The Ning'an Army was well drilled, and made ready to fight at once.

They had never flinched in front of a thousand men and ten thousand horses. How could a pack of wolves frighten them?

They had muskets and compound bows too. However many came, that was how many they would finish!

Ning Chen, though, frowned slightly.

Watching through the spyglass, he could see figures moving here and there in the stone forest.

It seemed the wolves were only there to use up their ammunition and their arrows... The real killing stroke was the men hidden in the stone forest.

Whoever was in that stone forest, it would not be Xiliang's regular army. It would be the Wind and Cloud Hall's people.

Those remarkable men with unusual gifts had methods strange beyond counting, and once it came to hand-to-hand, the Ning'an Army might not be a match for them.

Ning Chen gave the order at once. "Put up your muskets and kill the wolves at close quarters... Save the ammunition and the arrows for the enemy."

The Ning'an Army put up their muskets at once and took out their rebar instead.

Without muskets, rebar would finish the wolves just fine.

One rebar coming down, and it made no difference whether you were jackal, wolf, tiger or leopard — there was no escaping death. (TL Note: 豺狼虎豹, "jackals, wolves, tigers and leopards" — a set phrase for every kind of savage beast, and for savage men.)

There was no telling how many of the enemy were hidden in the stone forest.

So Ning Chen sent a scout back to call up support.

The wolves came on fast.

The Ning'an Army was gathered and ready.

The wolves were no more than a hundred paces from the Ning'an Army, and Ning Chen was about to give the order to attack, when a tiger's roar came, like low thunder.

As the poem has it... it crouches and roars and the ground seems ready to split; the hundred beasts flee and hide, and the mountain spirits with them. (TL Note: 咆哮踞地地欲裂，百獸走匿山魈藏 — from "Shooting the…