Chapter 200: Surging

The iron shot tore through the blood-mist barrier and struck the left front chest of the second warhorse in the rear rank. The powerful horse body was utterly fragile before the high-velocity iron shot. A gaping hole of torn flesh instantly appeared in the horse's chest; the cannonball continued forward and severed both front legs of the third horse, which immediately crashed to the ground.

The gore-smeared cannonball finally burst out of the horse herd and slammed into an earthen slope behind them with a heavy thud.

Only then did the rider who had been flung into the air crash to the ground. Flesh and blood flew everywhere among the horses. The blood mist and chunks of meat thrown up from the first horse showered the entire herd. The panicked horse soldiers scattered and fled like a nest exploding, and moments later someone blew a horn. The horse soldiers swarmed away without a backward glance and swiftly vanished behind the hills to the left of the official road.

A wave of cheers rose from the Garrison Commander battalion's formation. Morale soared in an instant, higher than when the battle began. The cannon's white gunpowder smoke drifted through the ranks. Everyone craned their necks toward that great cannon, every face alight with excitement.

From behind the small hill on the western side, dense hoofbeats also sounded. It seemed that hidden cavalry force had withdrawn as well.

Pang Yu let out a long breath. "Cannons are still the best. I'm bringing more of them from now on."

The hoofbeats gradually faded into the distance. The clamorous battlefield fell silent. A few injured warhorses lay on the ground neighing, blood gushing beneath them. They could no longer stand; only their four hooves still stretched out feebly.

Some bodies of men and horses lay on the ground. Other wounded bandits had already been rescued and carried away by the other horse soldiers.

Pang Yu was momentarily unsure whether to withdraw or advance. The army formation remained on alert in place. During the battle, everyone had been utterly focused, all their energy on the roving bandits. Now that the threat was gone, they all felt thirsty and looked around in every direction.

Just as they had appeared suddenly, the bandit cavalry vanished just as suddenly. A mere hundred-odd cavalrymen had rendered Pang Yu's nearly one thousand infantrymen immobile. And Pang Yu could only count himself fortunate that the terrain here was narrow; otherwise, it was hard to say how many of his thousand raw recruits could have escaped.

But he had to deal with the matter at hand first. The army could not simply do nothing here. Pang Yu was the highest-ranking officer; he had to make a decision.

Pang Ding came up behind him at that moment. "My lord, shall we pursue?"

Pang Yu was about to answer Pang Ding when a bandit on the ground ahead suddenly stirred, even struggling to push himself up.

That bandit was about a hundred paces away and seemed to be the one stunned by the cannon blast. The other bandits had fled in a swarm and left him behind there.

Many soldiers in the front ranks had noticed. Pang Yu raised his telescope and looked for a moment. The man did not appear seriously injured. The bandits had no banners, nor anything like soldier tags. He needed a prisoner alive; otherwise, he would not even know which camp head these bandits belonged to, and this battle would truly have been fought in utter confusion.

Just as he was about to order someone to capture him, Pang Yu suddenly gazed toward that earthen mound for a moment, then turned his head and shouted, "Yang Xueshi!"

Yang Xueshi, who commanded both cavalry and the arrow squad, immediately ran over.

Pang Yu pointed at the small slope and said in a low voice, "Send one fast rider to the top of the slope to see whether those horse soldiers have really left or not. No one is to die."

Yang Xueshi turned, mounted his horse, and rode back to the rear formation to make arrangements. Soon he returned to the front formation with a cavalryman. Pang Yu looked him over: a young man with quick, intelligent eyes, probably just past twenty.

After Yang Xueshi gave a few more words of advice, the rider spurred his horse out. His horsemanship looked quite practiced, and his mount's acceleration was decent enough. The Garrison Commander battalion's infantry still stood in formation where they were; this cavalryman was now the army's eyes and ears.

Pang Yu watched intently as well. When defending Tongcheng there had been the city wall; when attacking Beixia Pass the terrain had been cramped. He had never felt cavalry were difficult to deal with, only that they ran fast. That round of cavalry charges just now had suddenly filled him with deep dread of cavalry.

At this moment, they had recovered their momentum thanks to the cannon. If he rashly sent men to seize that prisoner and walked into another ambush, it would deal a devastating blow to his army's morale. In future battles, he would have to spend far more effort restoring the soldiers' confidence. So he needed to confirm the horse soldiers had withdrawn before he would send anyone away from the main formation to capture the prisoner — precisely because he did not want any more casualties, and wanted to sustain morale until this battle was over.

Every soldier watched that cavalryman racing toward the slope top. The scattered hoofbeats echoed across the incline.

The cavalryman made a detour, ascending from the northern side of the slope. That way, if danger arose, he would not need to turn around and could return directly the way he came. Cautiously, he stood up in the saddle to peer around and slowly approached the slope top.

At that moment, he suddenly hunched his body down, yanked the horse's head to the left, and lashed the horse's rump hard with his whip. A swarm of arrows shot out from behind the slope like locusts, just barely passing over his head.

The figures of a dozen or so horse soldiers appeared on the ridgeline, howling as they pursued that scout cavalryman.

The scout cavalryman pressed his body very low and urged his horse on at a frantic gallop, head down. The horse soldiers behind him carried cavalry bows and could not sprint at such extreme speed. Just as the scout was about to return within the covering range of the arrow squad, the horse soldiers drew their bows and loosed arrows one after another. A dozen or more arrows flew toward the scout. The scout's body shuddered a few times, but he did not slow in the slightest. His horse screamed and charged back into the battle line.

Several sword-and-shield soldiers caught the scout. Only then did Pang Yu see that three arrows were embedded in his back and two in his horse's rump. He immediately called for auxiliary troops to take him to the rear rank to treat his wounds.

Those dozen or so bandit horse soldiers, seeing the Garrison Commander battalion's formation strict and orderly, hastily turned northward beyond the range of the step bows, pulled up that wounded bandit, and departed into the distance. Before leaving, they even picked up some usable weapons from the ground.

This time, the Garrison Commander battalion's infantry formation merely stirred slightly, but everyone strictly held the battle line, and no one shouted loudly.

It seemed the bandits had truly left this time. They had actually set an ambush twice in the same place. Had Pang Yu been the least bit careless just now, he would have been caught off guard by these cunning horse soldiers again.

After remaining in place like that for another half a quarter-hour, Pang Yu sent out scouts to reconnoiter once more. The horse soldiers in the vicinity had indeed all withdrawn.

Pang Yu finally breathed a sigh of relief as well. He called Guo Fengyou over and said, "Herald, pass the order to all companies: eat dry rations by squads in sequence. Centurions are to tally the dead and wounded. New recruits are to tend to the injured. The scouts are to send word to the logistics team to set down the fodder and provisions on the spot and send the empty carts over to transport the dead and wounded soldiers."

In this battle, the Garrison Commander battalion had suffered more dead and wounded than the bandits. Although they had held the battle line, in the end they did not even know whom they had fought. Pang Yu himself knew they had lost this battle — it was merely a defeat with relatively few casualties. Had it not been for the Garrison Commander battalion's harsh discipline training, they would surely have been routed a thousand li today.

The cunning and skill of the bandit cavalry in the field were beyond anything his new army could match. These horse soldiers had fully exploited the cavalry's advantage over infantry. Although the Garrison Commander battalion's casualties were not catastrophic, Pang Yu no longer dared to press forward. A hundred-odd horse soldiers had effortlessly neutralized the Garrison Commander battalion's threat to the main bandit force.

After each company had taken its turn drinking water and eating dry rations, Pang Yu assembled the officers and set the order of withdrawal. Pang Yu himself would bring up the rear with the Third Company. The Garrison Commander battalion retreated toward Beixia Pass, utterly crestfallen.

……

Waves of weeping rose outside Tongcheng. On the official road beyond the Zilai Bridge lay over a hundred corpses covered with sheets — all fallen soldiers from Tongcheng. The Third Company had the most. In the battle at Shucheng Mountain Pass, many had been struck by arrows, but few had died on the spot. Yet on the journey back to Beixia Pass, the long toil had worsened the wounds of some of the injured.

Outside the city, family dependents kept arriving to identify and claim the dead. Pang Ding and Jiang Guoyong were in charge of receiving them. In addition to distributing comfort compensation, they also had to escort each body back to its home village for burial.

The common folk inside the city crowded around. Since last year, the people of Tongcheng had grown accustomed to the sight of death and injury. The first time Pang Yu had carted a load of heads into the city, the entire populace had been shocked and horrified. Now, even if several hundred heads were laid out, no one bothered to spare them more than a glance.

Although the Garrison Commander battalion had suffered heavy losses, the battle at Beixia Pass had slain over five hundred bandits and captured one hundred seventy mounts. The water level in the Wooden Bridge River had not been high, and because of Pang Yu's delay at Xiaoguanpu, many true bandits had escaped into the mountain region. Afterward, Pang Yu had been busy seizing spoils of war and had failed to capture most of them. But whether those bandits could survive after entering the mountains was also an unknown.

Of the several thousand captured, only the two hundred-odd seized on the battlefield were true bandits, including horse soldiers and servants. Among the other coerced followers, over two hundred with trade skills were selected; most of the rest were released and sent off toward Lujiang.

The over a thousand mules and horses in the Scorpion Block camp had been snatched and fled with by the routed bandits. The silver on the road had been partly scattered deliberately and partly dropped during the scramble. Most of the other spoils — weapons, bedding, clothing, and the like — had been seized by Xu Strengthening.

In the subsequent battle at Shucheng Mountain Pass, the Garrison Commander battalion had set out riding the prestige of a great victory, their morale soaring like a rainbow, only to be battered into dejection by a hundred-odd horse soldiers in the blink of an eye.

The atmosphere outside the city was somewhat sorrowful, but inside the city it was much more relaxed. Since being besieged last year, no one wished to endure such an ordeal again. Shi Kefa had led the government troops to drive back the roving bandits and had even won a major victory. At least the threat had been lifted for the short term.

When Shi Kefa was in Tongcheng, his office was at the Branch Defense Circuit Office on County Front Street. This was a place specifically for superior circuit intendants to use when conducting inspections. There was also a Branch Surveillance Circuit, which handled punishments and had its own separate branch office, somewhat smaller in scale, located in City East.

When Pang Yu and Yang Erming arrived at the Branch Intendant Office, Shi Kefa was already waiting. He already knew the general outcome of the battle at Shucheng Mountain Pass; now he merely wanted to hear Pang Yu's report in person.

Pang Yu gave a brief report — half truth, half fabrication, of course. Pan Keda and Xu Strengthening were present, so he could not appear too utterly useless. He reported the bandit numbers as five hundred horse soldiers.

Pan Keda and Xu Strengthening stood to one side. They had also learned the general situation of Pang Yu's advance toward Shucheng. The two were rather gloating. No matter what Pang Yu said, the fact that he had retreated back to Tongcheng so quickly, and that his camp now had more dead and wounded, meant he certainly had not gained any advantage. The two were also congratulating themselves for not having joined the Shucheng expedition.

Shi Kefa, however, had not the slightest doubt. Since last year, the roving bandits' arrogance had swelled. First they had burned Fengyang. After the sixth month of this year, the bandits had successively killed important commanders like Ai Wannian and Cao Wenzhao. In the past, it had always been the bandits avoiding the government troops; now, it was often the troops avoiding the bandits.

Amid this string of defeats, Shi Kefa had used a new army to inflict a great defeat on the roving bandits. Although the head count was only several hundred, for a newly appointed Military Defense Circuit intendant, it was a dazzling achievement and an excellent account to give to Zhang Guowei and the imperial court. At this moment, he found Pang Yu agreeable no matter how he looked at him, and he was even less inclined to doubt Pang Yu's report. Considering that Shucheng was under the jurisdiction of the Fengyang Governor, Pang Yu's swift withdrawal from Shucheng — even if there had been a minor defeat — actually better suited Shi Kefa's wishes.

"In the detailed report this official submits to Lord Zhang, the first merit for the Battle of Beixia Pass will be reported under General Pang. I hope General Pang will achieve further military merits, to protect the people of Anqing below and to repay Lord Zhang's profound trust above."

Pang Yu hurriedly said, "I thank you, Lord Circuit Intendant. This humble one will certainly fulfill his duties with utmost diligence and will never allow the roving bandits to run rampant. However, there are many dead and wounded in the camp, all sons of farming families from Tongcheng. Their families have lost their breadwinners and urgently await comfort compensation from the court. In addition, there are some losses of equipment and horses. I beg you, my lord, to provide some replenishment, to facilitate further combat."

Pan Keda's face was full of disdain. The Garrison Commander battalion had seized over a hundred horses at Beixia Pass and had also grabbed the most silver. Now, the moment they returned, they were opening their mouths to ask for things.

"Please rest assured, General Pang. This official will attend to this matter. Once I have reported clearly to Lord Zhang, the original quotas will certainly not be shorted."

Shi Kefa nodded, then turned to Yang Erming.

Yang Erming handed over several sheets of petition paper. "Reporting to the Lord Circuit Intendant, the confessions from interrogating the bandit captives have been extracted by the county yamen. Please look them over, my lord."

Shi Kefa skimmed them briefly, a rather worried look on his face. He set down the petition papers and looked at the several men. "Since the sixth month, over ten bands of roving bandits inside the passes have successively come out. After passing Luoyang, they split their forces and scattered in all directions. The two bands of Ma Shouying and Scorpion Block moved the fastest."

Pang Yu knew very little about the overall situation of the war between the government troops and the roving bandits. Anqing bordered Huguang, yet its superior in the administrative division was in Suzhou. The two military command organs were over a thousand li apart. The exchange of information between them was already slow enough; from the Yingtian Patrol Office to Anqing, it practically detoured across half of China.

Shucheng and Lujiang, which also bordered Anqing, were under the jurisdiction of the Fengyang Governor and were likewise no short distance from Suzhou, not to mention that the Henan Provincial Administration Commission did not even share a border. The barriers of administrative divisions made the flow of information between Anqing and the surrounding yamens extremely poor. Pang Yu's understanding of the surrounding situation was almost a complete blank — not just information about the roving bandits; he did not even know how many government troops there were in Huguang and Henan.

So places like Anqing and Luzhou all had no choice but to send their own scouts into Henan to gather intelligence. But this kind of piecemeal, prefecture-by-prefecture scouting relied on very crude methods — mostly hearsay picked up along the road. At best, they could get a rough Awareness that the Roving Bandits were about to arrive, which meant long periods on war footing. This time, supplying grain and fodder for over four thousand troops had already put Yang Erming under considerable strain.

Stationing troops long-term in a foreign region is something the local areas simply cannot sustain. So after this battle, Shi Kefa will soon lead his soldiers back to the Prefectural City. What worries Pang Yu more is the Direction of Qianjiang and Susong. That area faces Huguang and the Dabie Mountains. Several county seats there have already been destroyed, making it impossible to station troops long-term, and the locals cannot supply them either. Given the current efficiency of intelligence, there is no way to provide early warning. If the Roving Bandits suddenly appeared, mounting a timely rescue would be extremely difficult.

Shi Kefa sighed and said, "According to the confessions of the Roving Bandits inside, there is a drought in Shaanxi this year and the grain harvest is poor. They cannot find food in Shaanxi. Quite a few Camp Heads among the bandits have agreed to come out of the passes around the ninth month. Besides those who have already come out, still to come are Gao Yingxiang, the Dashing General, Lighting the Lamp, Cao Cao, the Eight Brigands…"