Chapter 555: Dealing with the Rogue

The entire Wu Heng's six cavalry divisions scattered, and Bai Lang rode at the front, slashing those panicked Hu cavalry who turned their backs on him, and rushed straight to the Taduan army; he saw that around Taduan the cavalry were all clad in chainmail, their weapons fine, yet panic was evident on their faces.

Bai Lang lifted his spear and swung his sword upward; upon meeting the enemy he cut down several riders. When Taduan tried to dismount and flee, Bai Lang's fighting spirit surged, and he threw his long spear. With a sharp, roaring sound, the spear pierced Taduan and his horse, pinning them to the ground. The remaining riders, seeing this, lost their fighting spirit, only turning to flee, and some even dismounted and knelt to surrender.

Bai Lang led his elite cavalry in a day‑and‑night pursuit; when his horse grew weary he directly switched to a captured warhorse, and when his weapon dulled he swapped for the fallen Wu Heng cavalryman's blade. Wu Heng's corpses lay for a hundred li; tens of thousands of men and horses were dead or wounded. Bai Lang settled Wu Heng in a single battle, slashing tens of thousands, with the remaining few thousand surrendering. From then on, Wu Heng's hundreds of thousands were at Bai Lang's disposal, taken as he wished.

Bai Lang's prestige shook Liaodong; he gathered the scattered cavalry, prepared to return to Bingzhou, and took with him many of Wu Heng's populace. Bai Lang planned to forcibly change their customs, turning them into subjects under his rule. The simplest method was to rename them and disperse them, killing all their leaders.

The area Bai Lang now occupies is vast but sparsely populated, far from matching CaoCao. When CaoCao attacked Youzhou, Bai Lang had already returned. He only knows that shortly after CaoCao's army returned, Liaodong's Gong Sun beheaded the Yuan brothers and sent their heads to CaoCao, wiping out the Yuan Shao clan.

Bai Lang, based in Bingzhou, is now almost as much a thorn in CaoCao's side as Liu Biao was, becoming a major troublemaker for him. No matter how close they are, a troublemaker remains a troublemaker; otherwise CaoCao and Yuan Shao were childhood friends—how did they get to this point? And now Bai Lang still harbors a bad view of CaoCao, not because of any same‑sex repulsion between Lang and Cao, but simply because Lang cannot stand Cao's hypocritical pretentiousness.

Bingzhou, encompassing the Xianbei Wu Heng lands, sits high and can at any time trample Ji Province, Youzhou, even Yan Province with elite cavalry. This is something CaoCao cannot tolerate, especially since Bai Lang has already taken two women from CaoCao's hands… what is tolerable and what is not!

Since he cannot endure it, he must act. CaoCao first sent envoys to persuade Bai Lang to join the court as an official. What kind of man is Bai Lang, who can be a Bingzhou governor lazily drifting three days fishing and two days sunning nets, and go to the court as a Three Dukes and Six Ministers? Ridiculous. Naturally Bai Lang flatly refused.

CaoCao then resorted to scheming. Among Bai Lang's troops there are many warriors, many of whom are highly skilled, yet none can govern counties; even Gao Shun lacks talent for civil administration, being only good at commanding infantry. In contrast, Gao Gan is the strongest at governance under Bai Lang; of course, compared with Xun Yu and others, he can only look at their foot hair…

CaoCao's plan is to stir up the counties of Bingzhou into lax governance, not demanding they directly submit to the court, only that they cease activity or drag their feet; if they can report the movements of Bai Lang's forces to him, that would be even better. As for how to defeat Bai Lang? Bai Lang's might still surpass that of Lü Bu in his prime, and his troops are well‑supplied; though only forty thousand men, they are no worse than Lü Bu's Bingzhou cavalry of that era.

Probably the military strength even exceeds that; under this leader, Bai Lang's subordinates are unstoppable, the Bingzhou White Tiger Cavalry's full strike would have no equal under heaven. Yet if they wait for battle, CaoCao still has a chance to win; the key to breaking the stalemate lies in Bai Lang's ability to command his troops.

CaoCao knows well that Bai Lang can only field about three thousand cavalry, which is likely his upper limit, and any command beyond that is impossible. The three thousand cavalry have only one tactic: a charge; while Bai Lang with a hundred‑plus cavalry can still order flanking attacks and encirclements.

"Just a brave man," Xun Yu, Xun You, and Jia Xu thought likewise. The only problem is that this bravery is exaggerated; no one in the world can match his martial prowess. "If dealing with this person, there is a ten‑sided ambush plan." Bai Lang's main cavalry are stationed in Bingzhou's Jiuyuan and Yanmen commanderies, while the thirty thousand infantry are all garrisoned inside Jinyang City.

The rest of Bingzhou's prefectures only capture bandits, fearing Bai Lang's might; no Hu people dare to raid, so bandit hunting suffices. Yet it still cannot stop CaoCao's great army. CaoCao first issued a proclamation of punishment, calling Bai Lang a rebel for not coming to court, so the Chancellor, to prevent Bai Lang from continuing his misdeeds, decided to capture him and appoint him to a court position…

In the spring of the tenth year of the Jian'an era, CaoCao raised an army of three hundred thousand to attack Bingzhou governor Bai Lang. He first took Ji Province's Wei County, and since there was no defending force there, CaoCao took it easily. Bai Lang had never recruited people in Bingzhou or Ji Province; he was too lazy, expecting others to come voluntarily. After CaoCao seized Wei County, he posted a talent recruitment notice, and quite a few scholars came to join.

Bingzhou governor Bai Lang levied light taxes and duties; among the people and scholar families his reputation was actually quite good, but since he does not recruit talent and is a libertine, he appears unfit as a ruler, lacking ambition, thus truly no strategists serve him; perhaps their dispositions just don't match.

When CaoCao's great army entered Bingzhou, Bai Lang heard the news and laughed at CaoCao's proclamation, "Cao Mengde has lost many battles, now he wants another?" He then summoned his cavalry; Bai Lang paid little attention to other parts of Bingzhou, there were no defending troops, and after CaoCao took it there was no need for massive destruction. The local forced Xiongnu, Wu Heng, and Xianbei farmers simply fled…

The question is where they fled to? Back to the steppe to become herders and then be beheaded by Bai Lang?

In short, Bai Lang decided to give CaoCao a harsh lesson; he gathered three thousand cavalry, ordered his subordinates to summon more cavalry while he led his own southward. Gao Shun and Gao Gan stayed with the infantry to guard Jinyang; all external mobile strikes were handled by Bai Lang himself.

The cavalry Bai Lang summoned were light cavalry; using armored cavalry to harass CaoCao and cut his supply lines would not work. Moreover, Bingzhou has few armored cavalry; if Bai Lang were willing to summon, perhaps even including the Hu, he could gather a hundred thousand riders. But now he only has three thousand light cavalry wearing leather armor, and he swiftly leads them south to directly strike CaoCao's main camp.

CaoCao's three hundred thousand troops advanced like a breaking bamboo; within Bingzhou, aside from Jinyang City, there were no defending troops, so today a city, tomorrow a county; within ten days the Cao army had already taken the whole Shangdang commandery. Bai Lang even had no garrison at Huguan, letting CaoCao do as he pleased.

Anyway, Bai Lang is prepared to smash through CaoCao's main camp; his strategy is simple: after locating CaoCao's main force, charge and crush it in one go, and if lucky, even decapitate CaoCao. "Just don't know if he brings Diao Chan with his troops," Bai Lang muttered.

A thousand riders thundered like a storm, their hooves sweeping the earth like black clouds. A scout reported ahead, "CaoCao's great army is setting up camp ahead!" Bai Lang raised his long spear, "Everyone, follow me to take the rebel's head!"