Chapter 454: How Is It You?

Though Wu Han was still cursing under his breath, a commander's instinct made him immediately coordinate with young Geng: he shifted the reserves rotating off the line, used the high ground at Gaoyang, and launched another fierce charge at the weakest, most chaotic point of the Longyou troops at the foot of the hill!

This charge forced the Longyou infantry, who could not see the full situation, to bunch up at the southern slope, desperately thickening their own line. They were pinned down by Wu Han and could not turn back in time when Wei Ao's banner began to shift.

Wu Han himself stood atop a large boulder, ignoring the arrows whistling past him, and watched the battle in the valley below without blinking.

"This young commander — he's got guts as big as mine!"

He saw a most intriguing sight: Geng Yan's cavalry charged forward relentlessly, drawing ever closer to Wei Ao's banner, while the Longyou horsemen hurriedly turned back, trying to disengage and rescue their commander. Most of the Bingzhou cavalry followed right on their heels, slowing them down — a wild chase, each side pressing the other.

Wei Ao himself could only watch helplessly as Geng Yan, like a sharp sword, stabbed into his rear formation. The spears and wagon-barricades he had hastily prepared blocked the cavalry's edge, and the stubborn sons of the six commanderies still fought in scattered clusters, locked in a desperate life-or-death struggle with the enemy riders closing in step by step.

But the Longyou troops had not yet steadied their footing and had no time to build a fortified camp. The Bingzhou cavalry, led by Geng Yan, suddenly wheeled left, skirting the scattered wagon-barricades and spear formations, and charged toward the enemy's soft, undefended "belly." They soon came within a single bowshot of Wei Ao.

The Wei clan's sons clustered around their patriarch. Though Wei Ao was no career soldier — he was famed for his Confucian scholarship — he did not falter. Knowing the battle had reached its most critical moment, he led by example as always, beating the war drums to boost morale, hoping to hold out until the Longyou cavalry or the infantry at the foot of the hill could rush back to his rescue.

But the enemy commander was even more valiant than he. The Bingzhou cavalry around Geng Yan kept dwindling; he owed much to his white horse, which he never rode in peacetime and only brought to battle. It wore a leather coat of armor and was guarded closely by several dozen riders who never left its side.

They and the spears in their hands formed the tip of Geng Yan's sword, swinging as his arm directed, cleaving through wave after wave of Longyou soldiers' resistance, pressing forward with unwavering resolve.

Glinting blades and flashing swords, men shouting and horses neighing, rivers of blood, corpses strewn across the field — he ignored it all. Geng Yan's eyes never left Wei Ao's great banner.

He knew full well: "We are outnumbered and fighting deep in the Longyou heartland. The garrisons at nearby Lüeyang and Jieting may also come to reinforce them. We must settle this swiftly."

And the quickest way to end a war is, without doubt, to cut off the head! Capture the bandits — first capture their king!

Geng Yan decided to do this himself.

As his horse's hooves entered within a hundred paces of Wei Ao, Geng Yan narrowed his eyes. He drew an arrow and nocked it on the bowstring.

He had followed his father to the Shanggu frontier as a child, and his martial skill was outstanding. Back when his little brother was taken by Wuhuan slaves, the teenage Geng Yan had personally led the clan riders a hundred li in pursuit, shot the captors dead, and brought his young brother home.

Even among the elite Shanggu shock cavalry, thick with masters, Geng Yan's archery was among the very best.

Because the Longyou troops had planted their spears in defense, the cavalry had slowed and could hardly push further in. They could only circle the defensive perimeter, seeking the best wind and position.

Sixty paces, fifty paces. Geng Yan had other squads carry his banner while he concealed himself and made a small half-circle. Even Wei Ao had now noticed this roving band of riders — he could delay no longer.

He immediately halted his horse, drew the bow with all his strength, hooked the string with his thumb, and aimed at the Grand Marshal and Grand General of the Western Han beneath that banner. His mind was utterly focused; everything around him, he could neither hear nor see.

Geng Yan released his hand. The bowstring snapped back, sending the arrow forth. Time seemed to slow; everything froze.

Only the flying shaft raced like a shooting star, speeding forward, skimming over the heads of the battling Wei and Longyou soldiers. Even the shields raised high by Wei Ao's personal guards could not stop it!

"A hit!" Geng Yan exulted. But at that hair's-breadth moment, Wei Ao's chariot shifted slightly, and the arrow, instead of striking Wei Ao, buried itself deep in the chest of the driver before him!

The arrow was so powerful that the driver died on the spot. Before Geng Yan could even feel regret, a dramatic scene unfolded!

The four-horse team, already panicked by the chaos of battle, now lost all control and bolted wildly, fleeing the command position. The direction of their blind flight was, of all things, straight toward the charging Bingzhou cavalry.

Wei Ao was stunned, but his reaction was swift. In desperation, he seized the eight reins with one hand, and with the other drew his sword and pointed forward, shouting: "Counterattack with me!"

The Longyou troops thought Wei Ao was truly leading the charge himself and surged forward with howls. The Bingzhou cavalry, having lost their momentum, did not want to be swamped and had no choice but to part to either side. They could only watch as Wei Ao, shielded by several hundred guards, burst through their thin "encirclement" and charged in one breath to flat ground two hundred paces away, where he finally linked up with the Longyou cavalry that had fought desperately to return and rescue him.

Geng Yan felt deep regret. He immediately returned to his banner, preparing to rally the Bingzhou cavalry and fight them again.

But neither side expected that this rearward shift of Wei Ao's command banner would trigger a chain reaction.

At the foot of the southern hill, the main Longyou force, which was enduring Wu Han's fierce charges, turned and saw that Wei Ao's banner was actually moving outward, away from them. They were horrified, believing that while the soldiers fought to the death, their commander had already fled.

This accident shattered the fighting will of three or four thousand men in a single stroke. They were a patchwork of men from various Longyou clans to begin with — if the Wei clan had stopped playing, then what were they still fighting for?

The Wei army's assault from the hill was ferocious; their scalps had long gone numb from the fighting, and they had no wish to suffer further losses. Now they had an excuse. The Longyou troops, who had been in fairly good order, collapsed in an instant. Without waiting for orders or the signal to retreat, they began to withdraw from the battlefield on their own.

Though Wei Ao frantically beat his drums, trying to rally the various battalions, it was already useless. Apart from the thousand-odd elite household cavalry and several hundred Wei clan guards protecting him, no one was listening to his commands anymore.

"Success was within reach — within reach!"

Seeing his side, which had clearly held out for so long, on the verge of victory, collapse because of one small incident, Wei Ao beat his chest and wept bitterly. But there was nothing he could do. Under his guards' escort, he retreated toward the town of Jieting.

Geng Yan still wanted to pursue, but after the bitter fight, the Bingzhou cavalry was battered and utterly exhausted. A spent crossbow bolt cannot pierce Lu silk. When they chased to the outskirts of Jieting, the Longyou elite household cavalry seized the chance to counterattack, killing several dozen riders. They could only watch as Wei Ao withdrew into the settlement.

By the time Geng Yan returned resentfully to the foot of the southern hill, Wu Han had already swept the battlefield clean of remaining foes. Unlike Wei Ao's orderly withdrawal, those collapsed Longyou troops had been ruthlessly slaughtered by him — at least a thousand wiped out, the rest scattering like birds and beasts. It would not be easy for Wei Ao to rally them again.

Only then did Geng Yan learn that the man on the hill who had coordinated so seamlessly with him was not some "General Wan," but that unruly, inferior horse, Wu Han!

"How is it you?" Geng Yan was quite surprised, then stiffened his face and demanded: "General Wu is not defending beyond Xiao Pass — why are you here?"

Wu Han did not stand on ceremony either: "I should be asking you — General Geng is not besieging Gaoping's First Fortress — why are you also deep in the Longyou heartland?"

After trading barbs, the two men paused, then, unexpectedly, burst out laughing at the same time.

This battle, though not planned in advance — two groups of guests happening to feast at the same table — had been fought with great satisfaction. With three thousand horse and foot, they had routed Wei Ao's six thousand, avoiding the danger of an isolated force advancing too deep and being annihilated. This "blossoming from the center" situation could now be said to have opened up.

In that moment, realizing that the other had also ventured deep into enemy territory, both reaching Lüeyang, and that their thinking had coincided without prior consultation, Geng and Wu felt a flicker of mutual respect.

But that did not mean they would wipe away old grudges with a smile. After a brief moment of delight, the two began shifting blame onto each other.

Wu Han's hearty laugh turned into a sardonic, mocking sneer: "A pity. If General Geng hadn't scared Wei Ao away, that old thief would now be a captive in our army."

"Oh?" Young Geng's verbal skills were no less sharp, and being young and lacking forbearance, he stopped laughing and snorted. "If I hadn't driven Wei Ao off, his horse and foot would have surrounded the southern hill together. General Wu would likely have been pushed back, and after the water was cut off, your weary troops would have been captured by the bandits! You forget a life-saving grace the moment you turn your head?"

The two traded a few more barbs, and only after the Army Supervisor Palace Gentleman Diwu Lun had assigned stepped in to mediate did they agree to sit together and discuss the next step — though they still sat far apart, each disdaining the other.

Though victorious, both horse and foot had suffered heavy losses. Wei Ao had retreated to Jieting, but that town was small yet sturdy, and hard to take without siege equipment.

"As things stand, assaulting the town is the inferior option."

This was Geng Yan's view. He promptly assigned tasks for himself and Wu Han: "The Bingzhou cavalry will follow me in roaming between Lüeyang and Long Slope, continuing to cut the enemy's supply routes and reinforcements. As for General Wu..."

Wu Han caught on at once and finished the thought: "I will take the infantry, bypass Long County directly, and march toward the western slope of Mount Long!"

His fist smashed down on the clod of earth representing Long Slope, crushing it to dust.

"Thus, we can coordinate from within and without, and receive His Majesty's grand army into Long."

Indeed, the garrison at Long Pass, under Diwu Lun's personal assault, was already utterly worn down. And with Geng, Wu, and General Wan all slipping in to wreak havoc, Wei Ao's forces were stretched too thin — he had not reinforced them in a long time.

If Wu Han attacked them from the rear, the door bolt of this great house of Longyou would be opened from the inside!

This was Geng Yan's first military council with Wu Han, and the two men saw eye to eye once again.

Geng Yan would roam nearby, making Wei Ao think they intended to besiege Jieting. The Longyou elite household cavalry still had fight left in them — this would be a game of dancing on the tip of a blade.

Wu Han, meanwhile, would depart under cover of night. Once Wei Ao recovered from his panic, he might further conscript garrison troops from various places and the remaining able-bodied men to reinforce. The martial strength of the six commanderies' sons was not to be underestimated. They had to act quickly, in these few days of shock and confusion.

At their parting, the two had thought to wish each other well, but what came out of their mouths was still cold mockery.

"Take care, General Geng — don't let Wei Ao turn defeat into victory against you."

"I was also going to remind General Wu not to fail at climbing the western slope of Longxi, only to be driven back down by the enemy!"

With no common ground, a single word is too many — the two parted in ill humor. But as Wu Han looked back at the White Horse General, he thought to himself, "Geng Yan may always think too highly of himself, but to lead cavalry right under the noses of the Longyou riders and circle around to here — he does have some skill. He could match my own Gai Yan."

Geng Yan likewise watched Wu Han leave, thinking, "Wu Han may be reckless, but his fierce daring is certainly no less than Zhang Zong or Zheng Tong — calling him an inferior horse goes too far. A pity he shows no respect to his superior; otherwise he would indeed make a fine subordinate."

At the same time, Geng Yan had one lingering doubt.

"According to the prisoners, the reason the area around Lüeyang and Jieting is so empty is that Wei Ao diverted the five thousand men he had in reserve to besiege General Wan Xiu. Combined with the Longxi garrison, the enemy they'll face is likely larger than what we're up against."

"I only wonder — how fares General Wan!?"

…

PS: Second chapter coming at midnight.