Chapter 381: Flames of War

To be honest, Wendun Sizhong had absolutely wronged someone.

Among the four people Wendun Sizhong believed had abandoned him, Han Shizhong and Li Yanxian needed no further explanation—they truly regarded him as nothing. And his longtime younger brother, the Golden Tablet Young Master Wanyan Bendu, who had spent nearly a dozen years with him in Aguda's tent, could also be said to have ignored him.

But the Jin's Taiyuan Garrison Commander, Taiyuan March Army Commander-in-Chief, and de facto overall commander of the Western Route Army, Wanyan Balisu, could not be said to have given up on Wendun Sizhong.

Balisu probably just felt there was no need to specifically notify Wendun Sizhong, especially since this Taiyuan Garrison Commander had already dispatched his main force to race southward.

If the army arrived directly, they would naturally rescue Wendun Sizhong along the way. And if, as speculated, they likely couldn't make it, letting everyone in Hezhongfu settle down to defend the city, ultimately producing five hundred righteous men of Hezhongfu and some old subordinate of the founding emperor Aguda dying a martyr's death, while also delaying some troops and time—wouldn't that still make him a loyal subject of the Great Jin?

Why bother with a special notification?

It could only be said that Wendun Sizhong was still emotionally unstable and couldn't appreciate his superior Commander-in-Chief Wanyan Balisu's good intentions.

In fact, on the third day after Wendun Sizhong's emotional collapse, which was the fifth day of the tenth month, Balisu's Taiyuan relief force encountered the Song army at the border between the Linfen Basin and the Hezhong (Yuncheng) Basin.

And if the battlefield were expanded to a hundred li radius around the point of contact, the actual number of troops involved in this battle was quite alarming.

On the Jin side, at least three veteran Wanhu units of the Jin Western Route Army—including Wanyan Balisu's own Wanhu, Wanyan Tuhesu's Wanhu, and Wanyan Zhehe's Wanhu—were committed to battle, with cavalry arriving first and infantry behind. On the Song side, Li Yanxian's own force, along with his subordinate Commanders Shao Long, Lü Monk, Song Yan, Jia He, Yan Ping, Zhao Cheng, Zhai Jin, Zhai Cong, Zhai Chong, Niu Gao, and Dong Xian, totaled thirty-five thousand men, plus Ma Kuo's volunteer army, whose organization and numbers were impossible to tally, all pressed in.

In other words, Balisu hastily gathered the main forces he could first summon around Taiyuan and came straight over, while Li Yanxian left only the most steady Shao Yun to hold Pinglu, plus his own younger brother Li Kui for rear support, and committed his entire army at the first opportunity.

Considering that both sides had Commander-in-Chief-level figures personally present on the battlefield, this could fully be called the first large-scale battle since the Song army's northern expedition.

But the battle itself was fought in extreme chaos.

First, both sides had dispatched troops hastily and made long-distance forced marches. For the Jin army, it was a full five hundred fifty li from Taiyuan to Tieling Pass, with the Taihang volunteer army conducting prepared small-scale harassment along the way. On the other side, even though Li Yanxian made a prompt decision to exit Jiezhou directly from Mount Zhongtiao, and the distance to Tieling Pass was only a hundred forty to fifty li, one must not forget that before the battle, the area north of Mount Zhongtiao in Jiezhou, though infiltrated to a certain degree, was still under Jin control, so they inevitably had to establish temporary supply lines and lay siege to a few stubborn towns with divided forces.

Thus, neither side could avoid fighting in an exhausted state, with chaotic march routes and staggered arrival times.

Second, both sides had uneven combat strength.

On the Jin side, Balisu's direct Wanhu not only had the best equipment and the most experienced veterans, but also had an unusually high number of Mouke per Meng'an—often seven or eight Mouke per Meng'an—and even included a personal guard Meng'an roughly modeled on the Hezha Meng'an, with a solid ten elite Mouke.

In contrast, the units of Wanyan Zhehe and Wanyan Tuhesu, which had suffered the heaviest losses in the earlier Yaoshan battle, inevitably had many newly recruited soldiers after the fighting, with Meng'an varying wildly and Mouke ranging from heaven to earth.

A similar situation was even more pronounced on the Song side.

Because Li Yanxian's corps operated year-round on both banks of the Yellow River, they never conducted headcounts; they simply received pay and military supplies according to the establishment, which Li Yanxian then distributed down through the Commander level, so his forces had strong personal factional characteristics.

Among them, leaving aside Li Yanxian's own core units in Shanzhou and Pinglu, the combat effectiveness of the rest of the army depended entirely on the individual Commander's skill and integrity, to the point where the gap in unit combat power was often astonishing.

Moreover, the troops brought out by Ma Kuo were equipped like mere auxiliary soldiers.

Finally, the terrain was complex.

The area around Tieling Pass was the border between the Linfen Basin and the Hezhong Basin (Yuncheng Basin), a mix of plains, mountain ridges, and hills. Furthermore, Tieling Pass itself, the focus of the battle, was not a formidable fortress, nor was its surrounding terrain so extreme that one man could hold it against ten thousand.

To the west, beside the Yellow River, there was the Fenshui passage; to the east, one could march through Jiangxian. Tieling Pass was by no means the only passable route. Even the surrounding mountains were not absolute dead ends—there was a small pass in Camel Ridge just a few dozen li west of Tieling Pass. The trails used by mountain folk were beyond anyone's full knowledge.

Of course, this did not prevent Tieling Pass itself from being the most important hub between the Linfen Basin and the Hezhong (Yuncheng) Basin, a classic strategic point that both sides would fight over, especially since it was also the terminus of the Zhiguan Path leading from the Shangdang Basin to Hezhongfu.

In short, under the influence of these complex factors, the battle process was both fierce and chaotic, both bloody and highly dramatic.

Within a single day, Tieling Pass changed hands three times.

Early that morning, a local volunteer army dispatched by Ma Kuo, which was closest, came to seize the pass. This volunteer leader, who had followed Ma Kuo since Mount Wuma, obeyed his commander's orders by circling around in plain clothes, trying to trick their way into the pass from the rear, but was detected by the defending Jin Mouke and failed.

The volunteer army lacked equipment and siege capability, and was at a loss for the moment.

But soon, as a Commander under Lü Monk arrived with several hundred regular troops as vanguard and launched an assault, this volunteer leader immediately realized their presence north of the pass. Then, while feigning a pincer attack from north and south, he selected mountain folk from the volunteer army, clad them in double-layered leather armor, and had them scale sheer cliffs to infiltrate the pass—and succeeded.

The Jin garrison at Tieling Pass numbered only one to two hundred men. Once a breach was made, the surging Song troops slaughtered them all.

Subsequently, follow-on units from Lü Monk's, Zhai Cong's, and Zhao Cheng's forces arrived in varying numbers, and several volunteer units under Ma Kuo that were nearby—ranging from five or six hundred to one or two thousand men—also appeared from the east.

By mid-morning, the Song forces around Tieling Pass had at times exceeded ten thousand men.

At this point, there was still no sign of the Jin army.

Overjoyed, whether out of greed for merit, contempt for the enemy, homesickness, genuine orders to seize strategic ground, or simply because everyone had arrived hastily with no one in authority to restrain and coordinate these poorly disciplined troops, none of the units could hold back. Except for Lü Monk, who left a few hundred men behind, all the other troops poured out of Tieling Pass and advanced north into the Linfen Basin.

They scrambled to occupy villages and towns, and some units even engaged in looting and rape, along with scattered armed clashes between local and outside volunteer forces.

The result of this was that by afternoon, when the vanguard of the Jin main force appeared on the plains of the Linfen Basin, the Song army could not organize at all. They could only watch helplessly as, under the supervision of Tuhesu's banner, thousands of Jin cavalry calmly crossed the Huishui River at a point twenty li from the pass—northeast of the pass in the Quwo direction—and began sweeping through the scattered, nearly ten thousand Song troops.

Moreover, the Jin forces kept growing.

Facing organized Jurchen main cavalry, combined with their own disarray and overextension, the Song army suffered a complete defeat on the plain between the north of Tieling Pass and the Huishui River—a stretch ten or so li wide, narrowing to just a few li at its tightest—and even Zhao Cheng himself was lost to communication.

Furthermore, a Jin commander, upon realizing that the vast majority of the opposing Song troops were merely poorly equipped mountain volunteers, took advantage of the rout to press the defeated soldiers back toward the pass, and managed to push all the way into Tieling Pass.

Facing friendly troops driven by the Jin army and falling into sheer cliffs in panic, the officers of Lü Monk's unit on the pass had no ability to respond. They muddle-headedly lost the pass and scattered south of it along with their own men and the routed friendly troops.

However, the matter was not over. Amid the chaos, just as the Jin army had pressed into Tieling Pass and more Jin and Song troops were still in a mess south of the pass's mouth, the true Song main force arrived, with Li Yanxian himself coming personally to the foot of the pass.

Seeing the dense banners and orderly armor surrounding that great standard of "Midstream Pillar" surging from south to north like a wave, the Jin Meng'an who had just entered the pass without even drinking tea immediately panicked. At the same time, the Taihang volunteer army also displayed their unique advantage—though they collapsed quickly, they could rapidly regroup once they fled into the mountains. Now, seeing their main force arriving and their commander's great standard from the mountain ridges, they were filled with confidence and swarmed back onto the northern plain to support their routed comrades, obstruct the main Jin force, and attempt to attack small Jin units.

The Jin army tried to drive them off again, but could not pursue them up the ridges. They could only watch as these nimble volunteer forces regrouped and surged out again.

For a time, even the area north of the pass fell into a stalemate.

At this point, the Tuhesu unit's Meng'an that had broken into Tieling Pass could no longer hold his nerve. Fearing encirclement by the Song main force inside the city and a night attack, and not even having figured out the internal layout of the pass, he steeled himself and chose to withdraw voluntarily, abandoning the pass without even raising his banner.

Many Jin soldiers had no idea that some of their own had taken Tieling Pass—taken it in confusion, and abandoned it in confusion.

As dusk gradually fell, the fading light halted all the chaotic fighting. The Jin army pulled back in force toward the Huishui River ferry area to the northeast, and Li Yanxian ordered the entire army to set up camp straddling the pass.

Setting aside how Li Yanxian would clean up the mess and then try to make sense of the day's battle—which he might never fully understand—and the current situation,

On the other side, that Jin Meng'an had withdrawn and returned to a long-empty market town by the Huishui River, just over twenty li away. Not long after, just as night fell, he had grabbed a house and was looking for a couple of eggs to cook some noodles when his own Wanhu, Tuhesu, summoned him.

His heart immediately sank.

When he followed Tuhesu's personal guards to a place outside the market where a campfire was burning, and saw that besides Tuhesu, several familiar middle-aged generals were sitting cross-legged there, a chill ran down his spine. He hurriedly took off the helmet he had put on before leaving, placed it on the ground, then bent at the waist and clasped his hands in salute.

"Rise."

Tuhesu, sitting cross-legged, frowned slightly. "Where did you learn to act like a Song man?"

"Learning from Song men is nothing to worry about; the trouble is learning the bad instead of the good." The man directly behind the campfire, who was Balisu himself in the center, spoke faintly across the flames. "I recall your name is Suwu? An old soldier?"

"Yes." The Meng'an sensed trouble and quickly stood at attention, clasping his hands. "Does the Commander-in-Chief and the Wanhu wish to hear about today's battle?"

Clasping hands signified both receiving orders and assuming a posture of admitting fault—a gesture uniform between Song and Jin.

"We didn't call you over to ask about that." Tuhesu stretched out his leg as he spoke, numbly itchy from the fire, and directly pounded the old wound on his instep through his boot. "The Commander-in-Chief and I have already summoned many Meng'an and Mouke, including some who entered the pass with you. We understand the situation today—it was a chaotic battle. Everyone is tired, everyone is confused. But you saw Li Yanxian's main army arrive and then, without even fighting, you cowered and abandoned the pass, didn't you?"

Suwu was silent for a moment, then gritted his teeth and made his decision: "Today's affair, I lacked a bit of backbone. But let the Commander-in-Chief and the Wanhu know, the situation at the time was indeed confused. Behind the pass was utter chaos, and no one came to support me. That's why I thought not to throw away the lads' lives lightly. But in the end, I lost the strategic opportunity. I, Suwu, have nothing to say. Commander-in-Chief, Wanhu, I am willing to hand over this silver-plaque Meng'an of the march and return home to await punishment."

The scene fell into a silence so oppressive it was almost terrifying. Tuhesu, Zhehe who had remained silent all along, and the other senior Meng'an present couldn't help but look together toward the figure behind the campfire whose face was completely obscured.

Suwu, being a Meng'an himself, knew full well he had overstepped upon seeing this. He quickly put on a stern expression: "Could it be that before I came, you Wanhu lords had already decided on a verdict and were waiting for my reply to pass judgment? Wanhu! Officially, I am a hereditary Mouke and have served as a marching Meng'an for seven years. Privately, I have followed you since the destruction of Liao. In the Battle of Qiaoshan, when you injured your foot, I carried you down on my back... After so many years of fellowship, are you really going to kill me over something like this?"

Let me add a bit here: the Jin army's Meng'an-Mouke system had multiple functions, combining noble rank, military rank, and civil administration. The later Eight Banners system was basically copied from Aguda's invention... Take Wanyan Loushi, for example. He was a Commander-in-Chief of the Marching Army, a Wanhu holding a gold tablet, and at the same time a hereditary Meng'an with his own private army of Meng'an. And because his hereditary Meng'an was in Huanglong Prefecture, he and his son also enjoyed the tax, judicial, and administrative powers of Huanglong Prefecture.

Of course, with Wanyan Xiyin's reforms, the role of civil administration had essentially been eliminated, but the significance of the noble rank remained... Before being enfeoffed as princes, the hereditary Meng'an within the Great Jin was still the most solid status, with hereditary Mouke coming second... because this meant they had hereditary armies.

And Great Jin, after all, was a state founded on the military.

But how to put it?

The times had changed.

"Commander-in-Chief!"

Seeing Suwu speak this way, Tuhesu couldn't help but look toward the person behind the campfire with a pleading expression.

However, the response to Tuhesu was a stretch of silence.

Tuhesu had no choice. He sighed and then had to look at his subordinate: "Come over here to me and kneel before the Commander-in-Chief!"

A wise man knows when to bend. Suwu quickly came over, knelt down across the campfire at the spot where Tuhesu had originally stretched his legs, and prepared to kowtow again. But just then, Wanyan Tuhesu suddenly made a move to stand up. Suwu, knowing his Wanhu's leg was bad, dared not be negligent. He quickly helped Tuhesu up first, then knelt down again.

However, in the blink of an eye, just as Suwu was kneeling again, the now-standing Tuhesu suddenly grabbed a steel hammer from his waist and swung it with all his might at the back of his long-time subordinate's head.

With just one swing, whether or not this marching Meng'an and hereditary Mouke had time to hear the wind behind his head, he collapsed face-first in front of the campfire.

Immediately, personal guards came forward to finish him off. At Tuhesu's signal, they cut off the man's head and handed it to the military judge at his side, ordering it to be passed around for public display.

Then this lame Wanhu, ignoring the headless corpse still gushing blood on the ground, simply sat down cross-legged again.

After a moment, the corpse was dragged away, but the atmosphere around the campfire remained poor.

"In this battle, we actually had the advantage." Unexpectedly, the first to express dissatisfaction was Wanyan Zhehe, who had remained silent all along and had nothing to do with this man.

"I had no choice." Commander-in-Chief Bolisu, holding an iron hook, replied helplessly. "There's been no major war for five years. These people have long since become muddled. After doing something like this, instead of trying to atone for their mistakes, they only think about abandoning their posts and going home. When they arrive at the garrison, they want to grab houses to live in, look for eggs to cook noodles with, and go to sleep early... They simply don't understand how important this battle is! If we lose, where will there be eggs to eat? Where will there be big houses to live in?"

"That's the logic." Tuhesu, who had just personally killed his own trusted Meng'an, unexpectedly sided with Bolisu.

"The Song army isn't much better either," Wanyan Zhehe continued to retort. "And with their reckless advance to claim merit, the way they look down on us is equally laughable."

"Never mind the reckless advance to claim merit and underestimating the enemy; at least they have some enterprising spirit," Bolisu continued to counter. "And how are we comparing ourselves to the rotten? These are marching Meng'an and hereditary Mouke of the Great Jin's Iron Cavalry!"

"That day at Yaoshan, you saw clearly from the plateau. Don't you have any thoughts in your heart?" Wanyan Zhehe finally grew a bit impatient. "Spirit! It's that spirit! The spirit that could shake mountains and break rivers! It left along with the old Commander-in-Chief!"

"Even if we can't shake mountains and break rivers, we can't be like this!"

"Alright, we're here for a military council. What's there to argue about?" Wanyan Tuhesu, seeing things were going badly, couldn't help but raise his voice a little. "We still have twenty Wanhu, including a hundred thousand Iron Cavalry! Plus the new army from Yanshan. In my view, this battle is still a major formation, and we're on the defensive. If we hold steady, drag it out, and seize the opportunity to bite back, the odds of victory or defeat are about seven to three... But Commander-in-Chief, you are a general commanding an army. Surely you must have some overall strategic plan in mind? Are we really not going to yield an inch of ground?"

"We really can't fight this way." Bolisu regained his composure, using the iron hook in his hand to stir the campfire in front of him, sending a shower of sparks flying. "From an overall strategic perspective, the front line is three thousand li long. We have many cavalry, so we need to use cavalry tactics... The Fourth Prince has already reached Zhending. I'll write to him and insist he come to Taiyuan..."

"You mean to combine the main army and defeat them one by one?" Tuhesu frowned. "Where do we strike first? How do we defend the other side?"

"That will be for the Fourth Prince to decide," Bolisu shook his head in response. "But to be honest, this place is at least not a good location for a decisive battle... There are passes, mountains, rivers, and ridges. And the Song army's supply line is shorter than ours... If we really fight a major decisive battle here and lose, it might end up just like the Battle of Changping between Qin and Zhao."

"I don't know anything about the Battle of Changping, but I also think this isn't a good place for a decisive battle," Tuhesu nodded in agreement. "Linfen behind us isn't either... Although the middle is flat, there are mountains on both sides. The flat ground in the middle is too narrow. We can't leverage our cavalry advantage. It's better to lure the enemy deep, draw them to the walls of Taiyuan, then use the cavalry to seal off all four exits and replay the Battle of Taiyuan... What do you think?"

"Something like that," Bolisu admitted frankly. "Anyone who came from the Western Route Army and fought at Taiyuan probably thinks the same way... We've discussed it before."

"So, are we going to withdraw now?" Wanyan Zhehe suddenly interjected.

"How can we possibly withdraw?" Bolisu frowned even more, his tone finally becoming intense. "Strategy is strategy, tactics are tactics, and morale is morale. Hezhong Prefecture is beyond our reach, but this is the first major engagement between the two countries in years. How can we just withdraw like this? Don't forget what we discussed a few years ago. When the Song army took Xixia that time, although it was due to the overall situation, the Fourth Prince repeatedly avoided battle in the early stages, and then couldn't force a decisive battle in Hetao, which severely damaged morale. That was a lesson! In this situation, whether or not we should lure the enemy deep or defeat them separately, we must first exert all our strength! We must not let this spirit weaken first! Zhehe, what the hell is wrong with you these past few years?!"

Wanyan Zhehe seemed to want to speak but stopped.

Tuhesu, seeing this, quickly tried to smooth things over: "Alright... The Commander-in-Chief must have an idea. Let's hear it!"

"What is there to say? Of course, we concentrate the cavalry and launch a flanking surprise attack from the rear," Bolisu replied solemnly. "I've thought about it... Although they all force-marched here, the Song army's main force is infantry, so they're more tired than us. Our cavalry's expenditure is on the horses, especially those who arrived later today and didn't fight—their spirit is still there. The most important thing is that the soldiers are exhausted. If we're tired, they'll only be more tired... So, don't begrudge the warhorses. While Li Yanxian hasn't yet secured his foothold and probably hasn't even had time to send out scouts, let's assemble a crack cavalry force now and set out. We'll make a flanking night attack from Jiangxian. It might just have a miraculous effect!"

Tuhesu nodded slightly.

Wanyan Zhehe was stunned for a moment, then looked at the two men again... Tuhesu's troops were the vanguard and had generally fought today. Killing a Meng'an was one thing, but they were very tired. And although Bolisu's army was elite and had a large number of cavalry, was this kind of army meant for a night raid and encirclement?

It was meant for a decisive battle.

With this thought, Wanyan Zhehe considered for a moment and then asked seriously by the campfire: "If it's a raid, how much armor should we strip down to?"

"Helmet, breastplate, and skirt armor are necessary... The rest—face guards, heavy neck guards, shoulder guards... anything that affects movement—don't need to be brought," Bolisu replied without hesitation.

"Also," Wanyan Zhehe asked again seriously. "I am a Wanhu, isolated deep in enemy territory, separated by a mountain range. If the battle goes badly, can I make my own decision to withdraw at any time?"

Bolisu instinctively wanted to agree.

But for some reason, just as he was about to speak, he suddenly thought of something... In the Battle of Yaoshan, Wanyan Loushi ordered Zhehe to attack from the northeast side of the Song army camp. He inadvertently got stuck in a swamp and became a live target. At that time, Zhehe dared not make a single move on his own. He repeatedly sent messengers to ask Loushi for orders. Before Loushi gave the order, Zhehe and his unit exchanged fire with the Song army from the mire, not moving an inch, resulting in heavy losses.

If Loushi were here today, would Zhehe be so perfunctory? Would he even ask such a thing?

"Can't I withdraw?" Zhehe frowned.

"How about I go instead!" Tuhesu, seeing the situation, interjected helplessly.

"No..." Bolisu snapped out of it and immediately nodded. "Zhehe, you are a Wanhu. And I've already said, this is just doing our best, fighting for that first breath of this battle. If you truly encounter danger, how could I let you and your unit die in vain before the war even starts? I didn't even abandon a madman like Wenshu Duzhong in Hezhong."

Zhehe nodded and got up to prepare directly.

Seeing this, Bolisu quickly got up and chased after him. He grabbed the other man by the campfire and spoke earnestly: "Zhehe, we've had a life-and-death friendship for decades. This is really not the time to be sulking... If I've done anything that displeases you, you can say it openly in the military council for official matters, or you can tell me now for private matters..."

The bearded Wanyan Zhehe looked at Bolisu, then at Tuhesu, who was hurriedly getting up while wiping bloodstains. Finally, he let out a slight sigh:

"Commander-in-Chief, you're overthinking it... How could I not know that this is a national war, a life-or-death struggle between two countries? How could I not know that those bastards are getting worse day by day? How could I not know that before and after this Tieling Pass, regardless of victory or defeat, gain or loss, we should all be giving our all and holding the line? And I'm a man who only knows how to fight. If you give me a military order, I will do my best to carry it out... If you had just said 'no retreat,' I wouldn't have said anything... But Commander-in-Chief! I just don't understand! Why has the Great Jin's Iron Cavalry become like this? It's not that the Song people have become capable and daring to fight, but that we Jurchens are no longer willing to endure hardship? Why are we thinking more and more? When the old Commander-in-Chief was alive, there were none of these problems!"

Bolisu couldn't answer him. Or rather, although he knew the answer, he was unwilling to tell him. Moreover, since the other party had stated he would definitely obey military orders, Bolisu instantly lost the previous intention of being so open and sincere.

Seeing this, Wanyan Zhehe said no more. He nodded to the somewhat stunned Tuhesu and turned to leave.

In a short while, it could only be said that the Jurchens' military discipline still existed. Although Zhehe's unit complained bitterly, they quickly assembled according to the Meng'an-Mouke system. They gathered about fifty Mouke, totaling five thousand elite cavalry, and set out eastward overnight, planning to go around through the passage between Jiangxian and Mount Taihang to launch a night attack on Li Yanxian.

Having been in Hedong for several years, the Jin generals were still familiar with the geography. They calculated roughly that it was a distance of one hundred and twenty li, within the limit of a single long-range cavalry raid (two hundred li).

At this distance, if they were fast, they could probably arrive in two or three shichen (four to six hours), that is, before midnight. If they were slower, say if Zhehe wanted to leave room for retreat and slowed the horses down, they would arrive at most a little after midnight.

In short, this was a raid within the theoretical radius of cavalry operations... and the Jurchen cavalry had definitely pulled off tougher and more extreme tactical maneuvers than this... but it was still very dangerous, a raid that severely tested the unit's capabilities.

Especially now, when the Jin army seemed to have lost that spirit of shaking mountains and breaking rivers, it was uncertain whether they could hold up.

But the fact was that Wanyan Zhehe carried out the military order to the letter. Around midnight, despite an uncertain number of men falling behind, this veteran Jin general successfully arrived behind the pass. After a brief reorganization, he began setting fire to the extremely crude Song army camp and launching a surprise attack.

This was cavalry. This was the power and the reason for existence of elite cavalry.

Cavalry has never possessed any strategic mobility; no cavalry can march day and night independent of logistics, covering three thousand li in half a month. But within a few days, tactically, they can indeed accomplish what infantry cannot do or even imagine.

And since Wanyan Zhehe had launched a surprise attack, with flames rising everywhere and the roar of battle shaking the heavens, then, immediately, Balisu also led his own troops in a charge from before the pass.

To be honest, Li Yanxian had underestimated the enemy.

He was also human. After his old rival Loushi died, after sitting idle for eight years, with the entire army on a northern expedition, as the only regional commander holding a major stronghold on the opposite bank of the Yellow River, unlike Han Shizhong's pre-battle posture, he was especially eager to stretch his arms and legs, to become the vanguard of the main attack direction.

He had indeed been the first to seize Tieling Pass, but unfortunately, his troops were utterly exhausted. Once they had taken the pass, they felt an inexplicable sense of security.

Moreover, after arriving at Tieling Pass, he had made no mistakes—after capturing Tieling Pass, he immediately set up camp straddling the pass, and did not allow the routed troops north of the pass to enter, only letting them set up camp with their backs to the pass. Then, before he had time to deal with the day's chaotic battle, he sent out scout cavalry to cross the just-calmed battlefield and reconnoiter the Jin army's movements.

But Balisu, the moment his troops from the day's melee had just withdrawn, urged Wanyan Zhehe to take advantage of the darkness and march out.

So, he had simply failed to make a prediction.

But when all was said and done, he had still underestimated the enemy. Only, this underestimation was not of personal intellect, but of rushing ahead to claim merit. Because of this rush, he had plunged his own troops into a state of extreme exhaustion, and this state, in the darkness, effectively caused the army to lose control and organizational capability... In a word, he had overestimated his own army and underestimated the Jin army's resolve, and he should have notified Han Shizhong early on.

At the same time, what was more direct and deadly was that the combat effectiveness of Li Yanxian's troops was truly uneven, a fact easily discerned from the course of the battle.

The chaos began with Yan Ping's unit. Exhausted troops met a night attack; their hastily erected camp was easily trampled flat by the Jin army, and the troops scattered into the night. But soon, the Jin raiding force was stopped by the second camp, that of Dong Xian's unit... Dong Xian, this man, was widely acknowledged as greedy, but also widely acknowledged as skilled in battle. The chaos slowed noticeably within his sector, giving the Song army a chance to catch its breath.

Li Yanxian ascended the pass, gazing at this scene from afar, his face as calm as water, yet he had no good solution.

A night attack, after all, has always been like this. He could only sit in command within the pass, stabilizing each camp from the inside out. If he forcibly sent out troops to rescue them at night, given the level of his peripheral troops and their exhausted state at this time, the chaos itself would likely devour far more soldiers than the charging cavalry's own killing... And again, the army was too tired.

Moreover, this was south of the pass, where there were still organized units. North of the pass was already in complete chaos. The volunteer troops and the remnants of the Imperial Guard Central Army, which had only been gathered after a full day of chaotic fighting, had simply had their camp exploded by Balisu's raid.

Fortunately, their experience during the day had taught them they could flee into the mountain ridges.

"Military Governor."

Amidst the turmoil, a man hurried up the pass with Li Yanxian's personal guards, cupping his hands in salute. It was Dong Xian's deputy commander, Zhang Qi. "My commander sent me to report, saying the Jin army can't gain an advantage at our position and seems ready to pull out and charge another camp..."

"I saw." Li Yanxian took a deep breath, his tone cold.

Zhang Qi looked down from the side and immediately understood why the Military Governor Li was like this. South of the pass, of the Song army's seven camps, one had collapsed, one was engaged in battle, and of the remaining five, only three were fully lit, while two were half-lit and somewhat chaotic... Clearly, these two camps, when facing the raid, had revealed themselves in this way, giving the Jin army a hint: they were weak, and could be charged!

Zhang Qi wanted to advise Li Yanxian, but for a moment didn't know what to say... This day's battle had laid bare the Song army's contempt for the enemy, their greed for glory, and their arrogance.

This wasn't just one or two units; it was a systemic problem within the Imperial Guard Grand Army, fostered by three years of encouragement, propaganda, recuperation, and preferential treatment.

Other places would surely produce all sorts of bizarre troubles, all to be paid for with blood as a lesson.

Thinking this, Zhang Qi suddenly felt that the area in front of him seemed brighter. He looked towards the camps below the pass, but saw it was only a flash; the situation in the camps below hadn't fundamentally changed.

For a moment, Zhang Boyu (Zhang Qi's courtesy name) thought his eyes had been dazzled by some light in the night. But the next moment, he noticed that Li Yanxian, the Military Governor whose face had been as calm as water, was no longer looking at the chaos in the camps below, but was staring towards the southeast.

The southeast was mountains—Mount Zhongtiao, Mount Wangwu, Mount Taihang—all mountains. It was the fifth day of the tenth month of early winter; in the darkness, it should have been pitch black.

But Zhang Qi saw a spark in the mountains.

Though very small, it was definitely not the ember of a nearby torch; there were indeed faint sparks flickering in the pitch-black mountains to the southeast.

Zhang Qi gestured. By his judgment, that should be the entrance to the Taihang and Wangwu mountains, Zuantiān Ridge, the Xileng Mountain Pass, and the passage where the Zhiguan Trail emerged from the mountain range.

Were they Jin army reinforcements from Longde Prefecture?

In an instant, Zhang Qi thought of this worst possibility, and if so, their own army would suffer a great rout tonight!

But should they retreat?

Retreating at this moment would only trigger the collapse of the entire camp. It was very possible that the main Jin army north of the pass would also take the opportunity to seize the pass and pour in. Then, without even needing the Jin army from Longde Prefecture, the Song army would be utterly routed.

Moreover, if it were the Jin army, why were the Jin troops raiding from the Taiyuan direction so few? Why not send all their elite cavalry, and together with the Jin army from Longde Prefecture, completely trap their own army here?!

If it were the Jin army from Longde Prefecture, wouldn't Commander Ma, who was already in the mountains, have no reason not to detect them? He had even detected the movements of the Jin army from Taiyuan!

Could it be a feint by a detachment of the Jin raiding force?

Regardless of which possibility it was, he had to persuade Military Governor Li to stay calm and defend Tieling Pass and the camps north of the pass to the death.

With this thought, Zhang Qi looked at Li Yanxian again, only to find the Military Governor, draped in his cloak, still with a face as calm as water, not even glancing at the camps before him, just staring at the southeast direction while biting his fingernails.

Zhang Qi had nothing to say and couldn't help biting his own nails.

But just then, the spark in the distant mountains suddenly jumped, becoming several sparks, then dozens of sparks, hundreds of sparks, dense sparks. Then, a complex and lengthy line of fire appeared in the distant mountains, continuously extending, winding, and connecting.

Finally, in the span of a mere quarter of an hour, as if by some sorcery, an entire fiery dragon appeared among the mountains, and due to folding and overlapping, it formed a sea of fire.

Seen from afar, the entire mountain seemed forged from wildfire.

Its momentum was fierce; having already blanketed the mountain, it was sure to set the plains ablaze.

Zhang Qi felt a great weight lifted from his shoulders. He had realized from the moment the fire line first showed its strange, winding shape that this was not the Jin army. The Jin army, emerging directly from the Zhiguan Trail, would only be a single, growing spark, then a flame... What he saw now could only be Ma Kuo's volunteer army descending the mountain!

They had originally gathered in haste, heading here, and after days of marching through the mountains, they must have been forced to spend another night in the slightly cold early winter mountains, planning to descend at dawn tomorrow. But clearly, when they discovered the dazzling firelight here and realized what had happened, they chose to light their torches and descend the mountain that very night.

In early winter, when vegetation was withered and dew dampened everything, the astonishingly numerous Taihang volunteer army staged a spectacular, fiery descent in the night.

Wanyan Zhehe, who had just won his first battle, and several of his subordinate commanders stared blankly at the firelight that had suddenly appeared behind them. This sight, known to be man-made yet displaying the grandeur of a natural wonder, reminded them of many things.

But at this moment, the fire covering the mountain had only one meaning—if they dared to stay here, they would very likely be completely surrounded.

Therefore, they should quickly sound the horns and order the army to withdraw along the original route.

However, perhaps this soul-stirring "spark volcano" was so dazzling that Zhehe stared blankly for a long time before being urged by his subordinates to snap out of it and issue the military order.

The horns sounded in succession, not only startling many Jurchen cavalrymen but also a group of people about twenty li southwest of the pass.

"How boring!"

Han Shizhong, on horseback, also snapped out of his trance from looking at that man-made volcano. He turned his head and smiled at Niu Gao beside him. "Your Military Governor and I both thought we were the lead singers in this variety show. But he went on stage early, only sang a warm-up act, and I came late, only sang the closing piece. The main show was performed by Commander Ma from his high vantage point, right in front of everyone, and he sang it so spectacularly... Good show! He deserves a reward!"

Involving three Military Governors, Niu Gao, who had been brought along as a guide, remained silent, playing deaf and dumb.

But Xie Yuan couldn't help himself and spoke up from the side: "Fifth Brother! Do you think this is Chang'an, watching a variety show with Grand Secretary Yuwen?! The Jin army will definitely retreat, but they will be utterly exhausted. Quickly light the torches and pursue them! There will definitely be gains!"

Han Shizhong threw his head back and laughed heartily, but his expression suddenly changed. He turned around in the night and gave orders to the several thousand elite cavalry behind him. Then, the entire force released their restrictions and lit their torches together. Another fiery dragon appeared out of nowhere, and while complementing the volcano on the mountain, it also charged straight at the Jin army with a speed that caught them off guard.

The horns had sounded; Wanyan Zhehe did not hesitate, spurred his horse, and fled.