Chapter 425: Four-Warrior Assault Formation

"For every enemy head taken, a goblet of ale; all captured clothing, furs, and weapons go to the taker!"

Scouts reported back that the Qin grain convoy was a mere ten li away, whereupon the Xiongnu Right Gudu Marquis, Huyan Lan, gave the order to attack.

Among the Xiongnu, ale was also a rarity, often given as a reward for slaying foes, and the gear the Qin men wore made them drool even more. Yet the greedy cavalry of the various Xiongnu tribes still felt the reward was too meager, and someone shouted:

"Gudu Marquis, if we capture any people this time, may we take them back as slaves?"

"Aye, I hear the Qin grain convoy has a thousand oxen hauling full carts of grain — can we split it evenly?"

Huyan Lan, however, shouted back with a tone that brooked no doubt: "This battle leaves no living thing — man or beast. Once the Qin men are scattered, burn everything!"

For Xiongnu who fought only to plunder, giving up spoils was a bitter thing, but Huyan Lan had no other choice. By his agreement with the Right Grand Danghu, they had waited in a stretch of rolling hills for the time it takes a horse to drop dung twice, yet still saw no sign of Qin riders or their own Xiongnu kin. He knew then that things had gone badly wrong — the Grand Danghu was likely pinned down by Qin troops.

Huyan Lan did not turn back to aid them. Instead, he immediately led his men further south. The Grand Danghu had instructed him: if the situation changed, switch to raiding the Qin grain convoy and strike swift and hard!

According to the scouts' findings, the Qin men escorting the grain numbered around two to three thousand, but a full thousand of those were civilian cart drivers. Of the remainder, most wore no armor, and only a small contingent of fully armed and armored soldiers accompanied them.

Against Qin troops in thick armor and sharp blades, Xiongnu horsemen dared not face them head-on, but when the foe was unarmed civilian laborers and garrison conscripts, the bows in their hands would be loosed without a moment's hesitation!

Yet when Huyan Lan and his men crossed through these hills and laid eyes on the Qin grain convoy, they were instantly dumbstruck!

For what lay before him was no panic-stricken grain convoy reeling from a Xiongnu raid. This long serpent of ox- and horse-drawn grain carts was orderly coiling itself around a small grove, barely a li in circumference. The cart beds had been unloaded by the Qin men and placed side by side, layer upon layer, circling several times over, left in place like crenellated ramparts. The draft animals had been driven into the grove by the carters and teamsters and tethered beneath the bare-branched trees, to prevent them from bolting in panic during battle and throwing the formation into chaos.

The remaining thousand-plus unarmored "civilian laborers," shielded by blade-wielding armored soldiers, stood firm within this improvised fortress of cart beds, watching the invading Xiongnu with vigilant eyes...

The Xiongnu stared at one another in bewilderment. They had rampaged beyond the frontier for years, even reaching the fringes of the Western Regions, but never had they seen such a formation. A few riders spurred forward to probe it, but the moment they came within a hundred paces, a crossbow bolt shot out from the cart-wall with a sharp *thwip*. The bolt buried itself deep in the chest of a rider's mount; the horse collapsed with a pitiful whinny. The Xiongnu, by luck still alive, turned ashen with fright and immediately wheeled back with his companions behind him!

The Qin army's hand crossbows could shoot only a few dozen paces, losing power beyond that, roughly matching the range of the Xiongnu bows. Yet the bolts now shooting from within the cart-wall flew straight through a distance of over a hundred paces without losing force!

Sharp-eyed Huyan Lan saw that these bolts were being loosed by those very Qin men who wore no armor. What astonished him even more was the way they drew their weapons.

The Gudu Marquis, witnessing a foot-drawn crossbow for the first time, left behind a single remark in his shock.

"I have seen only men who draw the string with their hands. The Qin actually have men who draw the string with their feet, able to match an eagle-shooter and strike beyond a hundred paces!"

It is said that this is the origin of why the steppe peoples long called this type of soldier "foot-boys"...

While the Xiongnu horsemen, intimidated by the foot-drawn crossbows, hesitated outside and dared not advance rashly, inside the cart-wall, Gongsun Bailu was praising the young man of good family, Gan Chong, who had just skewered a Xiongnu warhorse with a single bolt.

"Fine marksmanship!"

The Vanguard and the main army had to advance rapidly, so they carried only the lighter arm-drawn crossbows. The foot-drawn crossbows were loaded on the rear army's supply wagons — and now they were being put to good use.

In addition to large quantities of weapons and equipment, when the rear army departed Xiao Pass, it had been temporarily reinforced by a thousand crossbow conscripts sent from Shang Commandery by imperial decree. Qin crossbowmen wore no armor, only plain cloth garments of varied colors, so the Xiongnu, unaware of this, had mistaken them for civilian laborers from a distance.

This was also why Heifu felt confident leaving the grain convoy and choosing to pursue the main Xiongnu force first. With a hundred young men of good family skilled in bow and crossbow, plus a thousand Shang Commandery conscript crossbowmen, the grain convoy could be assured safe.

Gan Chong, praised by Gongsun Bailu, merely smiled and cupped his hands. "Had the County Lieutenant not been so prudent, sending scout riders out a full thirty li, we could not have discovered the Xiongnu a full half-shichen early. Had we been ambushed and cut into pieces, even the strongest crossbows would have been useless..."

Gongsun Bailu laughed. "The art of war says: 'If the enemy lacks natural barriers and strongholds, penetrate deep and drive far, sever his grain routes, and the enemy will surely starve.' In the Central Plains, cavalry is most often used to cut enemy supply lines and raid baggage trains. The Xiongnu have ridden and shot since childhood — how could they not grasp even this simple principle?"

There was another thing he did not say: Commandant Heifu had likely known this as well, which was why he made the grain convoy the bait to lure the Xiongnu into striking first.

And through long years of fighting against Zhao — the first state to employ cavalry — the Qin army's baggage troops had developed a specific formation to counter horsemen: the "Four-Warrior Assault Formation"!

The crux of this formation lay in the cart-rampart. First, unload the oxen and horses, then link the carts into a circular or square field-fort to serve as a temporary stronghold. Then, position picked crossbowmen with powerful weapons to guard all four sides. In this way, a cavalry charge could be withstood.

A strict "Four-Warrior Assault Formation" also required three rings of five-chi-deep trenches dug outside the cart-rampart, but the Xiongnu had come on so fiercely today and time was so pressing that there had been no chance to dig them. So there were no ditches, yet Gongsun Bailu still had Gan Chong and the others scatter a few small items in the withered grass outside the rampart...

Though startled by the range and power of the foot-drawn crossbows, the Xiongnu had not yet given up. The Gudu Marquis gritted his teeth and ordered two thousand riders into motion. They circled the Qin cart formation twice, then sent several hundred of them charging hard at what looked like the weakest point, attempting to close in and shoot, killing those unarmored crossbow conscripts!

The Xiongnu riders came howling in. Just past a hundred paces, a dozen foot-drawn crossbows thundered at once; the sound cracked like a thunderclap, and several riders toppled with the strings. At seventy or eighty paces, behind this section of the cart-rampart, over a hundred ordinary arm-drawn crossbows loosed their bolts as well, and another ten-odd Xiongnu were struck...

But crossbow mechanisms had a flaw: they were too slow to reload. Seizing this gap, the Xiongnu riders spurred forward faster, but just as they entered fifty-pace range and reached for their bows to shoot at the cart-rampart, the horses beneath them suddenly let out shrill neighs, then violently halted and began to buck and leap wildly.

Nearly a hundred riders who charged in all met the same fate, losing control of their mounts. The unluckiest were thrown to the ground, and immediately began shrieking in agony as if stabbed by something.

At that moment, the crossbow conscripts who had shifted to support this section were already taking aim at these living targets, claiming several dozen more lives...

The Xiongnu dared advance no further. After loosing a few random arrows, they retreated, their faces filled with terror, sensing something uncanny lurking in the withered grass before the Qin cart-rampart.

His face ashen, Huyan Lan strode up to a horse that was hobbling along. He made the Xiongnu who was desperately trying to soothe the beast lift its hoof, and upon seeing it, he could not help but suck in a sharp breath.

Embedded in the softest part at the center of the hoof was a small, four-spiked object; blood flowed without cease.

"This is... a white caltrop?"

The white caltrop was a plant common to both the Xiongnu lands and the Central Plains. Its fruit husk bore triangular spikes; when ripe it fell to the ground, always with one spike pointing upward, able to pierce and wound passersby. It often pricked Xiongnu children and livestock, and was deeply loathed by them.

But it was now winter; the white caltrop had long withered and died and should not be found here. A closer look revealed these were larger than ordinary white caltrops, seemingly made of wood, carved by human hands...

Looking again at the gravely wounded men who had been thrown from their horses and dragged back by their comrades, their bodies too were studded with several of these spikes, some made of iron, which stabbed deeper and hurt far worse.

This object was called a wooden caltrop, also a sharp tool used in the Central Plains to counter chariots and cavalry. It had appeared as early as the Spring and Autumn period, said to have been invented by the men of Qi to deal with Jin's chariot troops. Often scattered on narrow, unavoidable paths, it would strike seven or eight out of ten enemy chariots and riders passing through. The Mohists, when defending cities, also used them to seal the entrances and exits of underground tunnels, guarding against subterranean surprise attacks.

After an iron office was established in Beidi Commandery, Heifu had craftsmen use molds to cast a great many iron caltrops as well, and had the rear army carry a full fifty cartloads of them! He had not expected them to be put to use here even before reaching Huamachi.

"Terrifying!"

The Xiongnu instantly felt that the Qin men were profoundly cunning. In their eyes, the Qin cart-rampart had transformed into a porcupine bristling with spikes. To get at the tender meat inside, they would have to be stabbed until their hands ran with blood. The Xiongnu all showed frightened faces, and no matter how the Gudu Marquis berated them, they refused to charge again of their own will.

The nature of the Xiongnu is this: when they see a foe, they chase profit like flocking birds; when they are trapped and defeated, they scatter like clouds dissolving. So it was now. After several attempts had smashed against a wall, Huyan Lan knew the Qin troops were fully prepared and had been waiting for him to come raiding the grain. If he stubbornly refused to leave, he might truly be unable to leave at all.

So, with a bitter sigh, Huyan Lan could only announce a retreat. With a few sharp whistles, the Xiongnu withdrew to the west...

Two ke later, reinforcements from Huamachi Fort arrived at the scene. Qiang Hua and Fu Zhi, who had been fretting over Gan Chong and the grain convoy's safety, galloped close, only to find the grain convoy completely unharmed, already in the midst of re-harnessing the oxen and horses to their carts and gathering up spent arrows and iron caltrops everywhere. And on the withered-grass wilds lay over a hundred corpses of men and horses, abandoned by the Xiongnu...

The next morning, when the Qin force of several thousand men and horses returned to Huamachi Fort, the Lord of Xuyan hastily led his tribesmen out of the settlement to welcome them.

Rank after rank of soldiers were in high spirits, having just won two battles. Their carefully adorned battle flags snapped and streamed in the winter wind. Even more awe-inspiring were the young men of good family, all mounted, holding long lances and swaggering boldly — skewered on the lance-tips were over a hundred Xiongnu heads, taken from those shot dead by the rear army's baggage troops the day before.

The Lord of Xuyan and his party prostrated themselves on both sides of the road, not daring to raise their heads for a long while, their hearts shaken to the core.

The day before, he had stood atop the settlement wall and watched the entire battle between the Qin army and the Xiongnu on the salt flats. He had seen those Xiongnu bow-pullers who had been so invincible when plundering and brutalizing Xuyan reduced to fleeing in utter disarray before the Qin infantry and cavalry, many of them slain or captured. The Xiongnu Grand Danghu had not even dared return to his camp, fleeing westward over a hundred li without stopping.

Later, the Yiqu White Wolves had returned, escorting a great number of Xuyan's people and herds of cattle and sheep seized from the Xiongnu camp. Though most had already been sent by the Xiongnu toward the Helan Mountains, snatching food from a tiger's jaws was something the Xuyan Rong had never dared even dream of.

And the Qin grain convoy, relying solely on its own strength, had faced two thousand Xiongnu riders, repelled their assault, and taken over a hundred heads. With that, relying on these supplies and grain, the Qin men would be able to secure a firm foothold at Huamachi.

"It seems my entire clan's decision to submit to Great Qin was the right one."

With this thought, the Lord of Xuyan and his clansmen shuffled forward on their knees before Heifu's horse, knocked their heads to the ground in prostration, and poured out words of gratitude...

Heifu, however, had no interest in these Rong people's effusive gratitude and loyalty. Only after the Lord of Xuyan had finished speaking did he say: "Lord of Xuyan, do not thank only me."

He clasped his hands toward the southeast. "The one most deserving of thanks is His Majesty the Emperor of Great Qin! In a few more days, once we've driven the Xiongnu completely out of the Huamachi region, come with me to Xianyang and kneel before the palace gates!"

Wushi Yan stood nearby helping to translate. As soon as Xuyan Jun heard this, he thought — wasn't this exactly the same as the Xiongnu Chanyu demanding he go to Touman City? His heart tightened at once.

But looking left and right, he saw Qin army banners planted on his own walls. Hei Fu's officers and clerks had already taken control of his town and taken over the armed forces under his command. Xuyan Jun could only nod with a face full of smiles. "That goes without saying. For a petty barbarian like me to behold the majesty of the Son of Heaven — truly, it is a fortune accumulated over generations!"

But Hei Fu's next sentence made his head spin all over again.

Hei Fu gestured toward the high-spirited soldiers behind him. "You must also thank these troops who journeyed far into foreign lands to help the Xuyan people drive off the wolves! Xuyan Jun, the soldiers have fought bitterly all day — they're exhausted and hungry. Have your clansmen slaughter a thousand head... no, make it two thousand sheep. I'm going to feast the troops in grand style!"

PS: King Wu asked the Grand Duke: "How does infantry fight against chariots and cavalry?"

The Grand Duke replied: "When infantry engages chariots and cavalry, they must rely on hills and mounds, on steep and obstructed terrain. Long weapons and strong crossbows are placed in front; short weapons and weak crossbows are placed behind, taking turns advancing and halting. Even if the enemy's chariots and cavalry arrive in great numbers, hold a firm formation and fight fiercely. Deploy picked men with strong crossbows to guard our rear."

King Wu said: "If I have neither hills and mounds nor steep and obstructed terrain, and the enemy arrives — both numerous and fierce — with chariots and cavalry flanking us on both sides and raiding our front and rear, and my three armies are terrified, thrown into chaos and routed, what should be done?"

The Grand Duke replied: "Order our soldiers to set up chevaux-de-frise and wooden caltrops, position oxen and horses within the ranks, and form the Four Martial Assault Formation. When you see the enemy's chariots and cavalry about to arrive, spread caltrops evenly, and dig a trench behind them five chi wide and five chi deep — this is called the 'Cage of Fate.' Have men advance carrying chevaux-de-frise, use palisade wagons to form ramparts, pushing them forward and backward, standing firm to create encampments. Picked men with strong crossbows guard our left and right flanks. Then order all three of my armies to fight fiercely without letting up."

— Six Secret Teachings, Canine Secret Teachings, Infantry in Battle

(End of Chapter)