Chapter 246: The Heaven-Cursed Ju'er Khan

King Rajyapala of the Pala Kingdom leaned against a crenellation, his eyes lifeless, his body covered in filth.

Something had slashed his left cheek — a large patch of skin was gone, and the wound, oozing yellowish fluid, looked a ghastly purplish-red.

Even so, the king had not bothered to have the wound treated, for at this moment he felt he could barely keep his head on his shoulders, let alone worry about a small gash on his face.

Just ten days earlier, Rajagriha, which had held out for three months, had fallen. Rajyapala had fled for his life under the protection of his trusted guards, with the army of the Parihara dynasty in relentless pursuit behind him.

In the ten-odd days since, Rajyapala had lost more than a dozen towns. He had fled over two hundred li, yet still could not shake off his pursuers.

It seemed that Krishnaraja II of the Parihara dynasty was absolutely determined to see him dead.

This small town called Trayaloya was nearly Rajyapala's last refuge, for he could run no more — and if he ran any further, no guard would be willing to keep guarding him as he fled.

When they had left Rajagriha there had been over a thousand men. Now, he did not know if even two hundred remained. The rest had not been killed by the Parihara pursuers — most had simply slipped away in secret.

Even Master Baotongzi of Nalanda Monastery and his contingent of monk-soldiers had vanished without a trace. He was now, at last, a man utterly alone. The Pala dynasty was going to end in his hands.

"My king! My king! The queen's and crown prince's convoy has been cut off by Rajputs! Your servant is useless — I truly... truly could not hold them off!"

A guard drenched in blood ran up to him — none other than the captain of the guards who protected Rajyapala's queen.

"Avachi, my treasure — she's been taken by the Parihara Rajputs!"

Rajyapala let out a wild howl, tears streaming down his face.

Avachi was the wife he had newly married after his first queen died in childbirth. Her skin was smooth as silk, her voice sweeter than a nightingale's.

Yet such a beauty would likely soon find herself in the bed of that old lecher, King Krishnaraja II of Parihara.

Rajyapala suddenly felt a pain as if ten thousand arrows had pierced his heart.

He suddenly thought of the culprit who had brought ruin upon his state and family, who had left him unable even to protect his queen — that heaven-cursed Ju'er Khan, the one doomed to fall into the animal realm.

Had it not been for his forged letters, King Krishnaraja II of Parihara — whom he had already stabilized with his "lying-flat grand strategy" — would never have suddenly gone mad and thrown the entire strength of his nation into attacking the Pala dynasty.

And so, completely broken, Rajyapala went on leaning against the crenellation, heedless of the despairing looks of the few remaining guards around him, and cursed Zhang Zhao to the empty air at the top of his lungs — curses so loud that even the Parihara soldiers outside the city walls could hear them.

But those soldiers did not attack this low earthen-walled town. Instead they sent out cavalry to surround it completely — they were afraid Rajyapala would escape.

As for capturing this king, that never crossed their minds. In this situation, the glory of capturing the king of a great nation could belong only to Krishnaraja II.

Rajyapala was not wrong. Feeling extremely pleased with himself, vaguely convinced he had become a great king, Krishnaraja II was at that moment admiring Queen Avachi's beauty.

Merely admiring, of course — for no matter how impatient King Krishnaraja II might be, he would have to wait until Rajyapala was captured. At the very least, he would have to wait until nightfall, wouldn't he?

Still, Queen Avachi's beauty stirred King Krishnaraja II's intense interest. The old king, nearly sixty, even felt for an instant that a certain part of him that had long shown no sign of vigor was suddenly stirring, eager to prove itself.

"Escort Her Highness the Queen to the main camp at Rajagriha. On no account slight her — let Her Highness feel the courtesy of our Parihara kingdom!"

Krishnaraja II said excitedly, looking at Queen Avachi's frightened little face.

This queen, only twenty-three or twenty-four years old, was like a fully ripened peach. Even her loose robes could not conceal her curvaceous figure, so full it seemed about to burst at any second, as if the very air were filled with the sweet fragrance of rich juice.

But the moment Queen Avachi left, Krishnaraja II's face darkened at once. He looked at the officer in charge of intelligence under his command, his voice heavy as if drifting down from the sky.

"What movements does Ju'er Khan's great army show now? Has any alarm come from the royal city? Is it still impossible to penetrate the area around Prayaga?"

The officer nodded. "Reporting to Your Majesty, all is secure in the royal city. A letter from His Highness the Crown Prince has just arrived — the Prince has raised another large supply of grain and fodder, and will set out for the main camp within days."

Having delivered the good news, the officer wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. "The movements of Ju'er Khan's great army remain unclear. As for Prayaga, though no news has come out, the fact that Ju'er Khan's troops are still tightly sealing off the surrounding area allows us to judge that they have not yet taken the city.

And the calm in the royal city likewise shows that, until he has gained control of Prayaga, Ju'er Khan would not dare risk striking south with his water route abandoned and his rear cut off."

"Moreover, even if Ju'er Khan now decided to bypass Prayaga and head south, he would be too late. Rajyapala has already been cornered in Trayaloya.

Once we capture the King of Pala, we can use his name to issue proclamations, explaining to all the nobles the atrocities Ju'er Khan committed in the Shahi kingdom. I believe no one would wish to see such a tyrant descend upon their own lands."

Seeing the intelligence officer drenched in sweat under the questioning, the prince — hoping to win over this close minister of Krishnaraja II — quickly spoke up as well.

These two pieces of good news finally diverted Krishnaraja II's attention from his inability to locate the main force of Ju'er Khan's army.

"You are right, my child. Once we catch that cunning rabbit Rajyapala, we will have the capital to maneuver against Ju'er Khan. He has only a little over ten thousand men, and he has already swallowed the Shahi kingdom — he ought to be satisfied!"

More than sixty li south of the Parihara army's main camp, a force with three horses per man was advancing in good order.

Yes — I, Great Khagan Zhang, have once again employed my most frequently used tactic: three horses per man, leaving the main force behind and traveling at double speed.

As for why he did not attack the Parihara dynasty's royal city of Kanyakubja? Zhang Zhao was not that foolish!

Kanyakubja was even more formidable than Prayaga, with grain and fodder stockpiled like mountains. No matter how strong the fighting power of the Fengtian Army and the Palace Guard Army, there was no need to be so hard-headed as to gnaw on such a tough fortress.

So Zhang Zhao made a swift decision: he drew a portion of the Huwen City youth army, plus Ma Shacai's hundred-odd cavalry, to screen the area around Prayaga and create the illusion that Prayaga was still under siege.

He himself led all seven thousand elite cavalry, three horses per man, carrying only three days' dry rations, fighting and plundering as they went, swinging in a great arc to the south and bypassing Kanyakubja entirely to strike at the Parihara dynasty's main force.

As for the risk of seven thousand men making a surprise attack on the Parihara dynasty's sixty thousand troops, and whether it might fail — Zhang Zhao gave it no thought at all.

Because these seven thousand elite troops, especially the core three thousand, were the foundation Zhang Zhao had painstakingly built over nearly four years. Every man now wore iron armor, and half of them could wear two or more layers.

Among them were more than thirty warriors of the caliber of Manxiong Dunzhu, and at least seven or eight hundred who were a step below them but still reached the level of Five Dynasties elite troops.

In terms of specific troop types: eight hundred fully armored cavalry, over two thousand horse archers in ring-mail and chain-mail armor, and the remaining four thousand all mounted heavy infantry with three horses per man.

In equipment, there were nine hundred sets of fine cotton armor alone, one hundred divine-arm crossbows, and one thousand pear-blossom storm lances.

Such equipment, such firepower configuration, plus cotton armor, divine-arm crossbows, and pear-blossom storm lances that were ahead of their era — even in the Central Plains this would be a force capable of fighting.

With a great army of seven thousand like this, if they could not defeat sixty thousand Indian fools, that would be a joke.

Hmm! Zhang Zhao felt that if they truly could not win, then he need not return to Dunhuang at all — going back would just mean getting thrashed. Better to simply consolidate Ningyuan, Anyuan, and Zhenyuan, and become a local king right here.

"Great King, twenty li out we discovered Parihara troops — all captured. Your general has already interrogated them.

Word is they have surrounded the Pala king Rajyapala, and King Krishnaraja II of Parihara has personally led troops there!"

Hu Guang came running over as if flying. It turned out they had already crept to within less than forty li of the Parihara army's main camp.

"Then did you find out clearly — how many troops are in the main camp? How are the camp fortifications laid out? Who holds it?"

"The one your general captured was only a centurion sent out with men to gather firewood. A Kshatriya of such low rank wouldn't know the specifics, but he heard people say King Krishnaraja II left the main camp with only his imperial guard — just over three thousand men."

Just over three thousand men. Zhang Zhao silently calculated in his mind. According to information obtained from Prayaga, King Krishnaraja II of Parihara had this time conscripted over six thousand Kshatriya knights in total, with the overall army numbering above sixty thousand — perhaps even over seventy thousand.

Krishnaraja II had taken away over three thousand. Assuming the vanguard besieging Rajyapala numbered several thousand or so, then the main camp might still hold over fifty thousand men.

While Zhang Zhao was calculating the numbers in the main camp, Hu Guang had already crouched down and was drawing the layout of the Parihara army's main camp on the ground for him.

At this moment, Yan Jin, Ma Yaozi, Ma Jirong, Fan Quan, Li Ruotai, Hu Cile, and the other military officers all gathered around.

"According to the captured tongues, Krishira II has laid out his main camp in a single line along the riverbank, divided into fifteen large camps stretching for several li. Only the king's own camp has an earthen wall; the rest barely even have wooden palisades."

"This...!" Hu Cile, as the father, hurriedly stepped in to find fault, afraid his son had gotten it wrong.

"Who ever lays out a military camp like this? A single long snake stretched out, head and tail unable to support each other — if it were hit by a surprise attack, the whole army would easily collapse!"

Zhang Zhao also studied it carefully, and suddenly felt — isn't this my Chang Kaishen, the Leader of the One-Space-Blank's reverse single-long-snake formation?

Strike the head and the head falls into chaos; strike the tail and the tail falls into chaos; strike the middle and both head and tail fall into chaos.

Eh! Although Zhang Zhao had already tried his best to underestimate Third Brother's military ability, he still found it somewhat hard to believe that it could sink to this level.

To dare lay out a single-long-snake formation along the riverbank for a camp on which the life and death of the entire army depends — never mind anything else, just the riverbank itself, damp and cold, is that any place to set up camp?

Not only Zhang Zhao — even Hu Guang, the man in question, grew less and less confident as he spoke, because he too found it somewhat absurd. Could he have been deceived?

"Perhaps the Great King could wait a moment. Captain Hu has already sent scouts to investigate the actual ground; there should be word back any moment now!" Hu Cile shot Hu Guang a fierce glare, then spoke to make amends.

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the clatter of hoofbeats sounded — several of the scouts sent out had returned, bringing with them a few Balihar soldiers with dirt all over their heads and a gaggle of weeping, wailing women.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Hu Guang's legs began to tremble. Surely the scouts he had sent out hadn't gone and seized some women from the vicinity? They couldn't be that lacking in military discipline, could they?

"Great King, we ran into these dogs on the road. They were escorting a group of women toward Rajagaha, so we took the liberty of intercepting them!"

Fortunately, it wasn't the scouts seizing women — rather, they had been pulling grass and hit a rabbit, capturing a whole batch of people on the way back.

"Is it His Majesty the Juer Khan before me?" A pleasant female voice came forth, truly deserving of praise as lilting and tinkling, and she spoke in the Uyghur tongue, which rather surprised Zhang Zhao.

"I am indeed the Juer Khan. And you are?" Zhang Zhao stepped forward a few paces to look.

The one calling out to him was a delicate, frail little beauty, fair-skinned, with a fine nose and cherry lips — though of course the most striking thing was her remarkably voluptuous figure.

At this moment she knelt on the ground, her buttocks resting on her heels, appearing exceptionally round and full.

Zhang Zhao felt a sudden surge of heat rise in his chest for no reason. What had been going on lately? Why did he always feel he could barely restrain himself?

"This slave is Avachi, queen of King Rajyapala. King Rajya is in mortal danger — I beg the Great Khan to send troops to the rescue at once!"

The little beauty pleaded with Zhang Zhao repeatedly, tears covering her small oval face. So this woman was the queen of Rajyapala.

Truly...

Truly a pity!

"So it is Queen Avachi. Please rise quickly. I have come here precisely to rescue His Highness the King!" Zhang Zhao hurriedly bade Queen Avachi rise.

"Would His Majesty the Great Khan like to know the encampment situation of the Balihar army's main camp? This slave happened to observe it carefully!"

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