Chapter 905: Nuhe Ti leads his imperial army in person; twenty thousand troops besiege the isolated city

The lamps inside the Rouran royal tent burned for the entire night without being extinguished.

Ba Dou stood inside the tent flap, his hand resting on his saber, listening as the pacing footsteps inside the tent finally came to a halt.

Nuhe Ti stood before the sand table, his palms pressed against the wooden frame, his ten fingernails embedded into the grain of the wood. His eyes were bloodshot, and beneath his eye sockets were two dark, sunken hollows. From last night until now, he had not drunk a drop of water or eaten a grain of rice. The undergarment beneath his iron armor had been soaked with sweat and then dried, sticking to his body and emitting a sour, rancid odor.

"Ba Dou."

"I am here."

Nuhe Ti released his grip on the wooden frame and turned around. The fire burning in those blood-red eyes made the skin on Ba Dou's back tighten.

"Pass the order: mobilize all mobile forces of the royal court, twenty thousand men. Assemble them within three days. I shall lead the campaign in person."

Ba Dou's lips moved slightly.

"Great Khan, if all twenty thousand are mobilized, only five thousand will remain in the royal court for guard duty and daily patrols..."

Nuhe Ti's fist smashed against the wooden frame of the sand table. The corner that had already been cracked earlier was snapped off by his blow and fell to the ground.

"When the Right Wise King said we couldn't fight, I endured it. When you said to wait a while, I also endured it. I have endured for ten days! In these ten days, three more tribes have defected to Qifugu, and the Turkic dogs in the west have started creeping toward the east. If I endure any longer, my royal court will be nothing but an empty shell!"

Ba Dou did not try to persuade him further. He unbuckled the saber from his waist and held it horizontally above his head with both hands.

"I am willing to serve as the vanguard for the Great Khan."

Nuhe Ti strode to the front of the tent flap and pulled it open. The cold wind from outside rushed in, blowing away most of the stale air that had gathered in the tent overnight.

"Tell the conscription officers of every tribe: if their troops are not assembled within three days, I will come to collect the heads of their chieftains myself."

Three days later, the large training ground south of the royal court was packed with a dense crowd of people.

Twenty thousand cavalrymen were arranged in square formations. Their iron armor and curved sabers merged into an iron-colored ocean under the midday sun. The neighing of warhorses and the clashing of armor plates merged into a dull, heavy tidal sound that spread from the training ground in all directions.

Nuhe Ti's iron armor was an old set he had dug out from the storehouse, the same one he had worn when he conquered the four directions in his youth. The wear on the armor's surface and the dents left by blades from years past were lined up together. When he swung himself onto his horse, the entire training ground fell silent. Twenty thousand pairs of eyes stared at the golden eagle banner unfurling from the top of the flagpole.

Nuhe Ti drew his curved saber and pointed the blade toward the eastern horizon.

"Qifugu, a slave who herded sheep, has declared himself Khan, killed my generals, and trampled on my dignity. Today, I will go and take his dog head myself!"

The roar of twenty thousand men erupted from the training ground, shaking the clouds in the sky until two patches scattered.

On the day the army departed, the Right Wise King stood on a high slope outside the royal court, watching from afar as the black dragon of iron armor rolled across the grassland from the south toward the east. Beside him stood his trusted guard commander, Er Dun.

"Right Wise King, Nuhe Ti has taken twenty thousand men. Only five thousand remain in the royal court now."

The Right Wise King tucked both hands into his sleeves, his shoulders drooping loosely, and the corners of his mouth pulled toward his ears.

"Let him go."

Er Dun tilted his head to look at him.

The Right Wise King turned and walked toward his own tent. After three steps, he looked back at the black dragon that was moving further and further away.

"If he wins, he will still be the Great Khan when he returns. If he loses..."

He did not finish the rest of his sentence and walked away.

Ten days later, Qifu tribe camp.

Qifugu stood on the top of the low hill north of the camp. The wound on his left shoulder was wrapped in thick linen and was still seeping blood. His right hand gripped a captured curved saber, his gaze fixed on the northern horizon from the top of the hill.

A black line appeared on the horizon.

That black line changed from extremely thin to extremely thick, from the width of a finger to the width of a fist, then to the width of an arm. Finally, the entire northern horizon was filled by that black line. The reflection of iron armor and the fluttering of banners merged into one. The number of golden eagle banners was too many to count, densely planted above that black torrent.

Amu Ri dragged his injured leg as he climbed up from below the hill, his breathing sounding like a broken bellows.

"Great Khan, the scouts have returned. There are more than ten thousand people coming from the north. Judging by the banners, they are the elite of the royal court's main force..."

Qifugu's fingers tightened on the hilt of his saber. His finger joints, which had been injured in the Battle of Loose Stone Valley and had not yet healed, made the sound of bones rubbing together.

"How many men?"

Amu Ri's voice shattered into dust.

"The scouts say... at least twenty thousand."

Qifugu's knees went soft to the side. He steadied himself by grabbing the flagpole on top of the hill with his left hand. The white wolf-head banner fluttered in the wind above his head, still stained with spots of blood from the day of the Battle of Loose Stone Valley.

Twenty thousand.

The number of men he had who could fight, including the injured and disabled, totaled less than five thousand.

When Qifugu ran down from the top of the hill, the wound on his left shoulder tore open. Fresh blood surged from beneath the linen, staining half of his clothes red. He ran along the muddy road in the middle of the camp, past the herdsmen who were still repairing tents and weaving fences. As they saw his expression and the way he was running, they all stopped their work. A thing called fear spread like a plague across the face of everyone he passed.

Qifugu rushed to the row of inconspicuous small tents on the southern edge of the camp and kicked open the flap of the broken tent in the corner.

Gao Jiong was squatting on a stone inside the tent, whittling a wooden stick. The small knife scraped against the stick again and again, and wood shavings fell all over the floor. He did not even raise his head when he heard the tent flap being kicked open.

Qifugu's knees hit the ground first.

This man, who had held a blade to Gao Jiong's throat three days ago, this man who had declared himself the Khan of the East, this man who had bitten the royal court's elites to death with his teeth in Loose Stone Valley, was now kneeling in the mud at the entrance of a broken tent.

"Lord Gao! Nuhe Ti has come! Twenty thousand men, all elites! I cannot hold them off! The Great Zhou promised me! The Great Zhou said they would help me!"

Gao Jiong's small knife paused on the wooden stick. He raised his head and glanced at Qifugu.

Muddy water seeped upward from Qifugu's knees. The blood had drained completely from his face, his lips were pale, his pupils were dilated, and the sweat on his forehead mixed with the mud he had picked up while running, streaming downward. His entire body was trembling from the inside out.

Gao Jiong watched him for three breaths, placed the wooden stick and the small knife on the flat stone beside him, and stood up from the stone.

"Get up and speak. What does it look like, kneeling in the mud?"

Qifugu did not get up. His knees moved half a step forward in the mud, and his fingers gripped the hem of Gao Jiong's fur coat.

"Lord Gao, I beg you! Where are the Great Zhou troops? Where are the reinforcements the Great Zhou promised? Your Pillar of State said that as long as I could hold this position, the benefits would keep coming! Now Nuhe Ti is pressing down with twenty thousand men, and I can't hold it!"

Gao Jiong looked down at the hand gripping his coat hem. There were still scars from Loose Stone Valley on the fingers, and dried blood scabs were embedded in the fingernails.

He did not pull his coat hem back, nor did he bend down to help Qifugu up. He simply crossed his arms over his chest and hummed from his nasal cavity.

"What is the Great Khan panicking about? Have Nuhe Ti's men reached the outside of the camp yet?"

The sound squeezed out of Qifugu's throat carried a sobbing tone.

"The scouts say they will be here in half a day! Half a day! I have less than five thousand remnants under my command; how can I block twenty thousand elites?"

Gao Jiong pulled one hand from his crossed arms and waved it toward the direction outside the tent.

"Then don't block them. Shrink into the camp, reinforce the fences, set up all the caltrops you can use, and don't go out to fight him in the open."

Qifugu raised his head blankly.

"Defend?"

Gao Jiong squatted down to the same height as Qifugu. His eyes were terrifyingly bright in the dim light of the tent.

"Does the Great Khan want to know how Tuoba Lie died? A thousand elites entered Loose Stone Valley and couldn't run, so they were smashed to death by stones from above. No matter how powerful Nuhe Ti's twenty thousand men are, their cavalry still won't be able to spread out in the alleys of the camp and the gaps between the tents."

Qifugu's breathing had not yet calmed down. The heaving of his chest squeezed the wound on his left shoulder, causing another burst of blood to surge out. He leaned back on Gao Jiong's coat hem, his buttocks landing in the mud.

"Nuhe Ti doesn't need to charge in. He just needs to surround me and starve me to death."

Gao Jiong stood up, dug a piece of dried meat from under the pile of clutter in the tent, and put it in his mouth.

"That is why the Great Khan is asking me where the Great Zhou reinforcements are."

A glimmer of light flashed in Qifugu's eyes.

"Where are they?"

Gao Jiong chewed the dried meat, his cheeks bulging twice.

"On the way."

Qifugu leaned forward.

"When will they arrive?"

Gao Jiong moved the dried meat from the left side to the right and spat out a word vaguely.

"Wait."

Qifugu's complexion changed three times after that word fell, from hope to anger to despair, and then to a gray defeat that could not be described. He opened his mouth to say something, but only a dry, gasping sound squeezed out of his throat.

Gao Jiong turned and walked toward the tent flap. When he reached the flap, he paused and looked back at Qifugu, who was still sitting in the mud.

"The Great Khan should go back and do two things. First, call up everyone in the camp who can fight to repair the fortifications and reinforce the fences. Block all the passages between the tents with caltrops, leaving only a few narrow alleys for your own people to walk through. Second, recount the grain in the granary and calculate exactly how many days it can last."

Qifugu climbed up from the mud. His legs were still weak, and the muddy water from his knees poured into his boots along his trouser legs.

"Lord Gao, how many more days can I last?"

Gao Jiong lifted the flap, and the wind from outside the tent rushed in, blowing the hem of his fur coat back.

"As long as the Great Khan can hold out, the Great Zhou will help. If you can't hold out, then everything will be gone."

The flap fell behind him.

Qifugu stood in the mud inside the tent, his fingers hanging at his sides, clenched into fists. His knuckles turned white from the force. The fire burning in his eyes slowly changed from fear into the fierce light of a beast driven to a dead end.

He rushed out of the tent.

Half a day later, Nuhe Ti's twenty thousand iron cavalry rolled over from the northern horizon.

The golden eagle banners changed from one to ten, then to dozens on the horizon. The iron-armored cavalry square formation advanced from the north to a position five miles outside the Qifu tribe camp and stopped. They set up a continuous camp, with tents stretching for no less than three miles from east to west, surrounding the Qifu tribe camp tightly from the north, east, and west, leaving only an unclosed gap in the south.

Qifugu stood on the low hill in the middle of the camp, looking at the continuous camp outside. The white wolf-head banner behind him fluttered in the wind, and beneath the banner was his face, as gray and white as paper.

Nuhe Ti was in no hurry to attack.

On the first day, twenty thousand men surrounded the Qifu tribe camp, set up camp, and dug trenches. The cavalry square formation ran three laps around the open ground outside the camp. The sound of iron armor clashing and the neighing of warhorses poured into the ears of everyone in the Qifu tribe camp from all directions.

On the second day, Nuhe Ti sent men to set up a row of wooden stakes outside the camp. Hanging on the stakes were not banners, but more than a dozen pickled human heads—all scouts captured from the patrols on the outskirts of the Qifu tribe in the past few days.

On the third day, the royal court's heavy cavalry lined up in three horizontal rows outside the first layer of fences north of the camp. The cavalry did not charge over; they simply drew their curved sabers and held them above their heads. The blades of more than two thousand sabers shone with a cold light in unison under the midday sun.

Fear permeated every corner of the camp from the golden eagle banners, iron armor, and head stakes outside. Some people started to cry, some started to secretly pack their luggage, wanting to slip away from the unclosed gap in the south, and some tied their tent flaps shut at night, refusing to come out.

Qifugu went to find Gao Jiong again on the night of the third day.

This time he did not kneel, but the sound in his voice was even worse than when he was kneeling.

"Lord Gao, my people have started to run. More than thirty households left during the day. If this continues, Nuhe Ti won't even need to fight; I will fall apart on my own."

Gao Jiong sat on the stone in the tent, still holding the half-whittled wooden stick, his small knife scraping again and again, and wood shavings fell to his feet.

"How many who can fight have run?"

Qifugu bit his back teeth.

"Not yet. Those who ran were all herdsmen who defected later, taking their wives and children with them."

Gao Jiong's small knife paused. He raised his eyelids and glanced at Qifugu.

"As long as those who can fight haven't run, it's fine. If the herdsmen run, it's just a few fewer mouths to feed, and the Great Khan's grain can last two more days."

Qifugu stood at the tent flap, clenching his fists, his chest heaving violently. The wound on his left shoulder was seeping blood again.

"When will the Great Zhou reinforcements arrive?"

Gao Jiong whittled the last burr off the wooden stick and turned it twice in his hand. The wooden stick had been whittled into a smooth cylinder, with no use at all.

"I said, wait."

Qifugu's fists clenched until his bones rang.

Gao Jiong placed the wooden stick and the small knife on the stone, stood up, and walked to the tent flap to stand face-to-face with Qifugu, less than a step apart.

"Great Khan, let me ask you one thing."

Qifugu stared at him.

"Nuhe Ti has surrounded us for three days without attacking. Why?"

Qifugu's brows knit together.

Gao Jiong dug out a piece of dried meat from his bosom and put it in his mouth, saying vaguely.

"Twenty thousand men traveled six hundred miles for a long-distance expedition, with grain and supplies dragging behind. It's not that he doesn't want to fight; it's that he spent the first three days repairing the camp and moving supplies, waiting for subsequent reinforcements to arrive. Once his grain and supplies are all in the camp and settled, he will launch a general attack on the fourth or fifth day."

Qifugu's Adam's apple rolled once.

"Then how much time do I have?"

Gao Jiong chewed the dried meat and walked two steps outside the tent, looking up at the sparse stars in the night sky. The wind blowing from the north carried a rancid smell of rust mixed with horse manure.

"One day, two days at most."

Qifugu followed him out, his voice lowered to a level only the two of them could hear.

"Can the Great Zhou people arrive within two days?"

Gao Jiong turned his head back. A smile appeared on his face, which had been roughened by wind and sand in the night. That smile was so cold that the hair on Qifugu's back stood up.

"The Great Khan doesn't need to wait for the Great Zhou people to arrive. The Great Khan only needs to wait for Nuhe Ti to reveal a flaw."

Qifugu's breathing quickened by two beats.

"What flaw?"

Gao Jiong chewed the dried meat in his mouth, swallowed it, turned around, and walked back to his tent. When the tent flap was lifted, his voice drifted out from under the flap.

"Tomorrow night, I will tell the Great Khan."

The flap fell. Qifugu stood in the night wind. The light of the torches from the direction of the royal court's continuous camp reflected on the sky, glowing with a dim yellow, like the mouth of a beast slowly closing. ===== CHAPTER 906 =====