guard, a key town ahead. If the army continues to advance, it’s highly likely to encounter the elite cavalry of the Northern Barbarians. Please decide how to proceed, Your Majesty!"

Hearing this military report, Zhao Haiping was momentarily stunned, a question mark slowly floating above his head.

What’s going on?

Before he could react, an older eunuch beside him already spoke, "Northern Barbarian’s main force? Isn’t that exactly the opponent Your Majesty personally campaigned to confront? Order the whole army to move forward and wipe out these Northern Barbarians!"

Beside them, an old general with white hair and a goatee suddenly paled and his goatee twitched, "Mr. Liu, absolutely not!

"Our army is under-prepared, and there are already issues with our provisions, not to mention that the baggage trains haven’t arrived, and other forces haven’t yet converged. The troops have been marching for days without rest. Encountering the Northern Barbarian cavalry now would be disastrous!"

The goateed old general then looked at the soldier who had brought the military intelligence, "How could the Northern Barbarians suddenly launch such a major attack? There were more than twenty thousand guards at Xuan Ning; how could it have been breached instantly?"

The soldier hesitated, "Unclear, it’s said that there were traitors within the city..."

Mr. Liu coldly said, "Why such fear of the enemy? With His Majesty leading, these Northern Barbarians will surely be crushed like dry weeds and rotten wood..."

Before he finished, Zhao Haiping raised his hand, "Wait, who are you?"

Mr. Liu was taken aback, "Your Majesty, I am..."

Before he could finish, and before he had a chance to say his name, he saw the Emperor raise his riding crop high and bring it down across his face.

"Snap!"

With a crisp sound, the eunuch was whipped so hard he spun several times in place before collapsing to the ground, dazed and bleeding from the mouth, losing two teeth.

Zhao Haiping, his face expressionless, said, "I don’t care who you are. When it comes to matters of military and state, is it your place, a eunuch, to speak?

"Drag him away; execute him!"

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