Chapter 453: The Finest Under Heaven

On the southern hill at Jieting, a great battle was about to erupt at any moment. Half a day's journey away, a cavalry force was also slowly drawing near the battlefield — it was none other than Geng Yan's unit.

Geng Yan's circuitous march this time was originally meant to throw the situation in Tianshui and Wei Ao's subordinate forces into chaos, and ultimately pry the bolt open from within Longyou — because of that reckless fellow Wu Han, the chance to open the door from the outside had already been completely lost.

He had not even notified his "allied force," Wu Han, in advance. So when the prisoners they captured said that a Wei army had appeared near Jieting, Geng Yan instinctively thought of that man.

"Could it be the General of the Guard, Wan Junyou?"

"Brother Wan, how swift you are!" Geng Yan was both surprised and delighted. Only after breaking into Longyou did he realize this venture was not as easy as he had imagined. They held no advantage in timing, terrain, or popular support, and could only play hide-and-seek with the Longyou cavalry. No wonder the Long cavalry pursuing him had hurriedly withdrawn — so there was a blade threatening their very heart! Wei Ao had no choice but to pull his hand back to shield himself.

When the scouts drew closer and reported back to Geng Yan the scene of both sides locked in fierce combat, his estimation of Wan Xiu, that "middle-grade horse," rose higher and higher in his mind.

"I underestimated General Wan." Geng Yan, for once, set aside his pride. He usually called him just Wan Xiu, but now he called him Brother Wan, General Wan: "He has something of the spirit of Ma Fujun, Zhao She."

In ancient times, when Qin invaded Zhao territory and its army encamped at Yuyu, the King of Zhao summoned two veteran generals, Lian Po and Yue Cheng, in succession. Both believed the situation was hopeless. It was only when Zhao She was consulted that, with the famous line "When brave men meet in a narrow path, the courageous prevail," Zhao She led the troops out to war. Was this not exactly like Wan Xiu volunteering to take the narrow Wei River path, the courage of a lone army raiding Longyou?

"I originally thought the narrow path would be too difficult to traverse, and that even if they got through, they'd be powerless to do anything. I never imagined they would fight all the way to a place this far north. It must have been terribly hard." In Geng Yan's heart, his estimation of Wan Xiu rose ever higher.

"And now, ascending the hill to meet the enemy, they've done well too. The art of war says: 'As for strategically critical terrain, if I occupy it first, I must hold the high, sunny ground and await the enemy; if the enemy occupies it first, draw them away and leave, do not follow.' In the past, when Zhao She defeated the Qin army at Yuyu, it was by dispatching ten thousand men to seize the high ground on the northern hill of Yuyu. The Qin army arrived later, failed to take the hill, and Zhao She seized the momentum, striking the Qin army fiercely from above, thus winning a great victory."

This battle not only conformed to the art of war, but bore a subtle, wondrous resemblance to Yuyu. In Geng Yan's view, the allied force on the hill, fighting one against three, seemed slightly disadvantaged, yet...

"Now that I have arrived, the situation is entirely different. I wish to join General Wan in a joint hunt upon the Long hills!"

The battle on the southern hill at Jieting had been deadlocked from the very start.

Wei Ao's original intention was to cut off the Wei army's access to water, then attack the hill once they were trapped and utterly exhausted.

But he had not expected that the enemy had no intention of defending at all. Just as the Long soldiers had seized the stream and before they could construct any fieldworks, the Wei troops suddenly charged down from the southern hill in dense formations!

Though the Wei army had come from afar and wore little armor, the terrain of the southern hill could not accommodate large formations either. Concentrating the armor on the front-rank deathsworn was enough. This charge was like fierce tigers descending the mountain, and the Long army's arrows could not halt their advance.

Because Wei Ao had sent most of his infantry to block Wan Xiu's southern force, now even throwing his personal guard into the fray could not withstand Wu Han's charge. In desperation, he could only order the Liangjiazi cavalry — who were useless in this cramped battlefield, their flanking maneuvers even blocked by the southern hill's cliffs — to dismount and shoot on foot.

But before Wei Ao could give the order to pull his men back from the stream bank and spread the battle line as much as possible, the enemy had already taken the initiative to crash into them, mingling in chaotic combat with the Long soldiers.

As a result, the Long soldiers' originally advantageous long-range weapons could no longer be fired. They could only steel themselves and grind against the Wei army in the most primitive hand-to-hand melee, enduring wave after wave of assaults from the hill.

Yet precisely at this moment, a scout came galloping to report to Wei Ao: more enemy troops had appeared!

"Is it that cavalry force?" Wei Ao instantly felt a headache coming on. How could these Wei generals be so bold! Though the enemy's numbers were small, at this moment they were enough to be fatal. Wei Ao had no choice but to dispatch two thousand Longyou Liangjiazi cavalry to meet them in battle.

To await the distant with the near, to await the weary with the rested, to await the hungry with the full — this is how one masters strength. But the Longyou cavalry had just undergone a grueling trek and held no physical advantage over the guest army. Driving their utterly exhausted warhorses, they barely rounded the west side of the southern hill and, on the open river valley between the hill and the Jieting township, met the Bing Province cavalry head-on.

This was the first clash between the two sides. But one force was utterly worn out after a great circuitous march, their horses gaunt and thin, the men covered in dust; the other had been rushing back and forth in rescue, weary and driven to exhaustion. Though they met the enemy on home ground, their hearts were filled with dread: the Long Mountains, which they had thought an impassable natural barrier, had been bypassed and breached again and again. The enemy kept multiplying, and their faith in the war kept dwindling — this was undoubtedly a tremendous test of their morale.

But this battle concerned not only the rise and fall of two regimes, but also another matter — it concerned the honor and victory of two armies.

"Who is the finest shock cavalry under heaven!"

The Longyou Liangjiazi cavalry, propping up their weary bodies, donned the armor they had left in Lüeyang City, and let out shout after shout of command.

"Mount up!"

Although Wei Ao had transferred two thousand cavalry here, the true "Liangjiazi cavalry" numbered only one thousand. The other thousand were their servant riders. Behind every Liangjiazi rider was essentially a relatively wealthy Longyou landowner, their armor and weapons passed down through generations. Thus, their appearance was a motley array: some lacquered black, some dyed red, some even painted yellow. The styles ranged from old to new — lamellar armor, fish-scale armor, short-sleeved cuirasses. Here, you could find every type of armor from the Qin dynasty to the present.

This was an army with a long history, so long that two hundred years ago, Li Guang had led his hometown sons to fight across every border commandery, earning the fine reputation: "Li Guang's talent and spirit are unmatched under heaven."

They were the earliest pioneers of shock cavalry tactics! Their forebears had followed Wei Qing and Huo Qubing north of the desert, beating the Xiongnu so badly they dared not look south again.

The pride of their ancestors was steeped in their blood. All their confusion about the war, all their doubts about the future — the moment they mounted their horses, it all vanished, leaving only the desire to win this battle.

"I hear these Bing Province men, a year ago, were mostly shepherds, herdboys, and farmers!"

They were not wrong. The Bing Province cavalry was indeed quite green. The Longyou cavalry, trained since childhood, was fully qualified to sneer at the Bing Province cavalry, which had been formed barely a year ago.

But their growth had been honed step by step through bitter battles with the Xiongnu beyond the frontier. What was more, Diwu Lun had spared no expense, pouring vast resources into forging this army.

Most importantly, Diwu Lun had found for the Bing Province cavalry what was perhaps the finest cavalry commander in the world!

"The enemy is utterly different from the Xiongnu!"

Because the cavalry he had brought on this circuitous march was not numerous, General Geng had once again become a brigade commander, exhorting his battalion colonels: "The Longyou Liangjiazi cavalry can shoot from horseback, but they prefer shock charges."

The year before last, Geng Yan had missed the Battle of Zhouyuan because of his raid on Qianyi, but he had heard of the Liangjiazi cavalry's valor in that battle. It was just that this sharp spear had failed to break the shield jointly built by Jing Dan and Wan Xiu — the Wei army had become quite adept at using infantry against cavalry.

"But in today's battle, there is no shield."

Geng Yan mounted his warhorse. It had been a long time since he had personally led a charge into the enemy lines. Today, inspired by "General Wan" on the southern hill, his blood boiled once more.

"Only spear against spear, blade against blade!"

From a distance, Geng Yan could observe the Longyou cavalry's formation: they were likely using traditional tactics — five riders to a squad leader, ten riders to a petty officer, one hundred riders to a captain, two hundred riders to a commander.

Because the battle was on flat river valley ground, considered "easy terrain," the Longyou cavalry formed columns of five riders each, with twenty paces between front and rear, four paces left and right, and fifty paces between squads, forming a relatively loose cavalry array. Their wings were slightly spread, shaped like a crane's wings, so as to use their numerical advantage to envelop the enemy cavalry.

Unlike the Longyou cavalry, the Bing Province cavalry had actually adopted the "difficult terrain" formation, meant for narrow places. Between columns, the distance was ten paces front and rear, two paces left and right, twenty-five paces between squads, and a hundred paces between the deeper ranks. It was, of course, nothing compared to the wall-charges of later ages, but their formation was denser than the Long cavalry's.

And the weapons they used differed from front to rear: the front hundred riders, wearing scale armor transported on packhorses, wielded long lances over a zhang in length, manned by the most skilled martial cavalrymen.

From the second rank back, they wore only leather armor — after all, equipment too heavy would make it impossible to fight across a thousand li — and were armed with spears and halberds.

The third rank was rather special, wielding modified iron shu that had been shortened considerably and could be held in one hand. These were blunt weapons, heavy and cumbersome, utterly useless against the Xiongnu. General Geng had specifically promoted this weapon against the Longyou Liangjiazi cavalry, because the Liangjiazi, often supported by family estates, had a very high armor-wearing rate.

The fourth and fifth ranks carried the standard ring-pommel dao, gleaming silver in the sunlight. The first three ranks were also equipped with ring-pommel dao, so they would not be left without a blade if their long weapons broke.

Both sides had formed up hastily and began to move as soon as things were roughly in order — the enemy gave them no time to be leisurely. As horn calls sounded one after another, the two sides drew closer and closer in the river valley.

On the flanks of the Longyou army, there were perhaps some scattered Qiang and Hu riders, all recruited by Wei Ao. Maintaining the posture of skirmishing cavalry, they constantly tried to draw near and harass, weaving before the formation and shooting arrows at the Bing Province cavalry, hoping to lure the enemy out of formation or shake them. The moment the Bing Province cavalry commanders lost patience and rashly moved, the Longyou Liangjiazi cavalry, controlling their speed and advancing slowly in the rear, would not hesitate to charge straight into the weak point!

A year ago, when the Bing Province cavalry was first established, this trick might still have worked. But after a year of sparring with the Xiongnu and various Hu and Han forces in New Qinzhong, they were now quite familiar with this tactic. Their main formation stood firm and unmoved, advancing slowly with General Geng, while only specialized skirmishing cavalry rode out to shoot back, keeping the Qiang and Hu riders from getting too brazen.

The closer the main formations of both sides drew, the more frequent these tickling harassments became, until they abruptly ceased upon reaching a certain threshold — the two armies were now barely a li apart, a distance a horse could cover in moments. Both sides began to slowly accelerate, from a walk to a trot. If the skirmishing cavalry caught in the middle did not leave now, they would be crushed into meat paste!

This meant the appetizer course was over, and the main dish was about to begin!

Geng Yan was positioned slightly forward of the center of the cavalry formation. He was past the age of "follow my charge." In a cavalry engagement of this scale or larger, especially when the enemy outnumbered them two to one, tactics would play a crucial role. Here, it was convenient to observe the front ranks and make subtle adjustments.

Just like now — he noticed that a few cavalry squads on his right wing, perhaps too excited, were trotting slightly too fast. He had to wave flags to remind them. If a unit protruded too far, it would be easy for the enemy to strike it first and cause it to collapse — compared to enduring infantry, cavalry charged quickly, but routed even faster.

Thanks to a year of arduous training in New Qinzhong, the overall formation was barely maintained. Compared to the Liangjiazi cavalry opposite them, who had hunted together since childhood and were intimately familiar with each other's training, they were not the least bit inferior!

When the two sides drew within half a li of each other, those with sharp eyes could even make out the decorations on the enemy warhorses' heads. As Geng Yan ordered the third horn call to be sounded, the trot became a gallop, and the cavalry squads began to accelerate. The original distances between them ensured they would not collide with one another, but in the next hundred-plus paces, within fifty-some breaths, whether they could still maintain the "difficult terrain" formation would be the key to this battle!

This was an idea raised during discussions between Diwu Lun and Geng Yan. Geng Yan had tested it while training troops in New Qinzhong and found the results quite good. He nervously watched his own formation. The riders were struggling to control their emotions — their own emotions, and their horses' emotions. They must not slow down out of fear, nor speed up out of excitement. One man's mistake would throw an entire squad into chaos. Such "black sheep," in ordinary training, were punished severely!

Fortunately they kept their formation fairly tight. Geng Yan knew this was mainly thanks to the "stirrups" — with them, riding became a much simpler affair, and control over the horse grew far more precise.

Across the field, the Longyou elite cavalry, reputed to have "the finest horsemanship," had also drawn up in good order, but they had chosen the looser "easy battle" formation, which was simpler to execute, with wider intervals. As for the retainers serving as auxiliaries, they were even worse, their ranks beginning to fray slightly once they broke into a gallop.

The distance between the two sides shrank until they could make out each other's expressions. Geng Yan dropped his banner, and from every unit instantly erupted a fierce blast of suona — Commander Wu Emperor called this new instrument a "charge horn," and it truly could drown out every other sound on a chaotic battlefield!

It even overwhelmed the rumbling drums across the way!

But the suona's piercing shriek could only last an instant. After that, the only thing left in the warriors' ears was the thunder of hooves as the two armies charged at each other! Even if you opened your mouth and roared to bolster your courage, all you would hear was a vast silence.

The front ranks of the Bing Province cavalry leveled their long lances, and right behind them the second rank leveled their spears and halberds.

In barely the time it takes to blink — or even less — they had already crashed into the enemy racing toward them!

The cavalry on both sides collided like two colossal beasts, and the world dissolved into chaos. In that instant, no one could say how many lance-tips and spearheads pierced men's chests; even the heirloom armor of the elite cavalry could not withstand a charge at such speed. Lance-heads and halberd-blades lodged in armor as blood gushed forth. Nor could anyone say how many men tumbled from their horses, trampled into bloody pulp by the hooves that followed. Everywhere was weeping for fathers and wailing for mothers, everywhere terror and dread — yet the men behind still had to keep crashing forward!

Killing and being killed happened in the single instant when the horses brushed past each other. There was not even time to think about the angle of your weapon. Individual skill and horsemanship were secondary; what mattered most was very likely luck and courage.

At this moment, the advantage of the Bing Province cavalry, who had dared to form a "perilous battle" cavalry array precisely because of the stirrups, became clear. Their dense formation was like a sharp spear, punching a great hole through the center of the enemy line!

A thousand riders against two thousand — the formation was actually quite thin. The front ranks swept past each other in the mutual charge, and by the time they reined in their speed, they had already reached the position the enemy had just occupied.

The rear-rank riders, moving more slowly, mostly halted their horses and locked in combat. This was when the Longyou troops' advantage emerged: they had the numbers, after all, and their wings began closing in on the center, hoping to use their superior strength to win the melee.

But the Bing Province cavalry were clearly far better prepared. Blunt iron weapons came into play. The elite cavalry's armor was thick and sturdy; an ordinary ring-pommel saber, without the momentum of a galloping horse, could not necessarily pierce it. But an iron mace cared nothing for that. Smash it down hard, and the armor might be fine — but the bone and flesh beneath were another matter! As iron helmets slowly deformed, many elite cavalrymen slumped unconscious and fell from their horses.

More often, it was ring-pommel saber against ring-pommel saber in close combat. The Bing Province cavalry, with their stirrups and high saddles, still held every advantage, while their opponents had to focus not only on their hands but also on constantly gripping the horse's belly — the slightest skittish movement from the beast could throw you off balance.

Just as the two sides became locked in a tangled fight, with stalemate looming, the Longyou riders who had earlier charged through and swapped positions with the enemy turned back, searching for the foe that had inflicted such grievous losses on them. Only then did they realize that the first two ranks of the Bing Province cavalry, the two hundred-odd riders who remained, had not, after piercing the crane-wing formation, turned around for another charge as doctrine dictated. Instead, they were pressing straight ahead!

Was it cowardice? Were they fleeing?

No!

The Longyou riders realized this with horror. Amid that small cluster of riders, Geng Yan's great banner suddenly shot up again. The White Horse General, clad in fish-scale lamellar armor, had charged through the enemy line together with his troops. With these two hundred-odd riders at his back, he ignored the powerful foe behind him and drove straight toward Wei Ao's main formation, several li in the distance, now left isolated with only a few hundred men to guard it after all its reserves had been committed!

"This is bad!"

In an instant, the focus of everyone on the battlefield converged on this mad cavalry unit. Wei Ao was horrified when he realized what was happening. The Longyou cavalry were tangled up by the Bing Province riders and could not break free. The Qiang and Hu horsemen, whose loyalty was suspect, looked at one another, still hesitating over whether to give chase.

And on South Mountain, Wu Han, who was directing his troops and had already driven the Longyou soldiers back across the stream, could only watch as Young Geng's banner pressed forward against the wind across the yellow earth of Longyou!

"Well, I'll be! I was wondering where these reinforcements came from — so it's you!"

Wu Han was stunned. His very next reaction, though, was: Why has this Young General Geng come too!

But he had indeed arrived at the perfect moment, and Wu Han's courage swelled all the more.

He stepped into the stream, now choked with the corpses of Longyou and Wei troops and nearly dammed to a halt, cut down one more Longyou soldier, and roared: "The enemy is caught between hammer and anvil and has lost heart! Gentlemen, follow me in one more charge — strike straight for Wei Ao's banner!"

"Longyou elite? Bing Province cavalry?" In Wu Han's eyes, what those two had just done was nothing more than two fledglings pecking at each other. He was not particularly impressed.

"Old Wu may not have a horse right now, but the finest shock cavalry under heaven is still the Yuyang shock cavalry — it's my Independent Division!"

…

PS: Still only one chapter. I'll be back to normal once the conference ends tomorrow and I get home.