Chapter 265: The Guanshan

Chen Rulie lashed his horse's rump with a whip. The mount snorted and heaved, straining into a desperate gallop as it chased after several fleeing Roving Bandits and charged straight through the wide-open gates of Pure Stream Pass.

Inside, the ground was littered with Roving Bandits lying everywhere, and all manner of horses and mules rested in the streets and alleys. Chen Yuwang spurred his horse and swept past him at full speed, the waist saber in his hand whirling as he lopped the head off the foremost bandit. At the sight of government troops, the bandits in the pass city instantly exploded like a disturbed nest. The utterly exhausted Roving Bandits shrieked in alarm and sprang to their feet, scrambling for those horses and mules before swarming in a mad rush toward the north gate.

Chen Rulie slowed his horse, hacking down the bandits around him. The streets and alleys rang with human shouts and the neighing of horses. Many Roving Bandits had no time to mount and fled in panic through the pass city.

"Drive them toward the north gate!"

Chen Yuwang's voice came from not far away. Chen Rulie had no time to answer. He led a few of his men left along the pass wall into a street. Bandits poured out of the buildings on all sides in an endless stream, dozens of them. Chen Rulie's heart seized with alarm — if these men made a single counter-charge, they could wipe out his handful of soldiers to the last man. Yet those men simply stampeded north in a swarm, never once looking back, and all along the way they clinked and clattered as they dropped silver ingots everywhere.

Chen Rulie let out strange howls from his mouth to frighten those Horse Soldiers, then cautiously spurred his horse into the north-south thoroughfare. Shouts rose from every direction in the streets. Pure Stream Pass was a long, narrow little pass city, and word of the government troops' arrival had already spread everywhere.

Ahead, scattered Roving Bandits still fled. Every one of them panicked and bolted at the sight of these few men. Chen Rulie felt his arrow case — not a single arrow remained inside. All his arrows were spent. Along the road he had seen arrows discarded by bandits, but during the pursuit there had been no time to stop and pick them up.

"Slow the pursuit," Chen Rulie ordered the men behind him. The several cavalrymen all reined in.

The few of them advanced cautiously along the street. When they encountered isolated, straggling Horse Soldiers, they cut them down, herding the mass of Horse Soldiers into fleeing north. In no time at all they had crossed the tiny pass city. By the time they reached the north gate, Chen Yuwang had arrived at the same moment.

The ground was a scene of utter chaos, strewn everywhere with all kinds of rations, cloth, and silk, as well as those gleaming white silver ingots.

The cavalrymen of both parties dismounted one after another, scooping silver ingots off the ground. Chen Rulie did not stop them, but he himself did not scramble for any. After dismounting, he felt his horse's neck — it was covered in sweat, cold and clammy against his hand.

Chen Yuwang was mindful of his own status; his men would naturally share a cut of any silver they picked up, so he too did not stoop to gather silver. After dismounting, he called over four of his Household Retainers and ordered them to return to the south pass and shut the gates. Once off his horse, he walked straight into the gate tunnel and made a circuit around the door leaves of the main gate.

Chen Rulie sat on the ground in exhaustion, drinking water. The thirteen remaining cavalrymen were equally spent. They dismounted one after another and lay down by the roadside. When they had landed at Puzikou, there had been seventy cavalrymen. Their Chief Official had been wounded and had already returned to Anqing. Chen Rulie himself had sustained several wounds. The Cavalry Division had nearly been wiped out. Now, only a dozen or so men had been able to pursue this far, and both men and horses were utterly worn out — yet Pang Yu was still ordering them to press the pursuit.

Though they had been riding the whole time, their backs were still soaked through with sweat, cold and clammy, a deeply unpleasant feeling. The brief chase and slaughter inside the pass city just now, in particular, had drained their stamina to the extreme despite its short duration.

Since morning, the cavalry had been fighting all day, and then they had pursued at high speed for over thirty li from Physics Bridge to this place. The total distance covered was now close to a hundred li. Every horse was lathered in sweat. Several of the mounts had even been replaced with ones captured on the battlefield. Pure Stream Pass had been retaken, but today's fighting might not yet be over.

Chen Rulie forced himself to his feet. He fished some beans from the saddlebag on his horse, placed them in his palm, and held his hand out to the horse's muzzle. The horse stretched its mouth over and lipped them up. Chen Rulie was practiced at this and had no fear of being bitten.

"You feed your own horse yourself, clansman?"

Chen Rulie turned his head and saw Chen Yuwang walking back. He hurriedly replied, "It's a rule set by Lord Pang. Our Cavalry Division has few Auxiliary Troops, and we don't bring any on military expeditions, so we have to do these chores of feeding and brushing the horses ourselves."

Chen Yuwang gave an "Oh," seeming somewhat surprised, but upon hearing that Pang Yu had set the rule, he said nothing more.

"Lord Chen, should we hold this position?"

"Rest a moment, then we pursue." Chen Yuwang took the dry rations a subordinate handed him, bit off a mouthful, and said, "Ever since we ascended this mountain pass, all we've overtaken on the road are those riding mules and donkeys — at best, some inferior horses. That shows the bandit chieftains have all fled further ahead. Staying in this pass city means we can only man the walls and defend it. That is our one and only path to survival. If the Roving Bandit infantry flee this way, we might not even be able to hold it."

A stabbing pain came from the two wounds on his body. Chen Rulie felt waves of irritation in his heart. He understood Chen Yuwang's meaning. Their little cavalry force was in a very awkward position right now. The Liao Army had struck the Roving Bandits' main force. Their cavalry would certainly pursue along the main road from Black Rabbit Bridge. That road would be blocked by the fleeing infantry, and there were so many supplies in the camp to loot, so the Liao Army cavalry could not catch up with the Roving Bandit Horse Soldiers fleeing ahead. Meanwhile, the Garrison Commander's battalion had crossed the river from Yedu Bridge and rushed toward the mountain pass. This cavalry force might have ended up exactly behind the Roving Bandit Horse Soldiers — ahead of them, the main body of Horse Soldiers fleeing; behind them, the Roving Bandit infantry fleeing this way. At this point, retreat was not even an option.

Whether they held the pass or continued the pursuit, they would have to keep fighting. Neither their physical exhaustion nor their tension had been relieved.

The massive gate bar lay discarded right there on the ground. The guide had been right after all. Whether the defending government troops had opened it when they fled, or the Roving Bandits had climbed in and opened it, no one knew. Pure Stream Pass commanded a natural barrier, throttling the sole official road. If the government troops had been able to hold the pass securely, the Roving Bandits' Horse Soldiers would have been turtles in a jar, trapped to die on this mountain pass. And if the Roving Bandits had not been solely focused on fleeing for their lives, they too could have used the pass city to block the government troops' pursuit. A pity that neither side had any such intention.

Chen Rulie cursed the pass-defending troops in his heart. If those defenders had been able to hold Pure Stream Pass, they could have bottled up the Roving Bandits' main force on this southern slope of the pass mountain, and he himself would not have ended up in such a predicament.

"Another seven li to Zhulong Bridge." Chen Yuwang pulled out his gourd ladle and poured some water into his mouth. "I've traveled this road before. We've overtaken so many bandit spawn riding inferior horses along the way. Those bandit chieftains aren't much faster than we are."

"Then won't Pure Stream Pass be taken by the Roving Bandit infantry again? If we don't defeat the Roving Bandits at Zhulong Bridge, we won't even be able to re-enter the pass city on our way back."

Chen Yuwang wiped the remaining drops of water from his lips. "We cavalry did not come here to defend a city."

Chen Rulie hesitated. He actually knew nothing about defending a city either, but trapped as they were with Roving Bandits both ahead and behind, if they could stay in the pass city, they could at least block the Roving Bandit infantry coming from behind. Now Chen Yuwang had decided to pursue the bandit chieftains ahead — and that was no small number, at least two or three thousand Horse Soldiers.

He glanced behind Chen Yuwang. "Lord Chen, we have only thirty cavalrymen. If we pursue, we're talking about at least a thousand bandit spawn Horse Soldiers..."

Chen Yuwang chuckled a few times, looked at Chen Rulie, and said, "We only have thirty riders. The Roving Bandits don't know that."

On the northern foothills of the pass mountain northwest of Chuzhou, the stone-paved official road wound through dry, withered trees. At its end stood a stone bridge. Right now, the bridge and the road for several li on both sides were packed solid with thousands of mounted Roving Bandits. A clamorous din filled the air everywhere.

This was Chuzhou's Zhulong Bridge, built during the Jiajing reign of the Ming Dynasty. The bridge was twenty zhang and three chi long, with seven arches. The bridge deck was formed by linking large round logs, covered with earth and then paved flat with stone slabs, with brick and stone enclosure fences on both sides.

The river flowing beneath Zhulong Bridge was still the Pure Stream River. This spot lay on the upper reaches of the Pure Stream River. Waters from all the mountains around Chuzhou converged and flowed into the river. In summer, ten thousand streams surged, and Zhulong Bridge was the sole river crossing — the choke point of Chuzhou's overland transport. In winter, though the waters had dried up, large stretches of the riverbed beneath the bridge still held water, and the bridge deck remained the most critical passage.

North of the bridge led to Dingyuan County in Fengyang Prefecture. South of the bridge was the pass mountain. The fifteen-li stretch southward was treacherous terrain, with Pure Stream Pass guarding the strategic choke point. The entire strategic situation of western Chuzhou revolved around this one mountain and this one river.

On the northern slope of the pass mountain, about one li from Zhulong Bridge, Xiao Wazi reined in his horse. The woods ahead blocked the view, but through the bare branches he could already see that bridge. The road was crowded with many Horse Soldiers, their pace of advance growing slower and slower. Still more people were hurrying up from behind. Many of them were bleeding and wounded, and an atmosphere of terror filled the ranks.

All sorts of rumors were circulating around them — some said the Liaodong Troops had not pursued at all, others said they had already reached Pure Stream Pass. This only stirred greater panic. Many people were shouting curses, demanding the Horse Soldiers ahead speed up.

There were also all kinds of wailing and crying around them. Xiao Wazi felt a stir of irritation in his heart. Most of those weeping and shouting were the family dependents of the old camp. Zhang Xianzhong's old-camp Horse Soldiers were the elite of the camp. They generally had two or three horses or mules. On the march they rode mules or secondary horses. Their primary warhorses were not used for riding in ordinary times and were entrusted only to the most trusted family dependents for care. When it came time for battle, the Horse Soldiers would switch to their good horses. When it came time to flee for their lives, the family dependents would use those secondary horses or mules.

After fleeing from Physics Bridge, they had crossed the West Stream and fled along the official road northwest toward the pass mountain. Most of the pursuing Liao Army behind them had been blocked by the collapsing Servants. A great deal of silver and cloth had been thrown away, and indeed the Liao Army troops in pursuit had thinned out.

Along the road, the various defeated camps were in complete chaos. Men and horses from different units tangled together, fighting over the road. Even the relatively intact troops led by Liu Wenxiu had scattered completely. Xiao Wazi had not seen Liu Wenxiu's banner for a long time and did not even know whether he was ahead of him or behind. The only person nearby he still recognized was his Long Family, Second Locust.

Everyone was focused solely on fleeing for their lives, sparing not the slightest care for their mounts' stamina. The difference in the quality of their mounts gradually became apparent. Some family dependents riding mules and inferior horses slowly fell behind. The old-camp Horse Soldiers in flight had no time to wait for them. Only when they stopped here did everyone come back to their senses, and those who could not find their kin and friends began to wail.

He fed a handful of black beans into his horse's mouth. The mount began crunching them noisily. Xiao Wazi examined it carefully from left to right. The horse had only one small wound on its body, which had already stopped bleeding — probably just grazed by an arrowhead. Compared to other people's horses, his was in decent shape.

Xiao Wazi's horse had been seized at Fierce Tiger Bridge. It was a fine warhorse, but he had no replacement mount. It had taken part in the fierce midday battle today, had galloped at high speed many times, and had also run several dozen li in the afternoon. It too was somewhat worn out.

What mattered was that Xiao Wazi did not know how much farther they would have to run today. In many past defeats, the old camp could cover nearly two hundred li in a single day. When Xiao Wazi had no horse, it had taken him a good while to rejoin the ranks. But they had never before fought government troops in this manner. A great deal of horse stamina had been expended before noon. Now the sky was darkening. Once they crossed the bridge, they would probably have to rest.

"Eat some dry flatbread first. We'll still have to travel tonight."

Second Locust's voice came from beside him. Xiao Wazi quickly turned his head and saw Second Locust handing him half a dry flatbread from horseback. He immediately took it and stuffed it into his mouth. He was both famished and parched, and had nothing to eat. All his belongings had been on that mule cart. Escaping alone in this defeat, his losses were grievous.

After chewing a couple of mouthfuls, Xiao Wazi asked indistinctly, "It's almost nightfall. I'm afraid of missing the master's place."

"This time, Commander Lu is right on our heels. Running just a few dozen li isn't enough. Eight Master will surely not stop until we've covered a hundred li. Feed the horse some more." Second Locust raised his head and looked ahead. A woman carrying a child, riding an inferior horse, happened to be right in front of him. He observed her for a moment. This woman seemed to have no connection to anyone else nearby. He cursed, "Fuck his mother's cunt, moving so damn slow."

With that, he spurred his horse forward two steps, raised his scabbard, and struck the woman viciously across the cheek. With a muffled grunt, she toppled off the horse. The child began wailing loudly.

Second Locust pulled the reins, preparing to seize the horse. Seeing the child still on the horse's back, he kicked at the child. But the child, crying and screaming, clung on desperately and refused to let go. Second Locust could not put enough force into it from horseback. Xiao Wazi rushed up, grabbed the child's leg with one hand, and yanked him down. Holding the child upside down, he carried him to the roadside and hurled him away with both hands. The child slammed into a tree trunk with a thud, and the crying instantly ceased.

Such seizures were a common sight in the Roving Bandit camp. The other Horse Soldiers around them saw it but paid no attention, instead giving them a slightly wider berth. With all the camps jumbled together now, no one knew anyone else, and no one was willing to meddle in others' affairs.

Once Xiao Wazi had mounted his own horse, the two of them continued following the column forward. Second Locust drew close and said, "Let's seize one more. Who do you think we should target?"

Xiao Wazi turned his head and looked around. Second Locust patted his hand and gestured toward the left front.

Over there was a white-haired old man riding a mule. The mule looked quite robust — that was how it had managed to run from Physics Bridge all the way here without falling behind. Moreover, the other Horse Soldiers kept some distance from him. He looked to be all alone, a perfect target for seizure.

The old man was somewhat hunched, his build not strong. His headscarf had come loose in the flight, and strands of white hair spilled out.

Xiao Wazi stared at that white hair and froze. Second Locust tilted his head to look at him and nudged him with an elbow.

"Should we take this old man?"

"The old man's mule... is no good." Xiao Wazi came back to his senses and looked at Second Locust. "Better wait until nightfall and take someone with a horse."

"A mule is a bit worse. We'll talk when it's dark, then." Second Locust paid it no further mind. Just then, a burst of clamor came from far behind them. He immediately scanned his surroundings warily. At times like this, one also had to guard against others seizing their horses — and that would be even more brutal, because to prevent retaliation, if anyone made a move, they would definitely strike to kill outright.

Xiao Wazi turned his head to look toward the commotion. In the distance, the visible area suddenly grew congested — horse heads and human heads piled together, and people were shouting in alarm.

The chaos spread rapidly. Xiao Wazi faintly heard someone yell, "The Liao Army is here!"

Second Locust and Xiao Wazi exchanged a glance. Both drew their swords at the same time and pushed toward the bridge. On the Official Road along the northern slope of Guan Mountain, men shouted and horses neighed. Over a thousand Horse Soldiers jammed together, fighting to surge toward Zhulong Bridge.