Chapter 205: Dueling Generals on the Eve of Battle

Like a thorn in his back, like a fishbone in his throat, like... well, in any case, extremely uncomfortable — this was Zhang Zhao's most direct feeling about the Persian army camped a hundred li away.

The current situation of the two sides was like an inverted checkmark: Zhang Zhao was in the middle, the short side was Kese City, and the long side was the Persian army.

Zhang Zhao had sixteen thousand elite soldiers, plus more than thirty thousand Beishan tribespeople who had come to join him, though many of them were women and children.

Of course, more than fifty thousand people arrayed out still looked very intimidating; the camp stretched for several li, full of imposing momentum.

Yusuf in Kese City had more than twenty thousand troops, and there might be another twenty thousand or so civilians in the city. Although the fighting strength of Kese City's army was questionable after the great purge, with the support of Kese City's fortifications, it still would not be easy to crush them quickly.

The Persians numbered around thirty thousand, and their fighting strength was certainly superior to Yusuf's in Kese City. They had camped a hundred li from Kese City, on a mountainside with hills behind and water before, equally easy to defend and hard to attack.

This created a balance that made Zhang Zhao extremely uncomfortable. He did not dare attack Kese City with full force, because then the Persians would surely come and strike his rear.

Nor did he dare strike camp and go fight the Persians, because the moment he moved, Yusuf in Kese City would cut off his line of retreat.

Of course, neither of the two dared come provoke Zhang Zhao either, and they would not come provoke him. Yusuf wanted to watch both sides suffer, while the Persians simply wanted to wear him down until he left.

In a long-distance expedition, the thing most taboo is returning without achievement. An overextended supply line, an overlong period of preparation, and then being forced to retreat without fighting a single battle —

not only would it cost a great amount of grain, fodder, carts, and horses, it would also deal a fatal blow to morale. For a state of Khotan's size, suffer this kind of setback once or twice, and afterward it would be very hard to organize another expedition of tens of thousands.

"Great King, urgent report from Pei Shengyuan! The trusted man Yusuf of Kese City sent to Bukhara for activities was captured by them on his way back to Kese City!"

Zhang Zhao's heart thumped. Yusuf had sent someone to Bukhara, and by hidden wilderness paths at that — something unusual must be happening.

Sure enough, the moment the secret report reached his hands, Zhang Zhao could not help but laugh three times.

"Heaven aids me! Adhural and his thirty thousand troops are doomed! Beat the drums and assemble the officers!"

In the great tent, although night was nearly falling, the officers stationed in various places still rushed over at the first moment.

Zhang Zhao had long since donned his helmet and armor. The moment Yan Jin and the others saw Zhang Zhao's attire, their hearts surged with heat. After more than a month of standoff in this icy, snowy land, it was finally time to settle things.

"Prefect Pei! Draw ten thousand men from the Beishan tribes. Feed them and give them their fill of drink, and tell them: once Kese City is taken, I will let them enter the city first and loot freely for three days!

You yourself will lead your three thousand main troops to supervise the battle. I am leaving all the trebuchets to you. You must attack day and night without pause, regardless of casualties.

Take along those prisoners Andukang captured as well, and drive them forward to go in first!"

"Yes! But Great King, Kese City only has a few tens of thousands of people. How could it withstand three days of free looting? If the Beishan tribes loot first, what will our own men do?"

Prefect Pei had no objection to Zhang Zhao's arrangements, but he objected strongly to letting the Beishan tribes loot Kese City first.

Zhang Zhao smiled darkly and tapped his finger on the map. "That is why I said: only after Kese City is taken do they get to loot. The key is not the looting — the key is whether it can be taken at all!"

Prefect Pei understood at once. He gave a crossed-hand salute and withdrew directly.

"Li Ruotai! Bai Congxin! Each of you take the armored cavalry of the Youyi Battalion and the Baoda Camp and leave tonight!"

As he spoke, Zhang Zhao pointed to a small stretch of wooded hills on the map. "The Persian army will certainly strike camp and move toward us within five days at most. I want you to stay hidden here the whole time. When the great battle is at its height, upon receiving my order, strike straight for where the Persian army's commander is!"

"Yes!" The two accepted their orders and withdrew.

"Ashina Sili, take the light cavalry of the Basmyl main force, plus four hundred Amozhi light cavalry, and keep tight control of the Persians' scouts.

Suppress their scouting range to within fifteen li. I want the Persians to have no idea what is happening beyond twenty li!"

"Yes! This general will certainly complete the task!" Ashina Sili also hurriedly clasped his hands and answered.

"The rest of you, await my orders. Rest and recover well for three days. In three days we march, and then we just wait for the Persians to come crashing into us!" Zhang Zhao waved his hand and ended the war council.

Only then did Prefect Pei suddenly understand. Although he did not know where Great King Zhang had gotten his information, it seemed the Persian army, for some reason, had no choice but to move north and actively seek battle.

Having him lead the Beishan tribes to attack Kese City was merely to frighten the defenders of Kese City so they would not dare come out of the city — or rather, simply to make the defenders of Kese City think the main force was still outside the city.

The sun had just risen, and golden light spread across the land, warming people's bodies.

The horses, harassed by the cold, gloomy air for more than a month, were led by the soldiers, carrying heavy loads on their backs while enjoying the rare sunlight.

For the Fergana Basin in November, this was a rare fine day, and a very good opportunity for a great army to march.

Only the army's commander, Adhural, wore thick furs, and in his stern eyes was hidden unwillingness.

"Father, do we really have to strike camp and move north? What a fine situation this is now! We do not need to do anything, and we can force the Great Khan Juer's army to withdraw.

It is said to be more than a thousand li from Shule to here. On this trip, the Great Khan Juer will probably lose at least a hundred thousand silver coins.

Even if he can occupy Andukang, so what? We can just use him to keep Yusuf of Kese City in check. Before the Great Khan Juer came, Yusuf was never this obedient."

Hearing his son's words, Adhural slowly shook his head. He knew perfectly well that simply by outlasting, they could wear down the Great Khan Juer, but time was not on his side.

Prince Hamid was his patron and his backer. If something happened to His Highness the Prince, then as a major local official of the crown prince's faction, if only Adhural alone died, that might already count as Balami and the others showing mercy. More likely, the whole family would die together, to the last one.

So he had no choice. He had to risk moving north, to seek to repel the Great Khan Juer's army. Only thus could he stabilize Prince Hamid's position in Bukhara.

"You personally lead a cavalry force by a roundabout route to Kese City and inform them of our army's movements. Have Yusuf prepare to sally out and attack from both sides!" Adhural said quietly, but Alput shook his head.

"Father, Yusuf will not easily leave the city. He is certainly waiting for both sides to be exhausted!"

"You also said he will not easily leave the city — not that he definitely will not leave. This old fox is indeed waiting for both sides to be exhausted, so he will certainly come out to pick up the spoils.

I do not need him to exert much effort. As long as he is willing to come out and pick up the spoils when our army gains the upper hand, that is enough!"

As he spoke, Adhural patted his son on the shoulder. "Remember, our goal is not to take Kese City along with it, nor to settle accounts with Yusuf, but to repel the Great Khan Juer.

As long as the Great Khan Juer withdraws, even if Yusuf becomes dominant alone, it does not matter.

Because we will have completed Prince Hamid's task and helped His Highness the Prince through his difficulties. As long as Prince Hamid is there, our family can preserve its wealth and rank.

Remember: for a commander, before battle begins, you must be clear about what you want! Do not be greedy, and do not seek what should not be sought."

Sanshui Bay, about forty li from Kese City, lay beside the Yaxartes River, with surging water on the left.

On the right was an endless great plain, dotted with small hills, and at the end of the plain was the wooded hill where Bai Congxin and Li Ruotai lay hidden.

Zhang Zhao did not deploy a layered formation, because that was only used in the special circumstance of infantry defeating cavalry.

Although his main force now was heavy infantry, he did not lack cavalry either. The opposing Samanid Persian army was also primarily infantry with cavalry as support, so there was no need to deploy a layered formation.

Zhang Zhao took his two hundred personal guards and occupied a hillock, with the Fengtian Camp and the Baoda Camp arrayed on either side of the hillock.

Further out, on the left were the Khotan Amozhi troops, and on the right were Liu Zaisheng's Khotan palace guards. The cavalry had basically all been sent out.

In the two days since the Persian army moved north from their encampment, the two sides' Youyi troops and scouts had fought an extremely brutal dogfight of mutual slaughter.

To cover the main army's advance, the Persian cavalry strove to maintain an operating range of about fifteen li, and suffered more than two hundred casualties.

From the distance came waves of clamor as the Persian army, bearing hundreds of banners of every color and dressed in black, slowly entered the battlefield. Zhang Zhao's army had long since made its preparations and had even rested an extra half day.

The kind of battle where one side plunges headlong into an encirclement and is annihilated rarely occurs in large-corps warfare.

Because both sides have ample scouts to gather intelligence, and an army of tens of thousands on the move is not so easy to conceal.

Moreover, without sufficient mounted scouts reporting back, a large army will not march recklessly.

Zhang Zhao likewise did not gamble on charging straight in to launch a fierce assault while the Persian army was still unsteady — that would have been a risky move, for both sides alike.

When the attacker commits so openly and completely, if he cannot break through the enemy, he himself will be in grave danger.

Because large-corps warfare with cold weapons depends heavily on the integrity of formations; a chaotic mob rush can never match fighting in ordered ranks.

Therefore, for Zhang Zhao, the most advantageous course was actually to fight a proper, aboveboard battle.

Because he had intercepted intelligence from Yusuf of Kesek City, he had long known the Persian army would be forced to march north for a decisive battle, and he had long since made arrangements — there was no need to gamble on surprise.

'Dong! Dong! Dong!' Stirring drumbeats rose from both camps as the armored soldiers on each side began donning their armor.

When the formations began to assemble, there was usually an appetizer first — the duel of champions!

The so-called duel of champions was a method of warfare in which the bravest warriors of each army, before the formations were fully set, displayed their side's strength, flaunted their martial prowess, and raised morale.

In the cold-weapons era, the most important thing in battle was morale, and the duel of champions was the surest way to strike at the enemy's morale.

Because both sides sent out the fiercest warriors in their ranks; if such a warrior was slain, the blow to morale was extremely severe.

As for refusing to send anyone out to meet the challenge, that was even more unbearable — the enemy taunted and cursed, and you could not even pick a single man to step forward, so what was the point of fighting at all? Morale fell even more sharply.

Although it would not cause a great army's morale to collapse, nor decide the outcome of a war to any great degree, the damage was still considerable.

Especially for the non-elite troops on both sides, this was the most direct way to judge whether the other side could fight.

Thus, the duel of champions ran through the entire history of Chinese cold-weapon warfare, especially before the late Song and early Yuan.

Except in decisive battles of over a hundred thousand men, or campaigns where the disparity in strength between the two sides was too great.

In a battle like today's, where two armies of thirty to fifty thousand had drawn up their formations and were fighting a proper engagement, the probability of a duel of champions was very high.

What later generations remember most vividly is, of course, the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which almost turned the duel of champions into the entirety of warfare.

The most famous in history was the duel fought by Bai Congxin's ancestor, Bai Xiaode, Prince of Changhua Commandery, against Liu Longxian, a famed warrior under Shi Siming.

Liu Longxian's furious shout of 'What dog or pig is this?' not only earned him a place in the histories, but also helped secure Bai Xiaode's reputation as a great general of the realm.

As for this era, the Later Tang's brave general Zhou Dewei was a rare duelist, repeatedly defeating enemy champions famed among ten thousand and severely blunting the edge of the Later Liang and other armies. Li Cunxiao and Wang Yanzhang need no further mention.

Amid the thudding drums, a burly man galloped out from the Persian ranks, wearing a typical Persian mirror armor.

Mirror armor — this thing's design was especially popular in Central Asia and the Middle East. In ancient China, armor fitted with a heart-protecting mirror could also be called mirror armor.

In actual fact, it was a heavy armor with a large iron plate bound across the chest, surrounded by Persian-style mail.

It was the ancestor of the Persian four-mirror armor and the Ottoman disc armor of several centuries later. On his head he wore a round-topped helmet with a neck guard.

"Where does this kafir come from, daring to come here and provoke us? The might of Allah is here — surrender at once!"

The Persian champion dismounted three or four hundred meters from Zhang Zhao's army, then threw back the neck guard on his helmet and bellowed curses in the Uyghur tongue.

"Great King! Your general begs leave to slay this wretch!" Man Xiong was enraged. He swiftly donned his padded armor, took up his great axe, slung his hard bow across his back, mounted, and galloped out!

"What dog or pig of a barbarian is this? The heavenly army has arrived — kneel and beg for your life, and you may yet be spared death!"

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