Chapter 899: Arrogant general underestimates the enemy and enters a death trap; a net is set in Stone Valley

When Tuoba Lie's one thousand iron cavalry cast off the supply wagon train, even the grain bags were left with only the one hanging on the side of the saddle. Twenty large carts loaded with tents and spare arrows were abandoned on the barren slope, and the auxiliary soldiers driving the carts were left behind in the dust and smoke before they could even ask a question.

Tie Muzhen spurred his horse from the flank to catch up with Tuoba Lie. The wind poured into his mouth, making it difficult to speak, and his voice cracked.

"My lord, the supplies cannot be thrown away. The spare bowstrings and arrow quivers for the brothers are all on the carts. What will we do if we don't have supplies when the fighting starts?"

Tuoba Lie didn't even turn his head, spun the curved saber in his hand, and blocked it with the back of the blade toward Tie Muzhen.

"A group of shepherd slaves, do we need bows and arrows? This general will lead iron-armored cavalry to trample them; they won't even have a chance to fight back. What bowstrings, what arrow quivers, nonsense!"

Tie Muzhen's horse was forced to shift half a body position by the back of Tuoba Lie's saber. He bit his back molars and swallowed the words that surged to his throat.

Tuoba Lie looked back at the black iron-armored snake behind him. One thousand warhorses trampled the withered grass and frozen soil on the ground, and the rising dust dyed half the sky gray-yellow.

"Pass the order: advance at full speed. Before dark, this general wants to drink with Qifugu's head. Whoever falls behind, find your own way back to the Royal Court!"

The sound of the horn traveled from the front of the formation to the back. One thousand horses accelerated at the same time, the sound of hooves changing from muffled thuds to continuous thunder, and the ground was shaking along with it.

And above that narrow path called Stone Valley thirty li away, Gao Jiong stood on the protruding stone platform at the highest point of the eastern cliff, hands on his hips, looking down at the winding gravel road at the bottom of the valley that could only accommodate three horses side by side.

Qifugu climbed up behind him, his leather boots slipping twice on the gravel on the cliff wall, finally grabbing a handful of withered grass roots at the edge of the stone platform to stand steady.

"Lord Gao, did you let this Khan climb so high just to look at this broken ditch?"

Gao Jiong did not turn around, pointing a hand in a circle toward the bottom of the valley.

"Great Khan, look clearly. It is three li long from the valley entrance to the valley tail, the cliffs on both sides are four or five zhang high, and the bottom is full of gravel the size of a fist. Horses stepping on it are no different from stepping on ice; they can't run."

Qifugu wiped the sweat from his forehead, leaned to the edge of the stone platform to look down. The gravel at the bottom of the valley shone with a gray-white light in the afternoon sun, and some stones still had broken ice shards from freezing and cracking last winter.

"So what if they can't run? Even if Tuoba Lie's iron-armored cavalry pushes through on foot, my men might not be able to stop them."

Gao Jiong turned around, the smile on his mouth tilting from the left to the right.

"Who said to let the Great Khan stop them? When have you ever seen a mouse block a cat?"

He squatted down, pulled a charcoal pencil from his boot, and drew a thick line on the flat surface of the stone platform.

"Tuoba Lie's troops are coming from the north. There are only two roads to enter the Qifu tribe's camp. The eastern detour is too far, adding half a day's journey. With his short temper, he won't choose it. He will only take this road, straight through Stone Valley."

The charcoal pencil drew a row of short bars on both sides of the thick line.

"Great Khan, bury your men on the cliffs on both sides, looking down from above. Stones and logs will all be greeted at the bottom of the valley. No matter how thick Tuoba Lie's iron armor is, it can't withstand hundreds of jin of stones falling from five zhang high."

Qifugu squatted opposite him, bracing his hands on his knees, his gaze lifting from the drawing made by the charcoal pencil to stare at Gao Jiong.

"Can the cliffs hide three thousand people?"

Gao Jiong pointed the charcoal pencil toward the valley entrance.

"There are three natural stone troughs on the east and west sides, each can squat one hundred people. Above the stone troughs, there are wider platforms. The Great Khan's three thousand men are divided into six routes, three on the east and three on the west, staggered from the valley entrance to the valley tail. Once Tuoba Lie's troops have all entered the valley, seal both ends with giant stones, and pour stones and logs from the middle. Even if he is made of iron, he will have to turn into broken iron pieces."

Qifugu tapped his fingers on his knees twice and smacked his lips.

"What about my camp? If all three thousand men are pulled here, Tuoba Lie's scouts will see that the camp is empty."

Gao Jiong stood up from the stone platform and patted the lime powder off his hands.

"It won't be empty. The Great Khan should leave all the old, weak, sick, and disabled in the camp, not a single tent is allowed to be dismantled, and the cooking smoke should rise as usual. From a distance, it looks no different from usual. What Tuoba Lie's scouts see is a normal camp, eating, grazing, and living as usual."

Qifugu stood up and patted the gravel residue off his trousers.

"When will the three thousand men move?"

Gao Jiong looked up at the position of the sun.

"Move now. Tuoba Lie threw away his supplies and ran over lightly; it will take at least two hours. The Great Khan's men will all be in place before dark, just hide in the dark and wait."

Qifugu inhaled the air with the smell of gravel dust. When that breath was inhaled into his lungs and exhaled, it carried the heat of being pushed onto the gambling table.

"Three thousand against one thousand, looking down from above, Tuoba Lie's horses can't run."

Gao Jiong stepped down from the hillside and looked back at him after walking two steps.

"What is the Great Khan still hesitating about?"

Qifugu grinned. The greed and ferocity in that smile twisted together, revealing the outline of fangs under the afternoon light.

"No more hesitation. Amu Ri!"

Amu Ri, who was waiting below the hillside, spurred his horse and ran up.

"Great Khan!"

"Go back and pass the order: all men in the camp who can hold a saber are to gather, leaving only the old, weak, women, and children to guard the tents. Tell them to rise smoke, cook, and graze as usual. Whoever runs or extinguishes the cooking smoke, I will peel their skin when I return."

Amu Ri cupped his hands on his horse.

"When will the three thousand men set out?"

Qifugu jumped down from the hillside, his boot soles splashing a piece of grass residue into the mud.

"Now, bring all the horizontal sabers and leather armor. Distribute that batch of goods sent by Great Zhou to everyone; don't leave a single saber or armor behind."

Amu Ri spurred his horse and left. The sound of hooves on the gravel slope made a series of urgent clattering sounds. Before he had run ten steps, he looked back and shouted.

"Great Khan, rest assured, the men will be gathered within half an hour!"

Gao Jiong sat down on the flat stone in the middle of the hillside, fished a piece of dried meat from his bosom and held it in his mouth, watching Qifugu rush toward the camp direction, the dust raised behind him quickly swallowing his figure.

Songqi turned out from behind the stone, holding a leather pouch filled with water and handed it to Gao Jiong.

"Boss, if this battle is won, Qifugu's wings will be even harder."

Gao Jiong took the leather pouch and took a gulp. Water spilled from the corner of his mouth and flowed down his chin into his collar.

"Even if it is won, it will be a miserable victory. Half of his three thousand men are herdsmen recruited from other tribes. They are going to fight for their lives before their sabers are even warm. Do you have any idea how many will survive?"

Songqi squatted beside him and lowered his voice to a volume that only two people could hear.

"Boss, about those horizontal sabers and leather armor..."

Gao Jiong tied the mouth of the leather pouch and threw it back to him, changing the dried meat in his mouth to the other side to chew.

"What about it?"

Songqi's voice shattered into slag.

"The hilt is a hollow wooden pin, and the wet hemp rope used for sewing the leather armor is of inferior quality. When these things are really used in battle..."

Gao Jiong chewed the dried meat and swallowed it, rubbing the corner of his mouth with his thumb.

"When they are really used in battle, Qifugu's men will find that the sabers in their hands fall apart after a dozen strikes, and the armor on their bodies rots once soaked in blood. By then, they will have already bitten into Tuoba Lie, unable to retreat or run, and can only fight to the end by biting and clawing."

A dry syllable squeezed out of Songqi's throat.

Gao Jiong stood up, patted the lime powder off his buttocks, and walked toward the hidden high ground on the east side of Stone Valley, covered by bushes.

"Let's go, find a good spot to sit and watch. This play is worth a pot of wine."

Songqi climbed up behind him. After climbing a dozen steps, he looked back at the bottom of the valley. That gray-white gravel narrow path looked like a dried-up riverbed in the light of dusk, so quiet that even the wind was blocked by the cliffs on both sides.

"Boss, do you think Tuoba Lie will really take this road?"

Gao Jiong continued to climb without looking back, the gravel under his feet crunching loudly.

"If he doesn't take this road, he has to take the big detour on the east side, which takes half a day longer. That person wants to eat Qifugu alive; he can't wait half a day."

When it got dark, all three thousand men of the Qifu tribe were in position.

The three stone troughs on the eastern cliff were filled with soldiers wearing new leather armor. Everyone held a horizontal saber, with the scabbard tucked behind their waist so as not to make a sound. The platforms above the stone troughs were piled with giant stones and logs moved up in advance, tied with grass ropes, waiting to be cut.

The same arrangement on the western side, people and stones were silent in the darkness, even their breathing suppressed to the lightest and shallowest.

Qifugu stood in the stone trough in the middle of the eastern cliff, holding his horizontal saber. The cowhide wrapped around the hilt was soaked sticky by his sweat. Amu Ri leaned over and lowered his voice.

"Great Khan, the scouts have reported. Tuoba Lie's vanguard has reached a position five li outside the valley entrance. Their speed hasn't slowed down; they are coming straight here."

Qifugu tapped his horizontal saber against his thigh, and that crisp sound was swallowed by the surrounding cliffs.

"Everyone listen to the order: after Tuoba Lie's troops have all entered the valley, seal the exit by dropping stones at the valley entrance and valley tail simultaneously. Don't move until this Khan's horn sounds. Whoever makes a sound prematurely, I will kill their whole family."

This order was passed from the stone trough to the platform, and from the platform to the secret sentries higher up, layer by layer, pressing down. The entire Stone Valley was as quiet as a grave in the night wind.

Gao Jiong and Songqi were already sitting on the platform surrounded by bushes at the highest point on the east side. Songqi took a copper pot and two coarse pottery bowls from the leather pouch on his back. The copper pot was filled with mare's milk wine brought from the camp. The bowls were placed on the flat stone and filled with wine, and half a cold lamb leg and some dried meat were placed beside them.

Gao Jiong picked up a bowl and took a sip, his gaze passing through the gaps in the branches and leaves of the bushes to look down at the gravel road that turned white in the moonlight at the bottom of the valley.

"Prepare the silk strip and charcoal pencil. When the fighting starts, you keep count."

Songqi took out a palm-sized silk strip and a charcoal pencil from his bosom and placed them on his knees.

"Count what?"

Gao Jiong took another sip of wine, the rim of the bowl clattering against his lips.

"The number of casualties on both sides, keep it clear to report to Zhuguo when we go back."

Songqi turned the charcoal pencil between his fingers twice and didn't speak, not touching the wine.

On the wilderness outside the valley entrance, the sound of horse hooves trampling the frozen soil came from afar—first a muffled low sound, like something rolling underground, getting bigger, denser, and clearer, until the head of that black iron-armored snake floated out of the night.

Tuoba Lie rode at the very front, his curved saber across the saddle, his gaze scanning the narrow valley entrance vaguely visible in the moonlight. The outlines of the cliffs on both sides closed in front of him like two black high walls.

Tie Muzhen spurred his horse from the side and squeezed over, his voice crushed.

"My lord, the valley path ahead is too narrow. Should we send a team in to probe first?"

Tuoba Lie flicked his reins and forced Tie Muzhen back two steps.

"Probe what? If that group of useless Qifugu's had the guts to set an ambush here, they would have rushed out long ago. A group of brats who were still drinking milk yesterday, daring to play tricks with the Royal Court's iron cavalry?"

He raised his curved saber and waved it toward the valley entrance.

"All troops, do not slow down, pass through. Once out of the valley, it's Qifugu's camp. This general wants to let that dog thing who self-proclaimed as Khan see what a real cavalry is!"

The order was passed down, and one thousand iron-armored warhorses poured into the valley entrance one after another.

The moment the front horses' hooves stepped onto the gravel road, they started to slip. The iron hooves scraped harshly on the fist-sized gravel. The originally tight three-horse-wide formation was forced to stretch, and the horses behind squeezed the horses in front, turning the entire formation from a square into a thin line that dragged for nearly a li.

Tuoba Lie's horse stepped on a frozen stone in the middle of the valley, its hooves slipping to the side. He cursed, tightened his reins, and pulled the horse's head straight, looking up at the cliffs on both sides.

The moonlight couldn't reach the bottom of the valley. The cliffs on both sides pressed down blackly, and even the outlines of the cliff tops couldn't be seen clearly.

Quiet.

Too quiet.

No wind, no insects, not a single night bird flew up from the cliffs.

Tuoba Lie's fingers clutching the reins tightened. A chill that surged up from his spine made his shoulder blades tense up abruptly.

"Tie Muzhen!"

Tie Muzhen squeezed over from behind, his voice crushed.

"My lord!"

Tuoba Lie pointed his curved saber toward the rear.

"Rear formation becomes front formation, all troops retreat—"

He didn't finish his sentence.

A muffled boom came from the direction of the valley entrance, like something huge falling from a high place and hitting the ground, followed by the second, third, and fourth sounds. Continuous loud noises exploded from both the valley entrance and the valley tail simultaneously. Gravel and mud were splashed everywhere, and screams rang out from both the head and tail of the formation.

Dozens of giant stones as tall as a person rolled down from the top of the cliffs, hitting the passages at the valley entrance and valley tail, blocking both ends tightly. The gaps between the stones were filled with gravel and logs that followed, and two indestructible stone walls completely sealed the retreat and advance paths of these one thousand people within a few breaths.

Tuoba Lie's horse was startled, its front hooves scraping wildly on the gravel, nearly throwing him off the saddle. He clutched the reins tightly to hold the horse's head down and raised his face to look up at the cliffs.

The moment the moonlight passed through the clouds, he saw it.

On the edges of the cliffs on both sides, dense human shadows stood up as if they had grown out of the cracks in the stones. The black outlines connected into an irregular line in the moonlight, extending from the valley entrance to the valley tail, with no end in sight.

Then came that sound.

Qifugu's voice exploded from the middle of the eastern cliff. That roar didn't sound like it came from a human throat, but more like a howl torn from the sky by a wolf that had finally bitten through its chains after being trapped for too long—coarse, hot, and carrying the smell of blood.

"Kill!"

Both sides of the cliffs surged at the same time. Countless black human shadows poured down like a tide from the stone troughs, from the platforms, and from every crack that could hide a person, surging down toward the iron-armored snake sealed between the stone walls at the bottom of the valley. ===== CHAPTER 900 =====