Chapter 438: The Eagle-Shooting Hero

The eagle soared high in the sky. Looking up from the ground, it seemed no larger than a few inches across — only because it flew so high that it appeared small. If it suddenly dove, its speed would catch anyone off guard. When it descended before you and spread its wings with a great flap, they stretched as long as a full-grown horse!

It was the king of raptors over the great desert — flying high, flying fast. To shoot down an eagle required extraordinary archery. The Xiongnu were nomadic herders who could wheel a horse and draw a bow, masters of archery, yet even for them, shooting an eagle was no easy feat. Whoever could shoot down an eagle was honored with the title "Eagle Shooter" — the finest marksman among the Xiongnu, only one in a thousand.

Eagle Shooter Wulan lifted his head. One of his eyes was bright, but the other bore a savage scar. This single eye was a gift from the eagles — that hook-like beak and those claws sharp as knives were the most terrifying memories in Wulan's nightmares.

"Even the mightiest Eagle Shooter may have his eye pecked blind by an eagle the next time out."

So sighed the shaman of the tribe. They all believed that from then on, Wulan had lost the hunting prowess he once took such pride in. But even with one eye gone, Wulan remained the finest Eagle Shooter of the Helan Mountains! His remaining eye seemed to have gained the sharpness of a hawk.

He knew very well why the eagle circled this stretch of land for so long — because this was the Divine Spring, the only place within half a day's journey where men, beasts, and wild animals could drink. The wild beasts came in batches to drink here, and the eagle had its chance to swoop down on delicate foxes and weasels. If truly ravenous, it would even prey on the herders' sheep…

But within a hundred li in every direction, there was not a single sheep, not a single herder left.

After a painful decision, the Xiongnu had abandoned Divine Spring Mountain. They resolved to leave the Qin not a strip of meat, and even threw dead livestock carcasses into the drinking water to foul it. Since the Qin wanted to seize the Xiongnu's grazing lands, then the Xiongnu would leave them nothing at all!

Except for Eagle Shooter Wulan and the several dozen warriors under his command…

Wulan withdrew his gaze from the eagle, his single eye turning to look below the cliff. A few dozen paces beneath their feet, the Divine Spring flowed with a gentle murmur. Living water could not be thoroughly poisoned. Those Qin army scouts prowling nearby — after circling once and finding nothing — would surely come here to water their horses.

The eagle was waiting for its prey. So was Wulan!

After a long, silent wait, at last, a group of Qin soldiers began climbing up Divine Spring Mountain. Their horses they had left at the foot of the hill. Wulan's own horse was tethered in the woods. This group of Qin had certainly not discovered them — otherwise they would not be so composed, talking and laughing loudly as they walked.

Their faces were written with pride. Ever since last year, when they had routed the Xiongnu and taken a thousand heads, these Qin soldiers had come to look down somewhat on the Xiongnu's strength. The next time they came, the scouts they sent out grew bolder and bolder, even galloping two hundred li to camp at Divine Spring Mountain.

It was time to make them pay the price!

Wulan gestured to the Xiongnu concealed in the woods and slowly began to pull up an arrow that had been planted in the ground beside him for a long while.

The Qin scouts wore leather helmets and were covered in leather armor as well — the armor was two layers thick. Bone and stone arrowheads posed no threat to them at all. But Wulan, as an Eagle Shooter, had the right to use metal arrowheads!

Among the Xiongnu, the strong ate the finest portion, the old and weak ate what remained. In the army, too, the strong enjoyed the better equipment.

He revealed himself from behind a tree trunk, nocked the arrow onto the bowstring, slowly drew it back, and aimed at a Qin soldier who was crouching down to drink…

Wulan's arrows and horse were both distinctive. Without exception, the tails of his arrows were fletched with eagle wing feathers, and his horse's forehead was adorned with a circlet of eagle tail feathers.

He wished for his arrows and his horse to be as swift as the eagle!

And in truth, so they were!

With a sharp whistle, the sound came from the wooded mountain. The Qin soldier instinctively raised his head and saw a black dot rapidly flying closer. Then, his entire world turned to black and red!

He let out a tremendous scream! And then it stopped abruptly.

The men beside him saw only a broad arrowhead, half a foot long and sharp as a razor, suddenly burst out from the back of his skull. The arrow had pierced his eye socket, driven through his head, and emerged entirely crimson, bathed in blood…

The water bag in his hand dropped loose. The Qin soldier swayed, then fell face-down into the stream, his blood flowing into the water.

"Enemy!"

These Qin riders must have been Rong people. They shouted loudly in the Rong tongue, snatching up bows or crossbows to retaliate. But from the mountain forest, countless arrows were already loosed…

Wulan clenched his teeth, his single eye wide open, and shot arrow after arrow without mercy — just as mercilessly as these Qin men had, half a year ago, burned down his tribe by the river, slaughtered all his people, and gouged out the eyes of the survivors!

In the end, even his poor little son had died, still clutching an eagle feather in his hand when he died — the feather Wulan had placed in his palm before leaving.

He wanted revenge. For the hundred people of his tribe who had died, he would shoot dead a hundred Qin men as repayment!

Beside Wulan, men also fell to the Qin counterattack, cries of pain ringing out without end. If the eagle soaring in the sky above looked down, it would see the waters of the Divine Spring dyed red…

…

Heifu and Fusu had departed Xiao Pass in the fifth month and reached Huamachi Fort by mid-month. Fifteen thousand combat soldiers and fifteen thousand laborers used this as their forward base. Heifu at once sent out scouts and roving riders westward in force, spreading them over a hundred li outward.

In warfare beyond the frontier, the terrain was vast and empty. The sharp-eyed Xiongnu, spotting the dust kicked up by a large army on the march from several li away, could roughly gauge that the enemy was strong and they were weak, and would swiftly flee. Thus, pitched battles of thousands upon thousands of troops were extremely rare. A single engagement could only be achieved through repeated feints, displays of weakness, and encirclement.

But skirmishes between scouting parties — on the scale of a hundred men or even just ten — occurred every single day across this vast wilderness. The Qin committed more scouts than the Xiongnu, and the Qin riders were better equipped while the Xiongnu had only short blades and bone arrows. Thus, the Qin riders mostly emerged victorious.

Yet there were always exceptions. When Heifu led ten thousand soldiers to Divine Spring Mountain, two hundred li west of Huamachi, Fu Zhi, who had served as the vanguard, came to report with shame on his face, saying that when the scouts had probed and attacked this mountain, they had been ambushed by the Xiongnu and suffered grievous losses!

"How many dead?"

Heifu's brow furrowed.

"At first only a dozen or so died, but when they heard the horn calls, the other scouts who rushed over upon hearing the news surrounded the Xiongnu from all sides. Unexpectedly, they fell into a Xiongnu trap and encountered several hundred of their riders. After the battle, over a hundred more were dead."

The bodies were all laid out beside the Divine Spring. Half had died in close combat, half had died from arrows. The cavalry commander, Yiqu White Wolf, was crouching beside them, examining their wounds.

Fu Zhi's eyes were slightly red, his fists clenched tight. "Among them, ten of our fallen comrades were from the Good Family Corps!"

The three hundred Good Family soldiers of Beidi Commandery were elite troops Heifu had trained for a long time. Every one of them was well-equipped and highly skilled in archery and horsemanship. Though on their first campaign beyond the frontier this group had been somewhat green, by this advance they were already fit for great use. After replenishing with newly recruited soldiers, their numbers had also expanded to a thousand.

To lose ten men in one stroke — this was an enormous loss.

Heifu felt a pang of regret. He looked left and right and asked, "Where is Qiang Hua?"

Fu Zhi and Qiang Hua had both been promoted in rank to Grandee Official for their merits in the last campaign. Now each commanded five hundred riders, probing enemy movements on the left and right flanks.

"When Qiang Hua learned that the scouts had suffered such losses, he took his five hundred riders to pursue that group of Xiongnu who set the ambush here."

By Qin law, if losses exceeded gains, the commanding officer would be punished. Qiang Hua was probably trying to make up for the error.

"I fear this will go badly."

Yiqu White Wolf, who had been standing to the side, finally spoke up. He pulled out an arrowhead embedded in a man's neck and said gravely, "This is an iron arrowhead — extremely rare among the Xiongnu!"

"Generally, Xiongnu herders only have bone and stone arrowheads. Those who possess bronze arrowheads are at least squad leaders of ten. Those who possess iron arrowheads are leaders of a hundred or a thousand. And the feathers on this arrow shaft are not ordinary goose or swan feathers, but extremely rare eagle feathers!"

"There is only one kind of man who decorates his arrows with eagle feathers — an Eagle Shooter!"

Heifu had also heard of the Xiongnu Eagle Shooters. It was said that only one in a thousand men could become one. They were not nobles, yet they commanded more respect than nobles — they were heroes worshipped by the Xiongnu. Their arrows never missed. In the last clash with the Xiongnu, though it had been a running battle and a one-sided Qin victory, quite a few men had been shot dead by an Eagle Shooter — one whose horse's head was adorned with eagle feathers and whose arrow tails were also fletched with eagle plumes — turning back in the saddle to shoot as he fled.

Now, from Huamachi to the Divine Spring Fortification, the Xiongnu had withdrawn completely — not a single herder, not a single sheep remained. Yet an Eagle Shooter had appeared here again. He was probably a scout left behind to monitor the Qin army's movements…

At that moment, a clamor arose. Someone was shouting, someone was calling for a physician!

Heifu hurriedly led his commanders over to look. It was Qiang Hua and his men, returned from pursuing the Xiongnu. One look told they had been through a bitter fight. The bags hanging from their horses held over a hundred bloody Xiongnu heads. But the five-hundred commander Qiang Hua did not come forward elated to report his merits. Instead, he was being carried on a cart, his expression one of agony. An arrow was deeply embedded in his shoulder, and the blood would not stop flowing…

Heifu immediately ordered the physician to treat him and questioned the others for details.

A cavalry clerk said, "Commandery Commandant, our five hundred riders caught up with two hundred Xiongnu riders and fought them bitterly, slaying a hundred of the enemy. The remaining Xiongnu scattered and fled. The five-hundred commander saw that among a dozen or so Xiongnu fleeing southwest, the leader's horse was crowned with eagle feathers, and every arrow he shot had a metal head and eagle fletching. Knowing he was an Eagle Shooter, the commander took a hundred riders to pursue him and give battle. Who could have expected that the Eagle Shooter would fight while retreating, hitting his mark with every shot, wounding over a dozen men and injuring the five-hundred commander. We killed all his followers, but we simply could not capture the Eagle Shooter. He escaped into the forest, and though we searched, there was no trace of him. The five-hundred commander was gravely wounded, so we could only return…"

"Competing with the Xiongnu in mounted archery is like using your own weakness to strike at their strength!"

Heifu felt some regret. Because he had wanted to wait until the decisive battle to bring them out as a secret weapon and catch the Xiongnu main force off guard, he had not yet equipped the Qin mounted scouts with high saddles and stirrups. If they had possessed those, Qiang Hua and his men would have been like tigers given wings — how could they have let that Eagle Shooter escape? And suffered so many wounded in return.

"It seems the time has come to equip the cavalry with these things!"

Only with high saddles and stirrups could cavalrymen from the farming regions, who had never trained for more than a few years in mounted combat, match the nomads who had grown up on horseback since childhood — and with new tactics drilled for just a year or so, give them a huge surprise!

Heifu had also made up his mind: in this battle, he must thoroughly crush the Xiongnu, inflicting losses far heavier than those in history — so devastating that they could never rise again.

Although Qiang Hua had been wounded and the eagle-shooter had escaped, these scouting vanguard troops, who had penetrated dozens of li deep into the southwest, also brought back a piece of good news.

While searching for that eagle-shooter, they had unexpectedly run into friendly forces!

"General Li of Longxi has already advanced to the mouth of Green Mountain Gorge! His scouts have reached dozens of li out and made contact with our army."

This was welcome news. For this campaign, Longxi and Beidi were conducting a coordinated operation, advancing from two directions to pincer the Xiongnu's Helan grazing grounds and sweep the area clean.

"But General Li's scouts also reported that ever since crossing the Wu River and entering Xiongnu territory, they have not seen a single herder, nor a single cow or sheep. The Xiongnu have also contaminated many water sources with dead livestock."

"Strengthening the walls and clearing the wilds? What are the Xiongnu trying to do…"

Heifu furrowed his brow. Back then, Li Mu had used this very tactic against the Xiongnu — were the Xiongnu now using it to counter the Qin army's offensive? Though it was said that in history, the Han dynasty's Huo Qubing had fallen for exactly this ploy, drinking poisoned water and dying of illness. No telling if that was true or false, but best not to be careless.

Unfortunately for them, the Yellow River was far too wide and too vast for the Xiongnu to contaminate. What was more, unlike the Xiongnu, who could not dig wells, the Central Plains' well-digging techniques were already quite mature — and Heifu was an officer who required his commanders and soldiers to drink boiled water whenever conditions allowed.

After pondering for a while, Heifu wrote a letter and ordered this centurion to take a hundred men and advance further west to deliver it to the Longxi army.

"I wish to arrange with General Li that on the first day of the sixth month, the two great front armies of Beidi and Longxi shall link up in victory by the great river!"

PS: Got back late, only one chapter today.

(End of chapter)