Chapter 503: Dare Not Move

"The Youzhou cavalry are charging!"

What worried Yang Yin most about this decisive battle was the Youzhou shock cavalry.

He had suffered badly at Aocang — Gai Yan, with only a few dozen riders, had broken through his rear. If three thousand cavalry were used in a concentrated strike, how terrifying would the result be?

Now, as the Yuyang war drums once more shook the earth, Yang Yin felt both fear and delight.

The fear was natural. The Red Eyebrows mostly came from Haidai in Yanzhou and had little experience fighting cavalry. The Xiongnu and Wuhuan had never penetrated deep into the Central Plains, and the three cavalry regiments among the Eight Colonels of the Northern Army had scattered after the Xin Dynasty's fall, before they could be sent to the eastern front to suppress the Red Eyebrows.

When the Red Eyebrow fighters first faced formed cavalry charging in formation straight at them, they felt as if the roar of steel filled the entire world, and their legs could not stop trembling along with the earth. Over the past several days, the outer troops broken by the Yuyang shock cavalry alone numbered in the thousands. Though the direct casualties were not many, the blow to morale was simply too great.

On this great plain, almost devoid of defensible terrain, the Red Eyebrow Army's motley horde had no way at all to deal with cavalry.

Unless the cavalry delivered themselves to their doorstep!

"After all, Lord Fan knows how to fight." Yang Yin immediately sent word to the men in the woods: the moment the Yuyang shock cavalry charged the eastern formation, they were to run over at once, find a way to circle behind them, and cut off their retreat!

The Red Eyebrows had no wagon barricades, no trenches, no abatis. They had only their worthless lives — they would use their lives to tie down the shock cavalry and buy time for the others to envelop them.

…

At the same moment, Ma Yuan, standing on a hillock, was also staring fixedly at the spearhead of the Yuyang shock cavalry. Gai Yan had ignored his smoke-signal warning. Several hundred riders, acting as the vanguard, were charging toward the Red Eyebrows.

"Could Gai Juqing have forgotten the beacon-smoke code?" The colonels around Ma Yuan all said the same thing. The impression Gai Yan had left on them was indeed that of a careless man, even more "unfettered by small details" than Ma Yuan himself.

Ma Yuan's face darkened. "Gai Yan is a man of Yaoyang beyond the frontier. He grew up watching beacon towers. Even with the new code His Majesty set, he remembers it more firmly than I do."

To put it nicely, Gai Yan was knowingly heading for a mountain with tigers.

To put it bluntly, as Ma Yuan's subordinate, he had disobeyed the warning and order Ma Yuan had issued…

The Yuyang shock cavalry were elite troops, every man a warrior daring to fight, but Ma Yuan knew very well that once cavalry, riding the momentum of victory, rashly advanced and were dragged into close-quarters melee by too many enemies, their shock advantage could not be brought to bear. Often, they ended up being defeated by infantry instead — the drill manual Diwu Lun had compiled repeatedly flogged the corpse of the Yue Cavalry Camp's defeat by Lai Xi, hoping that generals would not repeat the same mistake.

Although Gai Yan had never had the chance to go to Chang'an and hear His Majesty the Emperor lecture in person, as an old campaigner, he could not possibly be ignorant of such basic common sense, could he?

Smoke rose from where they stood, blocking the view. Ma Yuan hastily scrambled onto another boulder jutting from the hillock. Once he could clearly see the Yuyang shock cavalry's formation, he burst out laughing.

"I told you Gai Yan is no man of mere courage without cunning. Look — he's not using the wedge formation, but the wild-goose formation!"

This formation, true to its name, was a slanting line like wild geese in flight, with no depth whatsoever. If used to charge an enemy line, it would most likely collapse first.

The Yuyang shock cavalry approached the Red Eyebrow Army like a flock of geese. When the distance closed to about a hundred paces, instead of accelerating into a charge as usual, they controlled their horses' speed. By the time they drew near to forty or fifty paces, their speed had slowed to a minimum. They actually halted their horses, drew their bows, and did not even aim — there was no need to aim! Because the enemy was packed together, standing motionless, clutching long sharpened tree branches!

Though the Yuyang shock cavalry were famed throughout the world for their "shock," they had long served on the frontier, contending with the Xiongnu and Wuhuan — how could their "shooting" skill not be superb? They could not compare to Li Guang, who had once served as Governor of Youbeiping and shot an arrow into a boulder while hunting a tiger, nor could they match the barbarians at shooting from horseback, but shooting from a halted horse they were quite adept at.

They swiftly loosed their arrows, launching the arrowheads with maximum force. The flying shafts fell like hail into the Red Eyebrow ranks. Though there were only a few hundred bows, it was enough to inflict tremendous damage on them.

Although Wang Mang, the Greenwood, and Liang Han had vied to serve as the Red Eyebrow Army's chief supply officers, the captured armor could not be repaired. Over the years, even the armor of the attendants and Elders had become tattered and torn. Most men wore short hemp jackets and had almost no defense against the keen arrows tearing through the air. They could only carry wooden boards, torn from who knows where, to block the arrows — the defensive value was obvious. Many arrows pierced through the shields and nailed their hands to the door planks.

What Gai Yan was exploiting was precisely the Red Eyebrow Army's lack of ranged weapons!

The Red Eyebrows took volley after volley of arrows for nothing, suffering heavy casualties. Seeing that the enemy had no intention of charging, they finally could not bear it any longer and came howling out, hoping to close with the enemy, entangle them, and drag the riders from their horses. But the Yuyang shock cavalry gave them no chance to fight at all.

The shock cavalry did not linger in battle. At the sound of the gongs, they immediately wheeled and withdrew. Gai Yan had deliberately chosen a direction with flat, unobstructed terrain, and soon left the pursuers far behind. Some who could shoot from horseback even turned and loosed their bows, killing several men.

The Red Eyebrows could only halt their steps. Those who had chased too recklessly soon discovered that they had lost contact with the main force and were surrounded by two squads of Yuyang shock cavalry prowling the field. Relying on their horses' speed, the cavalry charged back and forth through them, scattering them in utter disarray…

By the time the rest of the Red Eyebrow Army arrived, only a heap of their own dead and wounded remained on the spot.

Yang Yin could no longer hold back either. He pulled his ambushers out of the woods, intending to envelop them from the flank. If they could just surround the Yuyang shock cavalry and gradually constrict their room to maneuver, they would see where the cavalry could run!

But after a burst of barbarian flute whistles, the Yuyang shock cavalry began to scatter in all directions by squad, leaving the Red Eyebrow Army encircling nothing but empty air.

Similar scenes repeated over and over in the half-hour that followed: the Yuyang shock cavalry would ride close, loose several volleys of arrows, then leisurely withdraw.

Exploiting their mobility advantage, they scattered when the enemy scattered and massed when the enemy massed, never giving the Red Eyebrows a chance to envelop them, thus placing themselves in an invincible position tactically.

This was what set the Yuyang shock cavalry apart from the newly established "Bingzhou cavalry." It was said that young Geng, whenever he was undecided, would just charge, charge, charge — but the Youzhou shock cavalry rarely equipped horse armor or heavy armor. They were more mobile and ran the Red Eyebrows in circles.

Yet this was also a move born of helplessness. If it were up to Gai Yan's temperament, right now he would be lightly charging the enemy line with his cavalry. As long as he broke open a gap, then regardless of numbers, he would drive straight in and smash the encirclement in one blow — that would be satisfying!

But what little reason remained, along with Ma Yuan's warning, made Gai Yan suppress his impulse. He could only torment the Red Eyebrow Army with this utterly tedious method of fighting.

From time to time he turned and gazed north. After Gai Yan had come south to rescue Ma Yuan, Fan Chong's main Red Eyebrow army had abandoned its northward march and turned south instead, but it would still be half an hour before they could arrive.

There was enough time! As long as Ma Yuan's army fought its way out, Gai Yan would no longer need to play mounted archery with the Red Eyebrows. Instead, he would crash down on this motley horde like a hammer and let them witness true shock cavalry!

"Commandant Ma, though the Red Eyebrows are many, I have at least tied down twenty thousand men. Now their army is restless and worn out from being dragged about by me — this is the perfect moment to break out. Why do you still not come forth? You be the anvil, I the hammer — together we will smash the Red Eyebrows!"

…

"Now far, now near; now few, now many; now massed, now scattered; now appearing, now vanishing — coming like a fall from heaven, leaving like a thunderclap. This is the Yuyang shock cavalry's 'Crow Troops Scattered Stars Formation.' In peacetime, when they meet no strong foe, a single charge often ends the battle. Today I finally get to see it. Satisfying — truly satisfying."

Ma Yuan had originally feared that Gai Yan, with his brute courage, would throw the Yuyang shock cavalry away here. Seeing that they were actually playing hide-and-seek with the Red Eyebrow Army, he finally relaxed.

The Yuyang shock cavalry were like wild geese in flight, like crow troops, flapping their wings and scratching the Red Eyebrow giant's face full of wounds, infuriating the "giant" into madly swinging the blade and axe in its hands, yet unable to harm a single feather.

It looked composed, but in reality the risk was enormous: if coordination between different cavalry squads went awry, or if the Red Eyebrow Army charged a little faster and their encirclement widened a little more, the shock cavalry might go and never return. As the horses gradually tired, the speed of withdrawal grew slower and slower, and there were even instances where small squads of cavalry were surrounded by the Red Eyebrows and every man died fighting.

Yet Gai Yan simply would not retreat! He even risked exposing his position by lighting signal fires on the plain to indicate an attack.

Ma Yuan, of course, understood what Gai Yan meant.

"Juqing did not come here on His Majesty's command — he came to help me break out sooner."

Watching Gai Yan risk his life so recklessly, Ma Yuan was deeply moved.

But he dared not move!

For one thing, Ma Yuan could see that Fan Chong's main army, which had previously marched north, had now turned south — perhaps worried that the men left here were no match for Ma Yuan and Gai Yan… They had only half an hour to break out. The risk was too great.

Secondly, though Gai Yan's loyalty and courage were commendable, he did not understand Ma Yuan's thoughts at all. Even if they coordinated well with Gai Yan and escaped alive, his own unblemished record of invincibility would be broken. Could fighting a "breakout battle" restore his face? Without Ma Yuan pinning them down, the Red Eyebrows would likely leave the He-Ji region and continue ravaging other provinces of the Central Plains. The Central Plains would never know peace.

"Only by annihilating the Red Eyebrows completely between the He and Ji rivers can I be worthy of the soldiers who have fallen in battle!"

Ma Yuan believed that Diwu Lun had enough tacit understanding with him to envelop the area with the main army, so that this battlefield would suddenly reveal a startling configuration: enemies within our ranks, our men within the enemy's, layer upon layer interlocked, twisted into a single knot.

And so, when the deputy generals and colonels once more requested a breakout, Ma Yuan still refused.

"Order the troops to sleep with their weapons at the ready. When His Majesty's main army reaches the battlefield, we will light the parting smoke and have Gai Yan withdraw."

"My apologies, Juqing."

Ma Yuan murmured in his heart:

"This anvil of mine."

"Can only be hammered by Boyu!"

……

Unlike Ma Yuan, who was moved by Gai Yan's loyalty and courage, on the other end of the battlefield, Tiger Might General Zhang Zong, a man who insisted on rules in all things, had already cursed every last one of Gai Yan's ancestors.

"Yan men indeed — untamed wild horses who do nothing but kick up their heels!"

Since the Hebei campaign, the Youzhou faction had joined the State of Wei, and within it, it further divided into the Geng family's "Shanggu clique" and the "Yuyang clique" headed by Wu Han.

The officers of the Shanggu clique were manageable enough — after old Geng was summoned to court to serve as Grand Mentor, Jing Dan took them over.

The Yuyang clique was a much bigger problem. Though Wu Han was far away in Longyou, he was a notorious troublemaker, and the Yuyang shock cavalry's reputation was terrible too. During the campaign in Jizhou, their discipline was poor and their refusal to obey orders was routine. It was fortunate they were handed over to Ma Yuan, who whipped them into shape.

But now Zhang Zong understood: it was not that the Yuyang shock cavalry had been tamed — it was that Gai Yan played favorites!

The plan had been for infantry and cavalry to coordinate, drawing the Red Eyebrow Army northward together to create an opening for the main army to envelop them. Although this was Zhang Zong's improvisation and not yet an edict from the Emperor, he was still a titled general, while Gai Yan was merely a junior Assistant General — he was duty-bound to obey.

Who could have guessed that the man surnamed Gai would take matters into his own hands on the brink of battle and head south!

Zhang Zong broke out in a cold sweat — not out of worry for Gai Yan. If the Yuyang shock cavalry were trapped amidst the Red Eyebrows' hundred-thousand-strong host and annihilated, that was a small matter. Let allied troops die — no great loss.

But if they startled the Red Eyebrows into fleeing and refusing a decisive battle with His Majesty the Emperor, then Gai Yan's crime would be monumental!

"After this battle, I will certainly submit a memorial of impeachment and see to it that Gai Yan cannot even keep his post as Assistant General!"

Night came and went, and many things happened in that single evening: Fan Chong had stopped pursuing Zhang Zong and turned back to regroup with his rear army — he too knew that dividing one's forces was a grave taboo. The Red Eyebrow Army shifted to launch a new round of attacks on the trapped Ma Yuan, hoping to pull out this thorn before the great battle.

Zhang Zong also had his troops shadow the Red Eyebrows step for step, like a wolf stalking its prey, hoping to suddenly tear off a chunk of flesh. The Sanhe troops shuttled back and forth across a dozen li from north to south, unable to pull too far away lest the Red Eyebrows withdraw from the Heji region, yet unable to draw too close lest they suffer a night raid. But the moment the Red Eyebrows sent troops to drive them off, they immediately pulled back, without the slightest hesitation.

On the other side, seeing Ma Yuan standing firm as a mountain, Gai Yan withdrew resentfully, but he did not return to regroup with Zhang Zong. Instead, he formed his own independent division, and through the night, still bearing torches, he continued to send those men who still had strength to spread out in skirmishing formation, tying down the Red Eyebrows' forces for Ma Yuan's sake.

Until the rising sun climbed into the sky, the Wei army fought bathed in blood, and the Red Eyebrows left another thousand corpses on the field, yet still could not breach the wagon-fort.

Ma Yuan's subordinates were utterly exhausted. Had Fan Chong pressed the attack for one more night, they did not know if they could have held out through another evening.

The weather was fine today. As the morning glow dissipated, Ma Yuan, who had persisted on the hill beating the drum to direct the battle and had fallen asleep clutching the drumstick, suddenly snapped his eyes open — and saw, beneath the pale red clouds to the north, wisps of slanting smoke rising.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and stared intently. That was not cooking smoke from the Red Eyebrow Army, the Sanhe troops, or the Yuyang shock cavalry — it was the dense smoke of piled firewood, used for signaling!

Gai Yan, who had scarcely left the saddle all night, also saw those signals. One column, two columns, three columns... five columns. Each column represented one division — at least fifty thousand men were approaching the battlefield!

As for Zhang Zong, further north, his eyes, bloodshot and unclosed for two nights, saw more than just smoke columns. He also saw a unique command marker used in the Wei army.

It was as if great birds had flown up from every brigade and regiment, each a different color, yet tethered to the ground by sturdy lines. The men controlling them rode on war chariots, using immense arm strength to maneuver these flying objects.

Whether it was the wooden kites the Imperial Princess of the Huanghuang house loved to fly that gave the Emperor his inspiration, or whether Diwu Lun had a fondness for flying kites in his later life, kites of different colors had become the signals for large-scale army communication when the weather was fine.

Right now, the highest and most conspicuous was a multicolored long dragon, soaring at the edge of the heavens, riding the slow spring morning breeze, climbing very, very high!

Fifty zhang? No, at least a hundred zhang high! It looked as if it could almost touch the clouds!

Zhang Zong broke into a smile. He knew who was beneath that kite.

"He has come!"

Treading upon five-colored auspicious clouds, he has come!