Chapter 249: A Flexible Stance

He had said he would rest a little, but in the end Zhang Zhao never got his rest.

Because although most of the Balihara dynasty's sixty-thousand-strong army had been routed, King Krishila II of Balihara had still not been captured.

The old king still had around six to eight thousand troops in his hands. If they wanted a proper rest, they would have to wait until Krishila II was caught.

So Zhang Zhao took three thousand men and continued the pursuit, while Yan Jin led four thousand to hold the Balihara army's great camp by the river.

In this surprise attack, which lasted two shichen, not many were actually killed — the corpses in the stockade numbered only a little over a thousand.

But the number who trampled one another by the river or jumped into the water and drowned was far greater. From the chaos alone, at least close to three thousand drowned in the river.

By the time they began clearing up around noon, the Balihara army of fifty-five thousand had only a little over twenty thousand left. Apart from the five or six thousand who had lost their lives, more than twenty thousand had scattered and fled.

Outnumbered and deep in enemy territory, there was no good choice to make. After Zhang Zhao led his troops away, Yan Jin, who stayed behind, was far more ruthless than Zhang Zhao.

More than two thousand Kshatriya nobles were executed by him on the spot, including two princes of the Balihara dynasty and a large number of army officers at the chiliarch and centurion level.

No matter what great lord you were, no matter how much money you offered to buy your life, every one of you took a blade by the river.

At the same time, about five or six thousand wounded soldiers were stripped of all their weapons by Yan Jin and then abandoned.

What else could he do but abandon them? Was he supposed to treat their wounds? Don't be ridiculous. The fact that Troop Commander Yan did not dig a pit and bury them all was already a heaven-sent mercy.

And what about the grain shortage? Yan Jin had a solution for that too. He organized the remaining ten-thousand-plus men into two armies, put Khotan palace guard soldiers in as officers, gave them no pay and no grain, issued one weapon to each man, and sent them off toward Rajagriha.

After the Balihara dynasty took Rajagriha, they had left only a few hundred men to guard it — perfect for seizing Rajagriha as a base.

As for supplies along the way, the Pala dynasty ran a temple economy. Temples great and small, near and far, were all fat with wealth — just rob them.

At this point someone clever would ask a question. Guo Guangcheng, for instance, did not understand: the Great King clearly wanted to gain the recognition of the Indian Buddhist establishment, so how could he rob temples?

Yan Jin looked at Guo Guangcheng, who was only twenty-one or twenty-two and whose heart had not yet turned completely black, and gave a sly chuckle.

"From this moment on, we are no longer the Great King's soldiers. We are starving soldiers with no food to eat. You know what starving soldiers are, right?

No food, no clothes — then we must rob! We must kill! Even the Great King does not send out starving soldiers!"

Guo Guangcheng felt as if a door in his mind had suddenly been thrown open. A beam of light shone into his still somewhat innocent little brain, and swiftly dyed it black.

"So if the Buddhist establishment comes to the Great King with nothing but empty words, then we absolutely will not listen to the Great King — we might even have to step up the plundering.

But if they are willing to produce what the Great King wants, then we immediately see the error of our ways. Is that right?"

"Exactly! Hahaha! Remember, we are starving soldiers now!" Yan Jin clapped Guo Guangcheng on the shoulder with the air of a teacher whose pupil shows promise.

"Tell the brothers: except for Nalanda Monastery and the Flying Monastery, give yourselves free rein to enjoy yourselves!"

To be honest, having a subordinate like Yan Jin, who understood your meaning from just a few simple words, saved a great deal of effort.

Zhang Zhao left with two thousand Fengtian Army soldiers and part of the Shunyi Left Army. The four thousand combat troops left behind were clearly inferior in fighting strength to the three thousand he took with him.

Using four thousand men with no base to keep more than twenty thousand in check was no easier than launching a surprise attack, but Yan Jin had a way to handle it.

Yan Jin went east to seize Rajagriha and establish a secure base for the main army, while Zhang Zhao headed west toward Dharayara, where Rajyapala was trapped.

Krishila II had gone to catch Rajyapala, so Zhang Zhao would go and catch them both.

Dharayara was about thirty li from the Balihara army's great camp by the river, but Zhang Zhao traveled the whole way easily, because he had someone with him who knew the road — Rajyapala's queen, Avachi.

Queen Avachi's family was the greatest local magnate clan in this region, and the queen and her maids and guards knew this road best of all.

To rescue King Rajyapala as quickly as possible, Queen Avachi set her small face in a tense expression, wore only a gauze veil, and rode a white warhorse at the head of the army to lead the way.

Zhang Zhao rubbed his chin. That figure in the distance, rising and falling with the warhorse's motion, looked delicate and fragile, yet her riding skill was actually quite excellent.

Her long legs not only held her body firmly fixed to the saddle, but rose and fell smoothly with the horse's jolting.

Hmm... come to think of it, the main reason women cannot ride fast at a gallop is simply that their legs lack the core strength to hold their bodies steady.

So a woman with good riding skill must have absolutely formidable strength in her legs and waist.

Now that he thought of it, before Great King Zhang transmigrated, he had once had a Yi girlfriend from Dechang in Daliangshan — a fiery girl with superb horsemanship who could ride to and fro like the wind.

Zhang Zhao could barely remember her face now, but the stamina that let her do over a hundred squats without pausing still remained vivid in his memory.

Ugh! Damn it! Zhang Zhao pinched his own thigh hard. Why the hell did his mind wander off in that direction again?

Dharayara was not large. Strictly speaking it could not be called a city, for it was only the size of a town, normally home to just over a thousand people.

But when Zhang Zhao arrived with his three thousand men, Dharayara held not a thousand people — not a single person remained.

The city gate burned and broken by fire, the destroyed houses, the bloodstains everywhere, and the occasional corpse all showed that a massacre had very likely taken place here.

Although Zhang Zhao never showed mercy in battle and handled prisoners somewhat roughly, all that was based on military necessity. Slaughtering civilians indiscriminately, when it had no effect on the battle situation at all, could only be called depraved.

"Great King, the body is still warm. To the south some fires have not even gone out, and the densest hoofprints are also to the south. They probably left not long ago."

Ma Shacai dragged a corpse over and dumped it with a clang in front of Zhang Zhao.

Still warm? Hell, Zhang Zhao could even see that this man, stabbed in the chest, was still twitching slightly.

"Great King, on the city wall we found some corpses of Pala dynasty warriors, but there is no body of King Rajyapala."

"Khagan! Krishila must have taken my king captive! I beg the Great Khan to order an immediate pursuit — they cannot have gone far!"

The moment she heard that Rajyapala had not been killed but only carried off, Queen Avachi, whose face had been deathly pale since arriving at Dharayara, regained some color. Weeping, she knelt once more before Zhang Zhao's horse and pleaded.

"Great King, you must not! Our army has already marched at high speed for six days straight. Moreover, today we first fought a surprise attack and have now marched more than twenty li. The men are weary and the horses spent — we must not march again!"

Ma Shacai hurriedly spoke up to object, and he shot Queen Avachi a fierce glare.

Women! They only get in the way of my deeds and glory!

"Captain Ma speaks reason. Even if the men can hold out, the horses cannot. Great King, your subordinate suggests we rest in this city for the night and set out in pursuit tomorrow!"

Qiong Reduojin clasped his hands and agreed with Ma Shacai. Though the enemy was fleeing, they still had as many as six thousand men. Even if the Indians' fighting ability was poor, they still had to guard against capsizing in a ditch.

Zhang Zhao pondered for a moment. The facts were indeed as Ma Shacai and Qiong Reduojin said, but they could not truly make no arrangements at all.

He looked at Queen Avachi, still kneeling on the ground with tears hanging at the corners of her eyes. "This place is the queen's homeland. Can you summon some people who know the terrain?"

Queen Avachi wiped the corner of her eye. "Five li to the north there is a place called Shamen Jianan. If it has not been taken by the Balihara army, the city's residents should all have fled there. They would be more than enough to serve as guides."

"Duojin, take a hundred riders and go have a look. Speak gently, and have the residents come back. We can pay for recruiting guides, and also have them spread the news that the Balihara kingdom's great army has been routed."

"Ma Shacai, assign twenty elite riders each. Ten go toward Rajagriha. Krishila II must want to flee back to the Balihara kingdom, and Rajagriha is a place he must pass through. Have Yan Jin prepare to intercept him."

The remaining twenty men will return by the original route to notify Yin Yaozi, ordering him to lead the main army downstream and surround the capital of the Balihara dynasty, the city of Kanyakubja."

Krishnaraja II's six thousand men were not all cavalry. To return to Kanyakubja, Rajgir was the only route.

Unless Krishnaraja II was willing to abandon all his soldiers and flee back with only a hundred or so personal guards along small paths, but that would be far too dangerous.

"Since the old dog Krishnaraja has not gone far, which general is willing to go track him? No need to engage in battle — just determine their position!"

Although they had decided to rest in place for the night, they still needed to know Krishnaraja II's position. But everyone was exhausted now, and going out to track him at this hour was hardly a pleasant assignment.

"Great King, let me go! I only need fifty riders!" The short, stocky Wang Tongxin quickly stepped forward to volunteer.

Zhang Zhao looked at this trusted fierce general who sometimes gave him headaches, with a half-smile. For him to jump out so eagerly, he must have squandered all his money again — perhaps even run up debts.

"What's this? You dog, out of money again? When we entered Zhenduan City, I gave you five hundred rupees in one go. Gone already?"

Sure enough, Wang Tongxin raised his face without a trace of shame. "That dog-spawned barbarian bear insisted on competing with me for a girl. My head ran hot, and I threw down silver by the fistful. It was gone in no time."

"Not only did he spend all his own, he also swindled two hundred rupees out of me — and still hasn't paid it back!" Dunzhu pursed his lips and shot Wang Tongxin a look of deep contempt.

"You dog of a wretch!" Zhang Zhao cursed, bitterly disappointed. "Seven hundred rupees — enough to feed a Shudra family of five for five years. You blew through it in half a month. Impressive!"

With that, Zhang Zhao waved a hand. "Go! Get the job done, and if you do it well, I'll settle your debts for you!"

Though on the surface Zhang Zhao seemed somewhat disdainful, in his heart he was not truly angry.

If a fierce general like Wang Tongxin did not lust after women, did not love money, and did not fight over jealous rivalries, that would be what worried him!

A man who dares throw his life away in battle, yet has no flaws and no desires at all — that would be truly terrifying.

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