Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

Lord Qin didn't pause at all, he drew his bow and nocked another arrow, firing with deadly accuracy.

Li Hongyun had also drawn his bow and nocked an arrow, however, the arrows he shot fell weakly to the ground, making it almost impossible to hit Lord Qin.

"Is the disparity that large? It doesn't make sense..."

Li Hongyun didn't give up, he drew his bow and nocked an arrow again, but the result was the same.

He couldn't reach him! The range was too short!

Even though he barely entered range, Lord Qin's horse was not foolishly running straight, but skillfully dodging, increasing the difficulty of landing a shot.

Suddenly, Li Hongyun understood.

He had been wondering why historical records only mention Lord Qin shooting others, and never anyone shooting at Lord Qin.

If it were a head-on charge, Lord Qin's horse would have been recorded as hit, but in these types of small-scale skirmishes, it was almost exclusively Lord Qin dominating unilaterally.

Clearly, there were three reasons.

The first was Lord Qin's superb strength, giving his heavy bow a much higher natural range than others.

The second was Lord Qin's fast horse, such as the black steed he was riding, which was said to have been shot with five arrows, all from head on, but scattered from front to behind. This shows the staggering speed at which it galloped.

As for the third point, it was clearly the most important.

In these small-scale skirmishes, it was almost always Lord Qin setting a trap. In other words, it was the enemy's main force chasing Lord Qin.

Lord Qin was shooting from front to back, against the direction of the enemy cavalry's charge; while the enemy was shooting from back to front, in the direction of Lord Qin's retreat.

That created a huge disparity in range between the two sides.

And the reason Lord Qin always deliberately lured with a few men was clearly to enjoy the thrill of baiting the enemy with the range advantage.

Even now, though Li Hongyun had inherited the formidable strength trait, and his role as Dou Jiande meant his horse was also decent, first his own horsemanship was inferior to Lord Qin's, and secondly, the shooting range in pursuit direction was still far too short, so continuing this chase was almost like being totally outclassed.

Previously, when Dou Jiande's cavalry chased Lord Qin, according to historical records, those pursuers caught up, but Lord Qin shot and killed several leaders, causing them to panic and retreat, then pursued and killed a few more leaders, then retreated again, repeating this three times.

It wasn't that these cavalrymen were cowardly or lacked bravery in combat, but rather, they saw no possibility of catching Lord Qin!

One can imagine, as they desperately spurred their horses to close the distance, only to be steadily shot down by Lord Qin, and when they seemed about to close the gap, Lord Qin spurred his horse, and the black steed instantly sped up, widening the gap again…

Such a hopeless scene, repeated several times, would crush the courage of any sane person to continue the pursuit.

Yet because the military order was still in effect and the soldiers harbored some hope, perhaps believing they could catch up if their numbers prevailed or if Lord Qin's horse exhausted, this on-and-off pursuit scenario persisted.

Li Hongyun immediately realized this reality, and unbeknownst to him, he had already led his men quite far.

He didn't know where exactly Lord Qin had set up his ambush, but once he realized he simply couldn't catch up and was continually being lured away, Li Hongyun decisively decided to give up.

"Retreat!"

Li Hongyun immediately shouted, turning his horse around.

The cavalrymen beside him from Xia Army froze, clearly they had become too engrossed in the chase, but they didn't understand why Li Hongyun was giving up now—especially when Lord Qin seemed so close within reach, seemingly just a bit more effort and a faster gallop could catch him.

The cavalrymen following Li Hongyun naturally pulled their horses and turned back as soon as they saw his movement, but a cavalry force of ten thousand couldn't possibly turn like in a strategy game where one command instantly spreads through the whole army.

Several groups of cavalry hadn't realized what had happened on the battlefield and continued the pursuit, while the subsequent cavalry saw the front-turning cavalry and were confused about what was happening.

And just then, Lord Qin, holding a large bow also stopped.

Under his helmet, his eyes slightly narrowed.

Then, he did something that no one expected.

He spurred his horse and came charging!

Not only that, the several dozen cavalrymen around him also immediately followed suit, charging resolutely with him.

And so, a few dozen cavalry were charging directly at the Xia Army's ten thousand!

Moreover, rumbling hoofbeats seemed to come from behind a distant hill as well, and soon dust kicked up in a large, curved area ahead.

Those were the ambush troops that Lord Qin had prepositioned!

Because Li Hongyun had read the script, he hurriedly retreated when he sensed the situation going bad, so the Xia Army's cavalry hadn't fully entered Lord Qin's encirclement. But, Lord Qin didn't care, he could still order the encirclement to move up.

Obviously, the generals inside the encirclement were secretly observing Lord Qin's movements.

And the moment Lord Qin turned his horse to strike back, all of Liang Army almost simultaneously took action, without any hesitation at all.

Lord Qin once again drew his bow, and the Xia Army cavalry facing him fell in response. His few dozen cavalry, clearly elite among the elite, in their charge, turned the already somewhat disordered Xia Army cavalry into complete disarray!

Li Hongyun instantly realized he might have made a mistake.