Qin's 4th Militia Army

Meng was currently taking some time off and was at home making sure none of the others attempted to join the military. Qin was planning on attacking Wei, there was a city on the border between Wei and Qin and both sides were rushing troops from all over to defend it. The city was called Keiyou.

Wei had about 150,000 men to hold the city and Qin currently had 100,000 men but were recruiting more troops from the people. The fourth army was being formed from militia and aimed to recruit around thirty thousand men, many villages near his home were being recruited from and he wanted to make sure none of his family would rush off to join.

Dai was pregnant and some of the older orphans he had considered family had decided that they were old enough now to live on their own. Meng still made sure they wouldn't join the military and had seen them on their way as they went off to live in other nearby villages, he gave each of them a small bag of money and made sure that they each took a few chickens with them, warning them many times to not eat any until they had bred enough of them.

Now including him and Dai, there were only five of them left, their home was noticeably quieter but soon a six-member of their family would be born. Meng and others had grown up as orphans together and had become family, it was sad to see them grow up as young adults and head off on their own. Luckily three of the younger ones were still around and Dai would need the help managing the place as he was out on campaigns.

It has been three months since the battle at the capital with the mountain tribes' warriors. Knowing a war would soon break out Meng had decided to spend most of this time training alongside his three hundred men.

At the moment Qin had only recently started using cavalry and had only used shock cavalry in the last hundred years. Meng had to get the men used to fire bows while mounted, thankfully Zheng had at least picked men who knew how to shoot and had ridden a horse before.

The men spent many hours of each day practicing shooting while riding, to shoot they had to use both hands to fire, only able to use their legs to help keep them balanced. It became harder to ride and with less stability, your fear of falling naturally grew.

Meng at first as soon as he let go of his reins he suddenly felt as if he was constantly on verge of falling off his horse, resulting in him missing many of his shots or would cause him to suddenly grab the reins out of panic.

Once they could ride and shoot, they worked on the Parthian Shot, they would basically kite the enemy into chasing you, turning your waist to shoot, you would be able to fire at the enemy as they chased you, if they lacked any long-range attacks they would become basically helpless and you could pick them off at range as long as you were faster than them.

Any heavy cavalry or infantry without ranged weapons would be helpless against mounted cavalry archers when they fought at range. At the moment Meng had only light cavalry archers, he hoped to one day create heavy cavalry archers who could bravely charge into the enemy after they fired all their arrows.

Foot archers were the natural enemies of mounted archers, they had more range and there were usually a lot more of them and it made up for their lack of mobility. In a ranged battle, the foot archers would often outlast mounted cavalry with their superior numbers and range. In close-quarters battle, mounted cavalry was still cavalry and was still able to do a devastating charge.

Since the soldiers had less armor he instructed them to tie two extra quivers to their horses (extra forty arrows), once their quiver on their hip was empty they could quickly stop and replace them with the ones they had tied to their horses.

Heavy armor weight over forty pounds and since their horses now had to carry less weight they could last longer without getting tired. Each quiver with twenty arrows only weighed a pound or two and a horse could be strapped down with two quivers one on each side of the horse, not including the one on the hip of the rider.

Each one of his mounted archers was faster than heavy cavalry and could fire sixty arrows each before running out, with three hundred men, they had 18,000 arrows that they could fire.

If only 1/6 of the shots landed killing blows they would still be able to kill 3,000 enemies. The rest of the shots would likely end up wounding the enemy or flat-out miss. To make their arrow wounds more lethal they liked to soak them in poison plants like Lantern and Nightshade. Hopefully, the poison would get into the bloodstream from their wounds to kill them or at least weaken them.

In these last few months, the men under Meng had probably put in over seven hundred hours of training so far. With Meng leading them they all silently observed as the rest of the army recruited and conscripted the poor into the militia army.

It wasn't long before Meng spotted Shin and the Bi brothers (Hei and Tou). Shin of course enlisted and from the look on his face, he was one of the few who were eager to join and head off to the battlefield.

Meng watched as the older men said goodbye to their wives and children for the last time. A few of the young men like Shin had looks of hope and ambitions to make a name for themselves on the battlefield. Rubbing a small scar on his shoulder he couldn't help thinking how most of the young men had never even held a weapon before. The young were eager while the older ones were somber, clearly thinking of a past comrade or brother who hadn't survived.

With militia recruited the fourth army marched, Meng took the chance to visit Shin and rode up beside him as they marched. He decided to tease him as Shin was forced to walk while he was able to ride. He told the others about how Shin had turned down an offer to serve as a guard in the Royal Palace.

Many soldiers would serve their entire lives and not be able to secure themselves a position like that, being a guard in the palace had a larger pay and required a certain amount of experience, many being veterans with a lot of fighting experience. Meng was too embarrassed to hang around when Shin pretended to be a great general after climbing rock and started posing as the army marched past.

The next day the militia infantry was formed into five-man squads and told they would be marching to Gan castle, there they would be under the command of General Kokugou. Qin had sent out six armies, the fourth army after supplying and regrouping at Gan castle would head out and march on Keiyou.

Around a day later all squad leaders were told to assemble. Gan castle had fallen to a sneak attack by enemy General Go Kei, not only had Gan castle fallen, but everyone inside had been slaughtered, even the women and children.

Go Kei was once a retainer under one of the Four Lords of the warring states, he was skilled in combat and military strategy. The fourth army was now low on supplies and would have to depend on the first and second armies that were nearby for supplies, the fourth army with no other choice headed to Asui not too far away from the border.

It wasn't long after they started marching towards Asui that Meng and Shin ran into Heki, who was now a 1,000 man cavalry commander. Meng seeing the state of Hekis' men's armor was a bit jealous. They all also looked like experienced soldiers as well.

Sadly, Heki had to hurry along, as a 1,000 man commander he was expected to attend a war council in Asui castle. There Heki learned that Great General Duke Hyou would be taking command of the armies.

Heki also learned that Go Kei had returned to Keiyou and had left marching towards Asui with a force of over 150,000 soldiers. With the strength of Wei's chariots, they likely wanted to battle on the plains, quickly engaging pieces of the Qin's army before they all grouped together.

The Duke, not one to shy away from a battle quickly ordered the 1st and 2nd armies that were closest to plains to rush and secure the hills around the area. The 4th army would need to rush to catch up with the 1st and 2nd armies, he then sent out orders to the other armies to rush to the plains between Asui and Keiyou.