Chapter 801: Blood Gully

In front of the first low wall at Jia-5, those starving soldiers had already fallen into utter chaos. Under the defenders' fire from arquebuses, bows, rolling stones, and three-eyed guns, they had no idea what to do. They scurried everywhere, and amid the shrieking of bullets and arrows, people kept screaming and collapsing.

Many ran about like headless flies, just wanting to find a safe place to hide. Because the slope was dotted with uneven earthen cliffs and small mounds that could roughly shield them from bullets, arrows, and stones, a great many people lay prone beneath those cliffs, clutching their heads and not daring to move a muscle.

Faced with this situation, even the old bandits among the starving soldiers who carried sabers and shields were powerless. They too were priority targets for the defenders behind the low wall, and they hurriedly sought cover, not daring to stir in the slightest.

The main body of foot soldiers was packed behind the starving soldiers. Due to the terrain, some were even lined up on the plateau slope across the gully. No matter how desperately they urged and drove from the rear, they could not affect the battle ahead in the slightest.

Looking out, the entire Yuanwang Gully defense line was the same. This massive offensive by the roving bandits had turned into a farce. Using the traditional tactic of starving soldiers in front and foot soldiers behind on this kind of terrain rendered the bandits' attack utterly harmless to the defenders.

The starving soldiers were all armed with long spears and clubs, possessing no ranged attack capability whatsoever. Even if some among them bravely charged close, the terrace cliff before them was at least one zhang high, some even reaching two or three zhang. With the low wall atop the terrace cliff and the trench below it, what use could the clubs and long spears in their hands possibly be?

Unable to climb up and unable to strike, they could only serve as targets for the defenders' arquebuses, bows, and stones atop the low wall.

Some of the old bandits among them mostly carried sabers and shields, but they too had no ranged attack capability. The supervising foot soldiers in the main force did have bows and firearms, but they were all packed at the very rear and equally unable to play a role.

Thus the bandits had badly miscalculated with this offensive. Their much-vaunted human-wave tactic, using lives to fill the enemy's positions, could not be deployed on this kind of terrain. No matter how many men they had, they could not exert the slightest advantage.

The starving soldiers before each defense line fled like wolves and bolted like boars. No one knew what to do, while the defenders' tension completely vanished. They aimed at the enemies before them, knocking them to the ground one by one as if at target practice.

The small slope path before Jia-5 was already strewn with enemy corpses lying every which way. Blood from beneath each body gurgled and flowed, giving off a nauseating stench of gore in the slowly rising temperature.

Watching the chaotic scene before him, the supervising Jia-zhang of the Jingbian Army knew the time had come for the spearmen to sortie. Though firearms were sharp, to truly strike terror into the enemy, one had to engage in close-quarters combat. Otherwise, the foe would always harbor contempt and hope for a lucky break.

Just then he received an order from the plateau above. Immediately he looked at that New Army Squad Commander and barked: "Spearmen, prepare to sortie at any moment!"

That New Army Squad Commander had taken in the entire battlefield situation. He knew a great victory was at hand. His breath quickened. He nodded heavily and roared: "Long-spearmen, prepare!"

"Hu!"

All the long-spearmen within the low wall roared as one. They stamped the butts of their spears, each feeling his blood begin to boil.

They were all the most elite spearmen in the unit, each equipped with an iron helmet, arm-guards, and iron-studded cotton armor. Yet they had only watched the unit's arquebusiers display their prowess, while they themselves at most threw some stones down at the bandits below the wall. They had long grown weary of idleness and thirsted for battle.

Now that they had finally received the order to attack, each was excited, their hearts anxious yet stirred. Following their officers' commands, they rapidly formed up by squads of five.

"Sortie!"

At last, the supervising Jingbian Army Jia-zhang swept his hand down, and the New Army Squad Commander instantly bellowed the command.

"Ten thousand victories!"

First, one five-man squad of spearmen howled and charged out through the gap left in the low wall, the rest following close behind.

They operated in five-man squads, using the Small Three-Talents battle formation. In each squad, the Squad Commander was at the very front as the main attacker. On either side was a spearman to protect the Squad Commander and attack when the moment was right. Two more spearmen brought up the rear as support, as reserves, ready to reinforce any direction at any time.

The Shaanxi New Army trained according to the Jingbian Army drill manual. Whether sortieing or defending, there were regulations, and the same held true for this kind of mountain warfare. The supervising veteran, an elite soldier of the Jingbian Army, immediately identified the most suitable tactic for this moment: the Small Three-Talents formation by five-man squads.

The spearmen charged out from the low wall. Before them were densely packed roving bandit starving soldiers in utter chaos. Some were running, some were shouting, some wanted to flee, some lay prone on the ground motionless, and still more starving soldiers from the rear, driven by the bandit foot soldiers, were desperately shoving forward.

On a narrow path and the slopes beside it, there were human figures everywhere, along with corpses on the ground, fresh blood, wounded men struggling and groaning, the pervasive smell of gunpowder smoke and gore — together forming a scene of absurd and brutal battlefield desolation.

The sudden appearance of the spearmen also provoked a wave of utterly astonished, terrified shrieks. Though the starving soldiers outside had been panicked before, as long as they dodged the defenders' attacks from the wall, they still had some psychological comfort. To suddenly face bloody close-quarters slaughter was a psychological shock of unimaginable magnitude to them.

The sortieing spearmen charged down along the small path. Their faces flushed red, they bellowed, their long spears angled at the enemy. Their hearts were far from as composed as they appeared outwardly. Though they had trained long, they had never fought the enemy face-to-face. It was impossible not to be nervous.

But looking at the panicked enemy before them, they could not help gaining a psychological edge. There was no need to be afraid, because the roving bandits before them were even more afraid.

The battlefield situation gave them no time to think further. Very quickly, the first squad of spearmen that charged out collided head-on with a group of panicked, terrified starving soldiers.

That Squad Commander faced a middle-aged roving bandit starving soldier. Seeing the man's face full of terror, a long spear in his hand, he seemed to want to flee, yet also to fight. Before he could decide, the Squad Commander had already charged down the path, dust swirling at his feet, the long spear in his hand gleaming cold as it suddenly stabbed into his throat.

The heavy force drove the spear-point through the throat and out the other side. Then a twist, a pull — a mist of blood erupted. The middle-aged starving soldier's eyes widened. He clutched his throat and collapsed to his knees, blood ceaselessly welling between his fingers. He shuddered violently, and slowly the gray of death clouded his eyes. No one knew what he was thinking in his final moments.

On the Squad Commander's right was a young spearman. He faced a young starving soldier armed with a club. This starving soldier was very young, perhaps only sixteen or seventeen, even younger than the spearman himself. Seeing the terrified look in the starving soldier's eyes, the spearman hesitated briefly. Perhaps this person before him was merely a poor soul coerced into following, not an active bandit.

But the battlefield allowed no pity. In combat he could not show mercy. So after that brief hesitation, the spearman's long spear still thrust out firmly. As he pierced that starving soldier's heart, some obstacle in his own heart was pierced through as well. In that moment, he was no longer a green recruit, but had become a true veteran who had seen blood.

More and more spearmen charged out from the low wall. By instinct they spread out according to the drill manual, forming a horizontal line by five-man squads, taking care not to let any single squad advance too far ahead. Then they merged into a torrent of long spears, sweeping down along the path and the slope.

Their sortie became the last straw that broke the camel's back. Compared to bows and firearms, face-to-face combat was bloodier, crueler, and demanded far greater courage. Though the sortieing spearmen numbered only a hundred, and the roving bandits outside held absolute numerical superiority, those chaotic, utterly disorganized men were no match for these spearmen in a single exchange.

They stabbed, their long spears ceaselessly piercing enemy bodies. Blood sprayed wildly. All they heard were the squelching sounds of spearheads sinking into flesh, and the unbearably shrill howls of those who were stabbed. Being stabbed by a long spear felt no better than being hit by a bullet, especially when internal organs were pierced — that agony was truly a living death.

Panic spread. At last, those starving soldiers collapsed. No amount of suppression could block their fleeing steps. Screaming in utter terror, they fled desperately down the hillside.

Fear made them forget everything. Anyone who dared block their escape was an enemy, even the veteran foot soldiers they normally feared. Now they knocked them to the ground without hesitation and trampled over their bodies. The supervising foot soldiers who had been enforcing discipline were powerless to turn the tide. The quick-witted ones turned and ran at once, lest they be swept into the chaotic mob. Those half a beat slower were quickly engulfed by the waves. What awaited them was a fate beyond their control.

The collapse happened in an instant. The slope was filled with wails. Countless people scurried like headless flies. No one knew how many killed each other to seize a path of escape, nor how many lost their footing and tumbled while fleeing, crashing into those below and causing even greater crowding and chaos.

Under the spearmen's assault, all the roving bandits before Jia-5 were fleeing. They fled all over the hillside. Some, after crossing the gully and seeing the small path packed with people, desperately climbed the mountain, hoping to scramble back up to the plateau top from the plateau slope. Others fled from the upper and lower ends of the gully, hoping to escape with their lives.

But the majority were still packed on the mountain path. The gully in particular was densely crammed with people. Yet the road was so narrow, and the gully not wide. More and more people squeezed into a mass, pushing and shoving. Some were lucky enough to escape; others were shoved to the ground. Amid the shrill weeping and screaming, no one knew how many were trampled to death on the spot.

The defenders before the low wall watched, dumbstruck. The roving bandits had been defeated just like that, and in such a shocking manner. The phrase "a rout like a mountain crumbling" described them most fittingly. It was the supervising Jingbian Army Jia-zhang who remained composed. He sent word to that Battalion Commander, ordering the garrison troops' assault squad defending the line to sortie immediately and join in expanding the victory.

Those garrison troops, watching the battle before them, had long been itching to move and unable to hold back. Upon receiving the order, each howled and charged out. Compared to the New Army spearmen, they looked disheveled and lacked organization, but their momentum was nonetheless like a rainbow. Their addition further heightened the panic of those starving soldiers...

Such a rout did not happen only at Jia-5. The terrified cries of fleeing bandits came from other defense lines as well. In the end, the entire Yuanwang Gully defense line seemed filled with these sounds of wailing and lamentation. Those cries even formed a wave of sound that could be called soul-stirring.

On the opposite plateau, all was silence. Every man of the Chuang Camp watched the great defeat before them in disbelief. This situation was beyond anything they had expected. They did not even know how to react.

Drumbeats sounded, and battle cries shook the heavens. More and more government troops charged down from the plateau slope, joining the frontline defenders in pursuing and cutting down those fleeing starving soldiers. They chased the routed troops up the slope, fighting all the way onto the plateau slope.

The cheering at last subsided. The supervising Jingbian Army Jia-zhang, accompanied by the New Army Squad Commander and the garrison Squad Commander, walked out from the low wall defense line. He looked toward the opposite plateau. The sound of gongs ringing retreat came from that side. The main force of the roving bandits was withdrawing.

From the look of things, after this great defeat, the roving bandits would at least not attack again today.

As for the pursuit battle just now, had the plateau top not been densely lined with the Chuang Camp's archers and firearms men, the pursuers would even have chased onto the opposite plateau. But the results achieved so far were already sufficient.

He looked around. Some New Army soldiers were vomiting, but more were cleaning the battlefield while animatedly discussing the battle with those beside them. He smiled. After today's battle, clearly many in the New Army would become qualified veterans.

He was about to look further down the slope when footsteps sounded. A group of officers came walking along the path. It was Squad Commander Han Kaijiao, along with the New Army Company Commander responsible for Jia-5's defense, the garrison Mobile Corps Commander, and others.

He hurriedly saluted. Han Kaijiao returned the salute slightly and bade him lead the men in continuing to clean the battlefield, while he himself, together with Commander Gao and Company Commander Yang, continued walking down the path.

The slope here and the small path were covered with corpses. Some corpses were frozen in hideous shapes. Judging by the wounds on their bodies, they had clearly been shot dead by arquebuses or stabbed to death by long spears. Both meant they had endured unimaginable agony before death. The further down they walked, the more corpses there were. The slope was everywhere slick with blood. Some patches of the loess surface had been soaked into boggy ground, the dark brown blood giving off a foul odor under the sunlight.

Just as they neared the gully's edge, Han Kaijiao's steps suddenly paused. Beside his ear came Commander Gao's clicking tongue of wonder: "Gruesome enough."

Then he heard Company Commander Yang say in a somewhat somber tone: "Indeed..."

Before them, corpses were piled layer upon layer, stretching along the gully-side path all the way onto the opposite plateau slope. Many corpses had their bellies ripped open and entrails spilled all over the ground, clearly trampled to death alive. Some corpses even had their heads stomped into smashed, watermelon-like fragments. On the faces of some of the more intact dead, there still lingered expressions of boundless terror and agony.

And in that gully, there had originally been some water, but not much, for the weather was dry. Yet now it was like a crimson pond or pool. So many corpses were submerged and floating. Even upstream, bloody water continuously surged down, carrying some corpses downstream along the gully.

The blood flowing from the dead had converged, already turning the waters of Yuanwang Gully into a surging river of blood.