Chapter 451: Shaking the Mountain

"Get down!"

At the squad leader's barked order, the conscripted laborer Guan Ying threw himself to the ground in panic. A moment later, a dense clatter rang out — the sound of arrow rain striking the great shields of the armed wagons. Most were blocked; only a scattered few cleared the wagon barricade, arcing down thinly, either caught by the Qin soldiers' swiftly raised shields or embedding in their thick armor, barely breaking the skin.

But the laborers shuttling between the front and rear lines to deliver supplies were out of luck — they had neither armor nor helmets. The man ahead of Guan Ying took an arrow to the thigh. Seeing the blood flow without stopping, he began to wail loudly.

"Shut up!"

The junior squad leader escorting them cursed furiously, but the man did not stop — he only wailed louder. In the end, his throat was cut with a single stroke of a sword...

"Those who cry out before the ranks and disrupt the army's morale shall be executed!"

The junior squad leader glared fiercely at this bunch of Shandong laborers. To the few who were so terrified they tried to turn and flee, he said, "Those who disobey orders, run about recklessly, and throw our formation into chaos — death!"

The men immediately trembled in fear, not daring to move a muscle. The junior squad leader spat on the laborer whose throat had been cut, told Guan Ying and the others to haul the body away when they returned to the rear, and gave another order:

"Pick up the fallen arrows and deliver them over, quickly!"

Guan Ying remained silent, bending to gather the arrows that had scattered when he threw himself down moments before.

He was originally a small-time merchant selling silk in Suiyang, Dang Commandery, pushing his little cart between home and market every day. Life was tight, but they scraped by.

Only, after Qin destroyed Wei, life for merchants grew hard. Not only did market taxes increase greatly, their status sank lower and lower, and whenever corvée labor was levied, they were the first to be conscripted.

This time the court was conscripting on a massive scale. Suiyang City had to provide a thousand able-bodied men to serve a year's garrison duty at Xianyang. Guan Ying was unlucky enough to be singled out by the village headman. He traveled a thousand li west to Guanzhong, and when they assembled at Zheng County, he was further assigned to Beidi Commandery.

In his understanding, Beidi Commandery was already the edge of heaven and earth. Who would have thought that after summer began, they would be driven onward, marching together with the Guanzhong Qin army toward the distant lands beyond the frontier, all the way to the bitter waters and parching winds of the northern wastes.

Of the fifteen thousand laborers with the Beidi Commandery troops, half stayed at Huamachi, and the greater part of the rest were stationed at Helan Mountain. Only Guan Ying's group of two thousand had the misfortune of being ordered to advance with the army, doing work during battle like hauling arrows, scattering iron and wooden caltrops, and pushing the armed wagons...

It was true that Prince Fusu was kind-hearted and treated the laborers well, but it was equally true that Qin military law at the front was brutally strict. The slightest infraction meant beheading as a warning to others.

There were gaps between each army formation, but those were reserved for the reserves and messengers. The laborers could only advance along the edges, always ready to yield the way.

Another volley of arrow rain fell. Everyone ducked to take cover again. This time, someone's palm was pierced through by an arrow, but he dared not cry out.

The Xiongnu's arrows were mostly bone and stone. As long as they didn't hit a vital spot, you wouldn't die. Sometimes people would even deliberately take an arrow. If you didn't scream, you could be sent to the rear. Though no medic would come to treat you right away, at least you could temporarily get far from the dangerous front line.

Guan Ying's thinking, however, was rather different. Though he was a peddler, he had a bold spirit. Amid the chaotic din of the battlefield, while hauling arrows, he still had the interest to watch how the Qin soldiers fought and defended against the enemy.

The Qin soldiers took cover behind war wagons called "armed wagons." These wagons were linked in pairs, with a great shield as tall as a man in front to block the Xiongnu arrows. But the Qin army's crossbowmen could aim and shoot through the gaps between the wagons, sending the charging Xiongnu riders tumbling, men and horses alike...

Even if a Xiongnu rider was lucky enough to evade the ceaseless volley of crossbow bolts and reach close range, faced with the eight-chi-long pikes jutting from the front of the armed wagons, their horses could not leap over them in one bound, instead shying back in fear.

It was a pity there were only eight hundred armed wagons, unable to completely cover the five-li-long battle line. Where there were no armed wagons, it came down to the flesh and blood of the Qin soldiers. Guan Ying watched as squads of Qin soldiers holding long spears stood ready. If any Xiongnu broke through the abatis wagon barricade, they would march forward in unison, lowering their two-zhang-four-chi-long spears at an angle to halt the Xiongnu cavalry's advance.

The battle had already lasted two ke. Though the Xiongnu had greater numbers, because the Qin army was defending from within the angle of two rivers, the Xiongnu could only attack head-on. They charged and shot from horseback several times, yet could not break the Qin formation. Instead, their own dead and wounded were far greater.

Another Xiongnu assault was beaten back. Guan Ying was watching, utterly absorbed, when the junior squad leader's voice exploded by his ear:

"Silk peddler, stop gawking! Get back quickly — this time we need to bring iron caltrops!"

"Yes."

Guan Ying hurriedly ran another trip with the laborers. Each man carried a basket of iron and wooden caltrops. These things had spikes on all four sides, wickedly sharp. Guan Ying had once been careless and had his finger pierced by one.

This item was also a fine weapon against cavalry, but time was pressing, and the Qin army had not been able to scatter all they had brought in front of the formation.

Yet they had another way to make up for it.

Along the way, they had been loaded onto dozens of carts, pulled by oxen and horses. That heap of cumbersome equipment that Guan Ying and the other laborers had been pushing was finally assembled on site by the craftsmen, and at last he could see clearly what it was.

"It's flying stones."

Guan Ying muttered quietly to himself. Years ago, when Prince Jiu of Wei defended Suiyang, everyone in Suiyang aged fifteen and above mounted the city walls to resist the Qin army. The Qin army had built tall "flying stones" — that is, trebuchets — to fiercely assault the city walls, and had broken through Suiyang's outer gate.

The trebuchets before him were much smaller than the heavy siege engines he had seen on Suiyang's walls a few years ago. Their range was only a little farther than bows and arrows. But the Mohists had added wheels to them, making them more mobile.

Under the Qin soldiers' orders, the laborers placed the iron and wooden caltrops they had carried into the trebuchet's wooden bucket. A dozen or so laborers pulled the ropes together. With a unified shout, they launched the iron and wooden caltrops, weighing dozens of jin in total, hurling them outward...

Like seeds scattered from a farmer's hand during the spring plowing, the dense mass of iron caltrops flew out, glinting in the sunlight.

They did not fly far — the farthest several dozen paces, the nearest just over ten paces — scattering freely over the grassland, which had been trampled into a wretched mess. This area originally had no caltrops; it was the focal point where the Xiongnu had concentrated their forces to attack. But the Xiongnu who came swarming in afterward all tumbled, men and horses alike...

By this method, even where there were no armed wagons, the Xiongnu could no longer break through so easily.

But Guan Ying, running back and forth between the various units to deliver supplies, also noticed that along the entire five-li battle line, the armed wagons were positioned on the left, right, and center. Where there were armed wagons, no caltrops were scattered...

Before he could ponder why the Qin commander had arranged things this way, the next time he delivered arrows to the right flank, Guan Ying noticed through the gaps between the armed wagons that several li away, a massive force of Xiongnu was crossing the gently flowing Dousitu River.

"Have the barbarians' reinforcements arrived?"

His heart tightened involuntarily. Although the laborers from east of the pass disliked being ordered around by the Qin, they also knew that if the Qin army lost this battle and they fell into Xiongnu hands, even if they weren't killed, they would likely end up as even more miserable slaves, dragged off to some frigid place to herd sheep.

Fortunately, when the laborers turned back to the rear formation once more, Guan Ying looked toward the opposite bank of the vast, mighty river and saw that a cavalry force had already appeared there, and was in the process of crossing the pontoon bridge built by a thousand laborers.

As the great banner bearing the character "Li" stepped onto the pontoon bridge, and as the white-horse general at the very front drew nearer and nearer, the Qin soldiers guarding the eastern bank all raised their weapons high and let out a wave of cheers!

First in the Longxi tongue, then the Beidi tongue, and finally the Guanzhong tongue, merging into one sound...

"The Flying General!" (See Chapter 372)

They were shouting: "The Flying General!"

"If we can break the Qin formation, I will make sure all these hateful wagons are burned to nothing!"

Beneath the eagle banner, Chanyu Touman was hopping with rage.

He finally understood the Qin way of battle. Every time they met a Xiongnu attack, they would array their wagons facing outward, then use the Qin army's powerful bows and crossbows to guard the critical points, making it impossible for the Xiongnu to enter easily.

Against this tactic, the Xiongnu were basically at their wits' end. Compared to the sharp Qin crossbows, even when they galloped close, faced with the armed wagons and the Qin soldiers' long-spear formation, they hesitated and dared not advance. The arrows they lobbed in could at most kill or wound some laborers and archers who lacked protective gear. They had charged the formation several times; the Qin had not lost more than a few hundred, while they themselves had already lost over a thousand soldiers...

The Xiongnu nobles and the commanders of ten thousand riders were at a complete loss. Chanyu Touman could only summon Ju Wu for advice.

"Grand Tutor Ju, what do you think we should do?"

Ju Wu had opposed Touman's decision to abandon the attack on White Goat Mountain and turn to raid this Qin army instead. His original suggestion had been to set a fire below White Goat Mountain, burn down the wagon barricade the Qin used for defense, and then ignite a mountain forest fire — that way, the Qin troops could be destroyed!

But before the fire could even be lit, a light rain had fallen the day before. Though it stopped after a short while, the ground was already wet. It not only doused the Xiongnu's desire to start a fire, but also allowed those Qin soldiers to collect rainwater and hold out for a few more days.

Faced with the Qin army's wagon barricade before them, Ju Wu had only one suggestion: "Apart from a fire attack, I fear there is no other way."

But unlike at White Goat Mountain, the Xiongnu could hardly make a sudden charge close enough to shoot arrows, let alone set fires at their leisure. Moreover, the Qin battle line was five li long, with rivers on both left and right — putting out a small fire would be all too easy...

"Who could have known the Qin would be able to set up wagon formations everywhere."

Faced with this extremely tough turtle shell before him, Chanyu Touman was both frantic and furious. His patience had been utterly exhausted over these past days.

The Xiongnu advance when it profits them and retreat when it does not. Since success is now unlikely, the best choice is to withdraw swiftly.

Some time ago, Touman led a great army in a raid that wiped out three thousand cavalry from Shang Province. At the siege of White Goat Mountain, he shot down another two thousand Qin soldiers, while his own side lost fewer than two thousand.

Regrettably, that Qin cavalry force that came and went without a trace also struck his livestock herds in the rear, killing and routing a thousand riders, slaughtering a thousand herders, and either driving off or plundering the animals.

All told, the Xiongnu have already suffered a small loss. Once he returns, rumors will surely spread, saying that Touman has grown old, lost his pastures, and is no longer fit to be the Great Chanyu.

But just as Chanyu Touman began to think of retreat and ordered the Xiongnu to halt their attack and pull back first, the Qin army's battle line — steady as a boulder until now — suddenly fell into disorder on its own!

One by one, the armored war-wagons, pushed forward by laborers, began to roll slowly ahead. Behind them stretched a dense forest of dagger-axes and spears...

The Xiongnu had a strange illusion: the great mountain they had assaulted so long without shaking even an inch now seemed to come alive, swaying and lurching as it bore down on them with its entire forest of dagger-axes and spears!

(End of chapter)