Chapter 150: Each with Their Own Calculations

A sworn-follower pikeman of the Three Teachings, gripping a long halberd with a hooked blade, howled as he stabbed and wounded the foreleg of a warhorse.

But before he could pull back, he was slashed by the long saber of the rider on horseback. The sharp edge cut through his mail armor, which was of rather poor quality, and a spurt of blood shot out from the pikeman's shoulder.

Yet this pikeman seemed not to feel pain at all. Amid agonized screams, he thrust his pike into the warhorse's belly.

Beside him, another pikeman pulled the rider off his horse the instant the warhorse slowed. Before the rider even hit the ground, several pikes stabbed into him at once.

Another rider killed, but no one cheered, and there was no time to cheer, because the second Qarakhanid rider had arrived.

Using the momentum of his horse, this rider swung the iron hammer in his hand and smashed a pikeman flat to the ground. But he too was immediately dragged off his horse by two pairs of hands, and then vanished into the countless crowd.

Across the front, middle, and rear lines of the layered formation, crossbow bolts shot through the sky in a dense, unceasing wave. Once a charging force was held by the pikemen and thrown into confusion or slowed, the layered formation's rain of arrows would inflict massive casualties on the charging Qarakhanid cavalry.

And the battle on the two wings, which Zhang Zhao had originally anticipated, was in fact not as fierce as he had imagined, because the Hanshan Capital armored soldiers on both wings were simply too ferocious!

Every one of them carried a divine-arm crossbow and could shoot down a large swath of men from far away. When the enemy charged close, these men each wielded a hengdao saber and a great wooden club, striking men and horses together. After several charges, the Qarakhanid cavalry, whether light or heavy, almost all chose to avoid the two wings.

"Father, Mo'erta and the others sent me to ask you: do we need to make preparations early?

These tens of thousands of Qarakhanid cavalry have been besieging us for a day and a night now. Last night they kept harassing us without pause, and we barely got any rest. The chevaux-de-frise in the front line have also been completely destroyed. It may well be that we cannot withstand the next charge of armored cavalry."

On the left wing of the layered formation, Huwei, son of Hucile, rode over. He too bore several wounds, and his armor was stained with blood, though none of the wounds were serious.

Hucile cast a cold glance at his son, then quickly withdrew his gaze. Watching the Qarakhanid cavalry withdrawing, he suddenly coughed softly a few times.

"I have heard Mo'erta's opinion. And what is yours?"

"Father, your son believes that we are retainers of the queen. Although the queen gave the Duke of Fengtian Commandery the fish tally and put us under his command, she did not tell us to fight to the death for him.

We have received only a few hundred strings of cash from the Duke of Fengtian Commandery, and after a bloody battle lasting a day and a night, we have more than repaid him!" Huwei hesitated a moment, then nodded and said.

Hucile stroked his graying beard, as if he very much agreed with his son's opinion.

"Then go and call Mo'erta over. I have some matters to instruct him on."

Before long, Mo'erta, whose person was almost spotlessly clean, hurried over.

"Commander, I see the Qarakhanid defenses to the west are not tight. If things go wrong, with the strength of our horses, we can certainly get away."

Hucile shook his head. "Getting away is not hard. Why waste the horses' strength? I have a better plan!"

"Please instruct me, Commander!" Mo'erta cupped his hands in puzzlement. The Qarakhanids had surrounded them on all sides—what better plan could there be?

Hucile suddenly raised his hand, and a cocked one-handed crossbow appeared in it. Before Mo'erta could speak, with a thunk, a fine iron crossbow bolt had buried itself in Mo'erta's chest.

Hucile then spurred his horse, and the warhorse burst out from the crowd. With a sweep of his hand, the sharp hengdao saber directly severed the head of Mo'erta, who was swaying back and forth on his horse.

"Disloyal and faithless! He deserved death! If anyone dares to speak such words again, he will be executed on the spot without pardon! Captain Hu, considering this is your first offense, get out of my sight. You may redeem yourself by taking three enemy heads!"

Watching his eldest son retreat in panic, a flash of anger at his failure to live up to expectations crossed Hucile's face. Then he turned to his second son, Huguang, beside him.

"Does Erlang know why Father killed Mo'erta?"

"Your son knows!" Huguang, whose mouth was still ringed with soft down, cupped his hands and replied.

"More than ten thousand Qarakhanid iron cavalry could not break the Duke of Fengtian Commandery's two thousand men. This shows the Qarakhanids are nothing much. The Great Sage Son of Heaven is leading troops behind us, so the outcome is in fact already decided.

Because even if the Qarakhanids kill us all right now, they have still lost. With their ability to assault fortified positions, as long as we hold the Shule line firmly, the Qarakhanids will never again be able to push south.

No matter the result here, Saktu cannot shake the thirty thousand remaining troops of our Great Jin Kingdom."

"Well said! We are not fighting for the Duke of Fengtian Commandery now, but for the Great Jin Kingdom. If we fled in the face of battle, the Great Jin Kingdom would never tolerate us again. But you have also missed the most crucial point!" Hucile finally showed a few traces of a smile.

"Since my grandfather migrated here from outside Bingzhou, our tribe has gone through three generations and has finally begun to cast off the status of northern barbarians. If we flee now, we might save our lives, but we would be doomed to return to the grasslands and eke out a bitter nomadic existence.

I have heard that the Duke of Fengtian Commandery has the great ambition of restoring the Zhang clan. That suits this old man's taste. I have practiced mounted archery for half my life and painstakingly trained dozens of brave and valiant young men, precisely in order to find a worthy lord and go to the rich lands of Guazhou, Shazhou, and even Ganzhou and Liangzhou to live as a master.

Back then, those of our kinsmen who followed the Li Prince of Jin and his son ended up as meritorious Han noble families. Why should we, father and sons, not enjoy such wealth and rank too? Whoever wants to go back to the grasslands and eat snow can go—this old man will not!"

At the very rear of the great formation, a group of broad-shouldered, thick-waisted, big-bellied, somewhat short and stocky men were warming up. Even the warhorses around them matched their build—all large-boned and somewhat plump-looking.

Their physique was the standard build for armored cavalry of this era. Being short and stout not only gave them better endurance and resistance to blows, but also reduced the area that could be attacked. Their iron armor weighed several jin less than that of taller men. When both man and horse were fully armored, even saving one jin of weight could spare the warhorse considerable strength.

In Li Ruotai's hand was a sheet of fine, snow-white paper from Xuancheng Commandery. Only a few characters were written on it, but they conveyed a piece of extremely important information.

It was that his own younger sister, Li Ruoliu, whom Li Shengtian had married off to the Zhongyun Kingdom, had just been found to be four months pregnant.

This letter had been sent out at the end of the second month. Four months earlier was exactly the month in which the King of Zhongyun, Sanpoba, had been killed by Zhang Zhao.

And before that, Li Ruoliu and the King of Zhongyun, Sanpoba, had been hostile to each other for two or three years.

Then who was the father of this child? It went without saying!

"The Zhongyun Kingdom! Small as it is, it is still a kingdom! This deal is worth doing!"

Li Ruotai muttered a few words under his breath, then looked at another burly man beside him and said:

"Jiulang, have everyone begin donning armor. I reckon the Qarakhanids are about to launch their final fierce assault! Make it clear to everyone: this time we are fighting for ourselves. Do not disgrace the prestige of the Prince of Wudu Commandery!"

Jiulang nodded lightly. "I will follow Second Brother's lead. But I have no interest in going to the Zhongyun Kingdom to lord it over others. There is no meaning in it.

Our ancestors talked every day about how the Prince of Wudu Commandery was this and that, and they talked about it for hundreds of years. I just want to go to Chang'an once and see with my own eyes what kind of immortal life the Prince of Wudu Commandery lived back then.

I think Zhang Erlang is someone who can accomplish great things. Perhaps following him will work!" Having said this, Jiulang picked up the lamellar armor placed on the cart and walked toward where the men were resting.

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