Chapter 208: I Am Lu Sanlang

As the Persian army's commander's banner and the great tiger-head standard toppled down from the hillock where they stood, the remaining twenty-thousand-odd Persian troops collapsed outright. The battlefield was filled with wailing, and everywhere Persian soldiers were throwing away their armor and weapons.

Of course, there were exceptions. On a rather sizable hillock, three or four thousand Persians were still gathered beneath a banner painted with a lion, putting up desperate resistance. There were also quite a few groups of several hundred men fighting on like cornered beasts.

Zhang Zhao was just about to order an assault on these Persian soldiers who still held their formation when a tall, dark-blue steed galloped over from the distance.

The rider was Chi Tian, a captain of the Nestorian knights he had recruited at Suyab — Guo Guangcheng's elder brother-in-law.

"Great King, Yusuf of Kasan has come out of the city. Prefect Pei is holding out against him. I beg the Great King to return at once with reinforcements!"

"The Persians must have sent word to Yusuf. That thieving barbarian certainly knows how to pick his moment!"

Fan Quan cursed from horseback. Yusuf was timid as a mouse; had the Persians not sent him word, he would never have dared leave the city.

Although Prefect Pei still had tens of thousands on his side, his true fighting men numbered only a little over three thousand. The rest were armed herders from the various tribes of the Northern Mountains — utterly incapable of fighting a hard battle.

"Round up all the warhorses. Have the Hanshan Du assemble before me at once. Sound the horn and summon every warrior who still has strength left.

A petty thieving barbarian with the gall of a dog dares come out of his city — Heaven itself means to destroy him. This spares us the trouble of storming Kasan's strong walls!"

Zhang Zhao froze for a moment, then suddenly burst into loud laughter, his face alight with surprise and delight.

The officers gathered around Zhang Zhao were briefly stunned, but seeing the overjoyed look on Great King Zhang's face, they began to feel it really was so.

How hard Kasan would have been to take! Now they could finish off Yusuf outside the walls — what a fine thing that was!

"Right! We turn the army around now. Thirty li will pass in an instant. Yusuf is completely unprepared — one battle and we take him alive!" Yan Jin was the first to catch on, and he too shouted with delight.

"Cousin, I'll take three thousand men. I leave this place to you. Let Man Xiong, Dunzhu, and the others hold the line here. Send the main force out in pursuit — if we don't kill these startled birds now, they'll be trouble later!"

Zhang Zhao gave Yin Yaozi a few instructions, then spurred his horse forward alone, heading straight for the Persians gathered beneath the lion banner.

Before word of Yusuf's sortie arrived, Zhang Zhao had intended to kill men to make an example. Now it seemed he could only offer them terms.

"Who is your leader? Step forward and speak!"

Zhang Zhao spoke in flawless Turkic. Many Persian words were borrowed from Turkic, and since the Samanid realm had many Turkic peoples, someone was sure to understand.

Amid shrill screams and chilling groans, on ground soaked with blood, Zhang Zhao sat astride his golden warhorse in golden armor, looking like a god descended from heaven. The sun behind him cast a layer of golden light over his figure.

After two or three seconds, a Persian officer in a mail shirt and no helmet parted the extremely tense Persian soldiers and walked out from the formation. He bowed to the mounted Zhang Zhao, hand over his chest.

"Noble Gur Khan, I am Rashid Salman, chiliarch of the Golden Lion Banner of the Al-Sariya army of the Samanid realm, and commander of these four thousand men!"

A clever one — he had seen what Zhang Zhao intended. Great King Zhang smiled coldly.

"Where are four thousand men here? Even if there were, what would four thousand beaten remnants matter? But today this Khagan is in a good mood and has no wish to kill more.

" So saying, Zhang Zhao hurled the long lance in his hand into the ground before Rashid Salman's chest.

"Your lives are spared. Throw down your weapons, strip off your armor, and soon you will be reunited with your families. By the renown of Gur Khan, I pardon you!"

"I thank you for your mercy. I thank you, great Khagan!"

So saying, Rashid Salman came forward and knelt before Zhang Zhao's horse, then, heedless of blood and mud, directly kissed the surface of Zhang Zhao's war boot.

Zhang Zhao fought down the revulsion coursing through his body and forcibly restrained the impulse to cut this fellow's dog head off with one stroke!

After Rashid Salman kissed Zhang Zhao's boot, the several thousand Persian remnants clattered and clanged as they threw down their weapons, stripped off their armor, and knelt directly on the blood-soaked ground.

Looking ahead and behind, hesitating and wavering — that was the impression Yusuf gave Zhang Zhao.

In truth, that was a misunderstanding. When Governor Yusuf betrayed Bogra Khan Satuq, he had been resolute indeed.

The real reason this governor had lately been so hesitant, unable even to hold Andukan, was simply that he had been frightened out of his wits.

He knew Bogra Khan Satuq's abilities, and he understood the excellence of the Ghulam guards under Satuq Khan.

In his view, anyone who could beat Bogra Khan Satuq so badly that he could not even protect his own wife and children must be a peerless fiend.

And in fact, he had long since gathered intelligence on Zhang Zhao. Whether the Battle of Shule or the Battle of Poluzhou, to Yusuf they seemed simply impossible to accomplish.

But just as he was considering whether to submit outright, even more startling news came from Shule: my valiant Great King Zhang had been forced to set off for Suyab with barely a thousand men.

For Governor Yusuf, a man skilled at political maneuvering, the little gears in his head began turning at once.

Great King Zhang must have fallen under the suspicion of the Great Sage Son of Heaven of Khotan. When a subject's achievements overshadow his lord, how many come to a good end?

So he quickly abandoned any thought of submitting, and even gave the Khotanese envoy who had angered him a bit of "facial rearrangement."

After that, he rounded up all of Satuq's trusted men who refused to follow him in striking out on his own, and carried out a great purge in the army as well.

Having finished this series of affairs, he was just preparing to consolidate Andukan and seal off the route from Shule to the east when, all of a sudden, thunder cracked from a clear sky.

That infamous Great King Zhang had become Gur Khan, and had come from Suyab to Farghana.

It happened that Yusuf had just purged the army and had not yet had time to train enough officers, so its fighting strength was in doubt. At the same time, his trusted men who had gone raiding and harvesting in the Northern Mountains by tradition had inexplicably collapsed.

The Khotanese army had appeared in Farghana with the force of a thunderbolt and had established itself with even greater speed.

With subordinates opposing him, the army's fighting strength in doubt, and his trusted men's power greatly diminished, the helpless Yusuf fell back on what he did best: trimming his sails to every wind.

But he was truly unlucky, because after Zhang Zhao arrived, the room left for him to maneuver was already very small.

"Rest assured, Governor. My father has fifty thousand troops. You know the fighting ability of the warriors of Khujand. Gur Khan has taken at most twelve or thirteen thousand men with him. Four against one — victory is certain for us!

Once we break through the camp here, I ask the Governor to lead his troops and join forces with my father. From this day on, Farghana shall belong to our two houses."

Alp Tegin, son of Adhural, was brimming with confidence. His father Adhural was one of the few renowned generals in all of Samanid Persia. His own army's fighting strength was even superior to that of ordinary Ghulam guards, because Khujand was the one place that had been fighting continuously all these years.

Although fifty thousand troops was boasting, thirty thousand he certainly had. He did not believe that with his father Adhural personally leading thirty thousand men — twice Gur Khan's number — they could fail to win.

Yusuf opened his mouth, wanting to chime in agreement, but forcibly held himself back.

Four against one? Ha! Bogra Khan Satuq's Ghulam guards had failed even at ten against one.

He knew the fighting strength of Khujand's soldiers; it should be below that of Satuq's Ghulam guards. Besides, given Khujand's territory, how could it possibly spare fifty thousand troops to march north?

But this was no time to boost the enemy's prestige, so Yusuf put on a smiling face. He looked around at the newly promoted officers, and flourished the riding whip in his hand.

"Warriors, the enemy has already shown signs of collapse. Pass the word to all units — everyone..."

Thump-thump! Thump-thump! Before Yusuf could finish, the warning drums on the walls of Kasan began to sound. He looked up at the walls in astonishment, even wondering whether the men on the wall had made a mistake.

But the next second, he heard the orderly thunder of hooves coming from behind. Yusuf whipped his head around — and saw the most terrifying sight of his life.

Beneath banner after banner of the Great Tang's Three Celestial Bodies, several thousand elite cavalrymen seemed to come flying in from the edge of the sky.

The sky was filled with a rain of arrows, sweeping in from all directions. With the combined force of the galloping warhorses and the arrows' own momentum, even a riding bow of five or six dou could unleash terrifying damage.

The infantry of Kesh City, drawn up in a dense formation and attacking Prefect Pei, collapsed in swathes in an instant. Caught off guard, they immediately scattered in all directions.

What? You ask why they didn't just form up on the spot and resist?

What a joke. Governor Yusuf hadn't shared his beautiful wives, concubines, gold, silver, or jewels with them. For less than half a string of cash a month, why would they risk their lives?

Like a hot knife through butter, the ten-thousand-odd Kesh City infantry who had come out of the city smoothly parted a path, scattering to either side.

In barely a minute or two, the cavalry force led by Zhang Zhao had charged straight to within very close range of Yusuf.

Yusuf now had two options, one good and one bad. The good one was to immediately promise titles and rewards, scatter money freely, and steady the trusted troops around him — because Zhang Zhao and his men had just galloped several hundred meters, and their horses were about to flag.

If a thousand or so men fought desperately to hold them back, once the horses could no longer run, the Kesh City infantry who had opened the way and were watching from nearby would see a good chance of victory and might turn around and surround them.

Zhang Zhao's three thousand cavalry might not necessarily beat fifteen or sixteen thousand infantry. Even if they could, it would take enormous effort and time, and Yusuf could still escape back to Kesh City.

But this governor, whose talents did not lie in military affairs, panicked. All he could think was that Zhang Zhao was about to charge right up to him, and that he would be skewered on the blade of that blood-red long lance.

Run! Run now!

Yusuf made the worst possible choice. Without even a word, he swiftly wheeled his horse around and simply fled.

It was a true disaster. Yusuf's trusted men had been preparing to put up some resistance, and the infantry who had smoothly scattered had not gone far — they were still watching and waiting.

But now that Yusuf fled, and the great banner and the commander's standard turned with him, it was over. The morale of the ten-thousand-strong army vanished in an instant.

If even the governor himself was unwilling to resist, why would the rest of them volunteer to throw their lives away?

At exactly that moment, Prefect Pei, who had been bottled up in the camp, also led his troops out in a charge — a direct pincer attack from both sides.

Zhang Zhao paid no attention to anyone else. He drove his warhorse straight at Yusuf. Kill this man, and the battle would be as good as over.

But a force of a hundred or so riders who looked like Persian cavalry shielded Yusuf, and Zhang Zhao could only first cut down these Persian horsemen.

Just then, not far from Yusuf, a general gripping a long spear suddenly spurred forward. With one thrust, he ran Yusuf through on horseback, piercing him clean through.

Right behind him, twenty-odd riders surged forward together and in an instant scattered the cavalry who still wanted to seize Yusuf. Then they cut down Yusuf's personal guards, who had been carrying the commander's standard and the great banner.

All of this stunned everyone around. Even Zhang Zhao couldn't help but stare blankly for a second or two. The situation on the battlefield grew even more chaotic. The Kesh City infantry, who moments ago had merely lost all morale, now saw their commander was gone and simply collapsed and scattered on the spot.

"Lu Sanlang, sixth-generation descendant of Lu Yang, Garrison Commander of Shule under the Great Tang, has slain Yusuf in battle! We welcome the Great King of the Golden Kingdom into the city!"

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