Chapter 478: Warm Wine

Aocang was situated on Ao Mountain. Though called a mountain, it was really just a plateau rising slightly above the surrounding land. The granary fortress was also rather crude, built during the Qin dynasty, with a perimeter of no more than two thousand paces. Not even a thousand men could stand on each stretch of wall. Worse still, the place had been burned down at the end of the Xin Dynasty. Ma Yuan had merely used the broken walls and ruins to rebuild the foundations, and traces of smoke and fire damage were still visible here and there.

Those mere few zhang of height could not give the defenders inside Aocang any greater sense of security as the boundless tide of the Red Eyebrow Army surged toward them.

"Aocang is the bait on the hook. This bait must lure the Red Eyebrows into biting, yet cannot truly be swallowed by them. Therefore, it requires a tiger of a general to hold it. Who else but you, sir?"

These were Ma Yuan's orders. General of Tiger Might Zhang Zong accepted the perilous command. He gazed out from the watchtower and saw the attacking enemy stretching endlessly. Because of the distance, they seemed only the size of ants, yet they covered the hills and plains. They waded through streams, packing the short ten-odd li of flatland between Mount Guangwu and the Honggou Canal, and still more men were rushing in from afar.

"Truly like a swarm of moths."

Zhang Zong could not help but sigh with such emotion. And Aocang, with its stores of grain and fodder, was like a candle in the darkness, drawing the moth swarm to hurl themselves at it in madness.

When the enemy drew a little nearer, Zhang Zong noticed that the Red Eyebrow soldiers wore a motley assortment of clothing: winter clothes, summer clothes, even women's long robes with the skirts cut short and wrapped around their bodies, layer upon layer bundled together for warmth. The weapons in their hands were just as varied.

But they all shared one common feature: two streaks of red on their foreheads. Depending on individual preference and habit, these were made with animal blood, red clay, or even human blood!

Observing more closely, he found that the ratio of armored men among the Red Eyebrow vanguard was actually not low. It was said that they had swept across the Central Plains and defeated many of the Greenwood princes and kings. Their armor and weapons were mostly captured spoils, hence the motley variety. But after being worn for so long, they were tattered and torn, yet never carefully mended.

In contrast, the Wei army, supplied by the ceaseless iron output of Henei and Handan, had armor that was basically uniform in style, the lacquer still fresh.

Judged purely on hardware, the Wei army was undoubtedly far stronger than the Red Eyebrows, which could somewhat compensate for their inferior numbers. But what worried Zhang Zong was...

"The troops the State Commandant assigned to me are just as new as the armor on their backs!"

Ma Yuan's forces were built on a foundation of ten thousand veterans who had fought in the Hebei campaign, with recruits levied in batches. The latest additions had not even mopped up bandits before. They had trained for barely three months before being pulled onto the battlefield, all crammed into the Aocang garrison.

Zhang Zong could only press his colonels with stern injunctions: "I do not ask you gentlemen to meet the Red Eyebrows head-on in open battle on the plain. You need only rely on the small fortress of Aocang to tie down the enemy for several days. If you cannot even accomplish this, can you face the full meals you've eaten these past months?"

Those near the water tower get the moonlight first. Aocang was amply supplied with grain, possessing a hundred and fifty earthen granaries that could theoretically store one to two million shi. They were currently less than half full, so of course the garrison would not go hungry.

The Red Eyebrows understood this too. Both attacker and defender tacitly refrained from using fire attacks.

The Red Eyebrow Army had limited ranged weapons and found it difficult to inflict casualties on the Wei soldiers atop the walls. As long as one recovered from the initial panic of engagement, the direct threat was actually not that great. But behind their backs, the military judges were remarkably sharp-eyed. Dong Xuan, known as the "Crouching Tiger," was tasked with overseeing the battle. This army judge was utterly impartial and merciless, leading a group of sword-bearing military judges as they patrolled every stretch of wall. Any act of shrinking back or shirking combat would be rooted out and severely punished.

And sure enough, Dong Xuan had his eye on a common soldier in the crossbow battalion. The man moved in unison with his comrades, repeatedly raising his crossbow, yet never firing a single shot.

Dong Xuan saw the problem, but he kept his composure. Dong Xuan had studied law and was deeply devoted to the Warring States Legalist school. The story of Marquis Zhao of Han punishing the keepers of the crown and robes was one he knew by heart and profoundly agreed with.

As the army judge for an entire division, his jurisdiction was over the colonels and the military judges at the brigade and battalion levels. If he bypassed them to seize upon a single soldier's fault, it would be like the Three Garments Officer, who oversaw the crown-keeper and robe-keeper, directly draping a robe over Marquis Zhao of Han himself.

"For a subordinate official to handle matters beyond his duties is overstepping authority. For a superior to directly handle his subordinate's duties is also overstepping authority."

Dong Xuan gripped his sword of law enforcement, his gaze shifting back and forth between that crossbowman who was merely making up the numbers and the deputy army judge tasked with supervising that sector. In the end, would it be one beheaded, or one dismissed and one beheaded?

Fortunately, the deputy army judge also spotted the problem. The crossbowman was hauled down and subjected to an impromptu trial at the base of the wall.

"Why did you not fire your crossbow? Was the mechanism broken?" The deputy army judge seemed to feel Dong Xuan's pressing stare and was quite severe with this soldier. If that were the case, the soldier would still be at fault for failing to report it promptly, but he might escape the death penalty.

This was the military law of Wei, detailed and appropriate, which Dong Xuan greatly admired. Although he had never met His Majesty the Emperor, he could tell from such fine details.

"His Majesty must also be a man who delights in order."

But the crossbow mechanism was inspected and found to be without fault. The crossbowman, on the other hand, trembled and had nothing to say. Dong Xuan noticed that this crossbowman was quite young. Ordinary new recruits often froze up from fear, but what Dong Xuan saw in his eyes was not terror, but... pity?

But such womanly mercy could not be tolerated in the army. Because this was a textbook case, the verdict was delivered at once: "He who hears the drum and does not advance, hears the gong and does not halt, sees the banner raised and does not rise, sees the banner lowered and does not crouch, holds his crossbow and upon hearing the order does not shoot, levels his spear and does not strike — this is called defying the army. For such, execution!"

The procedure was complete. All that remained was for the enforcer to carry out the execution at the corner of the wall. Only then did Dong Xuan pace over and ask the young crossbowman: "Did you think that the Red Eyebrows, like yourselves, were once honest common folk, and you could not bear to strike?"

The crossbowman prostrated himself on the ground, wailing and begging for mercy. Judging by his accent, he was actually from Dong Xuan's own hometown.

Dong Xuan nodded, expressing understanding, and then waved his hand, signaling for the execution to proceed!

After the man's head had been paraded along the wall, Dong Xuan told the deputy army judges and majors this: "Once the Red Eyebrows pull back a little, tell all the soldiers not to feel any pity for the Red Eyebrows."

Just like himself. In the past, Dong Xuan had still felt a sliver of sympathy for these roving bandits who had risen up because of Wang Mang's cruelty and the world's descent into chaos, believing they had been driven by desperation.

That was until the Red Eyebrows reached Huaiyang, devouring his rich and prosperous hometown like a swarm of locusts, like moths, barging uninvited into his peaceful home.

Dong Xuan rested his hand on his sword and said: "When they gather and become bandits, raiding and plundering provinces and commanderies, they are no longer ordinary common folk. They are thugs! They must be exterminated with the harshest of laws!"

"Aocang holds one-third of the Sili region's stored grain. Beyond military use, it is rationed out to relieve the starving refugees in Luoyang and other cities. If this place falls to the Red Eyebrows, the families of our soldiers will go hungry."

The Red Eyebrows could refuse to be peaceful starving corpses, could rise up with the arms of a praying mantis, and tear apart the Xin Dynasty and the Greenwood, who had been unjust to them.

But the common people of Yan Province, Yu Province, Xu Province, and Sili, ten times, dozens of times more numerous than the Red Eyebrow Army — they too had the right to live!

This was not a win-win where poor folk on both host and guest sides joined together to overthrow the powerful. This was a life-and-death struggle between roving bandits and native inhabitants, fighting over limited grain and the right to survive!

There was no need to expound on grand principles. Dong Xuan believed that, standing atop this great granary of Aocang, the soldiers could understand "what they were fighting for."

For the golden-yellow millet. For the chance for themselves and their families to survive the winter.

"And also to safeguard the new order that His Majesty the Emperor and his generals and ministers have painstakingly built after the great chaos!"

The Red Eyebrows' assault on Aocang did not go smoothly. Several times they surged up Ao Mountain, and each time they were driven back down from above.

"The Wei army truly is tougher to fight than the Xin army or the Greenwood." Yang Yin remembered that Fan Chong had sent someone to warn him, saying the Wei army was different from the Greenwood and Xin forces they had fought before. Aocang was indeed a tough nut to crack.

But "Fifth Duke" Yang Yin was not frustrated. Everything was within his expectations. Since a quick capture of Aocang seemed hopeless, he shifted his focus to Mount Guangwu, southwest of Aocang.

шшш● T Tκan● co

"With Aocang under attack, is Ma Yuan truly not sending reinforcements?"

Wasn't that a coincidence? The two anglers happened to be using the same bait. Yang Yin also wanted to use Aocang, a place all strategists must contest, to lure out the "battle-shy" Wei army and achieve "besieging a point to strike the reinforcements."

Yang Yin had learned from the locals that the main route between Aocang and Xingyang was the walled road and the Guangwu Stream, a path that could avoid the Red Eyebrow main force along the Honggou Canal. Mount Guangwu served as a screen for the road and was also the commanding height within a hundred li. On the mountain were two forts, Han King City and Xiang King City. Scouts had discovered that the Wei army had also deployed troops there.

But they did not know how many troops were there. In any case, the Red Eyebrow detachment had been beaten back without managing to probe it. Those Wei troops hidden in the mountain forts did not even light cooking fires, making it impossible to judge.

It seemed Ma Yuan had split his forces among three locations: Aocang, Mount Guangwu, and Xingyang. To put it nicely, they formed mutual horns of support. To put it bluntly, it was a long snake formation, where head and tail could hardly rescue each other.

"To strike a snake, strike its seven-inch vital spot!"

Yang Yin had not risen to become one of the Red Eyebrow Five Dukes without some ability. Seven years of war had not been fought in vain. He simply said: "I will first take forty thousand men to attack Aocang, luring the Wei army on Mount Guangwu to come to its aid, then entangle them in battle on the plain. Once they leave, I will immediately order the forty thousand men near Xingyang to advance westward, emulating Xiang Yu's method of striking Liu Bang: sever the walled road and seize Guangwu!"

By then, Xingyang and Aocang would be cut off from each other. With the Red Eyebrows occupying the high ground, Aocang would be beyond even the immortals' ability to save. Once their bellies were full and Fan Chong's main force arrived, they could together take Xingyang, and the path west to Chenggao and Luoyang would be opened.

As the Red Eyebrows completely surrounded Aocang, Mount Guangwu finally stirred. The Wei army began frequent maneuvers, their banners half-hidden among the mountain folds and ravines, making one think the very trees on the mountain were spears and flags, impossible to distinguish men and horses. They seemed to be hesitating, unsure whether to come to Aocang's aid. Yang Yin could only curb his impatience and wait, inwardly cursing this batch of Wei troops for being far too timid.

Half a shichen later, the Guangwu Wei troops were still dawdling in the mountain forests. This made Yang Yin sense something amiss. Sure enough, a Red Eyebrow scout came rushing up from the south and reported to Yang Yin: "Wei troops have emerged from the south side of Mount Guangwu and are attacking the four ten-thousand-man camps north of Xingyang city!"

"Heading south?"

Yang Yin froze, then immediately understood. He looked toward that batch of Wei troops dawdling in the forests north of Mount Guangwu. It seemed those were a feint!

"The Wei troops on Mount Guangwu have no small amount of nerve. Who commands them? They must be thinking of first routing my rear army, then joining up with Ma Yuan in Xingyang city to cut off my vanguard's retreat!"

Yang Yin broke out in a cold sweat — he had never imagined that the Wei army, which had always avoided battle, would suddenly grow so bold.

But that shock was quickly replaced by fury. This was looking down on the Red Eyebrows far too much!

Yang Yin immediately summoned all the Elders: "Ten thousand men, keep a tight watch on Aocang."

"Do not let the garrison sally out."

"Ten thousand men, attack Guangwu Mountain directly and try to seize its forts. The Wei army has come out in force — both forts must be empty. Those decoy troops in the mountains can't fool me. Even if we can't take both forts, capturing one still counts as a victory."

"The remaining twenty thousand, follow me back!"

Yang Yin's arithmetic was sound. Though he did not know exactly how many Wei troops had come south from Guangwu Mountain, even combined with the Wei forces at Xingyang, their total strength should not exceed thirty thousand.

And once he returned with reinforcements, the Red Eyebrows would number as many as sixty thousand!

Two to one — as long as he could hold them, and wait for the twenty thousand stragglers to arrive, he would have absolute superiority in numbers. With a bit of luck, he could wipe out the main Wei force right out in the open country, and this contest for Aocang and Xingyang would be over ahead of schedule.

The Red Eyebrow Army's camp from the night before last lay just over ten li south of Aocang, bordered on the west by the eastern foothills of Guangwu Mountain, with a small stream to the south — barely qualifying as "the security of mountains and rivers."

When the Red Eyebrows first rose in arms, their camps were just a bunch of mountain bandits and old peasants — no planning, no palisades, nothing at all. They simply marked out an empty patch of ground under each ten-thousand-man camp, each Elder, each Attendant, and huddled together to sleep. After seven years of campaigning, they had finally made some progress, learning to dig trenches outside the camp and post sentries. It had become ordered chaos. Before Yang Yin left, he had arranged everything properly. Even if the entire Wei army came pouring out, holding the camp should have been no problem.

Yet when Yang Yin drew within ten li of the main camp an hour later, what did he see?

A hornets' nest set ablaze!

On this dry winter day, when everything was parched and brittle, fierce flames consumed the cramped makeshift wooden shelters within the camp. Forty thousand Red Eyebrows had already formed up by the stream to meet the enemy when suddenly the great camp behind them went up in flames. Their hearts were thrown into chaos; like lost hornets they buzzed and clamored, a thousand shouting, ten thousand crying out.

But the Red Eyebrow Army had campaigned across several provinces and seen everything. Though one camp collapsed and fled, the other three still turned their backs to the blaze and stubbornly fought the Wei army, which was barely half their number.

The battle line where the two sides clashed was a small river called Gravel Creek — true to its name, its waters were full of cobblestones washed down from Guangwu Mountain, most of them pure white. But before the Wei army and the Red Eyebrows had even come to grips, after only a brief exchange of long-range missiles, the entire creek turned crimson in an instant!

But soon, even that thin red line was lost to Yang Yin's sight. Though the Wei army's crossbow bolts were more numerous and more deadly, they did not seem to intend to win by that alone. Swordsmen and shield-bearers, halberdiers and spearmen charged forward boldly; their broad, dense formations swallowed the blood-red creek and surged toward the Red Eyebrows.

"There's still time."

Yang Yin sent men to urge the troops lagging behind to quicken their pace. Judging by the situation, his side could hold for at least another half-hour. He decided to cut across from the lower reaches of the creek and strike the soft underbelly of the Wei army. He did not seek total victory, only to drive back their reckless assault.

This area was a spur of the Guangwu Mountain range, with low rolling hills that made the terrain resemble the waves surging against the shore in Yang Yin's home district of Donghai.

A quarter-hour later, Yang Yin climbed another of those "wave crests" from which he could gaze into the distance — and saw a sight that baffled him.

Someone had used the flanking tactic even earlier than Yang Yin. A crack Wei force from Guangwu had crossed the stream and smashed into the Red Eyebrows' left wing!

How many men in that Wei unit? Three thousand? Five thousand? And infantry at that — but why did they run so fast, why did they charge without the slightest hesitation?

In the mere blink of an eye, Yang Yin watched as a ten-thousand-man camp on the Red Eyebrows' left wing — its formation already loose and tottering — was sliced open like soft flesh under a master butcher's blade. First the skin split and the flesh gaped, blood streaming. The Red Eyebrows' individual thousand-man camps were like severed tendons, each scattering outward in flight. Finally, even the bone was cleaved through: in an instant, the great Red Eyebrow host had lost an arm!

It was not over. The force that had dismembered the Red Eyebrows' left wing did not halt after completing its tactical objective — it pressed on, driving straight for the Red Eyebrows' heart.

"He intends to break two ten-thousand-man camps in succession with just three thousand men?"

Such were his thoughts, but his chariot and horses did not stop. Yang Yin was now barely three li from the battlefield; the shouts of slaughter and shrieks of agony rumbled like thunder right by his ears. He even began to encounter many Red Eyebrow fugitives fleeing to the rear.

"Rally the scattered troops! Rally them and follow me back to the fight! Turn defeat into victory!"

Yang Yin shouted with all his might, and at the same time climbed another low hill to look out.

What was happening? In just a short half-quarter-hour, the Red Eyebrows' center army, which moments ago had been putting up a stubborn resistance, had also been shattered?

Because he was close now, Yang Yin could make out clearly what was unfolding within. It was a banner, with a leopard's tail mounted atop it — a ceremonial honor reserved for a theater commander. In the middle was written a single crimson character: "Ma." It streamed in the fierce west wind, surging forward, borne by three thousand brave Wei soldiers clustered around it!

"Ma Yuan."

When he spoke those two words again, there was no arrogance or rivalry left in Yang Yin's voice — only admiration.

Unlike a certain master of micromanagement who always liked to put himself at the very rear, Ma Yuan, at the critical moment of the battle, had ridden at the very forefront, personally leading his picked troops in a charge against the enemy lines!

The Wei army had a rule: if the Marshal did not retreat, yet the entire army's officers and men retreated, resulting in the Marshal's death in battle, then the Generals would be executed.

If a General did not retreat, yet the entire division's officers and men retreated, resulting in the General's death in battle, then the Colonels under him would be executed.

And so on down the chain, all the way to the lowest squads of ten and five.

Now, with Ma Yuan leading the charge, not only did his three thousand personal guards have to fight to the death to protect Ma Wenyuan, but every other division could only grit their teeth and press forward. If His Majesty the Emperor's father-in-law came to any mishap because of their hesitation, everyone would likely be implicated.

Moreover, Ma Yuan had always treated his soldiers with simplicity and ease, and was much beloved. Every unit feared that the Commandant of State might come to harm, so all fought with valor. Perhaps this was what was meant by "Look upon your soldiers as your own infant children, and they will follow you into the deepest abyss"!

Yet, though Ma Yuan read the enemy like a god, he had not anticipated that Yang Yin would return so swiftly. His leopard-tail banner had just burst out of the Red Eyebrows' central formation by the creek when it ran headlong into Yang Yin's red-eyed troops.

Yang Yin's eyebrows were dyed with pig's blood, slanted sharply upward and painted all the way to his temples — a fearsome and striking sight. He now glared at the enemy with furious eyes.

"Victory to the Red Eyebrows!"

Shouting the slogan they believed in without a doubt, his ten-thousand-strong core force slammed ferociously into Ma Yuan's personal guard.

One side was the Red Eyebrows, panting and gasping after a thirty-li forced march; the other was a spent force at the end of its strength, having just broken two ten-thousand-man camps in succession. Neither side paused for rest; without a moment's hesitation, they fell to slaughtering each other amid the crude camp where the flames had not yet burned out.

The main strength on both sides was infantry. Blade clashed against blade. Though the Red Eyebrows' armor was somewhat inferior, the Wei troops had been charging and killing for a long time — their blades were curled, their spearheads fallen away, and the archers had shot all their arrows. They could only fight the enemy at close quarters. Ten thousand against three thousand, and the battle was evenly matched.

Ma Yuan's personal guards tried to thrust through with their spears and break out, but were driven back by an unending tide of Red Eyebrows. The Red Eyebrow fighters, having been exhorted by Yang Yin, all fixed their eyes on the leopard-tail banner and surged toward it.

By this point, the battle had descended into total chaotic melee. The rest of the Wei army was still locked in bitter combat with the remaining Red Eyebrows by the creek and could not break away anytime soon. This left Ma Yuan, who had driven deep alone, caught in a pincer.

As the fighting drew closer and closer to him, Ma Wenyuan — who had found breaking enemy lines as effortless as strolling through spring greenery — now furrowed his brow slightly. His horse had been struck by an arrow and knelt on its forelegs. Ma Yuan ordered the standard-bearer to hold the great banner firm at all costs, while he himself drew his personal blade, still unstained by blood, ready to join the fight at any moment!

Yang Yin, for his part, did not plunge into the fray. He remained in the rear with some thousand personal followers, receiving the rear-guard units that kept arriving, his unblinking eyes fixed on that leopard-tail banner, waiting for the moment it fell!

No matter what, the Red Eyebrows had lost this engagement. Aocang had not been taken, and forty thousand men had been routed in the field — who knew how many could be rallied. But Yang Yin only hoped to slay Ma Yuan, so that his own defeat might at least be a dignified one.

Both sides were utterly spent. At this point, the contest came down to one thing: would he kill Ma Yuan first, or would the Wei troops by the creek come flooding over first?

Just then, behind Yang Yin, the rear-guard units that had been streaming toward him in an unbroken flow suddenly fell into disorder.

"Lord Yang the Fifth, a Wei cavalry force has come out of the Guangwu Mountain woods and is closing on our rear!"

Cavalry? Yang Yin was horrified, thinking he had fallen for another of Ma Yuan's stratagems and was about to be struck in the back by a mounted force. He demanded urgently, "How many?"

"A few dozen riders."

Yang Yin was relieved. It was clearly not one of those so-called "shock cavalry" from You or Ji provinces — just a handful of scouts and skirmishers from Ma Yuan's army, like buzzing flies and gnats, nipping a few times, nothing to worry about. He merely sent a hundred or so men to drive them off, while he himself kept his gaze fixed ahead.

But in mere moments, the disturbance behind him grew even greater. When Yang Yin turned his head in astonishment, a sharp arrow came whistling through the air — and only because Yang Yin ducked his head violently did the arrow merely strike his iron helmet and send it flying!

Yet the force of that arrow was enough to knock Yang Yin from his horse. His head throbbed with pain. When he scrambled back to his feet, he saw that "few dozen riders" arrayed in a diamond attack formation — ten men to a squad, five squads in all. Those at the front were all armored and bearing lances, sweeping away everything before them like dry weeds and rotten wood. In less than half a quarter-hour, they had punched through the blocking force of several hundred Red Eyebrows, slicing deep into their ranks with irresistible speed!

Though they were Wei troops, they carried no banner. To distinguish themselves from the Red Eyebrows, they merely wrapped yellow scarves around their heads. The knight at their head stood nearly nine feet tall, his left arm bound with a five-colored cloth, clad in black armor, riding a yellow dappled horse, and drawing a great bow. He was the one who had loosed that arrow!

The newcomer was none other than Gai Yan! Watching Ma Yuan fight fiercely and shatter the enemy from up on Guangwu Mountain, Gai Yan's blood had surged — how could he sit still? Ignoring whether he had orders or not, he had come down the mountain with a few dozen of his Yuyang personal followers. They caught the very tail end of the battle, just as both sides were utterly exhausted and locked in chaotic melee. Cutting into the fray, they achieved a startling effect.

Seeing his first strike miss, Gai Yan threw aside his bow and raised his halberd, spurring his horse onward. With a flick of his wrist, he skewered seven or eight Red Eyebrow soldiers blocking his path. When the iron halberd plunged into the last man's chest, the Red Eyebrow warrior seized it in a death grip — so Gai Yan abandoned the halberd too and drew his blade!

The blade's edge slashed across several more throats. Gai Yan's yellow-maned horse charged to within a dozen paces of Yang Yin before the Red Eyebrows desperately managed to stop him!

And Yang Yin? He was already terrified by Gai Yan's unstoppable rampage. The pair of red eyebrows that normally slanted upward were now twisted into a downward V by sheer horror and panic. Watching Gai Yan draw nearer and nearer, Yang Yin panicked. He looked back — only to see Ma Yuan's leopard-tail banner still standing firm.

In that brief handful of moments, Ma Yuan's personal guard, once deeply encircled, had also withstood the Red Eyebrows' frenzied assault. As Wei troops surged in from all sides, the battle that had nearly been overturned by Yang Yin was now beyond salvaging. The Red Eyebrow units had completely lost cohesion, like a suit of armor whose lacing had been cut — the plates scattering in every direction, impossible to reassemble.

"Withdraw!"

Yang Yin could only lead his battered remnant force away to the east, the leopard-tail banner of Ma Yuan receding further and further behind him, Gai Yan's pursuit likewise left far behind.

But Zheng Tong's division — which had already torched the enemy camp and shattered a ten-thousand-man Red Eyebrow right-flank encampment — was now chasing Yang Yin eastward in hot pursuit.

By the time Gai Yan reached the command banner, the soft leopard tail was streaming high in the fierce west wind. Beneath the banner, Ma Yuan sat at his ease on a folding stool carried by his personal guard, watching Gai Yan with a beaming smile.

Gai Yan had fought his way through the entire battle. Though his valor was unmatched in You Province, he had, after all, charged thousands with only a few dozen riders. His heavy armor had taken no fewer than ten arrows; his arms and calves bore many wounds. The hundred-refined steel blade that Wu Han had gifted him was now completely notched and curled.

Ma Yuan, by contrast, had led his personal guard in an hour of fierce combat, breaking through two ten-thousand-man encampments. Apart from a few specks of blood blown onto him by the fierce wind, he was utterly unscathed — his blade had not even tasted blood, a testament to how well his personal guard protected him.

"General of the Agile Cavalry."

Gai Yan bore no fatal wounds. In this world, there were few men this Yuyang warrior truly admired. Wu Han was one; now Ma Yuan was the second. To ignore Puyang under siege and refuse to relieve it, to abandon an entire commandery — all of it had been to set a trap near Ao Granary and lure the Red Eyebrows in. And what Gai Yan admired most was that Ma Yuan not only foresaw the enemy's moves like a god and single-handedly devised the encirclement, but also led the charge himself. In this battle, the Wei army had defeated a force twice its size so swiftly — and Ma Yuan's breaking of two enemy formations in succession had been absolutely pivotal.

This "General" — he spoke it with wholehearted conviction.

Right — Diwu Lun, whom Gai Yan had never met in person, still remained outside the ranks of those he "admired."

"Juqing, a true warrior." Fierce and sharp in battle, Ma Yuan now sat chatting and laughing amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood after the great fight. He raised up Gai Yan, who was about to salute: "In full armor, there's no need for ceremony. Weren't you told to watch from the hill? Why did you come down?"

Without a word, Gai Yan began unbuckling his armor. Others had to help pull the arrows out. When they finally managed to remove the breastplate from the front, everyone gasped in surprise.

There, between Gai Yan's chest and the broad armor, was another object — a flat wineskin, of frontier make, stitched from horsehide.

Gai Yan lifted the wineskin in both hands. He had taken over ten arrows, yet not a single one had pierced through the armor to breach the skin.

"I came, of course, to bring wine to the General of the Agile Cavalry!"

The wineskin was no light burden, carried inside his armor just like that. As Gai Yan had ridden into the fray, drawn his bow to shoot down an enemy commander, and fought bitterly, it had sloshed about the whole time. And throughout, Gai Yan's surging hot blood, in the depths of winter, had kept the wineskin warm.

No — warming it too was General Ma's boundless valor, and the fearlessness of ten thousand soldiers! In this small space, the blood and sweat shed by tens of thousands fighting with all their might!

Gai Yan knelt and raised the wineskin high above his head with both hands, offering it to Ma Yuan — and to this great battle.

"General, please drink! The wine is already warm!"

……

PS: Only one chapter today.