Chapter 457: The Huarong Road

On the pitted and rutted mountain path, the corpses of men and horses lay everywhere, fresh blood staining every single stone on the road's surface red.

It was the darkest moment just before dawn. In the Official Reception Hall west of Santunying Fortress, Shuotuo stretched out both arms and, with an expressionless face, let his personal guards help him into his armor and prepare his horse, ready to charge.

This time he had to go personally, because the number of men remaining had reached a critical point, and the pursuers behind him were already closing in. So this time it was all or nothing — either fight his way out alive, or die beneath the walls of Santunying Fortress. There was no third path to take.

When Shuotuo led 1,500 cavalrymen to the foot of Santunying Fortress yesterday morning, he could not help sucking in a breath of cold air.

The mountain road, which had originally been reasonably flat, was now completely transformed.

Within the field of fire from the city wall, running from west to east, there was first a stretch of pitted and rutted "pockmarked road."

The surface of the pockmarked road was covered with dense pits. These pits looked simple enough, as if merely scooped out with an entrenching shovel, but the vertical face of every single pit likewise ran from west to east.

Horse-trapping pits.

The principle of a horse-trapping pit is very simple — it is just like a person walking down a flight of steps, where the vertical drop catches the heel. When a horse runs at high speed and its rear hoof lands on a pit, the heel will "slip" into empty space, and then the hoof will snap.

In fact, when people twist their ankles, most of the time it also happens while going downstairs — the same principle applies.

After this stretch of pockmarked road, which looked inconspicuous but was in truth viciously malicious, came a stretch of stone road.

Santunying Fortress sat right beside the Luan River, so the riverbed held many stones. These stones had now been picked over and deliberately placed across the road surface.

The stones ranged from large to small, scattered in complete disorder. Their one common feature was that the sharp side of every stone pointed straight up.

This stretch of road was no longer meant merely to trap horses — even a person walking across it would have to search carefully for a foothold, or else suffer a pierced sole or a snapped ankle.

After studying this entire road surface, maliciously designed to target cavalry, Shuotuo raised his head and at once spotted the name of his despicable opponent: the great banner bearing the character "Cao," fluttering atop the city wall.

"Dismount. Send one niru — attack the city."

No matter how treacherous this mountain road before the gates of Santunying Fortress might be, in the end it was only meant to block the Later Jin cavalry from heading east to link up with Amin. But for Shuotuo's forces, in theory, the best plan was actually to take Santunying Fortress itself and then enter the mountains from the north of the city; linking up with Amin could only count as the fallback plan.

And so Shuotuo quickly made his assessment. He ordered the troops of one niru to probe the city with an attack, to see exactly what kind of opponent was inside.

The 300 cavalrymen dismounted on command, carrying shields and sabers, with hooked ropes tucked behind their waists, and slowly advanced toward the city wall.

To be honest, an assault of this caliber could only be considered a feint. So long as the defenders were even halfway competent, cavalrymen with absolutely no siege preparations could pose no threat whatsoever to the fortress.

For a fully equipped garrison city like Santunying Fortress, if one truly wanted to launch a full-scale attack, one would first need a large number of auxiliary soldiers to construct siege ladders and similar equipment; only after that could one speak of piling up corpses to take the walls.

When the Later Jin had invaded previously, they had originally intended to madly pile up corpses as well. In the end, no one expected that the superfluous troops inside the city, seeking revenge against the imperial court for years of withheld wages, would simply open the city gates — giving the entire Later Jin leadership a new level of insight into the rot within the Ming dynasty.

Now, at this point in time, Shuotuo did not expect to run into such good fortune again.

Since the opponent had been able to seize Santunying Fortress by surprise under these circumstances, they were bound to be a sizeable force composed of elite household retainers and personal troops — they would certainly not let a mutiny over pay affect the battle again.

Atop the walls of Santunying Fortress, apart from the snapping of great banners and the howling of the northwest wind, it seemed empty and deserted.

But at the moment the attackers were still 50 meters from the moat, a row of heads suddenly appeared on the wall, followed immediately by the continuous crack of volley fire.

Just like all Tartars encountering the Transmigrators for the first time, these 300 men, after taking the first volley, unhesitatingly began to charge at full speed, attempting to exploit the reloading time of the firearms to cause some trouble.

The outcome, of course, was entirely predictable.

Also just like all Tartars encountering the Transmigrators, after taking several rapid volleys, this niru's casualties had been driven past 50% with brutal disregard.

In the cold weapon era, weaker troops — like the Ming Army — would retreat once casualties reached 5%. Even for Later Jin elites, a casualty rate of at most 10% would likewise cause the unit to collapse.

Note that the casualty rates above refer to battlefield figures when both sides are inflicting losses on each other.

If the opponent does not lose a single soldier and merely fires guns from a distance to kill your own men, then whether Later Jin or Ming Army, the troops will collapse the moment casualties exceed 3% — watching the enemy leisurely shoot your comrades dead, that sense of helplessness and terror will shatter a soldier in an instant, and is far more devastating than the power of hand-to-hand combat.

This niru under Shuotuo's command lost over 150 men in the space of two minutes. This had already far exceeded the breaking point of any man, and so the remaining survivors fled back in a daze, as if their souls had left their bodies.

"No wonder they could take the fortress by stealth — so their equipment is this deadly!"

Shuotuo now finally understood how Santunying Fortress had been lost.

Watching the faint gun-smoke slowly dispersing above the city wall, and then looking at the corpses strewn across the ground by the moat, Shuotuo knew that his best-plan option was apparently unworkable: with that row of strange firearms present, even if the number of men on the wall was not actually large, in a pinch the cavalrymen he had on hand had no way to fly up the wall and seize Santunying Fortress.

"Send men to clear the road. We head for Yongping."

Shuotuo very quickly grasped the weakness of the defenders on the wall based on the situation: they were few in number, and could not leave the city to fight in the open field. Seeing through to this layer, Shuotuo abandoned his illusions and made the optimal choice under the current circumstances.

After this, a group of men, holding some tree branches and shields they had hastily gathered, began filling in the pits. Others walked on foot through the pitted zone, bending over to clear away the stones underfoot.

When the scavengers cleared the road surface, the position they chose was on the south side of the road, close to the foot of the opposite mountain, already over 400 meters from the city wall. Their task was simple: clear a narrow path, just enough for the troops to lead their horses on foot across this roughly three-li stretch of ruined road.

The next moment, a row of gunshots rang out again, and several scavengers crumpled to the ground at the sound.

Seeing this scene, Shuotuo could not help being greatly alarmed, and he swiftly pulled his horse back to a safe distance. Even if you beat him to death, he would never have imagined that the fire lances on the city wall had such range — it seemed that during the fight by the moat just now, the opponent had still been holding back.

"Scatter, scatter! Keep leveling the road — do not stop!"

After seeing that volley of gunfire take down several scavengers, Shuotuo hurriedly gave the order, demanding that the scavengers spread out to avoid being hit by concentrated fire.

In a brutal environment, humanity's capacity for learning is extremely swift. The scavengers very quickly became self-taught, learning amid the unceasing bullet rain to duck their backs and advance in serpentine patterns.

Although men were still being shot down from time to time, the road surface continued to be cleared.

But this situation was soon suppressed again: from the watchtower on the city wall, a different kind of gunfire rang out.

This gunfire was not frequent — only one shot every few seconds — but its accuracy was remarkably high, reaching seventy to eighty percent. And so before long, the hundred-odd scavengers collapsed again and retreated en masse to the safety zone.

"We won't get through in daylight. Wait for nightfall." Seeing that matters had come to this, Shuotuo could only suppress his impatience and wait for darkness.

To say "wait" was not actually so simple: several thousand Ming cavalry were still hanging behind Shuotuo.

Just as he gave the order to halt, a messenger arrived from the rear: the Ming Army at the mountain pass had already rallied a large force and charged the line twice; the niru holding the rear could no longer hold on.

Shuotuo replied flatly, "Pull back. Let the Ming dogs' cavalry come through."

That afternoon, the 3,000 cavalry led by Zu Dashou smoothly broke through the blocking force. After that, on the mountain road still 20 li from Santunying Fortress, the Ming Army was met head-on by 1,000 Later Jin cavalrymen personally led by Shuotuo.

The Tartars, with no path of retreat left, were utterly ferocious and desperate, every man fighting with no regard for death. They routed Zu Dashou's forces so thoroughly that the Ming troops fled in utter disarray, leaving more than 500 corpses on the mountain road.

Ma Huihui, who had just captured Zunhua and was standing atop the city wall preparing to recite a doggerel poem to show off, thus witnessed the Guanning Iron Cavalry fleeing out of the mountain pass like panicked wolves and stampeding swine.

The main Ming Army force immediately centered itself on Zunhua and deployed the Eight-Door Golden Lock Formation: it looked like that wretch Shuotuo was going to wheel around and strike back!

After routing Zu Dashou, Shuotuo gained precious time for rest and reorganization.

When the sky was just turning dark, the Tartar soldiers, long since restless and impatient, once again began the road-clearing work.

This time, the Great Lords of the Banners had learned their lesson.

They combined the captured horses with horses spared from their own ranks into one team, and then had the scavengers lead the horses to walk out a straight line — with the horses on their left side, forming a moving wall of flesh to block bullets.

This method proved very effective.

Although a few men on the wall with night vision devices fired in time to stop them, bullets could only kill horses, not the sweepers.

Just like that, the sweepers lined up in a single straight line, and finally used the most primitive method to neutralize the enemy's terrifying long-range firepower. Now, Shuotuo's force could finally settle down and repair the road.

At four in the morning, a corridor ten meters wide was finally cleared. With Shuotuo on horseback giving the order, knights in four rows began silently crossing this short Death Road.

The crossing was very safe. The defenders on the wall, as if knowing bullets were useless now, let the Tartar cavalry pass right before their eyes at this critical moment without firing a single shot.

Only after the entire column of over a thousand Tartar cavalry had entered the "safe passage" did the delayed killing blow finally arrive.

First came the explosives.

Just as the vanguard had run a few dozen meters past the safe passage, the Transmigrators' last TNT box, hidden in a camouflaged tree trunk by the roadside, detonated.

The deafening blast and the flames that shot into the sky were heard even by the Ming Army as far away as Zunhua.

At the same moment, the M2 Machine Gun finally began to show its power. The Tartar cavalry in their four-column formation gave the M2 the perfect fan-shaped firing angle, and the dazzling whip of fire in the dark night swept down the Tartar cavalry in front of Santun Camp one after another.

The killing moves did not stop there.

Not long after the great explosion, a column of cavalry bearing torches charged out from the valley to the side of the safe passage — these were the one hundred Flying Tiger Battalion troops who had been sent back earlier to escort prisoners.

The Flying Tiger Battalion soldiers, arriving just in time for this battle, raised their sabers and swiftly cut down a swath of the disoriented Tartars. Then, with a whistle, the entire unit ran back into Santun Camp... with a wave of the hand, they left behind a hundred-odd lives.

After finishing one belt of ammunition, the M2 Machine Gun, as was its custom, fell silent.

In that brief span of five minutes, Shuotuo's force lost over a thousand men. When the losses were tallied afterward, only 500 remained who could still mount a horse and ride.

From the moment the count was finished, Shuotuo sat blankly in the Reception Hall, silent, staring at the starlight overhead, lost in unknown thoughts.

He could hardly be blamed for this. Anyone who suffered a blow so far beyond their comprehension would begin to doubt their fate.

This set of combination moves in the dark of night had thoroughly shattered Shuotuo's force into collapse.

And so the Beile just sat there dumbly in the pavilion, issuing no orders. Even as dawn approached, the Beile still made no move.

Not until high noon did a subordinate, having somewhat recovered his essence, come to report: the main Ming Army force was once again attacking along the mountain path.

After hearing the report, the Beile finally rose. While signaling his men to help him don his heavy armor, he said expressionlessly: "Mount up. We charge again. Death is a release. If we don't charge and the Ming dogs catch us, it will be death by a thousand cuts!"

The remaining 500 men all understood the Beile's meaning. They knew all too well how much evil they had done in Ming lands, so at this moment, everyone agreed with the Beile's opinion: either die on the charge, or return to Liaodong. There was no other choice.

And so, Shuotuo's force, driven into a dead end, launched their final death charge at noon on April 3rd.

The terrifying chorus of gunfire from the wall rose in response.

Yet none of this mattered anymore.

Riding on his horse, Shuotuo was utterly focused, nimbly guiding his fine steed to leap over corpse after corpse, paying no mind to the bullets dancing before him, as if those fiery red warheads did not exist.

Perhaps he had unwittingly grasped the essence of dodging bullets: the more you fear bullets, the more they find you. And so the Beile, who had cast aside all thought of life and death, miraculously made his way through the dense bullet rain unscathed. Even the horse beneath him was extraordinarily valiant, and after crossing this Death Road, the Beile did not have a single scratch.

There was no earth-shattering explosion, and no cavalry charging out from the valley. After evading the bullet rain, Shuotuo galloped on for a few hundred more paces and found that the bullets had finally left him far behind.

The first moment he had escaped with his life, Shuotuo looked back. Fewer than 50 men had escaped with him.

The force that had originally numbered a full 2,000 men, the 2,000 Banner elites who had been locked in confrontation with the Great Ming's 200,000-strong army, had been inexplicably buried here at the hands of this devilish enemy force.

What Shuotuo found even harder to accept was that, aside from knowing his opponent's official name and surname, he had not even seen the faces of their soldiers before being utterly annihilated from a distance of several hundred paces.

"I must return and report to the Great Khan — a formidable new foe has appeared in the Ming state!"

Once he had escaped with his life, that earlier state of transcendence, of indifference to life and death, vanished. After Shuotuo came back to his senses, his first thought was of the most urgent task: to deliver this news to the Great Khan.

With this thought in mind, Shuotuo took the lead, urgently ordering his remaining men to speed up, and the tattered force fled madly toward Yongping.

The next moment, after rounding a mountain col, the Beile urgently pulled on his reins. His horse reared up, neighing long and shrilly.

The mountain path ahead was densely packed with men and horses.

At the very front was a row of people wearing camouflage.

Shuotuo now finally knew what those people on the wall of Santunying Fortress looked like — behind these camouflage-clad people opposite him, the banner of Regional Commander Cao also stood.

After the two sides faced off for a few seconds, the one man in that row of camouflage-clad people who wore the uniform of a Ming military officer, a middle-aged man, turned aside and said something to the others in camouflage.

The next moment, the broadest-built man among the camouflage-clad group burst into loud laughter: "So it's the Beile! Today is a perfect reenactment of Huarong Road, isn't it!? Beile, did you just let out three great laughs?"