Section 7

In a small cove on the border between Portugal and Spain, through the hazy night, several points of fire were slowly approaching the shore. They stopped at a distance of less than a hundred meters from the coast, immediately followed by the splashing sounds of water. Then came the clinking and clanking of iron equipment colliding, accompanied by muffled shouts from time to time: "Be careful, be careful, you bastards! All your night-raid training has gone to waste, you don't even know how to muffle the noise!"

Murong Wu stood by the ship's rail, instructing Old Traver, William, and Kidd beside him: "After I leave, proceed according to the plan. If you haven't seen us at the designated rendezvous point within ten days, Traver, lead the fleet back! The Lord will grant you the rewards you deserve." As he spoke, his gaze drifted past Old Traver to the two men standing behind him: "You two should go along as well. Our navy is currently under construction, and you will definitely be put to important use!"

"General! Have a safe journey!" Things having reached this point, what more could the three foreigners say? They could only guarantee a smooth voyage for their commanding officer. After all, this was a bold operation...

Murong Wu did not linger. Having long since donned his full armor, he jumped into the small boat, preparing to land.

On the shore, personnel were already waiting to receive them. Half a month ago, once the operational plan was finalized, a reconnaissance squad composed of a mix of Chinese soldiers and foreigners had already landed to scout the area. At the same time, they were surveying and acting as guides for the landing operation of the expeditionary fleet. Now was the time for them to execute their mission.

When Murong Wu stepped onto this land, he did not know that he was making history. He was the first Chinese general to lead troops into Western Europe, and the expeditionary force was likewise the first Chinese military unit to attack Western Europe. This perhaps also marked the beginning of a new era.

Murong Wu waved his hand, and someone immediately trotted over: "General, what are your orders?"

Dinozo was a Venetian. Having loved adventure since childhood, at the age of sixteen he had climbed aboard a merchant ship plying the Mediterranean. After three smooth and favorable years, he finally fell into the hands of the Moors and was coerced into becoming a pirate—only to be captured by the expeditionary force during that very unfortunate operation. However, due to his place of origin and language skills, he was quickly selected by Kidd. Following a conversation with Murong Wu, he became the leader of the landing reconnaissance squad.

Dinozo was extremely satisfied with this arrangement. Especially when he saw those ferocious soldiers who had previously crushed him without a second thought now following his command, his satisfaction went far beyond the ordinary. Moreover, what he was doing now was bound to cause a sensation across the entire European continent. The mere thought of this made the young foreign soldier's blood boil.

Therefore, seeing Murong Wu make a move, he immediately hurried over. Murong Wu looked at the sturdy young man in front of him. He was quite pleased with Dinozo. To move freely within Spanish territory, relying solely on the soldiers he had brought along was not enough; he needed a guide who was thoroughly familiar with the local conditions. Dinozo was undoubtedly an excellent candidate. The Moors had ruled southern Spain for a long time, and Dinozo was naturally well-acquainted with the terrain. Having spent so much time mingling with the Moors, Dinozo had also perused various documents. As for language, it went without saying—Dinozo could imitate several Spanish regional dialects to perfection. More importantly, Dinozo was sharp-witted enough to survive among the Moors for so long disguised as a European, which was proof enough of his capability.

"How are the preparations coming along?" Despite his satisfaction, Murong Wu's tone remained calm.

Dinozo pulled a map from his chest, signaled the torch-bearing soldier behind him to come closer, and spread the map out before Murong Wu: "Right here. Our intelligence is correct. There is indeed a large horse farm. Although there are only seven or eight hundred horses, based on our observations, stationed near this horse farm is a cavalry unit of over fifteen5 hundred men."

Naturally, a wide variety of sources had its advantages; intelligence was gathered very quickly. Among the more than one thousand foreigners now possessed by the expeditionary force, quite a few had previously been to Spain. Thus, such a plan had materialized.

Murong Wu was very pleased with the new plan. Having fought against the horse-riding nomadic tribes for so long, the expeditionary force brought from China richly deserved the title of being skilled in archery and horsemanship. Once the expeditionary force acquired horses, even without prolonged integration and training, Murong Wu had absolute confidence in accomplishing this mission.

This scale of amphibious landing was something the expeditionary force had specifically rehearsed while still in China. Therefore, just over an hour later, more than two thousand expeditionary soldiers completed their landing in a tense and orderly fashion. The fully prepared army, led by Murong Wu, rapidly approached the scheduled target.

Using the vanguard reconnaissance battalion to deal with a small horse farm felt somewhat like using a butcher's cleaver to slaughter a chicken. Consequently, by the time Murong Wu arrived, the entire horse farm was already under the control of the expeditionary force.

Murong Wu felt extreme disdain for this situation. In the Han army, if such a state of affairs occurred, it would prove that the commanding officer's head was not very secure upon his shoulders; even if the enemy didn't finish him off, military law would not spare him. There were no hidden sentries posted outside the camp; under the illumination of the few scattered lights around the camp, the sentries clearly looked listless, and at this distance, Murong Wu could even see them nodding off.

In truth, expecting more of these Spanish cavalrymen was asking too much of them; they were merely local garrison troops. Furthermore, their location was deep within the Spanish interior. The small realm of Portugal to the west certainly lacked the daring to attack them, while the Kingdom of France to the north was currently rather powerful, but who knew in what year or month they would cross the Pyrenees to reach this place. As for the sea, they didn't need to worry about that at all—the "great" Spanish navy was fully capable of guarding its own doorstep. Peace and security were the overarching themes of this military camp. And now, that theme was about to be shattered!

Murong Wu waved his hand, and the main army split into two columns to begin the operation. Because they were essentially riding two to a horse, the infantry detachment blocked the front and rear gates of the camp, while the cavalry detachment circled around the perimeter.

Although most of the structures inside the military camp were built of stone, highly flammable materials such as fine hay were by no means scarce. Consequently, after a round of blanket strikes by the expeditionary force, the entire barracks caught fire.

Following that was the performance of Murong Wu and his personal guard unit. Although the camp gates were extremely thick, under the battering of twenty horses dragging heavy logs, they offered no resistance and shattered instantly. The expeditionary forces then poured in en masse.

By the firelight, Murong Wu could clearly see the expressions of panic and terror on the faces of the terrified soldiers upon seeing the expeditionary force. The greatest fear in this world stemmed from the unknown. And to these Spanish soldiers, the expeditionary force fell precisely into the category of the unknown—unfamiliar armor, unfamiliar tactics, unfamiliar weapons. Faced with all this, the Spanish soldiers were utterly bewildered. When they rushed out in a panic, some merely grabbed whatever weapon happened to be at hand, while others carried no weapons at all, coming out empty-handed simply to see what was happening.

Yet the expeditionary force cared little whether you were fully armored or not; chivalry was a concept only Europeans cared about. At this moment, four words hung high in their minds: blood for blood. For jackals, only blades and guns could teach them respect. The expeditionary force was more than happy to act as that teacher! Along the way, the Spanish officers and men encountered by the expeditionary force met only one fate: death!

Torches were also casually tossed into the barracks on either side, from which muffled screams echoed from time to time. But none of this concerned the expeditionary force. During the preliminary reconnaissance, the location of the stables within the military camp had already been mapped out, and during the rocket bombardment, this area had suffered the least damage. Therefore, although the warhorses were somewhat restless, by the time Murong Wu arrived, everything was still relatively normal.

The small squad of soldiers on duty in the stables had barely crossed paths with the attackers before they were engulfed by a rain of arrows. Even though they wore the plate armor currently providing the highest defensive ratings in Europe, under such close-range blanket fire, they stood zero chance of survival.

At this point, the cavalry of the entire expeditionary force functioned like a perfectly coordinated machine, flawlessly executing the previously formulated plan. Warhorses were led out batch by batch to arm the infantry outside the camp with mounts, and the newly mounted cavalry then joined the slaughter inside the camp. Through this step-by-step cycle, the resistance within the camp grew weaker and weaker, and the cavalry conversion of the expeditionary force was essentially complete.

Once all the expeditionary soldiers had been converted into cavalry, they did not linger any longer. They roared through the military camp, leaving behind a sea of fire and a thoroughly ravaged barracks.

Murong Wu knew what the top priority was right now: speed. From here to Seville was less than two hundred li. Having just estimated the stamina of the horses, he knew that these mounts possessed explosive short-distance sprinting capabilities and weight-bearing capacities far superior to his previous steeds. Without sparing the horses' strength, they should be able to reach Seville before dawn. As for this military camp, Murong Wu had originally regarded it merely as a place to acquire horses. As for alerting Seville, Murong Wu did not believe they could move faster than an army accustomed to long-range surprise raids.

Dinozo, swept along in the ranks of the expeditionary force, felt a chill run through him after witnessing their combat style. Having survived that massive naval battle, he had felt that the combat power of the expeditionary force was already terrifying enough. But upon seeing their most practiced style of combat firsthand, he was nonetheless deeply shocked. He clearly saw that the soldiers around him did not need orders from their officers; a mere glance or a hand gesture was enough for them to know what to do. Throughout the battle, there was virtually no excessive verbal communication. What they relied upon was a tacit understanding, a mutual trust among comrades-in-arms. He had witnessed with his own eyes a soldier wielding a saber to clear the path, facing a musket aimed directly at him without even blinking, continuing his grim work of harvesting lives. Just as the Spanish soldier was about to pull the trigger, the goose-feather-fletched blade had already pierced through his throat.

With the shock of the earlier battle still fresh, the subsequent casualty count of merely two severely wounded and sixteen slightly wounded came as no surprise to Dinozo. It seemed he had truly found himself a powerful backer, Dinozo muttered to himself inwardly.